Beastly Training Regimen

Raika growls softly as she has to rush as quickly as she can to the training facility through the rain, not wanting to get herself completely soaked in the process. While the one called Ren had suggested that he could make it rain every day while she and her compatriots were in Konoha, she couldn't really prove that it was his doing, and she wasn't about to risk an incident to accuse him when it could just as easily be normal rain. It was just also horrid in the fact that water could dampen scents. While it couldn't erase scents immediately, it was far harder to track anyone to watch them train in order to maybe sneakily learn some techniques that she would have preferred to learn. Oh well. She'd been developing her own techniques, so she had plenty to train on her own without needing to see any others. Raika had even been sure to bring along Hiramekarei for this purpose.

Raika is instructed that the sixth floor is currently under construction and off-limits, which Raika considers perfect for her own needs. She takes the elevator up to that specific floor to see a horribly-torn apart battlefield, and she has to wonder just what exactly caused such destruction, but she decides there's not any likely way for her to find out. Instead, she unsheathes Hiramekarei and unwraps the bandages from its blade. Once that's done, she moves down to nearly an all-fours stance, with her right hand maintaining control of the blade through one of its dual handles while she focuses chakra throughout her limbs to grant her the mobility that a lion has on all four limbs; she feels far stronger now, and just to test things out, she dashes to the far side of the training floor, leaping over debris to land on the other side, and is somewhat surprised by her ability to run mostly with three legs without dragging the blade along the ground. Yes, she's definitely become faster and more agile with this fighting style, but she prepares to try out some other techniques that she'd been considering.

OOC: 350/350 Bestial Blade Style

Raika mentally prepares for the technique first, as she hadn't known whether or not her combination of her clan's taijutsu and the use of Hiramekarei would interfere with one another, but now that they could be used in tandem, at least for this fighting style, she decides to see what she could do with this improved speed and agility. She presses the tip of her new weapon to the ground, digging it in until she can feel the blade reach a state of comparative firmness; with the ground so heavily impacted everywhere, it was hard to find somewhere good for this technique, since some of the ground seemed like it had been turned to little more than gravel. In any case, she found purchase, and so she lifted her herself upwards, using the sword to brace herself and keep her fully in control of her movements; she remembers how dangerous Raphael had been when fighting the Nibi, and she never wanted to be in the air without some ability to control her movements now, and with the sword acting like an anchor for her, it would allow her to use some of her improved agility to full effect.

Then Raika twists her body horizontally, ripping the blade from the ground in order to turn the blade into an overhead slash, where the legendary weapon crashes into the ground with an intense amount of force, even slicing part of the way into the ground of the training floor that had previously been much less damaged. She was at least slightly surprised, but a bit proud too, that she had the strength necessary to do such damage to the earth; such an attack could probably split a man right in two. So far, this fighting style was looking very useful.

OOC: 300/300 Bestial Blade: Overhead Slicer

There was one other technique that Raika was prepared to try and develop, but she doesn't really need to be in her new fighting style to employ this technique, so she rises up on two legs now. Standing upright, she wields Hiramekarei in both hands, using the chakra flow technique along the blade as well as shaping some of the chakra using Hiramekarei's own abilities to reshape chakra into a new form. The entire blade glows a dark, scarlet red, signifying Raika's own chakra is being used as it becomes visible, and she focuses on how she wants the blade of chakra to be shaped by the legendary sword. It takes some effort, as shaping chakra was a fairly recent skill that Raika had picked up, at least without the use of her own body or Fuuinjutsu seals as a medium for her to shape the chakra through. She can feel the chakra take the appropriate form, however, so she moves the blade behind her shoulder, and then twists her hips, using the driving motion and adding more and more muscle groups to the swing to really add a lot of power to the rotation and swipe hard with the blade.

At the same time, she simultaneously shapes and releases the chakra, following the edge of her legendary weapon as it moves through the air, leaving behind an arc of pure, dark red chakra, like a crescent moon made of blood, that rockets through the air on its way to her target, a pillar of stone in the center of the training ground she'd come to for practice hidden away from other, potentially prying eyes. The blade of chakra rips clean through the stone, tearing it's way through solid stone.

Now that she sees that this technique can work, she considers her training day through, rewrapping the blade before heading back out and going to her temporary housing.

OOC: 300/300 Hiramekarei: Chakra Blade Blast

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns to the training facility to find that the sixth floor was no longer off-limits and had apparently been fully repaired since she had last seen it, which was really quite a surprise for her. If the Kirigakure training grounds had been damaged the way the one floor of this facility had been, it would have been out of commission for weeks. This training facility is like some kind of miracle. But Raika, as always, keeps her surprise hidden behind a veneer of boredom. She shrugs after being told that the sixth floor is open again, and she goes to a different floor entirely, only up to the second floor, which she was told was also rarely used. Raika can see why; the temperature is set to high, in a desert-like stony environment with very little scenery. The bright glare from the artificial lighting doesn't help. Regardless, it's silent and empty, making it better than most floors of the training grounds for her to develop more of her techniques.

Raika once again pulls out Hiramekarei and unwraps the bandages from around the blade and freeing it once more. She refilled the huge sword with chakra again, bringing it back to full before she moves back down into her previously trained stance. It would do to complete the training for the techniques she's been developing, rather than catching up just on the ninjutsu she'd been unable to use for so long without the ability to shape chakra quite as well as most ninja.

In any case, now was not the time to be distracted from her training with thoughts about other things she didn't understand. Raika gets into her fighting stance and then leaps upwards, bracing her full weight on the blade's handle as she flows the chakra all throughout the blade, covering the sword in thick red chakra that looked more similar to blood than to the chakra she'd seen of most techniques where the chakra became visible. Then she slams the blade downward, tip-first, into the earth, burying it deep and then sending the chakra directly into the earth, causing it to look like the earth itself was boiling before it erupts upwards with stone flying out around her. Success.

OOC: 350/350 Bestial Blade Hiramekarei: Chakra Eruption Drop

With that technique trained successfully, she slips Hiramekarei from the crater she'd made with it, returning to the normal stance for this bestial fighting style of hers. This next technique was far more evasive, which one might think slightly odd for someone who was as ferocious in combat as Raika was, but she didn't want to rely on her body's capacity to heal, as she had to assume there was a limit to her slightly faster ability to heal.

Regardless, she switches the way she's holding that heavy legendary blade so that the sword tip is pointing behind her, with her fist holding it firmly in an icepick grip so she'll be able to swing it effectively in a rotation necessary for the technique to work, or at least, she hopes that the technique will work effectively. She spins her body now, turning the rotation into a rapid horizontal swipe that would have hit the average man across the waist, already a difficult location to avoid being struck without stopping or pulling back, and she switches the movement from rotational to lateral once her body is pointed directly away from her own sword slash, dashing at a speed that felt quite rapid compared to her usual somewhat plodding gait, causing her to rocket away from where she'd slashed and moving 30 meters before she finishes the rotationary momentum to be facing sidelong to where she started, able to see where she'd come from. Still, it didn't give her much information on how well the technique could cut, so she approaches one of the few training dummies in the deserted rocky wasteland, performing the technique one more time, though she's no longer surprised by her own speed. When she looks back to the dummy, she can see that its midsection is sliced clean through. Well, that settles that.

OOC: 300/300 Bestial Blade: Evasive Slash

Raika finally finishes her training with Hiramekarei, at least for today, and so she gets started on wrapping her blade with its bandages once more, protecting the blade from view and from the rain that still hadn't let up just yet, at least not when she was out and about in the village. One day after Ren's suggestion of using the rain to track her movements was a coincidence. Two days could just be bad weather, but if it happened too often, she might have to consider actually purchasing an umbrella. Getting wet had been an occasional event in Kirigakure, but she couldn't believe it was so common in Konoha.

In any case, she felt the need to train at least one normal ninjutsu after all, and this one was the type of technique she felt could be a powerful assistance to her. Raika forms the simple clone seal, and after deep concentration, she splits her chakra in two equal amounts, forming the second into a shadow clone of herself. When she looks at her own shadow clone, it looks right back at her, raising an eyebrow before dispersing. Her training done, Raika decides to pack up and leave. Despite the hot and arid location, she thinks she could train there often, really.

OOC: 200/200 Shadow Clone Technique

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns once more to the training facility, and this time, there was no rain. There were a few reasons that it might have stopped. It could have just been natural rainfall that has eventually rained itself out, or it could be that the rain was indeed the work of the one called Ren, and he had become bored or was unable to continue to monitor her or her compatriots with the rain. She almost felt foolish for growing slightly paranoid of the rain, not that she was trying to do anything untoward, but simply because it was slightly unsettling to feel watched constantly and not knowing if it was actual rain or the sensory technique.

In any case, Raika took her usual spot on the second floor of the training facility, which was thankfully empty again, and still looking just like a stony desert, with only a few large rock pillars jutting from the earth and scattered training dummies. There was almost no shadow with how brightly the lights were being kept, but this time, it at least felt somewhat appropriate. She did decide to turn down the heat using the thermostat near the elevator door, and then she sets down Hiramekarei, piercing the ground with its tip to keep it in place before she moves a bit further away, allowing her to train without it.

Raika then begins channeling her chakra throughout her entire body, letting it flow out from her seemingly always hungry stomach that was truly a sea of chakra, until it overflows out from every pore of her skin, turning a deep, dark red. It was nearly the color of blood and very close to solid, which might make some think she was some kind of a jinchuuriki if they could feel or sense her chakra from her floor. She feels her own body become far more agile and quick, thanks to the influx of high chakra all throughout her body, and she rapidly sprints from one rock pillar to the other.

OOC: 300/300 Burning Lion

Raika continues her training with her much quicker sprinting speed until she reaches the largest of the many stone pillars that dot the landscape, and with her body already completely saturated with her clan's dark red bijuu-tainted chakra, she decides that she might as well train the one technique that her clan takes in such high regard, considered the pinnacle of the clan itself. Raika let's her chakra flow out further from her body, coalescing around her and with excess chakra seeming to wisp off of her body like so much crimson smoke simply from the immense amount of chakra she was already in control of. She feels the ferocity of the lion clan taking hold as her fangs and claws extend to lengths far greater than before, sharpening and hardening her own natural weapons to a degree that it feels like they match the sharpness and hardness of her own legendary weapon. She's not sure if she's the one doing it or if it's the sound of blood rushing through her ears, but she could swear that she hears the loud and prideful roar of a great lion.

Her snarl turns completely animalistic as she leans back and then thrusts her entire body forwards with her claws extended towards the huge rock pillar, causing a great lion's head to manifest in front of her in the shape of a fearsome red lion. Her claws dig into the stone easily, and the lion rushes into the rock itself, and Raika can feel her strength increase as well, and so she completes this training of Red Lion as she rips her claws from the rock pillar and watches as the tower of stone lists a little before falling to her right, toppling down to the floor of the training grounds.

OOC: 300/300 Red Lion

Somewhat winded and even feeling a bit hungry from the chakra use of both techniques, she ends the Burning Lion technique, and then waits for the power from Red Lion to end before she lets her claws and fangs return to a more normal size, thankful that having four-inch fangs wasn't going to be a permanent change she would have to either live with or file down her fangs and risk weakening the teeth for eating anything that wasn't a freshly killed animal. She might prefer her more feral side, but that didn't mean she wanted to be like a feral cat forever.

In any case, now that her body had calmed a little, she decides to do at least a little more training, and focuses chakra over her hands and her claws, watching as harsh red chakra extends over both hands, and her claws once again attain an extremely high level of durability and sharpness. They also extended quite far, each one looking to be about sixteen inches long. She tests both their sharpness and their durability by turning to one of the fallen stones, shoving her claws directly into the stone, and then simply dragging her claws downwards to slice straight through rock. Indeed, she had herself a very powerful technique.

With her feeling that her training was done, she picks up Hiramekarei from the ground and walks right out of the training facility to see that the sun was still shining. What a nice day.

OOC: 200/200 Chakra Razor Claw
THREAD EXIT

Raika returns to the training facility, having decided that she'd actually been slacking on learning more of Raphael's techniques, and so now she had decided to train them more seriously now. After all, she'd only been able to teach some of the techniques to Dante even though she was also using them for the first time for the simple fact that most of them were simple enough that she could have learned them herself fairly quickly, as she was one of the few experts of Taijutsu from Kirigakure. She'd also brought Raphael's Taijutsu technique scroll with her, though she felt a little guilty not leaving it with Dante instead, so he could make sure to study and become more proficient with all of his Taijutsu, but she'd taught him what she could in their short bout of training.

So she starts with the first one listed among the many techniques, though this one was an apparent style, not actually a technique; regardless, it could be well understood that many of the following techniques didn't really require the use of the Krav Maga style to make use of them; the other techniques were simple enough that they could be used without adopting any particular style or stance. Regardless, she moves into position, both hands up and one leg moved back so that she'd be somewhat oblique to any fighter in front of her, though she still makes a slight change to the style by extending her claws rather than keeping her hands in fists; after all, her claws were far harder and sharper than her fists were, and could do more damage. Regardless, she did feel a bit faster and more agile, even though she could also tell that her own style was better suited for her in order to get the maximum amount of speed and nimbleness.

OOC: 200/200 Krav Maga

In any case, the next technique would require a training dummy for her, so she moves right to the nearest one, having picked the rocky desert once again; despite how it made her sweat and how arid the land was, she found it somewhat helpful for training Taijutsu techniques at the very least, and it was certainly very different from the humid climate she sometimes found herself in when Kirigakure started to get hot. In any case, having reached the training dummy, Raika took a short moment to re-read the technique listed in the scroll to be sure she knew how to use the jutsu correctly.

Having confirmed the simplicity of such a technique, she suddenly lifted her leg high into the air, quite easily doing the splits thanks to her feline flexibility, and then bringing down her heel directly onto the head of the dummy, crushing it down to the earth and leaving only its pulverized head on the ground. She felt it unlikely that another ninja would be crushed so easily as the training dummy, but she had to admit that the technique made her feel quite powerful.

OOC: 150/150 Crashing Wave

In any case, she wanted to try at least one more technique before it was time for her to leave the training facility, as the heat was making her a bit tired already; it didn't help that she'd been tired out by the spar with Blitz she'd been involved with recently. In any case, the next technique was fairly simple as well, although it was easier to see the images of the movements and the momentum expected than it was to read how the technique was meant to be performed. Raphael had at least been helpful enough to include imagery to help make the Taijutsu techniques understood.

And so she finds another training dummy, and she moves into position before spinning her body downwards and then lifting both legs skywards, bringing them up high to the dummy's face and smashing the head clean off its normally very rigid body before she lands, first on her kicking leg, then back on her jumping leg. Once the technique has been done, she packs up Hiramekarei and leave the training facility once more, deciding that after she's had a shower, she'll have to return tomorrow for more training.

OOC: 150/150 Tsunami Strike

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns again to the training facility and picks up right where she left off on the second floor of the facility, which is once again the stony desert training field that almost nobody seemed to use. Being a miserable spot to train for most people, it was at least empty and comparatively quiet, eve if the light was harsh and the temperatures were high. The low level of humidity meant that the heat also didn't seem to "stick" to her body, the way the heat might in Kirigakure, which might have made every movement feel like one was moving through water with the effort required to move about.

In any case, she sets aside Hiramekarei for now so she can focus on training some more of Raphael's Taijutsu techniques. After all, the man was no longer going to be able to teach her or anyone else all of his techniques now, so she might as well pass them on to others, so that they could make use of them, too. She approaches another training dummy, although this technique would require an opponent in the air. She wondered if this was a common thing that Raphael had had to deal with, or if he just had a hard time fighting off birds. Regardless, Raika grips the dummy body and tosses it into the air before channeling chakra to her feet in order to jump upwards and meet the dummy at its apex, and she follows it down nearly to the ground with a series of brutal, harsh body blows before she kicks off of it to let it slam into the ground, while Raika lands gracefully on her feet.

OOC: 200/200 Falling Rain

The next technique she feels the need to train is one called the Wrath of the Kraken, which is really a name she can get behind, especially as it seems to be the type of technique that allows one to stay on the ground and focuses on assaulting an opponent with maximum ferocity. This was much more her style of combat, and so she looks down at the training dummy she'd just ripped from its stand and decides to pick out a different one, instead. She finds another one nearby and then takes a slow, seemingly calming breath, although she's actually utilizing the Counter of the Ram fighting style that she'd learned herself with Raphael; this Taijutsu technique was meant to be used with any style after all, and she didn't need to break her hand or her wrist on the attack.

She moves in close to the dummy, and then starts aiming some powerful blows right to the dummy's midsection, each one hitting with tremendous power that makes Raika's bones ache a bit, but she can feel herself crushing the stand the dummy is attached to with her successive strikes, so that when she leaps upwards and delivers the forward kick to the dummy's chest, it snaps the entire stand in half and sends the dummy's body flying five meters away.

Raika lands and flexes her fists; her skin is bruised, but unharmed otherwise.

OOC: 150/150 Wrath of the Kraken

The last technique she wanted to train that day was the final version of Sealing Strikes, which she'd learned from Raphael partially, but not completely. She felt it would be best for her to fully master this fighting style as well, since Raphael had been the Uzumaki clan leader, and now it felt rather like Raika would need to take up that position when she returns to Kirigakure. She feels her eyes getting a bit wet, as they sometimes did while she was training these techniques, but this was not a common sensation; the Ryuutei did not cry, and did not grieve for the dead. Or at least, they often grieved in a completely different way. Raika wipes her eyes dry, ensuring that her vision is as dry and clear as the stony desert around her.

Finally ready to train, she goes up to the last training dummy she'll likely be attacking for the day, since she's already getting worn out, and she was always at least a little more tired when she was using the Chained-Fist style she'd watched and even somewhat helped Raphael to develop. She realizes that she's not going to be able to drain any chakra from a training dummy that has none, but she supposes that's the danger with training alone. While it's nice that others won't be learning her techniques from her, it also means she'll have to pretend that she's actually draining chakra. Regardless, Raika channels those Uzumaki chains around both of her fists, just the way she remembers using Chained-Fist style, and then she aims a punch directly at the dummy's chest, and she's a bit surprised to feel like she's drawing something out of the dummy after all, with the announcement through her training ground's speaker system letting her know that for chakra-draining techniques, to please select the "Chakra-Enhanced training mode", and that it had been activated in response to a chakra-draining technique. She winces at the announcement, but it seems likely that it was only an announcement meant for her grounds.

Regardless, she picks Hiramekarei back up and leaves; she's managed to completely master the final version of Sealing Strikes, and that's all she'd been looking to do for the last technique of the day.

OOC: 300/300 Sealing Strike S

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns once again to the Grand Konoha Training Facility, once again taking her place on the second floor, which she'd only learned just recently was sometimes called The Hot Rock by those that had been curious enough to venture to that particular training floor, only to leave almost instantly when they felt the intense heat and dryness of the location. Of course, neither really bothered Raika all that much, even if it was a comparatively new experience for her. Still, she heard some fairly worrying rumors that Blitz wasn't just visiting the Grand Konoha Training Facility, but was actually living inside of it, which was a somewhat worrying prospect, even for her. Didn't he know that he was currently wielding Samehada and that he'd need to protect it instantly if anyone came upon him sleeping, even if Konoha was their ally?

She'd have to talk to him about that sometime and warn him against doing so in the future, though it sounded like he was the type to keep himself busy all the time with all kinds of training and sparring, so perhaps she'd have to catch him during another bout of training and sparring; that seemed to be the only thing he really responded well to.

In any case, she had some more serious training to do; she'd learned some of the Calm Waters technique, but she'd never truly mastered it with Dante, and so she'd taken an instructional course in the use of the Grand Konoha Training Facility's capability to help train for a myriad of situations. She turned to the touchpad that was the facility's assistant application, and although she struggled for a while, she finally discovered a machine that would throw hardened rubber balls, meant to be used as an aid for learning to dodge certain attacks. She sets it up so as to deal a specific level of power at first, then gets into place as she focuses fully on the launcher that rises from the ground, its nozzle pointed directly at her chest. She focuses her attention towards the machine, pressing her senses of sight and hearing towards it, so much so that she actually hears the slight change in the pressure and machinery of the nozzle as it launches the ball, which she sidesteps to avoid.

OOC: 200/200 Calm Waters (B)

Raika continues her training, slightly enhancing the speed in order to more gradually improve her reaction time, until she finally can no longer seem to keep up with the movement enough to actually simply sidestep the thrown rubber ball, she she instead feels it swipe across the skin of her stomach, leaving behind a little red line where the rubber met with skin and gave it a very slight burn from the friction. She knew it would heal plenty fast on her own without even needing to do anything for it, so she simply left it alone for now, and instead steps back out of the training zone reserved for the use of the ball machine. With her dodging no longer being helpful, even with the Calm Waters technique being used as far as she's used it, she decides to try a different tack by utilizing her hand to react and catch the ball. The idea made sense in theory; an entire body was slower to move than a part of the body that was about 1/20th the size and mass, and she could probably be faster in catching the rubber ball than in attempting to dodge it.

Raika decides to put it to practice, and although she isn't quite quick enough the first couple of tries, with her claws having to be used instead when her hand isn't capable of reaching the projected impact point fast enough, she switches to keeping track of when the machine would launch the ball, and then moving her hand into position to catch it before it's fully launched, causing her to catch the next three perfectly well.

OOC: 250/250 Calm Waters (A)

Now comes the final attempt, and she knows she can't be allowed any additional tricks that she's been using so far, and so she sets the machine to a quieter setting, far greater speed, and then a randomized shot pattern, so that it would become completely impossible for her to be able to predict when the next ball was coming, and she would need far greater focus to be able to even see the rubber ball at its greatest speeds. Even so, she sets it to autorun for a while without her standing in the path of the launched rubber balls, and for a while, she watches as they crash into rocks, only to be launched skywards and bounce a little; despite being made of rubber, they didn't bounce much or very far normally, and so seeing them bounce at all was actually making the Ryuutei a little nervous; she didn't want the wind knocked out of her and she didn't want her claws shattered, or any other part of her shattered should she fail to be able to train with the rubber balls set to their highest setting. After taking a deep breath, she decides she's just going to have to go back to dodging; it seems there's not really a chance for her to be able to move her hand fast enough to catch it.

She waits for a little lull in the firing, then moves to stand in the center of the usual path of the fired rubber ball, feeling chakra flow through her as she focuses intently on any sound or change in sound that the machine makes; and then, she hears it, the sound of three rubber balls being loaded to the machine in quick succession, she flexes her hand a few times, feeling chakra flow down to her legs as she prepares, and then moves out of the way as she hears the rubber ball moving through the piping towards the nozzle, reacting to the slightest sound with a movement lithely enhanced by her chakra to dash out of the way again before the balls can hit her.

With her training seemingly complete, she turns off the ball-launching machine, picks Hiramekarei up, and then leaves the training facility.

OOC: 300/300 Calm Waters (S)

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns once more to the training facility, this time choosing to go up a level to the swampy training ground of the facility. There was no particular reason for doing so, other than a little change of pace, and she didn't really feel like training in the heat for today.

After reaching the next floor, she pulls Hiramekarei out, wielding it by both handles this time around, though since she doesn't need any of its chakra techniques, she leaves it fully enclosed in its bandages. She moves straight to a training dummy, and then Raika uses the heavy blade to rapidly move the sword to the various joints, stabs to the abdomen, and several other somewhat rough and harsh attacks that she wouldn't have been using on a normal human. Regardless, this was only an introduction to the Hunter's Blade style, so she stopped there.

OOC: 50/50 Hanta no Ken E-rank

She doesn't take a break, however, launching instantly into a little footwork exercise that was typically included in the Hunter's Blade style repertoire, and so she engages in some quick movement drills in order to better prepare herself for using the style in a greater capacity; she certainly feels her body get a little faster and perhaps a little more fleet of foot, but it's hardly comparable to her Bestial Blade style. Still, she feels she should learn as many techniques for the use of the blade as she's learned to be able to fight hand-to-hand; a swordswoman without the ability to appropriately use the sword would be more of a disappointment than anything else for Kirigakure...

OOC: 100/100 Hanta no Ken D-rank

Raika has nearly finished her training for some of the lower levels of the kenjutsu style she was now learning, but she decides to end back on the training dummy again. This time, she combines some of the lessons of the previous two types of training, the striking and the footwork lessons coalescing into an efficient, but not exactly flashy or showy destruction of the training dummy as Hiramekarei slices straight through the dummy's limbs at various joints while Raika herself is weaving her way around it, ensuring that she manages to strike it in several locations that would probably mean an instant loss for an opponent.

With none of her strikes wasted, she sees that the dummy is very nearly destroyed, eviscerated, and entirely disarmed, so she nods once with the satisfaction of training well-spent, packs up Hiramekarei on her back, and leaves the training facility once more.

OOC: 150/150 Hanta no Ken C-rank

THREAD EXIT

Raika returns once more to the training facility that she was becoming almost too comfortable with seeing so often, but which she knew she had likely come to Konoha to use, as this wonder of the Village Hidden in the Leaf was apparently the secret to the village's combat prowess on the battlefield that had let them fight against Iwagakure not once, but twice, and while the victory the second time had eluded them, it hadn't been for lack of trying, as the war had seemingly destabilized the Village Hidden in the Stones, but Konoha had instead enjoyed prosperity. In a sense, Konoha lost the war and still came out of it better than Iwagakure.

But that was enough thinking on the political and philosophical musings on a war that Kirigakure had not even chosen to involve itself with, it was time to focus on improving herself instead. Today at least, the beast of a woman has decided to return to the much more empty second floor. The terrain and high heat often seemed to deter on-lookers and curious eyes, so it was time for her to return there.

Once inside, she removes the bandages from around Hiramekarei and takes on the Hunter's Blade stance, leaning into both her weaponry and her Taijutsu knowledge to improve her stance and use it to its full advantage for even greater agility and speed as she rapidly approaches the nearest dummy with no wasted steps.

OOC: 200/200 Hanta no Ken B-rank

This time as Raika begins her training with the Hunter's Blade style, she reminds herself of the basics of the style so she can ensure she's training the technique correctly, remembering that this blade style has an intense focus on attacking multiple targets at once. And so she returns to the computer near the entrance, having had to learn quite a lot to be able to use this machine effectively so that she could set up her own scenarios. She'd already used it to great effect to complete her training of Raphael's other Taijutsu techniques until she'd mastered all of them, and now it was time to use this technology to better train herself to use this sword style from Kirigakure. Rsika watches as three more training dummies pop up near the first one, simulating a sort of "surrounded" type of scenario, and she slips right into the center of them as she grips Hiramekarei with both handles.

Raika rapidly works her feet and her legendary sword's blade to her advantage, turning this way and that to be able to rapidly strike, turn, and strike again, slicing away pieces of training dummies' limbs, cutting open their chests and stomachs, and then, near the end, slicing the dummies right off their pedestals in order to knock them down and then ensure their "demise" by even stabbing into each of the four training dummies once before she pulls her blade back, and returning once more to the computer.

OOC: 250/250 Hunter no Ken A-rank

Now it was time for Raika to use the culmination of her knowledge of the Hunter's Blade Kenjutsu style to the full extent of her abilities, a fighting style that had been developed on the decks of pirate ships for the express purpose of taking as many lives as possible in as short a time as possible, because on a boarding party, every second was a desperate fight for one's life and the lives of all of your comrades. It made sense, in a way, for Kirigakure to learn such a brutal fighting style from pirates, and it would certainly make sense for such a brutal style to serve Raika quite well in a fight here she might not want to be using her Bestial Blade, but still want to use Hiramekarei to its fullest extent. She finishing inputting the scenario to create ten training dummies for her to fight against, and even with a specific attack pattern, although she didn't know how such a function would help most shinobi; enemies never seem to attack you in the way you would expect them to, and so training any specific scenario seemed a waste of time, and energy. This was why she left the movements of the training dummies rather more simple, allowing them to move back and forth as though searching for an opening.

She gets back into position and uses her agility and speed to slice into the weak spots of several "enemy" training dummies, cutting, piercing, and chopping seemingly without end as Hiramekarei flashes here and there while the harsh sunlight beats down on her. She doesn't stop until all ten have been destroyed in some way, even having used precise strikes to slice around armor on at least one occasion to be able to pierce the training dummy's hear with one good thrust.

At this point, Raika feels she's accomplished her goal of fully mastering the Hunter's Blade style, and so she wraps Hiramekarei once more and leaves the training facility to return home.

OOC: 300/300 Hunter's Blade S-rank

THREAD EXIT

Raika feels the need the continue her Capoeira training - she'd never really finished her training back in Kirigakure in the fighting style she'd developed and seen spread throughout, since she'd allowed word to spread about the new Taijutsu style. She didn't need Hiramekarei, but of course, she still carried it with her. It was safer with her than simply sitting in the room she was living in for now while she was learning and training in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Now she'd come to the second floor once more, finding that the high head and arid landscape was perfectly acceptable for training Taijutsu in. She decides that her best bet is to go straight for the more devastating of the Capoeira techniques, one she'd decided to keep for herself, separate from the rest of the fighting style for her use exclusively, and she sets Hiramekarei tip-first into the cracked earth, allowing it to stand upright and still within view of her peripheral vision while she begins training by going straight into the Capoeira fighting style, starting with the swaying motions as she moves her arms side to side in time with her own legs moving in a similar fashion.

She feels her momentum building as she glares at the training dummy directly in front of her, allowing her claws to extend as she keeps a steady rhythm, despite her excitement to try this new, personal technique. The only preparation she allows herself is to fully extend her long, powerful claws to their maximum length before she shifts that momentum into a forward strike, claws first, directly below the X-marked sandbag that shows where the head of the training dummy was meant to be. Her claws dig straight in, completely tearing through the fabric, the sand, and even straight through the wooden post that keeps the training dummy standing upright, to completely decapitate the training dummy at the neck. Such a strike would likely come too quick and too powerful for an opponent to meet head-on, and so she felt quite proud of her work as she pulls back her hand and allows her claws to return to their shortened appearance.

OOC: 350/350 Asfixiante