( 3 September- year 12 AK )
( TEAM 10 )
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A pair of tigers was stalking their prey, prowling silently and slowly through the undergrowth. The forest was silent like it always was, but there was a scent in the air that had lead the two great predators in the clearing.
Or at least, there had been a scent, since it vanished once the tigers had entered the clearing.
Slowly the bigger of the two tigers closed in on the other, without looking directly at it. They were both staring and walking toward a particular patch of moss that looked out of place.
Suddenly, the bigger tiger pounced the smaller one, its maw finding the throat of the other with ease. The split second of surprise had been enough for the smaller tiger to lose its life, she trashed violently, its claws opening deep gnaws on the fur of the attacker.
Three minutes later, the bigger tiger trashed around the smaller one until the sharp crack of its neck breaking could be heard.
Dropping the carcass, the bigger tiger ignored the pain of the deep wounds and tiredly climbed the nearest tree, her claws finding a steady grip on the bark.
When it reached a height of roughly ten meters, it eyed the patch of moss that looked out of place, and jumped on it.
Ino violently broke her mind transfer technique and placed her hands over her ears, trying to dull the sounds of the tiger being skewered over her hidden trap.
She failed. The memory of biting the neck of the other tiger suddenly came up, and with it, bile rose from her stomach.
She forced it down. If she had managed to eat anything in the last two days, she probably would have puked it too.
Tiredly, she brought her hands into a ram seal and dispersed her camouflage technique.
Ino did not understand how it actually worked, but it felt almost like a Henge, only with a twist brought forward by two dragon hand seals in the technique. The only thing she knew was that the technique stayed active until either she ran out of chakra or she forcefully dispelled it.
And it ate away her reserves very fast. But at least she could activate it and use another technique at the same time.
It took her a week to learn it. A week during which she found herself eating roots and berries that gave her a stomach-ache, she had thought to have poisoned herself, but she woke up in the morning feeling well, and after the pattern repeated itself with a few different berries, she stuck to the first ones, which no longer caused her any problem.
She left her hiding spot and set up a fire pit with the wood she had previously collected, before walking toward the smaller tiger and bringing out a kunai. She truly hated this part.
With a sigh, she started gutting the beast, but not before repeating to herself her mantra: "I hate you, Daiki-sensei."
...
Somewhere else in the forest Shikamaru was waiting patiently over a tree stump in the middle of a clearing. Only, the clearing was strange. There wasn't a single blade of grass, not a patch of moss, there wasn't even a pebble.
When the silence around him changed, he knew they were there. First, it was less than a flicker, a single streak of gray bolting through the undergrowth without making a sound.
After a while, he spotted others, and he recognized the deep growl that signaled to the pack of wolves to surround him.
Once again, Shikamaru objected that there was no way wolves actually had hunting tactics that answered to the alpha's commands.
And yet, the pack of wolves surrounded his clearing, and closed in, sniffing cautiously at every single mound of dirt, wondering why there was so much that smelled of their prey's blood while said prey was just waiting for them to pounce.
Still, Shikamaru had led them through a merry chase for the past two days, and he had only wounded them, staying a few meters beyond their maws, enraging them enough to make them careless.
Once more, Shikamaru realized that he shouldn't think the wolves capable of such a ...human... thought pattern, but they were there, so he had all the evidence he needed.
They slowly crossed the barren ground, fourteen wolves, with colors that ranged from dark gray to brown streaked with black. And they stilled in a circle, closing his possible escape routes.
The alpha came forward, he was recognizable because he was bigger than the others, which were already of the unreasonable size of ponies, and because he had a glistening wound on his nose, courtesy of Shikamaru.
When he was ready to pounce, Shikamaru brought his hands together in a ram seal: "Kai!" he flared his chakra violently before Molding it more familiarly: "Ninpō: Kagemane no Jutsu!"
And for a single second, he froze in place the pack of wolves.
Then the paper bombs he littered the clearing with went off, and he felt the shadows that collected him to the wolves vanished in a flash of light, while the barrage of explosions tore the pack of wolves to shreds.
Utterly spent, Shikamaru fell on his back on the large tree stump, breathing heavily to recover from the effort.
He had done a lot of thinking to be able to set up that trap with himself as bait.
Copying paper bombs with his blood, since the ink didn't survive his first numerous failed attempts, and placing them under the ground had been easy enough with the D-rank Doton: Fuanteina Jimen (Unsteady Ground), which simply let him seep his chakra into the ground to make it more malleable, had been easy enough.
Coming up with a way to hold still multiple targets, had been another kettle of fish.
He had to ponder about his family technique for a while. With the Kagemane no Jutsu, the user manipulated their shadow across a surface to merge it with a target or targets' shadow.
The user could stretch their shadow however they wished to accomplish this goal, but they are limited by their shadow's surface area.
But there were ways around that: the user's shadow can freely move within other shadows, extending its range; if Shikamaru knew how, he would have used flash bombs, either to briefly extend his own shadow or to extend his targets'.
Once a user managed to merge their shadow with a target's, the target couldn't move on their own other than to talk.
The only movements they can make are those that the user makes: if the user walks forward, the target walks forward; if the user raises their right hand, the target raises their right hand.
The anatomical differences between himself and the wolves had forced him to think about how it worked. Shikamaru knew that keeping a target restrained requires a great deal of chakra, making it difficult to maintain the Shadow Imitation for long periods.
But it wasn't exactly like that. Shikamaru could hold still a butterfly for hours, and managed it on his father without issues for several minutes.
Sure, Shikaku didn't try to oppose it, but it still was a good indicator wasn't it? With a willing subject, he could only maintain it for five-minute intervals.
The thought of using it on multiple targets had been laughable until he had reflected upon the willing aspect of his target.
What impact did the will have on the technique? Then he had made a connection with the explanation of Daiki-sensei: the Shadow Imitation Technique, in the same way as genjutsu and the Mind transfer Technique is a Yin manipulation, while the Multi-Size Technique instead, plays with Yang chakra.
Medical ninjutsu works with both. There is Yin Release (Inton), based on the imagination and spiritual energy of a shinobi.
That had led him to ponder what exactly spiritual energy was. And what had imagination had to do with it? Following that trail of thought, he wondered about Yang chakra was, since they defined each other as opposites.
Where Yin was imagination, Yang was vitality, where Yin was control, Yang was power, where Yin was the mind, Yang was the body.
That led him to the gamble that his trap had been. Holding multiple human targets would be a laughable idea. Even if it would be a lot easier with civilians than other ninjas.
But wolves were not humans, they weren't even ninkens, with active chakra flowing through their pathways. Meaning that their body was undoubtedly weaker than one enforced with chakra, but more importantly, their Yin chakra would be nothing in comparison to his own.
Which dreams did the predators have beyond the next meal, the next mating season? Which sens of identity did they actually have outside of their pack?
His patting on his own shoulder moment ended when the guts of the blown-up wolves landed on his face, breaking him out of his reverie.
He sighed tiredly: "I hate you, Daiki-sensei."
...
The forest was not silent. "Ninpō: Baika no Jutsu!"
The enlarged arm crashed down on the giant leech, splattering it against the trunk it was falling off from.
With an enraged yell, Choji whirled on himself, directing his family technique to enlarge his other arm to swipe away another one which tried to jump on his back. He was left painting while his body returned to his normal size.
He sat down heavily on the ground, panting and making a disgusted face at the grime on his arms, he was so tired that he simply drifted into sleep, he had been fighting the leeches for two days straight, and with his technique, he was exhausted.
He awoke because of his difficulties in breathing. When his sleep-addled eyes focused on the cause of his current problem, he groaned. A snake was constricting him, slowly cutting him out of breath.
He no longer had the energies to perform the Baika no Jutsu, slowly, he brought his hands together under the ever-tightening coils of the reptile. He gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the pain. Dog, Boar, Ox, Hare: "Raiton: Shokku no Jutsu." He whispered with his last whisper of breath.
An electrical current painfully ran through his body, shocking the constrictor reptile into numbness. Choji climbed out of the loosening coils and with a scream he plunged a kunai in the reptile's head, finally allowing himself to freak out.
He kept screaming: "I hate you Daiki-sensei! Giant spiders! Giant leeches! What now?" He started laughing maniacally while he kept plunging his kunai in the carcass.
Not far, Daiki patted lovingly a bear on his head, the genjutsu working its magic on the mind of the giant predator, underlining how water-mouthing the kid running around could be.
...
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