Last Minute Touches

Nozomi prepared herself alone to make sure she was completely ready for the Prison Break. She had fought against Shimiko rather well on her own, but she knew she still could improve a little bit more than she already was. The fight had left her stronger, as if her body was more responsive to the beat that Shimiko had managed to give her for a little while. She always felt a little stronger when she used Bijuu chakra, as if her body was becoming used to the power and adapting fast. Of course, now she knew that she was reaching the limits that a body could be pushed, and she wasn't quite sure how else to improve physically other than perfecting her Taijutsu.

To that end, Nozomi had been training with Spring Chant almost without stop. She was determined to perfect it and master if further than anyone else ever had, and to eek out every last drop of strength from her body that she could. They hadn't been gone from Kumo for very long, but Nozomi already felt like she was making quite a deal of progress with it. She could feel herself improving with each strike, and while she wasn't increasing in speed, she noticed that her muscles were exerting much greater force with not even a little loss in speed.

To watch the girl shift through her stance with mock strikes was almost mesmerizing. She was a blur of constant motion, but with a solid stance and power emanating from each of her strikes in the air as her hands snapped into place. If she was fighting a real person, there was an incredible sense of lethality behind her strikes. Nozomi wagered that it was only slightly behind in power than the blow that had finished Shimiko off in their match, which was why she was learning to increase her strength.

The LRA had proven troublesome for her to get any damage through, especially since she would have had to slow down before to actually do so, but now she was confident she could break through it's defense with just Taijutsu alone, not something most could boast.

Still, there was more that she could push from it. Nozomi let her system feed off of her chakra, mixing it with her stamina and muscles to push herself even further. Everything felt lighter to her, as if moving was effortless, and as if she could lift anything she wanted to. Moving to a wall, Nozomi took up her stance, and brought a single fist forward with as much power and speed as she could muster.

The wall couldn't withstand the force of her blow, cratering and sending shards of rock flying all around Nozomi. She was actually very impressed. This was stronger than the strike that ended Shimiko, and that's without using Bijuu enhancements, which she knew could push her even further. She looked at her hand, not noticing any damage from the strike, and realized that she was much more durable now as well. Outputting that much power usually would have hurt a little on the backlash, but she didn't even notice anything.

Thoroughly convinced that she was peaked as far as she could naturally increase her own power without relying on the Bijuu, Nozomi settled down, closing her eyes and letting herself be more connected with the world around her. Hearing the wind, feeling it blow against her skin. Tasting the moisture and smelling everything around her. Individually, all of her senses were massively heightened naturally, but when she really focused on everything, it was even more evident.

She didn't need to just see when she was this in tune with everything. She let her body sway with the movements of the wind, following the pattern and changing around even as it changed. All her senses blended together to give her such clarity on the world that she couldn't help but feel at peace and one with it. It was like she was in some state of battle meditation.

-Awakened Spring Chant: Learned -300 WC
-Spring's Potential: Learned -Free
-Springtime's Halt: Learned -Free
-Spring's Leaves: Learned -Free

After resting up, Nozomi felt satisfied that she no longer had anything she needed to learn in order to be at peak performance in combat. With the strength she could unleash, the speed and celerity she was able to move, the damage she could sustain physically, and the perceptive abilities she could maintain in combat, Nozomi knew that she didn't need to worry anymore when in Bijuu mode. She'd lost her ability to maintain the water lense that she used, but all she really needed now was focus and discipline, which she was more than capable of doing as long as she maintained control of her own mind.

One of the major issues she'd realized she had was that she relied perhaps a bit too much on Taijutsu in close combat, and even though she was a nintaijutsu specialist, she didn't have many defensive jutsu that she could quickly deploy, unless she was already maintaining Water Heaven's Convergence. The needles that Shimiko had used had proved troublesome, but she set to work on using her chakra control and mastering some sort of defensive barrier that would keep pesky things like that out.

While Nozomi had a plethora of Suiton jutsu, and mastery over water like almost none other, her real affinity elementally was Raiton. She figured that would be the best way to start when it came to using a defense, and besides that, she would be able to deal some damage while defending herself too. That was quite important if she was going to weave seals in close range. At the very least, sending a shock through someone's system would slow them down and let Nozomi capitalize on their slower movements in a quick and orderly fashion.

Holding the seal of confrontation, Nozomi charged her chakra, letting it disperse through her body, and then sent it out in a burst of electrical energy. A protective bubble formed around her, pulverizing the pebbles and rocks around her as it crackled with occasional random bursts. The jutsu was powerful, it was fast, and Nozomi wagered it would be effective enough. Letting it fade away, Nozomi dropped her hand. Electromagnetic Repulse would be a fine addition to her jutsu arsenal, and one that nobody but herself knew about for now.

-Electro Magnetic Repulse: Learned -300 WC

Now for one final thing. Nozomi had plenty of powerful jutsu in her arsenal, be it Suiton, Fuuinjutsu, Raiton, any of her Taijutsu technique, or just simple Ninjutsu like her petals. But she was lacking in some of the strongest ones, able to blast through almost any defense. Or move at astronomically high speeds like she was capable of. And especially trigger the thunderstorm that she needed to make for Kirin to be accessible to her. Nozomi didn't have a Katon affinity currently, and couldn't just hope that a thunderstorm would come from out of nowhere, so having a powerful jutsu that would not only inflict damage, but could be used as a catalyst to gather storm clouds would definitely be something that she wanted.

Nozomi's idea for this jutsu was two fold, sort of a naturally evolving process. There was a jutsu she knew already that made Raiton chakra into a snake like shape, which was where she got the inspiration for this new technique she was developing. However, Kirin itself was a mighty snake like dragon, so Nozomi figured that a massive serpent of Raiton that would launch up into the sky might be an interesting sight and make for a very interesting combination. Of course, she always ran the risk of her technique being blocked or cancelled out, but she always reserved the right to simply fire it into the air.

Kirin's strongest ability was that it wasn't usually able to be reacted to, it moved so incredibly fast. Unless someone knew of the technique, they would have no reason to think that Nozomi could call down a lightning dragon that moved at nigh untraceable speeds. Even then, knowing it was coming wouldn't help much, as it was so intensely powerful that it didn't matter unless you had some sort of way to defend against it. There simply was no dodging it, and that was Nozomi's plan. Even if she couldn't send Viper's Wrath upwards, it was still strong enough on it's own.

She spent a few hours testing the amount of chakra and the seals to shape it as she wanted, and eventually was able to get it down, but by the end of it, Nozomi was fairly exhausted. With her arsenal of jutsu satisfied for the moment, Nozomi was simply going to rest until they arrived for the mission. There was no longer any reason to train more or she'd just end up exhausting herself before they could even get to the Prison.

-Viper's Wrath: Learned -350 WC
-EXIT-