Completing the family [Invite only please idk idc]

He nodded lightly at Ari, “I might be wrong about how old he is, but I know he’ll be thrilled to see you.” He had forgotten that having Kasuga in Asgard earlier that there was a chance he had got the idea to make Kasuga younger than 17. ‘Maybe I made him 7’ he thought to himself; it was something he’d know the next time he saw Kasuga.
 
“Don’t worry about it; I’m the one that caused all of this. I appreciate it though, we’ll definitely need you. Us boys tend to do stupid things unless we get told its stupid.” He had to joke around the end just to keep the mood light.
 
He was unsure of what to think when Ari said all he’d have to do is take the Raikage robe if he was going to leave again. He was just as content for settling down, but he had to admit that something could happen to make him have to leave. “I don’t plan on leaving again, I just want to settle down and be done with all the politics and fighting I dealt with as Raikage. I can’t make promises on that though, so I will take the robe if something comes up. Even if something happens, it'd take death to keep me from coming back and I can't die.” He was serious about trying to be there for his family.

With her talk of joining the Academy made him proud of her trying to get stronger and it relieved him. “That is good to hear. Kasuga and I could help you train until we are all on the same level. I never got that strong as Raikage.” He might have lied at the end, but he felt rusty without Nike’s influence pestering him.

 

His thoughts stopped for a moment when her hands touched his cheeks, her eyes looking into his, she wanted to know if there was anything he wanted to tell her. Part of him wanted to say one thing and another part of him wanted to say something else. “Uh how about we do a little training real quick?” he asked a little unsure about it being a good idea. ‘I’m probably going to have to hold back.’ He thought to himself, barely sensing much chakra from Ari.

"How could you not know how old he is?" Ari scolded Kurisu with a disapproving frown. Her eyes shifted over to the left as she placed her right hand to her mouth. "Well it doesn't matter still I guess, as long as he isn't forty or something..." She mumbled, looking over  to Kurisu again as he spoke, "Us boys tend to do stupid things unless we get told its stupid.” This line stood out amidst the rest, reinforcing Ari's desire to stay close, wherever they went. "You're not wrong, you just turned up in Konoha with no warning, we're lucky there's some commotion at the gate and they haven't noticed you..." 

While Kurisu spoke about not planning to leave, his idea to settle down and put the past behind him; Ari was still unsure it was possible. He confirmed her suspicions by saying there were no promises, but eased her mind by agreeing to take the robe should something happen; declaring death was all that could keep him away was less comforting for her, and she wondered what he meant by saying "I can't die.” Ari thought for some time about the words he chose, the sentiment and purpose behind them seemingly conveyed concern for her sake and nothing more.

Kurisu offered that Kasuga and he could help her train, a concept that seemed strange to the mother of a one year old. "So Kasuga's really strong, huh?" She gestured with both hands shrugging as she refused to believe he wasn't a strong Raikage. "I guess I can rely on both of you for the moment then... We'll all become strong enough to take care of ourselves, so that we can take care of each other, right?" Ari smiled while making this statement, more of an offer than a request on her part.

Abruptly Kurisu seemed to change the subject when she asked if her had anything to tell her, she didn't expect him to immediately open up, but changing the subject to training was unexpected. "Well, we can train, but you haven't forgotten I'm only a Genin? Your abilities are far beyond me, Kurisu." A few thoughts occurred to her with this statement, she knew there were many things she had to learn. Kurisu was Raikage and the chance to train with him would definitely prove beneficial. However, Ari wasn't sure she'd be comfortable attacking him, she knew there was even less comfort to be had if he attacked back.

Her own abilities and Chakra level had already let her down, she thought on attempting to learn the Basic Enhancement Technique. Doing so without a Chakra level on par to learn it resulted in her skin shattering, a price that she was willing to pay to learn; she slowly warmed up to the idea of training with Kurisu thanks to the difficulty she'd experienced doing things alone. "You know I've been working on my bloodline abilities, I can fully transform myself aesthetically nowadays... I don't know how you'll feel about it though, it's a bit weird." Ari paused briefly, "If you really want to train me then I can't refuse, I want to spend more time with you and I don't want to be a burden if you're in trouble... So I'll do it." 

With that, she waited for his response, unsure of what actions Kurisu would take to ensure they could train peacefully.

All Kurisu could do is scratch the back of his head and grin some when Ari scolded him for not being sure of Kasuga’s age. The reminder of the fact he just randomly dropped into Konohagakure no Sato concerned him some, he didn’t feel like having to deal with any trouble from the village. “They won’t notice me anyways.” he figured that even if there was a problem he’d be able to deal with it.
 
He didn’t need words to respond to Ari, almost laughing at the statement of Kasuga being really strong though he knew their son had a lot of potential, and simply nodding in answer to all of them getting stronger and taking care of each other. Even if he agreed with the idea, maybe it was from his past regrets as Raikage or simply the fact he’d never truly been there for his family, but he didn’t want them to have to take care of him, he was determined to take care of Ari and Kasuga no matter the cost. ‘I can’t follow them everywhere, but I’ve got to make sure nothing happens.’ Mistakes had been made many times before, but those days were in the past.
 
A large part of him was still resisting the idea of getting close to people, but he was able to delay some of his hesitations once Ari agreed to a little training. “Sure you’re a Genin, but so was I when I was named Raikage.” Even though he was still downplaying his level, there was definite truth in the statement as he was only a young genin when Kumogakure no Sato was destroyed and caused him to take leadership and rebuild the village. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll catch up fast.” There were other things he wanted to say and tell Ari, words that he had never said since his childhood, but something still held him back.
 
“That’s not weird, definitely useful.” He had forgotten about Ari’s clan’s bloodline though he’d only heard of it and not actually seen it. “Well you can always refuse and we can do what you want, but yes this would be helpful. Also you’ll never be a burden to me no matter what.” He didn’t want to pressure her, but she seemed to be okay with the idea and it was needed as he didn’t want her to be left behind and feel like a burden when that simply wasn’t the case thinking to himself, ‘I don’t even know what I’d be doing right now if I didn’t get lucky and find her so easily.’
 
Training in the Café didn’t seem great and traveling through Konoha to go somewhere better would just draw unwanted attention. He wasn’t sure how Ari would react to Asgard, but that was the safest place to go and would keep anyone aside from Viper from disturbing them, although he had a feeling Viper would be okay with it so as long as they didn’t break anything important. “I know a good place to train, just relax and don’t worry.” That was the best way to handle it, so if accepted Kurisu would place his left hand on Ari’s shoulder and use his right hand to grip his sleipnir key. Using the key there'd be a flash of light as he’d take the two of them into Asgard in empty area not used by Viper and similar to the one that Kurisu and Koroshi had used to train at earlier.
 
“This is Asgard, it’s a different dimension one of my brothers developed and let some of the family use. We can change the landscape into virtually anything.” As he was explaining this, the entire area seemed to be nothing but a blank white canvas all around with the exception of changes barely noticeable in the far distance marking areas that Viper had created and used. Towards the end of his words the miles of emptiness changed. Not far from the right of where they stood, 15 meters away, was a large 125 meter diameter lake. The background was partially blocked out by lines of tall trees and there was now a bright blue sky spotted with clouds above them blocking out the sun occasionally giving large patches of shade. Most of the immediate area was covered with soft green grass and different sized and shaped rocks, along with some trees native to Konohagakure no Sato placed scarcely for at least a 30 meters before getting denser the further out from where they stood.
 

“I think this will work for now, unless there is anything else you think we’ll want to have.” He still wasn’t sure how he was going to go about training with Ari. He definitely had to hold back but not make her feel really weak, especially since he had said he wasn’t that strong. ‘If I distract myself that’ll help, no way I can attack back though until she is actually ready for it. If I think of some jutsu that I need to learn and mentally envision myself doing them then that should help me hold back and not get stupid enough to attack back.’ He had never been one to hold back, so this was going to be different but he too was different now and this was someone he loved.

"I hope not" Ari replied, sincerely wishing Kurisu would go unnoticed by Konoha's shinobi. As the conversation continued, eventually he revealed a piece of the past she hadn't heard about. "Became Raikage at Genin, is that even possible?" She kept these thoughts to herself as it went on. The encouragement behind Kurisu's words telling Ari she'd catch up soon were somewhat appreciated, although some more doubt settled in as she really started to consider things. Hearing his opinion that the changes weren't weird before seeing them made her release a doubtful giggle.

Kurisu offered the chance for her to refuse, to which she would simply shake her head as the events continued to unfold. Eventually they came to the conclusion, speaking of a place to train which Ari was more than comfortable with; she had no desire to make a mess of the cafe with their fighting. Naturally she allowed Kurisu to place a hand on her shoulder, shortly after a flash took her off guard, enough to make Ari close her eyes with her left hand blocking the light.

She warily opened her eyes again shortly after, followed by the introduction given by Kurisu. Ari was unable to absorb his words properly concerning Asgard, merely being there felt unnatural due to the blank aesthetic. She felt like they'd been transported into a blank canvas; this feeling was further pushed as the landscape seemed to come alive. A lake appeared from nowhere, trees of Konoha which she'd long admired lined the landscape as she watched and a beautiful sky materialized.

The painting finally came together, with them as the centerpiece. "This is the second most wonderful, awe-inspiring thing I've ever seen..." Ari would state, oblivious to herself saying it until a few moments later. She understood this area would allow them to go completely unabated during training. Kurisu opened the door for a suggestion on anything else they might add; Ari considered his question and thought deeply on the matter before speaking. "A house to rest in when we're done." The suggestion left her smirking while she thought of the challenge that lay ahead before such things.

Ari began stretching immediately, starting with her legs and working upwards. "So big guy, what are your plans on how this is going to go down?" She playfully asked with not a hint of aggression. Moving on to the muscles in her abdomen, "I guess you want to start with something easy for me, huh?" Ari finished with her midsection, beginning the stretches for each arm. "I'll let you think of how we'll start, just don't forget that training implies growth; so make it something difficult for me, yeah?" Halting the stretches at the end of this sentence, she positioned herself in a stance that implied she was ready to start whenever he was.

Almost forgetting to prepare her body in the usual fashion, Ari performed the Tiger handseal and changed the physical shape of her body into its usual appearance. This state was what she'd become accustomed to fighting in and she feared not taking it would incur difficulties. The most notable features of her transformation remained as usual, ginger cat ears, a long white tail, three fingers to each hand which were slightly thicker and longer than usual, a change which her hands in general followed with her palms and thumbs changing in size relative to the fingers' difference.

With these changes Ari was now truly prepared to begin training against Kurisu, she only had a few techniques in mind that could be practiced. There were an infinite number of possibilities when it came to techniques she could learn, but only a few she remembered the methods of well enough to practice executing. Due to the pace at which events had moved, Ari no longer felt anxious towards the idea, she had resolved herself to train with Kurisu and become stronger for the family's sake. With all this in mind, she no longer felt it would be possible to hold back during training and would give it all she had until suffering from exhaustion.

She was still unaware of this dimension's effects regarding such things, believing that before long she would have to rest. It would still have been strange in this dimension, if not for the addition of a treeline that resembled Konoha's flora. This single change comforted her in the environment, she would have been convinced Kurisu did it on purpose if the thought occurred to her to consider that she wasn't anxious anymore. Instead she waited for his word on what training he had in mind, Ari didn't expect that he'd ask her opinion on such things and even if he did, she'd choose to leave it up to his wisdom.

Her body adjusted for combat quickly as she placed her left hand forward, spaced both legs out and carried her right fist back to meet her waist on the same side. Ari's left hand remained open with Kurisu in the center of her open fingers, a position that from her perspective made it easier to focus on the target between her digits. Her left hand moved forward and adjusted until Kurisu was perfectly aligned with the center of her palm, her thumb and her fingers surrounding him on the bottom and sides.

Ari's right fist resting on her waist was a typical position to take during Kata, since she had still not fully developed her own style for fighting; the basic principles of Karate still influenced her style as she hadn't learned enough to fully create her own. Spacing the legs out slightly further than shoulder width was also a typical thing to do in many styles of martial arts; it allowed one to pivot their feet and move with a noticeable improvement, while complimenting the center of balance that could allow one to block hits without tumbling over. To Kurisu it would probably be obvious at this point that Ari was far less experienced, as she'd barely made a single change in her stance compared to the basics learned by Taijutsu practitioners.

Kurisu noticed that Ari only considered what happened to only be good enough for second place. “What’s the most wondrous and awe-inspiring thing you’ve seen?” he was simply curious to know, he hadn’t put a great deal of effort into their surroundings, but he thought it would be hard to top entering the realm of the God of Shinobi. ‘Course I’ve comparing this to all of the destruction I’ve seen.’ He thought to himself for a moment. “We can leave Asgard and go back to Konoha to rest, but trust me, once we’re done you won’t be nearly as tired as you would probably think.” He could have made a house, but he didn’t want to make Viper think he was trying to move into Asgard.
 
“Good question, I don’t know yet.” He said laughing some in response to the question about his plans for the training; he should have figured this out better before offering the training. Ari was right about one thing, Kurisu did want to go easy on her but that wouldn’t really do much. ‘I got it.’ He thought to himself, realizing that he could work on jutsu himself while still training Ari with shadow clones which would reduce the risk of anything crazy happening while also providing a challenge, least that's what he hoped for anyways. Making a fast movement, his hands had formed a hand sign and upon doing so with the release of chakra there would be two copies of him, one to the right and the other to the left.
 
“Okay, let’s start with this idea. Try and hit one of my shadow clones. Might sound easy, but let’s see if it is first.” As Raikage, one thing he had definitely worked on in his early days was his speed; though he had already passed on the plan to the clones to hold back some. He pointed over at the lake, “I’m going to work on some jutsu over there, once you’re done with the clones I’ll come up with something else. If you have, or come up with, any training ideas then I’ll listen.” He was planning this out as he went but the end results should still be the same.
 
Before he left to the lake, he waited for a moment seeing Ari’s appearance change. “Well that’s new.” He lightly chuckled, “I don’t remember this from when we made Kasuga.” He said it out loud, though he didn’t mean to actually say it which made him laugh pretty hard. He hoped that his laughing didn’t offend Ari after all she seemed to be taking the training serious by transforming. “Okay, we’ll talk about it more after we’re done training.” With that he let one of his clones step in front of the real him and then the real him left towards the lake. ‘Well if laughing upset her, hopefully she’ll take it out on my clones.’
 
“For now, just focus on that clone.” His unmoved clone spoke towards Ari, taking many steps back to let the other clone and Ari have some room to work with. “Just do whatever you can to hit me.” His clone standing in front of Ari said. The clone simply stood there motionless as if it had been turned off; waiting to see what Ari would do, close range or long range? The clone was expecting close range combat, though it was still unsure of just what the difference in skills were.
 
Kurisu had gotten about halfway to the lake, having walked at a casual and relaxed pace, before he realized that he hadn’t seen a weapon pouch on Ari. Quickly making his way back over to the clones and Ari, he’d grab one of his weapon pouches and toss it over to Ari. “Don’t know if you want to use those or if you’ll need them for the training, but go ahead and keep them.” He said before heading back off in the direction of the lake. The weapon pouch he’d given to Ari contained five kunai, fifteen shuriken, twenty exploding tags, two smoke bombs, 25 senbon, and 50 meters of wire.  
 
While the clones were training with Ari, the real Kurisu had made his way to the edge of the lake and sat down preparing to go into a meditative state. ‘I’ll mentally prepare first and then see what I’m able to do.’ He still had his doubts about whether or not Nike was truly suppressed deep enough to no longer be an issue, of course to check that he’d have to dig deep and confront Nike. Staying completely still and relaxed at the edge of the water he started to go deep inside his mind, beyond that of the Yonbi’s old mental cage, into the darkest parts of his mind.
 
His eyes went from normal to their eternal gaze, staying prepared for an attack from the demonic nature inside his mind. ‘If I mess this up, I’d lose control but at least we’re in Asgard. This is going to be like taking chakra from the Yonbi.’ He could remember his clash with the Yonbi in his mind, but this was different. Clearing his thoughts, he figured training some new jutsu would draw Nike out. The first thing he wanted to do was try and work on his secondary element of fire. He’d seen Viper use some fire jutsu before, though he hadn’t been using Sharingan to copy them at the time.
 

He had a basic understanding of the principles involved in forming most fire jutsu, especially basic jutsu such as Great Fireball. Inhaling as he formed two hand signs, he drew in oxygen and built up fire chakra in his chest cavity. Exhaling with the tiger seal formed by his hands, a small fireball flew from his mouth. The fireball wasn’t nearly what he needed it to be, but with a little more work he’d be able to get it done. Repeating the steps and performing the jutsu over a dozen more times resulted in the fireball growing in size and power, and with him doing it another ten times he had gotten the jutsu to where he wanted it. The key now was to remember that feeling, it had to be like muscle memory for every jutsu, it was only in his mind but once he finished all his jutsu preparation then doing the actual thing would be much easier and put less stress on his body. ‘I’ll be able to do more this way, I’m sure of it.’ He had plans to train more fire jutsu before working on mastering a third element.

Ari merely smirked and muttered, "Wouldn't you like to know?" This was in response to Kurisu's question of the most wondrous thing she'd seen; which was something she knew he could figure out if he thought about it. The subject was close to both of them and many sayings over the years had been used to express the bond. Ari had no time to think about this, however, as she continued to prepare for the training.

Kurisu spoke of returning to Konoha to rest, although he didn't imply that it would be required, even going so far as to state she wouldn't be tired by the end. Thoughts of why they couldn't rest in this place had to be pushed out of Ari's mind, allowing her to focus on the task at hand. Still, it bothered her that he knew so much about this place, when she'd never heard of it before. Surely a completely separate dimension that is accessible by humans would have been talked about, or had nobody returned to spread rumors?

A response from Kurisu alerted her suddenly, stating he had no plans in mind yet for the training. Ari knew enough about him to understand he could think quickly and would not call him out on this occasion. Him having been Raikage, she was sure there had been many times where he made decisions on the fly, these thoughts only added to her admiration and trust in Kurisu. Soon after these thoughts occurred to Ari she stood in awe of how quickly he performed a set of handseals. She was unable to keep up with the movement; naturally she also remained unaware of the technique he was using.

Two clones appeared, one to his right and the other to his left, they appeared identical. Ari had seem a technique like this during her days in the Academy, although she figured it wouldn't be the one they all learned there. Surely the purpose of these clones was for the training, surely enough Kurisu confirmed it himself. The challenge to hit his clones definitely sounded easier than it would be, although she wasn't partial to taking things for granted and stayed on her guard. Kurisu then informed her that he would practice Jutsu elsewhere while she trained against the clones, at this point she understood he would not be wasting his time here and no longer felt like a burden.

"Good, we'll see which one of us progresses faster then." Ari remarked, challenging Kurisu. She felt like competition was healthy in this situation as it would encourage her to work harder; she hoped it would offer him the same resolve. Kurisu's comment on the form she took shortly after didn't bother her as much as he might have thought, even though he audibly laughed afterwards. "Well, maybe you'll get to see more of it when we make a girl Kasuga." Ari cheekily replied, raising her voice to the point that Kurisu would hear the comment.

His comment on talking more about it later, at this point would leave her unfazed. One of the clones spoke, directing Ari to focus on the other. At this point she'd never seen a clone that could speak; her facial expression would visibly indicate the surprise momentarily. The other clone then added for her to do whatever she could to hit it. Ari figured she didn't need to hold anything back against Kurisu, she still felt this way, even if they were clones. While preparing to launch herself at the clone which stood directly between her and the real Kurisu, he turned back.

A pouch of some kind launched from his hand and landed nearby; Ari felt prompted to pick it up and assess the contents immediately. Advice from Kurisu informed her to keep them even if she didn't use them. Opening the pouch revealed an assortment of weaponry which would assist her in catching the clones. For a moment Ari wondered whether it would be beneficial to use any of the pouch's contents, since not catching the clones through the use of her own speed and strength might delay progress in her growth.

While these thoughts momentarily discouraged her from considering using any of the weaponry, Ari knew the clones would probably be far out of her league. If she didn't use a strategic, tactical approach, she may never catch them. "I understand." Ari mumbled, barely audible from a few meters away, let alone where the clones stood. She resolved to attempt catching the clone without using any of the pouch's contents; at least until she could determine whether it would be possible to catch it based solely on her own physical ability.

For the moment, Ari attached the pouch to her left hip and retook her stance. The clone that stood ready for her assault was going to be impossible to take by surprise at any point in time due to the open landscape. She was unsure whether or not the trees that lined this area were passable or not, perhaps they were merely baked-on walls. Ari remained completely still as she considered her stance. She wasn't going to be fighting; instead, running, jumping and attempting to grab the clone. Reassessing her posture, Ari immediately took a low stance, similar to that of a cat. Both of her hands rested against the dirt, simultaneously her legs bent in preparation for launching off the ground.

This stance was commonly used by runners at the beginning of a race, hence the reason she decided to use it. Ari was foggy on the details behind it's use, only knowing that it was popular and popular things tended to work when professionals used them. Tilting her right foot forward onto her toes and leaning her body forward along with it, Ari kicked off the ground and began charging at the clone. Her speed would be unimpressive by Kurisu's standards, although she was unaware of this.

With each step she would press off the dirt as briefly as possible, while also putting all of her strength into the exchange between her toes and the ground to launch herself forward. Ari's first attempt to hit the clone, assuming it wasn't already moving, would involve launching her right hand at its chest when it came within a meter of her. The reason being its chest was the largest target, allowing further room for error if it attempted to move out of the way. If it did simply move aside or backwards, she would use the momentum of her first strike to carry herself into a mid-air somersault which lasted for one rotation.

From this position she would throw her left foot into an axe kick at the clone's chest once more. Assuming she missed again, Ari would use the momentum of her kick to strike the ground immediately and roll forward on the sole of her foot, continuing to press her charge against the clone with no brakes. All the while she attempted to assess the clone's abilities and whether or not it would be possible to catch without the pouch's contents. Ari's only chance was to think ahead of the clone's movement, if she even had a chance. Using the contents of the pouch was the obvious solution, but not the best in her opinion.

Ari thought of the techniques she'd learned, although, she hadn't learned any that would assist her in this situation. None of them improved could speed her up to catch the clones, even the Temporary Paralysis technique which she'd yet to fully understand would be useless against the clone; which assuming it had the same strength as Kurisu would break out of the technique immediately. Putting these thoughts away for the moment, Ari applied her full focus to the target once more and resolved to catch it or faint of exhaustion trying.

Apparently this was going to be some type of competition, one he wasn’t sure he’d actually win. “I hope you’re a quick learner then, I want to see you become strong.” The last thing he wanted was for someone to try and kill Ari as a way of attacking him. Before his thoughts went towards thinking about horrible possibilities, Ari mentioned getting to see more of the cat-like form when making a sister for Kasuga. “I might hold you to that.” He said slightly joking. It was a nice thing to think about, another daughter, although he wasn’t sure if he how to feel about it. ‘Maybe Misaki survived?’ he knew that wasn’t the case, but he couldn’t help but be in denial over his daughter's probable death.
 
His clone that was currently facing off with Ari kept its focus locked on her with normal eyes, though there was consideration of using the three tomoe Sharingan for movement tracking purposes, but that was proven to be unnecessary at the outset of the training. He’d clearly underestimated himself; something that the clone was now aware of, almost thinking the Sharingan was already active with the relative ease of tracking the initial movements. Overconfidence and rust would be possibly be his down fall in this little test.
 
The clone nearly let the first test end as soon as it had begun, allowing Ari to close the distance before reacting to the punch. The clone, in an attempt to shift off to the left of Ari’s right fist, slipped on the soft grass during the movement and barely dodged by ducking under, slightly backwards, and a little bit to the left of Ari. This proved to still put him at a slight disadvantage with Ari rotating in the air and slamming her foot down at his chest. ‘At least she’s taking advantage of my mistake, can’t be stupid and make this easy though.’ The clone’s thoughts, although separate from the real Kurisu, were exactly in line with what the original would be thinking.
 
Using the palms of his hands and heels of his feet he’d launch himself backwards away from Ari and her slamming foot while at the same time working himself back to his feet and backpedaled away from Ari’s charge for a moment. This time he forcefully pushed his feet into the ground to keep from slipping and falling to the ground, darting off to the right and circling around to go only three meters behind Ari. “Not bad, you’re going to have to try and be faster though.”
 
In the meantime, as the clones and Ari trained, the real body of Kurisu was still in a meditative state at the lake’s edge. Deep within the confines of his own mind he had given up on trying to confront the evil within and instead had resided to training with the Yonbi. On the outside, even though everything around them was artificially created, nature was still at work just as it normal would have been. Perhaps it was influenced from the storm of emotions Kurisu was battling after everything that had happened, but dark grey storm clouds rolled into the area.
 
A gust of wind blew across the surface of the landscape causing the grass to sway towards the direction of the wind, while weaker branches of the trees were bending and moving some from the storm’s wind. While not coming down strong everywhere there were drops of rain that fell down from the heavens of Asgard and onto the area, raining more over at the lake and less where the clones and Ari were training. Kurisu noticed the change immediately after getting soaked in rainwater, within his mind he had gone from dry to soaking wet in a second although it didn’t affect his own training.
 
The large four tailed ape bijuu inside of him was performing a jutsu for Kurisu to learn. “Right now your lava has mostly be used for close range combat, but you’ll encounter situations where you’ll need some long range attacks and using my lava power for it would result in a strong long range game.” The Yonbi spoke with truth behind his words. “This is better than that fireball jutsu you were trying to learn.” With that said, the Yonbi explained that the use of the dog, ox, hare, and snake hand seals were needed, with a chakra building method not unlike that used for most fire jutsu.
 
After a moment, the Yonbi began to expel lava from his mouth which formed into molten orbs that flew off as an attack, able to form up to fifteen and even shift the direction of movement after launching the orbs. “Well I am impressed with that one; let’s see if I can manage that.” Kurisu enjoyed the fact that he could actually interact with the yonbi in a more comfortable way without the interference of Nike. He practiced the hand seal forms, trying to make sure that when he did use the jutsu he’d be able to flawlessly form the seals at full speed, if he had to think about it or if he made a mistake so simple during battle it’d probably prove to be fatal.
 
Finally ready to attempt the jutsu, he concentrated his chakra while forming the hand seals. Building up a large amount of lava chakra which he promptly launched from his mouth forming tiny orbs of molten lava, the issue appeared to be a lack of experience trying to meld his lava chakra into various shapes. The lava fell to the dark ground and vanished, though as quickly as it had vanished was as long as it took for Kurisu to try again. Forming the hand seals again, he focused on shaping the lava chakra as it was released from his mouth. He had successfully formed the orbs to the correct size and even controlled the trajectory mid-air, but he’d only managed to create two orbs instead of the fifteen that the yonbi had easily created.
 
“You need to funnel more chakra into the jutsu; you have more than enough to produce the fifteen orbs.” The yonbi only confirmed what Kurisu had though; it should be possible and even easy to increase to number of molten orbs he could make. “The fact that you’re splitting your chakra with two clones probably doesn’t help, but use some of my chakra for now to at least master the jutsu for later.” The yonbi solved the question of why Kurisu was having trouble producing enough chakra for the jutsu, even if some of the issue still revolved around him simply needing to get better at it. He was at least able to take some comfort in knowing once his clones were dealt with that their chakra would return to him.
 
This time he tapped into the chakra pool from the Yonbi, taking a second to really focus on his chakra to make sur that the jutsu would work better this time. Making the hand seals, he could feel a larger amount of lava chakra building up and releasing. This time there were ten orbs that ended up forming from the lava, much closer to what the yonbi was expecting from Kurisu. “I’ll keep working at it, seems like I have a good grasp on it.”
 
The rumbling sound of thunder ran through the area, flashes of light being produced by cracks of lightning striking out from the charged storm clouds. While the real Kurisu was still training with his bijuu, his clones were still with Ari. Having just told Ari to be faster, the clone took notice of the storm that was starting to grow and rain down on them. “Looks like we’re going to get wet.” Rather obvious statement, though the clone remembered slipping on the grass before things were wet, the rain was only going to make it harder to get a good footing.
 

The second clone that had been watching over things stepped back towards the closest tree and leaned against it while getting some cover from the rain. Looking over at the real Kurisu and then looking back to the other clone and Ari. With Ari’s focus most likely on the other clone, this second clone used some gear from his weapon pouch to tie thirty meters of wire to the end of a kunai, allowing him to throw the kunai at Ari at some point in the early part of this training without having to worry about it actually hitting by pulling back on the wire before hitting. ‘I’ll just wait until she takes out that clone.’ The clone thought, simply keeping the wired kunai in his right hand while waiting for a good time to throw it.

Ari also hoped she'd be a fast learner, to catch up with Kurisu and her son in terms of strength would be no easy feat. She'd never considered just how far behind she was until today; the thought still assaulted her, attempting to undermine her achievements thus far. These thoughts, as powerful as they were, meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. In Ari's mind, she'd already reached the goal; she was making progress with the very person she wanted to spend time with. By overcoming the challenges he set she would understand him, she thought. Catching a couple of clones in the end wasn't going to be the most difficult part, but it was a milestone.
 
Kurisu's response to Ari concerning a possible daughter was even more motivating; although that depended on chance and timing for the most part. Now that she'd seen the difference between Asgard and the real world she wasn't fussed on whether the child grew up here, or there. In the end, Ari assumed she could spend all of her time looking after the child while they grew up without worrying about aging herself. Even though there was no clarification on whether that's how it worked or not, she took solace in the idea. With renewed ambition she worked on the task before her, attempting to hit or catch the clone, whichever came first.
 
With the struggle Ari found herself in, she executed the attacks against her opponent, all of which she felt were perfect in form. While her movements weren't wasted and she chained everything successively as to keep up the assault and leave no room for recovery, the clone seemingly put up little or no struggle. Apart from an initial slip which nearly ended the chase prematurely, Ari was unable to find a flaw she could exploit without a trump card. Even though this was the case she still wasn't prepared to take the easy way out. Nearing the end of her initial assault, the clone appeared to blur as it positioned itself behind Ari.
 
Unable to keep up with its movement during the split second it happened she turned around confused. Ari's momentum came to a sudden halt, having her slide along the grass for almost two seconds; gradually slowing down until she'd dug up six meters of dirt shaped to her heels. In utter shock, but still wishing to keep trying, she allowed the comment of needing to move faster to pass by. Already having moved as fast as she could, Ari knew she'd have to resort to a plan beyond simply chasing the clone. If any progress were to be made she'd have to think fast before it could predict her actions.
 
The clone then spoke again, this time about the weather it seemed as clouds were forming. Ari wasn't sure what was happening to bring this storm about, she hoped whatever Kurisu had found to occupy his time went as smoothly as her training had been. She could never comprehend the forces he was contending with, or the magnitude of difference between the dangers she was in compared to him. Having never possessed enough Chakra to level a village entirely, Ari was still blissfully unaware of the power few people held; this innocence would eventually fade in the future, but remained all the same.
 
Moving her left hand to the pouch, Ari began tying the wire to a pair of kunai, although she wasn't planning on using it yet. During this action she kicked both feet off the ground, launching her right foot forward to catch herself and begin sprinting at the clone. The difficulty in tying a knot while sprinting as fast as she could was a new experience. Ari knew that if she were going into dangerous territory in the future she'd have to prepare for things like this beforehand; the clone wasn't attacking her and she could barely keep up with it. As a Taijutsu user, nothing made Ari feel worse about her current situation than knowing she couldn't hit the clone, at least without resorting to a plan beyond her physical abilities.
 
For every second that passed she would close ten meters of distance, using every ounce of physical strength and agility she had to reach the clone. Although Ari knew she couldn't catch it this way, she figured it might take similar actions to those it made against her previous assault. This time launching her left hand directly forward, aiming for the left side of its head from her perspective; using her left foot to pivot off the ground as she swiped her left hand down, diagonally to the right. With the momentum of her body shifting down and to the right, Ari used the pivot of her left foot to carry her right around in a clockwise motion.
 
Spinning on her left foot, fast enough and with enough strength to tear apart the dirt beneath. During these milliseconds rain began to fall, it wouldn't take long for her clothes to become soaked and the state of their environment to shift dramatically. Ari's thoughts were not occupied by this, however, as she had one goal in mind during this second. Her right foot was swinging through the air, striking the rain pellets that had recently begun to fall. It felt cold, striking the water and aiming to inflict as much damage as she could with her kick. During one tenth of a second while this took place, she realized what was happening.
 
Ari was putting all of her strength and speed into a kick with the intention to strike something that looked exactly like Kurisu. While it was a discouraging thought, she also knew it had to be done to excel her growth. The clone before her was not Kurisu himself; it was merely a shadow of the man. Feeling like the milliseconds were adding up to minutes during a single kick, Ari felt like she'd traveled somewhere else where nothing was happening. All of the strength in her kick and momentum were there, she didn't have to apply any extra effort to what was now taking place and it couldn't be stopped.
 
Suddenly she regained her focus; a plan was taking place that she had decided to test. Ari wasn't planning on using any equipment for this; she would rely entirely on herself and what she brought once more. With her heel accelerating towards the clone, it had to be timed perfectly. She waited for the opportunity, the window that would have to open for her plan to succeed. Assuming the clone moved backwards, Ari had a chance of succeeding, if it moved to the side it still wasn't impossible, but too far in any direction would force her to try this all again. When or if the clone proceeded to dodge her attack, she would release her right shoe.
 
Pressing her heel down with her toes shifting up and forward, loosening the grip alone was easy enough. However, by throwing her foot into a kick with the heel first, she allowed the pressure of the wind to force it off as well. Ari would aim carefully for the clone's next position and send her shoe rocketing towards its face. From there, assuming her plan went accordingly, she would resume sprinting at it. A shoe colliding with one's face was at least unpleasant enough to break a person's focus for a second or two. Within the distance she'd closed, it would take less than one to reach it with a punch.
 
Ari would not put anything fancy on for her movements, simply shifting her weight and momentum back into the clone's direction, with her right hand aiming to strike down at its chest. Her other advantage during this situation would be the shoe itself; if it had struck the clone's face a partial blind spot would be created. With this in mind, she made slight adjustments to move within said blind spot, using anything to improve her chance at success. As Kurisu had said earlier, Ari didn't feel fatigued in the slightest, although she imagined the same went for her target. This was not an advantage she could exploit during the fight assuming the current plan failed. Thoughts occurred to Ari on how learning to effectively use Leaf Gale or Dynamic Entry might have assisted her.
 
The other clone's presence during these moments had not gone unnoticed; she could only see a metallic glint which indicated something was happening. Beyond this however, Ari didn't know; while she had dedicated her focus to devising a plan, the same focus was required to carry it out. Visual confirmation of the clone's movements, hearing the impact her shoe might have had on it. Both of these senses being used in such a fashion meant that the other clone's actions were mostly unnoticed. However, Ari did not wish to be caught off guard by it. She kept some awareness of her surroundings to ensure that wouldn't happen, only enough to realize if something approached.
 
Rain pellets striking the earth were very different from those striking a moving object, almost like the rain moved closer. Due to these conditions, Ari knew that merely attacking from a blind spot thanks to her shoe wasn't an ace in the hole. Instead, she relied on the impact it had on the clone's face, the surprise it must have experienced was the window of opportunity she needed. Knowing not what lay beyond this, Ari just had to do as she was told, to catch the clone. Whether a more difficult challenge lay beyond her or not, she figured there had to be a reason two clones were made.
 
Had Kurisu overestimated her abilities, assuming she would catch this clone, before moving on to try catching two at once? Ari was unsure of this, she didn't have any time for these thoughts during her assault, and they existed merely as the product of her subconscious. This being the case, she felt a sense of uncertainty, but nothing more than that. The adrenaline that accompanied physical activity, on top of her excitement to see Kurisu, on top of the challenge she had to overcome. Ari was just about ready to burst from the energy that rushed through her body; an overwhelming sense of progression towards something she'd longed for carried her forward.

Although she was unaware of what Kurisu faced at the moment, Ari's imagination told her that a great amount of effort was being exerted by him. The storm was what drove her theory, as everything became beautiful and calm when they entered, happy and enjoying one another's company. However, when he left to train, the landscape was coated with storm clouds and it began to rain. As she had no idea how the dimension worked, Ari wasn't confident in her ability to discern its nature and how it reacted to certain people, or whether it was capable of reacting to emotions.

Whether she had landed on the correct assumption or not was a question she didn't plan to ask, even if the thoughts puzzled her, she only thought of them to begin with due to concern for his well-being. If Ari succeeded her training, these thoughts would be the last thing to occur to her as she would intend to relax and spend more productive, quality time with Kurisu. She still felt encouraged to bug him about having another child, preferably a daughter. Although the thought also occurred to her that they were not a couple by any formal union. Many people got married to symbolize attachment to one another, something which Ari found charming as a concept, although she wasn't confident of Kurisu's thoughts on the matter.

Perhaps because of this, she decided not to bother him about that subject and would allow it to come up naturally, whenever the time was right. Imagining getting married when things became stable enough filled Ari with determination, moments like that could only come from the product of working hard to achieve both of their goals. With Kurisu here now to provide assistance in achieving hers, Ari only hoped she'd have the opportunity to repay this favor, and the time to request many more favors she could pay back in the future.

Kurisu’s clone was decently impressed, able to easily see the full effort that Ari was putting into this. Even with the drastic gap in power, there was still the matter of strategy difference, Kurisu was rusty and felt weak which not only affected his skill but also that of his clones. ‘I probably need work on my hand to hand combat more, how to make this more interesting.’ At this point even if he did anything that make him stronger, he was still holding back so it wouldn’t make a real difference as far as hand to hand was concerned but he could make the test more challenging. 

The clone’s attention refocused onto Ari who was running at him, noticing her tie a wire to a kunai much like the other clone had done. ‘Might as well see just how much she knows and how she deals with something like genjutsu, shouldn't be too much of a problem.’ His experience in fights taught him not to get comfortable with the flow of a fight; taijutsu can switch to genjutsu and back to taijutsu in a matter of seconds. He had no intention of actually striking back just yet nor use any offensive ninjutsu. ‘I’ll just see how this goes and probably turn it back off.’ Just as Ari’s foot was coming around towards the clone Kurisu’s head the clone’s eyes changed to the three tomoe Sharingan. 

He never realized or grasped how helpful the eyes were, his attention becoming laser focused on the attack, casually jumping backwards from the kick. This proved to only give Ari a chance to impress him, seeing her shoe fly off from the kick and go at his face. He landed on the ground and promptly leaned back to let the shoe fly over his face, leaving him open to be hit. Looking up just as Ari’s punch was closing in he leaned off to the left while turning his body sideways to just barely dodge the punch. Stepping back a few meters, there was a rush of chakra that surged into his sharingan eyes, looking over at Ari hoping for some eye contact to be made between them. ‘She should have enough chakra control to at least break free from a genjutsu.’ At this point this clone’s main purpose was to figure out as much about the full scope of Ari’s skills from top to bottom and then once beaten that knowledge would return to the original Kurisu allowing him to try and figure out a true training plan.

If the eye is made and the genjutsu goes through, then everything would appear the same unless Ari attacked the clone, if so then whatever attack is made hit the body of the clone but would instead actually look to Ari as if she killed the real Kurisu. Unless Ari were to break free then the clone Kurisu would release the genjutsu and wait to see Ari’s reaction to it first before explaining not only how and what he did but also why, all depending on how the genjutsu is escaped, while also explaining the Sharingan if needed. If no eye contact is made then the genjutsu never happened and the clone would wait to try it again, wondering if Ari has some basic knowledge of the Uchiha bloodline, basic genjutsu knowledge, or just lucky to not make eye contact at the wrong time. 

While the clone was figuring out strengths and weaknesses, the real Kurisu still remained in a meditative state. It immensely bothered him that he couldn’t tap into Nike, it made sense that if he was acting on the same idea as speaking to the Yonbi in his mind and even train, why couldn’t he do the same to Nike? He was one hundred percent sure that he had not removed the presence from his mind and body, but if he hadn’t then where did it go. He also didn’t know why that actually bothered him, he should have been glad that it was gone, however something about it did not make him very happy about the situation.

He despised this feeling of weakness, ever since he had suppressed Nike there was an empty feeling somewhere inside of him. It was affecting his training with the yonbi and the lava jutsu he was attempting to learn and use in a proficient manner. One thing he needed was to make sure to keep everything about the jutsu, from creation to attack, at top speed. He practiced the hand seals again, engraving the order in his head of dog, ox, hare, and ending with the snake hand seal. The order was easy to remember and since it was a short burst of hand seals he could easily make them fast, this only left launching out the lava chakra as fast as possible with full power in order to maximize the effects.

Hand seals, formation of lava chakra, release of the chakra into fifteen molten orbs of lava, and finally make sure to maintain enough control over the orbs to change the angle of movement up to forty five degrees. He continue to repeat the steps of the jutsu, each time feeling more and more comfortable with the act of performing the jutsu. Muscle seemed to kick in whenever his thoughts drifted towards enacting the jutsu, his hand seals becoming nearly flawless and concentration of chakra almost perfect. “We’ll work on some other things after I finish this.” He spoke to the yonbi. 

He had done more than enough practice with the lava jutsu that the yonbi was teaching him, doing it in his head wasn’t going to finish the process of learning the jutsu. He had to leave the meditative state and perform the jutsu in reality in order to completely learn and master it. The rain had started to calm down, still coming down from the sky but not in such a heavy manner. Slowly opening his eyes he looked out over the lake that was getting beat with drops of rain creating small waves all across the surface of the water. This wasn’t the best weather for lava nor fire, the two elements he needed to work on getting to the same level as his lightning. Sitting there just letting the rain drops bounce off him and listening to the sound of lightning thundering in the clouds above reminded him of Kumogakure no Sato, and in a strange way it felt rather peaceful and relaxing.

He stood up, his eyes retaining their eternal gaze after having activated them within the confines of his mind. ‘Much easier to visualize things and train with the yonbi now that all those voices are gone along with Nike’s influence.’ He thought to himself, still having no clue what had happened to all of the insanity in his head. He had never blamed Nike for the other voices, but now that he seemed to have taken care of that problem, the rest of the voices vanished as well as if cause by Nike. Something inside of him knew that it was still there just under the surface waiting to return and try to make him return to how he was. He hated that part of him wanted it back, the feeling of power that Nike seemed to feed to him, but was it worth putting everything he had left at even more risk? For now it seemed as if nothing would be worth taking that risk.

He turned away from the lake, facing off to the east while the clones and Ari were far off to the west in the opposite direction. He inhaled deeply and then calmly exhaled while the visual prowess of his eyes helping him focus on his targets better in the decreasing rain, identifying fifteen trees spread out within range of what the jutsu should be capable of dealing damage. ‘At least we’re in Asgard, no real harm.’ He’d need to thank Viper for allowing the use this place for training, of course there were some other things they needed to discuss and deal with.

It was a little different outside of his meditative state performing the jutsu; however the practice had worked just as he was hoping for. The hand seals were made flawlessly, while he focused the chakra just right to spit out ten molten orbs of lava that spread out to the trees, the changing of the angles making ten different trees be impacted with the orbs which exploded to spread out the damage range of the jutsu. 

He had meant to make fifteen, but it was still a work in progress, however he knew that he’d be able to use whenever he needed to soon enough. He wouldn’t know what all was going on with Ari’s training until the clones returned their memories to him, but that probably wouldn’t happen for a while. ‘Guess I’ll work on that some more and see what the yonbi thinks I need to work on.’ With that he returned to his spot in front of the lake, glancing over at the clones and Ari for a moment before staring out at the lake and closing his eyes. 

This time once he had completely relaxed, the storm above had calmed down to the point of light rain and only a few flashes of lightning accompanied by a light rumble of thunder, the gusts of wind were basically gone and replaced by a light and cold breeze. Within his meditative state, he found himself unable to find the yonbi as if the bijuu had simply vanished. ‘That feeling…’ he couldn’t think straight, looking down at his hands, realizing they were covered in blood. He questioned whether or not he had somehow managed to put himself in a genjutsu, what he was seeing didn’t seem real. Some of the villagers he’d kill in Kumogakure no Sato laid there with their blood in his hands, clearly his mind was playing a trick on him.

Trying to open his eyes and exit this nightmare didn’t work, that old feeling he had before Koroshi told him about what had happened while he was gone had returned. He understood why he couldn’t actually see or speak with the yonbi at the time as Nike might not have shared nearly the same level of power or gifts that the yonbi did with Kurisu, but the yonbi still couldn’t win that battle one on one. ‘You’ve been looking for me, is that right? I thought you wanted me gone. I know why you’re looking for me, but do you realize why you're looking for me yet? Of course not cause you’re a fucking idiot.’ Nike voice seemed to be echoing throughout his mind, Kurisu could feel the anger behind it at the end, a burning pain erupting inside his body. ‘You want to work with your lava jutsu and have fun with that god damn monkey? Mistake coming in here, you should have already known that I want to be in control, I’m tired of your games. You enjoyed the killing, I know that is a fact.’ Nike's statements seemed sporadic, as if he was only trying to make various points, some of which Kurisu already knew, though he didn't enjoy killing. Maybe he did at one time but things had changed a lot and he too had to change.

He could feel the lava chakra forming inside his body, the burning sensation growing to unbearable heights. He wasn’t even sure how this was possible, all that was needed was more focus on actually waking from this. Deciding that he needed to try and expel some of the chakra to dim the pain enough to focus better he made the set of hand seals for the lava jutsu the yonbi was teaching him. Using the chakra that Nike was forcing to erupt from his chakra system he unleashed as much as he could into fifteen molten spheres, releasing him from that grasp of pain for just long enough to leave the meditative state.

Abruptly his eyes opened and he immediately jumped into the lake, there was a strong feeling of heat on him that was probably a result of what Nike had just done. ‘I’ve never had that happen before.’ He thought to himself questioning if the damage to his sanity was worse than he realized, the issue though was how real it felt. It worried him that Nike could have such power and control, he wasn’t even sure what to expect going forward now that it was clear the relationship between Nike and Kurisu was made of pure hatred. ‘I’ll take everything from you, when you let your guard down and give me one chance then I’ll make you wake up to being covered in your son’s blood.’ Kurisu knew that threat was serious; he’d never experience such a feeling from Nike in the past even with all the raging moments of lusting for blood and death. ‘We could make a deal so you do what you truly want to do; you know that any edge you can gain will be needed, though it seems like you simply refuse to accept it. Go ahead and continue your childish training, keep in mind if you decide to meditate and challenge me again it will be much worse, unless you're ready to make a deal with me.’ Kurisu didn’t outright know what Nike was speaking of, although he had a very good idea of what it might have been. He had no intentions of ever making any type of deal to give Nike control, but maybe it would happen someday.

Getting out of the lake he’d look over at the clones training with Ari. ‘I can’t be stupid, I’ve got to keep control or at least make sure there’s no risk of anything bad.’ He knew he was playing with fire at this point, but his training had to continue. He sat back down in front of the lake once more, this time he waited and just relaxed for a while before trying to do anything. ‘Maybe if I just try to train with the yonbi and not go deep looking for him, then he might not try anything.’ It was a risk he’d decided to not back down from, going back into the meditative state.

While the real Kurisu was dealing with his own training and problems, the clones were beginning to start working together. Regardless of whether or not the genjutsu had gone through on Ari, the clone that was inactive in the training thus far and had the wired kunai took action. Throwing the kunai across the area and dropping the end of the wire, the kunai unless impeded would impact a tree past Ari and the first clone. Stepping on the wire and pulling it back tight would cause the wire to angle down towards the ground from the kunai in the tree which would leave open the possibility of Ari, or even the first clone, to get tripped up by the wire. He was hoping to see some more creative attacks, so far he liked what he saw knowing that Ari was going to catch up in no time.

Throughout her movements and strategy, Ari pushed every advantage she had against the clone. This was a repeat of the previous events after all, as the clone continued to act unfettered, moving too quickly for her to lock it down. At first her punch, aimed for its head, the clone seemed to put no effort whatsoever into avoiding it while she missed all the same. Ari was confused by this, but didn't allow it to slow down her assault, moving on with the kick. The purpose of this move wasn't truly to strike the clone, but to send her shoe at its face in an attempt to take it off guard. With that in mind, her movement was very quick, at least by her physical and athletic standards. With the clone luckily moving back and into position for her maneuver, the shoe left her foot at a blistering pace.
 
From Ari's perspective it seemed like a hit, however, the clone moved with such amazing reflexes as to dodge while the shoe passed over its head. This indicated that even with a plan in mind using everything she'd brought, Ari would have to resort to the pouch's contents. She was unsure whether it could be caught even using those. Having tied the wire to two kunai, she was prepared to carry out a plan that came to mind earlier. Ari knew very little in the way of Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, forced to use physical abilities in this challenge. The thought of that wasn't discomforting though, since she would grow faster without resorting to Chakra; at least on the physical side of things. That wasn't to say Ari hadn't been working on her Chakra throughout the fight.
 
Having used her Basic Transformation technique at the start of this challenge, she was maintaining it throughout their activity. The effort required was minimal as it merely manipulated cells into a new, fixed position. However that alone wasn't what improved her Chakra, but the focus of her natural energy and attempts to recall techniques that would have improved her chances. Ari could picture the techniques, performing them, the Chakra sourced from her body, and finally the execution. A trump card like the Lariat would have been most helpful in this specific situation, charging her opponent and putting everything she had into each attack. Normally at this point in the fight Ari would have felt slightly fatigued, this wasn't the case still.
 
Kurisu truly seemed to be telling the truth that she mightn't need to rest afterwards. That was both a blessing and a curse, as she wanted more time with him to properly explore their options. Whether the two of them would settle down elsewhere or remain in Konoha still remained in the air. Ari would look over to the direction he left in at this point, curious of the challenges he was attempting to overcome himself. He hadn't been gone for long, less than twenty seconds had passed since their initial separation, and she hoped less would pass before their reunion. Recovering from the attack that last missed, Ari planted her right foot back onto the ground and resumed the initially used stance, preparing to launch herself at the clone in a sprint. 
 
Her fingers dug into the ground while leaning forward on them, Ari's back would come horizontal with the ground before moving again. From this position she looked up, confirming the clone's position and preparing to put her plan into motion. She would once again run at the clone and attempt a strike with her right hand to its chest; once it dodged she would grab one kunai from the pouch without the wire attached to it. This was to throw off the clone's perception of her plan, as she would merely throw this kunai at its next destination directly, assuming the destination by how quickly it moved and the slowdown of its momentum which she had already observed numerous times. For the sake of accuracy, she had attached ten meters of wire between the other two kunai. As soon as it dodged the kunai without wire, Ari planned to throw one of the wired kunai to the left side of it from her perspective, aiming one meter above the ground, and the path coming within two meters of the clone's current position; this being measured horizontally from the respective part of the clone at one meter high, before passing it.
 
During this, she planned to run along the opposite side, with the wire running out from the pouch which would gradually circle the clone. Once the wire reached its end, the kunai thrown would flick back, and Ari would position herself on the opposite side of the clone from there. This meant the wire would eventually come very close to touching the clone, although not before the wire reached its end. The kunai flicking back towards Ari would have to meet the clone first; however, upon the instant it reached the limit for the wire Ari would launch herself to the right. Encircling the clone which would have to move over or under the wire, since moving into the wire would only cause the kunai (on the opposite side from where Ari stood) to react in a fashion that circled around it to ensnare it in the wire. Ari threw the other kunai in one fluid motion during the moment she began sprinting upon the other kunai's reaction to reaching the end of the wire.
 
This kunai which she'd most recently thrown was aimed to go one meter above the ground, with a trajectory that would come within three meters of the clone's current position, measured horizontally from the respective part of the clone at one meter high. The movement of the two kunai, one flicking back towards the clone's current position, with the other aiming to pass it on the opposite side from where the aforementioned one was originally thrown, would create a mess of wire which all moved towards the goal of ensnaring the clone. Ari's plan from here would involve doing everything within her power to capture the clone, whether it meant throwing more kunai, shuriken, etc. Anything in the attempt to capture the clone and lock down its movement.
 
However, in the end, none of these plans immediately came to fruition. Ari had looked at the clone's eyes long enough to observe the Genjutsu it attempted to cast. She executed her plan in the Genjutsu, with the initially thrown punch seeming to hit the clone's chest. From there Ari observed that her punch, during the Genjutsu, seemed to pierce the clone's chest. However, it was no longer a clone, as she perceived blood and resistance meeting her hand. To Ari's utter shock, she seemed to be attacking a real human, with the appearance of Kurisu. While she could have become confused, thinking about how this occurred, she was simply unable to accept this as reality. The man that she felt so strongly for, that had been Raikage and put his life on the line so many times, would not fall to such a basic, weak punch.
 
Ari had never experienced Genjutsu before, she knew not the technique to break it, but she was aware this couldn't possibly be reality. Staring at the illusion before her, she could do nothing but picture Kurisu's real body in such a situation. The idea of this began to drive her mad with anger, thoughts of revenge that would be taken, the will to protect her family, these two emotions lorded over her entire being. Very little thought occurred during this internal conflict, Ari could merely stew in anticipation for the moment it ended. She was the least bit appreciative of this event and would release all of her rage upon the clone outside. Maybe seconds passed before she remembered some basic knowledge on Genjutsu, learned during her time at the Academy. 
 
Teachers had informed her that a technique was required to break illusions; however, she didn't know the technique. Violent shock was also applicable, as one of the mentioned methods to break out of illusions. With very little hesitation upon remembering this, Ari grabbed her left pinki and snapped it backwards until the bone broke. At this point she would awaken, facing the clone from her initial position, with an added broken finger. Immediately she set off on the plan formed beforehand, throwing the kunai and moving in the ways she'd originally intended to. This time, perhaps due to anger, she threw an additional two kunai. One aimed directly at the clone from where she stood, on the opposite side of the kunai that flicked back due to the wire reaching the end of its tether. The other additional kunai was thrown half a meter beneath the last wired kunai she threw.
 
Using these methods she'd hoped to strike the clone and end their training. Ari didn't hold anything back regarding strength of speed for this assault, more fueled by anger than ever before. She also found herself launching off the ground towards the clone's current location, both arms extended out to the sides. If it dodged the kunai in a certain way, they may have hit her in non-fatal areas such as her outer thigh, but Ari was prepared to make the sacrifice to catch it once and for all. These actions took place during the other clone's movement, throwing a kunai with wire attached to it that intended to trip her. However, after everything that had happened, her senses were sharpened to their maximum. Seeing the glint of metal striking water to her right, Ari assumed the trajectory and slightly raised her feet.
 
As she had already launched her whole body at the clone, she was only a foot or so above the ground, but enough to avoid the kunai and wire that were intended to trip her. From here on everything depended on how the clone moved for Ari's next move. She couldn't make assumptions for its actions, as it was surrounded on all sides. Every action had been taken to limit its movement this time however, even the action to possibly sacrifice some of her blood in the effort. As a Taijutsu user, this was very common. Combat often ended with injuries after physical contact intended to seriously injure someone; while opponents were too unpredictable to assume you could avoid everything in the effort to reach them, especially going into situations against those you didn't know.
 
Ari was very familiar with these aspects of Taijutsu, but she had dedicated her time to its practice because nothing felt as right. Combat from a distance was unappealing, at least for the moment. Opponents that assaulted each other in such ways were too boring, the fighting, too slow paced. Maybe everything that Ari attempted to achieve would change someday, but the adrenaline that came with using Taijutsu couldn't be matched by anything else, except one thing. Since the other clone had made a move, she thought it might interfere further. Even though this was the case, Ari still kept her focus on the first clone. She avoided looking at its eyes, having learned from the previous mistake, the red eyes that she'd never seen before.
 
Of course she'd heard about the red eyes, but never seen them or cared to learn more about them. This effectively led to her not knowing about the Genjutsu that accompanied them, yet it also proved as a valuable learning experience in this case. Whether Ari knew it or not during her rage. On later reflection she would realize the purpose of this, for now she could not dedicate thought to such things. Once she came within range to touch the clone by hand, Ari would launch both hands at it, closing them in towards it with her fingertips aimed inwards. Of course, her broken pinky was one of three fingers, so her left hand had two fingers and a thumb pointed inwards while the pinky remained bent backwards.
 

Resolving to end the assault on this final attack, Ari prepared herself mentally and physically to take a hit, or land one.