Archer's Misery (Training Thread)

The darkness had always interested Asura and there were many reasons for such a thing. The first of course was that she could remove her blindfold without worry. Ever since she’d had to wear it, which had been since when she was extremely young, she had been worried about taking off. It had been drilled into her that bad things would happen if she ever took off the piece of cloth that covered her Itsugan, the one thing that still linked her to her clan and if she was able, she would gladly rip them out of her skull. Asura was even more scared about that though, the pain and the true blindness, rather than the one she knew would come eventually, was not something she ever wanted and so she couldn’t, she couldn’t break that last link.

A sigh slipped from her mouth, mixing in with the sounds of the dying surroundings. The dusty wind blew across the back of her neck and ruffled her hair. A shiver slipped through her spine and she started to ready herself for her training, she knew that the wind would only come every so often so she had time to get ready. Reaching down to her feet, Asura’s fingers brushed over her ankle before her long, thin fingers deftly unhooked her sandals and put them on the ground beside her. Reaching up her leg and lifting her shorts higher, her fingers hooked the edges of her stockings and slowly slid them down her legs, shivering under the feeling of the coldness upon her now bare legs. Her hands now stroked up her legs, feeling the smooth skin that was there, unblemished and untouched even through her elements’ dangerous natures.

Her hands next went to her shorts, unbuttoning them and pulling them down her legs and putting them in a pile with her other clothes. There was a reason for her systematic removal of clothing of course, that being due to her hearing. The fact that her hearing was so sensitive meant that her clothing, the gentle rustles and shifting of it caused her to be able to hear the material, which instantly put her off, especially when training as she wasn’t able to focus on a target to be able to ignore the sounds of her clothing. So she had made a compromise with herself, going out on her own and removing her clothing to train. Thus her hands brushed over her thighs and hooked the bottom of her shirt, bringing it up and over her head and putting it down over the pile of clothing. Finally she was just in her underwear and that was quickly removed as well, leaving her fully naked in the darkness, no one would be able to see. Well, there was one thing left to remove, the first thing mentioned; her blindfold. With shaking hands she reached to her face, her fingers slipping under the soft cloth that covered her eyes and she took a deep, quivering breath. Finally, the cloth was removed from her eyes and she put it down, the eyes underneath having turned to a slight grey colour due to the lack of light that they received.

After her small shaking spell was quelled, it was time to finally train. Crouching down close to the ground, she grabbed a container from the ground and undone the zip on it, revealing, although her eyes could not see it, a bow. It was made of a charcoal coloured wood with long black grains running down it and silver markings at where the string was attached to the wood. The string itself was actually black in colour and very strong, it would need to be for Asura’s strength and she tested it by giving the string a gentle pull and listened to the creaking of the wood and the sound of the tense string. A soft content sigh slipped from the Archer’s mouth and she released the bow. It was the usual thing for her, a daily thing that she done to make sure that she was able to still hit the target, no matter how quiet it was. Taking a deep breath, she crouched down and picked up one of her arrows before spinning it around her fingers skilfully. She couldn’t see the arrow, she hadn’t activated any of her light sources, but she knew it better than she knew her own hand. Her fingers dusted the charcoal wood of the arrows and she brought it up to her mouth, giving the arrow a soft kiss before bringing it down. Notching the arrow, Asura slipped her fingers around the haft of the arrow and she gently pulled her fingers back. Those long digits brushed the black feathers that were mounted on the back of the arrow and then she touched the string and a smile came to her face.

Asura’s eyes closed over as she took a deep breath and held it, she could hear everything now. The wind had picked up again, brushing over her skin and raising gooseflesh, not that she cared. The trees creaked gently and she could hear the creatures scuttling around in the undergrowth. The Land of Shadows may have appeared to be a desolate wasteland but it wasn’t, all one had to do was look properly or listen and they would hear the sound of life in this barren land. The string was pulled back, squeaking the wood as it was pulled back to full draw and with Asura’s index finger resting against the corner of her mouth. With the slightest of movements, her muscles suddenly contracted and folded upon themselves, tensing up further and becoming what could be described as ‘coiled’ giving them much more strength.  Itsugan opened onto the black world and Asura let her arrow fly forth, it shot through the air at a great speed and slammed into the trunk of a tree, embedding itself into the wood of the tree with barely a loss in power.  A grin came to Asura’s face and she walked over to the tree, tugging an arrow out of it and then pulled the arrow out of it before launching it at a second tree and retrieving it once more.

Usually it would continue like this for a while as she tried to test her bow and her own capabilities but something else happened that really shouldn’t have. She heard voices and she heard movement. Dashing over to her clothing, she never had time to put them on so she just covered them up with her flak jacket, blending them in perfectly as she dashed to a tree. Up into the tree she scampered and hid amongst its branches her Itsugan marking out a pair of chakra signatures that were moving towards her. They stopped just besides her abandoned clothing and then they started to speak, unfortunately, she recognized the voices. They belonged to a pair of Mishura, usually the ones that dragged her back from training so that she could be watched properly, of course she never usually hid from them, nor did she hear them… How could she hear them? That’s when she realised something; her body had adapted itself, becoming completely silent. Not a sound escaped her and she almost let out a sigh of relief but realised the folly of such a thing, so she waited and listened.

“She should be here, Onikiri.” The first voice snarled at its companion who apparently didn’t do anything at all, despite how angry the first one was. The voice, named as Onikiri then spoke, his voice being much deeper and more powerful, giving a dark air to the already dark world. “I have no clue where she is; don’t shout at me about it. Perhaps she’s hiding nearby but then again she never has been too good at hiding and she usually gets pressured out if we just wait. So give it some time.” Onikiri said but there was obviously not a whole lot he knew about Asura and obviously he didn’t know that she was very patient and now that she was able to hide herself better than before, she would be even more patient. Eventually they would get bored and she could get her stuff and head back herself, making up an excuse for such a thing. So she waited and she waited but it was not until several hours later that something happened.

What happened was that they finally got up and looked around for her. “Asura, if you’re here, next time we won’t be kind. This will be your fault; you should’ve just come out.” The girl in question knew what they were hinting at, they knew she didn’t wear any clothing when she trained and she knew exactly what they would attempt to do to her. Should she just come out then and deal with them? It might be that it would just happen sooner of course or maybe they would just beat her up a bit as they had done before. A frown came this time and Onikiri and the other Mishura walked off, leaving her alone in the tree and thinking to herself. With a sigh, and another ten minutes of sadness, she jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground, her movements still silent. That was the first bit of good news and she needed to test it. Wandering over to her abandoned clothing she grabbed and rapidly slipped it all on before shaking it out and fastening it all up. With a grin she realised that she could know move silently, there wasn’t anything coming from her body. “Brilliant…” She murmured and rolled her shoulders before picking up her weapons and crouching down.

There wasn’t much she would have to do today other than just generally being herself and trying to avoid the Mishura as much as she could. Now that she could move without a sound from her clothing, she could deal with the two from before and they wouldn’t be able to touch her, not like last time… A shudder ran through her and the memory came to her…

She was back in the training grounds, her body younger now but only ever so slightly due to her Zireh heritage, something that prevented her from aging as fast as others. She was just practicing her archery, her blindfold firmly on her head and she had been lost in the twang of the bowstring firing forth into the tree, the solid thunk of the arrow smacking into solid wood and the resting groan of the bow itself as it came to solid once more after having been released. She was so lost in fact that she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her until the last moment. An arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her in tight to the person’s chest, his mouth right next to her ear and whispering into it, voice dangerous. “Lookie what I have here, a little naked girl out in the wasteland herself, launching arrows at a tree. How the hell can you even hit a tree with your eyes covered, huh?” He asked, his fingers moving for the cloth covering Asura’s hues but she jerked her head away with a snarl, keeping her eyes well away from the probing fingers. “Oh, don’t want it touched do ya? Why not, something interesting hiding under it, huh Mishura?” He muttered to her and she jerked away from him before crouching into a fighting stance and readying herself. She didn’t want to be a Mishura, it wasn’t her damn choice but she wasn’t strong enough to stop being one.

“Who are you?” She asked, her voice was strong but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to last very long if he did try and fight her, she’d dropped her bow when he grabbed her and she didn’t have her sword on her either, so no Iaido. The male just chuckled at the question and he stepped towards her but she managed to duck around him, grab her bow and get pinned down on the ground as he slammed her down. Obviously due to the damn Kyougan that he possessed. As much as Asura struggled she couldn’t get away from him and his exploring hands as they moved all over her body, just touching and getting wherever they could and finally she snapped. With a blood-curdling scream she kicked the other Mishura off, rolled to her feet and brought and arrow to her bow. Screaming still, black flames formed around the bow and she launched it forwards, the arrow screaming as it slashed at the Mishura, who dodged just to the side and lost an eye to the flames he never even saw coming. With a cry of pain, Asura grabbed her clothes and ran for it, eventually escaping.

It had been a long time since he had shown up again and with backup this time, not only to make up for the lack of his eye but to make sure she would never escape again. He had never tried anything ever again though, thankfully until today but Asura had hid this time. Everything went back to Asura and she took a deep breath, shuddering as she shook her head to forget the memory. There was one thing she learned from it though… That arrow. Looking down at her bow, the Hybrid smiled and lifted it up, notching an arrow once more and stroking the length of it as she drew it back once again, pulling the arrow straight back and taking a deep breath. Starting to focus her chakra into her bow, she threaded it through and into the arrowhead which after a few moments of concentration, burst into flames. The black flames flickered around the arrow but thankfully didn’t touch the bow and Asura let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Then she fired the arrow at a tree, which erupted into flames as soon as the arrow struck it, turning that tree to ash very quickly. Asura was rather glad actually that she had been able to remember this arrow; it would be of great use in later days to bring down those that opposed her… And eventually, possibly, her own clan but that would not be for a long time.

Asura put her bow back into her case and zipped it up before lifting it up onto her back, she looped the strap around her shoulders and down her chest. Tightening the strap and rolling her shoulders, Asura fixed all of her clothing up and then slipped her hands into her pockets. She would change positions next time and not be caught, she would practice elsewhere and if they found her again and tried anything, they certainly would never return to the village again. That thought made Asura happy and she smiled brightly before starting to walk back to the village, humming a small ditty in the very childish voice that she owned.

Words Needed: 2500
Words Writen: 2507

Jutsu Learned:

I assume you have the weaker tiers, so approved

Back out into the plains, this time she didn’t really want to do too much training. She was more here to think than anything else. Her rump was currently situated on a broken tree stump, which had been fossilised many years ago apparently, probably around the time this massive dome had been created. Her eyes, despite being unable to see properly due to the cloth wrapped around them, were scanning up to that massive rock dome. She knew it was made of charcoal coloured rock and completely covered the sky, preventing any light reaching the ground of the Land of Shadows, aptly named as it happened. One of Asura’s hands slowly reached up, as though to grab the dome and bring it down but she couldn’t… Maybe one day, when she was strong enough, she would bring it down.

Such a thought was fanciful at best and it brought a smile to her face. It was nice to actually have some kind of goal no matter how outlandish it was and that brought a small chuckle from her lips. Perhaps she would actually bring down the dome, bring light to Kaosgakure for good. “The Mikaboshi would not be happy with that…” She murmured, grinning at that fact. Her eyes then downturned, scanning not at the ground but at her hand, the faint slashes still obvious from where she had ripped her fingers open and discovered her Forsaken Flames, named after what she was. She was the Forsaken Flame of the Mishura and it was odd but it made her happy. With a soft sigh, she had finished her pondering and thus rose to her feet before turning away and walking away from her seat back towards the village. There was little enough to do as it was so at least this had wasted some time around here.

Words Needed: 300
Words Written: 307

Jutsu Learned:

Approved