markofthebrave | [ Action ] .041

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[ Action ] .041

((The following takes place between 11:30pm on the 19th and 4:00-5:00 am on the 20th.))

[Katara awoke with a start - another nightmare. They'd been bothering her on and off since the draft, since seeing Nami... but now that Sokka was back she'd been getting better rest, so at first she thought all she'd have to do was lay back down and fall back asleep. No such luck. She feels more awake, more alive than she's felt in weeks. Deciding to get up and get a drink of water, Katara soon discovers the reason.

The moon is full. And it looks so close. All she needs to do is close her eyes and she can feel the pulsing of her own blood... of Zuko's, of Suki's, of Toph's, and Sokka... She opens her eyes, sets down the water, and tries to go back to bed, but she's too restless to sleep, and every time she begins to rest she can feel it. The push and pull. And she's so awake.

Katara decides it's a good night for a walk. The chill of winter is still in the air, so she bundles up, grabs her waterskin and her journal, and quietly makes her way out of the house. At first she starts to head towards town, but it's too brightly lit with those electric lights and she turns about halfway towards the plaza, deciding to walk along the river instead. She doesn't mean to go all the way to nearest lake - it's supposed to just be a quick walk to clear her head. But as the full moon battles with the clouds and the air fills with the heavy promise of rain, Katara loses track of time.

Feel free to bump into her as she walks up through town, along the river, or even down by the lake if she makes it that far - housemates can also bust her upon re-entry. >> This post inspired by the fact that the moon is closer to the earth tonight than it has been since the early 90s.]

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[She smiles at that and then hesitates.] That wouldn't be very fair to you, would it? I mean, the moon's like this... the lighting isn't very good.

[The moon's like this... Interesting. He thinks you meant more than lighting, Katara. Now that he thinks about it, it's more obvious. As strange as people's abilities are in this place, there's a clear rhyme or reason to how they work in most worlds.

Similarly, the effect the moon has on the tides is a well-known fact in many of them.]

Heh. Then I guess it'll be cakewalk for you, huh? [Forcing some sarcasm into that statement, as if he doesn't really think it would be.]

[Yeah, she believes that. /eyeroll. She's sure he's got more than a few tricks up his sleeve to make this spar a challenge, and there's no snow on the ground this time... but they are right by the lake.]

If I thought it would be a cakewalk, there wouldn't be any point.

[She starts taking off her waterskin so that she can shrug off her parka.]

True enough. So what's the objective for this one?

[Last time their spar was a rough version of capture the flag to call the winner, but that doesn't seem as fair anymore, now that they know how each other's abilities work.]

[Katara shrugs.] Zuko and I would just go until we got too tired, or one of us knocked the other down for a ten count.

[A shadow flickers over her face for a moment. Not that Zuko remembers.]

But I don't think that would work as well right now.

Not unless we want to be out here forever. [But that gives him an idea. He roots around in his pocket for a stopwatch.] We could time it. Give ourselves, say, a thirty-minute time limit and whoever gets in the most hits during that time wins.

That'll work. [She shrugs the waterskin back on.]

What counts as a hit?

Actual contact, for starters, like with your water. Or getting caught in a trap. [He's being careful to word himself here - he could give a list of things that could count, but it would reveal half the things he's planning to do.]

Maah, how troublesome. We both have different fighting styles. Let's just make it easy and count off our hits as we see getting them. Makes it more obvious to the other person, and it'll be less of a pain to keep score.

That'll work.

[And she shifts into a fighting stance.

...this is so not what she planned on when she came out here tonight. But at least it will let her get rid of whatever negative feelings this last leg of the journey dredged up.]

Ready when you are.

[He gathers his chakra and shifts his hands into the ram seal - the generic used for several common jutsus. Could be for anything.]

Ladies first.

[He's too fast for water At least, water on its own. And she remembers that did this last time too... and she'd waited him out. But this time she at least knew some of what to expect, they'd not only sparred, they'd fought together.

So she doesn't hesitate but to whip out a half dozen balls of ice, spread in a wide pattern in his direction from the water in her waterskin.

And initially, that will look like it's all that she's doing until one foot comes up in a wide, arching kick when the ice should be nearly upon him, and a stream of water shoots out from the nearby river, snaking towards one of his feet. All this takes place in less time than this took to read - a matter of seconds.]

[He doesn't move, probably because he's noting her technique.

In the next instant he's gone, as if he hadn't been standing there in the first place. The small swirl of leaves accompanied by Konoha's version of Shunshin no Jutsu will likely go unnoticed in the aftermath of her attack, especially if she's focused on finding him again.

She won't have to look far, however. Shikamaru's not hiding straight off the bat this time, and when his voice comes from behind her it's almost conversational.]

Bending with the leg? [Hand on her back - he doesn't like to hit girls] That's new, isn't it? One.

[The hand leaves even as he's sweeping down for a low kick. Not calling two yet - he's suspecting he won't get that far.]

[Her smile fades when he disappears - how is that in any way fair? - and she jumps inside her skin at the voice-

Right behind her, how did he do that, last time he switched with something-

-and the touch. She's already twisting around and isn't at all surprised to see that low kick - that's what she'd do, high and low. And she springs backwards, executing a backflip over his leg and to the side of him. The movement's not just for show, there were less fancy ways that she could have dodged that kick... but in this way she's pulling from the river again with her feet in a low, fast wave.]

Not really.

[Also, this move leaves her hand free to swat at his shoulder while she's in mid-air and he is, hopefully, distracted with the incoming rush of water. Hey, if 'touches' count, she might as well go for it even if it feels unnatural.]

[Not so much distracted as he is willing to pick the lesser of two evils, as it were. Getting drenched would be bad - she's shown him before that she can bend the water right out of his clothes, so what would there be to stop her from just bending it right back at him over and over again?

So instead, he doesn't bother avoiding the shoulder 'hit', choosing to instead all but roll into it. He takes out two kunai as he goes, somersaulting haphazardly away from the river before seemingly finding his balance as he reaches the taller grass near the trees. He flips himself over into a handstand, then pushes off to land in a crouch, a safe distance away from the wave.]

New for me, then. [Empty hand dip into his weapons holster, this time bringing out a shuriken.]

Edited 2011-03-22 04:55 (UTC)

One. [And there's no way she's following you away from the river and into the trees. Instead, she's going to work on eliminating some of his ease of movement. Mud, for example, much harder to run through than regular ground. She lifts up her hands and creates a wave that she sends rushing towards him, the hole in the wave closing just before it should reach him.]

I don't usually use it.

...troublesome.

[Thiiis could make things difficult, which was obviously your intention. He backs up without turning, seemingly looking for a way out.]

[In actuality, he's timing up. He already knows the only way out is up. When the timing is right, Shikamaru throws his shuriken. At first, it may look as if it will go long, but it will quickly become apparent that it's on a curved path towards Katara from around the wave.

It still shouldn't hit - not unless she's stupid enough to actually move into it's path. It will look close though.

At the same time, he charges forward, leaping and sending chakra to his feet to hit the wave. Short-lived as it will be, he's trying to get a good footing as close to the top of the wave as he can. From there it's a back-flip into the trees.]

[Crap. The shuriken glints on what's available of the moonlight, and she reacts by moving out of its way and letting it fly harmlessly passed her... just in time to see Shikamaru use her wave as leverage.

He's done that to her tidal wave last time too.

She dissipates the wave before it hits the treeline, frowning to herself. She should have known he would do that, she should have remembered. That was just plain sloppy.

Oh well. Hitting him with it hadn't been the aim of the move anyway. But now he was even further away from her, and well into the trees, and Katara was absolutely determined not to follow him there. But why would he come out, when he thought he had the clear advantage?

...heh. Katara extends a hand, flicks her wrist - and a small twig attached to the branch by Shikamaru's head bursts into water and tiny droplets fling fast towards his face.]

Two.

[Although that may have been a bit premature, she couldn't resist.]

Edited 2011-03-22 06:17 (UTC)

[His fingers move to brush against the water, eyes narrowing when he figures out it's source. It's like the snow all over again... is she bending the water inside of it?

But then he smiles.] Shouldn't have shown your hand so early.

[And then Shunshin again, though where he's moved to this time isn't so obvious. If she can bend the water out of plants and trees at him, he's keeping his location secret for the time being, kthnx.]

[...that wasn't supposed to drive him further into the trees, darn it!] Hide and seek again?

[Sigh. Maybe she should just go sit in the middle of the lake and wait him out, if he's going to be like that. That cheap shot put her one up, and that's all she needs to win.

I could always--

No. Bad idea. Using bloodbending to detect where he went - just to feel him out - was a bad idea. He was too smart to risk it, for one thing - and what if he figured it out?

So in the meantime, she takes a few silent steps backwards, quietly stepping on to the river itself and forming an ice sled - it will be quieter and faster than running. If she's trying to make him come to her, she could at least do herself a favor and pick a better location.]

[He doesn't respond - that'd give him away, of course.

But no. This isn't hide and seek - not quite. Shikamaru keeps an eye on her from the trees when he can, but of course he can't afford to keep track of her the further she moves away. He'll keep an ear out though.

Eventually he's going to have to come out of the trees, but he might as well start setting things up here while he can. He likely won't get the chance to go back into them after he's down and spotted. Shikamaru pulls out some wire and several kunai before looking at the stopwatch now hanging from his neck.

Twenty-five minutes. Better get started.]

[It's less than five minutes before Katara starts getting That Feeling. That feeling in a game of Pai Sho that she's just playing until he beats her. She hates that feeling.

She never should have left him alone. It is not going to be that easy.

She approaches on a low-swelling wave coming from a different angle and stops in the grass. Hopefully that will have been quiet enough not to attract his attention... because above her head she's bending a rather large amount of water (a little less than half the amount she once used to put out a flaming meteor, in fact). A deep breath and she separates it into three thin streams, leaving a reserve bubble above her own head, she directs the three streams silently above the trees, flexes her hand to spread them out further and then lets them drop, one at a time in quick and layered succession.]

[Shikamaru was just setting up the last of his traps when he hears it - splashes to his right. It's not enough time to react - in the next second there's a stream dropping over him, and it's only thanks to his position in the branches that he's not entirely soaked. Three for her, then. He'll have to tell her after she recovers from what's about to come next.

Because something's coming next, Katara. It doesn't effect his plans much, other than that you've accidentally set them off prematurely.

He's set his traps, you see. And while some of them are still in place, either having not been hit or built strong enough to be unaffected, a few of them were quite literally being held together by nothing but some string.

In other words, congratulations, Katara. From each spot that you dropped a stream in, there are now several projectiles being launched from high overhead, angling down. Luckily for you, they were all aimed in various directions, so there's no need to worry about even half of them.

So... that leaves what only looks to be about eight kunai coming fast for you overhead. Looks being the keyword - despite having all of the appearance of kunai, they're actually no more than blunted chunks of wood - a fact that should be realized the moment you block them or get out of the way.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru is going to be moving himself out of the trees as quietly as possible, setting off another part of his plan in the same instant.]

[Well, she's sure glad she left some water behind. The projectiles bounce harmlessly off the suddenly solidified water as she scans the treeline for any hint of movement.]

[On the plus-side, there is one perfectly visible ninja in sight now, dropping to the ground!

...On the other. There's a handful of small paint pellets - enamel-based - coming in at your legs. Much closer than the treeline.]

Edited 2011-03-23 04:00 (UTC)

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