power over the shadow within

She had taken a small break, mostly to let the water clear from the training ground and not give the ninja of Konoha the chance to point fingers over who leveled a large area of their village as well as soaked an entire training ground. As she walked up her feet squished through the saturated dirt beneath them slowing her movement and inevitably ruining her shoes. With a single hand sign she activated the shadow sewing jutsu, and seven small thin needles of shadow rose up around her. It felt natural to have the shadows zipping this way and that around her body, and in a way it comforted her quite a bit. She felt the additional power of her jutsu thanks to it's mastered form. Every turn or twist of the shadow needles felt like it held incredible destructive power which excited her. Here in these lands things just felt more fresh and exciting. it was here that she had spent so much time with her hyuuga family, studying in school and trying to make her way in the world as a ninja and though at the time she had failed she finally figured out what she had to do and persevered to the point where she was able to be confident in her strength. With little to no effort she sent the shadows out to strike at a target dummy just off to her left. The tendrils would pierce it with a time delay of about half a second, making a loud almost drum like sound as they pierced into the cloth covering one by one. THe after effect was seven holes in the dummy around the size of a quarter and two and a half inches deep. She nodded satisfied with her first strike both in precision and in strength, though she thought afterwards that perhaps she shouldn't try to bury them quite so deep. 

     She set up again, preparing to aim the strikes much more efficiently this time. She wanted to work on pinpoint her strikes to ensure that she could hit with greater accuracy. Using the technique was strenuous but fulfilling for the young girl. With a look of intense concentration plastered across her face she would strike out once more, this time increasing the time delay between strikes to about a second and a half. The thud of her shadow against the large circular training target was a syncopated rhythm of intense concentration and hard work that sang out to the nothingness that watched her play her music. In her mind great crowds of people she couldn't see cheered her on, causing her to strike harder then before. Each hit their mark within a half of a centimeter, causing holes much smaller and more shalow this time, with dimentions of around a nickle in over all size and going in around an inch and a half. perfect, she thought to herself. Naturally she would continue working on the jutsu to ensure the refinement was legitimate and not a strange coincidence. Two more times her shadows pounded into the dummy causing the dull thud to ring out through the training ground and with each time her strikes became just a hare more perfect. The holes became more shalow and just a bit thinner, mostly beause the shadow needle didn't actually get that much thinner then they were at the point of impact with the training dummy. The points she was aiming for were just on the edge of the last set of holes and as her attack made contact with the wood she studied their positions intently. The needles slid out slowly, so slowly in fact that she could almost hear the light scraping of the shadow against the wood within the dummy as it slid against the smooth surface. Once each needle was removed she moved forward to inspect her work. She was elated. each hole was double it's intended size almost in a strange almost hour glass shape. her strikes had hit half way through the pre existing holes in.....five six.....All seven spots. She took inventory of the damage and as she did her hand rose up to allow her fingers to trace one of the holes. 


     "Hm....Alright. So my precision is on point, I Can contol the speeds of the strikes, It took little effort to time them for around a second and a half, and even going more quickly the half second time phrame did well. " She paused for a moment. The training earlier in the day on top of her current practice made her body feel an intense fatgue the likes of which she hadn't felt in quite a while. She sat down for a moment before remembering the ground was completely saturated. She moved quickly to rise once more cringing as she felt the moisture sink into her pants threatening to pierce even the tightly woven cloth of her chakra infused savar suit. She regretted having completely soaked the training area earler. it had taken a single simple action to cause the intense regret and she had a feeling it would last for quite a while. 

(twc 860)

She shook her head for a moment to get over the frustrations of earlier decisions. She would definitely make it a point to not make the mistake again, both because the training grounds were her special sanctuary and because she was certain that if she ruined things any further navi would get word if it. That would be incredibly unfortunate. Her hands pulled against one another tightly as she activated the jutsu once more, and as she flowed her yin and yang chakra through her body and into the shadow below her they began to rise up, creating eight tendrils this time. "Ok. Now I need to concentrate on controling the shadow and being able to keep them out and in use longer then usual. " she devoted her full concentration on reaching out with her chakra and molding it into power for her tendrils. They struck out at the dummy once more but this time slightly differently. With incredible speed the darted towards the soft padded target, not letting up until a split second before they would hit. As they got within a millimeter she stopped them, their differing timing on attack causing the attack to look similar to an elegant dance her clan jutsu performed at her command. They sat for over a minute pointed at the target dummy as if it were a dangerous assilent needing to be watched. None of her jutsu tendrils moved even a fraction of an inch as she watched the target. In her mind it was the boy with the red eyes come to attack her once more. She felt her power surging as she stood defiantly against the boy who had caused her so much pain . Her scars were no longer a reminder of weakness but the proof she was strong and she could almost hear him begging for his life, down on his kneese with his metaphorical tail between his legs. In an instant they lashed out once more to stab into the dummy, slicing easily through what she imagined to be the uchiha boys chest sides and throat. The mental image of gore poring from his body excited her more then anything but as the last stops of his precious life essence poured from his veins and his heart stopped it wasn't her assailant who stood befor her but a large clue clue of padded wood meant to be used in training.

(Twc 1264)

~kira. You need to let go. ~ The dark goddess' voice slid into her mind once more and the mere existence of her in her mind once more sent a shiver down the girl's spine. She was still unsure what this girl was, and with that fact was held her connection to the scythe of sorrow. her breaths came in heavy pulls clearly labored both from the exertion of her chakra and the slowly dwindling effects of her hallucination. 

    "No...I. I need to get stronger. I have to." The shadows struck out with renewed vigor at the training dummy, one of them striking at the target every two seconds. She aimed at different points of the large red circles of the target, swapping rings randomly with her focus being hitting the exact mark with precision but holding back the actual force of the strike so that it wouldn't pierce completely through. Her goal was to barely pierce with the tips. Each tendril slid into the padding and the moment it touched the wood it made a hole the size of a pen before pulling back and returning to her side to await it's turn in line. Over and over the shadows struck out, now two at a time. 

     ~Kira. hatred will not help you. Stop fearing death and it will not come for you. We are the demon of chance not the angel of death. It is imperitive that you understand~ her words were cut off as Kira let out a loud grunt. The strikes had increased in both speed and strength as she tried desperately to block out the words pouring into her consciousness. Her mind was a blur of molding chakra technique, aimed strikes which had quickly become sloppy, and the haze of confusion brought about by this girl's voice appearing once more. ~Kira. Stop. Stop.....STOP~ She felt a hand on her shoulder, gripping it a little too roughly which broke her concentration causing her to snap her head to the left. The shadow tendrils whipped around quickly in time with her head turning and each struck out against the intruder at their master's command but somehow none of them hit their mark. It wasn't like the last time. Instead of going through her as if she didnt exist, because she was fairly certain she didn't regardless of the fact that she could feel the girl's hand on her shoulder, but this time instead though the shadow tendrils were clearly on the correct path to cut through the other girl just before they reached her her shadow sewing tendrils seemed to veer off path to just narrowly miss Amber's body. They continued at full speed to strike into the ground, the shock of having missed her strike by some strange action caused her reaction to be sluggish, barelly stopping the tendrils from sticking into the ground. Instead they seemed to almost ricochet off the earth for a moment before looping back up. As they got back to around shoulder level they struck out once more at the strange woman. 

    ~Stop. This will solve nothing, and you won't hit me. ~ The tendrils did not veer off this time, most likely due to their change of trajectory having the potential to hit their master. Instead they simply stopped before they reached the demon of chance, hovering seemingly frozen less then  a half inch from amber's skin, three at her abdomin, two at her neck, one at each leg just above the knee, and one aimed at the back of her head dead center. ~This is causing you nothing but frusteration. let go. You have to let go of these frusterations and fears. It's a dangerous path to walk, trust me we have walked it before. ~ The shadows seemed to be pushing against an invisible barrier as Kira's will fought to pierce the girl. As she spoke Kira allowed the words to seep in slowly, though it seemd at first that they had no effect. Slowly she would calm, the tension in her shoulders relaxing and the shadows coming back to loop around Amber, dropping down to around knee level to retreat like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. They returned to their master, each draping across the girl's body to look almost like a bunch of draping boas across her body. 

     "Maybe you're right. Hatred has been all i've known, though I teach those around me to trust......Hate led to the fall of the Hyuuga......" She allowed the shadow sewing jutsu to return to her feet, slipping back into nothingness. After a long breath she would turn to head out of the training area and grab some dinner, taking time to think and reflect on her past and how it would affect her future. 

(TWC 2062 requesting 1k ryo and finished mastery of shadow sewing jutsu)

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