An encounter with the darkness [IO][NK][Altar]

Ren listened to the mans words as he paced around him, suppressing his natural urge to keep an eye on the man, when he finished speaking Ren remained kneeling for a few seconds before he replied, a little shaky at first, but his confidence slowly returning as he spoke 

"I want to know" Ren paused, thinking about just what it was that he wanted from this man, before realising just what it was that he wanted. "Everything" Ren would say, the words coming out slowly, barely a whisper before he forced himself to repeat it again "I want to know everything you can teach me, techniques, skills, tricks, but most importantly I want to know how to fight, like you did in the exams" Ren paused again for a moment coming to terms with what he was about to say, only really coming to terms with it just now. "If I'm being honest neither myself, nor Yuri stood even a ghost of a chance against you" Ren paused one final time as he raised his head and took the man's had. "But thats okay, because I will do whatever it takes to be stronger, whatever training you put me through, whatever you ask of me, I will do it." he would say before beginning to rise with the mans help.

As the boy took Altar's arm, he would take on a serious face, looking Ren in the eyes as he stood fully. He knew little of his capability, nor where to start with training him. He supposed that would be a good point to start.

"You saw little of what I am capable of on that day, Ren. And I hope the same of you. You were clever, a definite fast thinker. Now, show me what else you are capable of." Altar would say, his eyes gleaming. He would release his grip and swing his arm around, loosening the boy's grip on his arm. As he did this, he would bring his arm downwards, swatting Ren's arm away from him. From this point, Altar would push both arms fowards, aiming to plant both firmly onto Ren's torso, his right arm on his chest and his left on his stomach. This action would likely shove the boy backwards. If succesful, Altar would jump backwards, putting a distance of ten meters between the him and Ren.

Once the distance had been put between them, Altar would take a fighting stance, his weight balanced and his hands close together.

"Now hit me, if you can."

(And so altar and Ren stood there for like 3 months doing nothing :P)

As altar pulled his hand away from Ren the young boy released his grip on the mans arm and immediately darted backwards two steps, at the man's taunt Ren's mind began to plot out a strategy, he darted forward at altar, his left arm raised and ready to strike, whilst his right was raised in a defensive boxing position. As he came into striking distance Ren would throw a faint with his left arm, before following up with a quick jab from his right hand, the blows weren't anything more than feints, but they were still both aimed for vital spots, the first at his head, and the second his sternum, the true point of his punches was to cover his moving in closer, Ren wasn't usually the type to utilise taijutsu, but he still had an idea of the basics, the moment altar took a step back, Ren would drop down and perform a swiping kick at the mans legs, attempting to take his feet out from under him.

As the boy charged at Altar, he would assume the same stance, hands close together near his face, feet spread slightly. As Ren threw his punches, Altar would stand his ground, using his own right and left hands to intercept and push Ren's own along their original direction, but just short of Altar's body. Then as the boy dropped down to sweep Altar's legs, the boy would shift his front (left) foot  slightly forward and use the momentum to bring his right knee straight towards Ren's face, aiming for impact with the youngling's nose. A simple but effective move.

If all went according to plan, Ren would be flat on the ground facing skywards, and Altar would currently be taking a few steps backwards.

"You left yourself wide open, Ren. You should've seen that coming from a mile away. You're better than that" the boy would say, motioning for the boy to rise and try again.

Ren saw the knee coming towards him the instant it started moving, If asked about it later Ren would say he'd planned it this way, even to himself he would tell himself that he'd intended to put himself in such a position; that would be a lie of course, Ren hadn't seen it coming, but he was good at thinking on his feet. Ren quickly brought his hand up to the man's knee, as it was speeding towards his face and released the Dark river breaking seal on his hand, allowing five bolts of force to be flung out from it and into the man's knee. From the way Ren's hand had been placed on his knee the bolts of force would strike his kneecap, likely shattering it.

(And they stood there more, frozen in time. I never got a direct reply on my question to the mods so i'm gonna go with plan B, sorry 'bout that)

Altar would see the boy raise his hand to block the knee, as well as hear the shuffle of clothing. Well foreseen, the boy would smirk and allow himself to be hit by the laser. Or so Ren would think. As soon as the hand began it's movement, Altar would begin weaving handsigns, and at the moment of impact he would swap places with a loose stone, conveniently placed just behind Ren, well within current arm's reach of the ANBU. The bolt would hit the stone, shattering it and sending it flying away, nothing left in the surrounding area to substitute with.

Once Altar appeared behind him, he would begin to thrust his right hand towards the back of Ren's neck, extending a singular finger, lightning chakra coating his right arm up to the forearm. The prod would, under normal circumstances, be enough to stab clean through the boy, ending his life faster than he could react. However, Altar held back his power, utilizing the technique to send a high voltage shock through the youngling's nervous system, resulting in a few seconds of paralysis and numb extremities, as well as a bit of lockjaw.

If the finger made contact, the boy's smirk would be replaced with a rather light-hearted grin.

"Boop."

(and thus time stood still once again, at this point it seemed like time and space it self was falling apart :P Sorry had the gf's party to organise.)

For a fraction of a second Ren was surprised to see the man disappear in a puff of smoke, Sure he'd seen him start forming hand seals, but the substitution tech was such a basic technique that he felt a small shot of pride that he had forced the Anbu to resort to such a technique. All the same he realised that the man would likely be right behind him after using that technique. Fortunately for Ren his hands were close enough together that he could quickly form the ram seal, utilising the body flicker technique to throw himself forward at 150 speed before landing 50 meters away on the entryway to a fishing pier. The sea waves gently lapped at the wooden walkway as he span around to face his opponent and take in his surroundings.

Beneath him, Ren's hands would come together into a seal he knew all too well, and the youngling would flit away, a good fifty meter distance between them. The hunter in Altar wanted to engage, to chase, Kalamity urging him to chase the boy down like some sort of wounded prey. For half a second, his skin would turn dark, black wisps emanating from it. His eyes would spiral, the glowing purple seal taking the place of his usually crimson right eye.

But he had more self control than that, and before the transformation could complete, the ANBU returned to normal almost as fast as he had changed. Now that the boy had put distance between them, Altar was free to plan his next move. He could use this time to his advantage almost as well as Ren could, if not better.

Raising his hands back to his initial stance, Altar would work to close the distance between the two. His face blank, he was grinning on the inside. He had his next move planned, and boy would Ren not see it coming.

turning to observe the battle field Ren glimpsed what looked like a fine black mist fading around the man. 'whatever that was it looked dangerous. Next time I'll have to try and take him out before he can use whatever that was...' Ren thought to himself. Throwing together a quick array of hand seals whilst he planned out his next move, a faint glow surrounding him for a moment as the flicker movement technique engaged. 'I'll take a page from his book then' the boy thought, another collection of hand seals flung together as a fine mist of water vapour flowed out from his mouth, as soon as the mist covered him another flurry of hand seals would cause two clones to appear next to him, before running through the obscuring mist and flanking the man. Finally the body flicker technique would give him a burst of speed to end up behind and slightly to the right of the man, leaving just under a ten meter gap. the two clones would burst out of the fog, one from the right, a few seconds before the one on the left. The right clone aiming a punch right for the man's throat, whilst the one on the left had darted down to perform a swipe with his leg, exactly like the one Ren had attempted just a moment ago. Both clones acting just like Ren was throughout the fight so as not to give away any indication of which one was the real one; meanwhile the dense nature of the fog obscured any shadows or lack there of that might have given away their illusory nature. As soon as altar committed to an attack on one of the clones he would find the third Ren rushing in from the fog, to throw an attack at his blind spot.

Altar would smirk at the handseals Ren formed, knowing them well. The handseals for the Hidden Mist jutsu. The thought was accompanied by the forming of the thick mist. It would've been annoying typically, as Altar's left eye would now be proven useless, but Ren's chakra rivaled his own in terms of ease to find. So, as the boy was forming more handseals opposite Altar, the ANBU could tell when his chakra split into three seperate entities. Two rushed at him, while the third jumped from it's initial spot to somewhere behind him, to his right, staying stationary. Altar would snicker to himself. The boy was careless. There was no need for a clone to be motionless and not on the offensive.

Or perhaps this was an elaborate trick.

Whatever it was, it needed to be dealt with. As one Ren came from the mist to his right, a few seconds another emerged from his left. The one to the right threw a jab at his throat, while the one on the left dropped down for the same sweeping attack that had just fallen flat. Both moves that Ren had tried previously. Why try something that already failed, that the ANBU would already see coming? Keeping a watch on all three chakra signatures, Altar would push the right clone's hand to his (Altar's) right, using the momentum and weight to push the clone to his right and back, on a collision course with the other chakra signature behind him. While in this action, Altar would push off to his left, wide of the clone's sweeping attack, and aim his left leg into a kick at the back of the clone's head.

Now, the final chakra presence behind him made it's move and jumped out. Having already been turning due to the kick, Altar would complete his turn and use his right hand to catch Ren in mid-air by the throat, a sickening grin forming on his face. The two would start to experience a phasing experience for a few seconds, before disappearing from Kirigakure, should everything go to plan.