[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
I want to take him out hard and fast so we can check over our guys.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[x] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[x] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
@No Country Let me know if this looks good as a write in or if I got too granular with the plan.
[X] Four Techniques Equal Death
-[x] Close with him, he is fond of trying to capture you with his hands.
-[x] Using a combination of Heat Haze and Sleight of Hand, buy the moment to apply Ninja Art: Dancing Pins and smear it on a bone plate on your injured arm. He will almost surely try to grab or strike at it with his already bleeding hands which he needs to use his Lava Jutsu out of his second mouth.
-[x] Once the poison is administered to his hands and while he is trying to resolve the issue, attempt to find an opening to jab your open hand either into his chest wound, his neck, or the second mouth while it cannot be filled with lava.
-[x] With a combination of Wind Style: Destructive Finger and Drilling Finger Bones, attempt to blow holes into this man.
The idea is to use what seems to be one of his preferred styles, of grappling and restraining to make his second mouth's lava even more devastating and turn it into a vulnerability. With Dancing Pins and a bone blate to protect us from our own poison we can debilitate him and force him to abort his own immediate plan while we are in melee range with him. Depriving him of his lava-style is a bonus but the big step of getting Dancing Pins into his hands is to prevent him from using a jutsu to escape or perform a sacrificial technique on us while we're so close. Since he hopefully won't be able to easily form handseals until he can at least adapt to the pain which should hopefully take a few seconds we should get an opening.
Then in said opening and before he can rally, try to land a finishing blow using our best styles in coordination to punch through his demonstrated resistance to either take out his heart, lungs, spine, or brain.
Anyone who investigates his death will see the damage lines up very well with the damage done to the Summoner and assume Nengyou also died of a similar technique.
I don't see anything wrong with this plan, though exploding him or cutting him in half with a wind blade wouldn't be that suspicious. And the goal in any ninja battle, if you kill your opponent, is to steal their body and bring it back to your village. So it could work, yes.
Well, this dude certainly lasted long. I'm initially more leaning towards using our bone sword, but I do like the thought of sprouting bones inside his body.
I like that she just casually murked the Moegurumon guy who's a total mook and jobber. Also damn the Lava dude is tall and Tsubaki is smoll and salty about it.
Oh no, Nengyou is ~195cm, which is still tall, but the summoned mole was almost 3 meters. And thanks, I thought the instant murking was a good way to break up the flow.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
"Enough out of you, Amegakure rapscallion!" The summoner shouts back. You barely listen, rather taking note that the Iwagakure captain has used the distraction to apply some kind of salve to his chest wound, though it just seems to be keeping it from opening further. "I am Moegurumon, a fifth generation signer of the mole sum—"
Your interruption is a bit more dramatic than just talking over him, instead you throw your sword through his chest. The use of Eaglery means that, rather than impaling him, the blade punched straight through him, blowing a melon-sized hole out of his chest. It seems that the strike killed him instantaneously, as his summoned mole disappeared in a puff of smoke as soon as the blade landed.
This was a great bit. I was initially worried, but then I realized he was a total jobber, lol. Great way to break up the fight and add some humor to it without having to explicitly crack some jokes.
So yeah, she's under 5'/150cm, a fact that she's pretty indignant about. The exact number is either 148 or 149cm, so she's not too far off. This A/N was meant to be shorter but I ended up rambling, oh well. More exact vital stats will be in that character list I still owe you all.
Couldn't she just lengthen her bones? I mean, it's hilarious that she has all of that short fury, but wouldn't her bloodline mean she should be able to grow as much as she wants?
I mean, it perfectly fits the setting for people to have problems that should be relatively trivial to solve with the techniques they displayed.
This was a great bit. I was initially worried, but then I realized he was a total jobber, lol. Great way to break up the fight and add some humor to it without having to explicitly crack some jokes.
Couldn't she just lengthen her bones? I mean, it's hilarious that she has all of that short fury, but wouldn't her bloodline mean she should be able to grow as much as she wants?
I mean, it perfectly fits the setting for people to have problems that should be relatively trivial to solve with the techniques they displayed.
She only has control over the bones themselves not the hormones involved with the rest of the human body. Veins don't like being elongated all that much and putting yourself in the kind of tension takes months if not years to grow even just a few inches.
Couldn't she just lengthen her bones? I mean, it's hilarious that she has all of that short fury, but wouldn't her bloodline mean she should be able to grow as much as she wants?
Sort of? Temporarily at least maybe. Lengthening/growing every bone at once sounds both time-consuming and complex though, and it would just reverse the instant she was asleep/sufficiently distracted.
She only has control over the bones themselves not the hormones involved with the rest of the human body. Veins don't like being elongated all that much and putting yourself in the kind of tension takes months if not years to grow even just a few inches.
Also this, Tsubaki can't manipulate her circulatory system yet, just regenerate it (at a slower rate than skin or muscle), so she would be stretching all of her blood vessels out. Nerves too, but I don't really know if that has any effect on them.
And the hormone thing, yeah. Shikotsumyaku is very versatile in its applications, but relatively simple in its mechanics. If Tsubaki were able to ossify her endocrine system, all it would do is make those glands turn into bone, she couldn't regulate the hormones. Chakra means that nerves or blood vessels being hardened could function the same way, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't apply to lymph or hormones. Probably not full functionality of more involved organs like the liver or kidneys either.
Lastly, on hormones, while she's able to regenerate them, I'm pretty sure Tsubaki's growth plates haven't appreciated being removed and/or broken on multiple occasions. And while she likes milk, she uses a lot more calcium than the average person does. She also doesn't sleep a lot.
Is this all concessions and justifications I made to keep a smol murderblender? Yes and no, I'm pretty sure what little science applies here does agree with me.
Sort of? Temporarily at least maybe. Lengthening/growing every bone at once sounds both time-consuming and complex though, and it would just reverse the instant she was asleep/sufficiently distracted.
So if we use bone powers to change height/size as a disguise, it will auto revert? How does this square with bones sent outside her body sticking around for a long time? Her body automatically regenerating back to its normal state?
And the hormone thing, yeah. Shikotsumyaku is very versatile in its applications, but relatively simple in its mechanics. If Tsubaki were able to ossify her endocrine system, all it would do is make those glands turn into bone, she couldn't regulate the hormones. Chakra means that nerves or blood vessels being hardened could function the same way, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't apply to lymph or hormones. Probably not full functionality of more involved organs like the liver or kidneys either.
To be a bit pedantic, Shikotsumyaku should be able to control hormone glands via either ossification of parts of them or direct physical manipulation via nearby bones. That said, its not like Tsubaki should know how to do this right now.
So if we use bone powers to change height/size as a disguise, it will auto revert? How does this square with bones sent outside her body sticking around for a long time? Her body automatically regenerating back to its normal state?
To be a bit pedantic, Shikotsumyaku should be able to control hormone glands via either ossification of parts of them or direct physical manipulation via nearby bones. That said, its not like Tsubaki should know how to do this right now.
Bones sent outside of the body stick around for a long time because (for now) they're dead. Like any amputated body part. Her body regenerates basically instantly, yeah, though she usually duplicates bones rather than using existing ones.
To be a bit pedantic, Shikotsumyaku should be able to control hormone glands via either ossification of parts of them or direct physical manipulation via nearby bones. That said, its not like Tsubaki should know how to do this right now.
I figured hormones were more chemistry than biology but I'll be honest I have no idea how they actually work. So to answer your pedantry... you already answered it, Tsubaki does not know how to do that. And even if she was working towards it, nerves seem both more difficult to ossify/restore and more pressing to be able to manipulate.
[X] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
Scheduled vote count started by No Country on Oct 16, 2024 at 12:30 AM, finished with 26 posts and 16 votes.
[x] Enough subtlety and dancing around an opponent you know is below your level. Now is the time to use Hibiscus Dance and Orange Blossom Dance. The former, in conjunction with Wind Style, is on another level offensively compared to just using Falconry or even Eaglery on normal blades; and the latter is both a solid defense against his Lava Style and a potent offense. You'd like to see how he feels when his leg is caught in an oversized jaw.
[X] Four Techniques Equal Death
-[x] Close with him, he is fond of trying to capture you with his hands.
-[x] Using a combination of Heat Haze and Sleight of Hand, buy the moment to apply Ninja Art: Dancing Pins and smear it on a bone plate on your injured arm. He will almost surely try to grab or strike at it with his already bleeding hands which he needs to use his Lava Jutsu out of his second mouth.
-[x] Once the poison is administered to his hands and while he is trying to resolve the issue, attempt to find an opening to jab your open hand either into his chest wound, his neck, or the second mouth while it cannot be filled with lava.
-[x] With a combination of Wind Style: Destructive Finger and Drilling Finger Bones, attempt to blow holes into this man.
[X] Four Techniques Equal Death
-[x] Close with him, he is fond of trying to capture you with his hands.
-[x] Using a combination of Heat Haze and Sleight of Hand, buy the moment to apply Ninja Art: Dancing Pins and smear it on a bone blate on your injured arm. He will almost surely try to grab or strike at it with his already bleeding hands which he needs to use his Lava Jutsu out of his second mouth.
-[x] Once the poison is administered to his hands and while he is trying to resolve the issue, attempt to find an opening to jab your open hand either into his chest wound, his neck, or the second mouth while it cannot be filled with lava.
-[x] With a combination of Wind Style: Destructive Finger and Drilling Finger Bones, attempt to blow holes into this man.
A physical disguise can't do a good job of changing height/body type, and henge (probably?) has standard methods of detection that this might bypass plus sharingan should be able to see through henge but not this. Not really worth it, unless its a prerequisite for something like combat shapeshifting (meaning stuff like lengthening/shortening limbs during attacks dodges then D&D style transformations).
Bones sent outside of the body stick around for a long time because (for now) they're dead. Like any amputated body part. Her body regenerates basically instantly, yeah, though she usually duplicates bones rather than using existing ones.
Interesting, I feel like there is probably something to explore in the process of reabsorbing spent bone. Not sure exactly where that tech would be going though.
The Kiri-nin would have been valuable as an asset to bring in alive, but you'd rather reabsorb as many of the bones you scattered over the battlefield as you can. And, out of respect for your former opponent's skill, you'd rather not let him linger and have the poison kill him.
Unbeknownst to you, while you begin the arduous process of absorbing the mass of Thistle Dance, a strange bird disappears in a puff of summoning smoke nearby.
Unbeknownst to you, while you begin the arduous process of absorbing the mass of Thistle Dance, a strange bird disappears in a puff of summoning smoke nearby.
Flexing your injured arm, you bring your hands together to perform the seals for Jet Movement. The flesh is an angry red, and your fingertips are burnt, but it's moving just fine, you don't think the tendons or muscles were damaged. It would have been worse had you had one of your Wind Style movement techniques activated, but you're not going to give the big Iwa-nin that opportunity again.
You vault over a stream of lava shot at you by your opponent before drawing your injured hand back and using Hibiscus Dance: Fruit. The Wind rippling around your wrist extends to cover your extended radius and ulna as they wrap around each other like vines, creating the handle for a mace with an evenly segmented head created out of duplicated carpals. Despite it still being connected to your arm, you lightly grab the bone weapons's haft.
Blinding speed carries you next to Nengyou, who throws up a supported block a split second before you would have caved his chest in with your new mace. Bones audibly crack under the force of your blow, and he uses body flicker to back away from you.
"I knew you were holding back, a shinobi of—"
You shut him up and shatter another hastily-prepared igneous shield with an upward diagonal strike with your mace. Though, as his secondary mouth spits out an oversized, square tooth, you do opt to respond. "I'm going to finish this quickly, so that's enough talk out of you."
"Don't get cocky, k—"
He twists to dodge a snapped out heel kick, but you pepper him with a scattergun blast consisting of that ankle's tarsi. The largest bone lodges painfully in his shoulder, and some of the smaller ones impact his upper arm, but he manages to escape any real damage.
Stomping down, you crack the lava field that's turned into a skin of stone over the muddy ground, then swing your mace at his head again. The weapon slams into his forearm again, and again, you hear his bones cracking.
"I said," he sweeps at your legs, which drives you back, "don't get cocky!" You stomp down on his lead foot, breaking it, but he doesn't stop forming hand signs, and his stomach expands like cheeks puffed up with air, "Lava Style: Cryptodome!"
Expending all of the wind around your right arm, you create a firebreak and slash through the bubble of glossy black stone spat out by your opponent. The molten lava beneath is wicked away by the spiraling Wind around the head of your mace, which draws it all into a whirlpool that crashes into the ground.
While the fiery explosion separates you from your opponent and breaks the line of sight between you. While it isn't the exact opening you were looking for, you still take it, slinging your left arm over your shoulder and grabbing a loop sprouted from that shoulder blade. Pumping chakra into those bones, you explode them outward while you swing out your hand, turning them into an oversized pair of serrated blades resembling the jaws of an alligator. The irony of beating a man with two mouths with a set of giant jaws makes you grin.
You spin your hand, thrusting the giant Orange Blossom construct forward and through the guttering explosion. Nengyou, as it turned out, had hardly moved, instead focusing on casting another Lava technique and using more of that medicine on his wounds.
Your kekkei genkai technique tamps out the explosion and flames, and you see the big Iwa-nin has been easily mangled by your technique, his limbs crushed at awkward angles and blood welling out of both of his mouths.
He attempts to say something, but simply gurgles and slumps over, dead.
You really don't mind that you weren't able to hear his last words, it's not like they would have been profound. Now that your fight has ended, you can hear the sounds of battle slowing down on the other side of the hill, so you get to work reabsorbing your bones.
Once you're done, you don't feel low on chakra at all, though once you look at your injured arm, the right one, you grimace. The skin is burned through, mostly angry red with some black spots, and you can see white spots peaking through. Your hand is structurally fine, though three of your fingers are black or burnt to the bone, and now that you're done fighting, you see that the only nail left is the one on your thumb. You should probably get some bandages put on that soon-ish, it aids in the healing process, even for you.
"J-jounin Tsubaki, that was amazing," you hear a weak voice when you move back to where the fight started, closer to the ridgeline.
Looking down and away from the crest overlooking the road, you see that the Ame chunin who was wounded by the first pair of Iwa-nin you killed is still there. He's bleeding from a deep wound in his side, though it looks like he's mostly staunched it.
"I've never seen anything like those techniques, it's truly incredible," looking around, you can see that he's the only (living) person around, you can't even see anyone on the road below, thanks to the distance and the darkness of the stormy night.
"Jounin Tsubaki?"
[] Kill him, he's seen too much. It's unfortunate, but the life of a chunin doesn't hold much weight in the village as a whole.
[] Let him live, but tell him everything he saw is a state secret.
And pick one set:
[] "Melee" Ninjutsu:
Unlock:
Fire Style: Pilot Light: Create floating points of flame which burst with surprising power if touched or activated. (Tier 2)
Fire Style: Black Powder: Convert Fire Chakra into a combustible ash around the user, which can be set off by another source. (Tier 2)
Fire Style: Black Breath: Expel superheated soot from the mouth to hit targets at very close range. (Tier 3)
Wind Style: Serrated Palm: Surround your hand with a pulsating mass of Wind Chakra, creating a sawing effect. (Tier 3)
[] Ranged Ninjutsu:
Unlock:
Fire Style: Flame Bullet: Shoot a small fireball from your mouth or the air around you. (Tier 1)
Fire Style: Flame Bomb: A large fireball expelled from the mouth. Medium to long range. (Tier 2)
Wind Style: Air Bullets: Create multiple small spheres of air that fly at high speeds towards targets or that can be controlled. (Tier 2)
Wind Style: Air Formation Sphere: Create a large sphere of air to fire at an opponent, or surround them with compressed air and crush them. (Tier 2)
Wind Style: Disorder Balloon: Compress a large amount of air into a sphere, either to be fired at target, or to crush a target with. No matter what, the sphere will eventually explode. (Tier 3)
[] Offensive Shikotsumyaku:
Unlock:
Bracken Dance: Plant a bone or mold chakra into the ground, summon a forest of bone spikes. (Tier 4)
Larch Dance (Lv. 3): Cone: Fire the sharpened bones created by Larch Dance (Lv. 2) with excessive force. (Tier 4)
Thistle Dance (Lv. 2): Summon a massive tangle of spinal cords by infusing a massive amount of chakra into a bone planted into the ground. Their emergence can be delayed, or used as landmines, and they can move autonomously. (Tier 5)
[] Support Shikotsumyaku:
Unlock:
Pollen Dance: Expel miniscule bone fragments into the air, which are impregnated with chakra, bestowing a makeshift sensory ability, and countering techniques which obscure sight. (Tier 4)
Increased Efficiency/Enhanced Regeneration: Make chakra manipulation more efficient and increase your rate of regeneration by exerting control over soft tissues that you're not yet able to ossify and completely control. Can be used to upgrade Cedar Dance. (Tier 3)
Finger-Drilling Storming Thunder-Bullets: Rapidly fire the finger bones while regrowing new ones, allowing automatic fire so long as the user has chakra. (Tier 5)
Unlocked: Wind Style: Withdrawing Jutsu (Fuuton: Torisage): Compress a large amount of air either by inhaling it or drawing it in the path of a strike, creating a vacuum effect in its wake. Wind Style: Lancing Tailwind Jutsu (Fuuton: Oite Mori): Concentrate a large amount of Wind Chakra around a limb or weapon for massive piercing power, at range. Fire Style: Flame Bullet (Katon: Endan): Fire a small fireball from the mouth or the air around you. Robe of the Fire Rat: ??? (Shiktosumyaku)
Voting closes at !
A/N: Originally the "kill the chunin vote" was in the middle of a longer post, but that was scrapped, which was part of the reason this took as long as it did. Yes, this technique vote is the campaign reward, even if it's tied to a bit of a bummer. There were errors in the shikotsumyaku skill tree, so I'm redoing it again.
A/N2: I've typed the word "tier" so much that it's lost all meaning to me.
