Futility, Utility

A swift sidestep, and then a forward dash from the puppet, held Koutaku’s attention. Yet, as the fight behind them carried on, he couldn’t help but find himself making small notes in his mind as his periphery and subconscious picked up on various details: The way Saya and Frejya moved, the seeming strain on Pinnochio’s wooden limbs, the clear joints at ankles and wrists as he sidestepped. Each of these minuscule details was glaring to him, like a man shouting in a once-silent grove. They whispered to him, speaking of secrets, hinting at possibilities, weaknesses, things to exploit. Absently, a part of him noted the dialogue and the likely implication that among them, Pinnochio was likely the least. Were their words meant to deceive perhaps? No matter.

He wouldn’t let those notions take center stage, instead, he allowed himself to stay in the moment--and in those few steps that he thought ahead. In this state Koutaku--almost thoughtlessly--flicked his right hand, using the rotational force and the many hours of practice he’d gotten in over the years with his family, to have the kunai’s blade drive down into the ground up to its grip. Then he surged forth at 20 speed, leading with his left arm, one kunai in its hand’s grip. His right arm he kept at the ready, fist closed, arm moving slightly in the up-down side-to-side motion of his gait. Glinting behind the genin--as if to match the mischief in his eyes--wire refracted light, its length gradually unraveling.

Spoiler:

Oh good. It seems pinochio's young student had learned his first lesson: Don't just like. throw a weapon or your opponent will just step casually to the side and give you a confused look. He assumed the step forward had done it. Now this boy was rushing towards him, closing the distance to try and make it more dificult for Pinochio to react to his attacks. Honestly it could work. His vision was based on saya's, and while she had no issue splitting her consciousness in a way that allowed her to fight both fights simultaneously, She did need to keep herself in a position where she could see both the opponent coming at her and the one attacking pinoch. Rational thought would tell you that she didn't need to see Freyja because she was controling every one of her movements. We don't use rational thought round these parts. 

Pinochio leaned back in his stance, turning his body at a slight angle as he prepared to spring backwards in response to whatever this boy was going to do. His footwork shifted, putting pressure on the heel of one foot and ball of the other to give himself an oportunity to react in the most effective way possibe, and again he noted the glint of wire. That wouldn't do much in hand to hand, he thought to himself. Now it was time to show off his trademarked fighting style. 


Even as the slow battle between pinochio and his student continued, a raging war roared beside them. The fighting pair was now within close quarters, which was generally bad for saya. She had her vine technique to defend herself, but attempting to use any other jutsu would leave her horibly open and she was counting down the time before she lost the chakra controlling it. Thankfully her freyja puppet wasn't the most effective fighter. She had the shield of hildvaldi, of course, but her setup was mostly support to the puppet master. she could fly though. Drawing her arms back into her body Saya would barelly dodge a horizontal slash of the sheild thrown by Freyja. From each wrist new vines shot out, stabbing at the weapon that was already leaving her space. She allowed her feet to lift off the ground, pulling her body back until it looked like she was falling to the ground, but when Freyja set up for a finishing attack the grin on her face widened. 

The flowers at each of her ankles came to life, small vines slipping down her foot to stab into the ground beneath her. They pushed off, driving her backwards at a speed of one hundred and ten. With the vines moving her body, now she could truely fight back. 

"Oh. Did she finally use the vines as movement tech? I was wondering how long it would take her to realize that was a possibility. " It wasn't meant to be insulting, but there was something about the way Pinochio was keeping tabs on saya's fight that suggested he wasn't really taking this seriously. 

(TWC 3007)

His free right hand moved in two blurring motions, one swift, one held for several fractions of a second longer: Dog, Ram. For an odd moment, nothing happened, then a clone emerged from his side as if he were an amoeba splitting into two. The clone rushed to the left and forwards while Koutaku continued on his path. In the same instant, Koutaku appeared to slow for an instant--two more shuriken with wire drawn--before increasing his pace to 30 speed to close the dwindling distance between them. Then, in a sudden blur, he thrust forwards at 40 speed in what could only be a half-learned body flicker, thrusting the kunai in his left hand at the likely joint in Pinnochio’s throat. In the genin’s wake, what appeared to be two, no three clones, moved in concert. Two diverging to the left and right respectively, while the third continued its approach.

While the budding shinobi had yet to truly harness the full extent of the Body Flicker, he had done some training with it. With few opportunities of late to spar with another, he figured it would be best to test it against an actual opponent, rather than to simply strategize and theorize how he might use it in the future. Further, the puppet--well, Saya really--was insulting him. Goading him. The thought made his smile tighten, then relax, though the intensity in his eyes somehow ratcheted up.

The first clone that had split off from Koutaku ran past the kunai that Pinnochio had side-stepped. As it arrived it exploded into smoke, leaving three identical genin.

Spoiler:

"Huh." Okay. Either this kid was seriously just feeling them out, he drastically underestimated his opponent, or he was extremely new. As the boy's body blurred he would have cocked an eyebrow in confusion at the use of a jutsu that Saya had learned in the academy and then completely forgotten she had ever studied. Still, he was finally moving towards him, and... formed another hand sign? 

"Huh." Pinochio knew that one. All at once one of the three clones closed the distance much faster than the others due to body flicker not having a clause that says it works with the clone jutsu. Almost effortlessly Pinochio lept forward, spinning in the air. With precision he watched the kunai slide harmlessly past his chest as Koutaku, locked into the body flicker movement that would end one meter past the point he was currently at due to him not designated the stopping point and that being a rational distance to end it at, he would be unable to do anything to stop what happened next. In one fluid movement Pinochio's inner knee wrapped around the boy's head, the spin of his technique launching the gening towards a tree two meters to his right. Thankfully the fall would not be too terrible, with his throw speed being only fourty seven and a nice not so soft tree to break his fall. The other two clones... Well they were there he supposed. If they attacked, due to them obviously being the fakes with knowlege that the real opponent body flickered and was now flying towards a tree, he would just shrug and let them have their fun trying to stab him with incorporeal kunai. 

"So. Lesson one. Body flicker is an incredibly helpful tool HOWEVER the speed bonus it grants is so intense that it stops the body from taking any actions other than moving from point A to point B. If used to get away, Body flicker is excelent, however if used towards an opponent your path is set and you cannot divert from it until your jutsu ends. You may not end it early, and as such I could have killed you by throwing a kunai instead of just tossing you into a tree. Learn and understand the fundamentals of every jutsu you train. Know it's weaknesses so that you will not find one of your most precious tools used against you. " As he finished his explaination, now on the ground again, he would clap his two wooden hands together and give a small bow before sliding them out to take his stance once more. 

The epic fight going on beside them stopped the instant Pinochio lept. Almost as if frozen in time Saya half stood, half laid backwards at a fourty five degree angle facilitated by the vines that held her in place. Leaning in to start another strike the Freyja puppet stopped with arm extended looking more like she was a burgaler caught sneaking into a house than a valliant fighter, her shield mid blow when she stopped, the weapon that had once been swinging downward to cut saya in half now hanging lazily in the air. 

(TWC 3535)

One moment he’d been close to an attack, the next he was flying through the air towards a tree. Well, a fake tree, wait...maybe it would be better to react rather than think abou--CRACK!

Striking the tree with more force than he might’ve liked, Koutaku slumped down it and groaned as Pinnochio began lecturing him. He didn’t even have enough air--or wherewithal for that matter--in him to make any sort of cogent response. The only thoughts in his mind were in regards to the pa--wait…. There wasn’t nearly so much pain as there ought to have been. Why was he warm?

Uncurling slightly from his position, he noticed a thin, dissipating sheath of chakra vanishing from his midsection and back.

‘Chakra Infusion?’ He wondered internally as the small wooden boy droned on. Raising his head, squinting from the pain--because lord it still hurt even with the slight cushion his instinctive use of chakra had allowed--Koutaku tried to form a meaningful sentence as the small automaton finished, took a step back, and then entered his stance again.

“Yeah, that certainly could have gone better,” he croaked out, his voice cracking once embarrassingly--not that this could get much wors--...why did he feel eyes on his back?

Turning his head, the genin noticed that the other fight had paused as if someone had just hit the stop button on time, and that every single one of their gazes was locked on him. Already hurting, on the back foot, and cursing himself internally, Koutaku could do nothing to compose himself to save face.

His clones poofed out of existence and the genin thought to himself that if they’d had minds to think with, that they too would be wondering what the hell he’d been thinking. Koutaku’s best guess was that he hadn’t.

Then he realized he was still staring, his mouth a few centimeters open, at Saya and her opponent. With a snap, his jaw shut and he looked away from both of them, angling his head down so that his hair--and the shadows of his face obscuring light--would hide the faint blush on his cheeks.

This was...really not ideal. Now more than a little annoyed with himself, Koutaku forced himself up to his feet, using the faux tree as a support as he recovered his breath--if not his dignity--before turning one eye up to face the small puppet. “Well said Pinnochio, I’ll keep that in mind...” he managed, still hiding his face. There was a newfound respect in his words, but also a slew of other fainter emotional undertones. Poorly hidden embarrassment and the slightest hint of frustration. Internally, the young shinobi was at war with himself in an effort to resist the incredibly negative emotions he had towards failure. Though so few knew of his clan or their expectations all that meant was that he was the only example many of his peers would ever have of their prowess. Thus, in the eyes of the clan--of his family, extended and otherwise--a failure anywhere was a mark against them all. It didn’t just reflect poorly on him, but on every single one of them from the present day and back through the eras.

His mother, his father, cousins...they meant well and they’d taught him a lot. He owed everything he was to the lessons the clan had taught him, but unbeknownst to them they’d also taught him fear and paranoia--the very things that held him back. Koutaku, attempting to rationalize that this was training, had to fight against that fear, and the paranoia that his family would find out...that everyone would find out about his moments of weakness. He had to do it with the eyes of relative strangers on him, people who didn’t know that he had value, people whose first impressions were based on these interactions.

Clenching his teeth, these thoughts raging through his mind, Koutaku bowed to Pinnochio, then bent down further and picked up the four shuriken, and the single kunai he’d dropped when the puppet had thrown him. Slowly, with deep breaths--techniques he’d learned from his family--he centered himself again. Tugging lightly, then harder, he pulled the two kunai he’d lodged into the ground out and towards him. As they approached he snatched them from the air without the slightest bit of effort. This grounded him further.

He raised his eyes, meeting Pinnochio’s. Saya couldn’t see it and those dead wooden orbs likely couldn’t perceive much of anything, but the seeds of determination had been rekindled in Koutaku’s gaze.

“Pinnochio, you make the first move this time,” he said, bowing again, lower this time to show that he knew who was learning from whom, before he rose up again and then took on a similar stance to before. He’d redistributed his weapons, two kunai in his left hand, as well as two shuriken, with two shuriken and one kunai in his right.

“You got me fair and square so it’s only right that you get initiative this time,” he clarified, flashing a small smile at the puppet in such a way that Saya might catch hints of it enough for Pinnochio to react.

Spoiler:

Pinochio gave the boy a look as he suggested he be the aggressor. Had he actually been allowed to do that before? In no uncertain terms the answer was no. While he'd been pushing his student Saya to better herself, and had sparred a few times with either her or one of her new friends, For the most part he'd been on the back burner since the day that Ai was made. it made sense. He would never actually fall from her favor. He was her first. He'd been with her since the days when she couldn't even control a single puppet. As she gathered power he wondered what his role would be. There was no way she'd succeed in her plans to find a way to bring them to true life, and so he assumed he would serve as motivation as he always had, but not actually offer much usefulness in combat. This short inviation brought all of these thoughts to his mind, and allowed his resolve to strengthen. He'd show this kid what was up the Pinochio way.

He pushed foward, closing the distance at a speed of 93. Within about two meters, unless interupted, he would set his heels into the ground, sliding along the soft faux earth beneath his feet. Closing distance would be an easy thing with his speed, but he couldn't actually teach if he overpowered the boy with the weight of their previous training, and so his body would slow until he matched the last speed he'd seen his opponent move at. He bent down low in his stance, curling his body like a spring as he prepared. Unleashing his pent up momentum he'd start things easy: His head turned to keep focus on his enemy as his shoulders led a spinning round kick aimed up to strike at his opponent's ribs. This should be easy enough to counter given the body's locked in momentum, but he had a few tricks most ninja did not.

As Kou and Pinochio continued their fight, Saya and Freyja turned their attention back on one another. From their position it was slightly awkward to actually reengage, and it was clear from the slow motion they took to get back into the swing of battle that their stopping positions was not quite ideal. The vines on Saya's wrists shot out as Freyja's heels pushed her back up and allowed her body to continue towards the seemingly falling girl. The sides of the fines whipped at the edges of the shield to test her hold, and found the top edge dip when pressure was applied. With the body of the fine starting testing attacks, the tips were able to slide over the bladed edges on the top and bottom, seeking to wrap themselves around the hand that held the single contact point of her shield.

In one fluid motion she allowed her body to continue to fall backward, Freyja flicked her wrist, and the bladed edge sliced through the top vine easily as it turned upward. Saya had hoped for that.

(TWc 4047)

Watching intently, Koutaku considered his options while Pinnochio prepared himself or something along those lines. If he was being honest, his most valuable assets were certainly his equipment--particular his wire--and the transformation technique. This in mind, Koutaku performed the Dog handseal as Pinnochio erupted into motion, followed swiftly by the Ram handseal. This time using body flicker in a more strategically sound manner, Koutaku first transformed, appearing the same, but now with incredibly long flowing scarves grasped in his hands. Then, in the next moment--as Pinnochio’s spinning kick initiated--the genin vanished in a blurring motion as body flicker was initiated. He moved to the right at a speed of 50, stopping only 1 meter after he began. The scarves, however, trailed behind him, remaining very much in the way of his wooden adversary’s strikes and movement overall.

Still, not the least bit satisfied, Koutaku spun on his heel and dashed at a speed of 20 forwards, before--at an angle behind Pinnochio--turning once more and throwing three shuriken. They were aimed in a spray such that one would hit Pinnochio on his current trajectory, while the other two would fly past Pinnochio’s right side. Should Pinnochio not abort his kick, the scarves would become tangled with his legs and torso.

Spoiler:

Pinochio's body flowed like water as he shifted his shoulders, turning his body weight into the kick. The kunai in his hand released the moment the boy's body begain to shift, moving at it's full speed of fourty six in a path that would intersect with the boys. Having to travel a shorter distance than Koutaku's one meter to find an interaction point Koutaku would be stuck. His body flicker carried him directly face to face with the sharpened steel, only to find the blade purposely just off course. Inches from his skin he would be able to feel the air drift past as the weapon floated across the battlefield, and with a loud THUNK the tip found purchase in a wooden stone meant to make the room feel more like outside.

The transformation techique was a new one for him. Saya HAD learned it in the academy, and she'd been able to use it nearly the moment it was taught to her--mostly due to the previous ninjutsu training she'd been given at home. The use however was confusing to him. Long flowing scarves would trail behind the nearly doomed genin, and as Pinochio spun his heel would slide into a loop in the fabric and...... slice it in half? THe puppet's sharpened feet made ribbons of the 5 health cloth, but heres where things get interesting.

Pinochio would seem to put his feet down against the air itself and push off, zipping to close the distance with Koutaku at the same twenty speed the boy had been moving before. It wouldn't take him very long at all to cross the one meter distance. He didn't have much in the way of taijutsu training asside form the basics of combat, but he understood well enough.

The moment he pushed off from the nothingness, Puppets ability to float when controled by chakra threads making it seem like he could walk on the air himself, he curled his head inward. His heels came over his head as he flipped, The kunai in his hand striking against the shuriken from the top side and his body setting up another attack when he got into range. His lead leg would come down in an axe kick aimed solely to slice at the boy's shirt, knee pulled back just before making contact with his shoulder to ensure he didn't accidentally slice his student in half with sharpened feet. The Shuriken aimed directly at him would find purchase in the floor beneath as it was deflected without having the power to shatter the kunai's higher health, especially with the colision happening on the non sharpened point of the weapon, and his somersault ensured the only portion of his body that was in line with the three weapons was his head, nestled far enough between the two other weapons that they passed by his moving body with over a foot of clearance.

His eyes watched the glinting silver string--or they would have if they worked. Saya's eyes however watched the glinting string as she continued her battle to the side. She knew enough about weapons that he could control movement to a point, but not enough to turn their path into her puppet. She would need to watch for a recoil, but that was fine. They moved half as slowly as the fight itself.

(TWC 4604)

As the kunai whistled past his face in a blur of steel, Koutaku felt a shudder travel down his spine before he arrived and made his throw. That had been deliberate...he could’ve died just then. Keeping this in mind for the future, Koutaku loosed his wirebound shuriken, only for them to go wide of the puppet as he stepped on thin air and hurtled towards him in a flying axe kick. In those few moments he had to react, Koutaku let the transformation technique fall, he’d need it again soon enough. Beyond that he managed to draw a kunai and explosive tag, reinforcing the kunai with his chakra in a flash of blue light. Bracing his foot and raising a hand he began a sidestep,swinging his kunai up at the descending heel in the interest of deflecting it. The movement, incidentally brought the wires connected to his shuriken upwards, bypassing the sharpened feet of the puppet and instead attempting to go between and to either side of his legs as he descended. Koutaku on the other hand, his most useful techniques on standby, tried to use his deflection to slip further to Pinnochio’s side.

Should he succeed, Koutaku would pull back on his wires, and move one arm in a looping motion to further entangle the puppet while simultaneously drawing the shuriken towards Pinnochio from behind and at 15 speed.

Spoiler:

was that... was that an explosive tag?! Ok. See. things that go boom are super not okay. Dear listeners there are few things that will escalate a situation faster than a bomb, and that is clearly the position that we are in. Once again, almost impossibly Pinochio would shift his position in midair, He watched the arm come up to block his axe kick, and planted his foot in the air itself, shifting his hips as he seemed to find purchase on the nothingness. His body dropped elevation at a speed of twenty. He would leap up, high over the boy's head as his body twisted, and land about five meters behind him to prepare for the next round of attacks. Thing silver wire split and fell to the ground as his nails and heels sliced through the weak thread the moment it wrapped around him. It could have been a good plan, were the wire not so thin, and his body so incredibly sharp.

Saya was finally getting back into the swing of things. As she felt the vine probing the top of Freyja's shield go lighter, she pulled back with her hand. It would seem a pretty strange maneuver, considering there was a woman pushing towards her with clear intention to remove parts of her body, and unlike her teammate Daiko, she was not able to simply put them back and everything be fine. That's when the second fight took hold. Inches before the shield could get within range to strike a red line across her cheek, the vine that had been testing the base of the weapon wrapped itself around Freyja's wrist. With a mighty heft the powerful ninjutsu technique shifted. Freyja's eyes went wide as she felt her momentum shift. Even without the boost of her enhancement technique, Triffle of the senju, The vines were strong enough to lift the woman, her feet leaving the ground as she was thrust off to the side.

Just like Pinochio, Freyja had great control over her form, even in the air. Her heels bit into the nothingness as her ability to float fought against the momentum placed against her. Four feet passed, six feet, and all at once she found her movement failed to push against the technique. She was hurled off to the side, and flew ass over tea kettle towards the same tree Kou had been thrown into.

"Holy shit. She did it." Pinochio was in midair, just having crossed the boy's movement threshold when he noticed the flying puppet. She'd not actually beaten freyja before. Sure it was always pretty close, with the two getting within inches before they threw their final attacks, but in the end the power and speed of the freyja puppet always seemed to win out, and Saya was left wincing at the weapon leveled with intention to hurt her. This time though, She found herself thrown bodily across the room with her only hope of breaking the fall as a very not soft tree.

(TWC 5107)