Re: Hustling for the gains (io, nk)

Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:53 pm

So this is Tsume’s choice. It is a smart choice too. Due to the smoke bomb, Satoru is unable to see his opponents, he does not know what they are up to or where they might be moving. Then it occurs to him. His control over the battlefield which he had worked to achieve, his ability to play a fight as though it were chess on a board, his win condition to manipulate the factors of a fight in his favor, these have been sullied. With the very act of clouding Satoru’s vision, Tsume has robbed him of a great deal of insight and information. How does one control a chess board without knowing where his pawns are or where the enemy’s pawns are? It is difficult indeed, probably impossible.

So, Satoru’s first priority is to remove the smoke screen created by Tsume. The very fact that it is created by Tsume is distressing. Satoru has a jutsu which allows him to create a dust cloud which obstructs vision. The smoke bomb used just now by his opponent is not much different from it except that this cannot be used in Satoru’s favor, at least as far as he can think with his current strategy. He has not been anticipating this, it was not accounted for in his thinking. He must adapt to the new information but at the same time he doubts that he has the time to reroute himself before Tsume takes control of the fight. Seriously, if Tsume had done some shifty movement involving Haku and the transformation jutsu and the clone jutsu, Satoru would know nothing about it. Absolutely nothing. He has but hunches and guesses to go off of and these are not by any means enough.

“I’ll get rid of this smoke screen first. Then, I have to be very cautious. Tsume has seconds to pull any kind of trickery he wants to pull. It isn’t a lot of time but any amount of time is dangerous.” Satoru thinks as his free hand uses his fan to stir some air around him. He does not have the chakra to perform the sickle weasel technique though it would most likely disperse this smoke faster. The spiraling ring requires his attention chakra wise so only physical strength can be used with the fan. Satoru knows that his strength is his lowest attribute but what choice does he have aside from this? He might move out of the smoke but without sight, he does not know where he is moving until it is too late and he is in a trap. There are too many unknown variables for Satoru to make any movements of which he is unsure.

Some might see Satoru’s mental pattern in this situation as an over analysis. In many ways, it is but it is for good reason. It is dangerous for one to overclock their brain while trying to anticipate the opponent’s next move. Satoru’s belief has always been to avoid overclocking by knowing what he himself should have as a priority. By setting a primary goal for one’s actions, they eliminate a great amount of options that do not result in their goal. So, Satoru sees only a narrow number of actions that he has open to take. Why then is he so torn between his options? Because of his lack of information. Literally, he is guessing what Tsume is doing and questioning himself along the way the whole time. Maybe he’s doing this right now. Maybe he’s doing that. And if he’s doing that, well then I should do this. But wait, if I do this then I’d be wide open for option one which I don’t know if he’s doing.

See? Confusing.

Luckily, Satoru’s mental freeze has let his body perform the same monotonous motion until its job is complete. He has been waving his fane while thinking and it has cleared away enough smoke to let him see at least the silhouettes of Tsume and Haku. From here, the wind from the spiraling ring is enough to do away with the rest of the smoke.

The spiraling ring is thrown in the rough direction of where Tsume and Haku stand. It travels at a speed of 65. Then, after this, Satoru’s fan is placed onto his back once more and he runs forward towards his sparring opponents. He performs three hand seals along the way and stops running forward when he is around ten meters away. He is now prepared to perform his last yet-to-be-seen trick. And good timing too, his energy is wavering. Consumption of chakra as well as having to think so much about two enemies at once is taking its toll. Is he even still able to use the shadow clone jutsu and even the numbers?

(801/3,199)

Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:39 pm

Hakucho had watched this battle for a lot of the time and it seemed that aerial attacks worked, for the most part, so he turned back into the white feathered majesty. Tsume agreed with his partner. Suddenly, their diversion seemed to be foiled. The mass of wind chakra started for the Chokyoshi as Hakucho was already 10 meters in the air from where he was before.

Tsume needed to react quickly to the explosion of wind chakra. A counter explosion. Quickly drawing the paper bomb up his sleeve, he threw it mid-air and denotated it. Once he through it, he jumped back to not get in the explosions. They went off with a loud bang. The shockwave blew Tsume back even further. Hakucho was able to ride the shock wave, getting to 20 meters.

Satoru's turn was over. Tsume and Hakucho were able to avoid getting shredded and now it was their turn to attack. Hakucho, 20 meters in the air from Sat, fired 5 feathers that acted like kunai. Fast and also sharp, these feathers were great for Hakucho's defence and offence. Tsume still had his Fuma shuriken. Once he landed his shockwave boosted jump, he through his wind infused massive shuriken. Both of the attacks were at full speed. It would take a lot of speed and power to take them down. Tsume suddenly started to feel the effects of battle, he was getting really tired. Hakucho was as well. And based on Satoru heavy breathing, he was too. This was likely going to be the last attack for both of them. This was also exciting because this meant it was going to be where he showed his final jutsu. I hope it's not stronger than the one from before. I don't think I could handle another blast. Tsume thought.

WC: 302
TWC: 1854

Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:11 am

The sight of multiple incoming projectiles brings Satoru to attention after trying to peer through the smoke caused by the smoke bomb combined with the spiraling ring jutsu. It was a clever idea indeed, to use a weaker explosion to cushion the blow of a greater one. If performed correctly, it is an effective maneuver and Tsume has demonstrated such a correct use of it. But the idea is new to Satoru, not the science of it but the thought to do it in the first place.

“He is smart too. I struggle with mid-fight strategizing because of how much is going on so quickly. But Tsume just countered my technique like he had planned it previously. Well, like a teammate, he covers my weaknesses.” Then Satoru remembers that he is sparring the person he is now mentally complimenting. “That might give him the upper hand though.”

That is was Satoru is thinking just before he is snapped out of thought by the incoming projectiles in his vision. A number of them come from above, from Haku’s aerial vantage point. And then there is one coming from straight ahead. The difference in origin means that Tsume may be attempting to give Satoru multiple things to think about at once. Such a tactic would play on Satoru’s weaknesses but this is not the case. It is not the sheer amount of factors that causes Satoru to freeze when calculating his next move. Rather, it is not knowing some key factors that will cause him to fail when making a decisive decision.

In the case presented, Satoru has all of the information that he wants in order to think of his next move. Prior, however, his lack of thinking speed came from having no information from one of his most depended upon senses: sight. Understandably, the inability to see made him second guess himself a great deal. But this instance is much easier to deal with.

It should be noted though that the incoming projectile from Tsume, the fuma shuriken gliding sharply through the air, is charged with lightning chakra. Defending against such an attack is to take unnecessary damage to his shield, that is his fan. Instead, he thinks of something better to do which will allow him to set up his way of asking to end the battle. Both himself and Tsume are winded, Satoru can discern this by looking at Tsume as he breathes. The repeated use of jutsu after jutsu, dodge after guard, these are tiring.

Satoru closes his fan quickly hops no more than a meter into the air. However high the fuma shuriken is above the ground, a bit more than this is how high Satoru hops. Then, with his fan in hand, the feather blades are batted away. The scratches inflicted upon the fan’s steel arms are not extremely deep but manageable. His next actions consist of thrusting the closed fan downward when the gums shuriken is below him. The fan fits vertically into the hole in the center of the weapon and the shuriken is stopped. This way, the edges of the blades do not work to cut into the fan.

When the shuriken slows down, Satoru lets himself fall and land on his feet. The shuriken is picked up and then Satoru makes his way towards Tsume. While walking, he places his fan back onto his back. The fuma shuriken is handed back to Tsume when he is reached.

“Ok, to be honest, I’m out of it.” Satoru says bluntly. “Sorry, though. I never really have the stamina to spar for very long. Maybe in the future I can improve that but until then, I’ll see you around?”

(615/3,814)

[Mid-thread claims: 19 stats, 1,814 words towards shadow sewing technique, 2,000 words towards mastering stage one of the heaven curse mark]

Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:58 pm

Approved.

Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:39 pm

The spar perused. Satoru had incoming missiles from both Haku and Tsume. This almost made Tsume worry he went over board. That was until he saw the dodging maneuvers Satoru pulled.

He started with Tsume's wind infused shuriken. He jumped over it like a boss but the duo were two steps ahead with Hakucho's feathers. But again those were also avaided with Saturo pulling his hand fan that he carried on his back. After both the shuriken and feathers were countered/dodged, the fellow genin would pick up Tsume's shuriken and start walking towards him with it. Tsume pulled out his katana again for self defense for what ever Satoru had in mind.

But Satoru wasn't using the weapon he was giving it back. Tsume sighed in relaxation. Hakucho also sighed, he was prepared to charge at Satoru at full speed and spill some blood. Not like to death, but most likely a mean scar.

Tsume took back his massive shuriken as Satoru explained that he was tired and that it was a long and strenuous spar they just had. The duo couldn't agree more. Tsume whistled for his buddy to come back as he sheathed his bladed and rested the massive shurkien back on his back. Hakucho landed on his shoulder.

"Agreed," Tsume chuckled. He had never really had that much of a stressful fight before, he normally found too strong of people or too weak of people. He never really had an equal chance until today. He wasn't complaining and neither was Haku, they both very much enjoyed the spar and he thought it was a great experience for all of them.

Before Satoru would take off, Tsume remembered a blade he really wanted to buy, but was just short of money. "Hey Satoru," he started. "Can you spot me 100 ryo?" He laughed nervously. "I want to buy a blade for the tournament and I just need 100 ryo more. I can pay you back." Tsume insured. It wasn't quite true though. He had the material for the sword he just needed to buy the blacksmith materials for it, then he was set. If Satoru would agree he would gladly take the money and bow in thanks.

WC: 370
TWC: 2224

Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:20 pm

Tsume's request for a quick 100 ryo is easily agreed to by Satoru. He states that he would be happy to oblige and wishes him luck during the tournament he will be competing in. From Satoru's pocket, a wallet is removed and from this wallet, he hands Tsume the 100 ryo.

With that, Satoru bids Tsume goodbye, leaving the area to pack his few things in his apartment.

[Exit]
[Giving Tsume 100 ryo, leaving me with 5,650 ryo]

Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:49 pm

Approved.

Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:51 pm

Luckily Satoru obligated to giving him the 100 ryo. "Thanks buddy." Tsume says after his bow. As he departed with a body flicker only left behind was some dust that was kicked up. Now Tsume would be able to afford the material for the blacksmith stuff and craft his sword from the material his mother gathered.
WC: 56
TWC: 2280

EXIT
CLAIMING:
11 stats for Hakucho and Tsume
2280 WC towards Hazy Moon Light
100 ryo

Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:56 pm

Approved.