time to hoof it! (i.o., nk)

Kotonaru was followed by Zebra out of the ramen shop. That was nice, he would have some company in the library after all. Kotonaru was wondering whether he would get to actually see Zebra Toriko reading something, perhaps he would see what kind of mystery fiction his friend liked to read. Kotonaru as previously stated closed his eyes. Walking through the street he attempted to see chakra and avoid obstacles but he only saw pitch black – the insides of his eyelids. For some odd reason, nobody, not even Zebra Toriko, commented on this. Perhaps they thought he was blind, perhaps Zebra Toriko thought Kotonaru was doing some kind of mime impression, or training, of which only the latter would be rather accurate. Kotonaru’s sharingan frantically searched through the darkness hoping to see some chakra of some kind but no such luck. He only saw darkness, his own, since his eyes were closed, and he tripped over the road curb, having started walking off to one side while he could not see. Opening his eyes, he saw that Zebra had continued walking, apparently lost in thought. Go figure. A muscled guy like that thinking much? Kotonaru made a note to never judge a book by its cover, something he was about to break again later, he was sure, if Zebra turned up any more surprises.

He spent a while stumbling through the street, eventually deciding that his eyes likely would not have any abilities closer to the byakugan, the sharingan was not known for letting people see through stuff like other clans, despite its power, so he was not too surprised. Still, it would be helpful to look with the byakugan, or the equivalent past corners to know whether anyone is attempting to ambush him. Ah well, perhaps he would get the ability later, you never know, especially with the Mangeyko which tended to be able to conjure up amazingly weird abilities that generally were extremely powerful.

Fortunately Zebra walked slowly, and after the half mile it took for Kotonaru to give up his attempt to sense chakra with his eyes closed, the duo arrived at the library. Zebra seemed to be looking for something, so Kotonaru went off and looked for a book containing info on a jutsu he wanted to learn, the Water Prison. Sitting at a table, he saw Zebra come back with… was that a Chess Board?

He half wondered whether Zebra was going to snap the board in half as a show of strength, though that seemed to not be something Zebra would do. He was a little scatterbrained and blunt, direct and to the point, but he was not too selfish. He began reading the book, eager to get an idea of how the jutsu worked. Looking up he saw Zebra asking him to choose a pawn. What? Ok, he had to admit it.

“To be honest, even if you read murder mysteries, I never pegged you for a chess player, Zebra.” Kotonaru said, a little stunned that Zebra seemed eager to play. “Sorry, do you mind if I take one moment? I want to get my subconscious working on a jutsu I want to learn, and then I can play you, just a sec. You can go first if you would like.”

Kotonaru hoped that Zebra was not offended by this, they were both ninjas after all. As an afterthought he said “Perhaps you would like to read something on learning the earth element as well for a minute and then we can play seriously with the same handicap… hahahaha…”

Kotonaru felt that the conversation might be getting a little flat, and it might be entirely his fault. He quickly flipped through the pages, reading the basics of the jutsu quickly, without bothering to read the detailed explanations. If he could assimilate the basics first he could theoretically do two things at once.

Regardless of whether Zebra read a book or not, if Zebra accepted Kotonaru’s offer to go second, he would start helping set up the chess pieces.

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(ttl wc: 7098+675=7773)

Zebra was in deep thought about his move. These moves were something that would always make Zebra marvel over. He would spend hours sometimes thinking about how to play the game. It is not some simple thing like a lot of people think, the better one gets at chess, the more complicated everything becomes. It gets complicated surprisingly fast, it would be foolish to attempt to have a game plan of what moves should be done when, that should only be up to the person who moves in the specific position. Once cannot load sextillions of possible positions, nothing can. Zebra knew that it would be foolish to even attempt the game of chess by planning every move. There are only so many good positions anyway. Zebra was an impulsive person, he would always play e4. Zebra played E4. He did this as usual and then went off to get a book. Zebra would get two books. He would be quick to get a new book on how to do earth element and a murder mystery book that was called the impostor. Zebra would first get this book on earth element and start reading it. He would find that he was doing the right thing and suddenly, Zebra was imagining a chess board and a chess board made of stone would fall out of Zebra's hand and land on the ground. Then 4 rooks, 4 knights, 4 bishops, 2 queens, 2 kings and 16 pawns would fall out of Zebra's left hand. Suddenly, Zebra would look and quickly dispel all this rock. Zebra would realize that he was likely to be good at earth element now and would put up the book. He would then open the book the impostor. He would be enthralled and only, when Zebra would hear a loud thunk if a chess piece move, would Zebra think about his next move. Zebra would then consider what he could possible do in his position. He would think that it was likely to be that he would have the ability to still move almost half of his pieces though and it would be clear that there would still be some very good opening lines even though, he lost about 2 thirds of them now since he chose a route that used the king pawn. Zebra would think about whether he should move the knight, bishop, another pawn or the queen. The queen option got quickly eliminated.

Kotonaru finished flipping through the book and heard Zebra make a move. It seemed Zebra had no objections to Kotonaru letting him go first. Zebra did not know it but Kotonaru had played a lot of chess before… in fact he had won a chess tournament in his village shortly before the local branch of his clan was slaughtered. That had been one of the highlights of this measly child’s life. “I’ll warn you, I AM a little rusty, though I don’t think you should underestimate me… at all… despite my size.” Kotonaru smiled wanly at Zebra Toriko, whose nose was buried inside a book on the earth element. If anything, Kotonaru had to be sure that he did not underestimate Zebra. He seemed a little… crass, and he looked like all he had was muscles, but sometimes Zebra surprised him, like now, with his choice of opening move.

Kotonaru looked at the board. Zebra had played the classic move E4 – which was first popularized by an ancient player from a distant land, Bob Fisher. He wondered where Bob Fisher hailed from, it did not sound like a name of a Kirigakure civilian or ninja, there were no clans going by the name of “Fisher” that he knew of, it sounded so benign frankly. Bob had hardly been without troubles of his own, however, as he had proved mentally unstable. Good thing he was not trained as a ninja, he could easily have started a lot of fights. What a waste of intellect, frankly.

Kotonaru wondered whether Zebra studied chess. Either he had chosen the move randomly, or cluelessly, or perhaps he truly did know something. Zebra looked like he would not mind if Kotonaru took a while to think through his move. E4 was usually picked by players who were more aggressive, preferring open lines in the game. This is in stark contrast to those who play a D4 opening. Such a small change, but with huge implications. Those who play D4 usually are trying for a quieter game, with less chaos. In the King’s pawn opening it seemed that the Queen and bishop were both able to get out quickly, but the King pawn was initially undefended, in contrast to the Queen pawn opening. Kotonaru was a bit of an attacker himself, he was curious to see how things might play out.

If Zebra was just mucking around, or did not have a clue what he was doing, he would probably move one of the rook pawns next. For some strange reason, weak chess players liked to pull their rooks out before the board was clear enough for them to be effective. They did not know to open up files or columns or anything so that the rooks could exert pressure on the opponents without being easily targeted themselves.

Perhaps Zebra would turn out to be a major challenge on the chess board. Kotonaru could only assume he knew what he was doing. Kotonaru could offer a gambit, playing D5, but frankly, he found that the material lost was too great against a good player, who would be able to keep their momentum while dissipating his won, rendering the gambit useless. No, Kotonaru would go fight fire with fire, regardless of his actual elements. Kotonaru would play E5, which was commonly considered equal to white’s E4 move. He pushed the pawn forward, dropping it lightly on the table, a small “clunk” resonating through the immediate area.

Kotonaru scribbled down the moves played, just in case. 1. E4, E5. He wondered what the game would turn out like.

He did not want this chess game to be a waste of time so he kept an eye on Zebra for movement, while cracking open the book on the Water Prison Jutsu again. This jutsu seemed rather interesting, frankly. He thought over the game and what moves he might do next. He might move the knight next, since Zebra’s likely move would be to move a Knight to F3. Kotonaru was pretty sure he knew what his reply would be. Knight to C6 most likely though there was always room to experiment.
While he thought over the game he formed a small sphere of water, as perfectly round as possible. At first it surrounded just one fingertip, but he slowly expanded it to cover a couple of knuckles.

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(ttl wc: 7773+727=8500)

Knight to F3. Well, certainly looked like Zebra knew a little about his chess openings, huh? Kotonaru did not study much but even a simple analysis of the position showed that move to be reasonably safe while getting the king closer to castling, which was itself generally important. Besides, the knight could help in the attack a fair amount too if necessary.

The knight… it was Kotonaru’s favorite piece. It was a weird fellow, while not generally strong in the direct way of the queen, rooks, or even the bishop. Depending on who you asked, it was weaker than the bishop, though that certainly depended more on how you used it. After all, a knight in the midst of the enemy would be capable of much more damage than a bishop. While a bishop was overall generally the same, knights outshine even the queen, if one was honest, when one reached the row that the opponent’s pawns started, or the row right in front of it. Especially useful for breaking the “Cannon” as one formation was called, whereupon the rooks were doubled, AND the queen was added to the mix, all of them defending each other. In a situation like that a bishop would be easily blocked by a pawn, while a knight could hope to eventually hop around. Never mind that the knight was capable of pulling of hijinks that the queen would only be capable of dreaming of. No other piece could pull off a royal fork and hope to be unscathed without support from a fairly significant section of one’s own chess board army. Yes, the chess knight was Kotonaru’s favorite piece and for good reason.

So, the question remained, how would Kotonaru respond? He could do an experiment by going and trying D5, but if he was completely honest, his experiments did not always work. More importantly, that pawn would easily become a thorn in his side, literally, since if Zebra was as capable a player as he was so far looking, that pawn would be almost as effective as a knight in strangling Kotonaru’s piece development, partially due to its protected placement, and because it was a “worthless” piece capable of being easily backed up by a simple pawn push. No, he would not push his queen pawn.

He could try F6 but that would largely inhibit him from making a safe fortress for his king on the king side of the board, unless he somehow locked up the center, something that looked increasingly unlikely with his every thought. Zebra seemed to like open positions, so that was a no-no.
He could try moving a bishop but some of his opponent’s moves, particularly those involving pawns, would result in nasty effects he did not wish to think too deeply about. His bishop would only be a target for now unfortunately.

The best looking move seemed to be moving his knight to C6, as he had kinda suspected earlier. He made the move and then resumed practicing his water prison jutsu. He expanded the sphere of water to surround his entire hand. While thinking over what moves he might make next in his subconscious, he focused on trying to grow the sphere of water further, while growing it off center. In the actual jutsu the water was centered on the target, the user’s arm being used as an anchor for the jutsu. So while the arm was probably the catalyst for the jutsu it was not the target. Kotonaru looked around for a target to try surrounding with his water, but there were none handy. If Zebra felt aggressive and took a piece soon he would be able to take the chess piece and use it as a target to be contained by his water. Perhaps he could test the strength of his jutsu if he surrounded the piece with water and then shook the whole thing, trying to shake out the chess piece. That might not be a bad idea actually, but Zebra would have to take a piece with his next move, or perhaps allow Kotonaru to.

He wrote down the moves…. If Zebra looked at his notes he might have to explain the method of tracking moves that he was using – Algebraic Notation.

E4, e5
Nf3, Nc6

**********************************
(ttl wc: 8500+714=9214)

Zebra liked this start. He already had managed to take the fight into Kotonaru's territory. Zebra was already wondering how he would be able to annoy him more. Zebra would be careful wondering what might happen if he does whatever move. He would quickly start by grabbing a bishop. This was the one that started on the square well known as f1. Zebra would have grabbed it and was now wondering where to put this bishop. He wibdered whether he should move to c4 or d3, e2 or b5. Zebra thought that e2 is too passive, d3 blocks the d2 pawn from moving and the move b5 can easily be chased off. Zebra then would put it on c4. Zebra would then read his book on how to make rocks. He would be making all manner of stuff from his hand. Zebra would make a mini david statue, he would then put it next to the chess board. Zebra would then wait and wonder what Kotonaru would ask him to do next. Zebra was pretty tired of practicing earth so he went and put his earth element book back and started reading his murder mystery book which is called the impostor. Zebra had moved his bishop to c4.

Pawn to E4. Pawn to E5. Knight to F3. Knight to C6. Kotonaru had been thinking that Zebra was going to do one of the openings he had actually seen a lot, moving his other knight out into the open.

He needed to think over his move for a while. “Please excuse me for a moment, let me find another jutsu to study. I feel I have learned the Water Prison jutsu sufficiently now.”

He hoped he did not seem too impolite but he truly did not want this library visit to be a waste of time. He had been thinking about learning the Raging Lion’s mane jutsu. That one seemed interesting. That one he had found little information on though…. For now he would study another B rank jutsu – the 1000 needles of death. This seemed to be a stronger variant of the water needles jutsu. He looked for a book and walked back to Zebra Toriko who was hopefully still at the chess board, perhaps flipping through his book on the earth element. On the way he snagged a number of other books on jutsu he wanted to learn. He took a deep breath, wondering whether Zebra had made a move yet. He showed Zebra Toriko the book, hopefully Zebra would not think he had been looking at any chess books, in an untoward fashion. Kotonaru did not like cheating.

In the event that Zebra Toriko had made a move in the time he was gone, Kotonaru would consider the move for a little while and then start reading about the jutsu. If not, then he would sit down and open the book he had first grabbed, immediately.

The book was quite interesting, and at the same time boring. It would have been interesting for someone who had not learned the water needles jutsu. The first thing that came to mind, was that the jutsu had a little redundancy in its name. After all, surely it did not have to be called “Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death” did it? Why couldn’t it be something like “More Water Needles” or something simpler. It just seemed a little over the top, after all, implying the needles could kill, that seemed to be exaggerating a lot, after all what if the opponent dodged or countered the jutsu? Then the jutsu would have to be renamed “Thousand Useless Flying Water Needles” or such. In addition, he thought it was weird that the jutsu was said to have a thousand needles when the best users apparently only made… 50 needles max. Not anywhere the 1000+ claimed. Well, it was not the first time he had seen a misleading jutsu name frankly. There was also some other funny number, 3500, in the book. To be completely honest, he did not know why the number said 3500 when most other jutsu of this rank were 3000. In fact, most other jutsus tended to be in the flat thousands, as opposed to some seemingly arbitrary number in between. It looked too official to be a prank though.

Kotonaru glanced at the board and moved his other knight, to F6.

He updated the list of moves on the paper –

E4, E5
N-F3, N-C6
B-C4, N-F6

*****************************************
(ttl wc: 9214+539=9663)

Zebra was reading the book. He only managed to get to the part of his murder mystery book which was about the murder and detective John A Smith was looking for clues. The story was a good one except when he heard the loud thud, he realized it was time to play again. Zebra saw the position and decided that it was time to castle. He would grab his king and move it next to his rook and then Zebra would grab the rook and move it to the other side of the kind, Zebra would then pick up the book again. He would read. "6 bullets to the chest, 8 stab wounds and a cerebral hemorage". Zebra thought, that is terrible. He would continue, the person was last seen at around 10pm at the shop. Now this person was found dead at a mansion. Zebra skipped some pages, Zebra started reading about the murderer. The murderer was disguised as a cop. He was quietly sneaking around once in a while stealing stuff. Back in the real world, Zebra would then close the book and would think about his next move on the chess board while waiting for the kid in front of him to move.
Zebra had managed to kingside castle.

Kotonaru held his book up hurriedly to hide a growing smirk. His opponent seemed to be too wrapped up in his murder mystery, and had left a pawn open for the taking. Awesome! However, he had to calm down and check through his possible moves first, before being too hasty. After all his opponent had already castled and at fastest Kotonaru would accomplish such in two turns, which was not great but also not terrible. However he would have to be careful that Zebra Toriko did not open up the center too quickly before Kotonaru could castle himself. It was not the most important but it almost always helped to castle since the position showed no signs of becoming a stone wall, a locked center game in which the game was usually fought out on the wings, and the knights were crucial, more so than the bishops which were little more than a particularly tall pawn.

Kotonaru examined his choices carefully. The first move that came to mind was to use his knight and take Zebra’s hanging pawn. It was comp[lately undefended as far as he could see, and his knight could easily escape again back to its previous square. It was safe material to take in the matter that his own pieces would all be relatively protected or able to escape. Just in case Zebra might have a trap set up already, he thought carefully over Zebra’s potential replies. Zebra would be able to chase off Kotonaru with three different pieces – a pawn, the queen, and the rook. In his mind, Kotonaru pushed his knight and then Zebra’s D pawn. The resulting position looked reasonable for Zebra given that Kotonaru’s knight had to retreat, and Zebra’s bishop was locked… on the outside of his pawn formation. If anything Kotonaru would be forcing Zebra to make a move to solidify his defenses, while opening lines for his other bishop to travel to. Ok, now what about the others? Kotonaru redid his knight move in his mind’s eye, and then tried moving the queen and the rook. Ok, this was not good, at all. It would be child’s play for Zebra to double his queen and rook on the same column applying pressure to first Kotonaru’s knight then his pawn, which would be attacked twice right away leaving Kotonaru on the defensive. Ok, taking the pawn was not such a good idea after all, despite the small material gain.

Kotonaru looked for other moves. The next move that came to mind was a replica of one of Zebra’s previous moves, moving Kotonaru’s own bishop to C5. The position would look rather similar soon after if Zebra moved his knight and Kotonaru castled on the turn after, in fact it would be similar to the beginning as their positions would be exactly the same. This would be a rather entertaining result and Kotonaru wondered what Zebra Toriko would do if this were to arise. It was a fairly solid move as it reinforced his hold on the D4 square, combined with the knight and pawn having a total of 3 pieces each capable of attacking there. In addition it enabled castling the next turn.
The one other move Kotonaru could do at this point that was not stupid and would lead to destruction of his position, it seemed, was D5. This would be interesting as it would potentially lead to a fight. However, the Queen would be forced out and then back in to avoid loss of material and Kotonaru did not like that Zebra would have the initiative again. He preferred to have the game going his way if possible.

Kotonaru shifted his bishop to C5. Depending on what Zebra did next he might try to bring his other bishop into the game or castle, he was not sure yet. For now though he would try to play it safe with solid opening moves.

Kotonaru resumed reading up on the Thousand Flying Water Needles of Doom, or whatever, whatever the jutsu was named. To be honest he was considering calling it something else just to throw people off, and so that he would be able to use a more appropriate name for the jutsu. 50 water pokes would not be a bad name considering the jutsu was not that strong... Kotonaru figured this was a more powerful version of the water needles jutsu, making the predecessor or such as he assumed, obsolete. He got up and got a glass of water. Setting it on the table he attempted to raise the water into the air and start splitting it into needles. He would watch for Zebra to make a move on the chess board but until then he would attempt to manipulate the water from the glass towards practicing the jutsu.

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(ttl wc: 9663+800=10463)