an artist's residence. [perm]

[» Her Design.]

[ ayano li's house. ]

Built along the outskirts of Ame's Capital City, a small appartment stands beneath the ever-tearing sky. It seems newly repainted, in the shade of offwhite; the roof pieced together with black shingles. The only frontal features is has is an black, old wooden door attached to rusty hinges, and a broken window next to that, set in a similar black frame. It seems to stand out against the neighboring buildings, who were all decorated in fairly neutral colors.

The house appears to be only one story high, but from the inside, it's easy to see that it is built down, and not up. The above-ground section has three rooms: a kitchen/dining room mix, a bathroom, and a parlor. All are situated with fairly old-looking furniture, as if they had been handed down among the generation. The kitchen and bathroom are tiled with a black and white diamond linolium flooring; while the parlor has a warped wooden floor.

Hidden in a closet-appearing addition in the living room, a set of stairs roll down to the floor below ground. Here, there is no natural light, and only two rooms. The first room entered from the stairs, out of another closet, is a bedroom. There is a single lamp on a bedside table, and a couch that looks like it can be pulled out to form a bed. There's a small dresser, and beside that, another door.

This is the main room of the house, and where the owner spends most of her time. It's the largest out of all four previous, taking up much of the bottom half of the building. One whole wall is lined with paper, and there are various art tools spread out along the floor, random tables, and other such things. Here, there is a light switch near the door, that activates a light handing from the ceiling above the center of the room.

[» Her Design.]

Katon: Sumiiro Nenshou (Ink-Black Combustion)
Rank: C-Rank
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: The user expels a stream of highly-flammable, sticky, black ink from their mouth that clings to the opponent and anything else it lands on. Resulting in an explosion.
Special: None
Drawback: Caution is needed when using this technique as the ink clings to everything, and distance between the user and opponent is vital as to not get caught in the resulting explosion.
Description: The user focuses chakra to their stomach and expels a long stream of flammable, sticky, black ink. The ink is so sticky that it will cling to anything like glue, and if the opponent steps into it, they will be stuck in place. Immediately after the ink is expelled the user clicks their teeth, resulting in the ink igniting and a small-localized explosion. Due to the color of the ink, the flames will be pitch black in color.
Limit: Clan Jutsu.

[ Flashback Training, 0/30 ]


Sitting alone on her bed, with the light turned off, it was easy for her to think back on the past few days in Amegakure. Running into the Amekage, who turned out to be really .. well, what was the word? He was cute, but a complete ass, she had to admit. Being thrown out of his office like that, and being barred from going into the village, really had her hurt. She wanted to stay here, but how could she live like this? It did provide her the isolation she needed, but the kunoichi found herself most upset, that she could never see the Kage unless he came to her. Was there a way she could prove to him she would be loyal? Not at this stage, there wasn't. Curling up further on her bed, she sighed. "I need to get stronger." the girl murmured, and stared up at the ceiling -- though unable to actually see it. There was one jutsu she knew, that could help, but .. until now she hadn't wanted to use it. It was destructive! Horrible! .. And Gatmaru taught it to her.

-begin flashback.-

It was a warm spring day, during her time in the academy.. Gatmaru had started noticing how the soon-to-be kunoichi knew barely any offensive jutsu having to do with the Li Clan; unless one counted the drawing technique that came almost instinctively. And so, though she had been in a rough mood lately, he decided to offer to teach her a useful (if dangerous) jutsu. The girl was still so naive, and didn't particularly like to fight, but he convinced her that she would only need to use it when she was in trouble. Or, if she ever decided to become a full-time shinobi for the leaf. His arguement was persuasive, and she agreed.

They traveled to a remote area in the training grounds of Konoha, carrying two buckets full of water -- for reasons she didn't know. Maybe it was to help her strength? He didn't want to go into full detail until they got there, he said. And when they did? He told her to put the bucket down next to his, and traveled out to a place that looked as if it had been scorched by something, and then regrown over with grass. "Has it really been so long..?" He murmured, she remembered, and then turned to her with a smile. "You will be learning the Ink-Black Combustion technique, more commonly called Katon: Sumiiro Nenshou."

Her mouth dropped! She had only seen someone do that once, and it had been .. amazing. Beautiful, even. Gatmaru's smile widened, and he kicked at the scorched area with his foot. "I trained it here when I was a Genin, like yourself," he released a long sigh, overdramatic as always. "I will not show you how to do it, however. You need to get it down yourself." Ayano's eyes widened, and she pointed at him, following suit in his dramatic essense. Yes, she was growing to be like him more every day. He chuckled, "But don't worry! I'll explain it to you. The objective is to focus chakra into your stomach, and kind of .. puke it out onto the area in front of you. The result will be very sticky ink, and when you click your teeth like this --" He paused, snapping his teeth down, "It will explode. Try not to get killed when you do it, okay? Now try!" He made a shoo'ing motion with his hands, and a few yards away, sitting down.

Of course, Ayano was staring at him like he was crazy. He probably was, too! But, she gave up -- shrugging her shoulders. This was about jutsu, not psychology classes. Turning to face the little patch more completely, she raised her eyebrows, and pursed her lips. It sounded easy, but would she be able to do it right? The girl took a deep breath, and eventually closed her eyes. The Chuunin at the academy said that it was a good idea to focus yourself completely when first working with a jutsu.

Her head throbbed slightly, feeling dizzying momentarily from the studden concentration. She had no idea what it was like to focus chakra, other than the classes at school. All she could do was think about it: feel it. Bubbles of energy welling up from random points in her body, and flowing through invisible walkways toward the place she needed. An imaginary space in her stomach, where it could all gather, and eventually burst. She felt it, the feeling of being too-full, almost suddenly.

Her eyes shot open, and with determination, she moved to part her lips. Stepping forward, the girl aimed in the general area of the patch, and .. attempted to spit? All that came out was a dribble of ink, that dripped down her chin, and fell to the ground. Her eyes widened, and she blinked, nervous. Would it blow up? No .. not unless she clicked her teeth. Gatmaru was still watching, snickering into his sleeve. "You put too much on your imagination, I think, Ayano. You really have to focus your chakra! Not think about focusing it. Take some of the water and wipe that off; be careful not to touch your teeth together."

Whimpering, the girl moved over to the buckets, and dipped her hand in. Some of the water was drawn out by use of a cupped palm, and she washed away the ink from her face. Tongue slipped out to lick her lips, and her nose wrinkled. "Uncle! I don't understand." He leaned back on his legs and groaned, shaking his head. "Just try again. You'll get it eventually."

[remix]

+10.

[» Her Design.]

[ 10/30 ]


"If you say so.." She didn't believe him, to be honest. But then again, there were a lot of things he said that seemed completely impossible, that .. just turned out to be true. He was her uncle, young as he was, and she had to believe in herself if she wanted to believe in him. It was a battle of self-confidence, to be sure, and she would win. She had to.

Wiping her face dry of all moisture, she walked back toward the space she began, and groaned. She nearly had the mind to give up! This chakra thing just wasn't her deal, and the academy teachers sucked at helping her figure it out. "Deep breaths!" Gatmaru called, noticing her trouble. "Force that chakra to go where it needs to go! Use your will."

Glancing back at him, she nodded, and closed her eyes. Like he said, this was not about imagination. She focused on the feelings of her body; the rise and fall of energy, and the faint glow of something else entirely. She grasped onto the other firmly, and concentrated it toward her stomach. There was, like she had pictured before, a feeling of fulfillment. But this was power, not as if she had eaten until bursting point.

Her head tipped back, blonde locks spilling along her shoulders as she pressed forward. There was a faint tingling in her stomach, coming from all areas of her body. A single, slowly growing mass of energy that may even have been visible, had it not been inside her. Gatmaru tilted his head, watching his so-called pupil with a curious eye. He had a few tricks up his sleeve, actually, that would make this rather fun.

Tilting her head back, the girl took a quick step forward, and took a deep inhale of breath. She could feel the chakra surge up along the throat, mixed with an unknown substance -- the ink, probably -- which was being created as it came. With a pursing of her lips, and forming them into almost a spitesq formation, she moved to eject the explosive semi-liquid from her body..

"You do know that you have to get it directly in that circle, no?" Gatmaru called at the last moment. Ayano's eyes widened, and some of the ink spit outward, in a very un-controlled fashion. It splattered all over the ground, clinging to the grass, while she choked on the rest that had actually filled her mouth. Panicing, because she could barely breathe, then kunoichi turned and flailed her arms wildly. Thankfully, though.. the ink seemed to turn back into chakra and disappear, inside of her body.

Relieved, the girl closed her mouth, with a groan. Her teeth chattered from the odd taste in her mouth, and .. Oh. Gatmaru and Ayano realized the mistake at once. The girl leapt forward, simultaneous with the explosion from behind her. She felt the heat graze her body, and some of her clothing even seared, causing a shot of pain throughout her legs. All from the heat! She could only imagine what it would be life if she had been in the center of it.

Sprawled on the ground now, she turned to face the area that had exploded, widening her eyes at the black flames that licked up from the area. Gatmaru was already on his feet, running to grab a bucket, and dump it over the fire. "Jesus Christ, girl!"[/i]

[remix]

+9

[19/30]

[» Her Design.]

[ 19/30 ]


What happened next, she barely wanted to remember. It had been painful, not to mention disgusting!


The chakra-ink mix -- whatever was left of it -- in her throat, it started to burn. It hadn't exploded like the stuff that was outside had, thankfully, but it felt uncomfortable. As if it was eating away at her windpipe, or something. The girl gagged, and rolled to face away from her uncle, who had sufficently stopped the spread of black. A convulsion racked her stomach, and she heaved. Only more of the ink came out, splashing across the ground sickly. She gasped for breath, and squirmed away from the pile, sniffling. Her tongue felt hot now, too. Was that the price for not doing the jutsu correctly? "Ohh. So you swallowed some?" Gatmaru piped in, snickering. "You're lucky your throat didn't implode. Might as well come over here and practice igniting it."

She pushed herself up onto her feet, and walked in his direction, woozily. When she was about at his side, she turned, and stared at the pile of ink. Opening her mouth, she snapped her teeth against one another with a click, and it exploded -- a deafening boom startling her. "Now just remember. When you use this jutsu, it's best to be at about this distance, so you don't get hurt. Plus, you won't have as much time to ignite it. When you use the jutsu, you should set it off immediately, to take out your opponent." She nodded.

[» Her Design.]

[ ??/30 ]


"Good, good.." He stepped across toward the more concentrated fire, and studied the flames as they licked at the air. "Also, try to remember that the explosion will be bigger when this hits an actual target. Another shinobi, and a summon, et cetera." She nodded again, but turned her head to cough against her shoulder. Though her throat was still burning, the pain was easing, now that the ink had been expelled. In the meantime, her uncle had doused this new flame, and sat back in his place. "Again! Try again." She gave him a little frown, aware that he wasn't kidding when he said she had to get it in that area. But, she had a better idea! Wouldn't real targets be moving? She had to practice doing it while running, too.

Straightening out her shirt, the soon-to-be kunoichi repeated the process of gathering chakra. Her eyes closed again, and this time, her chin tipped to touch the curve of her collarbone. Either hand moved up to curl fingers within eachother, nails digging into the skin. The flows of energy began within herself for the second real time of the day. It was still a very odd, new sensation for her, to be physically aware of this thing known as chakra. The academy taught it, or at least, the theory of it. They would do much better to have practices like these.

Her muscles tensed, and her eyes opened. She studied the place, and then turned her gaze up, to look about the area. There were trees, training dummies, and .. not much else. A few quick jumps through the foliage, and a dart or two! That would surely suffice as movement training, in her book. Gatmaru probably would agree, if he could see into her head, but .. she didn't feel like asking him.

Instead, she darted from her place, with just a fidget and groan of her muscles. Running out across the semi-deserted area, she leapt up into a tree on the edge of the clearing. Maneuvering through the branches with little resistance, she pounced onto the next tree, and .. had an idea. Why not use the training dummies, not just the patch of grass? It seemed like such a good plan! Even better than the last, actually.

Propelling herself off the trunk with a bounce of a branch and her hand, she landed with a slight skid in front of one of the dummies. There were three in this area, which would be enough, she assumed. Pursing her lips, while starting up her running movements to the left, she expelled ink onto each of the dummies. One, two, three. Each were covered in black.

Turning on her heel, she used an academy jutsu that she had just learned in class the other day -- the shunshin (1/3) technique. Her muscles seemed to pick up, and her breathing capacity expanded, and the girl 'appeared' -- having run too fast for Gatmaru to see -- a bit further away from the dummies. Click, one. The first dummy burst into flames. Click, two; three. The other two followed suit with similar movements of her jaw.

But the girl didn't stop to stare, as she had the other few times around. Her uncle said she needed to get the ink in the circular area to "pass" his little training exam. It wasn't far away from her new positon, so she continued with her running movements. Making fairly unneccesary leaps and dips from side to side, as if dodging invisible obsticals. When she got near the area, she concentrated her chakra and spit up a good amount of the ink. It splattered within the places that seemed charred already, and she shunshin'd again. This time, however, her teeth had clicked simultaneously with her fast movement.

She felt the heat of the fourth explosion graze her body, but she pulled away from it far before it could do any damage. Still, she knew that was a lucky move, and wouldn't be a good idea during battle. The opponent wouldn't be able to move, she knew, because it was sticky.. but the explosion would be much larger, and hard to get away from.

Letting out a ragged breath, she stopped her running, and eventually turned to face the damage she had caused. She was running out of chakra fast, so she hoped that uncle Gatmaru would pity her and say that she did a good job; and that they could stop. Scanning the flames, as black as they where, she smiled. It was nice knowing that she could do something like this, even if she would never use it.[/size]

[Spamato]

learned

..interestin jutsu

[» Her Design.]

And then they had gone home. Ayano sighed as she pulled herself from her daydream, very much pleased that she could remember things in such detail. But, it would do her and Amegakure no good, if she were to only fantasize. She needed to get better, and that jutsu would come in handy later on. Standing up from her bed, she headed toward the staircase, with plans to continue where Gatmaru left off on her training.

[exit]

[» Her Design.]

The front door to the li's household was kicked open, smashing it against the window -- which was already broken -- in a certain kunoichi's attempt to get outside. She simply couldn't use her hands! They were filled to the spilling point with paint tubes, a large sketch pad, and other instruments. Even between her teeth, there was a pencil, freshly sharpened!

As the blonde stumbled out through her door, she didn't bother to close it. No, instead, she plopped right down into the soft grass that bordered her house. The pad was set down, along with a cup, which was then stocked with the paint tubes, her brush, and an eraser. She pulled the pencil from beneath her teeth, picked up the paper again, and leaned back against the edge of her doorframe. Blue eyes tilted up toward the sky, and she watched.

There had to be a creative muse here, somewhere.

[remix]

"You seriously need to work on your entrances."

Behind her stood a dark blue haired male, left eye raised as he glanced around in interest- making sure that she was well off, and well fed, atleast. He simply stood there, eyes staring off into the distance as he stood rigid, his right arm gracefully placed over his hip slightly, his left hand within his pocket.

Oh yea, did I mention he was incredibly sexy?

[» Her Design.]

"My entrances are just fine--" The girl's voice trailed off, suddenly realizing that no one should have been speaking to her, whatsoever. If they were, it meant they had gone out of their way to visit her, and that was certainly not normal. Tearing her gaze from the sky, she stared at the Amekage, with a look of shock paling her features. Why was he here? Had the mission started already, or something?

Her tongue slid out, moistening her lips, as she watched him. He did look .. well, she couldn't really explain it, but it was just what she was looking for! Bringing her pencil away from her cheek, where the eraser had pressed in her though, she aligned the tip lightly upon the paper. While her stare remained and attention remained upon him, the pencil started to sketch, almost too fast for the eye to see. She was a fast worker, thanks to Gahou Tenrai.

".. Come to visit me?" She murmured, absently, as not to seem rude.

[remix]

Nagaku's face turned to glance at her, his hands placed upon his hips as he leaned forward slightly; eyebrow lifting to raise as he frowned narrowing his eyes upon her figure.

"Don't flatter yourself."

Short, and sweet. He stood straight, moving slightly towards her to peer at what she was drawing- his head tilting to the side.

[» Her Design.]

It didn't matter much if he moved, for she already had the image of his pose stuck in her head. By the time he stepped over to look at her pad, she was adding on the finishing touches -- a heart and a few japanese characters, (removed 'cause proboards doesn't like kanji). For those not proficient in the artistic language of the asian persuasion, it would translate out to "The Sexy Kage~."

Removing the tip of her pencil from the pad, she glanced up at him, flashing a bright grin. Apparently, she had completely ignored his own rudeness, in favor of her drawing. Things like art had away of consuming her attention and emotion; anger, sadness, happiness. Whenever she was being creative, there was no room for those outside of the paper. "Like it, Naga-sama?" Ayano finally inquired, glancing down to her other tools.

[remix]

He glanced, reading the paper before his head lifted a tad, eyebrow cocking as he frowned.

The sexy kage?!

He blushed faintly, his eyes closing as he turned his head away, moving towards the other areas of the house to find something of interest. Back turned to her, he looked around as he yawned slightly- growing tired.

[» Her Design.]

Because she had been looking more toward the ground, Ayano didn't see his blush. Similarly, he didn't say anything, so she could only assume he either hated it .. or was offended. With a curl of her bottom lip, the kunoichi pulled herself up from the ground, and followed him through the first floor of the house. She set her notepad down upon a countertop, and tilted her head in his direction. Oh, what he must have thought! As far as he knew, she didn't even have a bedroom -- it was nowhere to be found in the apparent one-floor building.

Moving past him, she plopped herself down on a cushion of her love seat, and leaned against the arm. Her own arm moved up, and she rested her chin against the curl of her palm. Of course, still watching him the whole time, to see what he would do. A slow breath was taken, "Naga-sama?" She piped in, hiding a pained face, "I apologize for how I acted, when we first met. It.. wasn't what I had intended."

[remix]

"It's fine." He gave the simple reply, his eyes closing as he momentarily thought. Then, he turned- walking towards the door. "I just came to make sure you're well off..." He spoke, and then left.

[ exit.

[» Her Design.]

Blinking as he left, she stood up, and swaggered off toward her bedroom. It was getting late.

[exit]