[fieldbox=Two Butterflies in a Wolf's Den, violet]
Empire of Akino,
Hon Clan Lands.
Magnhild - The Seat of the White Wolf.
A relatively long collab between Winter and Lesli
Part 4
Summary:
The next morning after arriving in Magnhild with team 8, Aiko sets out to venture back to the 'Thirsty Boar' - where she arranged some lodges for her students. Once gathering up with Satia, the two spend some time together. Talking, shopping and relaxing.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
[spoili]
She tried to follow Aiko's words as closely as she could to understand what it was that was happening. She couldn't pretend she knew much of the void other than hearing about it by name alone. Despite the Jounin downplaying the skill, the Genin was still rather impressed.
"I see..." she replied, her words soft and almost absent as she allowed her mind to drift for a moment, to simply observe her environment and allow her more analytical side to absorb the experience. When Aiko lead them back to the square Satia found her confusion grow but tried to let the questions lay for another time. She tried to imagine that perhaps they were simply existing within a singular frame in time, like a snapped image that remained static except for the two of them. Of course this was merely theory and the truth were likely entirely different, yet the thought interested her still.
Satia turned towards Aiko as she set her things down, following her example as she set her own things down someplace safe before readying herself for a friendly confrontation.
"Well, I had that technique I mentioned earlier to debut for you, but I think perhaps it might be more educational to put it to the test in the practical sense" she replied with a smile before adding,
"As for the training itself, perhaps something which requires us to consider alternative means of overcoming an opponent" the Genin felt she should elaborate.
"I sometimes believe that to better yourself, you must pit yourself against superior individuals... walk among them, observe and aspire to emulate them in the end" Satia gave a small grin,
"What I suppose I'm trying to say, is perhaps we should... how they say, test each others metal?".
Waiting a moment, Aiko would hear out what Satia suggested. Crossing her arms out front of her chest, the jounin considered it. Though not overly fond of sparing, she had to say that she was curious about what Satia had in mind regarding a new technique.
"Alternative means, huh? I suppose that does make things interesting. Though it will mean that I have to be far more aggressive. But colour me interested."
Increasing some distance between them, Aiko would stop at almost the other end of the square. It was certainly big enough to qualify as some sort of training field. Though Aiko doubted that the paved stones would soften a fall or slide as much as a grassfield would.
"So, anything else that you would like to add to this test of metal? If it is trying to approach things in an alternative way, I already can rule out that I won't be using much genjutsu or sense blocking techniques."
Satia brought a hand to her chin as she contemplated the spar a little more in depth, wondering how she could perhaps place something of more interest into the details besides the aforementioned. Coming to an idea she nodded, smiling as she seemed content with her response. "How about this, the aim of the game is for me to be able to lay a finger upon you, literally" she said, holding up her index finger.
"You're more experienced, faster and stronger than I am. To achieve this goal I will have to consider indirect approaches to catch you off guard, seeing how you respond to my attempts might allow me to learn from you should I discover myself in a circumstance where keep away is essential between life or death" she stopped and smiled,
"But of course you are my teacher, if you believe there's a better way or you believe there is something better for me to grasp in this session, by all means correct my ramblings".
The challenge wasn't original but that shouldn't make it less interesting.
"Hmm, no. It is not bad at all. After all, I can't really complain it is unfair or bad. I have more than enough techniques under my belt to make things really difficult for you. So, I am game." The jounin would flash a smile.
"So, let us see." Letting her arms slowly hang at her side, Aiko's head tilted slightly to the right.
"I am more than ready Satia. Just start whenever you feel like you're ready."
The Genin gave a single respectful nod in response, hearing the word
'difficult' was something Satia quite enjoyed. It meant a challenge, and wherever a challenge could be found was an opportunity to learn and improve from an experience. "I shall do my best!" she said with friendly enthusiasm before she would sweep one of her legs back, gracefully with precise movement as she simultaneously raised her arms in front of her. The eyes of the Genin locked onto Aiko whom became both her target and an entity of her curiosity from this point on, eager to see how the Jounin would handle herself against the different methods she intended to employ against her. With a flick of her wrists the silver throwing knives fanned out in her palms and for a moment it might be assumed she was going for a direct approach with a ranged attack.
With a quick nimble spin she danced to the left, sweeping her arm upwards to unleash five silvery blades to drag across the air above her like a cutting saw, tearing through the ropes holding up the clothes laid out to dry hanging over the square. The garments would descend like rain, allowing a short window of time for Satia to follow through with her advancement, the momentum of her spin bringing her low to the ground as she threw out two more knives that navigated the rain of clothes while hugging close to the floor, intending to snare Aiko's ankles and reel her in like caught prey.
Watching with growing curiosity and anticipation, Aiko would remain standing still. When Satia began her move, Aiko's hands moved slightly up. The sight of the knives caused Aiko's eyes to narrow slightly. She had seen Satia deploying those weapons before, which was back at Amegakure. With no weapons on herself, Aiko deigned it impossible to just evade the controlled weapons.
"Oh?" The word softly escaped the lips of the woman as she saw where the knives went.
"A distraction? I can't this time crack down on the originality of it. Very nice." The jounin thought to herself as she would skid backwards while moulding chakra at her right hand. The blue hue would swiftly shift into pressured wind chakra. Lashing out, Aiko would whip out two quick gusts that would slash and move the clothing aside, hopefully also slamming the knives into the air away.
Detecting some movement at the ground, Aiko would bring her hand down to deliver one fast sweep of pressured wind chakra at the ground. The result would be quite violent as the paved stone would be slammed upwards together with some debris, driving the two pending knives away.
Satia had wondered if the Jounin would work with the elements to dispel the clothing shroud, having seen what she could do back in Amegakure when she displayed a little of wind and water techniques. Because of this she was quick to retract her knives from the air to avoid them becoming a liability in Aiko's wind blasts, the wires being a double edged blade when thrown out of her control. In fact she remembered reading of a man who used her techniques with her knives whom had lost control of his knives and decapitated himself with the wires on accident. The other two knives were of course blown away and quickly collected as the wires pulled them back to her hand again. Of course it'd not be so simple, though the Genin made a mental note of how Aiko had pressured wind against the ground to create a defense.
The clothes had almost all fallen now and some had been torn from Aiko's violent slashes causing more material to free fall between them, though Satia decided to use this to an advantage. More material meant a more complex shroud and that could still prove a use to her cause.
"Adapt, overcome..." she softly repeated to herself before she repeated Aiko's previous movement, expending a strong torrent of wind to the ground to blast the clothing from the ground back into the air once more. Though this time she wouldn't send her knives, but instead shifted her stance and aimed a sidekick to blast the clothing towards the Jounin directly, stepping forwards and kicking from her back foot to follow up the assault, using the clothing as cover for her advance.
The knives were pulled back from what Aiko could spot. It was somewhat of a shame as she had planned to use the wire against the genin. It would have been quite feasible with the use of wind chakra blasts. However, Satia seemed to ready herself to do something else. Readying herself, Aiko frowned when the genin blasted the clothes with a strong current. Which meant that the clothing were sent flying towards her and obstructed her view of the genin. The temptation to use one of her wind techniques to defend herself, Aiko would instead opt to use something else instead. Weaving a few handsignals, the jounin would inhale before expelling a torrent of water. Letting it slam into the ground, it would form a barrier of water with a strong current. Both to defend herself against and lay the foundation of what she wanted to do next.
Her eyes widened when the water barrier raised, soaking the clothes and weighing them down making them unable to sail through the air as a distraction or obstacle to Aiko's vision. She didn't dare to try and physically move through the barrier, prepared that it was surely strong enough to throw her with the strength of a rip tide. Instead the Genin slid to a stop short of the barrier and cast her knives to the side, upwards to anchor into the side of a building, blasting wind release at her feet and kicking from the ground while pulling with her arm to propel her towards the side of the building. She'd brace her feet against the buildings wall upon contract, seeking advantage from the new angle to jump over Aiko's barrier before the Genin would descend towards her after pulling her knives from the wall, collecting a volume of air in her palm as she intended to unleash a violent torrent to flatten the Jounin against the stones, just long enough to land her touch.
Letting the water torrent slowly run down Aiko would quickly proceed with her next move. Weaving a few hand signals in rapid succession, another 'Aiko' would raise from the water. It was way too far from being stealthy to not notice the water clone but that wasn't the purpose. With the water torrent down, Aiko saw that the clothes were down as well. And no sight of Satia.
Quickly looking around, the jounin couldn't spot the genin. Until she threw a glance up. Her eyes widened as she noticed that the genin was preparing an attack from above. Focusing chakra at the bottom of her boots the jounin attempted to move backwards with the extra boost. Raising her arms crossed in front of her, the wind slammed into the position she had been standing. Only resulting that she was further propelled backwards.
Rolling over the ground, Aiko managed to get up in a swift motion before coming to halt. Only with no actual time to do more than to take a quick look where she imagined Satia to be at.
Perhaps she was being overly aggressive as she kept up the momentum of her attacks, but then Satia wagered that trying to keep Aiko on the back foot would play into her advantage, if only to prevent her from using her superior skill and experience to retaliate or evade her to the extent she couldn't continue the pursuit. Seeing Aiko shift back and block to use the pressure from her attack to gain distance was impressive, if only because Satia hadn't thought to consider that herself when fighting against her own element.
The blast of wind had struck the ground where Aiko had previously been standing, failing in it's attempt but succeeding in following through on Satia's countermeasure, the attack slowing her decent enough for her to glide into a safe combat roll across the stone tiles. The younger Cho used the momentum of her roll to nimbly kick herself up into a side flip as she twisted her torso mid jump, sticking her leg outwards to arc it downward as she completed the flip, letting forth a quick arc of wind release towards Aiko's location. The attack was merely to give her time.
Reaching into her sleeve she pulled forth two small seeds, taking one and cracking it before she inhaled a large breath. Concentrating she would exhale a violent red cloud which crawled across the air space, filling the area fast as her lunges pushed air to further it's reach Aiko's direction. The cloud while thick and menacing was mostly for show, the substance within a harmless muscle relaxant that'd slow the movements of the victim or make movements require a lot more concentration and focus. It was the technique she intended to show Aiko before.
Once she was finished dispersing the red cloud she cracked the other seed and swallowed it, allowing her to move freely through the red mist to continue pursuing her teacher. "This is what I wished to show you!" she called, "Application of poisons and toxins via wind release and a little seed, with a counter seed for immunity" she explained. "This particular seed intends to relax physical muscle tissue upon inhalation, resulting in dramatically decreased performance… though this is one of many ideas for the strategy". The Genin tried to pick Aiko out of the mist, her perception seeking any sign of movement.
Lowering her arms as she started to slide to a halt, Aiko kept a close watch on her student. There was the temptation to throw a strong counter-attack back. But the jounin would hold herself back, enjoying the kind of cat and mouse game that was taking place.
Spotting the arc of wind, Aiko would focus wind chakra in her mouth. Letting the chakra build up, she would expel a gust of her own to counter and nullify the first wind arc.
What followed did confuse Aiko slightly. Though having seen various unorthodox fighting styles and methods, she couldn't assume what Satia pulled from her sleeve. Wary though, the jounin's curiosity started to grow. The second that the genin would unleash a red mist, Aiko's instincts started to yell 'danger'. But even though the jounin would try to skid backwards, the mist was faster than she had anticipated. Taking a breath in, Aiko squinted her eyes as she came to a halt.
"Mixing wind release with a poison cloud," Aiko summarized in her mind again. It would be a major hypocrite move to call it dangerous or annoying. Smiling slightly, she would remain still and consider her options. She could remain hidden but she had to breathe sooner or later, suffocating not really an option. There was the option of just blowing the red mist away with wind release but that was too easy. Silently, the jounin would move out of the mist. Reaching the end of the mist, she almost had run out of breath.
"Good thing that she isn't yet good at genjutsu. I would have actually been in a really bad spot then."
Recovering for a second, Aiko would raise her voice to make it clear for Satia where she was.
"Very impressive! Most genin tends to just focus on the basic functions of a technique, not to mix them with the environment. Or adding the effects of, like, poison to it." She told Satia in return,
"I do wonder. What if an opponent will blow this mist back? Somebody with wind release would be a pain if they could do that." The jounin asked, keeping a close eye on if the mist would suddenly be expelled towards her. Wondering if Satia had an antidote, Aiko blinked her eyes rapidly a few times. She didn't feel any irritation, so it was perhaps just the danger of breathing it in?
Satia grinned hearing Aiko's words, not only because of the kind praise but also because it meant her attempt to slow her teacher had failed, meaning she had to increase her creativity, come at her from more different and indirect angles.
"I'm glad you asked!" she replied before bringing her hands together, performing the technique that Aiko herself had taught her back after their first training session in Amegakure.
'Let's see what you do with this... ' she thought to herself as a dome of wind spun up around her, increasing in strength as the torrent quickly picked up pace.
The flow of wind within the dome began to drag the red mist towards it like a tornado, drawing more and more into it till the red cloud circulated her like a storm, tightening till the mist itself had its own air current. The manipulation of the air pulling the cloud into a circular current made the mist more dense and controlled, visually pulled into a perfect moving circle around Satia whom was obviously controlling it from the epicenter of the mist. The Genin withdrew another pip from her sleeve, cracking it's case between her teeth before she exhaled it into her circulating storm.
The mist would turn from red to a dark purple, a second layer of effects designed to replicate an irritation using the common stinging nettle as a base for it's design, though unlike the other effect which was still present, this one needed only to make contact.
"With the air current controlled and maintained, an attempt to disturb it with wind release will be as effective as trying to dent water... in theory. That is, unless my opponent can generate a torrent that can overpower the strength of my air current" she explained, but wasn't yet finished with her trick.
"Additionally, while very effective in defense, I am still able to attack".
Satia drew in a breath and expelled a strong blast of air against the wall of her dome which amplified it with it's current, allowing It to puncture outwards, absorbing both layers of the circulating mist during its trajectory before lashing out towards Aiko like a pillar of fast moving cloud that would aim to slam against her. All Satia needed to do was keep her eyes on Aiko as she moved, blasting more pillars of mist at her like ranged artillery.
Narrowing her eyes, Aiko tried to pick up what was happening. The faint sound of movement was detected by the jounin but she couldn't entirely place on what it could be. On guard, she saw how the poisonous fume would be attracted towards Aiko assumed where Satia was.
"Hmmm." Aiko would weave a few handsignals as she wondered what the genin meant.
The woman's eyes would widen as she noticed what would follow. In a quick reflex, the jounin moved to the right as the first attack would just miss her. Holding her breath in for a moment, Aiko would observe the pillar. It was quite creative and she had only seen a similar technique. Though there were glaring differences. For one, she hadn't expected that Satia was able to slam pillars of poisonous mist towards her.
It took a lot of concentration to keep everything together, for not only did she have to aim the pillars of mist at her target, but also maintain the domes shape and the strength of the air current. For a Genin it was fairly taxing, but if anything Satia seemed very at home in her element with Wind Release. Her eyes narrowed as the first pillar missed, crashing against the wall before the pillar lost shape as the air within it destabilized and dissipated into the non controlled air space. Her heightened perception kicked in as she began to lead her next shot, aiming for where Aiko would be rather than where she was. The young Cho took in another breath before exhaling another blast, sending forth a pillar that would strike Aiko directly as it's trajectory traveled to meet her mid movement.
Seeing the pillar hit her eyes widened, having honestly not expected it despite her determination and persistence. The Genin couldn't let the opportunity pass, deciding to use this moment to follow up and advance. She dropped the dome and followed the momentum of the air current, timing the drop in the mist's momentum to direct the entire mist cloud towards her in a huge AOE attack as she spun on her heel and kicked it towards her. It was her single largest AOE attack but due to her limitations in experience as a Genin she wasn't able to kick all of the cloud towards Aiko, only a large portion of it. Of course she'd used a lot of her Chakra already.
Kicking from her back foot the younger Cho followed the cloud, weaving between the dense and thicker parts of it before leaping forth to jump out of cloud, almost like appearing out of nowhere to aim a quick finger punch to tag Aiko's shoulder.
The shock was there for Aiko as well. The collision of the pillar of mist wasn't painful but it was enough to make Aiko flinch and stand still. Only for the entire poison cloud to descend upon her. Raising her arms, the jounin seemed to do something but would be too late. Eventually, the woman would be surrounded by a poof of smoke, only to fall apart what seemed to be water.
"Oeh," Aiko's voice resonated from behind Satia's current position.
"That would have been really nasty." The jounin had her hands at the back of her head as she stood at a safe distance while looking at the spot where Satia's attack had descended upon.
"Just a question. How many opponents were you facing over the course of this fight?" Aiko asked, her gaze shifting towards the genin.
"Gotcha!" she smiled as her finger punch landed, only for Aiko to seemingly fall away into a puddle of water leaving Satia to seem momentarily confused before her mind began to work out what happened just as Aiko's words spoke up from behind her.The Genin closed her eyes for a moment as she exhaled and smiled, shaking her head as she recomposed and turned towards the real Aiko... or well, who she thought might be the real Aiko. Satia had fought very aggressively and hard into the engagement and had managed to catch her clone, leaving herself with a low Chakra pool and a level of exhaustion. If the Jounin had been her real enemy she'd be easy for her to kill at this moment in time.
"You truly are outstanding Aiko-Sensei" she replied with a small soft chuckle before answering her question.
"I'm honestly unsure now how many of you I was fighting, I admit I thought I had zeroed in on your position from the start, I couldn't even guess at what moment you might have switched" she confessed honestly. Satia had tried to keep Aiko in her sight for the majority of the engagement in hopes she would prevent exactly this from happening, but it seemed the Jounin had managed to slip away at a moment where Satia had provided an opportunity.
The jounin shook her head as the ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.
"Outstanding? I disagree. You were simply too focused on me. I made one Water Clone and kept the clone away from the clash. It is an old trick that works quite well, as you can now verify." Aiko explained. She was also aware that if she hadn't a clone to use the switch technique with, that she would have no chance to come out of that poison cloud without being affected.
"But quite the combination. I must applaud you once more. Even if it starts to seem like something I easily do. Which is quite the opposite." Aiko said.
"I do think that there are some fields we could work on but it is clear that I need to be careful on how low I let my guard be during spars with you from now on." Pausing for a moment, Aiko considered that the spar was over. Starting to walk towards Satia, Aiko eyed the younger Cho for a moment.
"Are you feeling well though? Certain you didn't breathe in any of that poison? Not to mention, what kind of poison was that?"
Satia took in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, a method of calming the body and mind similar in practices to meditation which she'd learned many years ago.
"Thank you" she replied in response to the praise before giving a single understanding nod as Aiko went on to explain that praise was not often common in her vernacular. She thought back to the water wall when Aiko mentioned the clone and suddenly realized when she'd gone wrong, instead of dealing with the clone she'd tunneled onto her pursuit of Aiko and let it drift from her mind which of course had cost her the engagement. Nevertheless the experience did exactly as she'd hoped in teaching her methods of evasion and things to consider going forwards.
"Oh I'm quite alright, thank you. I should explain though" she withdrew two pips from her sleeve and presented them to Aiko once she was close enough. With her other hand she pointed to each pip individually, "I've taken to coloring the shells of these pips so I can tell them apart, but you see this one here" she pointed to a red pip,
"This was one of the ones I used earlier, simply pinch it between your teeth and exhale wind release to create the cloud effect I demonstrated earlier, however such an attack will of course have repercussions on the user if they're left unprotected, which is what this one is for" she pointed to the other pip,
"This is the antidote or counter pip. Unlike the other, the user can simply swallow this to avoid suffering the same effects. Additionally, you may also use wind release to exhale the antidote or counter effect into the cloud to neutralize it".
"I took one of these pips to avoid suffering my own attack and it is what allowed me to traverse the cloud unharmed" she smiled.
"The first cloud, the red one. It was a design intended to trouble you upon inhalation, it would work like a sedative to slow your movements which would allow me to close the gap with an advantage. The purple mist, that one was of a more simpler design using a stinging nettle plant to cause irritation upon contact... would also have been rather uncomfortable to inhale too" she softly chuckled.
"I have many plans for these pips, I think it could have some real applications in the field for a multitude of situations".
Leaning slightly forward, Aiko eyed the pips that Satia revealed. Cupping her chin with her left hand, Aiko nodded to indicate that she understood Satia's explanation.
"I see, I see," the woman mumbled as she became silent for a moment. She had already thought of the flaws that the particular combination of poison and technique could have. But it was clear that Satia had given it some thought herself. Thus making it only redundant to repeat how dangerous such a style of fighting could be for the practitioner.
"What about your allies? I take it that you could forge plans to share the antidote with your allies. Making them immune or somewhat able to resist poisonous fumes that you conjure." Aiko brought up, both asking as thinking out loud.
"I think it is quite ingenious. I prefer to work in a different fashion with my poison but this isn't bad. Not at all! If you would find it alluring, I could look into what I could provide to aid you to further this kind of technique and combination."
Satia smiled and nodded at the mention of forging plans to help allies.
"Oh definitely. I would have to give members of the team the antidote pip and explain that they would need to swallow it before the technique could be put to use, to avoid catching them in the attack. I think the max potential for it would come from premeditated attacks where we'll be looking to engage in an ambush scenario, or perhaps a situation similar to our previous mission where we'd confirmed a plan beforehand" Satia replied.
Of course the technique combination wouldn't work as well as an unplanned attack in a fight with friendlies present since she would have to count on everyone else to realize her intentions and take the pip, which would honestly be too much of a risk. However should she find herself up against multiple targets she dared to say it had some very real potential in terms of keeping her alive, at least that was her own opinion anyway. When Aiko mentioned offering aid to help her increase the techniques potential she smiled and have a nod. "That would be most appreciated, I'll gladly take anything you can give me" she said optimistically.
Aiko placed her hands at her back as Satia provided an answer in return.
"Very good. It would be quite bad if your teammates would be struck by poison. I doubt that Neji or Kazumo would be too upset about a mistake but not take kindly to be poisoned by an ally." A clear sliver of amusement was present in the woman's voice.
"Glad to hear so. Your own initiative to combine it with Wind release is already a good step. Seems that you're already aware of what weakness it can bring and how an opponent could counter this. Hmmm," Aiko would turn away and start to pace back and forth as she pondered about a few things. Coming to a halt, she would slightly turn towards her pupil.
"I could see if I can arrange some space and time in a workshop. Teaching what I know about how to make poison bombs. Cause while Wind release is quite dandy, it can sometimes be more effective to throw a bomb and let the poison be expelled as spread by a small ignition or shockwave from a small explosion."
The Genin leaned her head to the side a little as Aiko went on to explain about poison bombs, something that Satia hadn't considered to use before given her methods and style was more quiet. Nevertheless she was curious to learn what the Jounin had to offer in terms of the combination of pyrotechnics with poison.
"I have to admit I have little to no experience with explosives and pyrotechnics, it's always seemed to be that there's a lot which can go... wrong, if handled incorrectly" she remembered reading up about a situations where explosives had detonated before their fuse timer, leaving the user without a hand and sometimes more depending on the payload.
Satia's reply made Aiko flash an apologising smile.
"That is more than fine. I got some connections that I can put to use. It is also just an idea," she continued pondering about the topic. There were various other ways but right now she was sure that the there was little to nothing that should be changed about the way how Satia handled the poisonous wind pillar. The combination could be countered but it wasn't that flawed that it raised too much concern.
"I think that the combination is quite solid. The more I think about it, the less that I actually would change regarding it. Obviously, it would be ill-advised to use it against those who utilise fire release. Seeing that putting yourself into a vortex of fire doesn't sound healthy." The jounin concluded as she shook her head lightly.
"I do think that concludes this training. Unless there is something you still want to ask or talk about regarding this training. Else I suggest we head back. I prefer to not linger too much around here."
Satia nodded, she wouldn't turn down the opportunity to learn about explosives if not to at least have a better understanding of dealing with them from opponents, but she had to admit she disliked the idea of carrying them on her person just in case an attack managed to detonate it on her person. When Aiko asked if she had anything else she wished to discuss she looked like she was about to shake her head before having a thought,
"Actually I suppose I wouldn't mind a second opinion on something" she said, reaching into her wrist and pulling forth a throwing knife, pulling it out till she exposed the thin wire attached to it.
"As you know these wires are something I've been using for quite some time in my combat skill set, however I've considered the possibility of changing up the wires to something more... deadly" she was unsure of how to describe her intention so decided to elaborate.
"I was thinking of changing out the simple wire filament for razor wire or something akin to cheese wire which would of course be more deadly" she looked to Aiko,
"Although the risk is, if these wires were somehow sent back to me out of my control... I could be losing my hands, and possibly much more. But what do you think?" she asked curiously.
Upon hearing that Satia wanted a second opinion, Aiko flashed a smile to assure the genin that she had all the attention. Leaning forward to slightly be able to inspect the wire better, Aiko didn't respond right away.
"I wouldn't do it." She would say at first.
"There are other ways to make even a dull cord deadly or able to cut through material. Not just talking about friction but we could, later on, delve into chakra flow and similar ways on how to achieve a similar effect. " She further explained.
"It is, after all, much like you said yourself. If you would replace the wire and you lose control, the damage could have been prevented if you hadn't replaced it. In the case of chakra flow, you simply stop fluctuating your chakra into the wire to make it less of a hazard for yourself. For when you lose control, for example."
The Genin listened and nodded, smiling as she understood.
"That is a far better alternative, thank you" she said before tucking the blade away into her sleeve again, the bracer giving a small click to signal the knife has been returned safely.
"I wasn't even aware of such techniques, though I suppose that comes with experience" she gave a soft chuckle.
"I have no further questions for you Aiko-Sensei" she said softly, giving a respectful bow of her head.
"Heh, that is why I am here for." Aiko said, a soft laughter escaping her as she briefly rubbed the back of her head. As Satia commented that she had no further questions, Aiko would nod.
"Then I suppose we can conclude this training. I still got time to spare. If there is something you would like to do in the city, then I wouldn't mind to accompany you." She said. Moulding the chakra in her hand, she would raise her hand as she continued talking.
"But first, let us get back." Placing her hand on Satia's shoulder, Aiko would extend the chakra and let them both be engulfed rapidly by chakra that had a green hue. By what seemed to be the blink of an eye, the two were back near where they had entered the void.
"There we are. Aiko said, clasping her hands on her hips.
Satia nodded before bracing herself as Aiko began to change the environment once more, however as much as she'd tried to brace herself for it she still couldn't help but feel a little nauseous before it began to fade slowly.
"It'll take time for me to get used to that... " she commented with a small amount of amusement towards her own situation. She considered what else there was to do here, not really knowing the area that well she considered the possibilities as she once again lifted her bag of herbs bought earlier.
"I don't know this place very well, but while we're in the area perhaps we should check in with the cities notice board and see if there aren't jobs we can assist with?" she asked before elaborating a little.
"I mean, there are likely people here that could use our skills and talents. And it'd be a good way of earning coin to fund our mission and gear for the team while doing a good deed, wouldn't you agree?" she asked. She remembered picking up coin in her spare time by dealing with minor threats for local townsfolk, usually dealing with thieves or dangerous wildlife that'd nested too close to the village people. Helping people was of course something that pleased the Genin regardless of social opinion and even if they were going to accept monetary gain it would further their own goals too.
"Heh, yeah. I used to feel dizzy and out of place whenever I trained with the technique. Eventually, you may get used to it." Aiko replied. Listening to what Satia suggested, Aiko didn't consider it a bad idea. She didn't think that money would be a problem. If anything, that was something Aiko could easily arrange for the team's expenses. The fact, however, was that taking a request of a notice board could bring some experience to the table. And the experience that an undertaking could bring was always welcome. Even if it just allows Satia to learn more about the city and its denizens.
"It is a grand idea. Though I think it might be a good idea to then drag in Kazumo and Neji into it. Even though they are chuunin, they aren't that vastly experienced. How about we later go do that as a team? Might help you three get to know more about what each of you is capable of." Was Aiko's answer.
"Else I can even request the local authority if they would have a task at hand for the team."
The younger Cho brightened at the idea of involving the others, giving a single pleased nod.
"That sounds like a great idea, having the others broadens our efficiency and ability to complete the tasks" she agreed.
"And as you said a good opportunity to gain some experience" she replied.
Aiko was glad to see that Satia found the suggestion good. It gave some hope that the younger Cho was eager to work together with her team members. Besides the long trek that they had made altogether, there hadn't been much room to work or spend time together.
"Good. I will arrange something then. Not to mention that I already had a sort of excursion for the team planned anyways. I can get to it right now unless there is something else on your mind?"
The Genin shook her head with a smile,
"No I think I'm content for now" she replied simply.
"Thank you for spending this time with me Aiko-Sensei. Training aside, it's good to talk and simply enjoy company every once in a while" she said before turning herself in the direction of where the others were, assuming they would be heading that way.
Flashing a smile, Aiko nodded her head in agreement.
"Indeed." As Satia would go back, Aiko wondered about something. The genin was picking things up quite fast. At this rate, she would require training that would be considered advanced. Too advanced for a fresh genin. While Satia went back to the Thirsty Boar, Aiko decided to head back to visit somebody. Perhaps she could arrange something to provide a good challenge for both genin and chuunin of Team 8 alike.
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