Pursuing a legend...

[♥~Malice~♥]

"There we go. Everything seems to be accounted for..."

A few wisps of blonde would be removed from the petite womans face as a soft yet pleased sigh escaped her light pink hued lips. Michiru had packed lightly for this mission, carrying no more than the bare essentials for such an undertaking. The only things in her backpack were food stuffs, though inside one of the pockets of her cloth trenchcoat she had two soldier pills and three blood pills, things any medical ninja worth their salt carried. Satisfied with her work, Michiru would soon stand and take one last look around her room-- something that had become a bit of a ritual for her. Every time she left on a particularly dangerous mission she would look around her room carefully before she departed, taking in every sight and smell as though it was the last time she'd see it. In this case...it very well could be.

Perhaps the realization of just how truly daunting this mission was hadn't hit her yet, or maybe her mind was just focusing on other things; but for some reason she was unnaturally calm. Indeed, she went about her business as though she went hunting for S-ranked missing criminals on a daily basis. Michiru grinned slightly as she finally picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, her mothers words replaying in her mind.

"Am I worried about you? Of course. Do I wish you could live a peaceful life without having to fight? Yes. Do I know that you will complete whatever obstacle that comes in your way? Definitely. Be safe, Michi-- and come back soon."

A gentle giggle would fill the room as Michiru shook her head slightly. This time when she told her mother of the gravity of her mission she didn't cry... Though she used to cry every other time Michiru would leave the village, despite the reason. Maybe her mother was finally seeing past Michiru just being her daughter, and now realizing that she was a powerful young woman as well. Regardless, the sun kissed beauty took one last look around her room before exiting both it and her house then proceeded to the front gates of Waterfall. Like an angel she appeared as she gracefully glided towards her destination, everything about her movements completely effortless. Cerulean orbs simply absorbed all that Waterfall had to offer as she finally reached the gates. Before leaving she turned around and took one final look around her home... The place where she grew up, the place where she lived all this time...the place that gave her so many warm memories. "I'll be back soon. Please, if only for a little while, stay exactly as I remember you..."

With those words she would become nothing but a blur as she suddenly sped off and traveled towards Earth country. For a while she traveled without thinking much of anything, as though her mind were in purgatory; but soon enough the weight of her mission finally hit her like a battleship, and her reaction to it was rather stunning. Casually she gripped the multi colored jewel that hung on her necklace as thoughts began to run through her head-- thoughts she had forgotten until now. Michiru had neglected to tell her Kage that she had taken a vow to never take another life...but obviously this type of person could not be brought in alive. Could it be? Could the moment she had been dreading her entire life finally be here? Kill or be killed...in all her years as a ninja she was never forced to take a life but now...would she be able to actually break her vow? Or would this hesitance eventually lead to her own demise?

That's not all. This man...he was not ordinary by any stretch of the imagination. His physical description was quite unique, as well as the weapon he wielded. A sword with the ability to freeze anything it cut...quite fearsome. But for him to be of such status he would have to have more up his sleeves than just that...which was also worrisome. The truth was that with only a physical description and knowledge of his weapon, Michiru couldn't formulate as many strategies as she would like. There were just too many unanswered questions. Of course, the same could be said for the person she was after. He probably had limited to zero knowledge of Michiru herself, something she might be able to use to her advantage. Still she was quite nervous...going one on one with such a person...could she really survive, let alone defeat him?

Though perhaps she was underestimating herself? Obviously she wouldn't have been sent on the mission if the Kage didn't have faith in her abilities-- why, she even stated so herself. And Michiru knew that she was by no means weak. The pure hearted lass soon smiled vaguely; that's right, she had to be positive. Going into this thinking negatively would mean she had lost before the battle had even begun. Granted, Michiru would always be humble about her abilities...and she always tended to think her opponents were at least equal if not stronger than she, that way she could fight with a clear head and without arrogance.

Not to mention the fact that she wasn't just fighting for herself. She would be fighting for everyone who had ever been killed or hurt by this man. Her dream was to one day clear the world of such dangerous criminals such as he, and it seems that this would be the first step towards it. Would she live to see that dream come true, though? That was the question. As she reached the border of Earth she silently activated her defenses. Eyes narrowed, jutsu were in effect...it was now go time. No more time to muse about the past, no more time to even think about the future...right now all she was concerned with was keeping her guard up and defeating her foe. On this day she would either become a living legend or a tragic candle burned out by the breath of fate.

[Please move to Earth. ^_^]

[/b]

[♥~Malice~♥]

In just a small amount of time Michiru had arrived in Earth country, her first time there as a matter of fact. However, this was no "social" visit; she was here to eradicate a problem that plagued the world like some grotesque infection. Elongated legs would gracefully sprint across the rather barren horizon in which there was nothing in sight besides more rock and dirt. Michiru frowned slightly, Earth was a massive land. How in the world was she supposed to find one man admist all of this? There were no signs of life at all which was quite strange, even for an environment such as this-- but perhaps there was a reason for that? People say that animals have the ability to sense danger... Could it be they have already predicted the battle that would take place and fled in advance? Stranger things have happened...

Well it wasn't entirely bad that there was nothing around. This meant that Michiru could fight without worry of harming others; which also meant that she could use the full spectrum of her abilities. The golden haired youth observed what could soon become the battlefield and began to take in all factors. It was roughly one o'clock in the afternoon and the temperature was a comfortable seventy degrees, due to the low humidity. There was also a slight breeze sweeping over the rocky terrain, making being outside all the more enjoyable. The sun was high and vivid in the sky and due to the mostly flat terrain, as well as no trees or any sign of vegetation, shadows were quite rare.

There were rocks of various sizes scattered all about; some as small as a pebbles while others as heavy as five tons. The ground was firm and had cracks and holes of various sizes in random places but none were wide nor deep enough to fall into. About the only thing they could do was trip you if you weren't careful-- but even academy students would be able to avoid that fate. The colors of the land were a mixture of blacks, greys and browns, all blending in to give the landscape a very "natural" feel. This terrain continued for as far as the eye could see. Michiru nodded lightly as she faced forward once more, continuing her trek. Even though she displayed a brave face she was actually rather nervous and slightly fearful of the upcoming battle. One would have to be extraordinarily brave or extraordinarily ignorant to not be; Michiru wasn't either.

These attributes probably added to why she wasn't considered your "typical" shinobi whom was taught to be fearless. Of course, Michiru wasn't trained like your typical ninja so maybe that contributed to her way of thinking. Regardless, Michiru feared death, she feared the loss of her loved ones and she feared for the safety of her village. She was human, not a puppet custom made to be a silent killer. But despite all this fear she would never back down from anyone who would endanger her life or the lives of others, and even she didn't really know why. Michiru was the type of person who ran towards her fears instead of away from them, so maybe that, in effect, did make her extraordinarily brave-- even if she didn't realize it herself.

And perhaps that was the true reason for her so willingly accepting this mission. This man threatened everything that she held dear, everything that she fought so fiercely for...she wouldn't allow anyone to destroy it, no matter how powerful they might be. Death was not an option here. She still had so much to do with her life, so many more lives to save... She couldn't possibly die in a place like this. Then...something seemed to "click" within Michiru, as though a light switch had suddenly been turned on. Suddenly she felt refreshed, as though she could take on the world if it challenged her-- but this was not arrogance. Nor was it entirely confidence... It was an unknown feeling that probably was best left unexplained. All she knew was that this time she would truly fight with her life on the line. For everything and everyone...she would defeat this man. There was no other option.

With another stern nod she continued forward, completely on guard as her tresses of sunlight soared behind her. Like a vision in white she appeared, standing out against the harsh terrain. She would be quite easy to spot but not so easy to sneak up on. Somewhere deep in her soul Michiru felt it, the battle would soon begin...and there was no turning back now. "Mother, Kage-sama, Riku-san...Waterfall... I swear I'll protect all of you!" Michiru's voice was but a whisper but the determination within it was as loud as a thunder strike.

[dragonfire]

Haiiro returned to the Okafune triumphant as he had expected, although he had not been able to kill all three of the people that had been delivering the treaty, he had managed to sever the right arm of the one that still lived; which meant no more jutsu for him for a long time. It had taken him less than five minutes to complete his task, which meant that he was enjoying himself too much at that point, since it rarely took him longer than a minute to kill weaklings like those. Corrin still sat upon the Okafune as he had expected as well, since he has placed a Shiki on the boy's body that would allow him to appear anywhere Corrin was, which meant that there would not be too many places for him to hide. Walking up the extended staircase of his Okafune, his boots stomping against the wood just a bit because he did not feel like being silent, Haiiro stepped onto the deck and stopped before the mast.
"Our destination is the hidden ninja village, Iwagakure no Sato. There I will acquire a weapon of mine that had been stolen by the Kage a few years ago." Trees whizzed by them in a blur of green and brown, however they began to grow more sparce, and the sound of crashing water had been with them for a long time. That means a waterfall is coming up. Good, I am very close to Iwagakure no Sato now. Suddenly the Okafune broke through the trees, speeding toward a short cliff with a long drop, the river only twenty five meters to his left. The Okafune was airborne now after leaving the cliff, Haiiro rushing toward the mast from his place at the stern, pulling a wooden switch that was on the mast; another addition to the Okafune that he had decided to add. Side panels opened up from the bow of the ship to the stern, and the sound of a few quick gears turning filled the air, activating the mechanism that was inside the ship to spring release the new addition. Wooden wings extended from the sides of the Okafune, rounded and traveling from bow to stern in a trapezoidal shape, made for catching the wind for a gentle landing should a situations just like this one occur. Using the wind from the storm that had been driving them, the wings caught that very wind and began to let the Okafune down gently into the river, and soon the bottom of the Okafune touched the water some twenty-five meters from the falls. Well it was not exactly a gentle landing per say, a rather heavy jolt of the ship that cause Corrin to scream out from below the deck about a box hitting him, but at least the Okafune was intact and fully functional.

The swift current of the river, working in conjunction with the wind of the storm, should have them close to Iwagakure within an hour or so at best. The sun was high in the sky now, the only shadows nearby were his own and the Okafune's, all other shadows missing it seemed. A voice came from his own shadow, the voice of Hisen Ken'aku, on of his spies in Takigakure no Sato.
"Shikage, forgive me for disturbing you, however there is a matter of great importance that you must attend to." Haiiro growled a bit but allowed the man to continue, curious as to what could be more important than gathering his seven swords.
"A powerful medic ninja from Takigakure no Sato has been sent out here to find you, and she is to kill you today, her name is-" However Haiiro cut him off by speaking the name himself.
"Mitsukii Michiru, the best medical ninja of Takigakure, the girl that defeated Kuro's son in the Chuunin Exams before. I know of her, not one to be trifled with, but now that she is looking for me it saves me the trouble of hunting her down myself. Where is she now, Ken'aku?"
"Danbira reports that she is about fifteen miles west of this location, Shikage." Haiiro chuckles to himself a bit and then grabs the rutter bar, giving it a turn to change their direction.
"Good. You may leave now." The presence of Ken'aku was gone now, Haiiro was sure of that, and now he was on his way to battle. Perhaps even something that could be seen as a war."

The ship burst from the river onto the land, the wheels extending simultaneously so that the Okafune would not be stopped, nothing in his path but barren waste and a lifeless horizon. It seemed as if the wind was more gentle here, as if this was a place that was meant to be peaceful, especially with the sun out and such a clear sky; it was not going to stay that way for long. His silver hair did not streamed behind his handsome face as it should have, his silver eyes scanning the horizon for a sign of his opponent, the first true opponent that he would have in a very long time. Soon he spotted something on the horizon, a speck of black that seemed out of place in such a barren waste, for all signs of life had fled from the area completely. Soon the speck began to grow and Haiiro halted the ship, making sure that he was far enough away so that they could not make out each other's features, stepping down the stairs of his Okafune to the hard packed ground below. I'm going to have to polish my boots after this, all this dust must be turning them brown by now. It is from these thoughts that it was obvious that Haiiro was not worried, even though almost anyone faced with an unknown would be, however Haiiro is not just anyone and he may possibly be crazy as well; or so they tell him. Sure, he was a monster to everyone else, even to himself sometimes, but even he had feelings; such as excitement right now. He continued to walk until her features began to reveal themselves to him, her glowing golden hair was one, an annoyance to say the least due to its brightness. What was worse was that it was held by a white ribbon, and not a small ribbon either, as if she were the innocent little eight year old girl strolling with daddy. Next would be her completely white outfit, which was completely the opposite in color to his completely black garments, and interesting contrast between the two to say the least; almost as if it were good versus evil like in the novels. He did not need to see her eyes to guess what color they were, blue like most blond's eyes these days, and they probably held the same optimistic aura that seemed to radiate from her.

Disgusting. She probably has a perky attitude to go with her perky outfit, one of those "save the world" ninja that seem to have infested these lands, and so it is my job to show her what despair is. He certainly was not trying to sneak up on her like other missing ninja would do, because he wanted her to see him, he wanted her to see his face and know who it was that she was fighting. She was going to be the first to see exactly what he had been doing for the passed seven years, why he had been traveling to every single country so meticulously, and she would then know the despair that he brought on the black wings of Death. Finally he reached where she stood, his figure before her own, his eyes on her eyes as well. His silver hair did not move to the left side of his head with the wind as it should have, the sunlight shining upon it and causing it to glow just a bit, perfectly groomed as it always was and sending off the smell of strawberries into the air; yet it was strange that it had not moved. Silver eyes peered into her own with such intensity, almost as if he were peering into her soul, searching for something deep inside her that he wished to unlock; a stare that could shatter the confidence of the weak. Those eyes were as cold as the blade upon his side, as hard as the frozen tundras of Yuki no Kuni, and they were full of darkness that one could not image despite their beautiful silvery glow. Skin the color of ash was most unnatural, always cold as if always in the snow, however it was smooth with absolutely no scars at all. Upon his body he wore a long coat of black without an undershirt, showing his bare chest to the world, the tails of the coat traveling down to just above his knees. The tails of the coat were held to his body by a rather large belt looping his waist, the place where he kept Fenrir, along with his small supply of miscellaneous items. His plants and boots were black as well, the pants only slightly baggy to allow for maximum comfort as well as movement, his boots thick and heavy with steel around the sides of his boots with the Shiki upon them. Last was the strange cape that he wore, held by a broach of silver with a black gem in its center, the collar of the cape made of white fur from a some kind of wolf. A bit of dust whipped between them just then, a dramatic effect given by the world before their conflict, however he had just one question to ask before they began the slaughter.

"Hello Mitsukii Michiru of Takigakure no Sato, I am pleased to meet a medical ninja of your caliber. I am Shaiden Haiiro as it has been written in your B.I.N.G.O Books, but I prefer Saiden Haiiro, I am the man you happen to be looking for. I do have just one question to ask you however, before we begin to scuff our boots and dirty our clothing." Haiiro then began to draw Fenrir from its sheath slowly and steadily, the sound of the metal creating a smooth pitch as it was drawn, a twisted venomous grin coming to his face just them. Suddenly the temperature dropped from its delightful seventy degrees Celsius, replaced by a two degree Celsius temperature generated from the blade, which began to glow blue the moment it touched the open air. The change was almost instantly felt, all around them colder than Yuki no Kuni in the winter, however Haiiro did not seem to feel it at all. It was his right hand that was holding the blade, however his left hand began to move through the air, a blue flame upon it writing in the air in the form of calligraphy. The blue stayed once he was finished for only a moment, before exploding into water droplets that fell to the floor between them, and soon it began to grow dark. Clouds had begun to fill the sky then, clouds as black as the clothing he wore, blocking out the sunlight that seemed so cheerful and replacing it with a gloomy setting. Much better. It was getting to be a bit too cheerful around here. The clouds did not seem to be letting lose their rain drops, due to the fact that Haiiro had indeed made sure they did not until he wished for them too, and now was not quite the time yet.
"My question is...do you value your life, Mitsukii Michiru?"

[♥~Malice~♥]

Michiru continued forward, traveling swiftly towards her undetermined destiny. Cerulean orbs would casually scan the immediate area from time to time to ensure that she was not being followed nor at risk for a surprise attack. Whether the attack come from the sky above or the ground below, she was prepared. Heart would increase in it's baritone tempo as she began to grow rather anxious-- it was similar to the feeling one had when they knew something terrible was going to happen. She felt it; any moment now he would be appearing. But where? And how? Those questions plagued her the most. The kind hearted healers skirt would blow gently with her movements as she would lift her right hand up to her chest and tightly grip the multi colored jewel which hung on her necklace. You could say it was a good luck charm, and silently she prayed for her victory. Alas, she would need more than prayer to survive the encounter...

As if on cue, a sudden speck of black could be seen off in the horizon, traveling straight towards her. Michiru's eyes narrowed slightly as she began to feel the nervousness creep up from within her very soul once more and, try as she might, she could not will it away completely. Swiftly she would shake her head from left to right as she eyed the figure intently, not slowing her pace by a fraction. There was nothing around this horizon, no signs of life; this meant that the thing traveling near her was either her target or something else entirely... Michiru firmly believed it was the former. This was it...fate sailing towards her on the winds of death and madness...and it showed no signs of slowing down. But something was strange about this speck-- as it came closer it's shape became less human, appearing more like that of a...ship? The angelic figure would blink several times in disbelief, amazed by the sheer peculiarness of the situation. She had no idea such a creation existed in this world and that, more than anything, confirmed her earlier speculation-- there was no denying it now. That was the vessel of the man she would soon do battle with, for only someone of his stature would have such a spectacular mode of transportation. It was almost as though he were purposely trying to stand out and draw attention to himself.

Soon enough the ship came to a halt, to which Michiru responded by slowing her sprint to a more leisurely pace-- there was no way she was going to rush head first towards this man without being fully prepared for it. The sudden halt probably meant that she had also been spotted and that her enemy was perhaps preparing for their encounter. A few more moments would pass before she noticed a figure coming towards her, his very appearance sending a shiver of fear down her spine. She could not make out much from her current distance, but what she could see was that abnormal silver hair which clashed dramatically with his black outfit. They say that people dressed the way they felt inside... If this was true than the darkness inside this man was otherworldly. Michiru was a believer that no one on this earth was completely evil, but upon viewing this man...perhaps that theory was false?

Time seemed to halt as he finally appeared in front of her, his very presence causing Michiru to shudder in disbelief. Expressive eyes would widen slightly and seemingly shimmer as her eyes met his, causing an extremely uncomfortable and dark feeling to begin to rise from her feet and creep up her body like a slithering snake. She could tell simply by looking at him the vast difference in their kill counts and battle experience. It was truly...frightening. How silly she must have appeared-- a petite woman in white standing against a statuesque male in black, clashing like one sparkling star against an abysmal and eternal night. But what was even more terrifying were his eyes... Eyes that seemed to never know joy. Eyes that appeared to know nothing but carnal pleasure. It was though she were gazing into the eyes of a demon-- No, not just a demon...Satan himself. His bizarre skin color also supported this theory, for it was the hue of ash, adding to his already menacing yet strangely exotic appearance.

A brief wind would blow between the two, causing Michiru's majestic golden tresses to sway with it's movements, though her eyes remained attached to his. Curious was the fact that when this wind blew, her opponents hair did not seem to shift even slightly. Strange...strange, indeed. Momentarily her eyes would break from his and observe the sword at his waist. So that was it... The weapon with the properties of ice, the weapon that had been used to kill her comrades and countless other people. How heinous... How could he carry around a weapon that had spilt so much blood and ended so many lives? Michiru recalled the Takikage's words about obtaining the sword but just by looking at it she wasn't sure if she could even stomach touching it, let alone carrying it back to Waterfall. It was as though it's darkness cried out to her, a symphony of dead souls demanding that she join them in their eternal torment.

Once more her sapphire optics return to his, though this time the fear was not as apparent. Just being in this mans presence and thinking about all of the sins he has committed in his lifetime made her want to deliver justice to him swiftly. This returned some of her fallen confidence, but before she could recall any more the man suddenly spoke, his words shocking her slightly. The fact he knew her was surprising, but him giving her his name was the real revelation. She had not expected him to announce it so easily; rather, she figured he would attack her without any warning. Also, how did he know she was after him...? A question she would ponder at a later time because now he was drawing his sword, to which Michiru responded by immediately assuming a fighting position. Fists closed, eyes unwavering-- she was prepared for battle. Shockingly, he did not attack...and the effect of him unsheathing his sword was soon felt. Dramatically the temperature dropped, immediately causing Michiru's every breath to become visible. The sun kissed youth would shiver slightly and watch in awe of the glowing blade, and also took note that there was no physical change in Haiiro's stance. Not even the slightest shiver...surely he felt these effects as well?

But this was not all. His free hand would soon begin to move through the air and glow with what appeared to be a blue flame, seemingly writing something. Not knowing what would happen next, Michiru gracefully yet speedily jumped backwards, leaving roughly ten feet between them. Analytical eyes observed his actions carefully, narrowing slightly before the blue fire soon exploded into water droplets. Immediately afterwards the sky began to darken, the once pristine sky replaced with utter blackness. Quietly she observed this, coming to the conclusion that whatever he was planning...it had to do with water. For one, his sword had to do with ice and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe that he had some affinity for water-- for water was needed to create ice. Secondly, the color of his sky writing was blue, something that was also associated with water, as well as the words turning to water droplets after he had finished writing. Finally, she noted that this must be a high level technique for it to completely cover the sky in such a fashion-- which also meant he probably used a substantial amount of chakra. Now how much chakra he had was unknown, but she knew that if he continued to use such high level techniques his stamina wouldn't hold out. Yes, indeed this was Michiru's true strength-- even the most miniscule actions were observed and replayed in her mind several times in order to find a weakness or opening.

Once more the man would speak, asking her if she valued her life. Michiru simply looked upon the man with a rather shocked expression, wondering why he would ask such a juvenile question. Using this time to her advantage, her right hand would begin to glow with a soft orange color as she pressed it to her chest, the chakra warming her body and returning it to a temperature to which she would be able to move normally. At the same time she didn't make it high enough to overheat herself should he leave the immediate area and the landscape return to it's natural temperature. Yes, her proficiency with the healing arts was that exact. Her body back to normal, the glow would soon subside as Michiru's hands fell to her side once more. The young medic would take a deep breath before speaking, her voice gentle yet fierce. "You ask do I value my life? Of course I do. Were you expecting me to exclaim something along the lines of "I'll stop you even if it costs me my life!"? That is not the case. I have no intention of dying here, Haiiro. It is because I value my existence so much that I am standing here before you. But not just my own. My village, the people I love... I cannot allow you nor anyone else to harm them."

As she spoke something began to change within Michiru. That apprehension and fear she had earlier was melting away with each word; that shadow that threatened to envelop her soul was being defeated by the pureness of her heart and determination. With each word her voice would gradually increase in volume, though not once did it ever reach what would be consider shouting. "I may be insignificant to you, nothing but a tiny bug caught in the web of your destruction-- but this bug will stand fiercely against your evil. You are a horrendous individual who has shattered incalculable lives, ruined dreams and thrown most of the populace into darkness and fear. Your reign of terror shall end this day. I will not allow you to ever harm another person again. Forgive me, but this day...I shall take your life." Eyes seemed to glow with an intensity unheard of for Michiru as she began to reach into the inner pocket of her cloth trench coat. Without her eyes ever leaving Haiiro's form, she pulled out two perfectly white gloves. As she slipped them over her dainty hands her entire persona seemed to change. Her body language stood tall and proud, leaving no evidence of the fear she once had...for it had been completely washed away. Michiru, for the very first time in her life, would fight without holding back and without restriction... This time she was fighting to kill.

Slowly she assumed an unarmed fighting position; knees bent slightly, allowing her to move within a moments notice. Fists balled and ready to strike at any instant. And those eyes... Those passionate deep blue hues that remained fixated on Haiiro's frame never once faultered. "Come! Let us see who Lady Fate shines her brilliance on!"

[dragonfire]

Haiiro had watched her reaction to his unsheathing of Fenrir, shivering in the cold that the blade produced, making herself ready for battle as if he would attack just then. It was true that Haiiro had been known to just outright attack any man who happened to be in the area on a whim, it was also true that sometimes he just passed by without even a glance at another person, however none knew how his mind operated and that was what they feared the most. Undoubtledly he had seen that she was too much on her guard, jumping at every movement that he made at any given time, wary of probably even his very breath and voice; as seemed to be the case in this situation. When she had leaped back from his calligraphy sealing he had almost laughed, so fearful that it was quite humorous, because they should know by now that he does not just open a fight with a jutsu; never has it been done in the past and never shall it be done. Besides, he found it much more pleasureable to get physical with an opponent rather than kill from a distance, it gave it a more personal feel to it; as if the opponent was special and needed such attention to the detailed carnage that he so enjoyed inflicting.

Despite the fact that he knew of Michiru's medical prowess, along with her inhuman strength that would make getting up close and personal very dangerous, he knew that she was not as fast as he was and that would give him the advantage. However she did something that he did not think she was thinking clearly enough to do, she used the heating jutsu that most medics know of, heating her own body back to its normal temperature so that the cold did not effect her; well the environment anyway. She decided to start answering his question then, took her long enough to start, and so he waited patiently for her to finish her little speech about how she valued her life. Her courage began to pick up as she spoke however, growing with each word as he had planned, for he did not want to fight a hindered opponent with such power; and perhaps her body will be of use to him when this is over. But now it was almost time to fight, all that was needed was a reply to her, for it would be a shame to kill her without having said a few words of closure to their conversation; and to add a bit of his own personality to it as well.

"I see. So you value you life very much, do you?" Haiiro turned his head slightly to the right, his left silver eye upon her with the eyebrow raised, the questioning look on his face as plain as day. It was not a question to be answered, that much was obvious from the tone in his voice, as if he thought that she was lying to him just a bit. One who actually valued their life would not be running around in the open looking for him, and they most certainly would not be standing before him with such vigor, since they must know that his many years of battle with ninja of various strengths along with Kage and Sannin show that he is no push over. Besides the fact that he has fought so many and lived with out a too much of a scratch to himself, showing that he is indeed a very experienced ninja and fighter, he has also killed his own brother in combat. Would you trifle with a man who had killed his own brother in cold blood, murdering him with the very blade he now held in his had, and with not so much as a feeling of remorse for the loss? Would you face a man who has undoubtedly killed enough men, women and children to make a small village, laughing the entire time as he had performed those acts of violence, all for his unknown cause that has yet to be forseen?

"If you valued your life so much, you would not be standing here today, would you? The part of the hero does not suit you, Mitsukii Michiru, for the hero does not value his life. Exactly what have you done with your life that is of value, girl? What is this love that you babble about?" Haiiro began to walk to the left of her, however he kept the distance that she had set when she leaped backward, from a simple water jutsu that would summon the rains when he wished and keep them going until he stopped them; with no effort from himself. It seems that she does not know of the jutsus by appearance, despite the fact that she is a ninja of Takigakure no Sato, a village known for its water jutsu. Perhaps I have the advantage, for if she does not know the technique, she has no way of knowing how much chakra I have used. I have seen how see stared at me, assessing my abilities as if it would be that easy...she was looking for my flaws. She has no idea what she stands upon at this very moment however, no idea that my Shiki happen to be all over this continent and in every land, and that it will cost me next to zero chakra to activate.

Truly do I hope she is as prepared as she appears. Michiru began to tell him about how he viewed her, about how she must be an insignificant insect to him, but an insect that would stand up to him none the less. An amusing speech to say the least, and one that did in fact hold some truth in it, except for the part about taking his life...that was pure fantasy and a fabrication. Another thing that may have been a falsification was the part about him not harming anyone else, for he was about to harm her, and then he was going to move on to her village; once he acquired Fafnir that is.
"I see your speech has boosted your confidence, girl. This is good, for I would not bother with you if you were too afraid to put up a decent fight, in fact I would leave immediately if that were the case. However...taking my life is a little bit of an exaggeration, do you not agree? Perhaps you might hurt me, or even make me bleed for the first time, but death will not be part of this fight; at least not for me." A grin came to his face as he prepared himself for battle, assuming his own stance as was the way of war, and one must always abide by the ways of war for it to mean anything.

His left had began to undo the broach that held his cape on, tossing the cape aside but placing the broach into his pocket, a grin coming to his face at the expected battle. Next he removed his coat in a quick fashion, tossing it aside as well as if it were some discarded rags, allowing his bare chest to be seen with mark of the Earth Seal upon his chest and a strange tattoo upon his back. Afterward his right arm rose Fenrir to the height of his head, his cold silver eyes peering down the blade as the point was aimed directly at Michiru, who happened to only be a few inches from the blade due to its length. Turning the blade so that the back of his hand was toward his face, his palm facing outward to his right, and the edge of Fenrir pointing toward the sky and gleeming with the sunlight, as well as the blade glowing blue and the runes upon it glowing gold. Soon his left hand rose from his side to grip the bottom of the hilt, one of the few times that he has ever held his blade with both hands, which meant that he was truly serious about this battle now. Lowering himself by way of bending his knees ever so slightly, his left leg just a bit farther from his body than his right, causing him to slope backwards just a bit. This was only the beginning of the battle however, and not actually the battle itself, more of the theatrics that all great battles must have.

"I control my own fate." He began to sprint off toward Michiru's left with Fenrir still gripped in both hands, the blade slicing through the earth as he ran, creating a trail of spiked ice crystals up to a person's ankle. Suddenly he stopped and jumped back, landing on the otherside of the line of ice that he had created, but he was not finished just yet. Charging forward toward the girl dressed all in white, as if she were an angel from the sky, or the light itself transformed into a human body. One sweep of his blade toward the ground cut through the ice crystals, however he had used the flat of his blade to send the ice speeding toward her, sharp shards of frozen earth that would either cut or puncture her skin while leaving it numb from the ice that would be left behind. Then he began to zigzag toward her as he followed his own path of flying ice daggers, his path erratic at best, never staying still for too long. If Michiru had been any lesser ninja, all she would have seen from him would be a blur of black and silver movement, however since she was no run-of-the-mill ninja dog, it would be a bit less difficult to follow him. It did not take long for him to be within range of her however, knowing that she would have no problem with the ice daggers, which had not been his true attack in the least; but did she realize that he was never within six feet of her at all? Fenrir was a rather long sword for its classification, which would allow for Haiiro to stay a good distance away from the medic girl and still attack, without worrying about getting caught by one of her super-strength blows; which could surely end a match if they ever connected more than once.

~Option One~
The first attack was toward Michiru's right arm, since it was the right side of her ody that he had ended up on, aiming for the muscle of the biceps to disable the effectiveness of that very arm, attempting to freeze it into immobility. The attack would travel from left to right on its course through her bicep, should it connect of course, traveling in a slightly elevated angle that would bring the blade up to the area of her shoulder should she be standing upright; not striking the shoulder but at the same heighth as it. During this split second in time while Michiru either took the hit or evaded, since blocking would only cause that part of her to freeze, Haiiro had been moving to his left for a better angle. With a flick of his wrist he would bring the blade back down toward Michiru, aiming to cut into her right arm deeply this time, trying to strike bone with his downsloping slice at the heighth near her shoulder. Releasing his left hand from the bottom of the hilt, he rose it as he ran toward his left, his index finger bursting into dark violet flames that seemed to absorb the light around it.

Writing in the sky once again, much like the technique that filled the sky with clouds waiting to burst at his command, this time however black violet kanji exploded before him and fell into the shadows that the clouds had cast. First the shadows begin to cover Haiiro's body like a black blanket, causing him to become a blob of darkness that should not exist in this world, however the darkness suddenly exploded into little droplets of black that fell back into the shadows. Haiiro began to flicker like a dying candle then, appearing on Michiru's right side the same distance away as Haiiro himself had been, however it was flickering as well. Another appeared on her left and another behind her, soon they began to appear all over the place, flickering all over as if moving at such an insane speed. They all rushed at once, flickering like a dying flashlight that you keep hitting so that the battery will not die completely, all of them raising Fenrir above their heads to strike. They do indeed all strike at Michiru, each of them performing three attacks that mimic the other; one upper right diagonal slash to the lower left, a returning horizontal slash from the left heading right, then all bringing the blade back and performing a risng sky slash. (Since I could technically be anywhere, but that would not be fair, I will tell you where I am out of character. Haiiro is directly in front of you about seven feet away, the first attack aimed to cut from your right shoulder to your left hip, the second meant to cut across your abdomen, and the third from you pelvis up to the sky, the others are part of his genjutsu and are thus not real. You were effected because as you had said, you did not take your eyes off of Haiiro.)

~Option Two~

Haiiro sped quickly across the hard packed earth like a strong wind, until he was only six feet way from his target, which was more than close enough to strike her with Fenrir. The moment his left foot touches the ground he pushes off, using its force to send his gliding toward the right, his right leg close enough to the ground to alter his direction at a moment's notice should he have to. With some force he swings Fenrir in her direction, a rising diagonal slash from her left hip to her right shoulder, aiming the cut across her abdomen, through her right brest, and into her shoulder bone. Then his right foot would come back down to the earth, sliding across the ground just a bit with the sound of scraping metal in the air, due to the metal on his boots. Before the dust from the skid even had a chance to settle, Haiiro was on the move once again, his legs pumping as he charged straight toward Michiru. The tip of Fenrir was aimed toward Michiru's chest as he charged, chakra would then begin to explode around Haiiro's arms as he readied his attack, a twisted grin upon his face.

Once the attack was launched it became a blur of blue steel with golden streaks, too fast for even the most trained ninja to follow without the use of the Sharingan eye, which Michiru happened to lack. Nine points of her body were the target of this attack; right shoulder, left shoulder, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, groin, head and chest. Each would be launched so quickly that they would strike nearly simultaneously, making it quite hard to dodge such a move without the Sharingan eye, or some type of technique that increased the evasion ability of the body to tremendous heights. Contrary to what appeared to have taken place, the expelling of chakra from his body, Haiiro had actually wasted no chakra what-so-ever. There had been no molding of chakra to speak of, all of that chakra had remained in his body, only powering his arms for speed much like a medic can use chakra to power their arms for incredible strength. Haiiro would leap into the air the second he finished with his bombardment of Michiru, flipping in the air and twisting so that he would face her once he landed, however as he had jumped an after-image would be left behind as a distraction. No, in fact the one that was airborne would not be there should Michiru decide to look up, for Haiiro would still be crouched upon the ground, thrusting Fenrir at her chest within the time it would take to look up toward the sky and back to the ground. It would be quite difficult to evade an attack from that close for Michiru, however Haiiro was not about to stay there on the off-chance that she had and would retaliate, instead jumping backward far enough to be out of reach of both fist and foot. From there he would stab Fenrir into the soil, ice forming around it but never on it, a crystaline flower that was beautiful in its deadly appearance.

~Option Three~

Haiiro would speed forward toward Michiru from her right side, having made that quarter circle run toward her left, following the ice daggers that he had sent toward her at that time. However he would only have taken a few steps toward her before he headed toward the right, but first he would strike the ice daggers to create a sort of glitter dust that would blind her should it get in her eyes, which he did not suspect it would but it could work as a nice distraction. However as Haiiro moved to the right of the glitter dust, Haiiro also moved to the left of the glitter dust, seemingly defying the laws of physics as it were. A third Haiiro leaped into the air soon after that, high above the glitterdust poised for the attack, which meant that one of the three had to in fact be the real one. Suddenly Fenrir stabbed out of the glitter dust toward Michiru's right shoulder, aiming to pierce all the way through the joint and into the collar bone, which would disable that arm for good or until she's had a chance to heal it herself. The three Haiiro's would disappear into nothingness, fading away like wisps of smoke when a wind comes, after-images of their true master.

As Haiiro would pull Fenrir back from the stab he had performed, the blade disappearing into the glitter dust as if it had never been there, however Haiiro was just on the other side of the dust. Something strange began to occure, the glitterdust began to expand more and more with each passing breath, which could only mean that Haiiro was creating more ice and breaking it at an amazing speed. Soon the cloud engulfed a five meter area, having expanded due to an erratic breeze that did not have a natural feel to it, and the adding to the cloud by Haiiro. All that could be heard was laughter within the dust, the dust sparkling all over and making it hard to see anything moving within, meaning that it would be much harder to anticipate an attack coming from any direction. During the confusion, Haiiro will have gathered the shadows to Fenrir instead of his left hand, coating the blade in the pulsating dark violet. Then he would begin to swing his blade into the glitterdust in Michiru's general direction, blades of darkness the shape of crescent moons speeding in her direction, five of them having been launched her way before the shadows left Fenrir and returned to the ground. A gust of wind would then sweep away the dust before the shadow blades had actually struck, giving Michiru a split second to dodge them before they would strike, which meant that Haiiro had indeed made the wind push the dust away to give Michiru that generous chance that he did not think she would need.

[♥~Malice~♥]

“Arrogance diminishes wisdom.”

That quote was the first thing that came to Michiru's mind the moment her opponent began to speak. His tone, body language and even eyes practically bellowed "I am superior to you." Under different circumstances she might have felt pity for his way of thinking, but in this case she was actually glad for it; it was almost as though it were some type of sign. While he had indeed been in countless more battles than she, Michiru herself was also an undefeated shinobi. Every single ninja she had ever fought had underestimated her true ability. Perhaps it was because of her personality, or maybe even her appearance; maybe it was simply because she was a medic and thus "not suited for battle," which was so ludicrous it was almost laughable. Or maybe the reason had nothing to do with her at all? Michiru's adventures in this world had shown her that most people, shinobi or otherwise, were quite arrogant about themselves and their abilities. So called "geniuses" were a dime a dozen and humility seemed to be a trait this world was severely lacking.

Regardless, all of those people eventually met their inevitable downfall-- be it by foe or their own hand. Michiru, despite her impeccable shinobi record, was probably one of the most humble individuals one would ever meet. She was never vocal about her strength or fighting prowess, nor did she brag about her techniques. Why? Common sense. Someone who constantly boasted of their abilities drew unwanted attention and hate, as well as people who would try to figure out the weakness in their abilities and exploit it. Now some weaker willed individuals would probably cower and kneel to someone who built themselves up so high, but there is a saying for such a situation: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Though she would never say so herself, underestimating Michiru was like signing your own death sentence.

The angelic youth would remain silent as Haiiro continued speaking and began to walk to her left, sapphire eyes watching his frame intently as he did so, prepared for anything he might do. She figured he was using his words in an attempt to distract her, though upon further investigation that did not appear to be the case. Soon he would continue his speech, announcing that she was exaggerating when she said he would take his life. Yes, indeed...arrogance, as well as overconfidence, ran rampant with this one-- and those very same traits would soon cost him dearly. Orbs of eternal blue would shift and narrow slightly as a grin would paint his handsome yet disturbingly evil face. Gloved fists would tighten as she patiently awaited for him to make his move, though that was yet to come. The land would remain hauntingly soundless as the man removed some of his clothing and idly tossed them aside, that rather sadistic smile remaining plastered on his lips. His chest now bare, Michiru's eyes would now observe a strange tattoo etched onto his skin. What it was, she could not say...but it wasn't anything that would benefit her. Or could it...? More information would need to be gathered before she could deduce that question.

Michiru would remain wordless as Haiiro readied himself, his blade mere inches from her. This was troublesome and she did indeed consider this weapon a heavy threat, but oddly enough it wasn't a top priority for her. The reason being only known to Michiru herself...though this did not bode well for her opponent. As expected, Haiiro soon rushed towards her, causing the sun kissed woman's mind to instantly begin calculating a proper defense. As Haiiro came towards her his blade viciously parted the earth, leaving small spikes of earth in it's wake. Such a miniscule action was also taken into account and would be used to help her build the most solid defense possible. Like a super computer her mind seemed to beep and buzz with a myriad of different possibilities, though one thing was for certain-- him coming into a melee battle was exactly what she had hoped for. A person of sound mind would usually do all they could to stay out of melee range with someone who had the ability to kill with one hit, though arrogance did indeed diminish wisdom. If things continued to go as planned this fight would be finished quite swiftly.

Cerulean hues would meticulously observe Haiiro's every movement as he suddenly stopped and jumped backwards and landed on the other side of the trail of ice. As he did this, Michiru would shift in her stance slightly, turning the right side of her body towards Haiiro while her left hand rested behind her rear. Due to his current angle and how he was coming at her, he would not be able to observe just what Michiru was doing with her left hand. Using this to her knowledge to her advantage, her left hand would begin to emit a gentle yet beautiful blue aura that was not wide nor bright enough to be seen from behind her. Michiru's long golden tresses also helped to conceal this small light. It was now that Haiiro would swing his sword in a sweeping motion, sending the shards of ice towards her. He would then follow behind said shards using a zigzag type of pattern in an attempt to make himself less predictable. Unfortunately for him, Michiru was not fooled by such theatrics. Her perceptive eyes kept up with his movements and soon enough she was playing the waiting game. Just a little bit longer and he'd be within range...

The ice shards were relatively easy to avoid as Michiru swayed slightly in her stance to dodge them, but never once changed her position, nor did she give any indication of what she was doing with her left hand. In fact, it appeared as though she had taken a more defensive combat stance, though that wasn't the case at all. As Haiiro began to execute his attack towards Michiru's right arm, she would suddenly snatch her left hand backwards and slightly to the left in an attempt to instantly drain ten percent of the water from his body. Due to how he was in the middle of an attack when she did it, as well as being so close to her when the attack had a range of five meters and him having no knowledge of such a technique and it's effects since she had never used it in battle before, the chances were quite high that the attack would connect. If so he would instantly feel thirst and discomfort, dry skin, low endurance, rapid heart rates, elevated body temperatures and rapid onset of fatigue. He would also suddenly become tired and drowsy, suffer from headaches, dry mouth and dizziness due to orthostatic hypotension. Such effects were bad enough...but the worst would be that his overall speed, something he seemed to rely on, would be reduced by fifty percent. He may have been a little faster than she was before, but with the aide of this technique that would no longer be the case.

Should all of the above happen, Haiiro would most likely be in a state of confusion since his body had suddenly become so terrible and also have trouble executing jutsu. Obviously this would also effect his normally flawless swordsmanship in a most heinous way, making his strikes far less accurate and much, much slower. With his speed also reduced by half, Michiru would waste no time in attempting to finish the match quickly. Using the body flicker to not only avoid his sword strike(which would be extremely slow to Michiru now) but to also capitalize on his sudden speed reduction, the fierce medic would appear at Haiiro's right side while he was still swinging and send a devastating chakra filled punch towards his head with her right hand. This would be extremely difficult for Haiiro to dodge due to the current state of his body and his speed being reduced, which meant that he wouldn't be able to follow Michiru's movements like he normally would, if at all. If it did indeed connect it would be the equivalent of a wrecking ball striking a gingerbread house-- utter destruction. Haiiro's skull would be shattered instantly which would also lead to his immediate death, but Michiru was not finished yet. Who knows, perhaps her opponent could survive without his head, so she would be sure to disable his body as well. If her prior punch did in fact connect, she would immediately follow up by attempting to strike him in the chest with her left fist, the blow sending a shock wave of chaos throughout his body and quite easily destroying every organ in his upper body. Both his spine and rib cage would also be annihilated with the attack.

If the attack was indeed successful, Haiiro would be sent soaring backwards for at least one hundred meters, the ground ripping up underneath him due to the force of such a vicious assault. Needless to say that without any functioning organs or a head, he would be quite dead. If everything worked out Michiru would simply stand still for a few moments and observe Haiiro's disfigured frame, waiting to confirm if he was indeed dead or not.

[dragonfire]

Arrogance had nothing to do with the way Haiiro thought, nor did it have a thing to do with the way he fought, even though it was perceived that way in every instance. No, he merely said things as he saw them, be they interpreted as arrogant or not. Truly he was slightly out of his mind attacking a medical ninja in melee combat, however how is one supposed to know what a medic can do unless you get up close and personal? Striking her down from long range would not have been insightful in the least, however now he would be able to see what she had up her sleeves, and that was worth the risk to satisfy his curiosity. So as he grew closer with the grin on his face, watching her dodge the ice daggers that he had thrown at her for play, he wondered exactly what she was planning on doing this once he was within six feet of her. He would soon find out just that. Haiiro could see the hand that glowed blue a few feet away, causing him to raise his eyebrow at it during the middle of his attack, intrigued as to what it was exactly. Healing hands was also blue in color, however why would she be using healing hands in a battle in the first place? It would not make sense, basically because she was not hurt at the moment, so it must be something else that could probably hurt him. Oh well. Guess I'll have to give up on this attack for now. No handseals would form on his hands, no flame of odd color to write through the air with, not even a scroll of any kind would appear at all. He would just vanish from where he stood and be at another location, this time directly in front of her once again, ten feet away as they had been before the attack had begun.
"Hm. I am not sure what that was, but it seems that you do have a few tricks up your sleeve. I suppose I will have to start playing seriously or you will kill me, won't I?" However Haiiro did something next that would not have been expected, he sheathed Fenrir and cut off the cold that filled the area, the normal temperature returning the instant the blade was gone. His stone gaze watched her ever so carefully, she was not the typical medical ninja that strode around smashing everything in their way, more of the general than the brute soldier. It was time for him to play a card that he had set up even before the battle had begun, his eyes briefly glancing up at the sky before glaring back at Michiru, and it was obvious that he was serious about this fight now. No longer would he bother with his senseless theatrics, even though he enjoyed them ever so much, and he would hate to see them go. No longer would he grin as he moved, for this was not a game any longer that they could play together for a short time as he had hoped, for it had been a while since he had had any fun at all. He would then put his left hand to his chest, curling the fingers and thumb as if he were grabbing a thick pen or twig, a small invisible burst of chakra leaving his body and entering the clouds above. It had been the one-handed seal of the rat. Nothing would happen at first, standing there in silence for the first few moments, however droplets of water would then begin to fall to the ground. Then the rain would pick up and become into a down pour, the thirsty earth beneath their feet drinking up the water as it struck, the air between them a whitish-gray with the rain.

Haiiro would then open his mouth wide, still without taking his eyes off of Michiru, just in case the girl had a few more tricks she would like to pull; since she was bent on making this match so serious. A hilt would begin to slide out of his mouth from his throat, wrapped in black cloth like that of Haiiro's own clothing, the hilt cap black as well. Next would be the guard that would appear from his throat, white and black like that of the yinyang, although other than that it would be rather nondescript. Finally the blade would appear from his throat, only a little bit of it would be shown at the moment, but it was apparent that the blade was indeed black as well. His hand reached up and gripped the hilt of the weapon, drawing it from the sheath that was his own body, amazingly not cutting his own throat inside out as he did so. The weapon was the size of a normal katana, shaped like a normal katana as well, however it was obvious that it was far from a normal katana. It was the Kusanagi no Tsurugi that had been drawn from his body, the Grasscutter sword from the legends, however he wondered if Michiru knew the legends as he knew them. She would be the first to see the blade itself, however he planned to make sure that she did not leave with the knowledge that he possessed such a creation, none were allowed to know that he possessed such a creation. His eyes examined the blade for but a moment, for it had been a long while since he had seen the weapon at all, ever since binding it to him with his own blood so many years ago. Raising the blade above his head, he swung downward with such incredible force, however he would never reach Michiru from there with such a small blade. Suddenly it began to extend and shoot forward during the swing, elongating so that it was long enough to strike her from where she stood, the weapon a black streak in the sky as it cut through the rain and aimed to cut into her very body. It was quick as well, the sword's name apparent in its speed, despite it being so long it was still just a flash of steel. Should it be successful then Michiru would most likely be severely wounded and her left arm would be disabled, for that is where the blade was aimed, it was to bite into her shoulder and collar bone in attempt to sever the arm from her body.

Haiiro was not quite finished yet however, his anger not quite sedated by that little move that would mean very little to this woman, who would probably dodge the attack simply enough. No, he would appear on her left side as well, the same distance away from her as he had been when in front of her, and once again he would swing the Kusanagi no Tsurugi in her direction. However this time the attack was aimed to strike her legs, to cut out her maneuverability out from under her, making her useless in battle as he had done to that boy in the forest. Should the attack succeed the match would surely be over for her, for without her legs she could not be able to move as quick, and then he could take his time finishing her off and leaving. From there he would disappear once again, appearing behind her now with the Kusanagi no Tsurugi poised to strike, and strike it would do. Quick would be his attack from that distance, using a maneuver of the NeoKenJutsu discipline, striking out quickly and targeting the nine spots of her body; head, groin, left arm, right arm, left shoulder, right shoulder, left leg, right leg, and chest. The attack would come quickly, like a flash of speed that would strike all areas simultaneously, or extremely close to simultaneous in the blink of an eye. Should the attack succeed she would indeed need medical attention, most likely from herself for there was no one else around to help her, but she probably had a trick up her sleeve for that as well. Haiiro would finish his assault there for the moment, waiting to see what next his opponent would conjure up in her defense, what tricks she would pull from her frilly white sleeves. However that water draining technique had been successful, although fortunately he had cause the rain to begin to pour just then, having been ignoring the side effects for too long. Once he had gotten some of the liquid inside of his body from the rain, he had begun to feel much better, as well as having created some water inside of himself as well to fix his own body. Blue light equals a drain...as well as any other number of things that a medic has, the tricky bastards. Had I not made the rains before hand and spent those seven years placing my shiki kunai, I may have died right then, instead of Mitsukii Michiru punching empty air where my head should have been.

[♥~Malice~♥]

((OOC: Alright, there are a few things wrong with your post that I'm going to have to point out. Now I'm not exactly in a good at the moment (family problems), so if I end up sounding harsh know that it's not because I'm upset with you or whatever.

The first discrepancy is your character noticing Michiru's glowing fist. I was quite specific in my post that due to the angle of your attack, and the way Michiru angled her body, it would not be possible for you to see it unless you had the Byakugan. In fact I specifically stated that it would simply appear as though she had taken a more defensive stance. The fact you are saying that your character somehow still saw her glow is a bit of a meta-game.

Also, healing hands is green, not blue-- this means that little section about your character coming to the conclusion that Michiru was preparing an attack by viewing what she was doing is incorrect. Though this is just a minor problem, it also goes along with the first where you shouldn't even be able to see the glow at all.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that you seemed to have reversed time with your post to a point that would put your character in a better situation. As I explained to you in PM, I went with option one where you attempted to attack my characters right arm. Now because you already stated that your character was in motion and attacking mine, you cannot suddenly reverse time and say that you had stopped *before* you executed your attack. That just doesn't fly. That would be like me saying in one post that I ran towards you and attempted to kick you in the face, then in your next post you somehow dodge the attack and attempt to impale me with your sword, to which I respond saying that I stopped before I tried to kick you which would make your attack void. See how wrong that sounds? The way out of it would be me saying something like before you impaled me I managed to duck underneath the sword and quickly hop away. That's a more realistic way of doing things.

It also seems that you completely ignored my characters attack until the *end* of your post, which also makes no sense. If you had stopped before you got into range she wouldn't even have attacked you. So for you to even have that status effect you would have had to continue moving and attacking with your sword like you said in your previous post, which, since you yourself said the attack connected, would mean your character would now be in the position that I stated, meaning Michiru was about to knock his head off.

Also, your character may "ignore" the effects of my LK, but he would still *feel* them. One does not simply shrug off all those status effects-- it's not realistic. That would be like me having the flu and having headaches and fever yet I was perfectly fine for a while because I "ignored" it. You can ignore a headache all you want but you will, without a doubt, *feel* it. Also, simply absorbing water from the rain is not going to make your character feel any better. It would take days for your character to naturally restore it's water so simply "absorbing" it would not do any good. In fact it would probably make you even WORSE off if you took in that much water at one time. And just how does one go about creating water within themselves just out of the blue without having to expel it immediately? If that were possible there would certainly be a named technique to do it. Come to think of it, that alone would actually end up killing you-- you'd drown yourself from within.

Oh, and how does your character even know it was water that was ripped from their body in the first place? It is not as though the technique makes the water visible-- it simply drains it from you. Not even a medic would know that their water was drained instantly without prior knowledge to the technique, something your character definitely does not have.

Basically, your entire post is wrong. What you should be responding to is how your character is going to avoid having his head smashed in, which would be very unlikely for reasons stated in my post. If you cannot come up with anything than I'm afraid this battle is over in my favor. Again, please do not get upset, I'm just trying to keep things fair and in serious fights like this where my character is on the line, I'm not nearly as forgiving as I would usually be. ))

[dragonfire]

((Let's see...where to start from...I guess I'll start from the top.

Alright, there are a few things wrong with your post that I'm going to have to point out. Now I'm not exactly in a good at the moment (family problems), so if I end up sounding harsh know that it's not because I'm upset with you or whatever.

Meh...

The first discrepancy is your character noticing Michiru's glowing fist. I was quite specific in my post that due to the angle of your attack, and the way Michiru angled her body, it would not be possible for you to see it unless you had the Byakugan. In fact I specifically stated that it would simply appear as though she had taken a more defensive stance. The fact you are saying that your character somehow still saw her glow is a bit of a meta-game.

Well...according to your post you placed you hand behind you, right? And it is glowing blue, correct? Well, I think I would notice something glowing blue due to shadows and what not...true, I didn't word it as correctly as I wanted, but whatever...it's besides the point.

Also, healing hands is green, not blue-- this means that little section about your character coming to the conclusion that Michiru was preparing an attack by viewing what she was doing is incorrect. Though this is just a minor problem, it also goes along with the first where you shouldn't even be able to see the glow at all.

I didn't know what color healing hands was because I don't watch the anime. Now I know. Along with this view thing...should you have been taking a sword to the chest anyway, since you turned to face me? I don't remember you dodging my first attack....

Perhaps the biggest problem is that you seemed to have reversed time with your post to a point that would put your character in a better situation. As I explained to you in PM, I went with option one where you attempted to attack my characters right arm. Now because you already stated that your character was in motion and attacking mine, you cannot suddenly reverse time and say that you had stopped *before* you executed your attack. That just doesn't fly. That would be like me saying in one post that I ran towards you and attempted to kick you in the face, then in your next post you somehow dodge the attack and attempt to impale me with your sword, to which I respond saying that I stopped before I tried to kick you which would make your attack void. See how wrong that sounds? The way out of it would be me saying something like before you impaled me I managed to duck underneath the sword and quickly hop away. That's a more realistic way of doing things.

Well...you never said if you dodged the attack or it connected, so instead of my usual it connected if you didn't say anything take on battle, I decided to give you a better chance then just lopping off your right arm or in this case slicing open your chest with the blade...since you didn't dodge that is. With this reversal of time thing...I didn't reverse time, I simply used Hiraishin no Jutsu and moved to another location, I had assumed you read my profile and knew what you would be dealing with...guess not. I suppose I just won't take it easy on you anymore, since you seem to know the ropes well enough.

It also seems that you completely ignored my characters attack until the *end* of your post, which also makes no sense. If you had stopped before you got into range she wouldn't even have attacked you. So for you to even have that status effect you would have had to continue moving and attacking with your sword like you said in your previous post, which, since you yourself said the attack connected, would mean your character would now be in the position that I stated, meaning Michiru was about to knock his head off.

I only stopped the attack to be nice...which I'm not going to do any longer, since you would technically be dead if I had not stopped the attack. Also I would not stop the attack despite losing any amount of body fluids...I would finish the attack to give myself momentum to move, and thus you should be in two pieces right now of frozen Michiru Popsicle. I was generous in letting the battle continue.

Also, your character may "ignore" the effects of my LK, but he would still *feel* them. One does not simply shrug off all those status effects-- it's not realistic. That would be like me having the flu and having headaches and fever yet I was perfectly fine for a while because I "ignored" it. You can ignore a headache all you want but you will, without a doubt, *feel* it. Also, simply absorbing water from the rain is not going to make your character feel any better. It would take days for your character to naturally restore it's water so simply "absorbing" it would not do any good. In fact it would probably make you even WORSE off if you took in that much water at one time. And just how does one go about creating water within themselves just out of the blue without having to expel it immediately? If that were possible there would certainly be a named technique to do it. Come to think of it, that alone would actually end up killing you-- you'd drown yourself from within.

All this was going to be addressed in my next post...and I'm pretty sure my character would know what he's doing with water, being so skilled with it as he is...but that is also besides the point.

Oh, and how does your character even know it was water that was ripped from their body in the first place? It is not as though the technique makes the water visible-- it simply drains it from you. Not even a medic would know that their water was drained instantly without prior knowledge to the technique, something your character definitely does not have.

That was my bad...it doesn't say in the technique whether the water was visible or not and I would expect that 10% of my water just leaving my body like that would be fairly visible. Water only has three forms...solid, liquid, and gas...each of those forms are rather visible, so I just assumed it was just as visible when you took the water.

Basically, your entire post is wrong. What you should be responding to is how your character is going to avoid having his head smashed in, which would be very unlikely for reasons stated in my post. If you cannot come up with anything than I'm afraid this battle is over in my favor. Again, please do not get upset, I'm just trying to keep things fair and in serious fights like this where my character is on the line, I'm not nearly as forgiving as I would usually be.

Actually I had a number of things...but I expect this post for those, not for the rinky dink post I made...apparently it would have come either way. So, I'll change it, now stop crying.))

[♥~Malice~♥]

((OOC: There is no need to become hostile for this is just a simple RP battle. Relax.

Well...according to your post you placed you hand behind you, right? And it is glowing blue, correct? Well, I think I would notice something glowing blue due to shadows and what not...true, I didn't word it as correctly as I wanted, but whatever...it's besides the point.

Apparently you didn't read my post as deeply as you should have. You're playing with the big dogs now, hun-- If you make a mistake I'm going to exploit it. I went into detail concerning the glow and since you did not read it for yourself, I'll quote myself.

Cerulean hues would meticulously observe Haiiro's every movement as he suddenly stopped and jumped backwards and landed on the other side of the trail of ice. As he did this, Michiru would shift in her stance slightly, turning the right side of her body towards Haiiro while her left hand rested behind her rear. Due to his current angle and how he was coming at her, he would not be able to observe just what Michiru was doing with her left hand. Using this to her knowledge to her advantage, her left hand would begin to emit a gentle yet beautiful blue aura that was not wide nor bright enough to be seen from behind her. Michiru's long golden tresses also helped to conceal this small light.

There you go, in plain view I explained just why you wouldn't be able to see it. So no, you wouldn't be able to notice. What you did was a meta-game.

I didn't know what color healing hands was because I don't watch the anime. Now I know. Along with this view thing...should you have been taking a sword to the chest anyway, since you turned to face me? I don't remember you dodging my first attack....

Well...you never said if you dodged the attack or it connected, so instead of my usual it connected if you didn't say anything take on battle, I decided to give you a better chance then just lopping off your right arm or in this case slicing open your chest with the blade...since you didn't dodge that is. With this reversal of time thing...I didn't reverse time, I simply used Hiraishin no Jutsu and moved to another location, I had assumed you read my profile and knew what you would be dealing with...guess not. I suppose I just won't take it easy on you anymore, since you seem to know the ropes well enough.

Once again, I stated in plain view how and why I avoided your sword strike. Once more I shall quote myself.

As Haiiro began to execute his attack towards Michiru's right arm, she would suddenly snatch her left hand backwards and slightly to the left in an attempt to instantly drain ten percent of the water from his body.

There you go. You came in with your sword and that is how my character reacted. You should know that there are way more options to defending yourself besides simply dodging or taking the attack. Further, you did in fact reverse time because you acted as though you had never attacked me when you yourself stated you *did*. A huge meta-game, that one. And no, I don't read peoples profiles because I like to be surprised when I fight them-- it makes me react more like my character would.

I only stopped the attack to be nice...which I'm not going to do any longer, since you would technically be dead if I had not stopped the attack. Also I would not stop the attack despite losing any amount of body fluids...I would finish the attack to give myself momentum to move, and thus you should be in two pieces right now of frozen Michiru Popsicle. I was generous in letting the battle continue.

I would not be dead for the reasons stated within my post. Goodness, I did not expect to have to debate such simple RP mechanics with you. And you are correct, you would not stop your attack, and you didn't-- my character *interrupted* your attack by draining the water from your body, reducing your speed by 50% and body flickering before attempting to knock your characters head off. Do I need to quote this as well? Meh, I will anyway so you will know exactly what I'm talking about.

The ice shards were relatively easy to avoid as Michiru swayed slightly in her stance to dodge them, but never once changed her position, nor did she give any indication of what she was doing with her left hand. In fact, it appeared as though she had taken a more defensive combat stance, though that wasn't the case at all. As Haiiro began to execute his attack towards Michiru's right arm, she would suddenly snatch her left hand backwards and slightly to the left in an attempt to instantly drain ten percent of the water from his body. Due to how he was in the middle of an attack when she did it, as well as being so close to her when the attack had a range of five meters and him having no knowledge of such a technique and it's effects since she had never used it in battle before, the chances were quite high that the attack would connect. If so he would instantly feel thirst and discomfort, dry skin, low endurance, rapid heart rates, elevated body temperatures and rapid onset of fatigue. He would also suddenly become tired and drowsy, suffer from headaches, dry mouth and dizziness due to orthostatic hypotension. Such effects were bad enough...but the worst would be that his overall speed, something he seemed to rely on, would be reduced by fifty percent. He may have been a little faster than she was before, but with the aide of this technique that would no longer be the case.

Should all of the above happen, Haiiro would most likely be in a state of confusion since his body had suddenly become so terrible and also have trouble executing jutsu. Obviously this would also effect his normally flawless swordsmanship in a most heinous way, making his strikes far less accurate and much, much slower. With his speed also reduced by half, Michiru would waste no time in attempting to finish the match quickly. Using the body flicker to not only avoid his sword strike(which would be extremely slow to Michiru now) but to also capitalize on his sudden speed reduction, the fierce medic would appear at Haiiro's right side while he was still swinging and send a devastating chakra filled punch towards his head with her right hand.

Need I say more? I even bolded the important parts for you. Again, your attack would have continued but I *interrupted* it. Would your character continue to mindlessly swing when the opponent wasn't even there? You weren't "being nice" when you reversed time, you were doing it to prevent your character from being killed off with one post.

All this was going to be addressed in my next post...and I'm pretty sure my character would know what he's doing with water, being so skilled with it as he is...but that is also besides the point.

Just because he has an affinity with water doesn't mean he would be able to pull off techniques like that just out of the blue. That's ridiculous and completely unrealistic. And again, if you took in that much water at one time you would kill yourself.

That was my bad...it doesn't say in the technique whether the water was visible or not and I would expect that 10% of my water just leaving my body like that would be fairly visible. Water only has three forms...solid, liquid, and gas...each of those forms are rather visible, so I just assumed it was just as visible when you took the water.

I can agree with this. I should have been more detailed when I created the technique so I'll let this one go.

Actually I had a number of things...but I expect this post for those, not for the rinky dink post I made...apparently it would have come either way. So, I'll change it, now stop crying.))

If you had so many options than why did you resort to meta-gaming, hm? Let's be real. Realistically there is no way for your character to get out of my assault. All your senses and body have just been screwed up, your speed is reduced by 50% and my character increased her speed greatly by using *body flicker.* Our characters were relatively close as well and that short distance would be covered almost instantly with the aid of body flicker. Are you telling me that your character is just going to somehow overcome ALL of those effects, gather his bearings and somehow dodge her attack with his speed so severely reduced all in, what, half a second, and get away? Please.

The fact of the matter is you were overconfident in your abilities and it cost you. Take this fight as a learning experience and leave with the knowledge that you are not above *everyone* and that you are not the be all, end all of this site.

[dragonfire]

If you had so many options than why did you resort to meta-gaming, hm? Let's be real. Realistically there is no way for your character to get out of my assault. All your senses and body have just been screwed up, your speed is reduced by 50% and my character increased her speed greatly by using *body flicker.* Our characters were relatively close as well and that short distance would be covered almost instantly with the aid of body flicker. Are you telling me that your character is just going to somehow overcome ALL of those effects, gather his bearings and somehow dodge her attack with his speed so severely reduced all in, what, half a second, and get away? Please.

The fact of the matter is you were overconfident in your abilities and it cost you. Take this fight as a learning experience and leave with the knowledge that you are not above *everyone* and that you are not the be all, end all of this site.

Like I said, I have a way. Just watch...I'll let you know exactly what technique it will be too before I post up my dodge. And I am the "END ALL BE ALL" don't ever forget that. Now quit being so childish and insulting, if you don't mind. Perhaps it is you who should relax, eh? Playing with the big dogs...tch.

By the way...I didn't reverse time...here is the technique I used to get away.

Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)
Type: S-rank, Supplementary, All ranges
Users: Yondaime Hokage Ashen and two other unnamed masters.
The jutsu of the Yondaime Hokage and the reason behind his nickname "The Yellow Flash of Konoha"
This jutsu allows the user to move over large distances with ultra-high speed. Although it is often compared with the Shunshin no Jutsu, the speed of the Hiraishin is much faster then that of the Shunshin and the principle behind Hiraishin is similar to Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
To activate this jutsu, the user needs a special seal or "Jutsu-shiki" (??, "Technique" or "Jutsu formula") to mark the destination. After this is done, the user can almost instantaneously transport himself to the location of the Jutsu-shiki.
The Yondaime applied the Jutsu-shiki in advance to weapons such as kunai. It's also possible to leave a Jutsu-shiki in an area touched by the user.
Level: 75
(Special Note: For seven years Haiiro has taken the time to plant kunai with the special summoning shiki in every land, thus allowing him to use Hiraishin no Jutsu anywhere at any time with very little chakra cost.)

Down below is the technique I'm going to use because you don't like the fact that I escaped so easily.

Name: Yuurei Kukan (Re-vamp)
Rank: None
Skill: None (Purely chakra Control)
Effect: (in description)
Special: None
Drawback: If used more than ten times a thread, all of the user's muscles rip and they are hospitalized for six weeks.
Description: A user's reflexes are enhanced ten fold, the twitch muscles of their entire body enhanced by their chakra, which wraps itself around those very muscles and pumps chakra into them while this technique is in effect. Thus the user is able to dodge a fast moving object in a split second, even at nearly point blank range, making them very hard to strike. All of their movements are quickened as well, making every action they do take much less time, just shy of the speed it takes to blink.
Limit: Only the Zenkageji of Kumori Sesshoku rank and up can learn this technique.

There, that is the technique. Now, if you read, I will be able to evade in just a little bit under the time it takes to blink, which is .11 seconds...now half a second is .5 seconds. If my speed was reduced to half, then I would move in .22 seconds instead, still fast enough to evade your attack. Enough said, on to the Charles Dickens post. So I suppose I should start by addressing the illness caused by your technique.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Due to Michiru's change in positioning so that he could not see what her left hand was doing, Haiiro would now be attacking her chest rather than her right arm, although the attack pattern would indeed remain the same as it was before; except that now she could die from the strike. (Assuming the drain of my water is invisible) Suddenly he was struck by something strange that overcame him, disorienting him to a point where he merely finished the first strike before dropping down to one knee, an odd sensation happening to his body that he had never felt before...well a few that he had never felt before. He had indeed been thirsty before, so this was no different than the other times he had felt such thirst, and thus it did not really bother him that much. Besides, he could call the rain when he felt like it, so it would not matter how thristy he was for he would always have water to drink. Equally he had felt discomfort before as well, having been in the ninja business for seventeen years and the Missing ninja business for sixteen years, there were always times when he was most uncomfortable and thus he could push through that as well. Dry skin would mean just as much as discomfort or thirst would mean to him, having lived in Yuki no Kuni for so long he was quite used to having dry skin, and so a split lip here and there did not mean so much to him. Low endurance would mean even less to him than dry skin or thirst, being a ninja had more times when the endurance was low than most other times, times in the middle of training when one would think they could not go on but continued to push through it. He would do the same in this case, he would push through the loss of endurance like a true ninja would, the only thing he would not be able to do with that was use Fenrir for a while; which was not so much of a loss as everyone would think it to be.

Rapid heart rate was the interesting one, for it had been some time since he felt his heart begin to pound in his chest, and so he would have to ponder that at another time. The beating of his heart was rather annoying as he watched Michiru in slow motion as she used body flicker to escape, much like every ninja bitch would use body flicker to escape, and he knew that she would mount an attack upon him very soon. His body temperature would rise as well, although it was usually below the normal for any person, normally resting around 52 degrees Fahrenheit or so. Now it was simply around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which did not really bother him too much, and so it would basically have no effect on him what-so-ever. Then he began to feel tired as well, how strange that he would begin to feel tired like he did, but he has been in a four day battle before without sleep, so he was confident that he could push through this little bit of drowsiness. (Alright...enough about being tired, thirsty [dry mouth] and drowsy...you've said that around four times already) Dizziness had begun to set in as well, although he had dealt with dizziness far worse than this, he was a Drunken Master after all and could handle this with ease. The pounding headache was just like a hang-over from being drunk, so he could deal with that as well, no problems there either. However...he was not confused and collected his thoughts rather quickly. Here she comes, I can feel the wind to my right. (refer to OOC and read description of Yuurei Kukan so that you know exactly what I am pulling, instead of accusing me of reversing time. By the way...body flicker is just moving extremely fast, so yes, I can feel the wind your body generates.)

I hate using this technique... Inside of Haiiro's own body chakra began to cover his Nervous System and his muscles, coating them and then pumping energy into them, powering his body with a supply of never ending energy that could inevitably destroy every muscle in his body if used too much. Everything became hyper-sensitive to the point of near impossibility, chakra raging through his muscles and his nerves, giving him the speed he would need to evade the fist coming straight toward him from his right. Michiru probably assumed that he was confused by now, since a ninja of a lower caliber would indeed be too confused to know how to handle the situation, but since these were mostly things that Haiiro had dealt with before at some point in his life, it made no difference to him what the side effects of the attack were at all. As the fist came speeding toward his head, the fool girl probably confident in her victory, she would be sorely disappointed to find that she has punched empty air. Next she would find that Haiiro was indeed now in a position for a kill blow, her arm over extended and his reflexes super enhanced by the secret technique of the Zenkageji Clan, the movements of his body super increased except for his running speed of course; but there was a technique for that as well. Normally he would make a quip about how she still did not have what it took, or that it would not be so easy as that, but he would rather not waste his breath. Instead he would attack and perform a handseal at the same time, the simple one-handed seal of the rat would cause the rain to begin to fall, and the Fenrir would be poised to gut her before she could escape. True, his aim would be a bit off with his sword, but he would not miss so easily with her merely two feet away, having punched at him so close as she had.

Within the same .22 second margin of speed that he now had, since it had been reduced by the technique that he had not seen her perform, he would leap back and slash out with the Fenrir toward her gut. The leap would allow him to evade a second punch with her other hand, since it would have to pass over her still extended right arm, for she would not have had time to retract it in less than half a second still (It has only been .44 seconds so your punch still hasn't had a chance to finish the extension, it still has .06 seconds to go according to you. I also used Yuurei Kukan before you punched, giving me enough time to get it ready and everything.) He would also avoid any kicks that she would make, since she would not possibly be able to kick during a punch in the first place, unless the kick was in the other direction with the opposite leg of course. If she can miraculously dodge this attack, which was unlikely since he was the only person in the world that could raise his evasion high enough to evade such a quick attack, she would need some serious medical attention after this. Should the attack hit, which seemed to be the case, the nine feet seven inches of enhanced steel would most likely slice her in half, however since he does not have enough strength to do so at the moment, the blade would only go half way through. Still, the ice would then begin to cover her entire body from the inside out, and within seconds she would be a Michiru Popsicle.

(I made this post short and to the point. After your own post, we can continue the pace that we were on before.)

[♥~Malice~♥]

((OOC: Very well, it's time to put an end to all of this. If you still attempt to argue after you read all of this than you simply will not accept defeat-- which is a horrible trait to have as an RPer.

Like I said, I have a way. Just watch...I'll let you know exactly what technique it will be too before I post up my dodge. And I am the "END ALL BE ALL" don't ever forget that. Now quit being so childish and insulting, if you don't mind. Perhaps it is you who should relax, eh? Playing with the big dogs...tch.

By the way...I didn't reverse time...here is the technique I used to get away.

I am not being childish nor am I being insulting; I simply refuse to allow you to steamroll all over me. I was warned beforehand that you would attempt to meta-game and auto in order to win so that's why I'm not letting anything that even remotely resembles that get past me. If you view it as childish, fine-- I view it as protecting myself from being meta-gamed into oblivion.

Name: Yuurei Kukan (Re-vamp)
Rank: None
Skill: None (Purely chakra Control)
Effect: (in description)
Special: None
Drawback: If used more than ten times a thread, all of the user's muscles rip and they are hospitalized for six weeks.
Description: A user's reflexes are enhanced ten fold, the twitch muscles of their entire body enhanced by their chakra, which wraps itself around those very muscles and pumps chakra into them while this technique is in effect. Thus the user is able to dodge a fast moving object in a split second, even at nearly point blank range, making them very hard to strike. All of their movements are quickened as well, making every action they do take much less time, just shy of the speed it takes to blink.
Limit: Only the Zenkageji of Kumori Sesshoku rank and up can learn this technique.

There, that is the technique. Now, if you read, I will be able to evade in just a little bit under the time it takes to blink, which is .11 seconds...now half a second is .5 seconds. If my speed was reduced to half, then I would move in .22 seconds instead, still fast enough to evade your attack. Enough said, on to the Charles Dickens post. So I suppose I should start by addressing the illness caused by your technique

All right, I won't even begin to get into why Yuurei Kukan is such a ridiculous technique, but if you abuse it I'm going to call you out on it-- same goes for all those shiki your character just happened to place over every continent in the world (which is also extremely ridiculous).

I really hate to continue this but you are *still* downplaying the effects my jutsu should be having on your body. Just because you have experienced similar pain and discomfort before does not suddenly enable you to play them off as if they aren't there. That'd be like someone who previously had cancer getting it back but not feeling any of it's effects because they had "felt it before." Nope, that's not going to fly and since you do not seem to know just how handicapped your character should be, I'll just go ahead and break it down for you. I didn't want to have to do this because I figured you'd know already, but apparently that isn't the case (either that or you know what should happen but you're not acknowledging it).

Just to put things into perspective, having 10% of the water in your body drained would put you in *critical* condition (would be fatal for children)-- 13% and above is considered fatal for adults. Yes, that's how close your character was to being killed instantly.

Dehydration symptoms: thirst and discomfort, dry skin, low endurance, rapid heart rates, elevated body temperatures and rapid onset of fatigue.

Thirst and discomfort: This would not be something that you could simply shrug off. The thirst you would feel after losing that much water at one time would be akin to being in a climate with an extremely high humidity for twenty four hours. That means your body would be starved for water and you would have an almost insatiable craving for it, so much so that it would probably be the only thing on your mind.

Dry skin: Would cause your entire body to feel as rough as sandpaper. It would also crack and bleed easily if you made too many dramatic movements like swinging a sword.

Low endurance: This will harm you quite thoroughly. You would not just be *tired*, you would be on the verge of falling asleep on your feet. Your physical strength would be reduced substantially, along with your ability to follow movement and you really wouldn't be able to stand and if you did it wouldn't be for prolonged periods of time. You *certainly* wouldn't be able to wield a weapon in such condition.

Rapid heart rates: Pretty self-explanatory. A normal heart rate is around 60 to 100 beats per minute, with these effects your heart would be pumping around 185 at the moment and that isn't too bad for someone your characters age, at least until you factor in all the other effects. As long as you keep trying to battle, the higher your heart rate will rise as well as your body temperature, which will eventually result in your character having a heart attack probably within...3-5 posts, depending on what actions he takes. Higher heart rates also lead to higher blood pressure which would cause your character to not only have a heart attack, but also lead to heart failure. Come to think of it, that would probably happen before you even had a heart attack (so roughly 2-4 posts) if your character continued to fight back.

Fatigue: Also pretty self-explanatory and goes along with low endurance, which means that soon your body will simply give out on you and you'll find even the most miniscule tasks much harder to perform. Perhaps the most crippling effect of being fatigued on this level is that it seriously screws up your concentration, which would make it extremely difficult for him to perform jutsu at first and impossible as he tires out more.

Unexplained tiredness, headaches, dry mouth and dizziness when standing due to orthostatic hypotension also occur

Unexplained tiredness: Goes along with low endurance and fatigue and only increases the effectiveness of them. Really, there isn't much else to say beyond your character would be deathly tired.

Headaches: This isn't your normal, everyday headache. With your blood pressure as high as it is your head would literally be pounding like a huge bass drum, so much so that if you put your hand to your head you could actually feel it pound. I don't care who you are, no one is going to ignore that-- it will be a constant distraction and steady source of pain to your character.

Dry Mouth: Goes along with being super thirsty as well, not much else to say other than your mouth will feel like a desert.

Dizziness: With your blood pressure already sky rocketing, as well as your superiorly painful headache, your dizziness would be so bad that you would constantly be wobbling and wouldn't be able to keep your core balance. Now you say since you're a drunken master you'd be fine, but a drunken master doesn't have to deal with the other effects that stack on TOP of this.

Orthostatic Hypotension: In layman's terms this can be described as a "head rush," though on a much larger scale. Usually this only occurs when a person has certain diseases or a sudden drop in blood pressure, but it is also caused by substantial dehydration, something your character is most definitely suffering from. Basically while you're standing you'll suffer from dizziness, lightheadedness, dimmed or blurred vision (to the point of momentary blindness if you are tired enough), and fainting. Now the latter (dimmed or blurred vision) will not be happening to your character yet because he isn't tired enough, though if he were to continue obviously this would effect him as well as the fainting.

~~~

Now do you see why your character should be dead? Factor in ALL of that along with my characters sudden speed boost and honestly say that your character can still somehow use a technique and even swing a sword! Hell, he shouldn't even be able to *hold* his sword, let alone swing it. Come on, I'm all for characters getting out of things they shouldn't have because this is all fantasy...but even that has it's limits.

The reason I went through such length is because I doubt you will admit defeat unless EVERYTHING was placed in front of your eyes. Now you see exactly what my technique has done to your character-- still think he can accomplish all he did in half a second? No, he wouldn't. I'll be here for a rematch should you want revenge but seriously, this match is over. I'm sorry it wasn't as "epic" as you would have liked but when I see an opening I go for it. I am not the type of RPer to "put on a show," I fight to win and I am also quite merciless.

Also, no, I am not doing this because I cannot come up with a way out of your post-- rest assured, I have my ways.

So, what will you do? Will you accept defeat gracefully or will we have to continue this debate? I'm telling you in advance that I am not going to back down from this. Your character should be dead; him overcoming all of the above so quickly is just... Yeah.))

[dragonfire]

I have yet to abuse a technique...and since it was accepted by Yuuku as well as Heero, I'm pretty sure it is not as ridiculous as you want it to be. Tough. I mean...it's almost as ridiculous as your Leviathan's Kiss...but you don't here me denying that, do you? Okay then.

I really hate to continue this but you are *still* downplaying the effects my jutsu should be having on your body. Just because you have experienced similar pain and discomfort before does not suddenly enable you to play them off as if they aren't there. That'd be like someone who previously had cancer getting it back but not feeling any of it's effects because they had "felt it before." Nope, that's not going to fly and since you do not seem to know just how handicapped your character should be, I'll just go ahead and break it down for you. I didn't want to have to do this because I figured you'd know already, but apparently that isn't the case (either that or you know what should happen but you're not acknowledging it).

Look. Haiiro has been a ninja for 33 years, 17 as a ninja for the coldest and one of the driest places on earth, the other 16 as a missing nin on the run from every single ninja village in the world. He's had worse, trust me. If you want me to complete his 42 page history I will, if that will satisfy you, and you can read everything that he has been through since day one...but I doubt you would want to do that. Secondly, a ninja is trained to push through these types of things for as long as possible, and Haiiro is not some pansy ninja just fresh out the village that can be taken down like that. Finally for this quote, cancer and the loss of 10% of your water are two different things, don't compare them.

Now do you see why your character should be dead? Factor in ALL of that along with my characters sudden speed boost and honestly say that your character can still somehow use a technique and even swing a sword! Hell, he shouldn't even be able to *hold* his sword, let alone swing it. Come on, I'm all for characters getting out of things they shouldn't have because this is all fantasy...but even that has it's limits.

I agree with you on the sword thing...but it is a sloppy swing from hell, so you shouldn't have so much trouble evading...yet you persist in arguing which means that you must not be able to escape. At the moment I am moving faster than you are, but only for the moment, however eventually the technique must wear off, right? Or is it one of those god-mod auto techs? It's only a B rank, I can push through it for a bit, sorry but that is the truth. Back onto the sword, if you would just actually post, you will see exactly what happens afterward...

The reason I went through such length is because I doubt you will admit defeat unless EVERYTHING was placed in front of your eyes. Now you see exactly what my technique has done to your character-- still think he can accomplish all he did in half a second? No, he wouldn't. I'll be here for a rematch should you want revenge but seriously, this match is over. I'm sorry it wasn't as "epic" as you would have liked but when I see an opening I go for it. I am not the type of RPer to "put on a show," I fight to win and I am also quite merciless.

The battle is still going, do your post and evade my legit post. Yes, I can accomplish all of that in half a second, since it has not even been three seconds since your technique drained me, which means that it has not fully set in all the way. You want realistic, that is realistic. It takes me one second to use my technique, you stopped my attack with your move then body flickered...that takes around three seconds, leaving me two seconds to activate my technique. Then you punched, my technique was already active as I used whatever strength I had left to get out of it and attack back...now dodge it and get over yourself.

So, what will you do? Will you accept defeat gracefully or will we have to continue this debate? I'm telling you in advance that I am not going to back down from this. Your character should be dead; him overcoming all of the above so quickly is just... Yeah.

I know you won't back down, you never do, so no surprise there. Secondly, all of the side effects have not had time to fully set in, you wanted a time frame type of fight and it's there, nothing is instant. So basically he has not overcome them yet, they just having fully hit him yet. Continue the match and stop complaining.

[♥~Malice~♥]

((OOC:

Look. Haiiro has been a ninja for 33 years, 17 as a ninja for the coldest and one of the driest places on earth, the other 16 as a missing nin on the run from every single ninja village in the world. He's had worse, trust me. If you want me to complete his 42 page history I will, if that will satisfy you, and you can read everything that he has been through since day one...but I doubt you would want to do that. Secondly, a ninja is trained to push through these types of things for as long as possible, and Haiiro is not some pansy ninja just fresh out the village that can be taken down like that. Finally for this quote, cancer and the loss of 10% of your water are two different things, don't compare them.

I understand where you're coming from, truly I do-- and I realize that your character is certainly no run of the mill shinobi, but the facts are facts. You can train your outer body as much as you want and it does indeed become stronger, but you cannot train your inner body to resist damage and certain illness. You simply can't, it's not possible. With the aide of vaccine your body can grow to resist and become immune(as close as one can be to becoming "immune") to certain diseases and illness, but the effects of my LK aren't anything like that. You can be trained for a hundred years to push through sickness but if it's powerful enough it will, without a doubt, bring you down-- and that's just what LK is. It attacks the parts of the body that cannot be strengthened despite whatever type of training you have endured. Actually, I have acknowledged the fact that your character has been trained for so long, for any other shinobi wouldn't even be able to stand at the moment-- they would have instantly collapsed in a heap. So it's not as though I'm ignoring it, it just simply doesn't matter when it comes to effects such as these. The fact that your character can even stand(despite for only a short amount of time) speaks volumes for him, but like I said...it simply does not matter.

You may not like the fact that illness can have such a profound effect on your character, but it doesn't change the fact it does. And yes, cancer and the loss of 10% of your water are two different things-- I was merely using the cancer reference as an example.

I agree with you on the sword thing...but it is a sloppy swing from hell, so you shouldn't have so much trouble evading...yet you persist in arguing which means that you must not be able to escape. At the moment I am moving faster than you are, but only for the moment, however eventually the technique must wear off, right? Or is it one of those god-mod auto techs? It's only a B rank, I can push through it for a bit, sorry but that is the truth. Back onto the sword, if you would just actually post, you will see exactly what happens afterward...

Allow me to make something perfectly clear. When I say that I am able to do something, trust and believe that it's the truth. I have no reason to lie to you or put up a front, for that is not my style. I am a very straight forward RPer who knows my characters weaknesses and limits; if she could not get out of your post I would definitely say so and write up a rather dramatic death for her. I have absolutely no problem losing a battle or losing a character should it happen fairly. However, the one thing I will stand strongly against is unfairness. I find it unfair that your character can survive my post, despite everything I have written to explain why, and somehow still attack. If I feel I am being wronged I will argue until my point is eventually accepted, or if I'm proven wrong. That's just how it is. I've been RPing far too long to allow someone to walk all over me. Whether you actually believe me or not is irrelevant; I know I speak the truth and that's all that matters to me.

This technique does indeed wear off; I already stated earlier that it would take a few days for your body to naturally regenerate it's water (a few days of pure rest, mind you). The beauty of this technique is the more you struggle, the more it harms you. Also, just because it is B-Rank does not mean you can simply "push" through it. Re-read carefully the effects of this technique, what it's attacking and *how* it's attacking. Again, as stated before, you cannot train your inner body to resist damage and illness. If I have to start quoting medical experts and fighting style masters for you to realize this than I most certainly will. You may think that this technique shouldn't be as powerful as it is right off the bat, but I assure you that it is-- I even left out some of the other effects because I knew the technique wouldn't be accepted if I included *everything* that happened.

The battle is still going, do your post and evade my legit post. Yes, I can accomplish all of that in half a second, since it has not even been three seconds since your technique drained me, which means that it has not fully set in all the way. You want realistic, that is realistic. It takes me one second to use my technique, you stopped my attack with your move then body flickered...that takes around three seconds, leaving me two seconds to activate my technique. Then you punched, my technique was already active as I used whatever strength I had left to get out of it and attack back...now dodge it and get over yourself.

Let me ask you something, and I'm being completely serious, do you acknowledge that your character is not a God? Do you realize that your character has weaknesses? Do you know that despite how high you think of your character, he is not immune nor super resistant to the effects of my jutsu? Again, look at what I've written-- tell me honestly how your character can get through all of that and still activate a technique, dodge and counter attack in that short time frame. I don't want to hear all this "he's felt them before so he knows how to deal with it" nonsense, I want facts. I've provided you with facts as to why your character should be dead, so you provide me with some that state otherwise.

This battle is not ongoing because it should already be complete. Your post is neither legit nor realistic based on every single thing I've told you. You act as though I'm just spouting this stuff as if it's not true. I went out of my way to go into intricate detail to explain to you, step by step, why your character should be dead. It is because I respect you as a fellow RPer that I go through so much trouble and you should respect me enough to admit that this is over.

As far as time is concerned, I'll spell that out for you as well. Instantly draining your water would take a second, body flickering and appearing next to you would probably take half a second(seeing how body flicker increases your speed so greatly) and sending that punch towards your head would take roughly half a second as well due to how close they were (and the fact that Michiru is not anywhere *near* slow with her strikes). So in total my actions would take approximately two seconds.

Meanwhile your character was just struck with those effects, which would naturally surprise him. I highly doubt anyone would be able to recover and even have the chakra control to activate a technique after just receiving the jutsu for the very FIRST time and in under two seconds. Now maybe if he had felt it previously I could kind of see him activating a technique(if I *really* stretch my imagination), but otherwise...no. Not only does he do that, but he somehow dodges and then counter attacks. Are you beginning to see how unrealistic this sounds?

Y'know, come to think of it, even if you *could* activate that technique, it would make you even worse off. Your body is already in horrible condition due to my jutsu, you using this technique to enhance your reflexes by directly sending chakra into them would actually hasten the overall effects of my jutsu-- which means all the effects that would usually take a few posts would happen instantly and your heart would end up exploding the moment you initialized it. And don't even get me started on how badly your senses would be screwed if you suddenly moved that quickly after just being struck with my jutsu...(If you need me to explain exactly *why* this would kill your character, I can... But I just don't feel that it's necessary at this point.)

So yes, even if you did manage to dodge my characters first strike, you wouldn't be able to counter because you would end up killing yourself almost immediately. There really is no way out of this one. What more must I say to get you to realize this? Further, there is nothing to "get over." I do not think I'm above you nor anyone else; it just so happens that this time I out strategized you. Who knows, if we have another battle you may off me in one post, but that's besides the point. You need to get over yourself and get off of this notion that you are unbeatable and unkillable because you most certainly are not. No one is.

And just curious, what makes you think I would *dodge* your attack? Do not assume you know what I will do because that will only end up causing your downfall.

I know you won't back down, you never do, so no surprise there. Secondly, all of the side effects have not had time to fully set in, you wanted a time frame type of fight and it's there, nothing is instant. So basically he has not overcome them yet, they just having fully hit him yet. Continue the match and stop complaining.

I've already explained in my previous post what would effect you *instantly* and what would effect you at later periods in time. In real life the effects wouldn't be instant because you just can't up a lose 10% of your water at once; but since this is a fantasy world where you *can*, the effects would most certainly happen instantly. Please don't tell me that I'm going to need to quote myself again and bold the effects that pertain to you instantly and which ones effect you over time. No, not everything has had time to fully set in, but what has will cripple your character enough to be killed. Besides, even if it didn't you would kill yourself by using that technique.

You told me that you would be fine with your character dying if it happened, correct? So why are you complaining so much that he shouldn't be dead when all evidence states the opposite? Please be reasonable and just accept defeat. Out of all the fights you've had since you've been here this would be your first and only loss...is that really that much of a big deal? Everyone is defeated eventually. And like I said, call it complaining if you want to, but I refuse to allow anyone to walk over me and my character. Anyone else you may have RP'd with might roll over and accept what you do to them, but not me.

Side note: You and your little cronies are completely free to continue to slander my name or whatever it is you all do. I can honestly care less if someone over an internet forum dislikes me-- but I still like you, Coal. You're certainly an interesting fellow. ^_^

[dragonfire]

Let me ask you something, and I'm being completely serious, do you acknowledge that your character is not a God? Do you realize that your character has weaknesses? Do you know that despite how high you think of your character, he is not immune nor super resistant to the effects of my jutsu? Again, look at what I've written-- tell me honestly how your character can get through all of that and still activate a technique, dodge and counter attack in that short time frame. I don't want to hear all this "he's felt them before so he knows how to deal with it" nonsense, I want facts. I've provided you with facts as to why your character should be dead, so you provide me with some that state otherwise.

Do I think my character is god? Don't be ridiculous. I've already told you why I'm shouldn't be dead yet, not going to repeat myself.

This battle is not ongoing because it should already be complete. Your post is neither legit nor realistic based on every single thing I've told you. You act as though I'm just spouting this stuff as if it's not true. I went out of my way to go into intricate detail to explain to you, step by step, why your character should be dead. It is because I respect you as a fellow RPer that I go through so much trouble and you should respect me enough to admit that this is over.

It is completely legit and fairly realistic. Despite how much detail you put in, it does not matter. Even if I were to have 10% of my water drained from my body this very instant while I was typing, it would take at least 10 seconds before I felt the effects, basically because my body would not realize it right away. It would take a bit for my heart rate to accelerate, it would take some time for the fatigue to fully set, and it would take some time before my eyesight was screwed up (my other senses would be fine.) The dry mouth and thirst, along with the rest of those things, could very well happen instantly, but the most deadly ones would take a bit to set in. I'm sure you should very well know that.

As far as time is concerned, I'll spell that out for you as well. Instantly draining your water would take a second, body flickering and appearing next to you would probably take half a second(seeing how body flicker increases your speed so greatly) and sending that punch towards your head would take roughly half a second as well due to how close they were (and the fact that Michiru is not anywhere *near* slow with her strikes). So in total my actions would take approximately two seconds.

Well first off, you said you interrupted half way through my attack with your jutsu, which would mean that my blade would be about 3 cm from your torso, it also would not have just slowed to a crawl so you could escape it...in fact it probably wouldn't have slowed at all. I was nice by allowing you to move in the first place when you should have been hit, maybe not dead, but your entire right side should probably be frozen about now. Next, it takes about half a second to activate my speed enhancing jutsu, it's called an instinctual reaction, such as screaming when scared or swinging when someone jumps out at you. I've wasted about 1.5 seconds to get myself prepared, you wasted 2 seconds, thus I still have that half a second. Referring to my previous post, you still have .06 seconds to go while I already got the hell out of the way.

Meanwhile your character was just struck with those effects, which would naturally surprise him. I highly doubt anyone would be able to recover and even have the chakra control to activate a technique after just receiving the jutsu for the very FIRST time and in under two seconds. Now maybe if he had felt it previously I could kind of see him activating a technique(if I *really* stretch my imagination), but otherwise...no. Not only does he do that, but he somehow dodges and then counter attacks. Are you beginning to see how unrealistic this sounds?

Everyone reacts differently to everything. In real life, I am never surprised myself, even when something should be surprising. I don't jump at scary movies, people jumping out at me, or a dog suddenly against the fence next to me barking only a few inches from my face. Now what makes you think you can say who will be surprised or not? Perhaps he is surprised but doesn't let it affect him, doesn't let it slow him at all, or he ignores it because it could cost him. Maybe he just doesn't care, or he just doesn't get surprised, even if it was his first time being hit by a technique. At the moment he thinks it is no different than being drunk in Yuki no Kuni, but if you would friggin' post, then you would see that he has thought wrong and he would be hit hard by the effects. I'll drop the counter attack, it was just habit that I added it because I usually counter after an evasion, but it doesn't have to be there. However, it was a legitimate dodge, and you know for a fact that it was.

Y'know, come to think of it, even if you *could* activate that technique, it would make you even worse off. Your body is already in horrible condition due to my jutsu, you using this technique to enhance your reflexes by directly sending chakra into them would actually hasten the overall effects of my jutsu-- which means all the effects that would usually take a few posts would happen instantly and your heart would end up exploding the moment you initialized it. And don't even get me started on how badly your senses would be screwed if you suddenly moved that quickly after just being struck with my jutsu...(If you need me to explain exactly *why* this would kill your character, I can... But I just don't feel that it's necessary at this point.)

The technique does not increase the blood-flow, nor does it affect my heart at all, only my muscles and my Nervous system...it is very specifically targeted, and being the creator I'm pretty sure I know what it effects, so you can get that notion out of your head. However, I used it to actually make him worse off in the first place, that was the point of it...since you don't like my using of Hiraishin no Jutsu, which I already explained to everyone and they agreed upon the fact that Haiiro spent those seven years placing the Shiki Kunai all over (Kind of like how your jutsus got accepted without my say or mine without yours...same thing.) Finally, I want my senses to be jacked up, that is what I wanted and the reason I used the technique.

So yes, even if you did manage to dodge my characters first strike, you wouldn't be able to counter because you would end up killing yourself almost immediately. There really is no way out of this one. What more must I say to get you to realize this? Further, there is nothing to "get over." I do not think I'm above you nor anyone else; it just so happens that this time I out strategized you. Who knows, if we have another battle you may off me in one post, but that's besides the point. You need to get over yourself and get off of this notion that you are unbeatable and unkillable because you most certainly are not. No one is.

Who said I was unbeatable? You just haven't beaten me yet. I evaded and I explained how I evaded with a time frame, so yeah, I got out of it. Too bad.

I've already explained in my previous post what would effect you *instantly* and what would effect you at later periods in time. In real life the effects wouldn't be instant because you just can't up a lose 10% of your water at once; but since this is a fantasy world where you *can*, the effects would most certainly happen instantly. Please don't tell me that I'm going to need to quote myself again and bold the effects that pertain to you instantly and which ones effect you over time. No, not everything has had time to fully set in, but what has will cripple your character enough to be killed. Besides, even if it didn't you would kill yourself by using that technique.

No, my technique wouldn't kill me, told you why above, no need to say it again. As you said, this is fantasy, but if you want to get realistic on me, then get realistic on yourself as well. Everything takes time, nothing is instant. I let a few of those effects be instant, cause it would not be fair to be unaffected by anything that your technique did, however you telling me how I should be and what position I should be in is not going to happen...one that is puppeteering, two I still have a chance to dodge just like I gave you a chance when you should already be dead.

You told me that you would be fine with your character dying if it happened, correct? So why are you complaining so much that he shouldn't be dead when all evidence states the opposite? Please be reasonable and just accept defeat. Out of all the fights you've had since you've been here this would be your first and only loss...is that really that much of a big deal? Everyone is defeated eventually. And like I said, call it complaining if you want to, but I refuse to allow anyone to walk over me and my character. Anyone else you may have RP'd with might roll over and accept what you do to them, but not me.

First off, I have lost a few times already, of course like this fight I could have kept going. Next, you should have been reasonable and have already been dead or severely injured by that first attack, since you didn't have time to snatch your hand forward (since it was already back), or if you snatched it back that means that you would have had to move it forward first, which would have taken more time then use body flicker, which also isn't instant...you can see how you didn't have enough time. As you had stated, you interrupted in the middle of my attack, well it began with the swing, the middle would be just before touching your body and passing through the other side of your body, and the end would be when the blade stopped moving.

Side note: You and your little cronies are completely free to continue to slander my name or whatever it is you all do. I can honestly care less if someone over an internet forum dislikes me-- but I still like you, Coal. You're certainly an interesting fellow. ^_^

Cronies? I never told them to do a thing, in fact I told them to stop what they were doing. You can understand if I don't believe you about liking me, right? Just as you would not believe if I said I liked you, even though I do. You annoy me to no end, but I still do.

[dragonfire]

DOUBLE POST!!! POW!!!

Look, I hate arguing...it's a waste of my time. I really don't care about Haiiro any longer...besides, I get to make a character with all of the same stuff anyways, so I think that is a pretty good trade if you ask me. So, forget this match, it was obviously a waste of time, but it allows me to make the character I've always wanted to make. So...no dramatics, I don't care anymore.

Dead.

Edit: Also, I archived Fenrir...so just say it turned to dust...or broke...or something, I don't care, but it doesn't exist anymore.

[♥~Malice~♥]

((OOC: Very well. We'll just agree to disagree and leave it at that. ^-^ ))

Silence would once more envelop the landscape as Michiru stood still and observed the body of what was once a proud, statuesque missing ninja. He was roughly one hundred meters away but due to the torn up terrain that lead straight to him, was quite easy to spot. It appeared that everything had gone according to plan and she was victorious...yet she didn't feel that way inside. Inside she felt numb, as though this were a hollow victory which was quite strange considering all the heinous crimes this man had committed. There was no doubt that he had slain countless people mercilessly and yet...she still felt compassion and pity for him. There was no need for her to go check the body for she knew he was dead. There wasn't a shinobi alive who could withstand a direct hit from Michiru, let alone two.

Even so, there was a bit of sorrow in the gifted medics heart for the man. He was a monster, indeed, but even he had to care for something or someone, right? There had to be someone out there who would mourn his passing...and Michiru, from the bottom of her heart, felt sorry for that person. This was not the only reason for the pure hearted woman to feel despair, however. She had broken her vow to never take a life though now, more than ever, she realized just how foolish that vow was. In such a cut throat world and with the line of work she was in, there would be times where she would be forced to kill her opponent. She hated it and it didn't make it any easier to do, but it was a reality. Those foolish ideals that she clung to so desperately like a starving man to his last scrap of food, were all just the fantasies of a naive child. Michiru was too old to believe in such things now...it was time she faced the true harshness of this world.

A soft exhale would escape her fuchsia lips as she looked down and held out her right gloved hand which was now stained with blood. So this is what it felt like to take another's life? How could people do such a thing so easily...? After a few moments passed she would raise her head and observe Haiiro once more, sadness etched heavily within those cerulean hues. "May God have mercy on your soul..." Michiru would murmur quietly and as if on cue, something began to happen. The dark sky from Haiiro's previous jutsu was still in effect but a solitary beam of golden light would pierce through the darkness and shine brilliantly on Michiru's willowy frame. A small gasp could be heard as she felt herself bathed in the warm glow, a feeling of genuine love rushing over her body, soaking itself into every fiber of her being. This feeling...she hadn't felt it in a very long time. Petite lips would curve into a grin as Michiru looked up towards the sky, almost appearing as though she were about to ascend into heaven. Her magnificent white outfit appeared to glow with an unnatural aura and her golden tresses, seemingly made of the sun light itself, sparkled and shined with renewed vigor. Truly she was a sight to behold at this moment.

Michiru wasn't quite sure what it all meant, but for some reason this reassuring light felt like an old friend-- something that would eternally guide her and stand beside her with unwavering faith. "I suppose someone up there is still rather fond of me, ne?" Michiru would speak in an almost inaudible tone as the darkness soon began to disperse, replaced by the pristine azure sky that was previously there. Once more the light had defeated the dark and everything had returned to normal. The golden beam that was sent from the heavens itself was now gone as well, yet that overpowering feeling of love remained. "A fate guided by divinity...perhaps Father truly was correct."

A gentle yet steady wind began to blow as Michiru stood on Earth's barren terrain, a feeling of calm seemingly washing over the land itself. Both her hair and clothes would flow elegantly with it as Michiru looked down towards the multi colored jewel that remained around her neck. This jewel was a link to her past, a link to a person she loved...but now was a time for a new beginning. A bird cannot fly if it still has things weighing it down. Smiling rather sadly, Michiru slowly unhooked the necklace and held it out in front of her with her left hand, eyeing it intently as memories began to flood her consciousness once more. By looking in the jewel it almost appeared to play back some of the more significant events of her past; Michiru heading to the chuunin exams to meet her partner, a scene of them sitting on a ledge high above Grass watching the events of the town unfold...and then the darker time when he disappeared. It now displayed how worried she was for him at first and how she trained so feverishly to become stronger in order to find him. The jewel then seemed to fast forward to a time where he returned, though shortly after he disappeared once again...and that is when the jewel seemed to return to normal.

"I believe I've mourned for you long enough, don't you agree?" Michiru would speak as though she were talking to someone, though no one else was present. It was odd but it was almost as though, if only for this brief moment in time, she had reached a state of enlightenment. No matter how much she didn't want it to be true, her love was gone forever. The man he once was, the man she had fell in love with...would no longer be around to comfort her and make her stronger. He wouldn't be there to encourage her to do her best and praise her. No, that was all a distant memory now. And Michiru realized that as long as she held on to this necklace she would never truly move on. It was time, once and for all, to say goodbye to the past.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything you've ever done for me. I truly appreciate it, for without you I wouldn't be where I am today. I realize now that I cannot hold on to your ghost any longer. I must free myself from these chains that bind me to the past, as well as free you. I wish, from the deepest depths of my heart and soul, that you will be able to fly freely and without regret. Sayonara, Saburo Riku..." Her voice had been rather shaky throughout her entire speech, and a couple of times she had almost broken down into tears...but she would not cry for him anymore. With a stern nod she released the necklace into the wind, which carried it high into the sky and eventually out of eye sight. Where it would land, no one knew...but as it floated away Michiru began to feel as though she had been reborn. She wasn't a little girl anymore who relied on someone else's encouragement-- look at how far she had come on her own. Michiru was her own woman now, a proud and powerful shinobi of Waterfall. She was a force to be reckoned with and one that would protect her home with every ounce of her strength.

The solid smile remained plastered on her face as she turned towards the direction of her home. The past had no hold on her any longer-- she had broken it's grip on her heart and had become stronger because of it. "One last thing to do..." She would coo as she lifted both hands to her head and untied her trademark ribbon, which released even more of her hair and added two inches of length to it. Her hair spiraled around with the steady wind that continued to blow as she gripped the silk ribbon in her right hand and held it out to her side. This ribbon had been with her ever since she was a child and thus for her to truly move on she would have to rid herself of this as well. Slowly her grip would loosen on the expensive cloth as it too was taken away by the wind, flying off into the distance with no set destination.

Her ritual finally complete, Michiru would hastily remove her gloves and place them in the inner pocket of her garments as she beamed in triumph. With her hands now resting on her slender hips, the angelic entity would stand tall and proud. Now she would dedicate her life to protecting Waterfall, for that was the only thing that was truly important in her life now. Saving the world? A child's dream and not something one single person could ever accomplish alone. But what she could do was continue to ensure that Waterfall would be safe. Anyone who threatened her home and it's shinobi would have to deal with Michiru directly. With that she would disappear in a swirl of water, leaving only sprinkles of it behind as she swiftly returned home to inform the Kage of the good news.

[Exit, Michiru.]

[/center]

[dragonfire]

On a final note...I hope you know what you have unleashed upon the site...