A Brewing Storm {P}

It was dusk and for once it was not too rainy in Amegakure, the village hidden in the rain. Sure, there were a few drops here and there, but this did not bother Ryuu all that much. The Jounin currently sat on a sheltered bench watching a few Amegakure shinobi sparring on the training grounds. As each combatant moved there was a slight splash as the ground was over saturated with water from the relentless rains that had pounded Amegakure over the past week that only now relented. Naturally the jounin was not watching out of idle curiosity, he did not often waste time like a fool. Rather he was analyzing each and every step, because he was next against the winner of the closest match up.

 One man was a huge hulk of muscle that was quite impressive to behold while the other, well, was not a man at all. Rather this was a slim woman who was clearly very comfortable fighting her larger opponent. This was evident by the way the woman moved with the smooth agility of a cat. And though it seemed as if the large man had the upper hand to the unpracticed eye it was clear to the tactical eye of Ryuu what was going on. The woman was simply dodging each hit the man sent at her. Sure, occasionally she took a hit, but it was nothing major. Then, in almost no time at all, the tides shifted. The woman took what looked like a nasty hit, but it was clear that something else was happening as the woman did not seem to notice the hit. In an instant the woman exploded into a poof of smoke leaving behind a log: the substitution jutsu and a well timed one at that. Ryuu had not even noticed it, but he now saw that the woman was behind the man. The woman in one swift blow brought her elbow down on the back of the man's neck crumpling him to the ground with a single hit. Like that the fight was over.

 Luckily the man was not badly damaged, merely dazed and quite embarrassed. All the same the man was a good sport and upon standing bowed to the woman who had bested him. Sighing Ryuu stood up as the wind swished his coal black hair to the side: he was ready. On his left hip hung a ninjato, but even more interesting was the fact that on the butt of the hilt a bell had been securely tied. As the jounin walked forward a slight jingling could be heard that most would mistake for a trinket or good luck charm, but they would be wrong. Instead, as surprising as it may seem, the bell was stronger than the sword. It was a bit poetic until one was ensnared by Ryuu's sound based genjutsu. Sound based genjutsu was without a doubt, in the mind of Ryuu and many shinobi, the strongest genjutsu in existence and Ryuu was about to prove just that with a simple nod he squared off the woman who had won the prior bout.

 The two figures stood in the slight drizzle facing each other. They were about ten meters apart, which was more than Ryuu really needed to work with, but he did not really care. There was zero margin for error. After all, the jounin planned to remain on this battlefield until someone came that could throw him off of it and for some reason he felt it was not this woman. Upon closer inspection Ryuu noted that the woman was rather well endowed, but he did not plan on that distracting him in the least. She was simply another opponent, gender did not come into it. She would lose like all the rest. Especially with the new genjutsu Ryuu was working on perfecting. This genjutsu was not easily broken and the longer an opponent remained in its grasp the sooner his or her demise was bound to come. Now came the moment of truth, well, for Ryuu's opponent that is.

 The woman drew her sword that she had not used in the prior matchup, which would be a bit worrying to most people as she was now five meters and closing. However, Ryuu cared not. His  left hand simply dropped to the hilt of his sword, but he did not grip it to draw. Rather as the woman was two meters away Ryuu's hand jostled the sword, which caused the bell to jingle, but along with said jingle came a flux of chakra from Ryuu as he poured chakra into the sound as it moved. Now, what happened next to the onlookers was that the woman charged forward  and swung far too wide to even be close to hitting Ryuu. Ryuu reacted accordingly and simply punched the woman hard in the stomach, thus knocking the wind out of her.

 Naturally Ryuu's well timed punch brought the woman to the ground and finished the fight then and there before any real fighting had begun. Shrugging Ryuu helped the discombobulated woman up from the moist ground. Now, what had really happened was that Ryuu had made use of his new genjutsu technique at just the right moment and then quickly wove a lighting illusion that had blinded the woman, which caused her to swing far off target than she would have had she not been blinded by the powerful light. Once the woman came to her senses she gave Ryuu an odd look and bowed ever so slightly to the winner: Ryuu. Cracking a rather wry grin Ryuu spoke up in a clear arrogant voice to all how were watching, "Come one, come all. I challenge each and everyone of you to a spar or battle if you will. Feel free to use whatever techniques or styles you see fit to use. I shall take you all down. Who is up first?!?"

 For a brief moment the whole training grounds were quiet and all that could be heard was the slow trickle of rain. Then the hulk of a man who had lost against the woman stepped forward and spoke in a loud deep voice, "Very well, kid. I will beat you down and show you the true power that a shinobi most hold. Your mind games wont work on me." With that the two opponents squared off and prepared for round two. Ryuu decided not to finish this battle too quickly. Thus, when the large man rushed at him Ryuu simply sidestepped the bullish man and gave him a swift punch to the arm as he sidestepped. The punch probably felt like nothing to the man nor should it have. Ryuu was merely testing the waters.

 And test he did, time and time again like a matador with a bull. One second the large man would charge and the next Ryuu would dodge in an almost elegant dance it went on for a minute or two. Then Ryuu, getting rather bored with the whole affair, decided to end the fight before he lost his focus due to sheer boredom. Thus, as opposed to simply dodging this time, Ryuu simply stuck out his foot and tripped the large man, which caused the unavoidable force of gravity to take its course. In essence the large man fell like an elephant with an almost comical thud that shook the ground for a very brief moment. This once again sent the whole training grounds into silence, which was rather sad as now there was a bit mumbling among the people present.

 However, one man stepped forward. Ryuu noticed something a little different with this man. For one this man had longish black hair and coal black eyes, but there was something...off about the man. Then it struck Ryuu; this man was confident, almost too confident. Perhaps the man knew how Ryuu had easily won his first match, but that was madness. Surely it would take another genjutsu expert to see what Ryuu had done, but the jounin had not often seen another genjutsu user. Maybe this was his lucky day or perhaps not? Time would tell.

 First came the integral part of every heated battle the banter. Ah, the banter, how Ryuu enjoyed the banter, which was why he was so pleased when his challenger was the first to start it. The black hair male spoke in what sounded like an almost serpentine hiss, "I noticed your trick there. It was quite...Oh, how shall I put this...interesting to see another genjutsu practitioner. Granted my genjutsu is not nearly as potent as your insofar as triggers go, but I assure you that you will learn to see my way...." Glancing up at the man Ryuu was about to respond with a well timed bit of witty banter, but it was then that he realized his mistake as his opponent's eyes took on a blood red color. It was from here on out that the illusions began. Ryuu knew all he could do was fight them off or weather them like any other type of storm.

 Though this was a very very odd type of genjutsu as Ryuu noted that he simply blacked out for naught than less than a second and then he was returned into what seemed to be the real world. Everything seemed normal, but Ryuu knew that it was not so. He had heard of genjutsu such as this one, they were much more subtle than the outright overpowering ones that Ryuu enjoyed using. As he moved Ryuu knew what this man had done to him. He felt his whole body moving much slower than usual. This type of genjutsu must have delude the mind and cause one's physical prowess to degrade, which would make this fight a lot harder than his first two fights, because, for once, he would not have the edge. Alas, things could not always go his way. And thus, the fight started without banter on the part of Ryuu.

 Instead his opponent advanced with speed that seemed to beguile the eyes, all Ryuu saw was a blur. Surely this was part of the genjutsu, but the jounin did not have that much time to think about it as he took a swift punch to the stomach from the man, which would have brought a weaker man to the ground, but Ryuu simply took it and was left to shudder back a hacking cough when he spied the same blur coming at him again, but this time Ryuu was ready. Though he could not see very well he did have control of his own jutsu as his genjutsu wielding opponent would soon find it. Ryuu hoped to embarrass the other man by beating him the same move as before. It would be rather ironic as the man had chided Ryuu for his paper thin genjutsu abilities.

 Thus, as the blur moved ever closer Ryuu dropped his hand to his sword hilt and gave the bell that hung upon it a slight ring, which activated his genjutsu and, in turn, blinded the other genjutsu user causing his genjutsu to lapse and giving Ryuu a chance. Taking this slim chance Ryuu punched the man in the stomach and sent him to the ground, but Ryuu was not done yet, no, not by a long shot. As the man fell before him Ryuu  gave a swift elbow to the man's head, which hurt the jounin a bit, but the other genjutsu user a bit more by the groan. However, it was just as Ryuu landed said hit that something strange happened...very strange.

Everything went dark and then a maniacal laugh seemed to echo through the darkness. It was then that it hit Ryuu: he had been had. That entire sequence had been a genjutsu illusion. In a word he had been played. And it would seem he had reached another level of the genjutsu, which Ryuu noted as he once again found himself standing across from the challenger once again. This time Ryuu took some time to talk to the man, "I will admit, your genjutsu is strong Your illusions are very convincing. I commend you." The other man simply smirked a somewhat evil smirk that befit a snake and then spoke, "Why thank you. I am an Uchiha and my eyes are one of the best genjutsu trigger in the whole shinobi realm. As you have no doubt guessed there is no escape, none at all. So, please resign yourself, give up. Give up now. Do not worry I will make it very quick and I'll mention that you put up a hell of a fight...." A childish smile passed over the Uchiha's face as she continued, "Now, please, once again, I implore you, give up."
 
The words 'give up' 'give up' 'give up' 'give up' echoed through the jounin's mind in an almost ghostly way. It was sickening to Ryuu, because somewhere inside himself he felt himself starting to believe that  he really should give up. He way out of his depth. The Uchiha seemed to have a major strength in the art of genjutsu. Hell, who was he to stand in the way of such a master. However, just as he was about to give up a thought struck the jounin's mind that was so profoundly simple that it made him laugh a bit. The laugh was odd, because it caused the Uchiha to cock her head in a cute way, well, it would have been cute had she not had a scowl on her face as well. Stopping his laugh the jounin spoke up in a voice with new strength and clarity, "You know what? You are wrong, yeah, you are wrong. Funny thing, right? You claim to be good at genjutsu, but you have made one huge oversight, well, I guess it is small, but it is large enough. So, I will give you one chance, 'give up'." With that Ryuu fell silent and waited for a response. He was not surprised when the woman simply smirked- the fight had just reached a new level and it was at this level that Ryuu would win, no, not win, dominate.

 Ryuu's composure was quickly gathered as he focused on the task at hand. It would be by no means a easy task. Now, one may ask was this plan that Ryuu had thought up? The plan was fairly simple actually: induce pain. It was not a glamorous plan, but it would be very effective. Thus, Ryuu closed his eyes and fund his center. Take long deep breaths, Ryuu could hear the whipping wind around him, but he put it all down as a genjutsu of some sort and blocked it out. After what felt like a life time Ryuu felt stable. Oddly his goal was to feel unstable. In the real world the two genjutsu users were still standing across from each other all Ryuu did was simple: he leaned forward. he could not break the genjutsu, but he hoped that his fall would do that for him. Fall he did with much gasping from the crowd. Though, instead of falling backwards, the jounin fell straight forward and face first into the ground. A loud snap and could be heard across the quiet battlefield and a crimson blood flowed from Ryuu's now broken nose. However, the jounin could not complain: he felt the pain, thus he could assume he was out of the genjutsu. Unless the uchiha had some weird genjutsu power.

Feeling self assured Ryuu struggled to his feet, but avoided looking straight at the opponent across from him lest he fall under her genjutsu once again, which would surely end the battle right then and there. All the jounin could bear to do was reach down to his sword hilt and simply move it up and down eliciting a clear jingling. Like that it was over. The Uchiha would not be able to move and Ryuu would close the ground between them at a breakneck pace. Not bothering to draw his sword the jounin took his right fist and uppercut the woman in the stomach knocking her unconscious. However, Ryuu himself fell right next to her. The mental fatigue he had endured whilst under the genjutsu was far too much for him, thus, despite winning the match of wills, both combatants fell on the field of battle. Rather fitting. The people watching were apprehensive about what had just happened. However, after a minute of awkward standing around they brought the two to the hospital to recover.

The faint trickle of rain on a metal roof was the first sound that greeted Ryuu as he came to twenty four hours later. Slowly opening his eyes the jounin started at that ceiling for a bit absent mindedly tracing the small dots on the ceiling until he finally noticed that he was not in his room. A bit confused Ryuu tried to move, but found that everything ached just a bit too much for free movement. Deciding against any major movements the jounin moved his head from side to side and took in the well lit ward of the hospital of Amegakure. Though Ryuu did notice he was not alone in the ward. Oddly enough there was a girl in there with him. Not sitting next to him or anything like that, but laying in the bed next to him. For a few seconds Ryuu was unable to recognize who it was until at last it dawned on him: it was the Uchiha girl. That girl had been really good at genjutsu. Not wanting to be a total creep Ryuu turned his head such that he was once again looking at the ceiling.

Another half an hour later the soft voice of the girl drifted through the air like a melody, "You know? You're pretty good with genjutsu I give you kudos for that, it is impressive to say the least.....Tell me.... how does that genjutsu work? I am often able to break free of most genjutsu, but your genjutsu was different it was much more than basic."  Not glancing over once Ryuu spoke so the girl could hear, he did not mind telling her the theory behind the whole thing as it helped in his own understanding and mastery of it, "Well, it is really the sum of simple jutsu into one grand...blanket, if you will, of genjutsu. I augment my regular genjutsu via what I call a gateway genjutsu that allows me to deliver 'simpler' genjutsu. In a nutshell it lets me use my genjutsu that would only trick academy student on better opponents like yourself."

Ryuu's comment brought a light airy laugh from the Uchiha who responded in a rather sly way, "Well, I suppose we could go back and forth about how we are both very good with the art of genjutsu. I suppose it is a given. Whats your name by the way? I didn't catch it..." Now it was Ryuu's turn to laugh, they hardly knew each other. Something about that just tickled the funny bone of Ryuu. Calming himself he responded, "My name is Ryuu Koga, jounin of Amegakure. And what, may I ask, is your name?" The girl giggled at Ryuu's response And simply said her name "Rin Uchiha, Chuunin" The room then fell silent for a bit until Ryuu struggled to sit up and swing his feet onto the ground. Sighing he figured it was time to get going. Luckily he was still wearing his clothes and his items were at the end of the bed. He had not real physical aliments other than a broken nose, which had already been reset with the assistance of medical ninjutsu.

Gathering his stuff, Ryuu went over to Rin and wished her farewell, "Well, I must be off. Perhaps we will meet another time and I can beat you again." The uchiha simply smiled and retorted Ryuu's statement, "Very well, but I would not call what you did yesterday a definite win, hell, we are both in the hospital after all, see ya." Nodding once to the girl Ryuu went on his way. Naturally he checked out and assured the nurse who had been looking after him that he would be able to get back home just fine. Granted his body still ached a lot, but sitting around in bed was not going to do anything about it, thus he left the hospital and hit the streets of Amegakure. Little did Ryuu know what was awaiting him as he stepped out into the steady downpour of Amegakure-his genjutsu test was not yet up.

Perhaps it was one of those times: from the frying pan to the fire or something like that, Ryuu was not good with the exact wordings of sayings, however, as he walked home the jounin noticed he was being followed all the way from the hospital, which was rather troublesome to say the least. Two people, and they seemed armed. It would seem that they were people who preyed on those who were recently released from the hospital, the scum of the world. Ryuu knew he could not take them on in physical combat in his state, but he did see one last use for his genjutsu before he got home. Walking down a dead end alleyway Ryuu Turned around and faced the two barbaric looking men. Putting on his best scared voice Ryuu spoke, "W-w-what do you want?" The two men looked at each other and the one on the right spoke in a deep gruff voice, "Nothing much save for all your valuables, now please hand them over. We will take your sword as well."

Sighing Ryuu took off his sword slowly and placed it on the ground in front of him and threw a wad of ryo down. he then reached into his pocket and pulled out a single silver bell. This was his gambit and his play. Dropping it to the ground the bell rang out clarion clear and at that moment both men started blinking and did not seem able to see, because, well, they couldn't, Then their bodies seized up like an electrical current was running through them, which it was not, it probably just felt like that. Shrugging to himself Ryuu gathered his things And went on his way. Hopefully that had taught those thugs what not to do. Alas, Ryuu could feel the chakra drain from his body. He was done with weaving genjutsu for a while until he was back on one hundred percent. In the mean time Ryuu knew he had thing to plan and things to build. After all, he had a village to take by storm. The village of Amegakure had not seen storm like the one that Ryuu had brewing for the village.

For now the village was safe from said storm as his duel of genjutsus had left Ryuu fairly weak. Though it was nothing a long hot bath and a long nap could not remedy. Thus, when the jounin got back home he immediately plopped himself into the tub and soaked there for about an hour till the water was cold. Pulling himself out of the tub the jounin walked sluggishly to his room and quite literally fell into bed. In a matter of minutes he was asleep. His dreams were populated with plans and schemes it was an odd restful sleep that the jounin now entered. Around him Amegakure went on as normal. After all, it had no reason not to. Ryuu was always one to play his cards close to the vest too say the least. Though, perhaps in time he would gather people to assist in executing his plans, but not now. For now he was content with mastery over his new genjutsu technique. In fact, it would be this genjutsu that would spearhead him onward to a seat of power, if all went well.


{TWC: 4010, +20 stats, +40 JP and 4010/4000 for mastering Banshee: Gateway}

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