If someone had told him a few weeks ago that he would go off on a investigation in the Land of Earth, and end up returning to some kind of honors, Ryota wasn't quite sure if he'd have believed them. And yet, here he was. Standing next to the Hokage. The whirlwind of events that had led him here still had his head spinning just a bit. All he had done was what he felt to be the right thing. His teammate had been injured, and they had mostly uncovered what was happening, which was what they had been tasked with. Making an escape was only the right thing to do.
So why was he being held up like this was some saintly thing to do? It was something that confused him, to a degree. But, he had been requested to be here on the orders of the Hokage. That wasn't something to take lightly. He kept his arms crossed behind his back, his left hand gripping his right wrist, index finger running a slow circle across his skin as he looked out at the crowd.
Some people looked irritated. Others looked bored. Some even looked jealous. He couldn't help but flash back to his graduation from the academy. The crowd had been the younger students at the time, but it was all too similar. If left to his own devices, it was almost certain that Ryota would have started zoning out. Thankfully, the Hokage began to speak, snapping him out of things.
There it was again. People calling him brave. He didn't feel brave. He did something he was sure any other member of his team would do for him. Of course, when she mentioned Yusuke, it took a lot for Ryota to not frown. He had seen what they'd had to do to him. It was more than likely that he'd be out of commission for quite some time.
They could have--no, SHOULD have done better. Even as that thought crossed his mind, he watched the Hokage pull the ribbon out of its box from the corner of his eye. As she stepped in front of him, he felt her fumble with pinning it a few times.
That was odd. Everyone had always called her the allseeing. Pinning a ribbon should have been easy..was she stalling for time or something? That had to be it. This was too simple of a task. She must have been dragging things out to emphasize the importance or something..right? His suspicion that she had just been stalling seemed to prove itself, as she whispered in his ear, congratulating him yet again.
"I did my best."
He whispered back. But something was..off. The response had been quick, but there almost sounded like he had a tinge of doubt in his words. His gaze hadn't shifted away from the crowd, who were now starting to talk amongst themselves, a handful of people starting to filter away already.
Had he really earned all of this attention, when things had gone so far south?
I truly have no idea what level can justifiably unlock, so I shall have both of the levels I assume could feasibly be reached written down in spoilers. For the submitted threads, I am submitting my posts in the Summon Event for the purposes of this upgrade, as I have officially exited the topic.
{Wind Release (Rookie)}Futon: Wind Release [Rookie] The second side of the coin of Ryota's natural affinities. His time in the Land of Earth showed Ryota that he needed to expand his repertoire further if he wished to be capable of helping others. As such, he began to train again when he returned to Otogakure. Unlike the use of Suiton, Futon has proven to be a bit slipperier to get a handle on, due to its invisible nature. As such, he can only generate minor winds with his usage of the Wind Release. Further training is most certainly needed.
{Wind Release (Apprentice)}Futon: Wind Release [Apprentice] The second side of the coin of Ryota's natural affinities. His time in the Land of Earth showed Ryota that he needed to expand his repertoire further if he wished to be capable of helping others. As such, he began an almost obsessive regime of training in the use of Wind Release when he returned to Otogakure. Due to his deep drive to help others after witnessing his partner take so much damage, he has managed to push his limits, bringing his capabilities with the Wind element close to on par with his use of Water. As a result, he is capable of generating winds of enough force to actually be capable of being dangerous, as well as gaining the ability to use Wind as true projectiles, such as Air Bullets or small slashes of wind. However, there is still a long way to go before he can consider this element to be reliably helpful.
When his blade stopped moving, Ryota felt every nerve in his body firing at once, screaming at him to press his offense, follow through with the slash, pull back, go for a punch with his guarded hand. Do SOMETHING. The things that had happened all the way back in The Land of Earth had stuck with him. It was why he had come out here in the first place.
So, with a slow and deliberate breath inward, he managed to pull his sword back. He still asked how he had done, chipper to a degree. But that bit of panic had done a lot to temper his energy levels. He hadn't been able to do much of anything before, and that one instance still showed that he had a lot to learn when it came to Swordsmanship. He would have to put some time into some other training, too.
Having access to the power of his bloodline would definitely be useful once he had the skill to properly activate it. He was certainly listening to what Yousei had to say, to be sure. But it was clear that he was also making note of other things while he listened. It wasn't until she let go of his sword and asked him if he wanted to try again that Ryota gave off a little chuckle.
"I mean, sure. But I can't help but feel like this 'one attack at a time' model isn't going to get us much of anywhere now."
As he spoke, his free hand slowly rose up to his face, grabbing the cloth that had been straddling his chin for the past few moments before pulling it up, covering his nose and mouth with it as he took a few steps back, taking up his preferred initial stance. Interestingly enough, it wasn't one of the common ones. Instead of keeping his sword in between his body and the opponent's blade, he seemed to have a preference for the Back Stance, leaving his cutlass pointed behind himself. Interesting.
He didn't start his assault right away. Instead, he gave it a few moments, allowing Yousei to do whatever she was going to do. Once he had a sign that she was ready, he darted forward. For as long as she had been observing him, it had been obvious that he was the dexterous sort. But he was also rather fast. His first attack was a simple upwards diagonal slash, aiming to cleave up from the left side of her hip all the way up to her left shoulder. If it was guarded, blocked, dodged, it would soon be followed by the blade heading in the reverse direction, only to suddenly have the next attack change into a horizontal swipe.
All the while, Ryota was wielding his blade in one hand. The unfortunate truth of the design of Nightfall was that it didn't have enough handle to be used in both hands, unlike Yousei's Katana. That was why his solo training had seemed to be focused on a few unorthodox methods of attack. Wielding a light sword in a single hand had many downfalls, but speed was a true virtue of that method of combat. Ryota would definitely learn what the advantages and disadvantages of the style he had pieced together were today, training against a truly experienced swordswoman, rather than his simple missions against bandits that fought in a rough and tumble way.
But then, that was half the point, wasn't it? Sure, pushing forward into full speed combat after being corrected twice--rightly so--? It was a bit reckless, for certain. But then, he had always had a bit of trouble when it came to risk evaluation while pursuing his own training. A bit odd, considering how careful he was with his platoon's training.
As Per my Ask A Staff Request, I will be changing out Ryota's Dormant Ranton Proficiency. Instead of Ranton, the Dormant Proficiency I will be picking up is as follows:
Hyoton: Ice Release (Dormant)
Considered little more than a rumor by some immediate members of the Sadao family, Ryota made an odd discovery during his Affinity Test. The results changed based on which hand he held the paper in. As a result, Ryota has become aware of a secret that flows through his veins: the power of Winter. Hyoton. While he does not yet possess the mastery over frost that is the signature of this Advanced Release, the potential is there. It just needs time for his other affinity to be teased out, as well as brought under control.
I also need my description of Suiton changed. The change to Suiton is meant to be tied into Ryota's AR, so it should be as follows:
Suiton: Water Release [Apprentice]
When Ryota first began to learn about his Chakra affinities, it was a coin toss to see what aspect would become more prevalent. In a seeming coin flip between Futon and Suiton, Ryota's primary result from the Affinity Test was that of the water release: Suiton. It is an element that he shows a fair deal of promise with, having the ability to walk across water with relative ease, along with being able to mostly retain his ability to move within relatively strong currents.
As is the typical progress made with this elemental release, most of the things that Ryota can do with it at this level are relatively small, and tend to pull small amounts of water from any nearby body of water. However, he does have a single extra option that he focuses his attention to: The ability to pull water out of the air itself. Currently, he can really only make coin sized droplets of water using this method, but it is nonetheless an interesting path to be walking.
It took what felt like an oddly long time, but eventually Ryota would hear footsteps echoing down the tunnel, getting closer and closer by the second. He had taken to sitting on one of the large outcroppings of rock that made up the arch that marked the opening of this cave. So when he heard the steps get close enough, Ryota pushed himself off of the rock he had seated himself on. He had been expecting the first arrival to be the second Chunin.
Unfortunately, it seemed he would be disappointed. While there was a new arrival, it was someone he recognized. An old classmate from the academy. He hadn't known much about the recent promotions, but he hadn't heard news of anyone that had been in his class getting a promotion recently. Still, Ryota waved with a fair amount of enthusiasm as she got closer, a broad smile on his face. Of course, she asked the all important question: Was he part of platoon 1? Followed by an admission that she recognized him, but didn't remember his name.
"Yep, that I am! Don't worry though, it's not a big deal. It wasn't like we hung out in the academy or anything. Ryota Sadao, Chunin of Platoon 1, at your service."
He all but chirped to Yue as he gripped her outstretched hand, giving it a firm shake. However, it seemed Yue's arrival had hidden the arrival of another. As he heard someone else chime in, Ryota let go of Yue's hand, looking over her shoulder to see another girl. This one definitely looked younger. Aburame, though? That was certainly interesting to hear. She seemed nervous, though. So he was more careful with his approach, dialing the enthusiasm back a bit as he held his hand out to her.
"It's nice to meet you, Kaede. I'm sure you heard what I said to Yue, but my name's Ryota. I'm one of the Chunin for this platoon."
It was definitely an odd sight, watching someone who had been so energetic just a second ago dial back so effectively. However, it seemed that they wouldn't be done with introductions. While Ryota had been expecting another teenager to walk out of the tunnel, he would be given quite the surprise. A grown man walked out next, and even bowed formally. One he stood back up straight, Ryota cleared his throat a bit.
It felt awkward to be further up the chain of command than someone far older than him. Quite obviously so, in fact. Of course, that made two older individuals. He still hadn't seen the one lower ranked member of the platoon that he had met before. But that would have to be handled later. For now, he returned the bow..albeit rather awkwardly. It had been strange, going from shaking someone's hand to bowing.
"It's nice to meet you too, sir." He said, simply trying to show that there was respect for all of them, regardless of age or rank. However, when the final member spoke up out of nowhere, it had taken a sizable amount of restraint to not suddenly jump as he heard an all too familiar voice. Instead, Ryota laughed as he stood up straight.
"I should have known that you'd be hanging out here, Tou!" He called out, giving the taller man a wave as he finally showed himself.
"Yeah, today's been a pretty good day, so far. Now all that's left is our other Chunin, and the bo-" Just then, as if on cue, a figure dropped from above the cave. The way that he carried himself spoke volumes. Even before he introduced himself, he recognized that this man was the superior that he had received the letter from. He knew the man by name, but he had been left to his own devices for quite some time, as they hadn't yet managed to properly sort out the members of this year's new platoons. If he was being honest, he hadn't expected his Sensei to look quite the way he did.
Compared to the five people beneath him, Oda probably stuck out the most, appearance wise. Between his rather distinctively styled and colored hair, the scars, and the way he carried himself? He definitely seemed to be the odd man out. Of course, Ryota knew what to expect from him..for the most part.
All of the correspondence he had been given from this man had a bit of a hardline edge to it. He obviously meant business. And so far, his introduction had matched that. So when he told them that they were not actually beholden to his command, Ryota was thrown off a bit. What he followed it up with admittedly made sense, but he clearly hadn't had the full picture of this man. Well. Even if they were missing a member, this was already an interesting crowd.
After introductions were made, Oda threw them all a question. Rather than being the first to speak up, Ryota looked around, waiting for the other members of the platoon to speak up on their own, in turn. Once everyone else had given their answer, Ryota spoke up, having shoved his hands into the pockets of the jacket that he had been wearing.
"Going by the books, the answer would be that completing the objective of the mission itself is top priority. However, I like to think that completing the mission with as little loss of life as possible should be the real priority."
The words of encouragement that Yousei were giving were clearly appreciated, given the way Ryota seemed to lose the tension in his shoulders as she spoke up. He had to chuckle a bit as he turned to face her, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, Nightfall pointed down at the ground in his other hand.
"Yeah, it's a bit difficult. Goes against everything they teach you in the academy, you know?"
He wasn't wrong. At a very young age, every shinobi in training was drilled about the concept of paying attention to everything around them, meaning that it was an almost endless train of thought when they were fighting. Obviously, this seemingly endless train of thought would find itself being replaced by reflexive movements as a shinobi gained more and more experience. That was something he had learned very recently, as he'd found himself getting a bit more smooth in his transitions between hand signs.
Honestly, it was good hearing that someone else had been having the same struggles. As much as he appreciated his Sensei's teachings as platoon leader, he definitely was a bit on the..harsher side. A lot of sink or swim moments. He nodded along with what she had to say, and eventually even tugged his mask down, revealing the rest of his face in the process. There weren't any more targets standing up, or hanging from the trees. He had cut the last one down. The implication of what that meant as to what was about to happen next would be obvious to even the most amateur of genin. His gaze didn't shift away from the Jonin in front of him. However, the way his eyes almost seemed to start unfocusing, it was clear that he was about to put her words into practice. The loss in focus for his eyes wasn't much. But a trained shinobi such as her would be more than able to pick up on it. Thankfully, experience and skill both weighed heavily in her favor, something that must have seemed obvious to Ryota. After a few moments, he started taking slow, deliberate steps forward.
His intent was made clear by a single word.
"Sorry."
S L A S H !
Once again, the sound of his sword whistling through the air became audible. The decision of what to do was up to Yousei. Parry? Block it entirely? Or maybe just dodge? It wasn't like he was going for some extravagant attack. This was a basic swipe, aimed at the only 'target' left in the area. It was clear that he was starting to get the hang of it. But there was still that trace amount of rigidity in his movements, and a moment of hesitation before he swung his blade. It was getting better, no doubt. But he still had a ways to go. Regardless of what was done in response to his second attempt, the young Chunin's demeanor switched up again, pulling a complete 180 from calm and serious to chipper and relaxed.
"How was that?"
He asked, wearing a broad smile. Clearly, he felt like he had improved.
It seemed that Kai had been the correct move, as when he finished his final hand sign, the chaos around him abated..somewhat. It became clear that there were indeed multiple rhino. Four to be exact. But it was clear to see one thing. Whatever was happening was too much for all but the most seasoned of Ninja here. He could hear multiple people calling for retreat, and at least one of the Rhino was busy chasing a group that was trying to flee. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to stay and help..but then he saw his teammate.
He was having trouble even standing, his arm all but spewing blood. That was right. They had been sent here to gather information and return, not fight to their deaths against this beast. As soon as Ryota noticed, he jumped down from his viewpoint, making the quick dash to grab his teammate by the collar of his uniform before dragging him behind the stone block that he had been standing on. Everything was chaos, and Ryota could feel his heart pounding in his ears. Perhaps that was the only thing keeping him from registering just how badly his teammate's arm had been shattered. So, Ryota looked around. There. Just at the very edge of the range of his ability to body flicker. A small building that had been overlooked before. It was far enough to be too out of the way for a Rhino to be willing to chase if they appeared immediately. More importantly, it gave them cover, which would give Ryota time to bandage Yusuke up before making the long trek back.
"Well, here goes nothing.." He muttered as an arm slipped around Yusuke's waist. The crunch of bone shattering echoed throughout the quarry as he pulled the other chunin as close as he could, allowing him to form the hand sign. The adrenaline still pounding, he took the risk of performing a two person Body Flicker. He could feel the strain on his body as the Jutsu activated. Thankfully, between his remaining reserves and adrenaline, he had been able to pull it off. The few steps around to the side of the building they appeared by were heavy footfalls, but he had managed it. Letting go of Yusuke, he let his friend slide down into a sitting position on the side of the building. Patting down his jacket, Ryota felt around for anything. No bandages..no gauze. He sighed as he looked his teammate over. Well, this was going to be unpleasant. He knelt down next to his teammate, quickly pulling a kunai from the pouch he had always seen him drawing from during training for a kunai.
The process he went through afterwards was quick and dirty, and left Yusuke's uniform in tatters. It had taken almost the entire top of the uniform's cloth, but he had been able to mostly stem the flow of blood from Yusuke's arm. He waited a few tense moments to watch for any more blood. Once that was done, he hefted the young man up and onto a shoulder again. Time for them to get out of here. Using the cover of the building, Ryota started to walk in the direction of the small village they had passed through to get here. Yusuke needed a doctor, and they needed to get back to the village in one piece. Hopefully the building they had slipped behind would offer enough cover for the pair to slip away unnoticed. If it didn't, well..he still had his sword. They had both been overconfident in their own abilities, and had kept to themselves before the chaos broke out. A harsh lesson would be learned if they managed to escape. One that Ryota was already in the process of parsing out as he struggled through uneven ground to try and get them out of combat before it was too late. At least one person had died today. He didn't know who..but that knowledge alone bothered him more than most probably would have cared to admit.
Ouch. Being told that he thought too much stung his pride a lot more than it had any right to. Luckily, he didn't hold so fiercely to his pride that wounding it would offend him. At least, that wouldn't be what rubbed him the wrong way. Rather, her statement about a sword being more than just an object did. He had kept hearing that every time someone mentioned sword fighting. It was certainly something he had internalized.
At least, that was what he had thought. When he watched Yousei all too easily pull off the kind of fluid movement that he had been purposely trying to capitalize on, it made him wonder if there was more to the statement than people let on. As she turned back to him and explained that being less focused on the rigid step by step method might help everything else fall into place, Ryota nodded, pulling the black face mask that had been straddling his chin ever since he took a gulp from his canteen up to cover his face again. Was there any point in doing it? Not really. But it was a habit he was having difficulty breaking.
"I see."
He said, hand still resting on the pommel of his sword. She had given him something to muddle over as his eyes scanned around for any remaining targets. Most of the standing ones had been knocked over, or needed something replaced. Eventually, he found one. A target that had been meant for swinging, now just hanging there. Without saying another word, he slowly started to walk towards it. It was one of the lighter targets, but since it was hanging dead center between two trees, it obviously hadn't been able to start swinging in any way that would have been useful for his training.
As he walked to his target, his mind was a maelstrom of all sorts of thoughts, running wild in his mind. But with every step, he forced himself to stop thinking about another thought. He wasn't able to rid himself completely of thoughts, as he could still remember the kata that he had been forced to learn back when he was just starting to practice with swords. Along with that, his own internal judgements of his movements still rattled off in the side of his head, even as he gripped the handle of Nightfall...
S L A S H !
Compared to his movements before, there was a marked improvement in this attack, which was notably smoother. His aim had been too high, though. He had missed the bag, and cut the rope that had been holding it to the tree instead. While his face was well hidden by his mask and relatively long hair, he frowned. It was one of the few expressions that could be reliably read through his mask. It had improved, for sure. But he had focused too much on quashing the thoughts to keep his aim from going too high. Seemed there was a sweet spot. If this was any indicator of how hard learning to make the movements more trained was going to be, then he was in for a long day.
For most people, a sudden voice coming out of nowhere might have made them jump. But for Ryota, it just served as a realization that he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings. That made him feel a bit bad, as that was something that they had drilled into every student over and over again during their time at the academy. But he wasn't about to beat himself up over it. Instead, he twirled Nightfall in his hand, the back of the blade coming up to rest on his shoulder as he turned his head around, scanning the edge of the clearing for the source of that initial quip, eventually having to shift upwards towards the lowest parts of the treeline.
"That's sort of the point of coming out here though, innit?"
He responded with a chuckle as he lifted his sword up off of his shoulder and slid it back into its scabbard as this new arrival thumped her chest, giving the stereotypical sales pitch statement of calling the advice 'on the house'. It was certainly an odd pairing to see. Ryota looked young, for sure. But this new arrival looked even younger than he did.
However, Ryota was a bit more keen with noticing the little things about others. He could tell just by the way she carried herself that she wouldn't be making the same mistake he did. She was clearly ready to react to anything. And that sword certainly looked cared for enough that the odds of her not knowing what she was talking about were slim to none.
The confidence she was oozing certainly helped to back up her offer and the things that he noticed, for certain. It was intriguing. If she was oozing confidence, Ryota was all but oozing this air of calm and relaxation. Still, he blinked a bit when she introduced herself as Yousei. That name sounded familiar.
Before she even finished introducing herself, it clicked. Suddenly, Ryota was very glad that he kept an ear out. The vague description he had heard from some of the older Shinobi of the newest jonin matched up pretty handily with the person in front of him.
"Ah, the new Jounin, right? Nice to meet you, I'm Ryota, one of the two Chunin from the First Platoon!"
He chirped back, his relaxed demeanor making it all too easy for him to match the energy she was putting out into the world. It helped that he was naturally a relatively chipper individual. Revealing his position would be the context that Yousei would have been missing. He was having such trouble because he didn't have the experience needed to know what he was missing.
"That being said, I can't exactly turn down an offer from someone willing to help, yeah?" He might not have wanted to admit it, but even he could tell just how disappointing his results were in trying to teach himself, along with how pitiful the attacks he had been practicing against these sandbags and targets were. Sure, some of them had been cut open, but that was a testament to the quality of the cutlass on his hip than it was his own skill.
Sure, he had the speed and a keen eye when it came to edge alignment, but it was the little things that were causing the lack of progress. His inefficient stance, for one. But it wasn't just a problem of stance. There were just so many things he could improve on. Luckily for him, he would be getting the help he would refuse to actively admit he needed, just because he was too polite to turn it down.
It wasn't often that Ryota left the village so far behind. His love of teaching others kept him close at hand for the majority of the time. But recently, he'd started to take a more keen notice as to how he was still struggling with the way he used his own skills. Particularly when it came to the use of Nightfall.
A more well adjusted--or less stubborn--individual wouldn't have had any problem with simply seeking out someone to assist in the matter of learning the way of the sword better. But Ryota's passion for teaching had been known to blind him towards his own faults when it came to practicing. He had the unfortunate habit of assuming that his ability to teach would be questioned by those who had given him his position if he was found learning from someone else. A complete falsehood, truly. But it was a falsehood that he couldn't shake.
For all his love of teaching, all of his passion and determination, he continued to make the one biggest mistake. He assumed he could teach himself how to make something out of nothing. That was why he had left the village so early in the morning, a cart loaded down with all kinds of supplies, like rope, sandbags, wooden posts. In the wee hours of the morning, he had set up all kinds of targets using the woods around him. Heavy sandbags swung from side to side, the thick, healthy limbs of the larger trees supporting the weight.
Interspersed seemingly randomly throughout the small clearing he had decided to work in, there were several generic standing targets. They were mostly logs that had been cut too roughly to be proper for firewood, allowing for wooden shields and swords to be strapped to them due to some thicker protrusions remaining on either side. By this point, several of the swinging targets were merely dangling, the light breeze occasionally causing the empty, sliced bags to flutter in the breeze.
As for the standing targets, many of them had dozens of narrow lacerations going along both the logs themselves, and the weapons that they carried. But for as impressive of a view as this scene would seem to an outsider, there was one problem. Even with the hours of practice he had been putting in, there was little to no sign of improvement in the little things.
His stance was still off, his reaction time just the slightest bit too slow. As he took a step towards another standing target, he let out three quick slashes. The movements were solid, and the intent was there. He could make his blade change directions easily, due to its light weight. But it was still off. The slashes connected, but didn't cut deep enough to be more than a cursory wound on a real opponent. After his flurry of attacks, the young chunin frowned.
"Come on.." he muttered as he ran a hand upwards, across his face and through his hair, wiping away the accumulated sweat as he slipped the cutlass he carried back into its scabbard, promptly plopping down onto one of the standing targets that had been knocked over behind him. He didn't want to admit it. But he could feel it.
Something wasn't clicking the way it should. He should have known what it was. But for some reason, the answer was escaping him. He sighed as he reached down to his waist, fingers wrapping around the canteen he had been carrying. With an all too casual movement, he popped the top off of the vessel, taking a long, slow swig of water, his gaze remaining turned towards the sky when he finished taking his drink.
For a few moments, he allowed that feeling of frustration to creep in, before suddenly quashing it. He got back up. This time, he moved towards one of the swinging targets. One more go. He had to be close to a breakthrough, right?
By the time he had pulled himself up onto the slab of granite that he had chosen as his escape from the stampede, Ryota realized that his attempt to remove one of the Rhino had failed.
That had used a large chunk of chakra, but not all of it. By his own estimate, he could pull about two more big moves like that before he was forced to rely on Taijutsu and Bukijutsu. However, he wasn't a fool. Now that he was in relative safety, he took a moment to survey the area. As he looked, it became more and more obvious that his attempt wasn't the only one that had failed. In fact, it seemed every attempt to keep the Rhinos contained within the quarry had failed. He could even see and hear the animals parting around the giant slab of granite he was standing on. But yet, something nagged at him.
The fact that he could even see at all. With this many heavy feet falling upon such dry ground, there should have been a veritable tornado of dust on his location. But there wasn't. Odd. As his eyes shifted back down to where the crowd had come from, he noticed another odd detail. A stampede was as close as you could get to incarnating chaos on a battlefield. So why were the footprints left behind like a pattern?
In fact, why were they discernable at all? A stampede should have hidden the footprints entirely by virtue of the ground being pounded by dozens of feet. That was when it hit him. They had been tricked. He had noticed that only a few select individuals seemed to be dealt any real harm, since his relatively safe position had afforded him more time. He would have to use up a majority of the remains of his Chakra, but he understood what was going on.
He had to be careful, though. This Rhino didn't know what any of them were capable of, but it was almost certain that it would be keen to keep them under a genjutsu. So instead of making it obvious what he was doing, Ryota took a deep breath to steady himself, before stringing together completely random hand signs. If the one doing all of this was paying any attention to the crowd, he needed it to think that he hadn't figured something out. Of course, that was assuming that Ryota had figured it out.
As he reached the fifth hand sign--which was enough to make a jutsu that would normally wipe out the majority of his remaining Chakra--his hands came together in a seal that he had been keen on practicing over the last year. He would attempt Kai under the guise of performing some other kind of ninjutsu. He hadn't shown any outward hostility, whereas several of the more brazen Shinobi here had done as such. This was a risky move. It was going to leave him with very little recourse when it came to defending himself.
Of course, that didn't really matter if this beast had done what he assumed it had. All that was left was to stare into the combat, and see if he had wasted his chakra. Once it was clear what was going on, he would feel confident enough to join the battle proper.
It seemed that fate had deemed it necessary to deny Ryota the answer to the question he had asked of Yusukue. The arrival of a true stampede was unexpected, but incredibly sudden. Thankfully, Ryota had always been someone more agile, so getting out of the way would be easy enough.
But when he saw the rhinos begin planting their feet against the walls of the quarry, his mind flashed back to what he was taught about wall and water walking. Users of Doton could walk along walls. Users of Suiton could walk on water, but not walls, and the opposite was true of Doton. The idea hit him almost immediately. A hand shot down to the canteen he had been carrying on his hip the whole way to this quarry, unclasping the top with one hand before he threw it into the air.
"We've gotta get out of the way, NOW. But if we can break away a few of them, that should give us more time!"
He called out to his fellow platoon member as his hands started making signs. Normally, he would only draw water from the air, as he was far more interested in learning how to maximize his ability to use suiton without needing to rely on existing water, or the need to generate his own. But right now, that didn't matter.
It took mere seconds to string together the four hand signs that were needed. As the canteen hit the peak of its arc, the water within shot out. It started as a small beam, but was quickly enhanced to a tight sheet of high pressure water as the moisture in the air around the water was drawn in to enhance the size, creating a fast, but small wave, only wide enough to hit a single Rhino. It would look odd to anyone watching, given that the beasts were clearly built to shrug off blows. But this blast of water was aimed at the feet of an incoming Rhino, rather than their more bulky bodies.
He intended to stop one from climbing, allowing gravity to take care of the rest. And the easiest way to do that against these things would be to put enough water on the ground that the technique they were using to climb the walls would be interrupted. Having the intense pressure added was just a backup measure, really.
Once that was done, Ryota was quick to leap back, breaking the seals in order to grab the topmost edge of a slab of granite that had been pulled out of the quarry. As he pulled himself up to it, something became obvious. It gave him higher ground with enough room for at least one other person, but he wasn't sure how long it would last if the stampede was determined to charge him.
It was rather unfortunate, really. Of the two of them, neither he nor Yuskue were truly built to be taking on these hulking beasts. That just meant that they needed to be smarter. Ranged attacks would be their friends here. For now though, he had to hope that everyone got out of danger. He kept an eye out for Yusuke. They could get at each others throats at times..but right now, they had to band together.
LAIKA OF GS!
Last Edit: Sept 15, 2021 23:18:08 GMT by Ryota Sadao
It had been quite a while since he had last heard any news involving the platoon that he was part of. He had taken up one of two vacant positions close to a year ago. In that time, he had taken to his task of teaching like a fish to water.
But the fact that there was an open position still standing within the platoon had admittedly nagged at Ryota for quite some time. Recently, he had come to expect that there wouldn't be anyone filling the position. So when he heard from his superior that they were slated to get a new, recently promoted Chunin to fill the vacancy, it had more than piqued his curiosity. It was why he was waiting at the opening to one of the many tunnels that led into the village. This one in particular opened up into a training area, where the jounin leader of the platoon had told him to wait and meet up.
Of course, while he was absolutely doing as he had been told, the excitement was obvious. He was hard pressed to sit still, peeking around the corner every few minutes to check if someone had started heading down this way.
"Hm. They should be showing up soon..wonder who I'll be working with.." He mumbled to himself, the black mask that he pulled over his face when out on official business resting beneath his chin for now. Of course, he was carrying his usual gear with him. Granted, that was little more than a sword and his hands, but it at least made him feel prepared. After all, this was a training grounds. It would look rather strange for someone like him to be here without any of his gear.
Of course, Ryota had a good feeling about this. Surely he wouldn't really need it, right?
It wasn't all that often that Ryota and the little crew of misfits he worked with were sent out to do things. Much less often was he sent to accompany Yusuke. After all, his hotheaded nature had seen him through his fair share of combat. Of course, they had only been working together for a few months now. Still, it hadn't taken long for Ryota to get a feel for the Uchiha's general vibe.
It was too easy to say that he didn't think. But that wasn't quite true. Still, they had been sent to investigate what was going on here. So when they arrived and Yusuke almost immediately went to antagonizing the jounin with the spear.
A small sigh escaped Ryota's masked lips. He wasn't much of a fan of how this man was holding himself either, for sure. But they couldn't afford to trade verbal barbs. So he stepped forward into the crowd, slipping up next to Yusuke right as he finished talking, subtly elbowing him in the side, fairly gently.
"Relax. He's not worth it. Remember, we're here to investigate, not take names as trophies."
He said, his voice low as he spoke. It wasn't often that he got quiet like this. It wouldn't surprise him if it threw off his fellow platoon member. But still, his eyes scanned the crowd, watching people's reactions, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. So far, the reactions were tame enough. A young girl had found her way down there, and at least one person was trying to help her out.
The animal itself looked ready to charge at the slightest provocation, though. As for how people were reacting to the spearman, he could hear a fair number of comments that were all but making fun of his grand, sweeping statements.
If he had wanted people to take his claim that this was Iwagakure's business seriously, he had most certainly thrown that right into the trash with how he had decided to follow it up. It only took Ryota a few moments to look around at how people were reacting before he found himself looking back down at the animal that they had surrounded, only to glance at the uchiha he was standing next to out of the corner of his eye.
"You were pretty determined to get here before me. What do you make of things so far?" He asked, pulling a hand out of his left pocket to bring it to rest atop the simple steel pommel of the sword that hung off of his waist.
He knew this was likely to turn into a clusterfuck, given how many people were here vying for the same thing. But he had only just caught up to Yusuke. He had probably missed a few key visual cues. It was worth seeing what his erstwhile partner might have seen, and hear his take.
