Training at the Academy [P]

Hybris clicked her tongue at her surroundings, the sun still high in the sky, and the warmth basking the Earth, and she was completely lost already. It was kind of bad, she had never met anyone else with such a terrible sense of direction, and it was sort of depressing. However, the young waterbred female did not let that bother her, she was out of there, and she was moving around all well and good already, trying to think of something to do as she went. Figuring that she was going southwards, bound for the land of sand, so she imagined that learning how to use a sword properly was a good idea, especially one that could channel the powers of her future fire element. This did not work simply as her heat conduction techniques would work in the future, it would be weak and rather ineffective, but sooner or later, she would get it to a scale that was on par with a torch.

As the blade was unhitched, she felt the unadulterated power sear through the weapon. Much potential was met in these hands, and she understood the power that she was willing to unleash using such a tool. As the weapon swung forth, she felt how comfortable it was in her hands. Where the Searing Katanas were just lumps of metal, this felt like a true blade, one she knew she could command with ease and elegance, this was more than just a sword, it was an extension of her own existence, a tool crafted by her own kind to create even more devastation with their mastery of fire. Her chakra was drawn to it, a moth to a flame, and such a flame would be more than hypnotic to her, she wanted to cast it over the lands using it. As the chakra moved through the blade, she felt the weight of it easing a little, as though it was less than a weapon, and part of her more completely.

The tip ignited in flames as she swept it up to the sky, hidden in the bright light of the sun. Her eyes squinted against it, the brightness of the sun not something easily looked at, but the radiance surrounding the weapon was her goal, the insignificant flame at the end of the blade would soon become something so righteously powerful that it would outshine the sun. As the blade was lowered to the earth, Hybris felt her pride dip a little as she looked at the small flame that adorned the weapon. The tip had ignited and had flowed around the outside of the weapon, dancing maybe an inch from the sword, a heat that would need to be pressed against something before the burning would be felt, not even enough to cauterize the average wound. Indignant that her first try at it was quite unastounding, she forced herself to think of the future, sure, it was small and pathetic now, but soon her mastery over the flames would shine brightly.

Holding the blade at arms length, she looked around, looking at it, the blade did look a little more intimidating when it was on fire, and the small flames dance around the edges. Sure, it was weak, but it did not mean other people understood that, they would merely see that a sword was on fire, which was always cool. The flame would grow with knowledge and experience of the sword, which was enough for her, as she needed to concentrate on where she was going. The forest she had gotten lost in, had turned into a small town, and she looked around it. The air smelled salty, and she was rather confused by that, last time she had entered the land of wind. Well, there had been sand, now it just smelled like... The ocean? How weird, perhaps she had been heading the wrong way all this time. Shrugging, she continued onwards into the town, she would hitch a ride from someone or something. Sheathing the sword, forgetting that it was ignited, she walked towards a rather grouchy female on the dock, as she was not comfortable talking to the big guys.

The woman had been rather mean, and Hybris had been left stumbling over her words, and now she had found herself a birth on the ship somehow. It had been strange, but sitting in the birds nest at the top of the ship was kind of cool, she had free reign as long as she watched for trouble, and had a bunk when night fell. Now she was climbing the ropes to get to the small position at the top, she was wondering how she had managed such a feat. Well, it was too late for concern now, and too late to remember she had a fear of heights. Pursing her lips and refusing to look down, she forced herself upwards, the wind blowing her red tinted hair as she moved upwards the rope shakily. Cowardice was not something faced with sympathy in the compound, so she was certainly not looking for someone to help her here, she knew she could do it on her own. The Ryujin Jakka hit her back comfortably as she climbed, the rest of her equipment back in her new room, keeping her belt and sword on her.

As the wood was felt beneath her fingers, she felt relieved that there some solidity again, instead of just the rope beneath her. As she climbed onto the wooden nest, she felt a little more comfortable, despite the height of course, but now she was given free time to train, and as long as she kept an eye out for any danger, she figured it would be cool. Unhitching the lengthy blade from her back, she clasped the steel handle in her palm, feeling the power through her again. The current of her chakra was taken from her, a little more this time, even though it was still a small amount, and she hardly noticed it. As the flame current proceeded to coat her blade, she witnessed the more impressive change in the weapon this time, and as the flames began to increase in size, the feeling of power that exuded through the weapon felt greater. This felt right, this was the course of power she wanted.

As the blade continued to dance before her eyes, she watched the flames dart onto the flat surface of the blade, however, these flames were a lot lighter, leaving the blade with a still thin look, yet one that danced with fire, and looked like a blade comprised of only chakra and flames than of Platinum alloy beneath. The flames of the weapon, where they had only been about an inch prior, were now about half a foot from the blade, and it danced in the wind, but she could feel the heat extending from it, hell, the wood beneath it was burning a little. Realizing what she had done she raised the sword from the wooden barrier and accidently stabbed it into the mast behind her. Crying out, she almost fell from the top of the nest, but she gripped the sword and stayed on, the mast beginning to catch fire. As she released the handle, the fire disappeared, leaving her relieved, but sort of worried about the stab and burn mark.

Looking down, she wondered if anyone had noticed, and it was lucky that they had not. She would be gone before anyone realized what she had done at least. Hopefully anyway. As the boat was risen and dropped by the tide, she began to get her sea legs, even being as high up as she was, it felt kind of cool. The young Hoshigaki female heard some noise below, and looked over the wooden barrier down, apparently one of the men had tried something to the captain, and she had chopped his head off, and it was quite disturbing. The body was tossed over the edge, and as the boat pulled away from the floating corpse, it began to jiggle weirdly. She did not understand it at first, but as a fin grazed the surface, she realized he was being eaten, and another sick feeling arose in the pit of her stomach. She did not want to become shark bait. Looking out over the seas she did her job finally, noticing something in the distance. A ship.

"Captain, there's a ship, uh... In that direction"



Everyone looked at her she pointed in the direction, since she had no idea which direction it was, just that way. The female on the deck slapped her palm to her face and walked to the port side. Sneering, she turned and raised her fist.

"It's feeding time boys, get hitched up! You, girl, you fight with us or I'll kill you"



Her heart sank.

This was not what she had signed up for.

The weapon still embedded in the wood, she reached back and tore it free, it looked like there was no way out of this one, she did not want to hurt anyone, but she did not want to lose her bunk, especially not here in the middle of the ocean. Well, with no choices before he, she supposed she could partake in a little action, she would not kill of course, she would leave that uncouth action to the pirates below, but she would act her part. Closing her eyes, not really looking forward to any of the following, she re-sheathed the blade and placed her hand on the ledge. Her blade was enough for this fight, she did not need to gather her other materials from her room, the belt and the weapon would serve her well enough for this battle, especially if she was going to need little room to fight lots of people. This was a whole new variety of battle for her, never before had she fought on a moving battle ground. It was kind of exciting.

As she hopped the ledge and landed softly onto the deck below, many of the males gave her leacherous looks, but she forced herself not to shudder and went to the edge of the ship next to the captain. The red haired woman was scantily clad indeed, but she looked so small, much like herself, but guaranteed, if she could order the males behind them about, then she was indeed powerful. Atsui had hoped not to have too much trouble with this, but as the ship approaching them grew closer, it became obvious that they too, were pirates. Which meant the little fighting she believed she would need to partake in, had suddenly become an all out war on two boats. She shoulder sagged a little, she really would need to kill someone here, otherwise things could get troublesome, and they would most likely all die in the end. Survival, it was them or her.

The female next to her must have mistaken her sudden change of demeanor as fear of a fight as opposed to her attitude. Smacking the girl on the back, the female laughed and held her sword high in the air, as though this was supposed to make her feel better. All the men behind them roared out too, and faintly, she could hear the roars of the other ship too. At this distance, she could probably strike their ship with a kunai with an exploding tag and end the battle before it started, but she could feel her blade talking to her. It wanted her to master it, and she could only master it through using it, and it wanted to be in this fight. Swallowing thickly, she placed her hand on the blade, feeling the power course through her again, like every time, the sublime feeling of dominance coating her.

As the blade was unsheathed, the fire spread through it as it was pulled from the sheath, looking as though it had been ignited the entire time. The weapon rang out as she raised it into the sky along with everyone else's, the flames shining bright in the sky. The female looked at the mighty weapon with hunger in her eyes, but Hybris would not have any of it. This was her weapon, the female could go die if she wanted to place her filthy hands on it. As her emotions exploded with her heart racing, the flames began to dance brighter and more dangerously, as though answering her call for the strength. This would require a greater source of power to fight here, she would need the ability to incapacitate with extreme pain as opposed to actually full out killing. The heat of the weapon would be searing, and the pain of being caught in the flames would feel as though a wound had been opened and cauterized in milliseconds. The ship grew ever so close.

Hybris moved the blade across her body in an instant, an arrow crashing against its hot platinum, instantly the wooden projectile burning to ashes. Sure, it would not have done anything to her if the arrow had hit her, but again, this was cooler, the fact that she had totally just denied some guy with a sweep of her hand and her awesome fiery blade. The female next to her gave a small noise of surprise and awe at the fact the the red faced girl had moved so fast and so fluidly that she had stopped an arrow. However, that arrow was the catalyst of the fight, and people began to swarm, from both sides people swung from ropes attached to the riggings to get to the other boat, and the small girl prepared herself for it all. As a male came swinging right at her, he dropped from the air and tried to cleave her in half, but she was too quick, bringing her blade up to stop his own, she redirected to the side and drew the flat side of the sword along his ribcage.

She winced as he screamed in pain, the searing heat clearly burning his flesh, and even the stench of it got to her. But he would not be getting up from that wound easily, especially not as he was kicked in the face by another, trying to shut him up. The female spun around and blocked an attack from behind, the blade passing close to the males face as it did so, probably burning his eyes and the sensitive skin on his face, making him close them and look away. Perfect time. As her foot met his stomach, his face smashed off the flat of her sword and he screamed out until she struck him again in the face with her knee. She had probably just killed this one by accident. Her mother and Team Tsunami were two parts of her life that made her impossibly hard to defend against, meaning that if you were given head trauma, you were probably dead. There was no time to dwell though, she needed to keep going.

The blade flared as she spun, a small trail of fire behind her as she turned around, using the flat of the blade again to knock some guy out. He was unconscious before he could register the pain of being knocked in the head by a searing hot piece of metal, which was lucky for him. People seemed to notice the small angry woman with the flaming blade, and they noticed the fact that she was knocking people down left right and center, and now she was given a wide berth from most, but she had settled into her battle lust. As more and more pirates piled onto the ship, she became more confident and more amused by everything. It was as though she was moving at a far greater pace than everyone else. People fell before her, each time, she would knock them on their asses, at least one part of their body burned badly by her weapon, and their pride shattered by the small female, none of them having expected such a wrath from such a person, the captain perhaps, but the red faced youth no.

Her body erupted with the heat as she fought, slowly draining the air of any moisture it contained, and the world around her would heat up, making the battle even more desperate, the dried throats of the pirates and their sweat, all of it caused by her. As the blade moved swiftly, she dismantled defense after defense, each one being brought down before her, screaming or unconscious. Unsure of how long it had been, she knew that the force could not last much longer. It was not until a blow caught her off guard with such fierce power that she was knocked through the battle. The wood splintered beneath her body as she crashed into the wooden wall of the ship, looking at what had struck her. A man of impossible proportions loomed over the battle, knocking people off the side of the shit, defending the people in front of them. His body was practically covered in shields.

"That's unfair..."

The wood snapped and cracked as she pulled herself from it, the wall mostly destroyed and the contents of the mess was shown to everyone up on deck. She was a little shaken from the blow, uninjured, but certainly shaken. Her armored skin was more than enough to protect her from any injury the male thought she would have sustained, which was made clear by the expression he wore on his face as she got up. Clearly they had not expected to attack a ship containing an immortal. She had let go of her sword when she had been struck, and it now lay on the deck of the ship. The fight had been silenced and everyone was watching her, the sword, and the massive man coated in shields. There was a quick scramble from a man who jumped on her sword, possibly thinking that it held a special power, but he was quickly proven wrong as his skin was seared when it touched the metal. Atsui tried not to wince, but she could not help it, his scream was deafening. Stumbling back, he clutched his hand in agony, right before falling off the deck into the water.

The sword was still hotter than hell, and he had paid the price. As Hybris walked for the sword, she knelt to it and picked it up in her right hand once again, feeling the warmth spread through her. The blade was once more back where it belonged. As the male in the shields stepped back, she advanced, holding the weapon outwards, pointing it at him, gesturing he was next. As he stepped back again, she moved, running at him, using the blade to cleave at his shield. She knew that the kinetic energy would be practically useless, but she was trying to force the metal to heat exponentially. If his shield grew to such a temperature, then he would not be able to wear it anymore, simple as that. However, as the weapon approached, he seemed to grow his wits back, and spun his shield rapidly. First simply the flame was sucked towards him, but then she felt herself also being pulled. Her eyes widened and she fell forwards, slamming into the sheet of metal.

However, Hybris was starting to get really annoyed with all this, and with the blade still in hand, and to his unprotected legs, she brought it across and through both of his shins. He froze, then released an inhuman scream as he tried to stumble backwards, but leaving both of his feet behind, blood poured from the wounds, and the Hoshigaki jammed her eyes shut so she did not have to witness it. His voice became distant, then a massive splash erupted from the water. He was certainly too heavy to be buoyant, and she realized that she had killed him. The weapon burned the blood off, the fire cleansing the blade again, leaving no reminder of the kill, but she knew, she knew. All of a sudden it was as though sound had restarted, and the battle exploded around her.

Standing and raising her weapon, she stopped two swords and used the fire on the weapon to melt through the swords and knocked both of them backwards, both of them suffering massive burns on their hands and chests from where the sword had landed. Both of them falling over, she moved over them, striking another male in the back with the flat of her sword and forcing him to scream out as his shirt caught on fire and the heat burned his back. There were very few pirates left, but the young girl could see that the captain of this ship was locked in a power struggle with the captain of the other. It did not seem like she was winning either, it would not have been a concern of hers if she did not think that by losing the captain, the ship would be lost. Quickly, she moved to the deck, the scarce remainder of enemy pirates escaping or dying, there was just the clean up.

-"The first few steps up the stairs were easily cleared, but the moment I hit the last step, I was hit by a powerful gust of wind that nearly threw me off the upper deck. Holding onto the banister, I kept my hold, and managed to move forwards. It appeared that both of the two captains possessed extraordinary power over the wind release, the massive bursts were exploding from each time their swords met, and the wind was being forced around them by the others wind masteries, forming a wall at each other that could not break each other. The full force was being fired around them, and the wind was enough to put out the fire of my blade, but I refused to let it stay unlit. As she struggled forward, she felt the almost tide lack actions of the wind as it forced itself through each blow, and looking at them, she was able determine when the massive gusts would occur.

It took a second, but there was one she saw, as the captain of the ship she was trying to protect lost her strike, and was overpowered by the male, who used his chance to try and kill her, but I took my own chance, and moved in, the sword igniting instantly with a spark and the flames eating up the metal and moving onwards as I thrust at his torso. There was no way to avoid this one, especially against a master of wind, I needed to give him the least amount of possibilities to stop me. The flames of the weapon would sear his chest before the weapon would even penetrate the soft flesh, he screamed as the fire burned his underside, and fell backwards, his attack ending and the wind blowing her backwards. Her sword was put out, but it was already too late for the man, his body was affected too badly, the flames already melting his insides along with his outsides."-

However, Hybris had already fallen back, unable to ignite her sword at the moment as it was once more on the deck, this time embedded point first in the wood, searing it madly. The male was now on fire, but as he fell backwards over the banister and fell into the ocean with a splash. The Hoshigaki female looked over to the other ship, about seven or eight pirates left, scrambling to get away, but it seemed not to be the case. The pirates on the ship she traveled on had pulled up a cannon, her eyes widened and she moved forward, leaning over the top deck to the bottom as they fired, the other ship exploding in a mass of fire and wood, and she covered her head as the splintered wood rocketed over the ship. Tears fell from her eyes, there had been too much death today, and she had caused a lot of it. Having knocked the pirates unconscious, the others had taken advantage of it and murdered them in cold blood.

Closing her eyes, she grasped the sword and walked swiftly to her room. The flames burning around the steel, a sign that she was very angry, not only with the people of the ship, but with herself. A life had been taken, no, three lives, by her own hand, by the very blade that burned with such fury that the heat scorched the floorboards beneath her as she walked. She had enough of this, she would wait it out until they arrived at thunder country, and she would swiftly find something to make her feel better, maybe some kittens or perhaps a dance. This had been traumatic for her, she did not want to feel this desperation, it was not only unfair, but it was horrific, the lives that had been wasted for what? For money? For something of value such as her sword? That male who had lost his hand trying to steal it from her, it was all pointless. The tears evaporated from her cheeks as she sat against the wall. She did not want to cry, she wanted to be happy.

Laying on the filthy bed, Hybris held the sword in the air, balanced in between her index, thumb and middle finger, her chakra coursing through the metal, and the flames licking the steel of the blade. This. Had been an unwanted day, and she wanted it to be over right now. The flames seemed to flicker in agreement with her, as though feeling her discontent. It made her feel a little more light hearted, the fire she controlled, the iron will, the flaming temperament, all part of her life, something she had to live with. All of it could be channeled into this weapon though, it was her anchor, something she could create as an extension of her body, the flames that roiled through it, a mere pittance to the burning passion that she beheld. It's power was nothing if not extravagant. The deadly fire that burned was very hot, it could scold even an Hoshigaki if they were not careful.

The sword, to her, embodied something that she did not represent in her own self, it was a source of power for her, perhaps why it felt so good in her hands. The young girl had never held herself in a position where she believed she was strong, she was always doubting herself, and she feared for her own life too much. But when this sword was grasped in her hands, and she focused the seemingly godly power of it, it felt as though she was on a higher plane of existence, as though she was without inhibitions. Perhaps it was her own psychosis, but she just felt most comfortable when the sword was there, on her travels, she had never felt as though she was protected, aside from meeting Naomi, but, with the Ryujin Jakka, it was as though she had someone watching her back at all times, and it was a safe feeling, like warm arms wrapped around her.

The boat was docked, she felt the gentle bump against the dock itself. The land of thunder. She had arrived here, not in a happy mood, but in one piece, and with a greater understanding of both the weapon she wielded and her own self. The flames seemed to agree, as the fire had seemed to cool down a little, the dancing of the flames not as powerful as her emotions crashed a little. Being at shore once more had brought a resounding calm over her. As the door to her room opened, the flame exploded upwards momentarily and tickled the roof, the reddish hue staining the wood black under its intense heat. However, before the flame could catch, the girl made sure to reduce it to a relative size to make sure there would be no danger of harming anything, and keeping her emotions under control. It was the captain, and she stood in the doorway, her expression sullen.

"I want to-"



"You don't want to thank me, lots of people died today that shouldn't have"



For once, she had said something cool, and it made her feel kind of good about herself, but she knew it was merely because the woman was here to thank her, meaning she was being respected. Respect. There was something she had not earned before, and she did not deserve it now. If she was to be truly respected, then none of them would have died today, and she would not be so down on her feelings. This was not respect, it was shame. And with the last traces of the thought, everything began to heat up, the flames on the sword licking the metal quickly, the heat increasing immensely, and as she stood and walked to the door, each of her footsteps left black scorches beneath her, and the female pirate moved out of her way. As she moved off the boat, she did not look back. Thunder country, there was bound to be something here.

Hybris lay on the grass, the sword on the earth beside her, staring into the air, thinking about things. Over such a short time, she had progressed her level of skill with the blade quite remarkably, and she was no where near finished. The thought that the weapon could become even deadlier sent shivers down her spine. Sure, she never wanted to harm someone with intent, but she knew that she needed to fight, and the best weapon was the one that you only needed to use once. The flame of the blade, once complete, would be able to cut through anything, and even though this was only the second to last rank, it was still incredible. The blade would harbor powers that would be able to eat away at most materials, and the heat, well, it was on par with her own resilience. Yet, this would defeat her own, it was a level higher once she could master this level of the fire. So enthralling, the blade was most deadly weapon, and at the same time, could be used as a tremendous defense.

As her hand ran down the cold metal of the blade, she realized that it had not been activated since the fight on the boat, and it had cooled eventually. The weapon looked remarkable, even without the flames, looking truly like a legendary sword should. The blade, when covered in flames, seemed like it could not be stopped by anything, which was sort of the truth, as it had met no material yet that the godly flames could not eat through in no time at all. Yet the weapon held abilities and techniques that she could master, many of them, the fire was not restricted to merely the blade, no, it could be mastered in a far grander scheme. Her palm pressed against the cold platinum of the weapon, her fingers gently caressing it, her chakra smoothly being instilled in the grand weaponry. The earth around it hissed as the moisture was burned from it, and the fire lit everything. Hybris slid her hand through the fire and to the hilt before she was to be burned.

As she grasped the weapon she moved her body swiftly through the motions, turning on her heel and swiping the blade outwards, willing the fire to expand, willing it to explode forth in a bullet like manner. The flames spat out, but beyond that, nothing, the small fire fell to the grass and caught on, the immense power of the Akumahi Ken flames she wielded incinerating the earth and grass as though it was nothing. Clicking her tongue, she brought the weapon round in another grand circle, this time forcing her chakra through the metal and into the fire to create the perfect secondary weapon ideal. The flames of the blade congealed at the tip for a single perfect moment and formed a small sphere, half a foot in diameter, which was launched, the fireball spiraling through the air as it moved, until it struck a tree that was unfortunately in the way of it. Hybris gracefully leaped in beauty and watched the tree as it erupted in the bright flames rapidly, which would soon burn to ashes due to the strength of the flames.

Amazing.

As the tree erupted and burned to the ground, the girl watched, in awe of the tremendous ferocity of the flames, of the power she wielded with the blade in her hand. There was not much that could stand in the face of such grand power, and her fire was only beginning to get stronger. One more swing, and the small flame was launched into the air, the crimson stain in the blue sky. Hybris smiled at it, this was the beginning of an adventure and a half after all. A shadow crossed her sight in the sky, and her eyes widened, a monstrous being of such grand proportions. The black shadow crossed the earth before and before swallowing her, then moving across the sky in a manner similar to a cloud. The gargantuan figure was avian like in mannerisms, but the fact that it looked so dragon like made her want to discover more. The shaped was moving easterly, and so would she, this was something she really needed to find. Sheathing her sword on her back between the two searing katanas, she began to sprint.

As she sprinted through the forest, Hybris looked to the skies, trying to capture the massive shade in her sight, the beast, a creature of insane size and looks. The blade thumped against her back, a comforting reassurance if she did indeed manage to catch up to the creature and needed to fight it. The massive dragon in the air looked so cool, and she wanted to catch it, there was no specific reason, but, it was a dragon. As the dragon soared through the air, heading eastward, she realized she was moving into terrain that would grow increasingly difficult for her to get through, but she knew she had to keep up. The blade on her back seemed to heat up with anticipation at the fact, and the flames wound around the blade as she sprinted into the dry valley, a strange plateau of twisted rocks and sharp spires of earth that rose from the earth, a valley that did not seem to be able to contain life at all. As one hand clasped the handle, the fire ignited in an even greater manner.

As the weapon moved forward in front of her, she used a quick burst of chakra to fire a small ball of flame at one of the spires in front of her. It landed, but it had little to no effect on the outcropping. Cursing herself, she remembered that the fire was not yet hot enough to destroy earth. Not yet hot enough. As the fire struck the earth and burned against it, she realized it would not melt it, but the burning would continue, and that was not good enough. As she gritted her teeth and looked up at the shadow, pulling away from her, escaping her grasp. The hoshigaki would not have time to go around, if she spent her time dodging around the spires of earth, then she would have no time to get through it all and continue following this dragon, and she was certainly determined to do so. As the weapon fired up once more in her hand, she understood its call.

Another swing was performed across her body, and this time, as though answering her call, it released a grander fireball. Still small in size, but as it struck the column of earth, it ignited into a monstrous explosion, more than the exploding tags she possessed in her belt. The earth around it was cleared as she moved through the area where the earth had been, now, only a scorched crater remained, and she felt awesome about it. As she moved through the field of spires, she used exploding ball after exploding ball to ready her path, massive explosions rocked the area and furiously eviscerated the lands, spraying rocks and dirt everywhere as they exploded in a show of grand work. Hybris would move through the smoke and debris that the grey fog would explode before her grand speed, moving through the dried wasteland. As she approached one massive spire, she knew that this one would not break as easily as the others had, it's enormous structure told her so.

However, she would still go through it. As she leapt into the air, her blade was brought over her left shoulder, the stream of fire behind it lighting her determined face for a moment as the shadows crossed. With one mighty, arcing swing, three fireballs were expelled from the flaming blade, all three of them rotating through the air until they struck the rock, the massive explosion that followed severing the top of the structure from the bottom, the gargantuan amounts of rubble being thrown everywhere as Hybris used the momentum of her speed to carry her through the newly made burning gap. As she landed, she rolled, keeping her speed up. As she brought herself back to her full sprint, her blade was once more sheathed, no more spires of earth standing in her way, no more things she needed to explode. For now, anyway. Looking up, she studied the skies for the dragon she had seen, hunting it, hoping it was still in sight.

The dragon soared continuously on the skyline, slowly furthering the distance, this time nearing the forested areas of the land, apparently the dry strip of land was ending, and she was once more nearing the shored areas of Kirigakure again. However, it was apparent to her that upon reaching the shore, she would not be able to pursue the creature from the water, especially since she could not swim herself. The massive creature would be taken out of the sky by her hand before shore was reached, and she would not allow anyone else to capture it. Continuing her sprint, she felt to grass tickle her legs, the rocky plain slowly transforming into the country side, the air going from dry and warm, to moist and cool. The dragon did not seem to have a specific path to follow, not that she knew anyway, since she did not believe any countries lay west further than thunder before it was naught but sea, but it was doing something to say the least.

The forested area was nothing she could not handle at all, in fact, with the previous tech, it would be more than easy to get through it, especially since everything would burn down, but that would be kind of horrible. As the sword moved to her hand again, and the flames ignited around the weapon, and she moved it through the thick trunk of the first tree, moving through the tree as it was eaten by flames. Leaving behind a trail as planned, the weapon would allow further incineration, or trapping at least, which was also cool. However, at such a low rank it was fairly impractical, but she needed to master the lower ranks in order to gain understanding to train the higher ranks of it, the ability to leave a trail of flame behind for up to twelves seconds as opposed to two. The flame left behind would burn as powerfully as the one upon her sword, meaning the trap could be dangerous. However, on unmoving targets, it just meant more to hit with the fire.

As the tree toppled behind her, she struggled to see through the foliage above her, trying desperately to see the dragons form in the sky above, but there was not even enough room for her to see the sky never mind the dragon itself. Cursing, she took a step off one of a fallen tree before her and launched herself upwards, her blade poised and ready for her to meet the trees above. As her blade swept through, the burning fire behind it trailed through the trees ahead for a moment, the uppercut momentum enough to carry it along. The trees before her burst into flames as the trail of fire engulfed them, and she moved through the flames easily, the heat not affecting her at all. She looked into the sky, searching for the dragon in the air, her arm extended, the sword sideways with the flames seeping from it like a banner behind, the flames eating the way up the following trail soon after due to the low rank of her skill in it.

The air was clear above the trees, and the trees below her were moving at an incredible rate, almost as speedily as her fire that forced its way through the branches. The flaming trail of the sword followed the weapon, sustaining itself in the air for only a few moments before fading. As gravity began to pull her back down towards the earth, she took one last look at the sky for the dragon, right before her sword severed the branches below her, spreading the fire even further. Immolation would occur, and this forest would be burned to the ground before she even got to the end of it, not that she cared, the dragon was her target, she would hunt it down, and she would fight it, and she would master it.

Hybris rolled as she struck the earth, the blazing banner of fire behind her burning the earth as she did so. Her hair whipped against her face as she continued the path through the forest, now alive with the flames and the sheet of the flames of her sword flowing behind her, and ethereal sheet of deadly fire that streamed onwards. As she carved a path through the forest, the trees behind her alight, she stormed through a under-growing brush, a vine of which snagged her foot and tripped her forward. Hitting the ground harshly, she rolled for a bit before coming to a complete stop on her face. Breathing awkwardly, she lifted her head up and rested her chin on the earth, looking straight at the feet of someone. Impossible for her to arch her neck anymore, she kneeled and prepared to stand.

A male stood before her, and behind him, three more, each of them with a blade sheathed at their hips. They were looking at her as though she had money. Well, she had a bit, nothing worth getting robbed over. As she stepped back, the male directly in front of her took a swing at her neck, redirected by her own sword and she rotated, not bringing the sword across her neck, but using the flames to set him on fire. It was not lethal, very painful, but at least she was not killing someone for no reason. He fell backwards, trying to fan the near immortal flames from his body, but there would not be hope unless his friends helped him out. As the first man fell on the floor writing in pain, the second summoned a ball of water around him, the heat of her fire forcing most of it to evaporate on contact, but he was safe now, yet the trail of fire still wound through the air, burning intensely.

The third man moved for her, taking a large overhead swing, met by her own blade, the flames flaring brightly from the movement of the sword, but it seemed that he had already learned the lesson from the other guy. As the flames swept up in the air, he moved backwards, and the small Hoshigaki girl stood there, letting the flames do their work. Feeling very awkward about the whole thing, she wanted to yell at them to tell them to move out of the way, but she was too embarrassed. They would probably think she was crazy. Holding her sword at the ready, she shook a little as the words came out, so unused to asking random people, especially those who were trying to kill her, to move out of the way so she could do something. After all, a dragon was the price.

"Please, I need you to leave me to follow my target"

The man who had avoided her flame snickered. Guessing that was a no, she decided against peaceful options and moved straight through, the blades fire burning brightly as she moved through them at a quick pace. For a moment as she passed, they all seemed fine, until the trail of fire suddenly burned through the air, circling each of them. There was a lot of yelling as she continued her sprint, but she ignored it. The one male was already a suiton master, he could deal with them all, she needed to find this damned dragon before the coast drew up and she lost it forever. Feeling a little tired, she sheathed the blade and continued to move, the cape of flames lasting for a moment before the fire on the blade vanished.

After leaving the gates of his home village, a person named Akurano traveled for several hours without seeing a single person, it didn't bother him much as the young ninja had a tendancy to phase out of the real world and day dream as he walked along a dusty road, every couple of minutes he would briefly return to the real world and check his surroundings

As he looked forward he started to notice the beginning of a forest, he was on the outskirts but noticed smoke rising from further in, being curious and slightly worried that one of his fellow cloud ninja may be in trouble he decided to investigate...

The flag of the blade sailed behind it as she moved quickly through the trees, the dense woodland becoming more and more thick as she moved through it. The blade easily removed anything in her way, and the trail fanning behind her, setting everything on fire as it moved through all the things. The blade was held close enough to her body when she made it through the bush, aware that she was on soft soil now, aware that she was very close to the edge of Kirigakure, it would not be long until she reached the ends of the forest, she could see someone in the way, a man, one who clearly did not know what he was getting in the way of. However, she could not just run him over, that would be too cruel, but she could not let the dragon get out of her sight either. Mixed emotions filled her.

"Please, get out of my way, I don't wanna have to hurt you"

Her words would be highlighted by her weapon as she presented it forward, the trail of flames which had followed the weapon following it upwards. The blade would burn brightly, the flames that consumed it enough to eat away at almost any object, human flesh included. The weapons size would be increased by the flames, the four foot blade extended and extra one and a half feet, the entire thing consumed by a bright, almost white flame. It was not so much an offer to the male, as a command, if he did not remove himself from her path, she would need to remove him for her own self, since that creature in the sky would not wait. If anything, it would give her a chance to test her flame trapping skills, but she would rather find the dragon before hand.

Increasing the power of the flames would increase the length of the trail that she could leave behind, which is what she had done as the raven haired male entered the clearing and stood in her way. The trail would be more than enough to set him alight, and only the most powerful of alloys would be able to stand its wrath if he was caught by the trail. Presently, her trail was not too powerful, extending a mere five meters behind the weapon, the temperature of which was well over the melting point of earth. To prove she was not exaggerating to the male, she would whip the sword to the side, unleashing a flash of flames outwards, the trail following the path of the blade and moving towards him. However, she had stopped too far from him, and he would only feel the heat of the weapon for now, it was an example, she did not want to have to kill him.

However, some people could only be cured by death, and while she was a firm believer in keeping the peace, she also believed that not all men stood for what was right. Some people were merciless, and tried to destroy all they could reach, and some wanted to watch the world burn around them. Those people were the kinds that would not listen to logic, the kinds of people she knew would fight just for the fun of fighting. Perhaps this male was that, or maybe he would move out of the way for her. She did not know, all she knew was that she was going to catch that god damned dragon even if she had to kill this guy. No one, not anyone in the world, was going to stop her from getting the winged beast as a companion, that was a promise.

Akurano worked his way through some shubbery until he came into a clearing, assuming he must be close to what ever is causing the destruction he looked around and was startled to see a trail of smoke and flames rising from the forest around him.

Before the pale ninja could comprehend what was going on he heard a woman shouting at him, turning to her to see what was happening he was met with a powerful blow from what seemed to be a large sword made of fire. Completely dumbstruck by what was going on Akurano wasn't able to know whether the attack purposely missed or whether the crazed woman had missed in haste. His face almost burnt as the flaming blade narrowly avoided him. The woman still approaching him, Akurano was unsure whether she would attack him again or simple run him down.

Confused and slightly scared and still trying to understand what she had said before, was she threatening him or generally concerned, with little time to react Akurano thought the best idea would be simple to neutralise the threat, pacifer her. Facing her he formed a chain of hand seals. Quickly and accurately, as he formed the last seal he slammed his hands into the ground. A bright blow semi-sphere surrounded him suddenly. Emitting a buzzing sound as the lightning charkra surrounded him. Instantly he forced the forcefield to suddenly expand rapidly.

Apparently the male refused to move, and now seemingly mad at her, began to perform hand seals. However, Hybris would have none of it, she had not attacked the man directly, nor did she plan to still, but she would prevent him form doing something stupid. Moving rapidly as he performed his seals, she would move her sword to his throat before he had time to slam his hands on the ground, as if he did, his throat and head would be melted by the sheer heat. In fact, just being in such close proximity of the tip of the fire blade would sear his skin painfully, but he would certainly not be able to do anything about it. His technique, whatever it was going to be, was disrupted, and she once again found herself asking a question.

"Do you really want to die?"

The dragon, at this moment in time would be a little further away, but she refused to give up on it. As she held the blade outwards, she gave a quick scan of the sky to see if it was still within sight. She had been catching up at one point, but now it was probably too late to do anything. Her eye twitched in annoyance, if he had indeed forced her to lose the trail of the great sky beast, she would indeed kill him. Such a grand creature would not be wasted. The flames of the weapon were still fluttering in the air behind her after she had moved, the line of fire burning everything as it floated. The forest that had been burning behind her was either catching up now, or the flames from her previous movement had managed to spark a flame. Either way, she would not be hurt by the tremendous fire, but this male may not be so lucky.

The weapon had spawned the great tale of flames with such intensity that as they had rose into the air, as warm air did, it had ignited the leaves and the trees of the canopy above, and now immolation was imminent. She would feel a little guilty about all this, but it was accidental. Mostly anyway. The flame trail had been something she had needed to master, and in doing so, if she set some forests on fire or destroyed some property, well, as long as no one was hurt, she would be fine with it. The male, if he made the wrong move, could face the possibility of sharing fates with the forest, being set alight by her weapon. Merely touching the fire with a flammable material would allow it to burn with such strength for such a long time. Although she possessed no ability for immortal fire yet, she understood that the weapon was still lethal.

Impractical for the most part, as she could not think of a situation where using the sword to create a streak of fire would be necessary. Then again, as this male had proven, people and surprises happened all the time, if by mastering every aspect of the blade she gave herself multiple paths of fighting, she would also create multiple ways of surviving. The searing metal waited for an answer, it was up to him, he could not escape her now, sure, she would allow a few steps back so he was not melted by the heat of the flames, but running away, or even attacking, not a chance, he would be dead before he could do anything of the sort. Smirking a little, she raised an eyebrow, right now even a quick movement would not help, as she would simply kill him before he had the chance to move, she had been around long enough to know the signs of a body before it forced itself to do those, even if she lacked the capabilities herself.

It had not been a good day for the young ninja, he now understood why leaving the village was such a large deal, starting with a simple stroll he found himself on his knee's with a flaming blade dangerously close to his face causing major discomfort and what he assumed to be the starting of some savage blistering, The forest around him was burning and he assumed that he would soon join it. He was still trying to piece together the last minute or so of his life. Several moments after he was rushed by an unknown woman, she asked him a question. The fact that she asked such a question was more shocking then the whole event that had taken place. Although he rarely gets annoyed he was getting rather aggy at this point but he knew it would be for the best not to start shouting in the position he was in.

"Die? I was going for a stroll... Wondered why my countries forest was on fire and to finish things off when I went to investigate I had some half crazed woman charging at me with a giant flaming blade, and you think I wanted to die?"

Sweat began to pour off him, his breathing became heavier and the blistering was becoming more severe. Hoping that his innocent responce was enough for the woman to at least draw the god forsaken sword away from his seemingly melting face. There was little moisture in the air as it had been obliterated by this girls rampage on the forest. Swallowing to try and clear his throat morikana obo glanced up at the woman and noticed that she was scanning the sky like she was looking for something.

Guilt saddled the girl, that was not supposed to happen, she was not supposed to be the bad person. No, she had mistaken the male, sighing, she lowered her sword, which still left behind a trail in the air, falling to the earth. This was dangerous stuff, and it was not supposed to end up with the loss of innocent lives. The blade to her side, she looked around the forest, the weapon had caused some serious destruction, the fire from it alone enough to cause such destruction, she had not used any of her own skills. Akumahi Ken, Demonic Flame Blade indeed, using merely the supplementary abilities of the weapon she had ended a rather large section of earth with minimal chakra output and skill usage. And now she had forced an innocent into submission, this was not right.

As the world burned around her, she stumbled back, feeling horrible for her own actions, the devastation she caused was nothing compared to taking a life, she did not want that. He had been taking a fucking stroll for gods sake, and she had been so wrapped up in capturing the dragon that she had thought he was another fool in the way of trying to stop her. The flame blade in her hand felt calm again, as it always did. It was not the weapon, it did not thirst for blood, it was a kindred spirit of her own body, not calling for blood, merely for a good equal fight. What she had given it, was certainly not a fight, it was a disgrace to her own name and abilities, having sworn not to kill anyone who did not deserve it, and almost going out of her way to do such, simply because he had been walking through her direction and intercepted her course?

Although reasons for someone to walk through a forest that was on fire was minimal at most, but he was probably trying to discover the source of the flames and the core of the problem. Her. There was a loud crack to her right as a tree erupted into flames, the sap of it heating and exploding, shattering the wood from the tree causing an explosion of tree shards as the tree fell forward. It was going to land on their position, and, still feeling bad for trying to kill him, Hybris would move to destroy it, her blade coming up, the searing steel meeting the wood of the tree, cauterizing it and easily sliding through the wood of the tree. Although massive and heavy, it would not be able to withstand such steel, never mind the weapons sharpness on top of the fact it was on fire. And for good measure, the trail of the flames burned the tree, her arm still extended in the air as the tree was cut over them.

The fire was spreading at a rapid rate, and things were getting fucked, if the male did not escape the forest soon he would find this his grave, and his body would be cremated if that was the case. The genes in her body allowed her to withstand such temperatures with such ease, but the beading of sweat on the males forehead was more than enough to tell her that he was struggling, and the fire from the blade probably had not helped. Arm still extended, the flames still arcing from the weapon as it cleaved through the tree, Hybris stood poised as the two logs fell either side, a shocking display of dominance and power, both of herself and the sword. The fire would soon reach the point where he would die regardless of whether or not he could escape the flames, the heat would force him to pass out, and she did not care how guilty she felt, she would not carry him.

Looking up at the woman he didn't understand how she was coping with the heat and to be honest he was to occupied with trying to live, on his knees he felt an anger building inside of him, looking up at the woman he was growing more furious. He knew she wouldn't help him and why should she, it was survival of the fittest and in this case he surely wasn't the fittest infact he was infact the equivilant of an obese kid running an uphill marathon in the middle of summer.

Refusing to go down with a fight he knew that his chances were slim but he had to try something. With little energy and chakra left he tried to reach into his pouch and slyly removed a kunia. taking a deep breath and taking a last look at the sky he attempted a last lunge at that woman who had forsaken his life from the moment he had met her.

As the tree fell around the, she was struck in her midsection by the male and his blade. Where a normal person could have or would have been fatally wounded by the kunai, she was just angered at his selfishness. As he collided with her body, she drew her elbow downwards, striking him in the back of the neck as they fell backwards, drawing the sword over, the fire igniting greater than ever, and plunged it through his back. The flame of the sword itself would be enough to ignite him as it was, but the trail of the weapon would also bear itself upon his body as the fire followed the sword, and he would be induced to even more painful burning. Brought upon himself, but he would die, burning from the inside and outside for his arrogance. He could have escaped, her could have saved her the blood on her hands. Now however, it was too late for her to do anything about it.

Ripping the headband from his body, she would spin in a circle, dragging the flames of the blade in a circle around them, this would be his ritual from her, he would be cremated, and that was enough for her. His death, while unnecessary, was done now, and there was nothing she could do about it. The blade had done its job, however, it sang a sorrowful tune at the death, having caused something that was not meant to happen, a crime against nature, an unworthy death. He had attacked, and she had defended herself, thats all there was to it, but she abhorred death without a point, as did her sword. As the forest fell around her she began to once more sprint, having tucked the males headband into her own pouch for later on, she needed to get back on the trail of that dragon, but it meant clearing to a place where there was no smoke, and now that the fire had engulfed everything there was little chance of that happening now.

Her sword still in her hand, she moved swiftly, cutting down any forestation before her as it moved in her path, the trees falling, apparently the bush was a lot larger than she had guessed, and the fact she was running for such a length of time made her wonder if the dragon had already escaped, but surely the fact that there was a gargantuan fire and smoke billowing from all directions, would the dragon not come to try and find what the source was? After all, creatures such as that were bore from fire, would they not be attracted to it? Well, it did not matter now, she had to keep moving so she could get to see it at least. Looking up, the canopy above her was smoldering, but she could get through it. Swinging her blade, she forced the flames to rise into the air, and they cut down some of the trees using the trail, which was more than enough to let her see the sky for a few seconds.

A dark shade swooped overhead, the Dragon was around here, apparently attracted by her destruction of everything here, but she could not see where it was through the fire and smoke, only that it was over the forest right now, meaning she was so close to her target now that her excitement was growing, and the swords too. A battle worth the blade, to fight a dragon, to face a creature of such an element, the same element as their own. Atsui held the blade forward, watching as the trail of flames followed. The weapon was growing stronger, she could feel it, and with a stronger weapon, the trainer got stronger when using it. She was so close now, mastery of the blade would soon be attained, and after that? Well, she would continue mastering it, it was her sword, she could do with it what she wished. Taking one final slash, she formed a line in the earth, ten meters in length, the flame of the blade being created in an awesome fashion like the tail.

As he had expected his final efforts in bringing down his enemy had failed, as his blade was deflected he felt a grusome pain tear through his torso, his body burning with agonising pain.

Falling to the ground defeated his vision began to go blurry, it was not a glorious death, but there was nothing he could do anymore. He had lost... And Hybris had won. She stood in happy comparison to the befallen ninja she had defeated, and rightfully claimed herself capable of leading her team composed of several Genin, including Taka - Nietzsche, even Leon Akechi and Saruga of the Sand may accompany her in her conquest over power.

Hybris had traveled to Sunagakure in pursuit of discovering what the hold up was regarding a group of wild animals. Now, admittably, wild animals roaming the desert was an unheard of ocurrance; normally, the only animals which roam the desert at any time are more along the lines of wolves or coyotes. Hybris had her theories about what may be going on, however. If they were true or not, she'd have to find that out once she arrives at the location.

About thirty cliqs left to travel, Hybris takes her canteen out and sips from it - refreshing spring water from the Underwater Village has never tasted better. Hybris wore a large cloaked shawl over her body, and a cowl to cover her face from the sun and provide shade and resistance from sunburn or worse. Despite her clothing cooling her body down in the long run, it was still incredibly hot. Much hotter than she was ever used to walking in. She looked up to see if there was anything worth looking at aside from the piling dunes of this barren wasteland. Nope. Not a single cloud in the sky. Only a blazing star known as the sun. Hybris shakes her head accordingly to her mood. "This is depressing."

She climbs atop a sand dune, and before reaching the peak, can hear the clatter and noises being made by a series of animals. A herd it would appear to be as her eyes scanned just above the sanded hills of Sunagakure. This was an animal that Hybris had never seen with her own eyes before. But based on her knowledge and information that she can process regarding their appearance, shes come to the conclusion that the group might be a pack of mountain lions protecting a small oasis from another pack of cougars. They roar and tackle each other in madness and fury. Hybris watches from above with admiration of their ferocity and dedication to protect their own.

Hybris runs the options of attack through her head and comes to a quick decision. Despite the heat out here, her water techniques can still be created thanks to her fighting style of Water Encampment Pillar. This is similar to the Hokage whom served Konoha, revered as the greatest water user of the ninja world. He could create water from nothingness, pure air. This technique however used chakra to produce water, and was alittle more complicated than the original technique. She figured she could probably do this wasting little chakra at all. Still, she overlooked the battle. About three lions have died thus far, and a few cougars have also fallen in the scuffle as well. The remaining count was about four lions, compared to six cougars. If there ever was a time to strike, it was now. Hybris lept from the sand dune directly over the group of warring cats.

Five shuriken attached to five fingers on each hand by chakra wire, she throws each down, raining them onto the group of cats from above like hurdling missiles coming to Earth. Ironically, each wire had an explosive tag attached to the tip of the string, and as she felt them pierce, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.... One seal had been activated; setting off each tag consecutively, causing the bunch to explode - fatal damage being done in the process. Before landing, she scanned the area. "Nine landed.. Wheres the tenth?" Looking around, she could note that all of the lions have been taken out. However, there was a cougar that was unaccounted for. She looked amongst the pile of bodies to search for a clue.

As her eyes overlooked the ground scattered with bodies, an injured solitary cougar lays with an injury to its front leg, and a series of cuts marks its neck and body from the massive scuffle with the lion kin. Hybris looked into its eyes, and it stared back with desperation. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to kill the animal. It was already hurt and injured from the battle.. So, she took necessary steps to potentially tame the animal.

Using what knowledge she had of medical ninjutsu, she performed a calculated sewing surgery on the body of the animal, sealing the open wounds. The leg that was injured from the explosion was not in terrible condition, and she noted that it would heal properly - rendering it would be perfectly alright. The cougar purred with thanks, and Hybris pet the cat to make it feel better. It was a female, much larger than normal it would seem. Her legs were seemingly built purely for speed.

Whatever the case may be it was time to report back to the village of Sunagakure and inform the Kazekage of her findings. As she stood and began walking away, the cougar stood and tailed her as well. Hybris stopped and looked at the cougar, odd-eyed. Unsure of what the animal wanted, she tossed it some beef jerky and continued walking. Although the cougar caught the food and swallowed it whole in a matter of a few seconds, still, it continued to tail Hybris. So, once again, she stopped walking and went toward the cougar instead. She knelt to its face and simply blurted out. "I have the feeling you want to be my friend.. Am I right?"

She'd continue. The cougar seemed to nod its head in approval, purred loudly, growled and rubbed its face against Hybris's. She couldn't help but smile. "Right then.. I'll call you Shizume. Do you like that?" Hybris asked. One more, the cougar purred and growled in approval. "Okay then, Shizume.. We must goto the Sand Village.. It may take a while though.. As you can see I don't have four legs built for running like you." She laughed.

She walked onward after petting Shizume, and the cat ran behind her, lifted her onto its back and took off toward the village. Hybris shook with unexpected anticipation, she didn't expect Shizume to be capable of carrying her. "Oh well," she said to herself. "looks like I'll be able to get around much quicker now that I have you by my side Shizume!" With that, the day ended and Hybris headed home. The next day however was much more arousing.

Hybris could then be found Meditating on a log, before even attempting to use such a Mastery Weapon, Hybris had to focus her chakra as one, which she herself did very well suck at doing, she was mostly the type to just go and conduct the technique, but this time she was not willing to do such a thing, Hybris was meditating her chakra as it could be felt by a variety of others if she entered an area, her chakra was creating a binding power source that was conserved within her mind. Hybris's Physical Chakra had begun to create a focous upon her C Rank Scroll's that were within her left and right hand, this was creating a connection between the two as she must've been trying to become one with the two scroll's she had placed out, but as she did so, Hybris was focousing her Spiritual Chakra within her as it was creating a mixture within her heart as well, her entire chakra source was coming from the spiritual flare within the center of her body, her chakra was emitting all out of her body, her body, mind, and spirit were all trying to become whole if she herself wanted to be the master of the Rising Twin Dragon technique.

Inside of her mind, she would imagine herself sitting pretzel style meditating as there would be two chakra's on each side of her, one was flaring green on her left side and another glowing red on her right, both of these would be her Spiritual and Phisycal Chakra as they represented them both, she would contact the Phisycal power of her chakra and concentrate on the Spiritual Chakra herself as the green flame would envelop her entire body, the blue chakra would flare infront of her eye's as she would reach into it along with green flare of chakra enveloping her entire body, she couldn't control both of them as her Spiritual Chakra would be hurting her body placing damage upon, she would begin to shiver at this in reality as her training caused her chakra to begin to spiral out of control, when finally she would open her eye's as she would gasp for air breathing heavily at what had just happened. Hybris would be exhausted from the mental training she had given herself right there and then.

Upon what had happened to her, she would stand up standing on top of the log and instead of trying to contact her summoning of the Rising Twin Dragon's that required both Phisycal AND Spiritual chakra all in one, she was not about to perform the technique until further notice. Instead she was going to train on implementing chakra into scroll's as it was her next way of learning the Rising Twin Dragon Technique's, she would look at both of the scroll's that were in her hand right there and then looking at them both as she was ready to move on to the next course of action.

Moving herself off of the log, she had to think of a way to train this Rising Technique as the first attempt failed, but the second was about to be a success for her. Moving near her scroll's she was going work on implanting chakra into them, but what was needed was the right throwing movement and the right timing, Hybris would launch herself into the air jump flipping at least a good 12ft far from the log itself as she spun at a 360 degree upside down landing on her feet as she would kneel on her right knee, she would hold two of her C Ranked scroll's in her hand as she was focused on her chakra as of now. She would place both of her C-ranked scroll's on her right and left side facing a upright position as she would quickly move her left and right hand's on each side of her shoulder's on opposite sides of course, but as she did so, her chakra had begun to boil within her as her Spiritual Energy was ready to become one with her scroll's.

Focusing her chakra on both her C-ranked scroll's she would cause her chakra to envelope her hand's as she did this, her Spiritual Energy from her chakra could only connect to the C-ranked scroll's by going into the palm of the hand's which are essentially to the technique going on, she would create a mixture of her chakra to spin within her chest rapidly as she caused her Spiritual Chakra to create a connection with the surface itself slowly traveling toward the scroll, she would close both her eye's and had begun to imagine her chakra being a dragon itself, taking the form of a dragon her chakra did so, it would rotate around her spiritual body as her phisycal form was still in the same position it was before focusing all on her entire as it would envelop her entire spiritual body, the chakra dragon would flare her as it was her soul/chakra that were becoming one. She felt the energy of her chakra flow into her hand's as this was happening she had begun to open her eye's slowly as her entire spiritual form was dissentegrated.

Now she was ready to cause the scroll's itself to become whole, she would focus her entire chakra upon the surface itself as it would envelop the C-ranked scroll's quickly covering it's entire body up as soon as it was fully covered smoke would burst into the air enveloping everything around it including Hybris blocking ones view, could see have done it? Let's just see if her concentration was enough..

As she poured chakra into the scroll herself, a huge burst of smoke was launched into the air, but yet nothing else happened, this was embarrassing. As the smoke that bursted all into the air the paper of the scroll would also unravel but would be only 4ft high as it would come raining all idioticly down on the ground like a plastic bag you find on the street floating around. Hybris had all of a sudden messed up the technique as she would drop her jaw embarrassed like smacking her forehead. She would stand up watching the scroll's seal both of themselve's up. As she had saw her failed attempt, Instead of trying to do it her way, Hybris was taught to not always do thing's her way, but to just let loose, not knowing what the hell that meant, instead of making a stupid list of what to do step by step, if she was going to learn how to master this stupid technique, she needed to become the Weapon and the scroll itself before even attempting to become both as one.

Hybris would pick up one of the C Rank scroll's as she would jump 10ft in the air hanging upside down rotating in a 360 spinning motion as she would move her with the flick of her wrist that the scroll was contained in would be whipped out as a long lash of paper would unravel itself from the scroll surfing through the air rotating in a spinning motion moving toward the ground itself, as she did so, Hybris would begin to dive straight through the center of the scroll itself as it spun in a rotating motion making it's way toward the ground, but as it did so, it was soon being reverted back into it's sealing position as it would begin to reverse the way it had spun as if time had caused this sudden burst to occur, but as the scroll did so, it would then whip lash itself into the air finally resurfacing at the start of the scroll's opening and traveled back toward Hybris's hand re-wrapping itself into a scroll as it was before finally. Hybris would look at how the scroll was moving, it would be fine at first, but it had felt as though something was wrong, but whatever it was, she needed to test it once again.

With sensei's approving nod, I'd smile at his approval. "Next, we are going to learn how to block both outside and inside attacks." he'd tell me as I nodded. Watching sensei first get into his stance, he'd motion me to send a barrage of punches at him alternating between attacks to show each defenses strengths. Nodding, I'd learn through practice against the defense. Starting out softly, I'd smile and throw some light punches at first to get a feel for how they were blocked. Starting with two punches in succession, one from the front and the other from the side, sensei would flawlessly block them. Taking note of how he did, I'd notice that he used the principles of the 360 degree defense but not the Inside defense which baffled me. Trying it again, I'd throw a side punch with my left and an uppercut with my right. Noting his style, he'd shove off my uppercut with his left arm and block my hook with his right. That was a combination of both, but it wasn't much.

Speeding up, I'd throw a punch every two seconds. Seeing sensei's defense flow smoothly, I'd get the pattern for how he defended. Sending in a flurry of punches, I'd watch intently at sensei's defense system since that was my main objective. The mix of the two types of blocks were evident in the freeform low of sensei. With a smile, I'd slightly increase the attack speed to about once every 1.7 seconds to see how he'd react. His flow of defense was not disrupted which I hoped my form would be like when it came time for the true test. However, I needed to see how good sensei was to gather more data. Mixing it up a bit, I'd throw in two low punches simultaneously to see if he would dodge how he told me. Deflecting my left punch with his right elbow, he'd twist to the right to dodge the other one.

Thinking that I could disrupt sensei's flow, I'd increase to about an attack every 1.5 seconds. However, sensei was good and kept up with it. Needing a sudden change to be able to see if sensei was as great as I thought he was. Increasing it to a punch per second, I'd smile as I saw sensei's flow wobble for a moment. It then began to fluctuate between stability and instability. With a smile, I thought I could break his concentration as I began to increase it a bit to 0.7 seconds and noticed him wobble more. With a smile, I'd notice him wobble until it turned to a frown when he started to regain control. I wanted him to give in first as I increased it to two punches per second, about 0.5 seconds per punch. With a smile he'd begin to wobble however, he seemed to be giving up as I hoped with this next few punches he'd break as I saw an opening.

With a smile, I'd stop my fist an inch away from his torso while noticing sensei's stern face. Retracting my fists and bowing, he'd return the bow with his own. "Sensei, may I see you and another person spar like the way we did? I think it'd do me some good if I saw it from a third party's perspective." I'd ask as sensei nodded and motioned another student over. As they both got into stances, the student would initially start with simple attacks against sensei. With a smile I'd watch intently only about a foot away. Watching the slow start, it would only add to the excitement and knowledge I hoped to gain from watching this semi spar. The female student then stepped it up, striking slightly faster with each soft punch she threw at sensei. With longing eyes, I'd watch the spectacle that was playing out before my eyes.

The flurry of strikes flew at sensei as I took mental notes in my head as I watched sensei's defense flow like a stream without anything blocking it. She tried to stop the flow of the stream but it was too strong of a current to be stopped. All the strikes were rejected almost instantly. To try and stop it, she sped up to about one attack per second. However, sensei learned from our spar and blocked each with fluidity. With a smile, it'd turn to a puzzled look as she slowed to a halt. They nodded to each other after the cease fire before sensei started to attack his student. Realizing that they swapped it up to show me two different sides of it, I'd see how she did it. After a minute, I'd see that, compared to sensei, her form was rather sloppy but better than mine.

Watching sensei throw soft punches, I'd notice he was trying to build up her rhythm. After a few minutes, I'd notice her change into a fluid motion of blocking. Sensei then sped up his assault and her rhythm faltered. She struggled to block it all but I'd see her improvement and form that was used. Taking note of how she gained the fluidity of defenses, she conformed her body to a better position before adjusting her arms. Sensei did it the opposite way from what I saw in our spar and the spar I was watching. A good balance of both, from what I thought, would be the best solution and way to integrate this kind of defense into battle situations. With a smile, I'd see sensei increase his flurry to a strike a second. Her defenses faltered quite a bit, but I saw her fluctuate between getting better and worse. Wondering if she could pull off a stable return to defense, I'd watch intently, learning with every punch thrown and punch blocked.

With one last block, her defense was shattered as sensei's next strike broke through her defenses. Sensei stopped about an inch from her gut before retracting his fist and bowing to her. Nodding at sensei, I felt like I was ready. "Sensei, please allow me to try it." I'd tell him with enthusiasm as I got up from my kneeling position. With his nod, I'd get into the proper stance and prepare for the flurry. As sensei started off, he'd send a punch every two seconds to allow me to get my flow. It all seemed like it was hard to start with, like everything, but gradually got easier with each punch deflected. My eyes were getting used to predicting and then defending against the attacks. After about a minute, my peak flow had been reached and deflecting the mixed flurry came second nature to me. It was like taking candy from a baby it had gotten so easy.

However, just as I had gotten used to the rhythm sensei had, he stepped it up a bit to throw punches at me faster using a more random pattern to strike. Was this a test to see how well I could adapt to such a changing format? Or was this to get me ready for real combat? Both of these questions went through my mind as I lost concentration for a bit, slowing down my reaction time. Trying to regain it as well as my focus, I'd watch his movements carefully in order to use the correct block. With a smile, I felt myself regaining control over this little exercise as his attacks were once again melting away into my quick adjustment to my defense. I felt like I was regaining control over his attacks as another trick was pulled from his sleeve. He attacked faster and aimed for visible weak spots.

The new attack pattern was about once every second and slowly going faster. It was enough to make me lose my focus as well as lose my concentration with the attacks made for my weak spots. Sensei was trying to get me to be able to withstand any barrage. My body flowed out of my control into a more focused flow from what it seemed like. With a smile I'd wondered how this was possible as I regained control but not focus or concentration. Building up my concentration, I'd focus on trying to see his attacks before they came after me as I smiled. I was gaining both concentration and focus simultaneously as I felt his attacks becoming slower than my reaction time. However, my joy was shortlived as he went into overdrive to try and get me to be knocked over. With a nervous smile, I'd try to compensate for the difference in our speeds with multiple blocking, however I was losing. I needed to pull it together as I noticed a few attacks headed for my blind spots.

Stopping his last blow, he'd smile and stop the flurry. As he nodded at my success, he'd waste no time moving on. "Next, you must learn to escape from a wrist grab of the mirrored side. Come, try and grab my left wrist with your right hand." sensei said as I shrugged before doing so. As I followed orders, I'd grip his wrist with my mirrored hand. Almost immediately in the blink of an eye, sensei had escaped my grasp. My hand was floating there and I looked like an idiot with his hand out. Wondering how he did it, I asked for a step by step demonstration after I tried to mimic what I could see. Nodding, he'd grip my left wrist with his right hand. Trying to just yank it out, I saw it wouldn't work so I tried doing what I remembered and twisted my elbow towards his. As I did I felt the grip loosening as I took a step forward with my left foot to fully escape it while I punched my chest. Wondering how that works, I'd wait for the explanation.

As I gripped his left wrist with my right hand, I'd wait for his step by step explanation. "If you grab my wrist, I am limited by what I can do right? I can't really make hand seals or punch you or whatever. It causes a blind spot in my performance. To escape this situation, however, I want to make sure I have more power pulling away than forward." he'd say as he twisted his elbow towards mine. "Here, I can move towards myself instead of towards you. Most people will let go if you put enough force since they may think you will punch yourself. However, you avoid this by controlling your strength. It also puts less pressure on your wrist to allow for more flexibility." he'd tell me as he could wiggle his wrist in my grip now before pushing towards himself, breaking my grip. "Now, try it slowly by going through all the motions." he'd tell me as I nodded.

Holding out my right wrist, he'd grip it with his left. Remembering the explanation I just heard, I'd go through it step by step first to remember why it went that way. "First, I loosen the grip or pressure the opponent has on my by pushing towards him with my elbow. If I need to I could step forward with the same foot to give myself more maneuvering room unlike if I used the other foot." I'd say in my head as I slowly performed the first step, moving my elbow towards his as I felt the grip loosen a bit. On my way to his elbow, I'd review the next step. "With my wrist loosened, it doesn't guarantee I'll have an easy time escaping, but it gives me a better shot." I'd say in my head again as my elbow was an inch away from his with plenty of room to maneuver my wrist in. Pushing towards myself with my whole arm, I felt like I could power through his grip as the seconds passed by, the moment of truth arriving.

With a smile, I'd free my wrist with ease before backing up so I didn't hit myself. Sensei gave an approving nod at the end of my slide as I smiled. "Alright, now you must learn how to escape from someone grabbing the opposite side. Grab my left wrist with your left hand." he'd tell me as I approached him following orders. Watching him intently this time, I'd blink once and he was free from my grasp. Shocked, I'd look at my hand and his arm to notice any differences from when I grabbed it. I saw no differences in the way he had his arm to the way I gripped it. However, the simplest thing was off and I couldn't recognize it until I looked carefully. Instead of his fist being horizontal, it was now vertical. This subtle change baffled me, but to get a clearer understanding I'd ask sensei to explain it.

"Sensei, mind explaining what you did while you do it like last time?" with a smile I'd walk over to him as he nodded to my question. As I gripped his wrist like before, he'd begin to explain."To escape this, you can't pull the same trick since the elbow won't reach that far in this far of space. You use your thumb in a hitchhiking motion to escape." he'd tell me as he pointed out his thumb and moved it across to under my wrist. "You go for the weak point in the grip, usually the opponent's wrist, to be able to give enough room to escape as so." he'd say as he escaped my loosened grip. Wondering how that works, I thought about what it would do. Perhaps it would make the opponent arc their wrist to not be touched. That way, the grip would be loosened just enough to escape. Nodding, I'd be ready to try this out on sensei.

"Sensei, I'm ready." I'd tell him holding out my right arm for him to grip. He gripped it with his right hand and I'd go over the steps and think of an easy way to remember them. "So first I need to give myself breathing room. To do that, I 'hitchhike' with my thumb to give myself room." I'd say as I stuck on my thumb, rotating my fist and thumb to under his wrist. As I did, I'd put into my mind that this is the hitchhike escape. "Next all I do is pull out in the room I created, but how do I do it without him regaining control. Perhaps my thumb comes out last." I'd say to myself as I slid my arm towards myself, keeping my thumb up to allow myself to keep this loose grip he had on me. With a smile I'd see it coming but I was slowing down. Perhaps he was regaining his grip as I gave it one quick jolt back, hoping it'd free me from his grip.

As I slipped my arm from his grip like slipping out of a bottle, I'd smile at how easy it was in the end. However, training would roll right into the next technique. "Alright, now you will learn to escape from someone who holds both wrists, at least one way. Hold my wrists up." sensei would say as I nodded and followed command. Holding his wrists up, I wonder what sort of special way he would escape. Perhaps just like the same side escape? Or maybe a mix of both ways. However, I'd be dead wrong as I noticed him rotate his arms, his left clockwise and his right counterclockwise. As he did that, he lowered his head and I thought he was going to headbutt me. Not wanting that, I'd release his wrists and skip back, wondering what the technique was here. Perhaps headbutting the opponent was right, but I needed to ask.

"Sensei, how exactly does one escape?" I'd ask as I repeated my earlier actions to hold his wrists up. "Weren't you watching? I just showed you but I'll go through it once again." he'd say sighing as he looked at me seriously. Was there something I missed? Or maybe he did it and I wasn't really looking for what he did. "First, you rotate your arms inward. Meaning your left arm goes clockwise and your right goes counterclockwise." he'd say as he slowly rotated his arms inwards and down. "As you do that, you drop your head down to your chest to make it seem like you may headbutt the opponent. If he's close enough you will end up headbutting him." he'd tell me as he made the motions. So that's what the secret to it was. I was scared that I was going to be headbutted that I stopped and backed up. However, I knew sensei wouldn't allow it. Nodding, I'd think of a way to escape as we swapped positions, him gripping my wrists high.

Wondering how I would, I'd concentrate for a second on how to get him to release me. A headbutt would be too extreme, but perhaps I'd be able to hit somewhere else. Thinking of where to hit, I'd begin the starting movements of rotating my arms. In the time it took them to get below the mark for the next step, I'd search for a weak spot, a kink in his armor. Spotting a potential spot, I'd smirk on the inside as my arms kept turning. When the next step came, I touched my chest with my chin hoping he'd release me, but he didn't. I needed to go for somewhere I knew I could hit as I thrust forward, my head aimed at his chest to knock him off balance to release my wrists. This was a gamble on my part as I made contact with his chest. Hopefully the blow would make him release me.

As I hit his chest, I knocked him off balance just enough to free my hands as I jumped back a foot. With applaud, sensei smiled at me and I returned it. "Good. Now I will show you the proper way to escape someone holding your hands down via your wrist. Come, hold my hands down." he'd tell me as I complied. Holding them down below his waist, I'd wait to see the response I got. In the blink of an eye, sensei started to move faster than I could track. When he finally stopped after taking a step back, I'd wonder how he did that. From the blur that I saw, he had done the exact opposite of holding them up, but I needed to clarify this with sensei. Could it be possible that simply doing a reverse motion could allow one to escape such a grip? It didn't seem like that was all to this escape.

"Sensei, please repeat the gesture with pointers and explanations please." I'd say as he acknowledged the request and accepted. Going over to him, I'd hold his arms down with a puzzled look as I glared intently as his movements. "Remember that to escape the previous type of hold, what did we do?" he'd ask me. It was a simple question, so he responded immediately. "We rotated our arms inward and down while using our head to intimidate the enemy a bit to release us." I'd say as he nodded before beginning to move. "The last one, we had our hands held up instead of down like now. To escape this one, one must do the opposite of the hands held up release. You rotate your arms inward and upward in a mirrored motion." he'd say as he slowly began to do so as my arms got closer together. He then curled his fingers so he wouldn't poke his eye from observation before my grip got too far away to hold and I released him. It seemed easy enough.

"Sensei, its simplistic nature seems simple enough to do. I'd like to try." I'd say as he sighed before grabbing my wrists and holding my arms down. With a smile, I'd remember how simple the instructions were as I reminded myself in my mind. "Okay... So I mirror the last technique so instead of rotating inwards and down, I rotate inwards and up." I'd say as I slowly took a few practice rotations before I felt I was ready. After, I did a few quick snap rotations to increase speed to see if it helped any, and it did. Taking a few deep breaths, I felt confident in it as I then started to try to escape for real. Snapping my arms inwards and up, I'd almost forgot to curl my fingers so I don't harm my eyes as I jerked my arms feeling his grip loosen. I then tried to jump back hoping I was free of his grip.

As he loosened up, I'd free myself and make sure he couldn't get me by stepping back a bit. With his smile and nod, sensei would be ready for the next escape as I was also ready. "This is the final basic one for your belt. Grab one of my wrists with both hands." he'd say as I nod getting closer and grabbing his left wrist with both hands. Watching his movements to see how he'd react to this type of situation. He couldn't really just escape using the trapped arm, so I wondered how. Getting my answer, he'd reach over with his right hand. Not noticing his left hand had been made into a fist, my attention was fully on his right arm. He then grabbed his left fist as he quickly rotated his left elbow up. Wondering how this would work, I'd notice how it did but not sure why it worked like that as I watched sensei escape.

Sensei knew the drill as he beckoned me to grab his wrist again like I did. Waiting for him to start, I'd take a deep breath in the meantime. "As you already noticed, you can't simply escape this with the caught hand. Therefore, you use the other hand..." he'd stop as he moved his right hand to cover his left fist and hold it up. "to grab your caught hand which is turned into a fist. You then raise it above the wrist line of the opponent. After that, you rotate your elbow..." he'd say as he slowly rotated his caught arm's elbow 180 degrees so it faced upwards. With that, he then put it back down. "quickly to allow yourself time and room to escape." he'd tell me as he quickly snapped his arm up as I felt the rotation speed heat my hands and loosen them. He then escaped as he said previously. It is such a simple escape but the way it is performed is pretty complicated.

Sighing, I'd try to understand its complexity as I held out my right arm as he grabbed my right wrist. Going over the instructions and steps he just said, I'd take a few sighs before I began. Reaching over with my left hand, I curled my right hand into a fist as I grabbed it with my left hand. Raising it up above his wrist line, I'd try to get this next part perfect enough to be released by taking a few practice swings. Slowly rotating my elbow up, my right elbow would be getting used to the motion as I smiled. After doing this three or four times, I'd snap it up another three times before finally thinking I could get it. The snap use of my elbow was to gain speed so I could. With a smile I'd be ready as I snapped my elbow up, feeling his hands loosen their grip on me as I attempted to flee in my moment of chance.

After escaping, I'd wonder what we were going to do next as sensei beckoned me to follow him. He walked to a training dummy as I stared at him with a puzzled look. "Now that the defense portion is taken care of, we will move onto some combat. This is a basic attack so watch carefully." he'd say before turning to the dummy as he got into his stance. Noting his stance, I'd see how he was. His left side was facing forward closer to the dummy rather than his right side. Personally, I was stronger with his right hand but I needed to be ambidexterous I suppose. With a sigh, I'd only see his hand return to where I saw it before the sigh. Wondering what had happened, sensei noticed my cluelessness and reperformed this technique. His fast was too fast for my eyes but I caught a blur. His attack was so fast that I could only gather an outline of the technique he did.

"Umm... sensei. Mind giving me some tips on this?" I'd ask him as he was ready for this. "You only saw a blur right? Well its just a simple punch, similar to the jab boxers do. Just as fast as well. To make it faster, one must put his whole left side into the punch. However, this is also the body as well. It puts more power into the punch as well if you put your body into it. It also helps to curve your fist a little as well, making sure to make contact with the first two contacts of your fist. Also make sure to keep your head close to your chest and roll your shoulder to cover it as well. It helps a lot like so." he'd say as he slowly made the punch to the dummy. I'd watch seeing his body move with the punch as it flowed into the punch. The dummy bent back about ninety degrees before returning up right, sensei dodging its retaliation.

Nodding, I'd take sensei's position as the dummy stopped moving back and forth. Taking the same stance he took, I'd make sure my chin was against my chest and my arms were bent at the elbows to guard my face loosely. As I took a few practice punches, each one was a slow punch to make sure I would get the right motion down. Next, I'd take a few more practice punches, only this time adding in my body to add power to it as the dummy bobbed a little toward the left and right. Believing I got this punch down, I'd take a few deep breaths before finally being able to be ready. Beginning the motion, I'd throw the punch towards the punch, rotating my hand until the knuckles were horizontally aligned. Throwing my body as well into the punch to add power and speed, I'd make contact with the dummy hoping it was as powerful, if not more, than sensei's punch as I threw my body into the punch.

Hybris would dash toward the lake that was 12ft from the Log she was near as she would jump into the air rotating at a 360 degree landing on the lake itself as chakra was implanted into her feet, as it was she stood on the lake as if it was a surface, she wouldn't stop moving though of course she now held two C Ranked scroll's within her hand as she would spin like a ballerina with the scroll's in opposite hand's as she spun with such grace moving like a butterfly, she would then unravel the scroll's that were within her hand's and as they were, Hybris would allow the scroll to unravel itself as the paper would whip lash out stretching 15ft from Luna as she would spin holding the scroll's dancing with them, in order to control the scroll's itself, she needed to control her body movement, mastering the Rising Twin Dragon wouldn't be given so easily. This training process was now going swell.

Hybris excitedly followed her ANBU Captain to a secluded clearing. The ANBU Captain had finally agreed to teach her the basic Dhënada techniques. These techniques were only known by members of the Hoshigaki, and they guarded their secrets jealously. That’s why Hybris and her mother were traveling to such a secluded area to train. When they arrived, the ANBU Captain talking. “The technique I’m showing you today is called Seiðr Halo. Seiðr Halo allows you to create a halo out of chakra. This halo can then be used for other clan techniques. The halo is about 100 centimeters in diameter and can be a variety of colors. Watch.”

Hybris watched closely as her mother began to demonstrate the technique. The captain had turned so her back was towards Hybris. She thought this was strange, but understood when a pale blue halo appeared and began swirling behind her mentor’s back. “Wow,” Hybris said as she followed the halos movements. “You can even create multiple halos if you practice enough.” Her anbu captain noted, gesturing her hands. The halo was quite pretty to say the least after all. As she was speaking six more halos joined the first. “Alright, now it’s your turn,” The ANBU Captain said, turning around.

Hybris nodded and began concentrating. Since the halo would appear behind her, she focused all of her chakra to a small point on her back. There were no handseals for this jutsu, so Hybris’s chakra control would be the deciding factor in whether she succeeded or failed. She focused, and pushed those thoughts of side and only concentrated on the jutsu. Once she thought she had gathered enough chakra, Hybris attempted to create the halo.

She did this by channeling her chakra to a point slightly behind her back. While she was doing this, she saw her mother move so that she was behind Hybris. The movement was distracting, so she closed her eyes and began working with her chakra again. Hybris slowly moved the chakra she had gathered on her back to a point slightly behind her back. It took a while, but Amaya was finally able to move all of the chakra she had gathered behind her.

The next step was to make a halo shape with her chakra. This was a little difficult since Hybris wasn’t actually touching the chakra. Instead of trying to make the chakra into a halo all at once, she began slowly moving one end of the chakra she had gathered. As the chakra moved, she had left some behind. The less chakra she was moving, the easier her chakra was to control.

When the chakra she was moving reached the point that she started from she would have created a halo of chakra. “Good job,” the Captain praised as a glowing halo appeared behind the Kaguya’s back. “Why don’t you turn around and have a look?” She turned, excited to see what her halo looked like. The halo began to move so it was behind her back again, but not before she was able to catch a glimpse of it. Hybris’s halo had more blue in it than her ANBU captain’s did, but it was glowing and moving which meant the jutsu had worked. She was incredibly proud of what she'd achieved today. Just some more training to make her even stronger.

Word Count Total: 18,672

Stat Gain: +93
JP Gain: 186 (80 max)

Trained: Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Juinjutsu 2000,4000,6000 (2000x3=6000)

18,672 - 6000 = 12,672

Basic element trained? (Earth)
2nd element = 2000 (Water)
3rd Element = 3000 (Lightning)

5000 total

12,672 - 5000 = 7,672

Mastered Ecological Empathy (500 W/C requirement)

7,672 - 500 = 7,172

______________________________________________________________________

At Genin: Claiming Taijutsu
At Jounin: Claiming Ninjutsu
Jounin Above+: Claiming Kenjutsu

At Genin: Claiming Earth
At Jounin: Claiming Water
Jounin Above+: Claiming Lightning

Approved o.o Unless Denied by a higher power

Awarded accordingly.

It was a rather cold and windy afternoon at Hybris's personal training dojo. Half of the residence normally seen outside were either off having fun at the festival while the others were away in deeper parts of the surrounding forest training to perfect new skills. Hybris took it up herself to not take any more missions of important until she could perfect this single ability and fighting tactic. Finding one location in which she was told by a fellow trainee, was labeled as the veteran ninja's sanctum. "So.. I suppose this is the place I will begin training my new technique. A fitting environment, truly." She'd note, continuing in to the temple. Taking in the landscape terrain and atomosphere, Hybris notices the many areas within in which she could potentially utilize as dummy set up areas to attack should she grasp the needed effort to strike down the useful training tools. ".. How would I start.. Even I haven't a clue how to get this sort of training underway." Hybris unsure herself, she'd really begin figuring she would start with a few basic kenjutsu stances and break away from them. Reaching over, Hybris grabbed a hold of her multitudes of weapons from the armory rack beside her. Simple and basic katana and curved swords. Bringing her rarer weapons would be too dangerous to risk, she figured. Nothing spectacular as of late, having the basic color of a black handle with a white inner lining wrap intertwined within it. The edge of the blades had a saw like pattern to them, which made for cutting with the variety of weapons much more damaging should they come into contact with the dummy's or another persons flesh. This was certainly dangerous however, as training such a stance could very well result in her injury - or even her death.

Hybris took hold of the swords placing them in all oddities of areas of her body, trying to pinpoint exactly which weapon of what size should go where. Her weapons were much different than the ones she now holds within her grasp. Many of them falling out of place at the slightest gesture of movement. This slightly infuriated the Kage, though she hadn't stopped trying to interlock them into the positions of her joints. She would then hold a firm but relaxed grip over each weapon, allowing them to shift weight with her body if she needed to. Spinning and holding the weapons tightly bound between her body parts, she'd assume a stance known as the Waki-Gamae - in which Hybris conceals most of them using excessive layers of clothing - though such traits lacked at the current point in time. The weapons appeared to be residing in such a manner where they could look like they were about to be fired off from their position and strike someone with ease. Having the need to use the waki-gamae stance as a way to understand how she could possibly distinguish a more fluid motion since she'll need to try and test out multiples of different methods to prove successful and achieve a more steady flow consisting of various amounts of power, speed and effortless positioning to rapidly switch weapons while in combat, or in close ranged combat with another swordsman. Taking a deep breath in, Hybris allows her lungs to be filled with enough of the new oxygen so that she can calm her nerves and muscles just enough to get into the mindset of being as empty as a crystal ball, and steady as the wind coming in through the windows around the training site. Steadily releasing the air flow she formerly built up from within, Hybris shifts her bodies initial stance, which looks like nothing more than her dragging her swords to begin with; towards a new position in a different stance, in which raw powerful strikes exert outwards in front of her. The muscles now tightened triggered her motion to relax and then release like a bullet fired from the chamber of a high calibre weapon. This would make nice for an equivilant warm up for Hybris now to trust that her body is capable of mastering the fighting style. She would twist, pulling forth the sword from her abdomen location out towards the front with a quick-draw strike.

Stopping just short upon hitting the dummy and reaching the imaginary line in which Hybris had drawn up for herself, the edge of the blade she drew forth was merely a single inch from the dummy's chest and stomach area - threatening to rend and tear the organs from inside her opponent apart. Eyes focused as she made a less attentive motion, delivering a fluid strike and more on the fact of her muscles getting tense. All in all, everything fell into place and Hybris proved herself capable of mastering this technique with more ease than she had previously anticipated before reaching this antipode of a training facility. However, almost falling over from the weight of the blades made her switch her flow of thinking, quickly standing back up on one foot and reaching down to place the swords back where their location was previously stated in the aforementioned areas. She had to position her free foot being a bit off channeled; less of an effective powerful striking position so that it allowed her other weapons to deal damage effectively and equally. She paid more attention to her breathing than anything, as that would be the primary key to unlocking the potential hidden within this fighting style which she claimed is practically undefeatable - even against the likes of a skilled sharingan user or a master Hybrisurai. Soon after another strike was delivered to the dummy next to the one she previously attacked, the winds in the immediate vicinity started to pick up, the large entrance to the temple bringing forth the brushing vacuums to induce a more dusty environment, swelling up and pushing her slightly off balance due to the force of the wind. This sort of new obstacle actually interested Hybris - yet another thing that she would strive to overcome and remain triumphant in her attempts at success and perfecting herself. These were however much stronger and enlightening than average winds which pass by the world on a regular setting - something Hybris figured would most likely bring a thunderstorm about. Having no need to rest as of yet, Hybris once again resumes the waki gamae stance as before, and takes another deep breath in - gradually releasing it as with each new step formed, every new attempt became another new situation for her to overcome with the new surroundings of the training temple. It was long until the hours had passed and turned the surrounding world into nightfall - shrouding the temple in a facade of shadows and darkness. Needless to say, the Hybrise routine was practiced until she felt it was necessary to stop and begin the sequence of implenting a new stance.

Day two of the hardened training, still no rest being taken throughout the night - the sky was still black as the moon, setting the horizon in preparation for sunrise in place of this world of darkness. The temple became much darker as trees whistled with the wind and the grass around it swayed in the direction of where the wind blew as Hybris continued slashing away at the dummies she had set up before practicing. Wearing a sleeveless black shirt, some loose fitting shinobi pants and a Yamagakure flak jacket, she made sure every possible factor would be implemented into the equation if she were to take this fighting stance to the next level - that level being the battlefield she knew all too well. Simple, yet excrutiatingly painful - and it sounds hard, though it is really not. Depending on the working ethic she placed for herself as a low standard determined how quickly such a skill would be mastered. As the father of Kikato Rinku had previously told her in past training sessions, "Quiet your mind; yet, calm the storm. Drown out all disturbance and place your body in an eternal resting. When your mind is rested, you may open your eyes to see a more in-depth sighting of the world around you." She remembered every word down to the way he stated them. Every sentence, every phrase. Something she would never let leave her memory. He was a true mentor when it came to Hybris's training, simply removing one's body from all else and staying in one place momentarily, relaxing the mind and staying true to what your own movements interpret as fluid motion. Back when she first learning about what Kenjutsu was, the sensei explained that kenjutsu was the art of pertaining to techniques that entail the use of swords, whether the users be shinobi or Hybrisurai. Kenjutsu can be used in combination with taijutsu, ninjutsu, chakra flow and unique fighting styles. Such as the one Hybris was now striving desperately to employ.

Word Count Total: 1503

Total Stat Gain: 7
JP Gain: 15

Approved

While not in home or out with friends, Hybris spends her time to train her ninja skills. She hates people see her failures and countless attempts over learning some technique so she found herself a good isolated place about half a kilometer north from the Kumogakure's village gates. The place is a ice cave which appears small from the outside, however, when going in, people would notice that it is really spacious and that it continues a good couple of kilometers deep inside with a number of tunnels that can confuse somebody not familiar with the cave's deeps.

After taking her about ten minutes to get to her home to her secret training place, Hybris was already doing her warm-ups for the training that was about to follow. She was dressed in her usual training outfit that included a warming, yet, sleeveless top and shorts, both of course in her favorite brown-red color. For training the technique she has chosen, the Body Flicker Technique - Push, she knew she had to perfectly warm her legs up for the training. Otherwise, the training could've gotten problematic and it's outcome would be a failure. First, Hybris did two series of squats, each serie of twenty squats. She did this in order to get her knees in shape for the training. After the squats, she did a couple of normal stretches and a couple of round twists of her ankles. Hybris wasn't really good in TaiJutsu, actually, she totally sucked in it but a friend of hers has gave her a tip that she could also train the Body Flicker Technique by molding chakra into her feet - something she was really good at. It would be a big mistake of hers if Hybris decided to shead straight for the Body Flicker Technique after the warm-ups and stretching. She knew that the technique had a limit of usages per a period of time and that she passed the limit, which was 3, her legs might end up rendered immobile and that she could end up having to suffer a great pain.

To use the Body Flicker Technique, Hybris would have to mold her chakra into her feet as she would do when using the Water Surface Walking Technique and instantly use the chakra she has molded up in she r main foot's fingers to repel herself from the ground in an instant travelling in a distance of ten meters and that whole process, three times to call the technique successfully trained. Hybris connected her hands one another and concentrated her chakra flow in her feet. For now, she would use mid-versions of the techniques while trying to run in a straight line. One of the tunnels in her cave was a straight line coridor and that was the place where she went to after warming up fully. On her way to the coridor, Hybris did a couple of fast crosses in the tunnels which were having a longer straight path. As she reached her desired tunnel, she drank some water from her bottle, left it in a courner where she also left her baggage at and was finally about to begin the key part of her training.

"Okay.." Hybris said as she did a couple of final stretches. She molded chakra in her feet and took a cross-running starter position. The ice corridor was about fifty meters, meaning that she had ten meters to go into full speed running and then repel herself forwards by using her chakra. Not knowing if she will succeed on a Shunshin with her first number of attempts, she left the remaining space from the corridor out of her plans because falling on the ground was definitely better than hitting in a wall in your attempts to stop in high speeds. Ready, Set, Go! Hybris launched herself running at speed about 29 mph until she reached the tenth meter. As she crossed the line that she marked at the tenth meter, she pressured the chakra that she has molded earlier and repelled herself forward with that. She reached speed of about 36 mph if not more, the basic has been covered. She remained at that speed for another 9 meters, then she began slowing down and the stopping path led her meters before middle of the corridor. Luckily, she stopped without any accidents occurring. Now, she had to master step two of the Body Flicker Technique and it was to create the poof of smoke and travel the 10 meters starting from a still position. It would be an easier task now that she managed to increase her speed with running and repelling herself with her chakra.

Hybris turned back facing her baggage. She wanted to succeed the Body Flicker Training with her first attempt, something that was very unlikely to happen. Hybris stood still, fully up without curving either her knees or back for running. She took a deep breath, released it and mold her chakra in her feet. She did the shinobi universal handseal as she pressured the chakra down her fingers to repel herself forwards, sheading for her baggage. Hybris increased the pressure of chakra and fortunately for her, repelled herself forwards in an instant by only curving the back side of her feet up. She was a meter away from her baggage and when she looked backwards, there smoke of the Body Flicker Technique has already began disapearing in the air. "Yes!"

Hybris saw the puff of smoke and she has moved about 8 meters.. that was a success right? Wait, where was the pain that was supposed to occur from the Body Flicker Technique in her legs? Something was wrong and moving less than supposed to proved that much. Hybris's enthusiasm suddenly fell. She obviously failed with her first attempt to succeed the training of the Body Flicker Technique. She turned back again to the straight corridor and molded her chakra in her feet. In a sudden, she quadrupled the pressure of the chakra on her fingers and launched herself forward, This time, there was no poof of smoke but the distance felt better to Hybris than the first time.. but it was slower. Not the wanted result again.

Hybris sighed. There was still no pain in her legs. Not that she liked and wanted to be in pain, just that, this kind of pain would be some kind of a sign for her that she was at least getting the hang of it. She walked back to her baggage and drank some more water from her bottle which was soon going to dry out. She threw the empty bottle on the iced floor and angry thought about what she was mistaking. There weren't any of the side effects that were suppose to appear. After the first usage, and this was her second try. She sat for a while to think. After she done that, she got back up motivated as she was from the start. She had an idea in mind that would get her to where she was sheaded - ten meters ahead with a poof of white smoke left behind.

She stretched her arms back and up and took the stance she took with the first two tries. She molded the chakra in her feet and did the universal shinobi handseal with her left hand. As she did the first two times, she pressured the chakra down her feet but this time, she also pressured it from the bottom of her feet making it move upwards, pressuring with the one moving downloads, they created a double sided pressure. Then, she released the chakra pressuring down and the one pressuring up got up the way to her knees. There, she pressured it down again and made a pressured chakra flow between her feet and her knees. She made a little, almost invisible crouch and released the pressure from her feet, pushing down the pressure from her knees as a secondary chakra speed boost. Almost instantly after releasing the pressure from her feet, she launched herself forward and before she was able to blink, she was 10 meters away from her start spot. Looking back, the white smoke was fusing with the air.. but there was still no pain in her legs or kness.

Damn, a fail again? Hybris walked back to her baggage and repeated the process again - pressuring chakra down the feet, pressuring it up the knees, pressuring it down backwards and releasing it instantly. This time, she pressured a larger amount of chakra, aiming to cover a larger distance. She launched herself forwards and instead of stopping at the 10 meter line, she released another amount of pressured charkra. Instead of tapping on the 20 meter line, she released another pressured amount of chakra but instead of covering a 10 meter distance, she felt over the iced floor. "Gyah!" Hybris screamed due to the pain that she felt on her feet, barely being able to drag herself back to her baggage and use a skin-apply medicine cream to endure the pain.

After applying the skin cream, Hybris managed to pull herself home. On the next day, she went in the Snow Forest which was east from the snow village to test her Body Flicker Technique and a rabbit she saw staying in the middle of her path was a perfect target for her test. Hybris slowly walked closer to the rabbit being careful not to be noticed. She walked until she got the rabbit within her radius of ten meters. She once again made this almost invisible crouch, pressured chakra inside her feet and knees and released it in an instant. The rabbit noticed her movements and ran in the opposite direction but it was too late for the poor little creature. Hybris launched herself at the rabbit with her Body Flicker Technique and with a second Body Flicker, she equaled to it and managed to capture it. Being able to capture the rabbit proved her that she would be able to move exactly as effectively as now in a battle against creatures on two feet.

Walking from the cave, she looked out of the small wisping entrance, staring at the sky in amazement before thinking of what had happened to her father before her death. Rerunning the memory in her shead, she gripped her fist. The antics of hertory once more protruded and came crashing down on Hybris` way of life, causing the remaining Hunter-Nin, famed ninja within Kirigakure who tracked down escapees or refuges who had left Kirigakure without officially being denounced from its records, located Hybris after only three days of tracking. This led to a brief tussle resulting in the death of a Hunter-Nin, though not by the hands of Hybris. They were the hands of her father, Kagarashi Kaguya, a famed bone-wielding shinobi who was granted the title 'Kamisonohone', or God of Bones, for her prestigious mastery over the bloodline limit of Shikotsumyaku. Telling Hybris to continue, she waved her off while she stayed and fought the remainder of the Hunter-Nin, urging her to leave if she wanted to keep her life. Before her departure, she threw her a sword which she carried around daily, a prized possession and sheirloom of their family. Nodding and without shesitation, she escaped with her life at the cost of her fathers.

After two months of travel, she came across a narrow mountain pass, cascaded by rocks and falling boulders from atop the giant structures. It was here that she would discover her element, as a boulder came directly from over her and threatened to crush her with ruthless force. Utilizing quick thinking, she activated the Hiding in Rock technique, although unknowing that she possessed it, as her body was enveloped by the surface of the mountain and allowed for the boulder to smash the mountainside, leaving her unharmed. Unable to keep the channelization of the chakra going, she was thrown from the rocks and landed on her knees and hands, looking at the ground, few tears escaping her eyes. Looking up to the sky in remembrance to her dear father, she stood and continued on, tired and famished from weeks upon weeks of travel. The flashback caused a few momentary tears to fall from her face, though she knew that all of this would only make her stronger. She slept soundly for the time being, though tomorrow would don a new morn.

After the momentary break, as the sun has risen into the sky once more, she walked back into the cave, meandering inside of it almost exhausted from the training procedures aforementioned. Kumogakure seemed like a safe haven for the time being, especially due to the fact that the Hokage and the Fire Nation seemed to not want to bother the village and its civilians or shinobi for the time being. She gripped her fathers sword in its sheathe, squeezing the handle tightly. “For you father.” She noted, gritting her teeth and continuing to perform duties in accordance with her strict training regiment.

The first clone would jump over her, congealing the sunlight from above in the high morning and casting over a momentary shadow before the real Hybris would jump upward with a spinning sheelkick, slamming the clone directly in the face and sending it flying toward the beckoning entrance of the cave. A second clone would team up with a third clone and throw a combination punch and kick toward Hybris, the first hitting the skullcap on top of her shead, which would accordingly deflect, Hybris catching the fist thrown by the other clone by the wrist and thrusting it into the other clone's face before landing and initiating a spinning sheeldrop in a circular motion, both tripping and destroying the two present clones.

The final two remaining clones rushed at Hybris, one spurring forth ten drilling bullets created from the fingertips of the clone, which bolted at Hybris at deft speeds. Noticing the tactic behind the clones prominent attacking pattern, she once more utilized the skullcap laying on top of her shead and dove forward in a spinning motion, deflecting the bullets and sending them back to the clone accordingly. Dodging, the clone jumped onto the shoulders of the other remaining clone, whom concurrently grabbed the hands of the clone and did a front flip, launching the clone toward Hybris with her fist sheld outward in an attempt to strike Hybris in the face. Quickly reacting to the probability of her attack, she quickly weighed out the possibility of defense or offense, though ultimately utilized her speed by jumping to the side slightly, brushing against the clone as it reached her, throwing down and elbow and slamming the clone in the back of the neck. Such an attack would otherwise break the neck of any other opponent, though seeing as how it was a clone, it would simply poof away.

The last clone had already just about reached Hybris, throwing two consecutive punches toward the face of Hybris, one of which she dodges, the second hitting her shoulder and knocking her back briefly, though the force hadn't stopped her from throwing a three-piece attack directly at the chest of the clone, which would momentarily stun the enemy through disruption in the breathing pattern and lung function. Taking advantage of the brief pause, Hybris dropped onto the ground in preparation of an attack, thrusting a kick upward which would accordingly slam into the jaw of the clone and sending it airborne. Finishing off the attacking sequence, she jumped into the air and activated the Dance of the Willow, accordingly bringing forth a series of bone-like spear fragments around the body of Hybris. She would spin in a dancing ballerina-like fashion, slicing, cutting and rending the flesh off of the clone, doing so to any rational able-bodied ninja would have both cut the flesh from bone, and broken the bones accordingly at her present strength level.

Regardless, the minute training session was over, Hybris landing with a dust cloud presenting itself around her as the particles settled onto the ground around her. Huffing almost desperately, she strained to catch her breath and sat down, smiling. "Ah.. I'm getting better. There is no doubt about that." The sweeping winds burrowed and brewed into a light stormlike blow, brushing the sea-green hair about the shead of the young ninja. Wiping a small portion of sweat from her eyebrow, she pressed against her shead, hoping that she would soon become stronger than she used to be before - striving for vengeance against the mist village, Kirigakure.
She’d think about the prowess bestowed upon her by being fortunate enough to be born a Kinkotsu no Kaguya, and not a simple Kaguya. Even with her unique appearance, which she may have dually despised somewhat, A member of this mutation can be identified through the fact that the bone mutation produces an additional outerskeletal frame, causing a portion of their bones to be visible to the outside world. Hybris has this skeletal frame addition on the top of her shead in the same of a cartoon-like skull, and being as though this mutation increases the density of bones naturally, virtually protects her shead from direct blows at any rate due to the fact that the bone is as hard as steel naturally.

This kekkei genkai, being a direct mutation of the natural Kaguya blood limit, is extremely rare, and extremely efficient. It allows the user to manipulate their skin, regenerative cells and further increases the lethality behind the scenes of Shikotsumyaku. This increases the regeneration of the body by speeding up white and blood cells at an exceptionally rapid rate, allows the user to take harder hits due to an increased density in skin tissue which concurrently enables them a sheightened state of resilience and grants the user the capability to produce cartilage and muscle sinew - very well allowing them to sprout additional limbs. Lethal in its own right. Yet another day would have passed, and she would stare at the nights` sky before laying down and falling into a deep sleep once more.

It was a quiet day, that Hybris chose to do one of the most dangerous steps outside of being a Genin. She knew that most, all most of the Genin's, are only able to handle the capacity of their first Element. In Hybris's case, her main element was water. However, Hybris thought that only having one element, was just shy of being weak. "If I'm going to be strong, then I cannot stop at one element." Hybris thought to himself. She wanted to take on the art of her father who passed away when she was around the age of 7. That art, was, Storm.

There was a big difference between a Genin with one element, and a Genin with two elements. The Genin with one element, would be sheld down using only the Jutsu's that she had learned. However the Genin with two elements, would be taking the battle to the next level. Hybris wanted to be the Genin with two elements. And when she had achieved this feat. She would take on storm.

Hybris knew that the only way to get storm, was to achieve the element of lightning. However in order to do this, Hybris needed to either find someone to train him, or go to school and be taught when she has passed the chuunin exams. "The Chuunin exams, are too far away, I need this element NOW! Hybris rashly thought in her mind. "However to get this, I need a Hybris." There was only one problem for Hybris, finding a Hybris that is, she didn't know how to find one. And even if she did, how would she know that she used the lightning element?

Hybris thought for a very long time, 5 hours at most, she thought of fighting people, but fighting her Hybris wouldn't make a very good impression about her attitude. She thought of putting posters up all around the village, but what would happen if there was no one showed up? Until she came to the conclusion, to just ask around, ask the other genin's to find and see how they learned the lightning element.

After asking around, for about 3 hours, Hybris came up with no one, not one person who even knew the lightning element. Until she gave up hope and decided to give up. She decided to calm down, by going to her secret training place, and to take a bath in the lake that was there. So Hybris rushed home, grabbed her boxers, and sheaded out for the lake.

As she got to the gate, she walked outside and went straight to her secret meeting spot. It took him about 45 minutes walk to reach her destined location. On the way there, she stopped behind a bush, and changed into her stripped boxers, ready to run and jump into the lake. She got a shead start, and dashes the rest of the way there, throwing her clothing all over the place.

When she arrived at the mouth of the forest going into her secret little training place, she had realized that it wasn't all that secret. Someone was sitting there, on one of the cut down tree stumps that Hybris himself cut down when she was practicing her Kenjutsu. Even Hybris could sense that this mysterious person was Strong. However, She didn't look like she was awake, in fact, Hybris was pretty sure that she was sleeping. No. Not sleeping, but meditating. Enjoying the peaceful surroundings of Hybris's once unknown place.

"H-hello, What brings you to this secret and quiet place?" Hybris said in a very quiet tone, sitting upon one of the other cut down tree stumps that she had obliterated. Hybris picked up a blade of grass, and started to whistle the tune of her favorite song as she awaited the answer of her soon to be friend.
Serenity and peace had filled the air, the stress of leadership and war had melted before the bliss surroundings; the clear pool had served as a source of focus; it had been all too perfect, a time of serious training. The Hybris had taken full advantage of this time; her body was pushed to what would be considered the limits of a normal human in a matter of minutes without too much effort. With such a simple task behind him the tall ninja was finished with her warm up and ready to concentrate the masses of charka into pure fuel. The pool swished and forth as the shinobi entered deep concentration; the peace was so simple and peaceful, a perfect time for simple relaxation, though it seemed that the man did not have time for that right now.

Sometime had passed, since the ninja had fought sleep and lost; and now a distinct noise was quaking through her brain. The noise began to break through the barrier that was the fine world of sleep, it was now more distinct; the noise was a voice, a voice spewing out words that were directed towards him, apparently she was supposed to have been awake the whole. It was a pity, that she had missed the childish rant of the young sounding voice.

Tilting her head, the ninja, opened his eye’s revealing golden slits of consideration that study the child carefully. She seemed to the age of an average student; cocking her head even further at the man, he sighed as her teal hair dropped upon her face. “So what do we have here, or better yet, what do you want with me?” her voice was lazy with a slight wisp of ice, and it seemed he was not in the mood to play baby sitter, especially when it came to another countries youth shinobi. He waved his hand toward Hybris, beckoning that she come forth in the form of an attack. Doing so, she performed a double lariat and triple kick aimed at the right leg, left side and neck area, following up with her father’s prized heirloom blade toward his right arm as a counter maneuver. However, he quickly disregarded her blatant loss of awareness by thrusting what seemed to be a ball of lightning toward her face. Quickly reacting, she brought the sword upward, Hybris quickly blocking the attack and jumping back, swinging the ball away from his hand and her own body.

Sluggishly the few taijutsu hits met their mark; it was honestly not that of a fighting blow, but on the opposing opinion the ninja had not forced self restraint upon himself, and apparently at this point that was accompanied with high level consequences. If the young girl hadn’t reacted on instinct and raised her weapon for defense, the ending could have resulted in something that would truly put the man in danger in the area, but fortunately the damage at this point was nothing more than a simple state of shock; she would get over it eventually he hoped. He was sure that Hybris had undergone harsher treatment than this, which was held a lot more truth than false tongue.

Looking down towards the child, the ninja, before her tilted his head, analyzing the child; it was a pity such an eager and interesting child was prepared to end his career for the sake of a glimpse at the power he desired. Though in the long run, it was something the stone shinobi could work with, a turning point from student to teacher - if you will. Of course the only true way to know if the child was what he could train towards the next generation, meaning he would have to test it.

“You use that blade a lot don’t you?” The man sighed as he motioned towards the flashy slab of metal, “There are merits to reliance on the body, and well”-the ninja shift his position in a manner that was either uncomfortable or sarcastic, as this motion happened again his brown layer hair shifter into the path of his golden eyes-“dodging, movement and following the flow, similar to using chakra.” Moving closer to Hybris, his gaze shifted and his tone deepened.

“You act as if you want to get powerful, but yet you jump in head long; at this rate you’ll be dead within the next few blows.” The stone ninja was in the mood to play games, but allowing this child to die was not one of them. “If your so interested in the art of lightning and acts as a ninja yourself, then you’ll have to improve on the basics.” At this point the man solemn face lightened up into something close to that of grin. “If that is what you truly desire, then I may be able to get you to that point, of course this will be just be the very beginning.” Now right in front of the child, the golden eyed man held out his hand as if to help him up; a window of opportunity was beginning to open. One which Hybris would waste no time taking advantage of. This man had been none other than Apostolos, her current advisor and recruiting officer in the Akatsuki Organization. Though this information had not yet been given to Hybris, she had her doubts and her speculations. Ones, which unfortunately, were not easily dismissed due to her peaked curiosity and child like antics.