Karai slowly trailed her slender fingers up April's spine, feeling the ridges through the fabric of the younger girl's thin yellow shirt.
Reflexively, April hunched her shoulders up. "It tickles."
"It does more than just tickle," Karai explained. "When I do something like this, your sensory organs are stimulated. I'm triggering the 'ascending reticular activating system' in your brain, which motivates mobility, the pursuit of nutrition, and the fight-or-flight response."
"What is this, a biology class? Never took you for the textbook type."
April gasped when Karai's hand suddenly went to an overly sensitive spot behind her ear. "It also mediates something else," she went onto say, ignoring April's quip. "Do you feel a rise in temperature, O'Neil?"
April's eyes fluttered, despite herself. "S-Sorta…"
Karai smiled, moving her fingers to the pulse point under April's neck. "Faster heart rate, unsteady breathing…" she commented with a devilish smile. "And all this with a couple of fingers."
She leaned in close to April, the smile never faltering as she purred, "Bet you'd like to know what else I can do with a couple of fingers."
It took awhile for the innuendo to hit home with April, but once it did, the younger girl flinched backwards, unable to hide the fact she was blushing furiously.
"Seduction and intimacy are brilliant tactics to either unbalance or disarm your opponent," Karai continued, slowly circling April as she stood nervously in the centre of the dojo.
"Just a simple tease of the hand…" Karai carefully took April's left hand into hers and drew slow, delicate circles on the back of her palm, her lidded eyes never leaving April's. Holding in a deep breath, April forced herself to steel herself against Karai's ways. The girl disappeared behind her.
"Or you could lean in, like this…" over her shoulder, Karai whispered huskily in her ear, and the tingling of her warm breath caused April to shudder despite herself, tiny bolts of electricity racing down her spine.
Catching this, Karai giggled, walking back in front of the redhead.
"Oh, you're too easy O'Neil," Karai's eyes flashed sadistically. "Why, anyone would think you were enjoying this…"
April was all too aware of Karai now, how she smelled, how the tight black vest top curved and fitted her in all the right places, how her dark eyes gleamed in tree's glow.
Clearing her throat, the younger kunoichi shook her head subtly, trying to shake away Karai's cobwebs, before turning to her training partner with a weak attempt at casualness. "Uh so, what… what do I have to do?"
April slid her finger across the skin around Karai's first rib. She thought the movement was seductive and enticing, but in reality she looked like a child drawing pictures in sand, her brow too furrowed and concentrated, her movements clunky.
This was her fourth attempt at the same movement, and once again Karai shook her head.
"Your actions are too stiff, O'Neil. You need to loosen up, otherwise they won't buy it."
April groaned in frustration. "It's hard, okay. I've never… done this before. With anyone."
Sighing, Karai put a supportive hand on April's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Just… try and follow exactly what I do."
Karai trailed her index finger up to the top edge of April's rib cage, lazily dragging the digit across the skin in slow figure-eights, her nails slightly catching on the skin and leaving the faintest of marks. Her wrist flowed seamlessly in patterns like a river in a stream. Feeling her heart rate substantially quicken, April grabbed Karai's finger and removed it from near her neck.
"How do you do that?" she asked with a sigh.
"Do what?"
"Make it look so… so easy!"
Karai chuckled. "I've had a lot of practice. Now come on, I wanna show you how to put something like this into practice. Stand behind me and grab around my waist, trapping my arms."
April hesitated momentarily before doing as she was told, shifting uncomfortably into Karai.
"You got a good grip?" Karai checked. April confirmed she did, so Karai began to explain, "Imagine your attacker has you like this, and they're stronger than you. There's a handful of ways to break the hold: you could stamp on their toe, maybe headbutt them if you can. Or, this…"
April felt Karai's foot slide seductively up her leg; instinctively, she loosened the hold.
It was a mere blink before Karai had freed herself, snapped around, and held a kunai a mere hair's width away from April's jugular. The redhead's eyes went wide with terror; her locked away fears and reservations of Karai came flooding back in a heartbeat.
Karai held April there much longer than she meant to. When she snapped back into reality, she dropped the kunai to the ground and allowed April to skip back a good few steps.
"S-Sorry…" Karai shook her head. "I don't know what came over me then."
But Karai did know what came over her and, to April's gladness - for the sake of her training, at least - she did too.
"Don't worry about it," April cleared her throat, her hand reflexively rubbing where the tip of the kunai was pointing. "Sooo, you're saying I gotta unbalance them?"
Snapping back into form, Karai nodded. "Precisely. It's all about unbalancing them through their weaknesses. You have to figure out what your opponents weaknesses are, in all areas of combat. When it comes to something like this, weaknesses are just as important to exploit. For example…"
As quick as lightning, Karai slid behind April, rested one hand across the top of her ribs to hold her in place, while she leaned in closely, her voice dropping to a low growl. "For you, your ears are your most sensitive spot, which means if I do this…"
Leaning in closer, Karai tilted her head and gently nibbled on April's earlobe.
April couldn't help it - she let out a shaky moan.
Karai smiled into April's cheek. "...then that happens."
April scurried away, huddling into herself. She suddenly felt very agitated, and very claustrophobic, despite the large expanse of the room. Fidgeting in place, she quickly murmured. "I-I need a drink," before hurrying out of the room.
She was shaking. Why was she still shaking? Her cheeks burned burgundy, that much she knew, and her heartbeat pulsed loudly in her throat. All of this combined made holding the glass steady a very challenging task.
"You okay, O'Neil?"
The sudden voice caused the glass to slip from April's hand and clatter into the sink. She turned the tap off, defeated, and looked to see Karai leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
April cleared her throat and tried to sound stern. "Y-You went too far," it came out meak.
"Too far?" Karai slowly approached, but stopped when April flinched backwards. "April, do you tell the guys to go easy on you when you spar with them?"
"Well, no, but-"
"Then you shouldn't want me to go easy on you here. Besides, if I'm being honest, I'm starting you out LIGHT. But look," her voice was earnest now, genuine, no malice or taunting or anything of her usual tone "if you don't want this training, I won't push it. But it's useful training, especially since you're in a team of less-than-subtle turtles - it means you've got something they don't, a tactic they can't employ, a weapon only you can use."
After this, Karai smiled and turned to walk back to her room. April didn't want to see her go. Despite everything, she didn't want to stop this sort of training. She wanted to prove she could be just as good a kunoichi as Karai. Of course, that wasn't the only reason why she enjoyed the training, but her mind did not wish to register such things.
Nervously, she called out, "How do I get better?"
Stopping in her tracks, Karai smirked and turned back around to the redhead. "Part of getting to your opponent with such… tactics… requires reading them, studying their slightest reactions to your tiniest movements. Now, you were easy to decipher, and granted, most people will be a lot less of a challenge than, say, I am, so that's why this is good practice for you."
"What are your weaknesses then?"
Karai laughed, sharply. "Nice try, princess. You're not gonna win the game that easily."
"And is this what this is to you? One big game?"
Karai's features softened slightly. "No, sweetheart, but if it was, let's just say I'm on an undefeated streak."
Just then, they heard the turnstiles at the entrance to the lair, signalling that the guys had returned home from patrol. With a wink and a flash of an expression that made April's heart stop for a brief moment, Karai walked away to greet the turtles.
Even if this WASN'T a game, April wanted to play to win, to wipe the smug smile off her trainer's face.
Splashing her face with the cold water of the tap, she mumbled to herself, "Oh, I'll find your weakness, Karai…"