Chapter 5: The Shading Jutsu
This time Shoryu refused to be caught off guard. With Reizo's initiation of the match Ayako instantly fell into a pattern of hand signs, but not before Shoryu could flare out the windmill shuriken and hurl it her way with all the speed he could muster. The girl managed only three hand signs before her jutsu was interrupted by the oncoming projectile, forcing her to swerve out of the way and start over from scratch. It had been a near miss, though the look on Shoryu's face told her that he was hardly fazed by her dodge, instead he only snuck his hands again behind his back, presumably to retrieve another shuriken.
After finally initiating all five hand signs of her jutsu, Ayako's fingers intertwined into yet another gesture he'd never seen before as her signature jutsu presented itself.
"Ninja Art: Shading Jutsu!" She announced.
Shoryu braced himself to adapt to a whole new technique he'd never seen before, though to his surprise no effect came right away. Ayako separated her hands and began to fumble behind her back for a few moments before flicking away three elastic bands. A collection of three scrolls strapped to the rear of her belt then opened, cascading down like a multicoloured cape and stopping at her heels. To his surprise none of the scrolls contained writing for a summoning jutsu; in fact they were all blank aside from the different base colours – the first was red, the second yellow and the third blue.
Shoryu flinched as she threw out her arms in front of her, though again no attack blasted away. Instead, the red scroll dangling from her belt was suddenly drained from one of its corners, shifting into glittering light and seeping into the palms of her hands. With a clap of her hands to synthesize the coloured energy, Ayako suddenly began her attack.
"Red!" She cried. The girl then threw out her right hand as a brilliant burst of crimson light erupted from it, racing as what Shoryu could only describe as a firework towards him at high speeds. To her surprise however, Shoryu never made a move to avoid the burning hot stream of light right away. Instead he withdrew his arms from behind his back, showing that his right hand was fixed into a hand sign that he then pointed downwards.
What? He made a hand sign behind his back? Ayako wondered, and in her moment of confusion she noticed a growing shadow pooling at her feet, forcing her to look up and straight into the path of Shoryu's windmill shuriken coming back around for another pass. With only a moment to spare Ayako swerved out of the way, and Shoryu stepped out of the firework's flightpath in her moment of distraction. Shoryu pointed his right index back to his own direction as the shuriken changed course. It sailed back towards the boy before he slowed it with an outstretched palm and then caught it skilfully.
I get it; he can change the direction of his shuriken by re-establishing control over it in midflight with his chakra. . . I'll have to watch out for that. Observed Ayako, absorbing this time two fistfuls of blue from the scroll hanging from her belt. She clapped her hands again, throwing her left hand forwards.
"Blue!"
This time, rather than the volatile blur of chaotic energy the red displayed, the blue instead manifested itself as a sharp javelin, hurtling at an even greater speed towards Shoryu. The boy darted nimbly out of the way and began to sprint across the forty yards of grass separating them, flipping and swerving past streams of the same red fireworks and blue spears as Ayako shaded more colour from her rolls of disintegrating paper. Judging from her first two attacks being executed at a distance and the fact that she was particularly lean in frame, Shoryu had correctly calculated that she played to long and mid-range combat, using the red and blue scrolls to attack from afar.
He drew the shoto and batted away an oncoming blue before ducking under a second and unsheathing his main blade. With the torrent of following reds denying him access to the sides Shoryu gracefully flipped backwards to avoid being blasted. He landed with another deflection of the solid blues and resumed his run to close the gap between the two. He brought the first blade up with a vertical swipe to the sound of yet another clap.
"Yellow!"
Upon Ayako's cry a transparent shield of the most vivid yellow manifested in front of her, resulting in Shoryu's sword hitting nothing but a glasslike barrier. The yellow cracked just a little at its surface, but the shield still held firm before Ayako released it and clapped her hands again for another volley of reds, forcing Shoryu out of close quarters.
"Sensei. That jutsu; what is it? I've never seen anything like it." Kazuya asked at the sidelines. "Is it a Kekkei Genkai?"
Reizo shook his head as he watched the battle return to a distanced range. "No. It's a secret jutsu passed down from through families, with only a select few still existing today who know of its execution. The Shading Jutsu dates back to the time of the very first Kage, back when coloured dyes didn't exist. To fashion clothing and decorations, the shading jutsu was created to allow its users to absorb natural colours and displace them onto different surfaces; they'd shade yellow from sand, blue from water and so on. Do you understand so far?"
Kazuya nodded.
"Over time the ninja learned to wield it as a weapon. Using the jutsu they can harmlessly transfer colours, but whenever Ayako claps her hands she can ignite or diffuse a primary colour with her chakra to bring out its battle properties."
"Primary colours – you mean red, blue and yellow." Kazuya presumed.
"Exactly. I hear that different branches exist, but it appears she's flawlessly mastered the basics – impressive for a rookie Genin to say the least."
"Red!"
With Ayako's next attack Shoryu found himself unable to dodge completely, resulting in the side of his arm suffering a grazing burn. The redhead cast him a look of worry, though a single nod of his head told her that she was okay to carry on, and so more blasts of colour streamed his way.
This is getting me nowhere! He cursed. I have to attack fast or I'm done for! He cast the single hand sign of his most basic attack and let fly with his brief moment of stillness.
"Wind Style: Air Slash Jutsu!"
The crescent shaped blade of wind that served as one of Shoryu's signature attacks blasted away from his outstretched palm with almost twice the intensity and speed he gained from it just a week ago. The technique collided with Ayako's own, spinning the blue into the ground and the following red off course before forcing the girl to throw up the yellow shield. He pelted forwards again and began to stream the same attacks one after the other.
With no opening to clap her hands, Ayako could only maintain the yellow shield as Shoryu closed in, and with every blast of the offensive jutsu the cracks in the shield widened. She shaded more yellow in order to strengthen the barrier and repair the cracks, though the onslaught of repeated Air Slashes made it impossible to maintain. By the time Shoryu had reached her he'd fired off eight of the techniques to weaken the barrier just enough so that a double swipe of his two blades shattered the technique into sizeable shards of broken yellow chakra. He ducked low, spun around and brought up the two blades again in the hope of landing a direct hit, but not before he heard the loud clap and found himself once again darting backwards to avoid a blast of red melting his face off.
She's too fast! Those attacks keep me on my toes so that my openings are limited, and then whenever I get through that defence she's quick enough to react with one of those reds to keep me at bay.
Once again Shoryu fell back to a more reasonable distance and resumed his pattern of merely dodging her attacks as he thought back to the lessons he'd been taught as a shinobi. In the heat of battle he had to keep his cool; analysing and taking advantage of the flaws in an opponent's attack was an invaluable trait to have on the battlefield, and he knew that his strength lay in his mind rather his physical power. No jutsu was unbeatable – he just had to stay focused, read her movements and then wait for an opportunity.
Being at a suitable range made it easier for Shoryu to avoid Ayako's moves, and by simply studying her technique for a few moments he begun to notice a pattern. Just like at the start of the battle, she'd throw reds to begin with. Once Shoryu dodged the large, explosive fireworks she'd follow up with a blue javelin – since they were smaller, they were easier to evade than the reds, though Ayako's logic was to force him to move away with the red before catching him with the sharp and fast blue whilst he was off balance.
It was an impressive tactic to employ, requiring expert timing to execute and a practiced chakra control to maintain the jutsu for extended periods of time; in fact Shoryu quickly realised that if he had neglected his training in this last week he'd be finished by now due to his much slower reflexes back then. But still, there was one potential flaw that he saw in her attack. The fiery haired girl would absorb colours from the disintegrating scrolls fixed to her back; if he could see how much she was packing he'd have an idea of how to catch her once she ran dry. But with the scrolls just out of view Shoryu had no way to tell exactly how much she had left of a particular colour. He'd have to improvise.
"Why doesn't he just use the Raikyogan?" Mused Kazuya absently.
Reizo looked to his new student and made a noise of recognition as a sign for him to carry on.
"I mean, aren't you from the Zawa clan close-quarters types like we of the Takashi? From what I hear, you specialise in combining precise striking with high speed kenjutsu. Wouldn't the Raikogan help him out here? Ayako's clearly a long range fighter so it would work to his advantage - once he gets in close enough he could have this fight over in a heartbeat."
"You seem well informed." Said Reizo. "You're right, the Raikyogan would be useful here; if he actually had it."
"You mean he doesn't?" Kazuya asked, raising his eyebrows in a vague show of surprise.
Reizo shook his head. "Currently there are thirty nine members of the Zawa clan in the Land of Lightning, most of which reside at the Village hidden in the Clouds. Thirty five of them inherited the standard Raikyogan, and three of them were lucky enough to be blessed with the Daimyo, or Lord's Raikyogan. One of them however, seems to have missed out on the dojutsu completely, and that person is Shoryu Aizawa."
Kazuya huffed a satisfied chuckle at hearing such news. "Figures. Guess he really is just one big joke; he's a failure on all fronts. Honestly Reizo-sensei I have no idea why you thought it'd be a good idea t-"
Before the white haired prodigy could continue further, he suddenly found his legs being forcefully swept away from underneath him as his new sensei tripped him to the ground with ease. He leaned over the boy and held him by the scruff of his violet collar whilst Ayako and Shoryu fought behind them.
"And who do you think you are to judge that?" He warned, with that same threatening tone creeping its way into his voice once more. "You know nothing of Shoryu; of all the pain he's suffered. Despite what everyone seems to think, it's not his fault that he hasn't inherited the Raikyogan. What would you know about being a failure? You were lucky enough to inherit two Kekkei Genkai - that's something that I've never even seen before.
Now imagine if you weren't born like that; imagine if you were born into the Takashi clan and never even inherited the Ice Style with no explanation as to why. You'd feel cheated, betrayed and useless – that's what Shoryu has to deal with every day of his life, and it makes it no easier when people like you and the rest of our clan bring him down for it. That's why I chose him. A person who can endure that and still aspire to be a ninja, regardless of their talents, is worth training in my eyes. You're a promising student Kazuya, but if you don't learn these things soon enough you won't last long on this team."
Kazuya said nothing for a few moments with the shock of his new teacher actually assaulting him beginning to sink in. He contemplated Reizo's words as it occurred to him that the older and wiser Jonin may have harboured some truth behind his words. ". . . Alright." He finally muttered, making Reizo release his grip and pull the boy to his feet.
"Maybe if you two ever actually become friends you could ask Shoryu what he went through to just become a Genin. After hearing that I doubt you'll still think so lowly of him."
Alright, this should work. If I don't get her in this move I'll at least have some clue as to what she's carrying and her pattern of an attack. Here goes!
Shoryu swerved away from a firecracker stream of red and batted aside the subsequent blue with a quick draw of his shoto. His plan involved expending two of his three shuriken and sacrificing much of his chakra for a plan that might not even work, but it was the only option he saw despite its inefficiency. He spun into a draw of his first windmill shuriken, hurling it on a swerving current before spinning and throwing another along a symmetrical trajectory.
"Wind Style: Shuriken Sway Jutsu!"
Expending his chakra to reaffirm his influence over the second bladed cross, Shoryu followed his weapon until it had reached halfway towards its destination before tilting his fingers upwards, sending it spinning straight up into the air along a completely new current. He then ran after the first on a direct path towards the girl and fired four consecutive blasts of the Air Slash Jutsu to follow the shuriken. As he expected, Ayako clapped her hands for a shield of yellow moments before the first shuriken hit its target, cracking the screen and completely shattering it after the following blades of wind finished the job.
Shoryu now dashed at full speed towards her, and with the second shuriken swerving in from behind he knew he had her beat. Those yellow shields only covered the front of her body like one side of a square, so with two attacks coming in from both sides there was no way she could defend herself completely.
Just when Shoryu had pinned her as beaten though, Ayako held out her hands, shaded another surge of colour and clapped them together, revealing a previously hidden ability she wielded. She pivoted on the spot, and in a show of unnatural speed and precision she blasted the shuriken out of the sky with one of the blue spears from her left hand, whilst simultaneously repelling Shoryu back again with a blast of red from her right.
"She can throw different colours from both hands at once?" Reizo muttered in disbelief. "She's even better than I gave her credit for."
With two of his shuriken out of action the boy spun backwards into a medium range to avoid impalement from a following sharpened blue. To the eyes of the girl, his attack had been completely unsuccessful, with him being down to only one shuriken out of three, though what she failed to realise was that Shoryu hadn't completely wasted his move.
In the brief moment that she'd turned to blast his shuriken from the sky, Shoryu had gotten a good look at the scrolls on her back, noticing that the yellow was still thick enough to go the distance and the blue had depleted only slightly. The red however was her most used colour, and subsequently the scroll was scarce, like a dangerously thin tube of toilet paper; she had perhaps ten more of those firework attacks before she ran out.
He darted between streams of oncoming chakra as the girl reinitiated her attack to keep him on the back foot. Sparks of red and shards of blue flew dangerously close by him thanks to his speed decreasing out of fatigue, but he wouldn't give in, not when he almost had her beat. He counted six reds since his last failure of an attack before flaring out the final shuriken and throwing it along a powerful current.
Down on the surface the wind current was weaker, meaning that Shoryu had to put on more spin if he wanted a direct hit from an angle. Without even using his new jutsu he'd set it on a course moving it on a wild curve through the air as he rapidly executed five hand signs to almost completely drain his chakra.
"Wind Style: Galeforce Jutsu!"
Without having a senbon jammed into his leg Shoryu was able to execute his most powerful technique with complete control. The miniature hurricane spiralled into existence before him as Shoryu made for his third and final run towards Ayako. She threw reds and blues as usual, though with the presence of a small cyclone whipping up the space before him, the reds were sent off course and the blues caught up in the whirlwind, clattering together before shattering under the strain.
"Yellow!" She cried, just in time to have her newly shaded barrier cracked by Shoryu's incoming shuriken. With his dash now putting him within ten metres he dissipated the Galeforce jutsu and continued solo, hoping to the heavens that his luck held out as he resumed his attack. Luckily, it did.
The next colour that Ayako threw was a blue, followed again by another after his dodge. He knew what this meant – she was completely out of red to make fireworks with, meaning that once he broke through the barrier she had only the blues to repel him – the ones he could dodge with ease. She begun to repair the conjured shield with Shoryu only a few metres away from her, though she had nowhere near enough time to repair it properly before the boy lunged forwards and shattered it with a mighty swing of both blades.
He landed and spun around, gaining full momentum for his final attack as he heard the familiar clap of hands once more. He fought past the instinct to move away, telling himself that it was a deflectable blue and leaning into the rising slash of his main sword. Shoryu brought the blade up with all his might, right on cue to come face to face with what he'd dreaded all along. An open right palm, swimming with shaded red chakra, was pointing straight into his face, and in his desperation to escape the boy spun his entire body backwards.
Ayako stepped forwards and followed the boy to the ground, following his face with her glowing right hand and keeping it inches away from him as she towered over, primed and ready to fire. If he tried to move away he doubted she'd throw the jutsu at such a close range, but fair was fair; she'd submitted him in a skilful manner in a fair fight amongst shinobi, but the only thing that bugged Shoryu was how.
"Winner: Ayako." Announced Reizo.
The crimson light thrust into Shoryu's face was then withdrawn as Ayako brought back her right hand and held her out her left to help him up. He accepted graciously, being heavier than she'd first given him credit for.
"Good match." She said, smiling sweetly.
"Yeah, of course. But how?" He asked. "I was sure you were completely out of. . . Oh."
The realisation hit Shoryu like a Raikyogan punch to the gut after noticing something that should've been plainly obvious from the start. A single patch of her hair from the final inch of her right parting was now a natural blonde rather than the stark red that covered the rest of it. Ayako clapped her hands again to diffuse the chakra, and with a flick of her wrist shaded the now harmless red back into her hair.
"Genius." He said with a laugh. "You purposefully used a tactic that would drain your red scroll first, just to make me think you were all out. If you just use the scrolls to attack then no one ever even suspects that you can take colour from other surfaces."
"Aww, am I that easy to work out?" She said playfully.
"Hey, you won didn't you?"
"Yeah. But I guess I did underestimate you – you almost had me there." Ayako lowered her voice to a whisper for the following sentence. "Between you and me that trick is my only real ace in the hole; I was kinda hoping to save it for the match against Kazuya. Now he knows everything I've got!"
"Well good luck. At any rate, even if he wins you'd be hard-pressed to do any worse than I did. No pressure, all you have to do is move." He joked.
The two laughed and made their way back to the ringside where Reizo was slowly clapping. Kazuya said nothing as usual and only sat in his silent state of meditation upon the grass.
"Great match you two." Reizo observed.
"Reizo sensei, please give me another chance!" Shoryu begged, suddenly shifting into a miserable, pleading state. "I know I lost both my matches, but I swear the nex-"
"Relax Shoryu, it's not about whether you won or lost. You put up an excellent fight and there's still another small mission to go after this one. As far as I'm concerned you've proven yourself worthy of being on this squad even despite losing twice. You learned quickly from your mistakes in the first match against Kazuya and gave Ayako a run for her money in the second. On top of that, out of the three of you, Shoryu you've improved the most since I last saw you."
Shoryu's look of desperate dismay suddenly warped into a pleasant smile. So at least he'd noticed; Shoryu packed far more power than he did a week ago; he carried more shuriken, he'd learned a new jutsu, his chakra control had improved and so too had his strength and speed. At least now he knew that he was in no danger of being sent back to the academy he'd been forced to put up with.
"I'd hate to see what you were like before." Chided Kazuya.
This time Shoryu didn't even reply. Encouragement from Reizo-sensei was all he needed to allow the boy's comments to go right over his head. He sat down in the grass and retrieved the wind flute once more, satisfied that he'd done his part and deserving of a break whilst Ayako and Kazuya fought it out. There was one major problem though: Ayako looked exhausted.
"I'll give you an hour to prepare for the next match." Revealed the Jonin. "Ayako can replenish her chakra and create more scrolls before then. Is that alright Kazuya?"
The boy said nothing, remaining completely focused on his shut-eyed meditation.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Ayako nodded and turned towards the neighbouring woods on the verge of the field. She took only a few steps before she looked back at Shoryu. Despite being exhausted, it was clear to her that Shoryu didn't want to stick around. He still felt embarrassed in front of Reizo, and he and Kazuya hadn't exactly got off to a flying start. She knew that if she left him there he'd be left in an awkward silence until she got back.
"You coming?" She asked.
Shoryu checked over both shoulders before he realised that Ayako was talking to him. He turned to Reizo to ask for permission and was met with a simple nod, allowing him to jump to his feet and catch up to her. He reckoned that the Jonin knew that staying here would do him no favours; his relationship with Kazuya wasn't going to get any better and he'd gotten along well so far with Ayako, so allowing them time to socialise further would increase team morale.
The two entered the darkened forest after the hundred yard trek as Ayako begun to search around for new materials. Shoryu had no idea exactly what she was looking for, but there was hardly much variety to choose from. He knew she absorbed the colours of red, blue and yellow, yet aside from the occasional buttercup there was nothing substantial of any primary colour. The forest was a random collection of trees littered by occasionally thick patches of underbrush. Colours were dark and dim from the lack of light down here in contrast to the vivid colours that hung from her belt - hardly a treasure trove of potential ammo.
"So how do you plan on replenishing those colours with so little in here?" He asked, letting the question out that had been bugging him.
"Huh?" She turned to him. "Oh, I can take it from anything. Watch." Ayako then initiated the same sequence of hand signs he'd seen her perform before, called out the name of the formidable technique and absorbed a small pocket of green from the foliage by Shoryu's feet. The chakra-moulded colour swum and glowed in her palms as Shoryu scratched his head in confusion.
"But how's that gonna help you?" He quizzed, knowing that green wasn't in her arsenal.
Ayako silently answered the boy's question by bringing the opposing fingers of her hands together.
"Lightweave!" She called.
For a moment Shoryu thought she was about to clap and ignite the colour for an attack, though instead she let her fingers intertwine as she dug into blob of green before gently prying it apart. Once her hands had separated the cogs in Shoryu's mind slowly fell into place. Holding it with both hands she'd absorbed the green, but after dismantling the colour and taking it apart she now held a blue sphere in one hand and a yellow in the other.
"I get it now." He said smiling. "Green is blue mixed with yellow right? So if you split it up you can get it back to its original colours."
Ayako nodded. "Yeah. But it's much more efficient if you find the colour itself – I could shade red from the brown in these trees and yellow and blue from the grass, but it's much better to find them at their base colours." She spread out both palms to continue the process.
As snaking tracks of light, the two colours trailed in a spiralling twirl out of the girl's hand and into the scrolls that hung from her belt, solidifying into wafer-thin paper that would dissolve upon her usage rather than being drained into black like the patch of grass that stood beneath them. She then shaded the entirety of her hair dye into a large sphere in her hand before replenishing the red scroll.
It was then that Shoryu noticed two things. First of all she'd been hiding a lot of red in that hair of hers. The red scroll filled back up to almost half way, meaning that even whilst fighting him she had plenty of reserves. Secondly, she looked almost unrecognisable in her natural blonde. He knew she was the same person of course, yet she somehow seemed more gentle and innocent than before with the lighter hair colour; her expression even seemed to soften in the absence of the flaming red.
"Two questions." He said.
She laughed. "Shoot."
"What's gonna happen to that grass?" He queried, feeling sorry for the inanimate patch of earth that stood beneath him, looking charred thanks to being drained of its colour.
"Don't worry about it." She said. "It's a living organism – it'll automatically replenish its pigment if it wants to absorb the sun. Give it a day or two and it'll be back to normal."
"Ahh." Shoryu nodded his head thoughtfully.
"And the second?"
"Right: Well you know your hair?"
"Yeah. . . I know of it."
"Well could you absorb the yellow out of it even though it's your natural hair colour?"
"Yup." Ayako immediately demonstrated the validity of her claim by shading the entirety of her blonde hair into a ball in her hands, shifting her hair into the darkest black and once again changing her image completely. After a few seconds she transferred the colour back, seeming to hate the darker colour. "If I used my natural hair colour it's like the grass – It'll go back to being blonde after a while. Guess it doubles up as a shield for last reserves huh?"
"That's wicked." He said. Shoryu's mind immediately debated other possibilities - even when she was out of hair dye she could probably get colour from the yellow and blue of her dress too. He knew taking red from her own skin would be a problem though; she'd be draining red blood cells and leaving her body defenceless against minor attacks and even the sun.
Ayako and Shoryu carried on through the woods, with the girl seeming to know where exactly to go to find colour. Sensitive ears followed the trickling of a small stream nearby, though before they reached it Ayako stopped upon stumbling across a collection of oversized leaves the length of Shoryu's forearm. At a first glance they were regular green – the kind Ayako said was inefficient, however upon closer inspection he noticed that the undersides were in fact red, with a wide enough surface area across the bush big enough to completely restore Ayako's scroll of red.
The two continued towards the small pond to allow the girl to shade blue for those deceptively sharp javelins and yellow from the petals of neighbouring daffodils, replenishing the shield she'd used. Shoryu simply sat atop a simple rock and absently experimented with different melodies on his flute while she gathered materials.
"So, any tips on beating Kazuya?" She asked, finalising her scrolls and mounting a rock opposite him.
"You saw the match didn't you? The guy's a machine." Shoryu explained as he shook his head in defeat. "Judging from his arsenal I'd say he favours close range or medium - that double bladed sword looks handy for close combat. On top of that, I'm guessing he sticks to his ninjutsu for a medium range like I do - the Ice style, the only problem is we haven't actually seen those jutsu yet so I don't really know what to anticipate."
Ayako nodded thoughtfully as Shoryu continued.
"I originally thought of trying to lure him into the forest and strike him from his blindside. The guy's honourable right? He won't attack from behind so I thought I'd use it to my advantage; I figured that if I could get away from him the cards would be in my favour since I wouldn't have to worry about him doing the same thing to me."
"Yeah, that could work!" Ayako cried.
The girl's heart sank as Shoryu shook his head. "If you leave him by himself he'll no doubt he'll use that Kekkei Genkai. If he manages all those weird hand signs then it's game over, so you have to interrupt that dojutsu the moment he starts it. Of course if you did that from hiding you'd just give away your position and you'd be back to square one."
"Damn it! You're right." She admitted, realising the boy's dilemma.
"Your safest best is probably to keep your distance like you did with me, but if he ever gets off that dojutsu you have to throw up those shields fast. I originally presumed it was some kind of reflex enhancing jutsu that he used, but from its name and Reizo's description it looks like he doesn't increase his speed at all, rather he slows everything down aside from himself."
"What's the difference?" Asked Ayako. "I mean whichever way you look at it, he's still moving at speeds we can't follow."
"It's all about the control: jutsu that increase a user's speed take years to master because the user's body has to become accustomed to travelling at great speeds. But since he slows the time around him, his body clock wouldn't change, and to him, he'd just be moving regularly."
"Hmm, good point."
Ayako finalised her arsenal by adding another wave of red through her hair, though this time she layered the inside with an opposing tone of blue to give herself a more varied supply of ammunition. With the girl completely restocked on primary colours for the shading jutsu, the two headed off back through the forest.
As he followed behind her the boy passed the patch of grass that Ayako had drained not fifteen minutes ago, and true to her word, closer inspection showed that green was definitely beginning to restore at the tips of the blades. He looked at the girl for a moment; for all her confidence Shoryu could've sworn she seemed nervous at the very idea of facing the boy with the two Kekkei Genkai.
"I'm sure you'll beat him– he just got lucky against me is all!" Shoryu joked. "I mean, you got thirteen in the exam; that's pretty impressive stuff, especially when you compare it to my score."
"But what's up with your score anyway?" Ayako asked. "Are you seriously telling me that you got a six? That's complete bull! You went toe to toe with me for the whole fight and I only won through deception – if that score is accurate then you've either doubled your strength in the last week or I've really let myself go."
Shoryu laughed at her comment. He contemplated telling her the whole truth, though having only known her for a single day his privacy got the better of him, and so he had to settle for only a half-truth. "Let's just say I was suffering from an injury at the time."
"An injury? What do you mean?"
Shoryu pulled up the fabric of his loose fitted, three-quarter length pants to reveal a triad of ugly scars crossing one another in a random array over his left quadriceps. Judging from the redness and still-visible stitching Ayako could tell right away that these scars were still quite new; in fact she was amazed he could still walk straight after such an injury. Their shape indicated some kind of blade far broader than a regular projectile – perhaps a sword or one of his windmill shuriken.
"How the hell did you manage that?" She asked.
Shoryu sighed and pulled the leg of his pants back down past his knees. "It's kind of a long story. Ask me some other time, okay?"
Ayako hesitated for a moment. She wanted to push him further and get the full details on what had clearly been a traumatic experience. At the same time however, she knew that his wounds were none of her business, and if their friendship developed she'd no doubt hear in due time anyway. She smiled once again. "Sure thing."
.
Author's Notes: Hey guys! I'm back! This is really late I know, but there's a good reason for that - the same reason that I'm forced to go on a small hiatus: My laptop has died after only 2 years of functioning, and I have no real way to afford a new one. I'm doing everything I can to save up for one: I'm walking everywhere rather than getting the bus, I'm working more, I'm going out less and I even cut down on smoking, but it might be a couple of months before I can afford a new one even with all that. If it gets past those couple of months I'll just have to take it out of my student loan, though I'd like to avoid that if possible. Thanks in advance for understanding - I'll try where I can to post a new chapter here and there and I'll carry on drawing of course, since I still need to draw Kazuya, Ayako and Reizo, but please try and understand my situation - I am literally sat alone in the corner of the UCLan library posting this chapter from a laptop I rented, and I had to walk for an hour just to get here :(
As promised the picture of Shoryu is up that you can see from a link on my profile, along with chapter 6, so go read the next one after you hear me rant for a while :)
Sooo, about Ayako's power - I didn't wanna make it a Kekkei Genkai since it just doesn't seem the right type of jutsu for it and Kazuya's already got two. The Shading Jutsu is something I made up myself, but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some clear influence. The first is obvious to Fullmetal Alchemist fans - the way she claps her hands before an attack is something I stole from Edward Elric. The whole idea of using colours though comes from a book called the Black Prism - the first in Brent Weeks's 'Lightbringer' trilogy. In this book characters use a type of magic called 'Drafting', but I didn't steal it at all, there's countless differences. In both, the colours each have different properties and can be used by someone who knows the technique, but the similarities end there. I'm using just primary colours for now (I'll definitely expand later), whereas the Black Prism uses a spectrum idea - it goes from superviolet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and then finally sub-red.
In the Black Prism, most drafters can only use one of these colours, someone who can use two is called a Bichrome, and a person with three is a Polychrome. With the Shading Jutsu there's no restriction really. Also, drafters in the Lightbringer series only have to see their colour to bring out their magic - they don't drain the colour or convert it, they just look at one of the spectrum colours and their power activates by taking the light rays in through the eyes (they often see through coloured lenses to absorb more) Furthermore they can't displace colour onto a different surface.
Anyway I went on about that for too long - it's a decent book that I'm shamelessly advertising here :D (Actually whilst we're on that topic, Foo Fighters' 'Wasting Light' was vital to drawing Shoryu - listen to it!)
Oh and I made a Scott Pilgrim reference! Yay for me!
Alright I'm done now, go read about Ayako and Kazuya fighting it out :)