Dove flying higher (Max)

The mischievous konochi was wandering around her apartment, thinking about about her future. Their was going to be a chunin exam coming up and she wanted to be a part of all the action but she was so much further behind all her peers. She was still a bit fresh from the academy. She knew her strengths and weaknesses, so she knew what to focus on. But with what was the question. She had gotten some medical skills from Max, and some tai skills with Kyson. She was exceptional in all of the areas. Especially someone so fresh from the academy. She then concluded that she wouldn't get much done at home. 

After slipping into some training gear, she would head out and head towards the training grounds. On the way, she passed a group of young adults. They stared at her figure. Of course Hato noticed. She gave them a wink and blew a kiss. They blushed and laughed away. Im so naughty, She after noticing their obvious attraction towards her. She loved playing games like that. 

Finally, Hato arrived at the field. She decided that she would need a strong justu to train. So, an A rank jutsu would do just fine. But what though? She didn't want to waist time, so she would have to think while training. This would just be her hitting a dummy on the side with her legs, then punching it. This pattern would continue. 

WC: 242

So, it was almost time for a Chuunin Candidate Examination? The fights would be brutal, and the genin would have every move assessed and analyzed. They would be looked at with a discerning eye, one that didn’t allow for many mistakes. While the Kage’s were away, who would honestly judge the exams? Would it be Kyson? His position in the Kage’s building and self-inflicted responsibility of the daily paperwork attached to the daily duties of the village would suggest it would be he that did so. Honestly, there weren’t many Genin that Max honestly thought were ready for the realities of the new rank. The responsibility, the demands both mentally and physically. If anything, this contest would weed out the weak contestants, but there was more to being a chuunin that combat skill…. Much more.
 
Max would look over the files, seeing who all had signed up to be in these exams. It would look to be that almost all of the candidates were newly appointed genin. Unless they were some sort of prodigies such was almost laughable. Max would admire their determination, but that alone wasn’t going to be enough.
 
Kay was so green that she barely knew any jutsu. Her chakra was incredible, but a weapon in the hands of the inexperienced can do more harm to them than good. Hato was another candidate. She was older, and probably had a bit more experience under her belt, but she too would be walking in to the exams likely underprepared for the rank. Her chakra was not incredibly potent, nor was she very fast. He hadn’t seen her strength, but even if she could crush a boulder with her hands, she wouldn’t be able to use that strength if she couldn’t catch her opponents. Max wasn’t even able to say that he knew the others besides Saya, and so he couldn’t be sure about them. Honestly if they were skilled prodigies he would have likely heard at least something about them by now.
 
Saya was skilled, and she had a lot of shinobi experience under her belt. If Max expected anyone to be both ready and capable for the new rank, it would be her.
 
Max would make his way to the training grounds, ready to knock some of this “rust” off. His last challenge was with Komori, and that ended almost too quickly. No, Max would likely have to train alone in preparation for his next step. He was going to become a Jounin, no matter what it took.
 
The blonde found himself not alone in the training grounds today. Another blonde was there practicing her martial training. It wasn’t something Max was particularly adept at, but he could still see that if this was her training regimen she simply wouldn’t cut it as a chuunin candidate. She would have to push herself harder, and he couldn’t even see her sweating. This simply wouldn’t do.
 
“Hato! Hello. I saw that you signed up for the Chuunin examination tournament. Is that why you are here? To train in preparation?” Max would say this, his face near expressionless. He wanted to see if she was truly ready for these grueling fights.

Sweat was starting to form above her brow. It had been ten minutes of punching and kicks against the dummy, which was starting to chip away slowly with the relentless blows. Just a bit further She thought to herself. This was a strange feeling. The feeling of needing to get something done. When Hato first signed up for the chunin exams, she just wanted to see people where in this village. But now she was determined to become Chunin.  

"Hato!" A familiar voice calls to her. She turns her head to see the boy behind the voice. Max. He explained that he saw her name in the chunin exams tournament and assumed thats why she was there in the first place. She nodded, "I'm going up against some strong opponents, I'll need all the training I can make room for." Hato explained, wiping sweat off her brow. 

Now that Max had showed up, Hato wasn't alone on the training field. "Hey since you're here. Do you mind pulling out a puppet and sparring with me?" Sparring was a great form of training, and since he was a level above her, it would help a lot against people that would be the same level as herself. "Don't worry, I won't damage it too much." This was, of course, a joke. Hato was not at a level to even lay a finger it on it when he could go all out. 

WC: 239
TWC: 481

Max would agree wholeheartedly when Hato said that she would need all the training she could get to be prepared, though he wouldn’t say such a thing out loud. He had no intentions of dashing anyone’s hopes. No, he simply wanted to elevate all of those around him, bring them up to a position where if they were needed to be called upon by the village for anything, they would be prepared, ready, and most importantly capable.
 
“If you would like I can spar with you. My puppets could use the workout, as they haven’t seen as much exercise as they should be getting.” Max would form the seals and bring out one of his puppets from its extradimensional storage. One of his Rotting Corpse puppets would now be out, its putrid flesh assaulting the senses as soon as it makes contact with the air. Max of course was accustomed to it and was not fazed by such a thing. Hato on the other hand would probably find the horrid thing in front of her revolting, though she probably saw them before when they were on their mission. Of course, on that mission Max was the rear guard and the puppets fanned out away from the grouping, so she likely hadn’t been this close to them before.
 
The zombie would look to its master, then shift its gaze towards the older Hato. Its missing hand looked to have the bones carved into a bone shiv of sorts, and being stabbed by such a thing would surely lead to a painful infection if not properly treated. The slack jawed puppet would ready itself, though in reality it was Max the puppeteer doing all of the motions. The creature didn’t look to be anything impressive, but that was the beauty of his art. Max could make anything into a deadly weapon… even the dead.
 
“I think that you will find my puppets in particular to be rather resilient, but I enjoy the enthusiasm. Let us see what you are capable of, Hato Sano!” Max would say as he moved out of the way of any fighting.

Wc:354

Max seemed excited to spar with Hato. She found this odd. Never had she encountered someone that was excited for another person. Of course, she would make herself pretend that she cared about others. Perhaps that's what Max was up to. Just pretending to help Hato with her training so he could also get some training in. Weak-minded fool if he did care about me. 


Max whipped out his undead puppet. Hato saw the string connected to the user as he wasn't suppressing it. She had no problem with the dead but the smell was still out outrageous. "Interesting, I hope I don't break the soft fleshed thing!" She called out to Max. The chunin then got her all hyped up, ending the conversation and starting the spar. 

Hato knew that she would have to go after Max to truly stop the puppet. But she wanted a spar, not a victory. So instead she would go after the puppet as if it were a real person. He didn't make the first move, so that would leave Hato to be the one to start off. Assuming, the puppet was 5 meters from her, she would try and close the distance by running up to it. Around a meter away, she would quickly go to the opposite side of the missing hand with the bone knife. If she was successful, in moving without interruptions. She would try punching the puppet's arm with her arm that was furthest away from the puppet. This would allow her to still see the weaponized arm while still attacking. She wasn't about to let that gross thing penetrate her.  

WC: 272
TWC: 753

Max would watch, waiting to see exactly what she would do. Would she rush in, or would she wait and stay on the defensive? Both options had their merits, though he knows what he would have done if he were in her position. He would have waited to see just how fast and capable the target was, to try and assess how he would have to strike in order to avoid them simply slipping away from the move without effort. 

The battlefield was one that Max could see all of clearly. There were very few obstacles, only the training post that she had been using being in the immediate vicinity. There were a few trees off in the distance, perhaps 50 or so meters away behind Hato, but even those were far and few. A boring field of battle, but one that Max didn't have any issue with. 

Hato would dash towards the Zombie, likely trying to blitzkrieg the thing. She would move to the side that did not have the shiv, but that didn't really matter all that much. The puppet would shift as she moved to keep her square with it and again as she swung as fast as she could. Max didn't want to just pummel a genin, so he would try and only move the zombie as fast as Hato seemed to be moving. It would shift (speed 10) as she threw the punch, the puppets targeted arm (it's left one doesn't have the shiv), pivoting on its right foot. This would likely cause her attack to miss, her arm now extended in front of the puppets torso. 

If that were to be the case and everything went as planned, the puppet would then grab her extended arm, applying only a small amount of force and bending, effectively "hip-tossing" her to the ground, with its shiv arm pressed parallel (from shoulder to shoulder) against her chest, the sharp bit near her other shoulder in order to help prevent that one from moving around too much. 

Max would simply watch and see how she reacts.

The puppet user had no trouble seeing Hato's movement. He was prepared for a counter, as any good shinobi should in a battle. Hato knew that as well. She wasn't ignorant. 

The puppet stepped back from Hato's fist, having more speed than her. It would then reach for her arm that she tried striking with. This could mean danger for the young woman if it could keep a hold of her. Luckily for the konochi, her other hand was free from any grasp. As she went for a kunai from her back weapon pouch with her right hand, which was the side that was free, she tried to get out of the grip of the puppet but it's strength was more than hers. That's when she felt the shift in weight in the puppet, it was going to try to lift her and do some sort of one handed hip toss. Hato was not about to let a puppet overpower her. Taking the kunai in hand, she attempted to slash off the arm holding her right were the arm met the shoulder. 

If struck, Hato would be free from the puppet. That meant she needed to take the chance to get some distance. Using her all her speed, she would try to slice down on the other arm with the bone shiv in the same spot that she hacked off the other arm. If successful, it would would completely disarm the puppet. Which then she would try to back up 2 meters with all her speed. If the slash attempt didn't work, she would still try to back up to meters from the puppet. This would be so she could go on the defensive while trying to figure out a way to impress Max. Wait, impressing Max? Why did she care if he was impressed. Damn, this nice girl was really getting to her head. She might have to kill someone just to clear her head. Of course, she couldn't go around killing people. 
WC:334
TWC: 1087

As the puppet reaches in to grab that arm, Hato would reach back and pull out a kunai with her other arm. The zombie grabs Hato’s extended arm successfully, her struggle to free herself from its grasp futile due to its incredible strength. As it shifted its weight with its shiv arm extended parallel to her chest and to her shoulder, she would find her other arm fairly useless as the shiv was at her shoulder preventing her from getting much range of motion. She could take the injury to move it, but even then she wouldn’t be able to get a clean slash in from this position. She could stab it, but honestly the puppet wouldn’t really care much. It didn’t feel pain, and a whole in its head, shoulder, arm, or whatever from a stab wouldn’t deter it at all.
 
The puppet would continue with its motion of hip tossing her, driving her to the ground with enough force to knock the wind from her lungs, but not enough to cause any serious, long lasting damage. While Max could patch her up, he didn’t feel any reason to harm her during training unless it was needed for the lesson at hand, which was really quite rare.
 
The puppet would stand over her, ready to continue combat as soon as she was, waiting for signs of her continued will to fight. “The Chuunin Examination Tournement will likely be harder than this. Do you have anything up your sleeve to prevent another competitor from doing what I just did?” Max would say while he waited for her to continue.

WC: 269

Notes: All Speeds not listed are equal to Hato's full speed (think it was 10, but if you want to use the newer speed I don't mind). Powers/Strength are only enough to "feel it", as stated to knock the wind out of her from the impact, and enough to keep her from breaking the hold through sheer strength.

OoC reasoning for the slam: Hato threw a punch, the puppet pivoted its position so that Hato's arm would glide by in front of the zombies chest. It then grabbed the arm (confirmed by Hato's struggle to break the hold) as she reached for and pulled out her kunai (I assume full speed here). 

Hato wanted to slash as she felt the weight shift, but at that point the shiv arm was across her chest to pin down effective range of motion from the limb (fully explained in post). Without anything else happening, the slam would occur unstopped. 

You said you wanted it to be more "combat like" and so I am attempting to treat it as such. You are welcome to ask someone to read it over if you think I am unable to claim the hit or if you just want another set of eyes looking at what happened and maybe explaining it.

Max's movements got the puppet to move almost human like. This allowed the puppet to grab Hato's arm and attempt to hip throw her, while also holding her down with it's make shift bone shiv. Hato couldn't reach the other arm that was holding her arm with the kunai she was holding. But, she didn't give in yet. She still had the kunai and the puppet was still close to her. She swung the kunai at the the base of where the bone shiv met the flesh. Since the kunai sharpness is 60, the bone shiv wouldn't stand a chance against the blade if struck and would come right off. 

If the previous were a success, there would no longer be any weight on her right side, meaning the hip toss wouldn't work with one side. This also meant that Hato's right arm could move freely again. And since there was still momentum, she stopped herself in her tracks. She lead the kunai in her hand behind the zombie's back, where the threads were located and try to strike off all the threads that were controlling the upper half of the puppet so it would let her arm go and also leave the upper half motionless. 

If the previous were a success, Hato would be free and would back up 2 meters from the rotting puppet, which by the way smelled like crap and made her really not want to fight it but she knew that's why Max had the puppet. "Don't underestimate me, Sensei!" She called out to Max. As she moved, she also would add throwing the kunai at Max, which was 7 meters away from her. It would travel at a speed of 61 and a sharpness of 60. If struck by the kunai, it would hit his right shin. 

WC:303
TWC: 1390

Hato would slash at the weak arm of the zombie, its decaying body an easy target to cut through. Her motion was swift, slightly faster than Max had expected her to be, and so he simply watched her actions to see what was going through her mind. How would she overcome this obstacle on her path upwards?
 
Her blade would slice clean through the exposed bone in a downwards slash in reverse grip, removing the sharp bit and giving her arm a much more free range of motion. In this same attack she would slash at the strings attached to the puppet, which would attempt to sever them, but such a move was simply outside of her capabilities. The kunai would clash with the threads made of pure chakra and would find themselves unable to destroy them (Thread health is 50 with old skill or new and requires +20 to beat, meaning 70 sharpness). Unable to sever the threads that powered the torso, the puppet would still slam her down as she wasn’t able to fully stop it (The wrist bones are a shiv, though the rest of the arm is still there from mid forearm up so there is still force being applied to the upper torso with the toss).
 
Upon completing the slam, Max would applaud her effort. That might have worked if she was a bit more capable, but alas she couldn’t break his threads with just her kunai. “Good try, though you still have a lot of distance to cover if you intend on making Chuunin. Let me see what else you’ve got!” Max would say as the puppet falls back to the 2 meter range, allowing the stunned genin a moment to catch her breath.

WC: 290

OoC: This should timeline away the kunai speeding for Max's shin, though should you still wish to do so in your next post Max would react accordingly.