Baenlin's second challenger (training)

A few days after Baenlin got out of the hospital, he was back on the training grounds again, barking challenges for all to hear. "I’m still standing, you worthless bastards! Keneji is one of the best of you, and yet he hardly touched me! Is this all that you loyalty is worth! You cowardly, skill less, useless garbage! The altitude of this village does more to protect it than any of you do! Why, if the village was ever attack, you cowards would flee at the first sign of a fight! Those of you that tripped while running away would give the enemy more resistance than if you had actually fought!"


This time, the challenger did not formally walk forward and challenge Baenlin. Instead, Baenlin found himself having to perform a spur of the moment back flip to avoid two kunai coming from opposite directions, and pulling his sword out mid flip to deflect a third. As soon as he landed, he heard the wind whistling above him and had to hop backwards again as three shinobi landed amidst a cloud of dust, pulverizing the ground where he had been standing a moment before. They paused there for a time and seperated themselves, and Baenlin had the first chance to see clearly who had come at him so suddenly. They were three genin, thankfully, and they all three carried a weapon that had stabbed into the ground where Baenlin had stood. The odd thing about them was that they were all female shinobi. None of them were old enough to be attractive to Baenlin, but they were old enough to be lethal. Baenlin had heard mention of the team, and he knew they were rather popular. He might even know about their actual abilities if he was more of a social creature than he was. It was one of the few times Baenlin paid for his social habits.


As the girls untangled, the girl on his right held what appeared to be a ridged club. It ran in a series of diamond shaped segments, each made of iron from the look of it, and the weapon had to be heavy in Baenlin’s mind. Still, the girl seemed up to bearing it’s weight. The flamed hair user behind it had muscles in her arms that were very well defined and the low cut shirt she wore showed the well developed muscles she hid behind her copious (for her age) breast. The one next to her, in the middle, held what Baenlin judged to be the only sensible weapon of the three. She carried a double edged long sword that was a slim and elegant as she herself tried to appear. The weapon was unusual for most shinobi, but Baenlin judged, with the girl’s sporty build, that she had the speed and agility to put the weapon to good use. The last girl was using a double bladed naginata, a weapon that Baenlin was still wondering how to get around. It would be a great challenge to get around if the user was any good with her weapon of choice. The only hope that Baenlin saw there was the sour look the girl kept on her face, suggesting that she might be quick to anger.


They all stood there for a time, Baenlin and the girls, sizing each other up. By the time the slender girl came at Baenlin with her long sword leading, he had already assumed that she would be first. He even predicted that her first blow would be a low thrust, which he already had his own katana in place for. As his block connected with the other blade though, he automatically rolled away from the blade to evade the muscular girl with her iron rod that he knew would be descending from above, trying to smash him into the ground. He came up out of his role with his katana held high, blocking the downward slash from the angry looking girl’s naginata. She did not miss a beat though, and quickly followed with a slash from the trailing blade coming from down by her feet. Again, Baenlin expected this, and he rose up, following the rise of the lead blade, and put his foot out to block the blow just above where the blade ended. Baenlin had to scramble to get out of the way of another flying thrust from the willowy girl while he was in the odd position, but he managed to make a counter swipe at her, which only ended up being blocked by the muscular girl. She, however, had made a mistake and extended herself to far to be able to retract her rod in time to perform another defensive move. Baenlin used his blade on the textured surface of the rod to keep it in place, then simply reached out, activated his Lightning Release: Full Body Current, sent the largest shock that he was capable of throughout the muscular girl’s body, then pushed her so that the shock traveled through the other girls at her side. Baenlin then quick stepped backwards so as to put himself out of easy range. Thus, their first exchange came to an end with Baenlin looking to be the better.


Baenlin waited as the girls untangled themselves again. Normally he would have just finished the fight right then, but he really wanted someone to prove his words wrong, for someone to prove that there was still hope for the village that he had grown up in, and grown to love. Still, he saw that these young girls were not individually all that skilled. In fact, their greatest strength was their teamwork. There was nothing wrong with that strength, but it would be a weakness as well. Baenlin had decided to show them this fact before he put the female teammates down.



Again, the slender girl was the first one to get in a better position, and Baenlin saw her as the biggest threat with her speed. So, Baenlin showed her what speed was by activating his Lightning Release: Mark I. Lightning flew from all around Baenlin as he charged at the slender girl. She got her guard up just in time to catch a blow from Baenlin that caught her sword just above the hilt and threw her back. Baenlin took a moment to shock the two girls that were still trying to get up again, putting them back down, and came at the slender girl hard and fast. He met her again before the girl could get her feet completely under herself. He threw three fast thrust at the girl. She knocked the first blow away with her sword, knocked the second one away with a slap from her other hand, and managed to get her sword back in for the third blow. She came away from the exchange with the palm of her left hand cut and bloodied. He gave her little time to check the wound though, as he came in quickly. He worked her high and low for a few seconds, but eventually he knocked the sword high and managed to get a smashing fist blow in between her eyes, knocking her out cold. The whole exchange took only a few seconds.


Baenlin had finished the fight with the slender girl just in time to side step the blow from the muscular girl he could hear coming from behind him. She seemed to expect her blow to miss though, because she rolled with the blow and one of the blades from the angry girl’s naginata was leveled at Baenlin’s chest. He easily shot his katana up to meet the blow though. This started a quick exchange of blows between the three. Baenlin was glad that he had activated his Lightning Release: Mark I. If he had not there would be no way that he would have been able to keep up with the two girls and he would have quickly been overwhelmed. As it was, he was managing to keep up with the girls, but he could not gain any heading in the situation. For a short time, the fight was something of a stalemate, a frustrating situation for Baenlin with the limited amount of time he had now. The next time Baenlin managed to slow the rod’s movement, he grabbed the rod and struggled to keep hold of it as the muscular girl fought with him over it. He managed to hold on long enough to use the rod to block the angry girl’s next blow. With a quick parry with the rod he managed to get the two girl’s weapons entangled, which brought him enough time to leap away, throw his sword arching away behind him, and started forming hand seals as he flew backwards. Just as he landed, he flung out both hands as he would when throwing kunai. The three bolts with eagle shaped tips that his Lightning Release: Flight of Screeching Eagles came flying at the two girls, one at the angry girl, two at the muscular girl. Neither of the girls had their feet under them well enough to dodge so they each tried to block with their weapons. The angry girl sent her naginata spinning to deflect the bolt headed her way, and it went careening away towards the students encircling the fight, sending many of them scrambling to get out of the way. The muscular girl, however, did not fair so well. She tried to block the first bolt with her weapon, but the shock traveled down the iron rod and made her whole body shudder involuntarily, so she couldn’t control her body well enough to block the second bolt. She took the second blow with no resistance, but luckily Baenlin had lessened the charge on it so that the blow didn’t kill her. Still, the effects were dramatic as she was flung backwards, electricity arcing all across her body. When she landed, she stopped moving except for the sporadic muscle spasms that lanced throughout her body.


As expected, the angry girl came at Baenlin with her eyes full of rage. Her attacks came in exaggerated but powerful, allowing Baenlin to easily dodge them, but knowing if he was ever a little too slow he would pay for it dearly. Baenlin managed to get in a thrust here and there through her defenses, but nothing was definitive. Even angry, she was too natural a fighter to completely let her defenses drop. Again Baenlin was thankful for his speed, which allowed him to keep a step ahead of her attacks. Still, Baenlin could feel that he was tiring much too quickly. He had to find a way to end this quickly, or it would not be long before he did not even have the energy to defend himself. Baenlin threw several blows as quickly as he could, trying to force the girls weapon in just the way Baenlin wanted. Still, the girl seemed to catch on to what Baenlin was up to and refused to put her weapon in what would normally be considered a very strong defensive position. Baenlin felt as though he had little more to give when, suddenly, the angry girl’s weapon went completely level, just as Baenlin wanted, to block an over hand slash Baenlin had aimed at her. Baenlin almost missed the moment, but he managed to catch it as his hand darted forward, forming a rasengan as his hand shot forward. It connected right in the middle of the naginata, splitting it in half. This shocked the girl, so that finally the look of rage fell from her face and was replaced by a wide eyed, disbelieving look. The rasengan continued forwards, careening into the girls chest and throwing her backs, slamming her into a wall four meters behind her. The armor she had been wearing had been torn away during the blow, but it had still absorbed most of the shock form the blow. Baenlin hung around just long enough to make sure all the girls had survived the fight before leaving the training grounds to go find a place to rest.
(WC=2037, 10 stats, 20 JP)

Approved for appropriate rewards.