Intense Training: Calming The Tiger

Takeshi stood in the main chamber of the world's finest battle hall, the threat from his enemy not but an hour ago had stirred something deep in him he had not felt since the great war of his childhood. A new army was gathering and though he knew not where or when he would prepare himself with haste, this time he was not fighting for only himself and his own glory. The golden shields built into the architecture shone like mirrors allowing everyone in the room to see everything going on around them at once which put their minds at ease. The kage could only wish that his mind were the same, right now all he could see was a dark hallway ending with the death of either him and his people or this new demon, secrets and shadows surrounding all things that would happen along the way to it.

The rain outside was still pouring down more intense than it had in several months, lightning struck the roof of Thor's Temple miles away, visible atop the hill it was built upon. Knowing that Rosuto would be here soon Takeshi made his way into the main battle stadium and sat in the spectator's seats to wait. All of his weapons laying down against the wall in the order they would be needed for this intense training regimen.

I continued to run to Valhalla, no shirt on and only a pair of black pants. I ran as fast as I could realizing the gravity of the situation. The rain was heavy and pounding against my skin as I ran, feeling like tiny bullets against my skin. Eventually the building came into view and Byakku began to speak to me "Even with the kage on your side, do you think there's anything a wimp like you could do?" I could tell by its tone that it wasn't being insulting by saying this, it was afraid that even with his vast amount of power that this evil couldn't be contained, and feared the destruction of Rosuto and by extension, him. I responded out loud "I don't know, but I won't just sit by as this thing threatens to destroy my home." As he said this he reached the castle and busted through the door into the main battle stadium. I stood, the door open behind me and breathing heavily with my hands on my knees. I looked to Takeshi with a serious expression on my face and said to him "You wanted me?"

As his student entered he rose to his feet and nodded as he was asked a question. He walked forward to the top of the concrete wall leading down to the battleground which he slid down and proceeded to walk towards his weapons. Picking up Mjolnir he turned back to Rosuto and put his weapon over his shoulder. "I met with the village elders and discussed what just happened at the gates. It is their opinion that we wait for them to surface again but we are to prepare two weapons to the maximum level of power possible in that amount of time. The first being the entire Kinzoku clan which they will take care of within the castle, and the other being you and the Rokubi which will be done directly by me."

He looked at his student with a look that said he was being completely serious about this, this training would be more intense than anything he had experienced while studying under him. Including the slaying of a gigantic demon boar that nearly shred him to pieces. "This training may break you in many ways, by the time we are done though you will emerge much stronger and better able to protect the people of the hidden storm. Are you ready and willing to at long last master the demon within?"

It was interesting, hearing myself being referred to as a weapon of the village. I felt like an item, but it was at least something seeing as I used to have nobody at all with any desire to be near me. I thought about it and without even a moments hesitation I looked straight into Takeshi's eyes with his most serious face and said "I can and will handle anything you throw at me to protect my home." The Byakku was obviously a bit offended by the fact that Takeshi just by extension claimed to be able to tame him and get him to work for the village, he scoffed loudly in my head and said "Bastard thinks he can get me to bend to his will? Even with the situation I would never just give my entire stockpile of power to this incompetent fool." He obviously still doubted my power, obviously the only way to get his approval would be to somehow prove my worth.

He nodded approvingly at Rosuto's response, normally one would be outwardly offended by being called a mere weapon for the village's use. He himself had gone into a fit of rage and struck out at his master when being told the same thing almost twenty years ago so this was going more smooth than he had anticipated already. "Well then if you claim you can take it then I'll be forced to put it to the test with a little warm up. I'm going to come at you with more force than I have ever used on you before for the next five minutes, survive and be able to continue going and you pass to the next stage." He cracked his fingers and slung his hammer around in a circle a few times before holding it parallel to the ground towards his student. "Ready?" Knowing the answer to come he charged a bit of chakra throughout his body to prepare the initial strike, it was time to drop the games and be serious.

When he asked if I was ready I began to perform handseals and forced the Byakku's chakra forward, causing a white cloak to form and my eyes became cat-like in appearance. I also was able to size up the kage by just looking at him and the amount of power he had in reserve was inhuman, there was no way I could win but I could probably make five minutes. I stood with my knees bent and shoulder width apart preparing to dodge if necessary. I was prepared for this, even though he could bend and destroy my body my mind would not break, I've been through enough loneliness in my lifetime that no amount of physical pain would make my give up on trying to defend my new home, the village hidden in the storm.

Spoiler:

190/200

His answer was clear by the way he held himself, he wanted to defend so he would have to learn to protect himself before others were possible. The built up chakra went into his mouth and almost instantly after it's injection into his muscles the structure of that part of his body morphed into something different and more monstrous in appearance. His mouth opened much further than it should have been able to before and his teeth hardened while forming into skin tearing fangs. His tongue grew long and thin, forked in the middle and jutting out every now and then like he was tasting the air. "Then let's get to it.." He spun around quickly while keeping his eye on Rosuto and did a masterful hammer toss, the giant weapon flew threw through the air at the boy's abdomen but making contact wasn't important. More chakra was being charged, this time in the lower half of the kage's body, an old combo not pulled off in years as it would generally be to dangerous for an ally.

Chakra:

Jutsu:

Just as I finished my handseals I saw the hammer of Takeshi flying straight at my abdomen, I had experience with that thing so knew what would happen if it landed on me. I pivoted just enough so that it only clipped my side and continued into the wall behind me. I cringed from the pain but then proceeded to whistle in a somber and melancholy tone, I didn't want to make Takeshi have to go through this but I had to go all out in order to survive the 5 minutes. After using the jutsu I would jump about ten feet to my right and begin forming handseals again, keeping on his guard as he might find a way around my genjutsu.

Spoiler:

170/200

As he completed his charging his body's lower half seemed to melt together into a serpent's tail, a silver color that matched his hair, he heard a low toned whistle. His perception seemed to shift but as all Genjutsu function he wasn't aware that anything had changed. Something was different though, he seemed more...happy. His life seemed in order, he was in his room atop his tower and looked out to see a pause in the rain and a shining village, clean and functional. Then it went black and he was in a small room with his son, the boy was always a cheerful soul but he held a scowl on his face. "Is everything okay son?" Lag gave his father an angry look and then ran up to kick him in the shin, going on to say hateful things before running off and fading into the darkness. This was all he needed, he had tried getting Lag angry before but it never worked so this must be some sort of Genjutsu technique holding him still. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a kunai followed by a hard stab into his arm. This caused the technique to fade and he was back in the arena but due to his limited perception of the area while under the illusion the stab was deeper than he would have liked, causing a decent amount of blood flow to pour out. He wrapped his snake tail around the kunai and used his uninjured arm to put pressure on the wound. Looking around he tried to find Rosuto, slithering back towards the arena wall and crawling to the top to search with height.

I was a it disappointed but not in the slightest surprised by the fact that Takeshi quickly realized he was in a genjutsu. He had to stab himself to get out of it so it seemed even without doing anything to him personally he could get him to damage himself. As Takeshi slithered up the wall I decided to keep the pattern of genjutsu going and whistled again, this time in a soothing tone. Genjutsu was a good tactic for this dual, seeing as all I had to do was keep him busy for five minutes. After whistling I preformed more handseals, I had to keep this going.

Spoiler:

160/200

After regaining his position he found Rosuto near where he had been upon casting the initial illusion. Knowing his student he would have taken clear notice of how he could injure his opponent, by using his opponent to do it. No doubt there would be another genjutsu as a follow up soon and he would have to injure himself again. He however couldn't let up on the force used so he held both his arms out to the side and started spinning them in a circular motion. Small currents of wind starting to slowly form around each. Just as he had suspected Rosuto cast another sound technique, this time he was surrounded by the things he considered a personal paradise, the kunai wrapped in his tail was stabbed down into the snake portion of his body and though he cringed and a steady flow of blackened blood started dripping out and off to the side he managed to not break the build up of his next assault. After doing this he used the movement speed granted by his serpentine body to close in most of the gap and start circling around Rosuto. His technique would need a little more time to be prepared but as they were getting on to the one minute mark in a few seconds he was doing well and that of course meant Takeshi wasn't doing his job yet.

290/320 (forgot to mark it last time)

Jutsu from last post:

The speed of the kage in his serpent form was impressive, more than impressive but awe inspiring. It felt much longer than almost a minute, and I had 4 more to go. I continued to form handseals for my next distraction. I saw the amount of bleeding that he had caused on the kage without even touching him, it was a weird thinking about it. I was being circled with an intense speed and it was obvious that I had nothing in my arsenal to stop the speed but I knew he had something planned and I needed to at least try to interrupt it. I ran full speed out into the spinning snake kage with my shoulder out preparing to ram into him even if it only dazed him for a second it would be all it would take.

As Rosuto took off trying to get in a strike on Takeshi he veered off course so that he would stop a few feet in front of him and by now both of his wrists had miniature tornado funnels spinning around them that looked less dangerous than they really were. He pulled back with one hand and, once his opponent was in range, punched forward. Releasing the wind from its contained state it blew would cause some minor lacerations over Rosuto's body even with his chakra cloak active in addition to sending him flying backwards. At this point Takeshi expected another sound based attack but he had a plan to deal with those now, even if one was launched in this chaos he wouldn't be able to hear it with the chaotic sounds of his tornado being fired. He slithered along the ground to a point near where Rosuto would land and got ready to let his second attack loose.

240/320

Jutsu:

I finished my handseals right as I was hit by an obviously wind based jutsu. Even with my cloak active it managed to give me hefty cuts on my torso. It hurt quite a bit but I managed to keep the chakra in my system built up as I was sent flying across the room. While in mid air from the blast I put my hand up to my mouth and whistled a tune that sounded peculiar and strange that would enact my next genjutsu that would hopefully thwart any follow up attacks he had planned against me as the sound would travel everywhere in the room. If I landed I would begin to again do handseals, this fight was a serious case of cat and mouse, as in if I did managed to get caught there was no way I could over power my foe.

Spoiler:

130/200

Takeshi knew what was coming the second he heard the first part of a note being formed on Rosuto's lips. With haste he raised his still funnel covered hand up to his ear, the ear popping volume of it's violent rotation blocked out all other sounds and although this would make it so his hearing wasn't going to be at it's prime it would be well worth it considering what had happened the last two times. He kept his eye on Rosuto and his lips to make sure the whistle was over before he sped up to his side and let out a powerful punch, releasing the second cyclone which would have a carbon copy effect of the first in terms of power. He wouldn't be performing any seals or charging chakra for now, there was a finale to this spar he needed to save up for to make sure Rosuto's skills were good enough.

I cursed as I realized takeshi had ignored my genjutsu and when I saw that there was no way to avoid the damage that was coming I only had one option, reduce the amount of damage I would take. As the wind was hitting my stomach I planted my hands firmly on my stomach and began to focus chakra from the mystical palm technique to begin healing the old wounds while the new ones formed. It seemed to have succeeded as the new wounds formed on my torso but the old ones disappeared, seemingly negating the damage from the jutsu. I flew to the other side of the room and after bouncing a few times regained my balance, breathing heavily and bleeding from my chest. Takeshi seemed to have stopped moving all together and I was curious as to his next move so just watched him intently with my eyes of the tiger.

Spoiler:

110/200

A clever use of a healing jutsu to replace old wounds with fresh ones, thinking on his feet as always was normally a good way to break the fight and gain a compliment from the kage, but today was not normal. After his council with the elders the hidden storm village was in a full state of war meaning that nothing could be taken lightly, no enemy in battle would praise such a move so neither would he. Rather he would do exactly what any real opponent would do after discovering his opponent was a medical shinobi, injure him bit by bit until his chakra reserves grow to low to fight back from the constant need for healing. Following this train of thought he would still need to keep his reserves high for the finale but he had enough to spare to get things ready to keep pressure on now. Using the last few seconds of his serpent body before he shifted back into his form with human legs and a non-detachable jaw he made his way to the wall that had his weapons for the most part against it, retrieving his scroll and slinging it over his side he grabbed and unrolled about a foot, not releasing the end.

While one hand was holding the end of the scroll the other reached into it, the blood from his wounds having dripped down to his finger tips made it so he wouldn't need to waste time preparing that part. Unlike most scrolls that seemed to teleport things after their release Takeshi had to actually grab within a hidden space inside the scrolls pages and pull out what he needed. When he did he was holding six titanium spheres and after releasing the scroll which rolled in on itself he started toying with Rosuto and spoke while juggling his famous tools. "Bet you never thought these things would be turned on you eh? Well seeing as how far worse is on it's way to your throat from our enemy's hands I guess it sort of a warm up. Anyway lets see how quick you can heal after I get my hands on you for real." When he stopped speaking the juggling ended as well and he molded the spheres into one inch thick gloves that form fit his hands, one well placed punch from these and you'd feel it when you wake up in the hospital next week, and while he didn't show it he hoped that wouldn't be the case here. With a dash of speed he took off towards the demon host and after faking a hard left hook ducked down and rose up with a strong right uppercut.

230/320

Jutsu:

I smirked at Takeshi as he taunted me, I have managed to do something not many could brag about, injuring the kage of the storm village, even if he did it himself it was sparked by me. I was frightened when he charged at me with titanium fists and when he threw a left hook at me I fell to the ground only to realize it was a fake and he pulled off an uppercut, but since I had fallen I managed to dodge it. While on my back I thrusted both of my legs upward towards his chest full force with the intent of sending him back and giving myself some breathing room. After kicking I would somersault backwards and jump once on my feet and begin doing handseals, happy with the small cusion of sace I gave myself.

Another dodge deserved another counter move, only allowing his opponent's kick to touch him a minimum amount he used that force to flip himself back with his hands as a medium on the ground for balance. Though Rosuto was doing hand seals he didn't have time for such thing, the two minute mark had just come and gone and the challenge given was still barely anything. He began to charging chakra throughout himself after using his metal bending skills to morph the finger of his gloves into razor sharp claws like those of a wolf. Chakra surging within him he made another charge almost as quickly as he finished flipping over, his tactics similar to last time with a fake out left hook but rather than dropping down he split his fingers apart but still having them all face down before thrusting his palm towards the ground in front of him where Rosuto stood.

220/320

I continued doing handseals as the kage came at me again, It looked as though he was swinging at me with his left hand again and my first reaction was to stumble backwards but little did I know he was actually aiming to hit me with the claws on his hand going towards the ground. Because I stumbled back his hand came down right in front of my feet, it was that moment that I realized I almost lost a toe or too. I reacted fast and while his palm was on the ground I kicked forward with my right foot, fast and strong, aimed right at his elbow on the arm, aiming to possibly dislocate if not cause pain to his right arm. I then would jump back again, distance being a good ally of mine in this fight.

His second strike in a row was dodged, while impressed with the combat reflexes of his student he had to start laying on some pain so he clapped his hand together and combined both gloves into a single katana. Weapon in hand he swung it around over and behind his wrists and went into for a slice, his sword skills were great and he would show it here and now, making multiple slices as the third minute mark came into being and his chakra reserves were still charging up for the final move. The hand seals the demon host was putting together seemed extremely dangerous due to how many of them there were so he would have to act quickly else something terrible would happen.

210/320

I didn't want to have to do this to my kage but I was told to do anything to survive so I would have to use the genjutsu I developed back when I was deranged, the one that was capable of completely stunning even a kage for a short while because of the pain and fear it invokes. I continued the handseals and as he swung the sword swiftly at my multiple times I jumped backwards in rhythm dodging most of them but getting nicked by a few, causing more wounds to open up. I refused to lose and would show my initiative through cruel and unusual pain.

His strikes were being dodged as he had assumed they would, however also according to plan the old wounds were opening up and more blood was pouring out steadily. Only a minute and a half left to go for Rosuto at this point, he had done well thus far with his illusion tactics but his reserves of chakra seemed to be dwindling down to the bottom of the barrel so he was having to be even more careful, this was the opening that Takeshi would have to take advantage of so he stabbed the sword into the ground and continued charging his chakras while going on an all out offensive strike with his body, kicks and punches that had gotten him through the fields of war as a youth were out on the table now. Powerful flesh rendering grabs and bone splitting feet, it was a more brutal and barbaric style of fighting that he hadn't used in many years but it was also something that made him a legend in combat thus the challenge would be raised even higher.

I was in bad shape, I had to get these handseals finished. I continued doing them as Takeshi began a physical assault on me with his fists and feet. He was fast and brutal, I dodged what I could but even with the cloaks boost I didn't have the reaction to dodge them all and took many punches to the stomach, kicks to the chest, and hits to the arm. Now I was winded and in pain and at this point all of my willpower was focused into finishing these handseals, this jutsu was all I needed to turn this fight in my favor.

He seemed to be turning the tide in his favor now, only one minute left to go and it seemed Rosuto was just about ready to unleash the assault he had been building up to for quite a while. Takeshi held out his hand and his hammer rushed to him, He held it in one hand and used the blunt hammer side to add to his combos. If the host didnt act quickly he would get knocked out cold.