Finding lost arms

Yuri reserved a hidden hand so far during her time in kirigakure. Something not even the chunnin exam could invoke it from her due to circumstances. Something that she had not made known to everyone, not even Haru. At training ground as usual holding a kunai, she thought about the an incident during her way back to tengakure.

Getting an official request from a village could take days and the poor villagers were not skilled to wait for it. Prolonged threats from bandits nearby to pay protection fees drained the villagers of their will to fight back. Blending among the villagers for a day to estimate the opposing fighting strength, Yuri is fully aware that its her against a dozen. Those who lost their loved ones had not given up everything, some of them were offered her the last piece of weapon they had to her. Upon quick inspection, most of these weapons should remain as memento. Yuri will make good of what their last hope of their loved ones tried to grant them; cripple them enough to delay them so official aid could neutralize them effectively.

On a bright morning Yuri would wait for their arrival as their protection fee. The villagers had prepared an act for this to convince the bandits that the fee would land in their possession with no suspicion. It took a full half of an hour of struggle to perfect Yuri's disguise and get the bandits moving on the road back. Yuri chose the halfway point right to strike so that she could get more of them out from their nest due to the distance. Coincidentally, that was when they chose to take rest. Before the bag holder could put down his load, he died from a front stab through his throat by the sword of the dead. Before his closest mate could reach for his weapon, His throat was cur as well. Yuri could be blocked if she was an second later. By holding the sword pointing the same direction as her back is facing, Yuri made better use of her strength by pulling and attacking with the sword together during the second attack. There are still 4 of them standing around all to her right. Switching the sword to her right hand, Yuri made sure her next attack could only be parried using her speed. Not letting the enemy to have a chance to push her back, she quickly reached for the senbon. Knowing that she had superior reach with a lighter object while keeping the enemy's focus on her sword attack, she quickly put it into his neck. Taking another weapon from the dead, She moved on to her next target.
One of them tried to run to get help. Yuri threw her sword at him, his partner blocked it for him; That was what Yuri wanted exactly, speeding past the blocker at the same time to plant a sword from the back of his neck. She was just in time to react to the next attack from her right when her left hand threw a knife at his right eye. With the pain disrupting his attack, Yuri took the opportunity to disarm him. Breaking his wrist to disarm him and slashed his throat using his own weapon. She still had a few weapons waiting to find their target as she chased the running bandit. However, at some point during her chase. She realised that it would be better to draw all the enemies out so that their loot would be better used instead.

It took them another 2 hours to come out in full force. Yuri made the best use of her time to arm herself from the dead and crawl into their nest undetected to look for useful loot.  She spent a full two weeks to familiarise herself with the compound before her decision to help the villagers. Looking at the variety of weapons they left behind though they had far outlived their usefulness, Yuri would try her best to free the villagers from their grip.

As expected of them, Yuri was in time for the ambush when they arrived at the scene of their fallen comrades. Making a rain of knifes directed at them using the high around, Yuri took the time frame to cripple a good amount of them with her newly acquired sickle before it broke. Returning to her original position, she estimated their position with her next batch throws. One of them came close to Yuri, only to be bashed by their own mace and sent to flying down 10 meters to ground by yet another bash. She knew more would close in to get her if she is not faster than she already is. Raising her reaction as she her next slash from the sheath took the wrist away from her enemies, she quickly released her blade as handseals formed. The enemy for a moment smirked before his brain suffered a stab. Yuri still have one more sword with her and there are still 8 more unwounded targets. Using her knowledge of knives passed down by her instuctor, Yuri had already used most of it as well as maximising the basics of the ninja way of using a sword. Fortunately, her fights ends now as an explosion erupts at the remaining targets. Due to circumstances of being a borderline of missing ninja, Yuri had to make herself scarce for she had already done enough.
She could tell that the village was not secured yet but however guarded. Leaving the remaining memento behind was all she could do.

With enough kunai throwing, she had decided to move on to the next field of arms.

Climbing a mountain with chakra was hard enough. To make things worse, her instructor wanted all of them to do it with wire threads in a single horizontal file instead. These wires can be sharp if not held correctly. The group began at the foot of the mountain, each of them holding a portion of the 20 meter wire. The rules were simple; Make it to the top of mountain only using the wire without breaking it. The group cheated a little by letting those with the best physical strength be the ones at the side so that they can hook onto objects above them with the highest chance of success.

Nature already made it worse for them from the start with a heavy downpour. Everyone had to be extra alert not to get themselves too badly cut. Beginning with their first few steps carefully, they could already feel the dangers of handling the thin wire. For most of them, it was either their second or third time handling a wire since their assignments were mostly done with weapons of their choice all the time. By the time they were halfway up, the one with the most experience with wire got tired from all the shouting of commands trying to minimize the injuries just from handling the wire. However, it only gets muhc harder from this point on.
The heavy downpour didn't stop and falling rocks started coming in small sizes. Yuri nearly fell down from a rock hitting her forehead, her friend beside her suffered a cut from holding onto her and balancing using the wire at the same time. With no time to be feeling guilty, Yuri recovered quickly in order to hinder the group any further. Many of them started feeling the pain from the cuts now as the rocks served their purpose by making more bleeding spots. As they were getting closer and cloesr to the top, a giant rock suddenly appeared. The entire group panicked for a moment due to the rules, Yuri thought she would be dead. However, the friend beside her thought otherwise. Taking the moment to balance her feet on the rope, she used a wind jutsu to throw the rock off course,saving the entire group from certain danger. Everybody looked at her for a moment wondering if that was the right thing to do for a while before the mutual understanding of consisting of fatigue and safety took over their minds. The worst of the exercise was over.

It never crossed her mind that those tough days would find its use in kirigakure. Yuri is now moving at tunnel vision within her memory lane.

Now remember this brats, being what you are good at now does not mean that the fact of it will stay forever. What counts is your experience alone or with your comrades. It is they who will bring the true self out of you. Its pointless to to delve into it now since its inevitable in certain junctures of your life.

Yuri sat on a rocky spot of the training area as she felt as though time just reversed itself for certainly a few minutes, she got to see her sensei speak once more in her almost as though he came back from the past. She asked herself again, was he supposed to be called sensei in the first place? She was meant to be a tool for the organization from the start and not wanting to be shinobi wasn't an option. She wasn't even allow to leave the organization in the first place, bound by birth and gratitude that let her have a view of the beautiful world. She put her right hand on her right knee cap, lots of thoughts came into her mind about her legwork. It left her wondering what just made her into her current state. A life and death incident where her life was saved by simply an extra movement using a weapon. Next, she was trading blows with a fellow ninja that seems to be able to predict her moves. This was where it gets interrupted, she was pretty sure she had an upper hand with her movement. But to be unable to land even a clear hit with it, there seems to be something missing. Yuri was pretty sure that she had been avoiding this question for long, it felt as though she was afraid of finding out something. It wouldn't make a difference facing it now, but why not from before? She asked herself as courage worked its miracle to allow her to correct this problem of hers. She was pretty sure it would have an impact on her development from this point onward. Her mind forced its way into thinking about her closest buddy in the past, scenes of the past caught up with her again without delay.

Shurikens flew around in the training area, all aiming at her. For every one that she could not evade that she would let a shuriken from her to do the job. The area isn't as wide as the ones currently and they have to watch for surrounding objects that were important assets for their survival as a whole. It was an improvised training area while its value would seems to have multiplied by a hundred folds if she were to consider it for now. She saw her buddy coming to a stop after a making barrage of nearly 3 dozens of projectile. She wasn't done yet as she would make this opportunity count by using her legwork to flank him. However, he had it prepared as she was forced into defense again with an incoming wind cutter. To make him busy, she threw her second last shuriken she had at him as she goes by the left side of the technique to close in to him. Seeing him using his sword to deflect it away, she finally got her chance to go close range on him.  She uses the chance to let him deflect the last shuriken she had on her hand to keep him busy for a little more. Not reserving a moment for him, she lowered herself roughly enough to obstruct his vision of her right hand as she picked up a shuriken and grabs hold of the hand holding a sword. Throwing the shuriken from under him upwards, he had no choice but to use his feet to stop her hand, this was when his other hand felt free. But, it was too late to react as Yuri had already had her equipped shuriken on her right hand right in front of his chest, what made her have the weapon was due to the mess he created. Both of them backed off and simply smiled towards each other. You sure compensated your lack of techniques with weapons, not a surprise. But i think there's something to it. Right?

She came back to the future following the last word said, reminding herself once again how a shuriken could be useful. This also sends another reminder that she could do better if she could do what he did but with only a single shuriken instead. What could have been an intense training session turned out to be an intensive revision session, where she could have been an adept on weapons way earlier if she maintained her edge on weapons back then. Those reminder took hours to help her completely recap what she had lost during her travel, finding her own invaluable memories back now is simply a blessing.

TWC: 2210
Claiming 11 stats
Claming Weaponry Spec
[Exit]