Get Ready (Private)

The next time Riku sought her elder sister out, it was for something Midori would be much more familiar with: training. Finding the green-haired teen at the training grounds was easy; Midori was difficult to track but her stalkers were not. The boys were easy enough to scare off. A few well aimed kunai she’d rubbed with poison ivy did the trick nicely. The blue-haired teen collected her weapons before approaching the taller teen.

“Midori-chan,” Riku greeted, waving. “Do you want to train together today? I have some ideas if you’d like to hear them.”

Satori had agreed to spar with her, but he had been getting stronger at a much faster pace than she had. He had become the head of his clan and make significant changes. Even without witnessing the extent of his strength, Riku knew he’d improved exponentially since her last spar with him. They might be able to have a better fight, however, if Riku had backup.

Midori was strong in a lot of ways Riku wasn’t, and Riku wasn’t quite quick enough to outsmart Satori without a distraction. Together, they could pose a much larger challenge to his myriad of tricky genjutsu and frightening stamina. Aside from that, they could plan to work on Midori’s abilities together.

Feeling excited, Riku grinned, sharp teeth flashing in the dappled sunlight.

[1]

Midori turned to face Riku as she approached, and it was obvious she was trying something a bit different today; she had three books scattered around her, notes from her Academy Days. In them were the notes for the basic three things taught at the academy as a requirement to pass; she had to get a special permission to pass the academy back then because her Nature Chakra messed her up so bad that she couldn’t mold it propery. But she had been working on her control almost constantly, and she finally had been able to perform the replacement Jutsu, which gave her hope to learn the others.

It was difficult work, and Riku appearing had been a welcome distraction.

She gave the smaller teen a smile as she picked herself up off the ground and approached Riku, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and giving her a gentle squeeze, the hug something that only the two of them really shared. “Ideas are good,” she said simply, turning and gesturing towards a fallen log for her to sit and explain. Taking a seat next to her, she waited to hear what these ideas were, her open books on pause for now, as this obviously took precedent, and a break from studying a weak subject all but welcome.

[1]

Riku leaned into the embrace, rubbing her head against Midori in return since her arms were trapped against her sides. She took a seat next to the green-haired teen on the log and glanced at the study materials.

It appeared that Riku wasn't the only one who thought it was time to change tactics.

"Well, I need to work on my speed and hand to hand skills. I want to spar Satori but I know he's gotten much stronger and I have to be better than he'll anticipate in order to challenge him. Then I thought, why fight fair? Want to team up, us against him?"

Her excitement was clear because the blue-haired teen only talked this much when she was excited by or interested in something. It was a simple idea, but that didn't mean it would be easy to execute.

"For it to work, though, we need to be more familiar with each other's fighting styles. If we can combine our abilities well enough to challenge Tori, then we'll definitely be able to use that skill in other situations, too." Her eyes were bright, and she was practically vibrating at the prospect.

[2]

Speed and Hand to Hand combat skills, both things Midori excelled at, and while she didn’t have much confidence in being an outright good teacher, she was extremely confident in her training regiment. If the woman mirrored her, she would be able to take away some extremely potent exercises and probably glean some of her skill. That she knew she could manage, and had no problems with doing so.

Fighting Satori, two on one? That sounded like a fun plan, and hearing what she planned for this was something that she was absolutely on the top of the pile of interesting things today… but she was right. A tactic like this required planning and understanding one another was a big part of that, so she nodded quietly as some teamwork exercises seemed to be in order… but she wasn’t very good about coming up with ideas like that off the top of her head.

She could see her almost wanting to pop with how excited she was, and Midori couldn’t help but give her a gentle smile. Just like a kid in the candy store. “What do you have in mind?” she asked, curiosity actually tinting her monotone voice for once.

[2]

The slight change in Midori's tone of voice let Riku know she'd gotten the larger woman's attention and interest.

"Well, for starters, we should go over our abilities. Then, a spar. Experience is the best teacher. We can review the spar afterwards and start from there. We'll train and work on a plan that utilizes our abilities the best and once we're ready, challenge Tori."

It was a simple plan, or rather, a simple layout for a more detailed scheme. This would take time and a lot of work, but Riku itched to become stronger and prove that her efforts weren't for nothing.

"We may have to train and plan for weeks and we should have a backup plan in case the master plan isn't complete and he challenges us. We can't rule out the possibility of Tori wanting to train with us."

[3]

That made sense; gather as much information as possible to sort out strategy, and then fight a bit to see those abilities in action. That would allow Riku, as Midori herself was absolutely certain she was the more intelligent of the two of them, to start coming up with the foundation of a plan so they could both build on it. She wasn’t all that bright, but she knew how to fight, and she knew advantages when she saw them, and would probably be able to give at least a little bit of valuable input on the matter.

Her concern was replied to with a shrug. “We fight but reveal nothing.” Losing in the short term would be easily preferential to achieving a true victory in the long term. Explaining her powers though, would be a challenge. “You know my strength and hand to hand. My transformation can make me stronger or faster or sharper, but muddles my mind a bit. Aside that…” She stood up and looked towards a rock. “You know my Chakra Ball… my close range explosion. I also have this.” Chakra built up into her hand as she pretended to be grabbing the boulder, and then with a high pitched energy whine, a small fist sized blast of Chakra fired, smashing into the rock and annihilating it.

Looking back, that was about it for Midori; she was pretty simple.

[3]

Riku nodded at Midori's suggestion to hide their plan. "Good idea."

The tall woman's abilities leaned towards heavy hitting, physical enhancement, and blowing things up. Midori, in short, was a power house.

When the green-haired teen blew up the boulder, Riku raised her brows. "That's cool." She reached in her pocket for a small notebook and pen. She jotted down a few notes about Midori's skillset to go over later.

"You know my water form, it absorbs most physical hits. I'm not that great at hand to hand, but I make up for it with chemicals. I learned a new technique that lets me make my whole body poisonous. I also know a lot of water ninjutsu, including some new ones I want to show you. I know a bit of medical jutsu as well, but I'm still working on it."

Riku paused. "I've been working on new toxins, but those aren't very useful against a Ryuutei. Irritants work a little bit, like pepper or chili powder."

Her brow furrowed momentarily. "As you know, I'm not very fast or strong. Also, I'm really weak to fire and lightning. I'm not great at detecting genjutsu either, but I've seen a few of Tori's before so I recognize them."

[4]

Midori listened to what she was saying, and a thought popped into her mind that she hadn’t considered before. Knowing that they were going to be sparring soon, she was hesitant to say anything, but she felt like she needed to give her every advantage she could get against Satori. “Enter lungs. Instantly incapacitate enemy through drowning?” She didn’t know if it was possible, but it certainly would be a devastating way to knock someone out or kill them quickly and quietly.

It went without saying that delivering toxins directly into the organs within was the ultimate method of delivery. You could train your body all you wanted, but there was nothing you could do to train your organs to withstand that kind of attack. It would open a lot of possibilities. “Also, body is mostly water. Control it somehow perhaps?” she asked, just sort of rattling ideas that came to mind when she was watching Riku fight, which she did do on occasion. Even perhaps completely covering someone would allow Riku to at least slow them down.

It was just a thought.

[4]

"I've tried that on Satori-kun before," Riku revealed. "He used a blast of energy to throw me off like you did." Her nose wrinkled at the memory. "I wasn't hurt but it doesn't feel good to get blown up."

She thought a few moments.

"But, if I had been poisoned at the time or carrying a strong irritant, he would have been hurt even if he could blast me off. I'd have to get close though, and he's good at evading. If he was distracted, I could try to grab him and go up his nose or down his throat. It's definitely worth considering."

Her head tilted, eyes trailing over to the green-haired teen's study materials.

"What were you working on?"

[5]

The fact that it hadn’t worked, that he had come up with such an effective counter, didn’t surprise Midori… she was just saddened that she wasn’t able to use the idea to surprise him. Still, the idea had merit if they were working together to bring him down because Riku sneaking up on him while Midori tried to break his face could be fun. Nodding to the logic behind the tactic, the dark green haired teen was brought out of her trance by Riku asking a question.

A smile of pride crossed her face as she stood up and performed some seals.

And with a bit of Chakra and a poof, suddenly there were three Midori’s looming over Riku, each getting close to her and with a smile ear to ear. It was just a standard Bunshin jutsu, one that was used by basic genin far below her level, but if Riku would remember, she would know that Midori had never been able to use Ninjutsu before now. Being able to do this much was a massive milestone and opened the door to countless opportunities.

[5]

"Ah," Riku said, surprised. "I think this is the first time I've seen you do ninjutsu other than your chakra explosions. Is this due to your bloodline?" Her head tilted curiously.

Already, her mind was going over techniques Midori could learn if her chakra control was improving. While the technique was a simple one, it only worked if the user applied small amounts of chakra. If this was a new skill for Midori, that meant she had trouble with fine control over her chakra (potentially due to large reserves or extra potent chakra).

If Midori could perform other techniques with her newfound control, they could surprise Satori with this skill. He might anticipate the green-haired teen learning basic techniques on her own, but he might not predict Riku helping speed the process along.

"This is good," Riku said, and a smile crossed her face. "I think I know a technique that will help you with your studies. Shadow clones. I've seen Tori use them and I looked up information about them. You split your chakra evenly between yourself and other physical clones. Each clone can use your abilities and when it disperses, any leftover chakra returns to you along with its memories. You can study more with clones, but, more importantly, chakra is easier to control in smaller amounts. If you split your chakra between shadow clones, you may have an easier time manipulating it."

[6]

She nodded as the woman asked if her difficulty was due to her Bloodline. The other chakra got in the way, mixing with her techniques and making things much harder for her to manage than she could handle at first. Now, though, with her much improved Chakra Control, she could perform actual techniques while managing her chakra stores and not losing focus. She had talked with Riku briefly about her Nature Chakra when they had Girl Time the first time, which had been very enjoyable, and even demonstrated it a bit.

What could she say, Midori was a protective woman over those she cared about.

Listening though, her eyes widened slightly with excitement as she spoke of Shadow Clones. This was a technique that she had seen Satori use before, and one she dearly wanted, but wasn’t certain she could handle before recently. She was planning to take an opportunity to ask him to teach it to her at some point, but if she could learn it from Riku, it certainly would make for a valuable trump card that would tip the scales a bit more in their favor.

Already her mind was working at super-sonic speeds computing battle data and possible scenarios. While she wasn’t ever really projecting her intelligence, when it came to fighting, Midori was a genius. She could train with herself, come up with more complex scenarios, execute stronger techniques… the possibilities were expanding in her mind as she grew a slightly predatory smile with anticipation. “You can teach it to me?” she asked, almost hesitant to hope.

[6]

“Yeah, I can. We can learn it together.” Midori’s predatory smile stirred up excitement within the blue-haired ninja. She had suspected offering the green-haired nin an opportunity to increase her destructive abilities would interest her, and this confirmed that suspicion.

“I did a little research on the technique, so I know how it works. I just haven’t tried it yet.”

She stood. “Let’s get to work. You only need one hand seal, ram. You have to focus on splitting your chakra in half to form the clone. It’s like the basic clone technique, but with way more chakra and a little more focus. The hardest part about shadow clones is that they’re chakra intensive, which should be easy for you.”

She formed the ram hand seal and began to channel chakra. The sucking sensation was uncomfortable, as nearly half her energy was pooled. Furrowing her brow, Riku continued to concentrate until she felt a bit exhausted.

“Shadow Clone Technique!”

A second Riku appeared in a puff of smoke. The original blue-haired ninja panted, wiping the sweat that had gathered on her forehead. “Like that.”

The Riku clone looked at Midori and gave her a shark-like grin. “You try it.”

Technique Training:

[7]

Midori watched the woman intently as she demonstrated the technique, nodding at the Ram hand seal. She had spent a considerable amount of time the past few days memorizing and practicing the hand seals, since Ninjutsu was now an option for her, she felt like learning the basics over again would be important if she was going to learn new techniques. Ram would be easy. Listening to the rest of the instructions, she nodded and watched the technique come to life.

The amount of drain on Riku was significant as the copy appeared, and Midori, curious, stepped forward. They shared experiences and gave back any chakra, huh? Midori walked around the copy, inspecting it, and then touched her in the small of the back. Midori herself was sensitive in several places, and considering that the shared experiences would be transfered, she didn’t want a reason to invoke her wrath for doing something that she wouldn’t want Riku to do to her copy.

But she did grab the woman with both arms and lift her up, squished against her own chest, then setting her back down. The weight was even right… interesting. “And it requires a clean hit to disperse? Or glancing?” she asked, stepping in front of the clone, thinking about what it would take and the damage it could receive.

[7]

The clone watched Midori inspecting her (it?) and squeaked a bit when the taller teen picked her up and gave her a squeeze, face going a bit pink.

"A solid blow, I think," Riku said, rubbing her chin.

"You could check," the clone added, pulling out a kunai.

Riku shrugged. The clone pricked itself with the knife, causing itself and the weapon to pop from existence.

"Ow." Riku rubbed at the spot the clone had jabbed. More memories filtered through, turning the original blue-haired ninja pink like the clone before her.

"Oh…." A moment later, Riku was even shorter because in place of her feet and lower legs, there was a puddle. Embarrassed, she sank even deeper into the puddle until only her eyes and the top of her head were visible.

"You give it a try," she muttered from within her puddle.

[8]

Technique Training:

Midori wondered what was going on with the blue haired teen and why it had become pink, then again with interest as it pulled out a Kunai and pricked it’s finger. She was getting ready to ask a few questions about this, as it brought up some serious concerns, when she heard Riku mutter in pain and turned. So the pain was transferred too; sending a clone on a suicide mission could wind up being very bad… and then she became a puddle, which brought up even more questions. Riku asked her to try, but she hesitated, needing these questions answered before she could begin.

“That was a glancing blow, not a solid hit, and it still dispersed. Why? Also, why was it pink? Did it not have your water-form ability, meaning abilities don’t transfer? Why are you now a pink puddle?” The last question was with a bit of concern, as Midori wasn’t certain if she had done something to offend or otherwise embarrass the woman. She was crouched down next to the puddle now, worried but otherwise waiting for the answers before she tried the technique for herself.

[8]

"I'm not sure… it probably helped that she wanted to disperse. She could turn into water, I think…"

The onslaught of questions made sense but it was turning Riku even darker red.

"Just sensitive is all… my chest got a little smooshed when you picked up the clone," the semi-liquid teen muttered. “I’ll be okay. Just don’t do that in public, I’ll melt,” the blue-haired teen grumbled.

[9]

Midori smirked with just a hint of evil intention, finding the information, as well as her specific word choice of where not do to it, very cute. It wasn’t often she held the advantage over anyone in any particular topic when it came to social interactions, but here she was with a card to play. And ‘not in public’ did not specify in other places… which could be fun. She wasn’t entirely certain why she enjoyed getting a little rile out of the blue haired teen and finding ways to turn her into a pink or red puddle, but she did.

Standing back up straight, she nodded, agreeing to her terms of not embarrassing her in public places or events, and then took a few steps back. First things first, she closed her eyes and made a regular copy of herself, the traditional Bunshin that was nothing but an illusion, trying to see how that felt before disbanding it quickly. Then she performed the seal of the Ram and focused, trying to get her chakra to flow into the copy she was about to create. The first one created a puff of smoke, and then nothing else, causing her to frown and try to think on it for a moment.. And then she tried again.

Splitting the chakra entirely was difficult, but she managed to get it the second time, creating a real life and blood copy of herself standing there, and they both smirked at one another, content with their work before turning to Riku. The larger woman wasn’t as fatigued as Riku was, but she certainly felt the strain of it. Using this in combat was going to require a lot of practice. She waited for the blue haired teen to continue with the lesson and likely test out her own clone, ready for whatever was next.

[9]

Riku glared weakly at Midori's smirk, the irritation helping her pull herself together. The blue-haired genin stood and brushed herself off as she regained her composure.

A minute later, two Midoris stood side by side. Riku gave a nod of approval.

"Good. We can take advantage of this. Your clone can keep studying while we train our bodies," the shorter teen said.

"We can start with a taijutsu spar. We can enhance our bodies, but no ninjutsu and no toxins. We can have multiple rounds and focus on different abilities each time. Sound good?"

[10]

Midori nodded at the plan of action, and already she could see how this could accelerate her training in anything and everything exponentially. Especially if she could figure out a way to not only create more than one clone, but to also use her Nature Chakra as the fuel source. She had been experimenting with using the volatile chakra in different ways, and while she hadn’t made much in the way of progress, experimenting using the Shadow Clones would make it so much faster it was mind boggling.

The clone moved back to the books, pulling one of the journals out and writing down everything it could think of regarding the Shadow Clone first. The copy asked a question curiously. “Book or Scroll on Shadow Clone, or from memory?” It was obvious the copy wanted to study the technique itself more in depth as well.

Once that was answered the original smiled as the terms of the agreement were stacked in her favor. “Will not use Chakra Tai either. You seem to dislike explosions.” It was, after all, a Taijutsu technique, and therefore not a part of the agreement, but it would make it a lot harder for Riku to focus on using her unique body for hand to hand combat if she needed to worry about close range detonations. She began to draw in Nature Chakra as well, planning to use it later, but there was no indication of this on the outside. Standing away from where her copy was studying, she gave Riku a nod, waiting for her to attack, not seeming to take up a stance.

[10]

"Alright," Riku responded, appreciative that Midori wouldn't go all out on her while most of her offensive techniques were unlocked.

"Let's do this Ryuutei style. Whoever gets pushed into the woods first loses. No permanent damage."

Once the terms were agreed, Riku watched Midori stand still, waiting for her to make the first move. Attacking first would be like walking into a trap, but it couldn't be helped. Midori wasn't going to give her the advantage.

The shorter genin thought about the problem for a moment. While she would have a hard time doing damage to Midori, the taller woman would have to work to get any solid hits in as well. Riku's bloodline wasn't ninjutsu, and thus would be in play, making it nearly impossible to get a solid blow on her.

Getting in close was likely her best bet. If she could latch onto Midori, herding her to the edge of the clearing would be a possibility. How would Midori go about getting her to the edge? Potentially by throwing her.

Riku decided that this would likely be a grappling match before darting forward. Once she reached Midori, the blue-haired ninja threw a punch. The green haired ninja would likely counter it, allowing her an opportunity to get ahold of her.

[11]

Stats:

Midori nodded to the terms of the agreement, but decided to sweeten the deal. “Loser also must catch lunch. I will cook.” While Midori had no intention on losing, she was using it as an opportunity to find out what kind of hunting skills Riku had. Could she go into the water and catch a bunch of fish in water form, or was that out of her skillset? Little things like that might be important information later, so for now, this would do just fine.

Like a charm, Riku got impatient and charged; Midori was able to judge several things by this, first and foremost being that they were roughly the same speed. She wanted to block the incoming strike, but knew that all it took was physical contact and Riku would probably latch onto her in some way. She was confident that she was stronger than Riku being able to force her to walk into the forest, but she didn’t know if perhaps there was another ace up her sleeve. Besides, for her to use her own bloodline, she needed to buy some time.

Able to see her muscles give a ‘tell’ of where the blue haired girl planned to aim, Midori slipped to the side, neatly dodging the blow and then flipping sand from her foot upwards, trying to blind the girl as a test to see if she was already in water form. If Riku absorbed it, she would retreat a few steps, having gathered information… but if she didn’t, and it seemed like she was blinded for a moment, she would charge, lowering her shoulder to try to hit Riku’s side like a ram.

[11]

Combat Stuff:

The instant Midori dodged, Riku's body collapsed into a puddle, flattening her body to the ground and spreading beneath the green-haired Ninja's feet.

A pair of hands reached up from the puddle and grabbed at the tall woman's ankles, forcing her to move or be captured. The hands would sink back into the puddle after Midori evaded them and Riku materialized again, grinning.

"You're quick Nee-chan."

She glanced around quickly to examine their positions and moved so that she was near the edge of the clearing before darting in to engage Midori once more. The other teen was stronger and faster, so Riku would have to be more clever in order to win. Any standard battle tactics would be seen through, so she would have to rely on something a bit different.

[12]

Midori was surprised by her instantly liquifying the moment Midori dodged, and a quick backwards cartwheel and she was out of range of the grabbing hands. This would be tricky; Midori didn’t have the confidence yet that she would be able to overpower Riku if the woman got a full hold of her, but she continued to draw in that Nature chakra… she just needed a bit more. Sure, she could try her luck now, but if fighting Satori had taught her anything it was that she needed to stack the odds in her favor as much as possible before making a move.

Part of her considered the idea of using her stances to bolster her body, and make her a bit faster and stronger in each regard, but that wasn’t what this fight was about. Midori had already mentally mapped out the terrain, and could see Riku positioning herself to give her the largest advantage. If she got Midori to dodge into the treeline, she won… that was the likely tactic. Not that she would be letting her get away with such an easy solution, of course, but for now, she would stall.

[12]

Chakra: 92/185
Nature Chakra: 30/90

Riku waited, moving along the edge of the clearing. She stood maybe half a meter from its edge, not approaching her opponent this time. Instead, she tried to analyze their previous exchange.

Midori was most certainly faster and more nimble. The other woman would not be lured near the edges easily, and likely had some other tactic besides baiting her.

Giving Midori time to think was dangerous, but so was charging in recklessly. She decided to review her options a little longer.

[13]