Icy stare (IO, NK)

Ketsueki left his house in possibly the highest spirits yet, riding the high of fighting Mors for his life, the learning of a pretty high ranking jutsu and the fact that he felt himself growing. Yes he was of course bothered by the fact that he couldn't participate in the war effort like three other genin. He knew not who specifically but, given the fact that he was obviously a skilled warrior Ketsueki expected Mors to be on the list of people who had at least been brought something to the fight, He didn't even flinch when the Kunai was driven through his hand...

Nevertheless, Ketsueki made his way to the bridge to the academy, hoping to get to the training ground and see someone to train with. More than anything else he hoped to see a superior, As he neared the academy, he thought he'd seen a figure in the distance just in front of it. Maybe someone interesting like Mors. Or the late Uzumaki boy.

Said figure would be Rakka Yuki, standing at the edge of the bridge, standing upon the rail, cloaked with Fuuton chakra as she worked on perfecting her Storm of the Century technique. Around her, the world swirled and churned as the Fuuton enveloped her form, her chakra signature flaring to extreme heights.

She wouldn't notice the boy approaching, as her focus was entirely dedicated to this technique. As to why she was standing on the rail? It was a sort of Karate kid situation. She was trying to make herself focus on multiple things at once so that she could use the technique without giving it any thought.

Ketsueki's eyes narrowed and he began to study the figure. Seeing the air flowing around it. 'What is this?' He pondered, almost sure that this was no trick of the eye, He stopped 7 feet away from what he assumed at this point was a she. The wind flowing almost like her very aura. Making him feel uneasy about his ranking against her. 

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to engage but he still had so much he wanted to see, he circled-well. Half-circled around her giving as much of a wide berth as possible, not wanting to get caught in what appeared to be tornado armor. Whatever that jutsu she was using was. It must have been of top level power. To him at least. As far as he knew about the match-up. Unless she had a counter to it, Fire would turn that armor into an all encompassing tomb.

Onto much more...Pleasant thoughts. "Hello." Ketsueki spoke. Looking up to her, the railing idea not really escaping him. Unless she was using the surface walking jutsu it would be distracting and difficult to focus on all of that, it would take a truly gifted mind, more so a talented body.

Rakka's mind was at ease, she her focus impeccable. Her mind was a sea, a torrent of lurching tides, but the tides had finally been calmed. Rakka Yuki was finally mastering the technique, and the Fuuton from her form was beginning to form the trademark cloak that defined the technique she had been working on for all this time. It was perfect. At long last, she was beginning to see real success. This was around the time that someone spoke from behind her, and Rakka's eyes averted, the cloak suddenly failing as the wind fell free of her form, blasting out around her in a huge gust of wind, Rakka being blast off balance and slipping from the edge of the bridge. 

This may have been the end of the story, had Rakka not been a superhuman shinobi capable of dealing with such a fall without batting an eye. As she lurched forward, she rolled, gripping the edge of the tile with her right hand and applying the surface walking technique, forcing her body to resist the fall, holding her in place upon the edge of the bridge. She sighed, tossing herself up and back onto the ledge, which she promptly dropped herself down upon, sighing.
"Damnit!" She huffed, annoyed. "Watch it next time, kid, you almost got us both killed." She snarked, noticing a figure on which to take out her frustration.

Ketsueki was forced back by the wild whipping wind, it lifted him off of his feet and carried him backward away from the woman. His back hitting the railing behind him with a thud and his hands jutting out of his sleeves from his jacket. He then gripped the railing he was pinned to as tightly as he could manage to assure he didn't plummet backward headlong into the water. It would have been a spectacular show to possibly amuse the woman into not butchering him herself but he likely wouldn't have survived. Making that a rather. Lousy trade.

He now had an obviously agitated obviously gifted shinobi standing in front of him. Not the best of circumstances but of course he'd been in worse as of late. He shuddered thinking of Mors "I'm sorry...You looked so calm and focused I didn't think even touching you would disturb you." He rubbed his back, standing up straight in the afterglow of the gust."If that's even possible when you're using that jutsu. I figured saying hi wouldn't make you crack so easily." He kept his eyes on her, already sure he may have placed himself on her personal bingo book. "I'm Ketsueki." Now he was doubly sure.

The boy had been blast back as well by her jutsu, not at all an intentional effect of the technique, but certainly a prominent one. Rakka sighed as the boy apologized, sending a bit of a creepy vibe to Rakka by implying that touching her likely wouldn't have disturbed her. As he stood up, Rakka was just beginning to cool down when he added that he didn't think something as simple as saying hello would make her crack so easily. Normally, this might have irritated Rakka even more, but she hadn't had anything to drink in a few days, and her temperament was marginally better for it. She just shrugged.
"That was an S-Ranked fuuton technique, one that I'm in the process of creating. It takes a bit more focus than you would expect." She explained, deciding that it might be better not to blast the kid off the bridge for expressing the sentiment.

"I'm Rakka." She added when he introduced himself. Now, she waited. She had something of a reputation in the village of the mist, some saw her as a joke for being an alcoholic, others feared her for her habit of reducing her enemies to ash and causing massive collateral damage. Which would this boy express? She was curious to know.

"An S rank?" He asked. Already knowing well enough that meant. As far as Ketsueki was concerned however, she was simply a high ranking ninja that Ketsueki had never even heard of. It would sound disrespectful but his history was basically that of a home schooled child. Therefore, asking him about the local popular kids would yield the same result. The most he could tell was that messing with her at any point meant near inescapable death.

"If you're that good, maybe you'd be in the market of teaching?" He said. Sure at least that this woman could show him some jutsu, despite the fact that he has yet to do anything but Suiton. "Well. That is at least if you know anything about Suiton." Curiously he didn't extol his fear of her. This Rakka appeared to not have the ever prevalent desire to feast on people's fear. In fact despite her obvious aggravation at being interrupted she cooled down to neutral pretty fast. It was an interesting sight to behold. If certain doom wasn't looming around the corner he may have been more bold with his wording.

It seemed the boy did not recognize her. This was actually refreshing for Rakka, who was used to weird looks from people, either fearful glances or rude glares. He repeated her statement about the jutsu's rank, and Rakka just nodded.
"That's what I said." She said flatly. The boy then inquired as to whether she'd be willing to teach him, particularly anything regarding Suiton techniques. Huh. What was it with young ninja and asking strangers for help with basic ninjutsu? Ah, but she'd been in his position once before. She remembered experiencing the exact opposite situation in Yukigakure, with not a single ninja to help her. She'd had to figure shit out on her own. The village had had such a sparse population of Shinobi compared to citizens that 

Rakka scratched the back of her head her head thoughtfully at his request. "Yeah, a little." She answered, sitting down on the wall that she had previously stood on. "Nothing much more than the basics, I use a lot more Katon than I do Suiton or Fuuton, but I can teach you what I know." Rakka said, a little embarrassed at how little she actually used Suiton at all. She glanced down into the water below the bridge. "You know how to use the surface walking technique, correct?" She would ask him. 

If he answered in the affirmative, she would nod. "Well, come on, then." She would say, leaning back and falling freely from the bridge, spinning until her feet were level with the water, and catching herself upon the surface, her feet glowing with her purple chakra as she did so. She would wait for the boy to make his way down, before continuing.

Ketsueki felt a touch of embarrassment having realized his thought had been spoken aloud. But then she went quiet for far longer than Ketsueki would like, soon the silence was broken on her end. Her sitting down didn't really alleviate his necessity to stay on his feet as he was rather anxious. Not because of her personally, but professionally he had no real clue of etiquette when it came to teachers. "Well, anything you could teach me would still be worth it."

Seeing her glance back to the water below he nodded. "Yes, I know that jutsu!" He says, ecstatic to have someone willing to teach him even a little about the ropes. He sees her drop down without a care as he himself leaps onto the rail, initiating his own surface walking jutsu to assure he didn't slide off and kill himself. Once again, hilarious for her, troublesome for him and a mite embarrassing.

He then stood on the rail and took a breath and once he'd seen her land he took another breath and cut his jutsu. The blue chakra below his feet faded before he free fell to the water. Obviously this child had completely forgotten that gravity would still apply when he landed and unfortunately he only realized halfway past his descent. He then initiated his surface walking jutsu once more. Hitting the water like a rock hits a pool of gelatin before he was forced back up by his chakra induced buoyancy. He smiled, looking down at the water as it rushed past him, he'd never tested his control of the jutsu like this before. He looked up at Rakka, waiting for instruction, hell maybe even a scolding for his lack of control.

Rakka nodded with satisfaction at the boy's answer. It was good that they now taught that technique at the academy. She remembered back in her day, when one not was taught such things until becoming a Genin, if one was lucky. Rakka did note that there wasn't a whole lot of water or trees where she came from, so perhaps this was an isolated incident. Regardless, she was relieved she didn't have to teach the absolute basics. She watched him plummet after her, bouncing upon the water with his landing, and Rakka was already stepping forward to avoid the consequent splash.


Okay, so, I’m gonna teach you an oldie but a goodie. The Water Dragon Technique is a bitch to learn, because it has a fucking massive amount of hand seals required, but over time, you’ll be able to use it much more easily.” She explained. ”This jutsu requires forty four hand seals. Now, let me tell you, you will never be able to actually complete this jutsu in a real fight. Everything moves too fast, and if you try to use this beast of a technique, you’ll get crushed.” She explained. ”If you must blink, do it now. I want you to carefully absorb and remember everything you see.” She warned.


She began creating hand seals to demonstrate the technique.


Ox → Monkey → Hare → Rat → Boar → Bird → Ox → Horse → Bird → Rat → Tiger → Dog →


”-So, I hear you ask, ‘Professor Yuki, why are you teaching me this damned thing if I’m not supposed to use it?” Rakka posed, speaking between hand seals-


Tiger → Snake → Ox → Ram → Snake → Boar → Ram → Rat → Yang Water → Monkey →


”-Well, let me make this clear. This technique is incredibly popular, for good reason. It grows with you-” She explained.


Bird → Dragon → Bird → Ox → Horse → Ram → Tiger → Snake → Rat → Monkey → Hare →


”-As your chakra increases in potency, so too will your ability to call forth the water. Soon, you’ll be able to bypass many of these hand seals entirely. I’m able to call forth the technique with only six hand seals-”


Boar → Dragon → Ram → Rat → Ox → Monkey → Bird → Yang Water → Rat → Boar → Bird


”-And here the big guy comes.” She finished, as a massive dragon began to rise from the water. It rose up, 40 meters into the air, and writhed along the water, moving in a snakelike manner, creeping along the water around them. She let it fly around, mostly for spectacle. ”Any questions?”