Little-Bear vs Big, Bad Wolf (Ayame)(NK)

Salzem had given up trying to actually exercise with these mere wooden dummies that lay scattered about the sand. In fact, he saw them as toys of the past, training-dummies for the weaker ninja, genin and such. How was a guy supposed to train his might if his might was too much to train? Salzem sighed, staring at one of the many wooden logs that dotted the area, tapping his fingers on it's head casually as he decided what to do. For Suna, today was cool and the shade the dummy cast only made it better... The sand was warm and not scratchy for once, the air was breathable, hardly as arid... Perhaps it was a good time for a nap (or in ninja terms, meditation).

The lycan didn't even bother to get into the traditional stance and just laid down at the base of the log, propping his head up on it's face. With a gentle sigh, he brought his headband up from where it rested on his neck and tightened it only a bit around his forehead, just enough so it would slump over his eyes, blocking the glare of the sun and, instead, flashing it on others. Salzem smirked slightly as his conciousness started to drift away, comfortable for once under the desert sun. It made him wonder why he ever hated this place to begin with... It was so nice... The people, the ninja, the environment sometimes... Sometimes he'd wake up in the morning and wonder who he would have been if he'd woken up sooner?

Ayame had already been at the training grounds working her butt off in order to prepare for the exams. The first matchups were already revealed and she was very nervous. She didn’t know any of her competitors and also felt very unprepared and inferior to them. She had been hesitant to learn this B-rank tech before, even though she always talked about it, but now it seems she has no choice.

The genin took a deep breath, flipping through her jutsu encyclopedia. “Poison Mist” she muttered continuing on and reading about this pretty strong tech. It called for her to be churning chakra and water inside of her stomach to expel as a lethal mist. She could even change the type of poison provided she knew how to create such a substance. The way the poison was created was simple. As the chakra and fluid churns, it becomes a substance that when it reacts with air can poison and kill others quickly. It spreads 10 meters in every direction, and was very lethal.

How could she practice it though? She didn't want to kill Nita, nor anyone innocently bystanding. There was little to no plant-life here, and with what little there was, she didn’t want to risk completely destroying the arid desert’s fragile ecosystem.

Ayame could practice on fake targets if she wanted, but how would she know if her Jutsu would be effective?

Ayame looked around the training field scanning for someone to practice on; someone who wouldn’t die from getting hit by this technique.

Then she saw him: Wolf-boy.

There sat the black, spikey haired teen asleep against a log in the distance. He just laid there, his breathing much slower than usual, headband draped over his crimson eyes to block the sun out. How silly. Didn’t he realize the exams were coming up.

“Salzem!” Ayame called from where she was, knowing that the boy’s supernatural hearing would pick it up if he was awake.

If he was asleep and did not respond or responded lazily, she would concentrate her energy and surprise him with her water ninjutsu jutsu Suiton: Snake’s Mouth! She would make the handsigns of Monkey, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Dragon before casting the jutsu and shooting a giant water snake at the warm boy, getting him significantly wet at the very least. If the snake could swallow him, she’d use it to bring him to her.

WC: 402

2000/2000  Suiton: Snake's Mouth  (Claiming 371/371) (Do not approve Yet)
0402/3000  Poison Mist

"Hmmm.....? What...?" Salzem grumbled, obviously somewhat unhappy his nap was interrupted with his own name. Grumbling something inaudibly, the lycanthrope sat up from his place in the sand, brushing it from his hair before raising his headband up just enough to see a LARGE STREAM OF WATER HEADING TOWARDS HIS FACE! Yelping, clearly caught off guard, Salzem would raise his hands to defend himself, but, in his haste, forgot to channel chakra into his gauntlets for his barrier. As the water crashed all over him, Salzem closed his sanguine eyes, his jaw clenched, clearly not at all amused by this little prank this person was trying to pull. Slowly, he opened his eyes, shivering somewhat as he was drenched from head to toe, no longer as warm under the suna sun. He stared down at his drenched black jacket, brushing heavy wet dark hair out of his face with his fingers, it looked as if he had just fallen face first into a lake...

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me...." Salzem growled, shaking his arms in some meager attempt to push the water off him. He just couldn't believe it... and he was having such a good day too! He looked up from his drenched self and saw a familiar girl standing there... Ayame...? Wha... why...

"Ayame?" Salzem asked, his expression neutral. He slowly got up from his seat in the sand, brushing off any that may had stuck to him thanks to the girl's little joke. "Why did you... spray me with water...? Like... why...?" He seemed so confused why this little girl would go out of her way to wake him up so... suddenly. It wouldn't have been difficult to just shake his shoulder to poke him, or even kick him in the side! Any of that would've been preferable to being sprayed with water.

"You know what?" Salzem asked, smiling only a little beneath his mask. Suddenly, at speeds of 100 and strength of 5, Salzem's arm would shoot out suddenly, his fingers curled inwards into a flick. Salzem would let his finger go, gently striking Ayame's nose with just enough force to sting. "There. We're even. Now... how can I help you today?"

Ayame chortled to herself quietly. “Figured you could use some cooling off” Ayame said softly followed by some breathy, cute panting before shyly smiling and placing her hand over her mouth in a slightly embarrassed but also funny manner. She didn’t want him to get mad, so she left it at that.

“Anyway…” she rolled on, trying to change the subject though it ended quite awkwardly, “How can you just be sleeping? The exams will be soon and you’re up against the guy we were against yesterday. “ she said sort of concerned for him. “I’m against a kid named Ichiro” she muttered, “So because I know nothing about him, I want to make sure that my most important Jutsu are on-point and that I learn this new technique. I’m not sure if Nita is strong enough to take the brunt of it, but I’m pretty sure you are. Would you mind a spar or training session? I have medical Jutsu if you need it, but I don’t think you will.


Assuming the boy had agreed, Ayame would begin to churn her chakra inside her until she felt that it was sticky and heavy at the perfect viscosity for poison. All of her energy went into this jutsu as Nita decided it would be best to stay far away for now. Ayame read a little bit more about the hand signs and reread about the other things before for a few moments before shoving the book back into her weapons pouch. Apparently she did not have to worry about hand signs for this Jutsu… and odd measure for such a strong and lethal one.

She worked hard with her thin belly slightly and rapidly spasming as the chakra churned throughout her body and slowly created that perfect sticky heavy purple substance and sent it creeping up to her mouth.

When she was ready, she ejected the poison in front of her until it covered her and sal in their tracks. The poison was pretty weak due to her inexperience, but the jutsu took form beautifully. The potency of the poison she excreted would not be potent enough to kill sal by any means, though to master it she may need to practice on something or someone else.

The cloud took the shape of a circle, spreading out quickly to 10 meters in every direction, creating a purple haze in the middle of the training area they were working at.

After the mist had cleared she watched to make sure sal was okay, and then after asked him “Was that good?” even though she knew it needed more work. “Do you want a treat for that, boy?” she asked adorably, reaching up to pat pat Salzem on the head. She made it obvious she was joking, and was acting very cute toward the were before her as she awaited his response.

WC: 497
TWC: 899

2000/2000 Suiton: Snake's Mouth (Claiming 371/371) (Do not approve Yet)
0899/3000 Poison Mist

"Cooling of.... uh... okay...." Salzem responded, running a hand through his wet, heavy hair, confused. Is this what they did in suna? Splash someone with a bucket's worth of water when they saw someone trying to sleep under the sun? This had to be some kind of custom... right? In any case, Ayame then asked how he could just be sleeping like this, considering he was facing that weird Kyson guy tomorrow. Salzem cocked his head to the side somewhat confused by what she was implying. If nothing else, it seemed she was accusing him of being lazy, of not taking this tournament seriously. It wasn't as if he couldn't care less. In fact, he had a legitimate reason for taking this all so seemingly casually.

"If the tournament's tomorrow, there's no point in training today." Salzem said with a shake of his head, sending water everywhere. "I'd just end up training too hard and I'd be hampered in the morning. Not much will change from today and tomorrow so, right now, I'm just going to have a rest, relax... Give myself a few hours to prepare for the fights that are to come. It would be a waste of time for me to train for something happening tomorrow."

It was then that Ayame stated her own anxieties about her up-coming opponent, a guy named Ichiro... Salzem had probably heard that name before, maybe even met the guy, but so far, he couldn't place a face to a name. She stated that she knew next to nothing about this guy. She wanted to get a few of her own techniques ready while learning a new one. He wondered why she decided to come to him instead of... say... beating on a dummy, but he'd be impolite to turn her down then and there.

"Sure. Show me what you've got." Immediately, Ayame's belly began to twitch and shiver, a heavy purple mist starting to slip out from between her lips. All it took was one faint sniff to know... whatever was coming out of her mouth would lay him out, foam pouring from his lips if he took anymore of that in... Eye widening and with his stomach turning, Salzem immediately went full-speed (125), dashing around Ayame as she unleashed that cloud of dank purple death upon the spot where he once stood. He watched as the mist consumed everything in ten meters around, even Ayame, so he kept moving, until he was, at least, 10 meters away from the cloud fully expanded (putting 20 between him and Ayame). By the time he had reached this distance, Salzem was already coughing up whatever he had inhaled through his mask, his body just COMPLETELY intolerant to poison.

"Ugh... Poison... Always poison..." Salzem spat to himself, lowering his mask to spit out some of his own poison-tainted saliva. "Nice technique. Now come at me."

Ayame exhaled calmly looking from side to side at the mess she had made.

"Honestly I would have thought you would have been strong enough to take it given that it wasn't even at the power it should have been at." She muttered. "A-are you okay?" She asked to make sure that she didn't need to take him to the hospital or something.

If he wasn't, of course, she would help him get to the hospital.

Ayame walked over and helped him the best she could.

"Would you be willing to make clones so I can keep practicing? I need to get this down pat for the exams. I didn't realize it would kill you and I'm sorry. You can have a free hit on me if you want, but right now I really need to focus. Without this Jutsu I don't stand an eighth of a chance against the people in my group." she muttered.

Ayame tossed a pebble boredly.

"You can practice things on me if you like!" Ayame continued looking away and generally feeling terrible about what just happened.

She continued to churn the chakra in her body, though, determined to at least master that part even if she could not expel it on anything living.


WC: 216
TWC: 1115

2000/2000 Suiton: Snake's Mouth (Claiming 371/371) (Do not approve Yet)
1115/3000 Poison Mist

Salzem looked at her strangely, as if she had just told him to get lost or something. She comes here... and at the slightest sign of difficulty, shes... what... assuming he was weak? Incapable of his job or something? She looked hesitant to even continue after seeing someone having a perfectly normal reaction to a poison-gas cloud, if a slight bit exaggerated. Perhaps someone might've been appreciative of her caution, but Salzem... more or less he was insulted. He didn't need her to emphasize his limits, to remind him JUST WHERE he was lacking. Salzem closed the distance between himself and the smaller girl, putting a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. And if she didn't even look at him at THAT point, the male ninja would then begin to shake her shoulder with a strength of 10 so she'd get aggravated just enough to meet his gaze. He wanted her to get what he was about to say SO COMPLETELY that they would never have this issue again. Granted, it was one he was still working on himself, but that only made this moment more important, right?

"Ayame." Salzem said, flatly. "You came to me to train, did you not? You want to learn this little poison technique? Then... Learn. The. Technique." His expression was as hard and stiff as stone, but then a small smile bloomed on his face. "I will suffer through it, because I want you to win, okay? Patriotism and all that. It just caught me off-guard the first time is all." It is said that behind a mask is another mask and nothing could be more truthful in Salzem's case. Taking a few steps back, Salzem lowered his first mask and put on his second one, a darker, thicker mask, one meant to filter out poisons. He supposed now he had to entrust in his equipment for once rather than his skill to get him through this one... Salzem was never a fan of hospitals... in fact, he hated them... Ironic for a medical ninja, but he always preferred to heal than be healed... If this all somehow went south, he'd find himself back in that hell-hole...

"This mask," Salzem tapped his face on which it covered. "Will filter out the worst of your poison. However, chances are I will still inhale just enough to experience the effect and give you a detailed report on what it can do to someone." Salzem stood there, ready to get sent to the hospital any second now... A noble sacrifice to be sure, helping a less powerful comrade out by being the "test dog" for their technique... He had to say... it felt good to be selfless without having to convince himself of it... he'd have to do it more often.

Ayame exhaled in relief. "I'm sorry, Sal, I just don't want to hurt anyone is all." she muttered somewhat noticing his displeasure with her actions, but taking comfort in his willingness to proceed.

Ayame thought about what she desired from her Jutsu. What she needed from it. Slowly it clicked together, what it was capable of, everything she could accomplish, and they were only a short reach away. Her fingertips could just barely brush against its potential.

She was almost there. It was the perfect silent killer and would prove its finesse in battles to come. Ayame inhaled, her tummy beginning to slightly twitch every so often as she churned her chakra around within her being. Focusing her energy, she continued until it retained the perfect sticky, sweet  composition of lethal death. It took her less time to create the mixture this time, having somewhat accomplished the technique before, but she still felt it wasn't right. She had to make it more moist; heavier... denser... more viscose, however it was named she knew that it needed to be more of a mist than a smoke.

Ayame watched Sal intently, watching in case he planned on attacking her. Seeing his first attack against queen... how fast he changed and moved, it was near traumatizing. She wasn't afraid, though, she just needed to be ready to take on the big bad wolf. She knew that once the got the brick house down that should be safe for a few moments, no matter how hard he huffed and puffed.

Ayame continued of eventually spraying a much denser purpler mist from her mouth as it opened. At a speed of 30, the mist took up an area of 10 meters in every direction again, poofing out and wanting to cling to everything it touched. 

Again, Nita avoided this mess and waited for an opening on Sal.

Ayame stood feeling slightly accomplished. It still wasn't right... too thick this time, entirely too thick and entirely too purple. It would not do at all. How could she change it? How could she make it different? She could attempt to lighten the color a bit and probably lighten her chakra too whilst keeping the mist dense and heavy. It would be a challenge but she could try.

Quickly Ayame jumped back, and so did Nita getting completely out of range. Ayame worked  hard, lightly and quickly whisking her chakra around, beating the air into it in, focusing it in her stomach area as she lightened it still making it a sweet poison, like a kiss of death. With its viscosity lightened, she continued swirling it... fermenting it, until she felt that it was ready.

Eventually she began to grow tired, yet she pushed on, still feeling weak. As she prepared to excrete the poison, she started to feel a slight pain from over exertion. Then the poison mist exploded from her mouth covering the new area in the same potent mist, except now it felt closer to what her jutsu encyclopedia had described.

Activating her Yureigan, she watched Sal's Aura through the mist, keeping an eye on him and his moves.

WC:524
TWC: 1639

2000/2000 Suiton: Snake's Mouth (Claiming 371/371) (Do not approve Yet)
1639/3000 Poison Mist

"It's alright!" Salzem laughed, brushing off her concerns as if they weren't warranted. "Don't worry about it! You won't hurt anyone and you'll only get stronger. A win-win, right?" And so, from there, the lycan waited. He stood a mere couple of meters from Ayame as she contemplated her jutsu, likely making calculations in her mind about getting her poison just right. Meanwhile, the lycanthrope waited in a sort of nervous anticipation, worried that his mask might not hold up to the damaging effects of her poison cloud. Really, it wasn't the fact he'd be shipped away to the hospital while her poison liquified his insides like a spider. Moreso, it was his fear of looking like a complete fool on his way out on the stretcher... Yes, hospitals terrified Salzem and yes, dying to poison slowly, painfully, would be a hell in it of itself, but it's watching Ayame stare at him, her horrified look on her face as he began bleeding away into non-existance is what would be the ultimate price... He only hoped he would never have to pay it... On that note, Ayame let out another cloud of smoke and immediately, Salzem took a deep breath and held it as the dank, purple cloud washed over him. Unlike the previous one, however, this ploom of poison gas was thicker... darker... viscous almost, as if it would stick to his flesh if he were to reach out a hand and curl his fingers around it's smokey vessige. When he could take holding his breath in no longer, Salzem was forced to let it out, gasping instinctively afterwords and freezing in place.... 1 second... 2... 3... Nothing...? He felt no different...? His insides weren't being regergitated in a chunky red spew...? His skin wasn't melting off his very bones as it wafted across his pale body? Salzem took a hesitant breath, than other, surprised he wasn't dying in this very moment. He stared down at his hands, down by his side, clenching and unclenching his fingers as the purple smoke slipped between his fingers harmlessly. Huh... he might just exchange his regular cloth mask for this on the regular...

And then... most of it had passed and Salzem was able to see through to the other side once more, granted it was extremely blurred and he couldn't smell anything beyond his own breath in this mask... That certainly hampered his over-all detection capability.... Once the more of the poisonous smoke washed away from his face once more, he was able to finally see in detail once again and the expression on Ayame's face caught him off guard. She looked like she was waiting for something... Salzem stared back, confused, but slowly, as it usually did, it dawned on him... She was looking for a retaliation, wasn't she? She thought he was going to counter-attack and make this into some kind of spar, huh? Well... now that she planted the idea in his mind, inadvertently or otherwise, who was he to disappoint her?

Salzem would smile at her from under his mask before suddenly exploding from under the shroud of dank purple poison, closing the small distance of 10 meters near instantly (speed 63), throwing a quick jab at her left cheek (speed 125, strength 30), intent on giving her a quick *pop* to the face to wake her right up and bring her into the game.

Ayame could see him coming and drew her Fuma shuriken at a speed of 105, focusing her efforts on learning a simple genjutsu. She knew he'd be resistant if not completely immune to it, but it would be a wonderful ploy for the trap she was beginning to set up.

Ayame purposely dropped a standard shuriken out of her weapons pouch while reaching for something but in fact, she retrieved nothing, though with fist clenched it looked as if she had.

Ayame quickly slid the Fuma shuriken, still closed, onto her arm via the hole and rapidly made hand signs, first for substitution Jutsu, Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake at her max speed, and then she withdrew the blade from her arm and waved it in front of her in an attempt to make the boy hallucinate multiple long blades.

Of course, this would not work, but it was interesting, to say the least.

Subsequently, at the same speed, Ayame would again attempt to cloud herself in an effective poison mist again. Quickly she worked hard to knead the chakra faster, making it perfect in even a lesser amount of time. Perfect. Ayame would then excrete the poison from her mouth and blow the 10 meter in every direction poisonous cloud around herself.

Then she moved to the right about four meters at a speed of 53. If he chose to follow her into the mist, he would be thrown off by her not being there. If he followed her by scent or sound, however,  she would use the substitution to go back to where she had been earlier. If he reached her before she was out of the way, she would simply use her substitution Jutsu and Slice him with the Fuma shuriken before jumping back at a speed of 73 but a distance of (36, but let's say 3.6 meters).

As soon as she had moved, she placed the Fuma shuriken back onto her back, not wanting to damage it much before the Jounin exams Arena fights.

WC: 335
TWC: 1974

2000/2000 Suiton: Snake's Mouth (Claiming 371/371) (Do not approve Yet)
0621/1000 Leaf Style: Willow (Claiming 335/606) (Do not approve Yet)
1974/3000 Poison Mist

(will have to wait for your reaction to know what she will do.)