An Exchange of Fists to Clear One's Mind [P]

Returning from walking Atsuko home, Shiro strolls along the edge of the city square. He has a pleasant look on his face, a look of the faintest and most reserved satisfaction. Within the course of this day and the night before, Shiro has been able to completely change his quality of life. In the last two hours, Shiro and Atsuko have carried on in conversation that fully revitalized their relationship. With this revived fervor for long-term human companionship, Shiro has realized one last truth about his life up until now.

“In the time that Atsuko and I have been out of touch,” He thinks to himself, “I have grown separate from her and the influence that she has on the decisions I make. If she had mattered to me before I became a chuunin, her decision to step out of the ninja world likely would have influenced me to do the same. But here I am, on a course which exists only because Atsuko left my life for a time. With her now back in my mind, I wonder what the future holds for me. What does my course hold?”

As he is often, Shiro contemplates what he will do in the future and what his goals are. Suddenly, in a spark of inspiration, a new possibility dawns itself.

“If Atsuko is such a strong factor of my life, one that I would very much like to keep, why not devote a portion of my strength solely to protecting her? Losing her last time was caused by my own shame, it was a conscious decision to forget about her and to refuse to dwell on any thoughts concerning her. What next? Will I lose her against my wishes and regret ever forgetting the time we spent together?” A pause. “Or maybe I’m thinking too deeply about this…”

To his right, Shiro finds the grounds reserved for ninja training. He remembers instantly the time that he would spend in the area, practicing his taijutsu techniques. In part, these wooden posts have been used to take his mind off of Atsuko. Having a better mental grip on his situation, Shiro believes that spending some time performing physical work will help him to make the best decision regarding what to aim for in the future.

Shiro moves towards the nearly empty training grounds.

“I’ll pass the time here.”

(395/395)

Shiroi sat- well, sat may not be the best word. Lounged? Yes, quite. Lounged is a much better word. - Shiroi lounged about, on, maybe two dozen feet off the ground? The crook of her knees rested on top of one piece of her BoKali, and her back leaned against the other. She had been there quite awhile, reading a book she had borrowed from the library. It was quite the interesting book. At least that is what she told herself. The majority of it was quite drab. It was a recount of certain periods within Haven's history. It was a long shot that anything useful would be inside of it, and given that she was nearing the time period when she first entered Hoshi, she was again convinced that it was, in fact, a failure. But she was not quite to that point yet, so she kept reading, perched in the air directly above the training grounds. 

It was awhile later that she noticed someone approaching from her peripherals.

[169]

And it was an abnormal spectacle for Shiro to find himself faced with. Before him, a young woman lays floating some seven meters above the ground. A ninjutsu? Some manipulation of space-time? Whatever the case, Shiro recognizes this person as a ninja based upon the information he is given by sight. In sensing her large chakra, he becomes sure of this.

Wishing to spar with another human being rather than repeatedly strike wooden stakes, Shiro approaches the female at a regular speed, something like 20. On his way to his near destination, Shiro wonders what her abilities might be. The metal rod beneath her is likely what holds her weight rather than her body itself defying gravity. What other than chakra would power the staff and allow it to float?

"So some sort of ninjutsu, I would guess." Her comes closer, and prepares to speak in a moment. "But does she fight best at close range or long range? Well, thinking about it... in the field, I may not have that information about an opponent. I will enter this potential spar blind and use wit alone to bring myself through it. After all, when have my predictions about another ninja ever been true?"

He stops, standing five meters from the kunoichi for precautionary distance. Should she agree to a spar, Shiro wishes to have at least part of his field set up. On top of this, he recognizes the cover of the book in her hands. In his constant trips to the village's library, Shiro has skimmed through a good deal of books, absorbing his share of information.

"That seems like a bland book." He decides to start the conversation off in an unconventional way considering the fact that this woman is READING A HAVEN HISTORY BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAINING GROUNDS LEVITATING SEVEN METERS ABOVE THE GROUND. The unprofessional greeting simply seems to fit best for this situation. Shiro must look upward to face her. "My name is Shiro Kaguya... I am in need of a training partner. Would you be interested in a spar?"

And he awaits her response.

(352/747)

Shiro flinches mentally at the language used by this woman before eventually returning to listening. Refusing to swear or curse himself, Shiro has believed that the ninja of Hoshigakure hold the same disposition regarding speech. While the use of such language is not as impolite to Shiro as others may view it, it is still unexpected. Now, after having spent a fine amount of time dwelling on the fact that a ninja of Hoshigakure will leisurely use such language, Shiro regains his focus.

He hears Shiroiutter the words "I don't go easy" and accepts this condition easily. A spar against an opponent equal to or greater than his own abilities is favored. The more he must think about his next actions, the more he can sink his mind into his motions. This is the calming factor of a fine spar.

And she begins quite abruptly, more suddenly than Shiro expects. Without enough time to think through an evasion, an more unorthodox reaction takes over. At a speed of 140, bones extend themselves out of Shiro's body from multiple locations. His arms, legs, chest, back, and abdomen sprout round bone structures which end in points with a sharpness of 80. In defense from the incoming staff, Shiro raises his left forearm to intercept the attack with his 80 strength.

Further, upon stopping the the pole and thrusting his defending arm outwards to move it, Shiro activates his curse mark. Black marks spread across his brown skin and his body is energized to increase his speed and strength. He then lunges forward under Shiroi, avoiding her second strike, at a speed of 100, proceeding to strike what would be her mid-back with a punch holding 60 strength travelling at 100 speed. Should the strike make contact, Shiroi will be propelled upward at a speed of 120. She would then be gripped by Shiro's Dance of the Clematis: Vine technique formed and drawn at 100 speed.

Should Shiroi avoid Shiro's attempt, he will rise from his lunge and turn to react to whatever he must.

(342/1,089)

AP:

He's fast Shiroi thought as the man suddenly became a veritable porcupine. She had fought someone like this before, Kyousuke. Though these looked different, looked like bones. She likely would have examined them more had the current situation not had slightly more pressing concerns. Of course, there was enough space left. Shiroi had not launched as fast as she could, and there was still a fair bit of distance between the two. After all, Shiro had not been directly below Shiroi, and she had been seven meters straight up. The horizontal distance would just increase that total.

Upon observing the man's speed and his abilities, Shiroi made a rushed decision. Her staff locked in place still five meters from the boy, slightly angled but still flat enough for her to spin around and land her feet on it. Letting go of the bar, Shiroi threw together a handseal. It would all happen very quickly. First, Shiroi's skin would take on multiple different hues, quickly and frequently changing as if it was consuming a rainbow. Perhaps Shiro could catch a glimpse of the marvel before Shiroi seemed to disappear. In actuality, this was simply the second thing to happen. And Shiroi did not disappear. Instead, her skin became like a mirror, reflecting the world around her. Unfortunately, the staff and scarf were unaffected, so she would have to discard those for the time being. But discarding them would come after the next event: every single joint in Shiroi's body became like putty. Well, not exactly, but that is the simplest way to describe it. This was Shiroi's trinity, the three abilities that, when used together, put her at her strongest.

The scarf was loose around her neck, and the pole was stuck within jumping height for her, so it was a simple matter of slipping off the scarf as he jumped down to the ground. And force her way down did she! As fast as she could launch from the rod, starting from it's underside after a quick twist around it. She launched away from Shiro to give the most possible time to land, and given their distance, he would have needed a running start to reach Shiroi's landing point. At said landing point, she touched first with her hands, having already removed the scarf. Just after, she rolled away before finishing with a handstand, facing directly towards Shiro.

[AP: -10 previous | Max this post: -120]

Her movements are fluent and have no seams among them. For Shiro's actions, Shiroi has a reaction which connects without a loss of movement speed. As Shiro raises his left arm to block, his opponent likely has her next moves routed.

"I lack experience in this fight. Just now, I'm probably taking more time to think than I should be. But forget about it. Just follow her." His eyes track her body as it flashes its multiple colors (Shiro isn't epileptic, nice try). The staff, as he notes, remains in its position as she uses it to propel herself wherever she needs to go. The rest of its abilities, if it has any, Shiro disregards attempting to decipher them.

And she disappears. "...OK. OK."

The rest of Shiro's actions past blocking are not carried out. Instead, his bones are retracted into his body at the same speed they were produced. At a speed of 150, Shiro turns around while bending his knees in preparation to jump. The turning is Shiro's wanting to be sure that his opponent has vanished from sight. And she is nowhere to be seen. All that remains of what was seen before are a scarf and the metal pole (it freaks Shiro out, how it just sits in mid-air... weapon of a creep, that's what it is, Shiroi's a creeper).

Shiro jumps ten meters into the air at a speed of 45. At the same time, his hands come together to form the horse and tiger seals at a speed of 150.

"You're somewhere here." From his height of ten meters, Shiro releases a cone of flames which spreads from his mouth and extends in all directions in front of him for ten meters (twenty meter diameter, twenty meter slant height). Upon reaching the ground, the cone has its maximum width of twenty meters. It is within this circle below him where Shiro hopes to find Shiroi through the use of these flames.

These flames will keep Shiro ten meters above the ground (for one post duration). They travel at a speed of 40 and have a power of 50.

(354/1443)

AP:

Stats:

Shiroi internally sighed when she realized that Shiro had lost complete track of her. How did she realize that? Well, a giant cone of fire that stopped about five feet from her was the first hint. Of course, Shiroi wanted to take advantage of the moment. So she jumped. She jumped to a very specific spot. She would grab onto her Bokali, spin around it once to keep her momentum going while changing the direction, and then launch, unlocking the Bokali to bring it with, but attempting to hide it behind her back by separating it into the two pieces. She had launched in no normal way, however. See, she was a gymnast. Gymnasts had surprisingly good hand control. So here she was, flying through the air, arm not holding the Bokali outstretched in front of her. To the trained eye, this was the Dynamic Entry position, except upside down, except with the user still right side up. That was, in fact, what was happening, with Shiroi going as fast as she could manage without a running start, barreling through the air towards Shiro, still largely camouflaged.

[AP: -70 max]

(Note: White speaking indicates thinking, gray indicates audible talking)

With the movement of Shiroi's Bokali, Shiro determines his opponent's location. It is at this moment that he see's part of himself in the shape of what he assumes to be her body. Rather than becoming completely invisible as Shiro had assumed, she has simply camouflaged herself using mirrors. As annoying as this is to look at, Shiro decides that close range combat, his strength, is necessary in order to prevail.

"She's moving towards me with that staff of hers. Up to this point, I haven't seen her use any mid- or long-range techniques, only taijutsu." His thoughts are quick but doubted as he struggles to make sense of the image in front of him. By the time his cone of flames dissipates, he determines the shape of her body as well as the technique she is using. "This one is dynamic entry."

But she is upon him just in time for him to react, though crudely. Utilizing his arms and legs, Shiro brings all of his limbs to the center of his body as if curling up in a ball. His forearms and shins absorb the impact of the dynamic entry by once again producing extensions of bone with health of 70. Shiroi's dynamic entry is further dampened by Shiro's form of defense, that being his taijutsu style block which decreases the damage delivered by the oncoming force by 20.

Next, his arms and legs push off of Shiroi's body where the two make contact. Using her as an object from which to bounce off of, Shiro propels himself backward and towards the ground at a speed of 45 (jumping speed). He monitors any of Shiroi's movements on his way down.

Standing upon the ground, Shiro moves his arms to his front and opens his palms. His fingers are lined up vertically in one line facing Shiroi. These movements occur at a speed of 150. The resulting bone bullets are released at a speed of 40, propelled in Shiroi's direction with the form of a vertical line. There are ten bullets in total, one from each of Shiro's finger tips.

(351/1,794)

AP:

[Look, I've had a headache pretty much constantly the past few days. I won't wank to make you wait too long, but I really do not feel like trying to put in detail. So here we go.]

Shiroi landed on the ground just a few moments after Shiro and quickly had to dodge ten bone bullets. This was simple enough by just moving around them as she once again began her chase. She would throw the staff, not at Shiro, but at the earth next to her, planting it an inch into the soil. Next came bringing her arm out, going for a lariat, moving at full speed having kept her momentum from the launch/jump/entry thing.

[ap: -90 max]
[Speed: 150. Remember the -40 to your RT.]
[Again, sorry this is so short and boring, I just can't really focus right now.]