Never Too Prepared

Mara Asano's feet pattered on the ground as she race forward. She'd messed up her approach and found herself under the assault of a stream of projectiles. Now she was on the run, hoping that her own natural speed was enough to keep her ahead of the shuriken swarm. She needed to get away from these attacks so she could trurn the tide back. She turned sharply, hoping to escape the attack. Instead, she found herself headed into a new stream.

The shuriken whizzed past Mara's face, closer than she would have been comfortable with. Her natural reaction time was improving, but even someone not particularly skilled at weaponry, like her friend Idrina, was still almost able to hit her. She definitely wanted to be better than that before she met someone genuinely trying to hurt her.

A second close call resulted in a shuriken slicing through a stray strand of hair in front of her face. She felt the air spiraling off that one. Her hands flew together instinctively, forming the Rand and Boar seals. As the next projectile approached, her flicker movement jutsu kicked in and she found herself able to outmaneuver it.

For the first time this training, she had an upper hand on her bespectacled friend. She wove her hands together. Boar → Ram → Snake → Horse → Dragon

"Raiton: Jibashi!" The streams of lightning shot forward, coursing through the air before striking her friend and knocking her off her feet. Mara had reigned in the power of the technique. It was strong enough to stun, but wouldn't actually hurt her. Dashing forward, her hand swept at Idrina's belt, retrieving the orange training flag. It was the system they had established. The flag simulated a killing blow. Lose the flag and you were eliminated. Mara tugged the flag free.

From behind her, she heard the voice of Idrina's older brother, Ton. "Water Release: Water Shuriken!"

Damn! He must have been waiting for exactly this situation. The liquid projectiles came at her, and her Flicker Movement had faded. She definitely had the projectiles beat in
speed. But a simple dodge wouldn't give her the edge she wanted. She wove a quick series handseals in the fraction of a second the shurikens took to reach her. But a moment later, they made impact.

The shuriken's slammed into Mara knocking her sprawling on the ground. Idrina's brother's voice. "Haha! You're getting faster, but you're still human!"

He walked over and bent to retrieve Mara's orange belt, when something appeared off. With a poof, the illusion dismissed, revealing a discarded log that had been a foot or two away, with Mara's cloak draped roughly over it. "Oh shi-"

A sharp crackling came at him from the tree above, but the older boy didn't react quite fast enough. The lightning imbued kunai severed his orange tag, and imbedded it in the log that had served as her substitute. "Fair enough, well done," Ton replied. "That was very convincing."

"Why, thank you," Mara replied, giving a dramatic bow. now there was only one remaining, Idrina's father, Mako Takashi. There was basically no way the young Genin could take him on head on, but that he was going easy on her. Whether or not, she'd be strong enough was still a question. "Alright one left."

Before she'd even finished talking, a kunai pinned her flag to the wall. Her head turned to look at it slowly, before dropping her head back and letting out an annoyed groan. "Uuugggghhhh! Again? I was doing so well that time."

"Sometimes, good isn't good enough," Mr. Takashi said, suddenly appearing from the upper branches of the tree next to her. "If you slip up like that in the Chuunin Exams, you'll be eliminated. But that's the least of your worries. In the field, you could have been dead."

He pointed to the simple bladed weapon embedded in the wall. "That was a simple kunai. Imagine if it had been something worse. Hell, even you could have done worse had you been the attacker! You need to always be alert."

Mara blushed, and turned away, acting as if she was assessing the kunai and not hiding her face. But he was right. Had this been a hostile attack, she could have been injured or even killed. And all he had done was throw a weapon. "I'm sorry, Mr. Takashi. I'll be more focused."

He patted her on the shoulder affectionately, filling the surrogate father role he'd taken on when they brought Mara into their home. "Don't be sorry. Just keep yourself alive! You're part of our family now. We wouldn't want to lose you."

After a moment, he cleared his throat. "Now, shall we try again?"


"I guess," Mara replied. "I'm a little worn out from the last one."

"Perfect!" The elder Takashi replied. "It'll be just like a real fight then."

--

The three dark haired faux-assailants had sped off into the trees, leaving Mara behind to stare at the dark barked trees. She'd need a different plan of approach this time. And she had less chakra to work with, so she'd need to be creative.

--

Mara ran forward between the trees, her eyes searching for any sign of her potential attackers. She'd made it a good distance down the path, but hadn't seen any sign of activity. Just how far had they gone?

A moment later, a burst of energy flew at her, slamming into her with remarkable force. "Spirit gun!" Ton Takashi shouted as he hit his mark. Except he didn't hit his mark. The attack passed through Mara. She smiled and then disappeared. "A clone?!"

He only had a moment to react to the fact that the real Mara was very nearby. Seconds later, the trunk of the tree next to him exploded into splinters. The real Mara emerged through the explosion of wood particles, her right hand encased in sparking blue chakra, slicing cleanly through the thick bark of the tree. Tan stumbled backward, but it was too late. Mara's Hell Stab sliced downward severing the training flag. The older boy was clearly impressed by such a mighty jutsu.

Mr. Takashi had been very nearby. "Wind Release: Rotating Shuriken."


The projectiles flew at Mara but she spent a second or two scanning to find Idrina. Got her, Mara thought. As the shuriken closed on her position, Mara flicked her wrist and formed the Ram symbol.

In a blur of motion, Mara completely vanished from view. Several of the shuriken that followed her slammed into the ground, missing their mark. The blonde reappeared on one of the higher branches nearby. She moved to lunge toward Idrina, but a powerful burst of wind raced toward her. She was too tired to react in time, and it buffeted her and knocked her down.

The older man smiled. "That was good. I know you only retrieved one flag that time, but you made me pull out some higher level techniques. Keep it up and you'll..."

Thunk.

He looked down at his belt in disbelief. His flag was no longer on his belt, but was now on the ground next to him, impaled by a kunai. "You sneaky little monster!" The man was clearly proud.

Mara looked up, still visibly tired out. "Threw it before I used the Body Flicker," she said with a smile. "Didn't think it would work unless I gave you a shot at me. I was never going to get all three of you and not get hit."

"Indeed not," the man replied, offering a hand and helping her to her feet. "That was a clever move. I'd tell you not to sacrifice yourself for a hit like that." He gestured to his flag. "But given that I'm a dead man, I think I shouldn't talk. Well done, Mara."

"Thank you. Actually, thank you all for your help. I've got a long way left to go, but this has been a great start," Mara said, with clear appreciation in her voice.

Ton laughed. "We're glad to help. Even if you did almost cut me in half along with that tree!"

The group gathered their many scattered weapons before beginning on their trip back toward town. The training exercise had worn the young Asano out, but she felt pretty good about herself. She hadn't managed to eliminate all three, but actually getting Mr. Takashi's flag had been enough. It had been a pretty excellent training session.

[WC: 1413]
[Claiming:
7 Stats (7 Speed)
1250 Toward Learning Leaf Whirlwind (1250/1250)
163 toward learning Inside to Outside Block (163/500)

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't you need 10 Strength to learn D rank Taijutsu?

Damn. Forgot about that. Can I respec to +3 Strength, +4 Speed?

No


Works for me!

Approved.