endgames | 020 -- [Various Filters || Action]

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020 -- [Various Filters || Action]

[ooc: dated to... idk. When the moon is not noticeably freaky. ALSO. The cut below is there because there are over 30 filters beneath it that take up a ridiculous amount of space, wow. I think I got all of the characters who were dropped, but just PM me if I didn't. After the event is done, there will be an ooc post regarding this, but I needed to get this part out of the way while my character would think to do so.

A note on the filters below - italic text represents breaks in the filter.]

[Early in the morning, long before the sun has risen and while most people are likely to be asleep, several filters start going up one-by-one. The journal window is covered with cloth; the handwriting not recognizable. Almost immediately after each one has been made, they're either deconstructed or disappear behind a private filter, viewable only to himself. He has no interest in talking to any of these people - he's just checking for breaks in the filters, which are visible for a minute until they're quickly taken care of.]

[Private to Shikamaru || Fake Cut to spare your f-lists and eyes]

[Two hours after this ends, a certain entry disappears behind a private filter as well. Then Shikamaru rolls over and goes back to bed. Damn, that was troublesome. He'll deal with the rest later. With the stuff that new Malnosso guy was talking about, he had a lot of other things to think about....

The next afternoon, he writes a couple of quick messages before heading out of the apartment.]

[Filtered to Raine Sage || 100% Unhackable]

What we talked about - it's done. Figured you'd want a heads-up.

[Filtered to Konoha Shinobi, Gaara, and Temari || 100% Unhackable]

Looks like we don't have to worry about Sasuke. At least for now.

[Filtered to Tony Stark || 100% Unhackable]

I have something to give you. Where you want me to drop it off?

[After he's taken care of that business, Shikamaru decides to take the rest of the afternoon to train. Not his shadow jutsus, however. Those close enough to the southern edge of the village at the time may hear something a few times throughout the evening. Maybe like thunder, but definitely a-

BOOM.

...but don't worry, everything is under control. And for once, he isn't even joking. It's taken months for him to get this jutsu down - a lungful of ash just is not pleasant - but he's finally managed it.

If for some reason you're close to the Southern Lake at this time, or choose to investigate, you're bound to find one (1) Shikamaru Nara taking a break by the water and unable to wipe the smirk off of his face. The air still might smell faintly of ash, but he cleans up well. And nothing has been destroyed but the targets he brought out here himself.

It makes up for all the weirdness going on. Just a little.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...seriously?]

I have managed to practice once or twice before, you know. I know what I'm doing.

[Why do women have to be so difficult? What's so hard about talking about your problems? She won't talk to him now, he knows, so all that's left is this.

Which may not even happen; she's being so defensive. He'll just have to play to her ego.]

If you're really that scared of my new jutsu, all you have to do is say so.

[Oh come on. She has an older brother, you know. You can't really expect that to work.

Flatly:] I'm not scared of your new jutsu.

[So maybe it will work a little. Clearly, she came out here to be alone and to practice. Two hours. Really should have filled that requirement. Especially for Katara. Since when did she turn down a chance to get better like this? Maybe because she's tired of losing? Or maybe it's something else?]

Edited 2011-10-29 02:52 (UTC)

Prove it.

[Oh for crying out loud--]

You're not going to go away until I do this, are you. Fine. Fine.

[She settles into a ready stance.] But I should warn you - it's a pretty big moon tonight.

[That is almost - almost bravado. There's really no point in them fighting each other, not for him. She's halfway surprised he's even offering this.]

Noted.

[With a stretch, he stashes the grapes up in the tree before swinging down.]

Ground rules?

[Any rules that she lets him make will just be to his advantage. Not that he needs it.

Why is she even doing this?

She almost drops her hands and walks away. Instead her jaw sets with the same resigned determination which has been fueling much of her actions the past month.]

Let's just get this over with. No rules. We'll go for the kill shot.

[Definitely frustrated.]

Fine.

[And here comes a barrage of shuriken.]

[...could have counted to three, man.

As it is, Katara's startled, but not moved by the shuriken. She knows that the greater danger than the half dozen sharp pointed bits of metal flying at her is giving him time to set something up. So her first move is not, in fact, to defend herself. She's got about two seconds before those kunai will - well - give her a week long vacation.

She spends the first second ripping the water out of all the grass around him and transforming it into a concentrated mist.

The next half a second, she dodges, using the water still coating her arms as a shield.

She is a fraction of a second too slow - she has been practicing for two hours straight and she is tired - and one of the shuriken clip her upper arm. She doesn't make a sound.]

Edited 2011-10-29 04:30 (UTC)

[And he'll be kneeling, making hand seals now and looking as if he's focusing very hard.]

[That's fine. Since his wings are tucked inside his vest, Katara has to get to them another way - and she'll start by turning the mist into water. It will likely taking more than the amount of water from the grass to soak all the way through the back of his vest and down his shirt, but it's a good start - for however much gets to turn, anyway.]

[We'll see. More than likely, she got him and he hasn't realized it yet - the flak jackets are thick and padded, after all.

He's not going to be sitting there for long. Contrary to his stance, it's not a shadow jutsu he's using. Rather, it's substitution.

Switching places with a moving object takes a lot more concentration than a stationary one - especially if you're trying to nab one that won't collide with a tree.

It works though. One second he's there, the next there's smoke and a falling shuriken burying itself in the dirt.

Shikamaru, meanwhile, is up in the air behind her now, approximately ten or fifteen feet off. He has his trench knives out now and he throws them down fast and hard, the blades humming with chakra.]

[Why is she even doing this?

But her body is functioning beyond her mind, and it's instinctive to whirl as it is instinctive to jump back.

Quickly, while he's in the air, she streams up water from the lake behind him to intercept the trench knives.

But it is not a small wave. Oh no. While she's at it she might as well try to hit him mid-air too.

And though she is tired, and has been practicing for two hours... it is a full moon. Her movements are sharp, precise, and strong.]

Edited 2011-10-29 06:04 (UTC)

[Ohh... this is gonna be bad. Can't think about his trench knives now, other than to promise to find them later. Moving, in mid-air no less, is much more pressing.

When he sees the shift in the lake, Shikamaru pulls a kunai out from his weapon's holster, attached to some ninja wire. He throws the kunai hard at the nearest tree, than tugs on the wire to abruptly change direction and swing towards the trunk.

Water will hit that too, though. Thinking fast, he makes a quick serious of hand seals - snake, rat, snake, tiger - and breathes in deep. When he exhales, it's to release a thick cloud of ash. It's not directed towards her, but the wave.]

[Well, since the wave will stop if she stops bending - and really, she just wants to hurry that wave along - Katara's only physical response to this is maintaining her movement and making a note of which tree anchors that ninja wire.

That won't stop her gaping at it, though.

Seriously? That's just - scary. And unnatural.

What the heck is she doing?

What the heck is HE doing?]

[Let's just say that this time you'll hear the boom, Katara.

Once the ash is properly dispersed, and that wave nice and close, Shikamaru's teeth click against the flint in his mouth, making a spark and setting off all of that ash in one large explosion.

...and now would be a good time to move, as soon as that explosion moves outwards. Three seconds and he'll make the jump.]

[Oh. My.

Katara starts coughing.

That was amazing. And horrifying. And now she can't see him and THAT can't be good.

But fortunately Katara doesn't have to see in order to do this next part. She's already marked the tree where he was going to land. She hates to do this to the land, but she immediately bends out all the water from the tree on which he was standing, causing it to explode, and a sizable amount of water to come into her control. She has it fan out, resisting the urge to immediately turn it to ice, instead making a wide radius of what is essentially rain in hopes of getting him drenched.]

[...well. It's a damn good thing he moved then, isn't it?

Shikamaru had suspected she could bend water from trees - she'd done so with snow and plants and grass before, so why not? It's one thing to rationalize it though, and another to witness it firsthand. Imagine what she could do to something else...

But focus. Soon as he hears the rain, he understands what she's doing. To keep that up, she needs to do certain movements. Her technique fails if she can't.

So the simple solution would be to interrupt them, as quickly as possible.]

[From his hiding spot several trees over, Shikamaru saw her long enough to mark her position. She's not likely to remain stationary, but he'll be able to risk the look after the first volley.

Four shuriken. Twelve kunai. He has plans for the latter, so for now it's just the shruiken. All four will come flying from the trees at once, thrown from different directions by his shadow - none from the exact point of his own hiding spot.

They're a distraction. Instinct is to locate where they came from, which is the moment he'll sneak his look to locate her.]

[...so he'd didn't get caught in the tree explosion, then. This is Katara's immediate conclusion as those shuriken head towards her from four different directions. Katara immediately lifts the water still lining her arms to form a watershield in front of her to block the shuriken as the ash blocked them until they were quite close.

Added bonus: the water will clear the air a bit, and she'll finally stop coughing. Ash and smoke are old enemies. She knows how to deal with them.]

[Once upon a different full moon, Katara had fought Shikamaru, fought the pull of the power going through their veins, and refused to use bloodbending to locate him.

Things are different now.

Not because she's come to any sort of peace with her own skills - she hasn't. But from what she knows about Shikamaru, he wouldn't find using them to locate him an intense violation, just troublesome. And while she's far from wanting to visit on him what she views as something nearly worse than death, there is a stubborn streak in her that is still a touch resentful about this whole thing, and about all the things he's made her question recently. So she doesn't question, doesn't halt the impulse to use her skills to find him. She wouldn't hesitate to use them to find someone in a real battle. And this is as close to real as it gets.

In an unfamiliar movement, Katara draws one hand up in front of her face to focus on that very particular push-pull of blood.]

[Unaware of exactly what it is that she's doing, he'll continue on with his plan. She's already stopped the rain, it looks like, so it's a question of what she's doing now, and stopping that.

He moves onto the kunai now, which will be more focused and come one at a time, again from a direction separate from his location. The plan was to throw a short series of regular kunai before throwing one with an explosive tag tied to it. He'd use the explosion to cover his return to the ground to capture her with his shadow.

But she'll have surely found him before it gets to that. Warm body about fifteen feet up in a tree at two o'clock.]

[Katara's eyes snap to his. Gotcha

And she does. She has him in her hand. All she'd need to do now is bring her fingers down and out, and his blood is hers to control.

She lets it go.

Instead, Katara blocks the incoming kunai with one hand in another water shield, at the same time extending a leg behind her and crouching back, pulling the water in the tree he's sitting in with the movement. This time, instead of destroying the entire tree, she just pulls the water from the branches above and beside him, focusing it hard on going down his back, between his vest and his shirt.]

[Water on his neck.

It's his flak jacket that saves him, it's padded high collar reaching up nearly to the back of his head. It's not something with a collar you can just ease back to get to the clothes - and more typically the flesh - in between it.

The skin on the back of the neck is sensitive. He hears the crack of the branches, and the second he feels that wetness at the base of his spine, he's using Shunshin to move away fast, and in short bursts. He doesn't bother staying out of her sight now - she already saw him, and he's not going to hold still long enough for her to be able to do anything (so he thinks).

His pattern zags, and he throws a kunai every time he stops. One, two, three.

The fourth one, if he gets that far, will have an exploding tag.]

[Katara can't run at superspeed. But she can trace the pattern of his kunai. And so she runs, not away from it, but alongside the lake towards him, dodging the kunai as she goes. And as she runs, she gathers water from the lake. At least, until he throws that forth kunai.

She's familiar with those tags by now - and has no way of knowing how strong the explosion will be. Katara is not in the mood to run away.

With the whole of the wave she's been gathering, she stops and funnels it towards the kunai in a twisting motion creating, in effect, a small and highly mobile whirlpool. It should catch the kunai in its track - midair - and the spin should divert the kunai and cause it go wide as it drops down. But the whirling funnel doesn't stop there. It follows the kunai's trajectory back to where Shikamaru should have been where he threw it.]

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