Ascend[Training]

Training Speed from B-2 to A

The sky was a soothing orange as the sun was in its final stages of setting. A glorious semi-circle that had silhouettes of distant trees in its body, Kotaro took in the sight with a smile. Looking back to the trail in front of him, he paused for a moment and reviewed his blur of a journey thus far. Not much had occurred to make anything in his mental recount of the footage noteworthy save for a few heartwarming sights of nature. Looking behind him, he was about twenty miles from home, so he should be at his destination in roughly ten or fifteen minutes. "Everything alright Captain." Kotaro looked to the Lieutenant whom he was traveling with and he nodded affirmatively. "Just thinking, sorry." His feet went back to their lifeless struts that were steps with no sense of urgency and shortly after the Lieutenant was on his trail.

Where Kotaro and company was headed was a small rogue clan of ninjas that were becoming quite a threat to Hanagakure no Sato's safety. At least to its people whom lived outside its walls. Nightly raids weren't a rare sight to see with this bunch and now it was these two Soldiers jobs to rid the world of them. Outnumbered, sure, but not outmatched, nor outwitted. "Have you already thought of a course of action." Kotaro was growing irritated with the ever talking and curious Lieutenant and began to wish mind reading was a passive trait the inferior officer had. Question after question, even after taking the smallest break to take a piss, the officer was asking if all went well for him. Kotaro sighed and shook his head, he could sense the Lieutenant's shoulders and body tense up from behind him. "The course of action will be me tossing you out as bait for the clansmen. Then you'll dance around while you dodge their attacks and I'll watch from that hilltop there with a bag of popcorn laughing my ass off . . ." Kotaro amused himself, but noticed the Lieutenant was taking him partially serious, something he could get in trouble for if reported. "Gah no, you imbecile." He shook his head in disappointment and began to share the real plan. "Given they outnumber us heavily, we're going to wait until night fall and they are either fatigued, sleep, or preparing for a raid. Either way we'll have the upper hand. If they are departing for a raid, then as they venture to their destination, we'll spring an ambush on them in the forest. If they aren't going out to pillage any small villages or anything, then we just ambush them in their own camp." Kotaro was making it sound much simpler than it was and he could tell the Lieutenant was feeling overwhelmed. Either confident or crazy, perhaps a mix of both, but Kotaro saw the plan working with or without the Lieutenant and much preferred executing it alone in fact. "With all due respect sir, that sounds like a suicide mission." Kotaro mentally screamed in excitement at the thought of the Lieutenant about to turn tail and return home. "But if you think it'll work, I'll back you up sir." Shit Kotaro should have expected as much given Hanagakure had produced such loyal canines that'd follow their superiors to Hell's Gates with cookies and chocolate in hopes of delivering them to the Devil himself. "You're a good Soldier Lieutenant." That he was, but also an idiot, hopefully he wouldn't end up losing his life in this altercation . . . Kotaro glanced over to him after they began walking again and made it his goal to get the man out alive.

Time's clock pacing along, the ten minute mark was met and like Kotaro predicted they had arrived. Kotaro and his Lieutenant being on a cliff top and the Rogue's camp being down below. Holding up a hand in signal of halt, the Lieutenant had stopped in his tracks, not daring to even breathe. "Calm down a bit Lieutenant they haven't the faintest clue we are here." As he spoke he took note of their numbers, then slinked back behind edge of the cliff. "About thirty of them . . . are you ready?" His inferior's face went pale. "N-no-now?! I thought you said at nightfall." Kotaro nodded, but things were looking all too good as of now, the positioning and the swirling he had in his gut. Anticipation for combat. "Don't sweat it Lieutenant, now or nightfall the outcome won't change. The only difference is that if we engage them now, we'll be back in the barracks by midnight, rather than dawn." Kotaro watched the man mentally battle himself and build up artificial courage, he liked that. "I'll see to it that you get out of this without a hair out of place." The Lieutenant's body trembled as he nodded and nearly died of a heart attack when he saw Kotaro begin pacing through hand seals. Drawing his katana from his hip with a war cry of fear, adrenaline, and false courage, Kotaro activated his jutsu.

"Earth Tearing Palm." The ground began to spiral in and swallow itself on the cliff edge, about 20m in front of Kotaro and his company until it collapsed. Rocks and debris raining down onto the shinobi camp off the cliffside, the cliff was also leveled to a point where the two Hanagakure no Sato operatives could descend it safely. Some rogues buried in the ambush, others had avoided the rockslide and armed themselves with weapons. Reaching around to his back, Kotaro did the same gripping his Triple Bladed Scythe. Watching his own back as well as the Lieutenant's, Kotaro was having a bit of trouble, but he enjoyed the challenge. Parry after parry after parry, the Captain was highly on the defensive and the most he could offensively execute was  a kick or swing of an arm to knock away an approacher. As much as he wanted to release his weapon, he needed the range to keep his attackers at bay while also assisting his partner. "Alrighty then, lets see you cut through this." His skin darkening and also hardening, he became akin to diamond in select areas of his body. He would apply it to his whole body, but it rendered him unable to move the defensively amplified areas. So avoiding hardening joints, Kotaro became a juggernaut of sorts, tanking blows from fist and blades alike. Slicing down foes all the while, his Triple Bladed Scythe seemed happy to be tasting blood again.

Nearly ten killed, many remained and Kotaro canceled his jutsu to conserved chakra. "You don't know any fancy tricks to help us out here huh Lieutenant." The man was barely surviving a one on one fight with his katana against a young teenage Rogue and had a hard time replying and defending himself at the same time. Knowing if he tried to assist directly he'd be an easy target for a backstab, Kotaro released the grip on his Triple Bladed Scythe with one hand. Swinging his now freed hand with two fingers extended, the digits swirled in wind element chakra, before a thin nearly invisible blade was formed. Horizontally across the spinal column the foe was cut and then rendered unable to fight. Dead or unconscious, Kotaro could care less. "You were probably better off offering me support form the cliff top Lieutenant." Kotaro knew the words were harsh, but they needed to be said for this man's performance was unacceptable was making the task extremely difficult to carry out.

Gripping his Triple Bladed Scythe in both hands again, Kotaro inhaled deeply then released a gust of wind ahead of him at a few bodies. Buffeting front he gale, the Captain predicted the reaction and was in front of them felled back to slash but he time they had opened their eyes from the wind. Three decapitated messily with a swing of anger and irritation, Kotaro's grip on his weapon felt as if it could reduce steel to a crumpled up ball. Spinngin his weapon to change his grip, the Captain's hands found the 5m cable the weapon was attached to. "Stay close to me Lieutenant." The man rushed over to Kotaro's location, none of the rogue's daring to pursue him in fear of losing their lives. Beginning to whip the weapon around by the cable over his head, he lashed out with a whip like strike causing eh scythe to bear its fangs at an unfortunate soul. Raising his own blade to defend, the rogue only guarded against one of the Scythe's three fangs. Punctured through at the chest and beneath the ribs, Kotaro counted another soul dead. Pulling back on the cable like one would do when fishing, he began whipping the weapon around again. A murmur sweeping the Rogue forces, Kotaro quickly lashed out at the chattering foes only to be caught off guard himself.

All leaping in at once, only one rogue was caught by the lashing scythe, but Kotaro could care less. Roughly fifteen in number and all closing in at once, the Captain was swift to activate his Hiding Like a Mole Technique. "Grab on Lieutenant!" Regardless if the man grabbed no or not Kotaro was gone underneath eh earths surface. In turn his Scythe's limited cable line was tugged and recalled. On the way back to it's master it took the life of another unsuspecting foe. "Lieutenant?" Kotaro called out in the darkness, as he swam in the earth meters and meters and meters forward. "S-sir." Kotaro needed to drop off this dead weight immediately if he wished to succeed and that's exactly where he was headed. At least 100m out form the camp now, he surfaced with the peon clinging to him nervously. "Hanagakure is that way, don't bother asking for reinforcements or anything I'll handle this on my own." With that, Kotaro slinked back into the ground leaving the unarmed Lieutenant behind int he forest to return home alone.

The Captain's Triple Blade Scythe having been drug behind him in the ground, Kotaro was sure to stick his hand out in front of him to grab the weapon by the grip to avoid traveling into it and getting sliced to ribbons. Swimming his way back tot he camp under the ground, he soon enough felt the magnetic forces of the Rogues. They weren't at the camp however, it was far too early to already be at the camp and the fact they were scattered reinforced that claim. They had gone in the forest in search of the two. "Perfect." They had a better chance of defeating Kotaro in a group, but now solo'd out, they'd each die quick deaths. Surfacing right behind one, Kotaro shot his hand to th back of the Rogue's head gripping it firmly. Guiding the cranium of the rogue to a tree positioned in front of him, the man's forehead was split and bleeding gruesomely. Unconscious from the concussive blow, Kotaro stole the man's stole with a swing of his scythe.

Blitzing through the forest, Kotaro eyed yet another rogue who also noticed him. Both stopping on a tree branch, perched like avian creatures, they leapt towards each other. Kotaro's scythe reeled back and the rogue's katana. Swingin with all his might, the Captain slashed clean through the Rogue's katana then once more retracing the path of the first swing. This caused the rogue to be punctured with the three fangs of the scythe and pinned to the weapon like a marshmallow on a stick. Broken katana pieces falling to the forest floor, the two bodies crashed into one another. One limp and stifled with rigor mortis, the other filled with vigor. Swinging his weapon once more, Kotaro freed his Scythe of the man's weight and tossed him to the side like trash. Back out on the hunt and it wasn't long before another was found. Leaping from the canopy downwards, Kotaro relinquished this man's grip on life with a silent aerial attack that beheaded him with a deft swipe from a red blade from the Captain's signature weapon. It was more like a horror movie than a clash between two forces. The antagonist or cliché serial killer being Kotaro and his oblivious and air headed targets, being the protagonist. Like always they ran through the forest, trying to flee the blade of the predator only for them to lose sight of him from a tree briefly obscuring their vision. Boom, poof, like magic, the killer had vanished. Maybe I lost him, or maybe he gave up and went to kill another. Many other things were thoughts the protagonist would have as well and as soon as they truly thought they were safe, not a moment to soon where they still felt in danger, the killer would appear behind them or around a corner. "Please have mercy." Or a similar line would be spoken only for it to be ignored and have the victim sliced down with their hands up trying to pleased for their life.

The sequence repeated itself until the forest was riddled with a morbid sense of silence. The kind of quiet that if one were in tune with nature, they could hear the grass and trees crying as they soaked up the blood of the fallen. Kotaro simply called it a job well done and fastened his scythe onto his back. The sun having set right on time,t he Captian then headed back home to Hanagakure. He was quick with his journey this time. For some unknown reason something in his mind screamed at him to move quickly. Was something coming? Was something happening back in the village? He didn't know, but intuition was chiming and at this age it was usually never wrong. Make a left here, then a right here, now back to the forest floor, the pathway he was told to take by the voice was unusual, but Kotaro had nothing to lose so he listened with haste. But a blur to any whom weren't combat proficient, Shinobi, or Soldiers. In the moonlight his silhouette zipped from branch to branch, then weaved from behind one tree to behind another all in a fluid never stopping train of motion. He only stopped once he saw a disappointing sight. Fatigued and in need of oxygen, Kotaro's breathing pattern didn't show such a need for air as he stood their in the forest looking down at the body of the Lieutenant. Rustling int he canopy above him, one Rogue must have been left, this one being the one who killed his subordinate. Kotaro looked up swiftly to see the outline of the shinobi descending upon him. Hopping back quickly, Kotaro reached back and grabbed his scythe. Swinging horizontally hoping to cleave the rogue in two, the treasonous bastard's tango flashed in the moonlight. This same dagger was skillfully used to parry the scythe and not have the wielder killed by the two other teeth. "Seems like you actually know what you're doing?" Kotaro pulled in his weapon from the swing as the rogue lunged in to slash a few times only to have the swipes danced by. From his bit of light footwork, Kotaro found himself in a tight pivot turn and the next was only what came naturally. Unleashing a devastating full power swing using the momentum from the turn to his advantage. A grazing blow was scored taking out a good portion of flesh off the belly. To avoid having to fight the weight of the scythe from the powerful swing, Kotaro let his grip slip form the shaft of the scythe until the weapon filtered far enough for him to close his hands on the steel cable. A bit of burn occurring from the cable sliding in his grip, Kotaro swung the weapon from this cable in an unorthodox fashion only to have his weapon jumped over.

The assailant found both his feet agains the trunk of a tree, then propelled himself like a torpedo towards Kotaro. The Captain's weapon out of range for a reasonable attack, Kotaro let go of the cable of the scythe and decided to resort to using Taijutsu. The enemy rogue landed his crazed dive bomb attack and was quick to take advantage of Kotaro no longer using his scythe. Swinging his blade that only flickered in the faint silver light multiple times, he slice dingo the Captain's flesh more than once or twice. Cuts along the arms and torso, the Captain didn't have the chakra or focus to prepare his Earth Spear jutsu to harden his skin. One lucky break is all I need Kotaro thought as he continued to clumsily dance with the rogue and suffer knicks and gashes as the tango persisted. "At this rate you'll bleed out before I get to slit your throat like I did to the other one." If it was mind games he was up to, Kotaro was unfazed, the death of the Lieutenant sadly didn't hurt Kotaro as much as it would most. What did get to him was the truth in the fact he could bleed out if this continued.

The steel cable form his scythe being connected to his hip meant the cable was dragging on the forest floor pulling the weapon even as he moved about. This was a known fact due to the constant ruffling noise of the forest floor occurring at Kotaro's feet and behind the rogue. Kicking the cable and taking a decent cut along the shoulder in turn, the rogue tripped on the cable and was on the ground. Attempting to ukemi himself back up to guard and recover back to his feet, Kotaro used his Wind Stream jutsu to disrupt his balance and render the maneuver useless. Then pulling on that cable, he recalled his weapon to himself. Snaking along the floor of the forest, the blade found it's master's mark and cut the man's arm's at the elbows, he was done for. Not much he could do now, but wait for Kotaro to finish him and pray for a quick death and that much he was given. The Captain wasn't one for torture, as he wished his death would be quick as well. Truly claiming his task to be done, he returned to the corpse of his comrade and fireman carried it back to Hanagakure no Sato with him.

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