[attr="class","arubody"] A light wind rustled the leaves of the nearby tree, blowing them off their branches where the stems clung to the brown bark. It was a nice day out, the burn of the sun hidden by the cool breeze that flowed through the village. Higa had been recently assigned to a squad led by the Jonin Shoichi Azuma. While he had already met the platoon leader, today's plans consisted of meeting his new partner Naoko.
He had never seen a need to socialize much during his days as a Genin. His time at the academy was lackluster, dealing with the pain of his parents' expectations and their constant meddling, but now he was free of them. This was a bit of a new process for him but a necessary one. At least, climbing the ranks alone was an almost ludicrous idea for him, plus the more he learned, the better his puppets.
He waited outside the exam center. It was free today and offered them some terrain for testing out their skills. If they were to work together, they'd need to know each other's strengths, and weaknesses were Higa's thought process.
He sat back in the shade of the tree, tossing up his Kunai into the air. His signature bundle of black fabric was placed beside him. To bystanders, at least those far enough away, it would look like a Kunai was doing backflips and whizzing through the air in front of him. The Chunin he was waiting for wasn't late yet by any means, but it seemed a waste to be cooped up indoors on a day like this.
[attr="class","addy2body"]Black parasol, black dress. If not for the fact she had been living here for over a decade and knew many of the faces around, Naoko probably would have gotten strange stares for the outfit she selected to meet her new partner. There was some function, at least - sleek shoes with grip and a belt with multiple pouches. She stopped in front of the purple-haired man and tipped the umbrella back, so that she could blink down at him unobstructed while still hiding from the sun. The reason for this was unclear, but perhaps it had something to do with skin that looked like it had not seen the outdoors in years.
"Higa?" Uncertain, for a moment, but then she nodded her head. Confirming. "Yeah, I remember you a little bit. There aren't too many people around with hair like that, after all. It's very fashionable. Is it dyed?"
Despite the small talk, the Chuunin was turning in her spot to assess the distance between them and the training facility. If the kunai moving around on its own perturbed her, she did not show it, and in fact did not mention it. A pebble near her left foot caught her attention and she kicked it, sending it skipping deceptively far in the direction of the door, one corner of her lips curling up.
"You invited me to meet with you, and I'm grateful that you seem like a nice person. However, I am a very impatient person. Can you tell me what it is you have in mind for today?"
[attr="class","arubody"] He looked up from his spot as her shadow merged with that of the tree, his eyes adjusting for a moment to see her purple eyes looking down at him. Something about her eyes matching his hair made him smirk. It was an odd color and usually made him stand out, but he couldn't say he was familiar with anyone who had that hue in their eyes.
Matched with the black dress and parasol, she stood out; he seemed underdressed wearing a black outfit and the brown flak jacket typical of the Iwa military. "Yeah, that's me." He had his hair tied up in a ponytail so it wouldn't bother him. "This? It's natural. Father has it, and my children will probably have it if that ever comes about." He haphazardly shrugged; fashion was hardly something he thought about.
Standing over her now, she was a lot smaller than he thought she would be. His attention was drawn to the pebble she kicked, the kunai falling out of the air, into his hand as he strapped it back to his vest, dusting himself off from any dirt that hugged his uniform. Not that he had anything to base that on in the first place.
"We are going to be working closely under Azuma now, no? Wouldn't it be best to know how to work with each other? Test each other?" It seemed pretty basic to him. He wasn't too sure where the confusion came from, considering the location and all. That being said, he was clueless about how this was supposed to go. His hand stretched out, gesturing towards the entrance of the door. "It should be free right now."
Naoko turned back to face him. She allowed him to stand, even allowed him to babble on about testing each other, yadda yadda. As his hand stretched out to point toward the door she had already spotted, the parasol suddenly snapped closed above her head and she swung it like a bat from over the shoulder to his side, namely his exposed flank due to the lifted arm. She supposed they were evenly matched when it came to hand-to-hand prowess, but her strength lied in ambush and agility, not brute force. For this reason, he was unlikely to dodge the assault - just as it was unlikely to actually hurt him. Knock the breath out, perhaps. Shock? She hoped.
Regardless, unless he grabbed it, the umbrella would be slung casually over her shoulder while she grinned at him. The expression was a bit feral, not friendly, even if her height did not add much to the intimidation factor. "Why ever would you put away a perfectly good weapon?" she queried, voice lilting. It was sugary-sweet but he might have caught on to the mocking behind it. Not a jab at him personally, but rather the boring training objective he'd posed.
Expression cleared from pale face, leaving a neutral, almost cold countenance. She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. "We can fight for real though, if you want. A sparring match would never give you a true idea of someone's weaknesses. Here's one for you - you give too much information away when you speak."
[attr="class","arubody"] The sudden snap of the parasol, reflexively made him lift his hand, there was a dull thud as wood and metal hit flesh. It was an unexpected and unwelcome feeling. He grit his teeth in annoyance, her cocky attitude leaving a bit of a sour taste in his mouth since the whole point of this setup was to avoid Azuma coming down on them later if they injured a bystander. If worse came to worse, she swung at him first.
He shoved her to create some space between them; unlike her, his hand-to-hand prowess was in brute force. She would probably fall over if she didn't catch herself. "I don't normally speak much, but for the sake of trying to be amicable with you, I gave it a go.".
His following motion was tossing the kunai at her while she recovered. He was using the time to yank the cloth off of Kishi. The puppet quickly animated, rushing towards her, leaving dust in the air behind it. Higa's eyes focused on her, and he began to run to the left, another kunai in hand. Rather than answering the suggestion verbally, the towering puppet attempting to slam into her stomach would give her the response.
[attr="class","addy2body"]Yeah, Higa decided to shove her. How rude is that?
She applied force on her heels so that while she stumbled back slightly, she was in no real danger of tripping or falling. While he took the time to respond - again, a mistake that she just warned him about - Naoko did not hesitate. The parasol was dropped, useless prop. She performed a single handseal while at the same time darting forward, closing the gap between them quickly. From the pouch at her side a kunai was produced, green chakra enveloping it momentarily before disappearing. There was not much time for him to look, but if he did, he might notice it now appeared to be slick with liquid.
In the same motion of pulling the kunai out from the pouch, she swiped it up at him from that downward position, aiming to cut across whatever body part came in contact. She was initially aiming for his chest, which was padded by a vest and therefore she didn't feel the need to hold back in fear of gravely injuring him, but realistically he was probably going to try to move or block. It would certainly prevent him from throwing his own kunai as planned, and from freeing his puppet that was securely wrapped in cloth next to them.
[attr="class","arubody"] She recovered, too quickly. Maybe he was the one being too cocky. However, he did catch the green flash as she darted towards him, although that didn't give him any information.
His hand swung down to catch onto her wrist, using his strength to either knock her hand back down or at least catch her swipe before it made contact. What came next was pretty crude.
He swung his fist at her face while one hand was occupied, whether she blocked or dodged wouldn't matter because all it was was a distraction as the bundle of fabric launched from the ground towards her. He didn't need to free his puppet to use it. Either way, her focus would be on him or the heavy mass that would crash into her.
[attr="class","addy2body"] Her kunai sliced clean through the fabric over his hip, creating a shallow wound that would have continued in an arc up his chest if his hand hadn't knocked the blade back down. Meanwhile, his fist connected with her face. Normally this would have caused her to fall back, but she was already mid-sprint toward him and the momentum was not so easily stopped. Her body crashed into his, her kunai falling uselessly on the ground, limbs tangled with his. Another mass crashed into her in turn, sending her sprawling onto the ground, but he would be dragged down with her.
Naoko was left breathless and a bit dazed, crumpled beneath two bodies that were significantly bigger than her own. She did not bother trying to get up, not yet at least, because he would have to make the first move. That being said, Higa would start to feel a burn in that slice from her poison, doubling the irritation of having a cut to begin with. It was barely bleeding, so luckily for him the poison was not able to get into his bloodstream, but it did make the skin around red and itchy. An annoyance, but not a danger.. because he had gotten very lucky.
[attr="class","arubody"] He expected her to fall back, now a mess of limbs on the floor with him on top of her and the puppet on top of both. Knocking his breath out of him, though in this position, he could easily overpower her, his hands grasping at her wrists, holding them down into the dirt.
He clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth as the pain shot through him. However, the resulting feeling was an irritating burn. He didn't want to ruin the fabric since it was good quality. But maybe this was a lesson in how much of a hindrance it was in combat.
A faint click echoed as the dust settled from their crash, then the loud tearing of fabric as he used Kishi to cut itself out. This would be the first time she saw it now as its hand slid around him and pressed the gleaming blade against her throat, Higa giving her a confident smirk.
[attr="class","addy2body"]What sort of reaction was the purple-haired man looking to get from this encounter? Certainly, he would not expect the glossed lips slowly spreading into a Cheshire grin, purple eyes locked on his own, unperturbed by the blade that was now being held to her throat by an inanimate object. Well, was it really inanimate at this point? She gave a tentative tug of her wrists to see how much force he was exerting to keep them pinned down, then seemingly gave up.
"My, my, Higa.. I did not realize you were into this sort of thing." The grin disappeared, replaced by a feigned shock as eyebrows raised. "As fun as that sounds, you do know there are many people watching us right now~? I would not be surprised if Shoichi was stalking around too, as he is wont to do. You should probably get up now." Her voice lowered to a whisper - this was clearly a threat, though it was thinly veiled as a flirt. In truth, she was pissed off that he had the nerve to touch her at all and if they were in a more private location, she would have tried to injure him for real.
Oh! That wasn't even to mention that her cheek was starting to turn a bit purple where his fist collided, a little swollen. Honestly, how crude.
[attr="class","arubody"] His kept his smirk as she seemingly tested to see if she could get out before it turned into a scowl at her words. There were numerous people passing by some even crowding, whispering and mumbling to each other at the scene they caused.
He lifted himself off of her, Kishi retracting its blade. She was the one who wanted to go all out. He could tell a threat when he heard one no matter how sweetly she tried to mask it. He patted himself down, dusting himself off and looking around, for all he knew Azuma was lurking around the corner.
He offered his hand to help her up. Regardless of whether she took it or not he noticed the purple bruise where he had hit her. "We should get that checked out." He let out a hiss, the shock wearing off and his side burned, he reached over blood lightly smearing his hand but it was so damn itchy as he began to scratch it.
[attr="class","addy2body"]There was the briefest moment where purple eyes flashed cold as she stared at Higa's outstretched hand, but she extended hers and used his help to get up anyway. She carefully patted dust off her dress, pointedly ignoring the crowd as they scattered and also seemingly lost in her own thoughts. Well, until there was this.. grating.. noise. Nails on a chalkboard - or, more precisely, nails on open flesh. Her face scrunched up in displeasure.
"What, my face? That isn't even the PROBLEM here," she cried, motioning toward his bleeding wound, which had only gotten more ragged from his nails peeling at it. Watching filled her with a physical pain that was expressed on pale face much more readily than her own pain, she was practically squirming and cringing. "Stop that! God. Well, since you don't seem to realize it, my skills do not lie in combat. I was trained foremost as a medic with the intent to heal, not trade punches with people like you.. or that," gaze flicked momentarily toward the puppet.
"I will heal it for you, if you give consent." All prim and proper, following the script as it was taught to her over.. and over.. and over. Of course, consent was useless on the battlefield, but this was home turf. If her father caught her using iryou ninjutsu on an unwilling participant, he would probably blow a fuse. Not that she cared. There were simply too many eyes on them to risk it.
He grit his teeth, giving her somewhat of an annoyed look since this was clearly her doing. Light wells of drying blood were underneath his fingertips now, his wound lightly swollen from the itching, a deep red on his pale skin. He dug his right foot into the ground, just making motions to try to get his mind off of it.
He knew rationally that touching it was making it worse, but like a bug bite, the need to itch kept growing. He released it, more out of necessity at first until she made her offer.
"Fix it and show me how you do it too." he hissed, inhaling through his teeth. The longer this went on, the itchier it got.
Despite that, he did his best to focus on Naoko and any hand signs or movements she made. The opportunity and want to learn something useful to him and his puppets far exceeded his need to itch the wound, even if it was making him pretty impatient.
[attr="class","addy2body"]"Eh. I'll show you, I guess, but if you are actually interested in medical jutsu you should apply for an apprenticeship with more skilled medics than me."
Naoko flipped her hair over one shoulder, pushing it out of her face so she could better see his wound as she crouched next to him. Like she suspected, the cut itself was not serious, but his scratching had certainly tore it. The poison was doing what she had formulated it to do; perhaps a little stronger because of practice and proximity. He was lucky that it mostly was reacting to his skin rather than having seeped into his bloodstream, though if he kept scratching, it was likely to get there from under his nails. That was her favorite part of it! Like a bug bite, it made the victim be the own unwitting pawn in their continued destruction.
She stood up again, bringing her hands up in a relaxed preparation stance. "It is shousen jutsu, or mystic palm if you are less formal about it. In theory, it is just like every other ninjutsu technique - draw your chakra into your hands. Focus on the intent, which in this case is healing. However, the hard part is that you need to understand the fundamental concepts behind how to heal the human body."
It felt like a bit of a lecture, which she enjoyed. If she were wearing glasses that would be the moment to do the cliche push-up-the-bridge motion. "You need to understand how you plan to heal the body and how much chakra you need to expend to do so, otherwise, you could instruct the cells incorrectly or apply too much chakra. An overuse of chakra on a small wound is not that big of an issue, but on a larger wound could be fatal."
After making sure he was paying attention, she slooooooowly performed two handseals. "One, two. The exact seals will need to be changed depending on your intent, but ox and tiger work for cuts." As the handseal broke, chakra rushed into both hands, that familiar green glow coating them like a living fire - or a mist. Yes, mist was more accurate.
She allowed the left hand to extinguish and then applied her right to his wound. As the chakra flowed between them, the poison was leeched from his skin and the cut began to sew itself together. Both edges pulled to meet the other and then closed, leaving no mark behind whatsoever. Not a single hint that he'd even taken damage, other than the ripped shirt.
[attr="class","arubody"] He let out another hiss as he inhaled. Atleast the crowd dissipated as she crouched beside him, people returning to their own business. He listened to her carefully. It made sense; drawing chakra and applying was probably the easy part thanks to the chakra manipulation he was used to, but the concepts?
He spent most of his time studying how to carve out of solid materials: rock, metal, wood, how parts work together to create his puppets. Human cell proliferation was not on his list of strong points. While he got the core concepts off her, the specifics of how much chakra or the instructions, the things he wanted to know she glossed over... although she did mention looking for an apprenticeship. But that would take his time away from what was important; he gave her a nod encouraging her to continue teaching him.
His eyes focused down onto her hands, mimicking the seals in his own, both helping distract him from that itch and memorize. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as she finally began. It may seem like he was bitching about a simple irritation, but it was because he was trying to be more sociable that he was so expressive. The green mist washed over his wounds. Flesh sewing itself together and finally shut.
He turned his head, looking at the ripped shirt, unfortunate but fixable. He stretched out lightly. "Much better now. Neat trick." He quickly pulled his fingers back, sliding the arm of the puppet back into the torn fabric using his chakra, wrapping the makeshift straps around it.
Higa pulled out the kunai he had strapped onto his flak jacket from earlier, flicking it down. The blade would graze her arm before he yanked on it with his chakra, returning it to his hand like a yoyo. "My turn." He sat down, legs crossed in the dirt, hands moving together to form the hand seals.
Ox, Tiger, then moving his chakra to his palms and hovering the right palm over her cut. He would try it for himself, trickling out chakra, slowly increasing it to find that sweet spot for a cut of this size, this shallow. Urging the cells to replicate, heal, close.
