Meh [P, NK,]

Her plan had worked with great success! Sprinting full speed at Maloren, Risako practically flew into his open arms (as her momentum was too much to stop in an instant) while proclaiming, “Tag!” Seeing as he was strong enough to withhold the force that followed with her full weight and momentum from her attempted tackle, she was pretty much stopped dead in her tracks. Then she felt the peck. Her cheeks would begin to glow red hot as the blood flushed her face, for now she simply stared off into the distance, her black pupils replacing the silver irises as they widened from the excitement. It seemed his plan had worked as well. Maybe not quite to the same degree of success, because while they were embraced, she had placed an open palm between his shoulder blades, and with the placement of the open palm came the placement of the one and only “Self Cursing Seal.” She poured as much of her chakra into the seal as she could have.

Her original plan was to use it to cheat later on. Wait until he was caught off guard and then paralyze him. But seeing as things were getting heated… She let him go a few steps before activating the seal. Suddenly, and before he could escape her sight, his skin would be covered in a gaggle of symbols dark marks, which would paralyze him upon spreading completely. (Seeing as he was moving, he would most likely fall and continue to tumble due to the momentum and sudden lack of control over his muscles.)

She hadn’t really moved after letting him go. Aside from her clutched, shaking fists, that seemingly reverberated throughout the frame of her body, making it look as if she were a diabetic who had gone too long without their insulin. Or an old person with Parkinson’s, the point is that Risako was shaking like a washer and dryer during an earthquake on the New Madrid Fault. Really, she wasn’t mad about it. More so, she had no idea how to process the feelings, other than to take them out on Maloren.

Her head was hung, and her hair had dropped to shield her face, unintentionally of course. A million different punishments had flown through her mind, some of which might not be considered legal use for torture methods, due to her embarrassment. Why was she so embarrassed? It’s not like the feeling was totally unmutual, but… She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Without a word, she would simply walk off back to the cobblestone path of the valley. After a few minutes, she would deactivate the seal, allowing Maloren to regain control of his muscles.

Yu had watched with an earnest interest during the initial phases of the chase. Certainly, it had been quite some time since he had seen any one human capable of outpacing him, and not to mention the power he noticed coming from her chakra when she was forming the fireball. It should have destroyed nearly half the forest, but due to her control, was nothing more than a stream of hot air basically. These were very interesting things, and he took note of them. Perhaps she’d be eligible for training once she became a more affluent member within their society hm? Maybe. He thought, maybe. And once the chase died down, his expression went back to one of uninterest.

Maloren, if he came back to the area they were in before, would see Risako sitting cross legged, and presuming he came from the forest, would see her back turned his way. Her posture had returned to that awful slouch she held before she had graduated from the academy, and her hair would once again be dangling just past the bottom of her chin, effectively shielding her face off from the world. Its color hadn’t changed since she had left the forest, and in her lap sat the book he had got for her. It was open, but unread. Atop the curve of her back, since she was hunched over, Yu had curled up and decided to nap, either soaking up the negative feelings like some sadistic freak, or because he was tired and wanted a nap. I’m not his keeper, it’s not like I know these things. Akami had came to use her leg as a pillow for a bit as well, while Utagawa just sat beside her and did the exact same thing she was doing, staring at nothing. Well, she was staring at the book, but with that thousand yard unblinking stare, she may as well have been staring into the voids of space.

She wouldn’t react until someone had come along and snapped her out of her little trance.

[3,645 WC]

Malorens eyes widened in shock as he felt the seal constrict around his body like that of a snake, stopping his movements. The seal would complete it's emergence and he'd tumble to the ground helplessly, slamming into it painfully. He'd cough up a small amount of blood at the impact, but he'd otherwise be alright. He laid there, unable to move whatsoever as he waited for Risako to come murder him and have the foxes hide the body. That moment however, never came and he wordlessly activated his byakugan to see what she was doing. He suddenly felt a horrible feeling well inside as he saw her shaking with her hair covering her face. He knew he'd made her extremely angry with that, and it pained him greatly. So he lay there, stewing in his own guilt as she stood in the trees above him shaking and he laid on the floor of the forests, unable to move to go apologize and bed her forgiveness as he wanted to do. 

After a few minutes he would see her start to walk back down the path, deactivating the seal on the way. He'd stand up slowly, suddenly not feeling very mirthful and energetic before dusting himself off and getting most of the blood that had landed on his face when he coughed it up off. He figured there was a bit more but that didn't really matter. He saw her sit down and stare at the book with his byakugan but he could tell she wasn't  really reading it. He noticed her void gazing look, as if her surroundings were dead to her and he suddenly felt as if he had performed the most grievous of insults to her. He felt his cheeks flush with shame a he moved down and sat next to her, making sure not to touch her in the slightest. The foxes looked at him uninterested for a moment and he sat there trying to get the words he wanted to say arranged in his mind. He didn't care about her killing him anymore, he just wanted her to feel better, to return to the way she had been before. He sighed audibly as the words come to mind, they were simple, coherent, and had the undertone of someone who knew he'd screwed the pooch. 

"I'm sorry, Sako..." He said simply. He had almost included the suffix 'Chan' but decided that might make things worse at the last second. So he sat there in total silence for a few minutes in waited. After a few minutes if she didn't say anything he would reach over for the book, open it up to the first page, and start reading it aloud. "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday part of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton..." He would continue to read the book aloud for her until she either stopped him or murdered him on the spot. He didn't really see anything else he could do at the moment he hoped she would forgive him, maybe even not hate him afterward. 


3727

Risako honestly couldn’t have read her own emotions if she had tried. For some time now, she had known about the little crush, or at the least she wasn’t totally oblivious to it, the signs were pretty easy to tell. You didn’t need a byakugan to see someone’s skin flush, and you didn’t need a trained ear to read someone’s voice. But on some level, she kinda wanted to deny the whole thing. To forget about it, and kinda just stroll on back to when she could claim “youthful ignorance” about the situation. It had escalated beyond that however, and she had a few choices with how to deal with it.

Obviously leaving his body here in the valley was off limits, so she would have to do something much less drastic. Maybe she could let him know she wasn’t ready? Seemed like a polite enough way to turn him down… Or maybe she could roll with it and see where it went. Perhaps she was being a bit too harsh about it. Her thinking was cut short when she heard footsteps that didn’t belong to a fox approaching from behind.

Before she could apologize, Maloren had gone ahead and done so. Immediately she felt worse than she had before, realizing that her emotions and feelings had probably directly affected more than just the boy with her now. “...” It wasn’t a sigh, but a sharp inhale, followed by the words, “Yeah, me too.” For the moment, she kept her head hunkered down, now out of embarrassment rather than to think about her thoughts in private.

If he had still followed through with the grabbing of the book, Risako wouldn’t really resist or clutch onto it. If he continued to read, she’d continue to listen.


[3,939/3,750 for Yu (25% Max stat discount.)]

Maloren sat there reading the book for what felt like forever, simply reading out loud to Risako in a field on a clear day in the realm of the fox summons. It was actually a pretty relaxing thing to do in his opinion, and he enjoyed it. A light breeze swept through the field, blowing his, and her hair around a bit, but he kept a good grip on the book so he wouldn't lose his place. After awhile of this however he turned to her. "I think we've relaxed quite enough for today don't you think? Up for some training?" He asked simply before glancing down at the page number. "You're on page 394 Sako-chan." He told her simply before closing the book and committing the number to memory in case she forgot later on. He would then pass the book to her quietly to put where ever she decided and stood up to stretch, working out the kinks in his muscles after sitting for so damn long. He cracked his neck as he did and turned down to her. "We could just do some light sparring, or if you'd rather it be quiet I could  meditate while you read or something. I could focus my chakra to this crest and try to attune it faster that way." He suggested, leaving the choice up to her. He figured she might want to pound him into the dirt for before in at least some way. So he was certainly prepared for a spar. But he'd honestly like to get this darn crest handled so that he could just wear it and stop worrying about when it was going to finish. 

The darn thing was like a leech, he could clearly feel the chakra drain and it was annoying him constantly. He was told by his father in the note that it would be VERY obvious when it finished and he would easily be able to see a difference in his strength. The fact that his father thought he could use such power well was flattering in it of itself. But he wished the darn thing would finish so he would waste chakra on other training, the wait was maddening! Another breeze blew through the clearing, blowing their hair around again and he noticed a few rain clouds in the distance. He briefly wondered if they would reach them and it would start to storm. He remembered the last time it had when he trained. He learned the protection eight trigrams sixty-four palms on that particular day and managed to keep the ground around him in a five meter radius complete bone dry the entire time while a storm screamed around him. 

He wondered if he would end up having to fight Risako in a storm, or meditate in it. He could do both, well he could Risako all he wanted, but he probably couldn't BEAT Risako. That would take some time. But he could certainly meditate in it. It did after all require a mindset of closing out the world around you to even meditate to begin with. He felt another stronger wind come through and decided that it was most certainly going to storm. He looked down at the foxes around and decided that maybe creatures the size of his palm would rather not get caught in the rain. Although Yu was definitely more powerful than he let on from what he saw of his chakra levels. He sighed outwardly as he looked at the foxes laying around and against Sako "Storm seems to be coming you guys, I don't know if you want to take shelter or not, but it seems like it'll be kinda bad." He said simply letting them make their own decisions. They were big, strong, vulpine after all, well big and Yu didn't sound like they belonged in the same sentence together, but he was strong at least. 

He shrugged it off and looked back towards the clouds and noticed them getting closer, and bigger as the wind picked up more and more. He used a bit of his own wind natured chakra to try and shield them from the worst of it, but it wasn't like he was a ninjutsu user. The best he could do was dumb it down a little bit, but it seemed to help. He turned back to Risako to get her answer from her "So what's the choice oh great silver eyed princess." He said with a small smirk, it sounded weird coming from him considering he had the byakugan, but it fit. 

4492

Fine was she, with sitting around for once and taking a break. I mean she did it all the time, but yanno. It was still nice to sit around and relax more than she usually did. As Maloren continued reading the book, Risako listened rather tentatively, and a few of the foxes did as well apparently. More and more of them began to gather around anyway, and even Kioshi had removed himself from the temple to watch the gathering, without the intent of disrupting the festivity, despite his distaste for the chuunin.

“Got it, three ninety four.” Gently, she picked up Utagawa and placed him on her shoulder opposite from Yu. As she stood up, the two just clung to her shirt, the small black fox with his ability and Yu because he was good at keeping his balance. “I guess a quick spar wouldn’t hurt anything.” Had she asked him before they played that game of tag, she would have denied him the chance, because she thought she knew the outcome already. Now that she knew he was catching up to her though?  And storms? Pfft. Those didn’t matter in the slightest.

Now that she couldn’t outpace him, she figured the chances of her losing were at least present. She hated being the first person to attack. She much preferred reacting to and countering other’s attacks. “Whenever you’re ready I guess,” she said as she rolled her sleeves up to her elbows. Arching her back, she reached her hands out towards the sky to stretch. Nonchalantly she also placed her hands together, coincidentally forming the tiger hand seal. If Maloren had any decent skill with sensing chakra, he would notice the sudden spike emanating from his beloved. What she was going to do with the gathering chakra, was still entirely up to debate and would probably be used to counter whatever her opponent’s first move was.


[4256 WC]

[Asking for a mid topic approval.
4256 WC, (including the Hoho refund, that's a total of 6256)
Claiming Yu for 3750, (25% WC reduction from max stats)
Claiming Tetsuya for 1500 (25% WC reduction from max stats)
That means I've got 1006 leftover, prolly gonna put it towards ISM if I can.]

As soon as she said the words "ready" Maloren came at her with an assault she wasn't quite expecting. Luckily, and fortunately for her, they were almost evenly matched, meaning this preemptive strike was likely a shot in the dark. Darting to the left, her hands flew together just as fast she could possibly make them touch, forming the ram handseal. Simultaneously, she focused her chakra and darted forward at a speed that her opponent likely wouldn't be able to react to, using the body flicker technique to place herself right behind Maloren's right. As fast she possibly could, she'd attempt to stick her left leg out and hook his shin on the top of her foot to throw him off balance. The second her foot would connect with his leg, she would attempt to sweep his leg. 

On the off chance that wouldn't work, before she had even stuck her leg out, her hands shifted from the ram seal to the horse handseal, before going on to form the dog and tiger seals, which would be finished up as soon as her foot was supposed to make contact, (even if the foot didn't make contact she would continue with the hand seals.) As soon as she had finished forming them, five little demon lanterns composed of fire would flare into existence, the rain sizzling against them as they danced around to the left and right of Risako. Yu and Utagawa were still atop her shoulders in their respective positions.

[250 WC]

Maloren raised an eyebrow as he watched he dart to the left and avoid his Vacuum Palm technique. This stopped him in his tracks from performing the Mountain crusher and put him on guard. He noticed her hands in the ram seal for a split second before instinct kicked in and he spun, activating the rotation that would stop that tricky little maneuver of hers. If she didn't stop her put in time she'd take some damage from the seventy power rotation that would have spawned up in front of her suddenly. He breathed a sigh of relief as he spun but soon felt his own eyes widen as he saw her activate a fire technique that spawned five demonic looking lanterns around her. He could tell that they would probably charge him and explode but he didn't know if he could maintain the rotation until they did. "Clever girl..." He muttered under his breath as he though of a way out of this particular situation. 

He began to consider his options about what to do in this situation. He couldn't just hide in his rotation until they came after him after all. He could gain some distance from them and by proxy her to allow him to use his other defensive technique, but that would put distance between them and she was clearly a heavy ninjutsu user. On the flip side, he could charge straight in, they were only a few meters apart at the moment and he could nullify the demon lantern technique by being close to her, she couldn't blow them up if they would injure her too after all. But he didn't know what she could do in close range either. As he contemplated this the rain seemingly got worse, the sizzling of the demon heads easily being heard from inside of the rotation. He sighed as a crack of lightning and thunder tore through the area, the lightning hitting no far off. He could have to go for the close range style, he couldn't fight her long range, but he could at least dodge and counter in taijutsu, it was his specialty after all. 

He ended the kaiten abruptly and activated the Mountain Crusher he hadn't used before and moved toward Risako as fast as his speed would allow at a max of one hundred and five. He would move in as fast as his body would allow to get within range of her so that the demonic lanterns couldn't explode on him. He would of course be prepared to activate his other defensive technique should the need arise. When he was close enough to the object of his affection he would fire the high density blast of chakra at her, while being extremely wary of any counter attack she might use. It wouldn't do to be cocky in such a spar after all. 

As this happened another bout of lightning and thunder could be seen and heard throughout the world around them. The bright light of the lightning flashing through the clearly and the thunder, instantaneously ripping through the air with it, signifying that it was extremely close, if not in the clearly itself. Maloren was briefly worried about a fire starting out. Should that happen the spar would be over instantly as he would move to try to start putting it out. Lest such a danger reach the temple and harm any of Risakos furry friends. 

5878