Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kenji kept missing with his vines...shooting in the dark was starting to get annoying. A thought came to him as he looked at the dome, that perhaps he shouldn't try to be circumventing it, but destroying it. "I don't know how thick it is, but anything is better then guessing in the dark..." Just as the thought came to mind however, the ground around him began to tremble, cause a look of concern. The Tsuta Shibari technique took a few seconds to release, to remove his hands from the surface...but he had to get out of there fast...

A spike suddenly emerged, spiraling upwards at his chin, but Kenji was able to move his hand to only sustain a nick on his left cheek. Kenji finally pulled his hand out, but spikes started popping up at all angles where he was crouching. One of them came so close, that it forced him to roll out of the way, but as more and more spikes emerged, he continually moved and dodged, gaining several scrapes and cuts. Placing his hand firmly on the ground, Kenji kicked off the ground, moving into a handstand, spinning his legs around rapidly to give him momentum as he tried to place a foot on the ground. A spike suddenly erupted out of the ground into the palm of his hand and shot out at the back as he cried out in pain.

Pulling his hand out quickly and finishing his movement, Kenji was able to get back on his feet, and run out of the spiked area as the jutsu completed, but not before another spike gave him a big gash on his right ankle as well. His hand throbbed in pain as there was now a noticeable hole through it, Kenji had had enough. As adrenaline pumped through him he ran to the earth dome, and was able to moved his injured hand just barely enough to perform a single seal, his hand trembling through the entire process..."Ijou Shikke!". Kenji's hand shined in a quick pulse of blue chakra as he placed his hands on the dome. The dome then suddenly began to shed layers of dust off of the top of it and on the inside as the water in the soil that was used to make it was being drawn out onto Kenji's arms...making the structure brittle. After about 5 seconds, Kenji had removed enough water, and launched his shoulder forward into the wall, crushing the side of it, making a 10 foot wide opening in the dome as the dried dirt crumbled into a ruined mess in front of him.

Knowing that he had only a few more seconds before his adrenaline kick ended and his hand was no longer usable in fight, Kenji pushed himself through the pain to perform a few hand seals which caused an explosion of water once more and the surrounding water all around him to lift up into the air and hang suspended...a second set of seals quickly followed as he looked at Haruko with eyes completely different from before...ones full of ferocity as the water above him morphed into a large group of hari-shaped water spikes..."Hari...Ame..." ...the spikes hung for a second and Haruko would assume that any second now the spikes would fly towards her with no where to run, but suddenly they all fell, returning to drops of harmless water as they showered down onto Kenji and the surrounding area.

Immediately drained, Kenji looked at Haruko and smiled...his eyes returning to the peaceful calm they had been before as he fell/leaned into the remaining side of the earthen dome and calmed down. "I'm sorry Haruko, I can't use that technique on you. I don't want to hurt you, not after you've been so kind to me so far. I concede the match to you...well fought." With that, Kenji slunk down to the ground, the waves of pain on his leg and hand finally catching up with him as he winced in pain and remembered the words of his father..."Always to protect, never to harm..."

Kyoma was sitting against a tree at this point, watching as the battle was coming to an end. She was able to feel their intense effort when they battled. She sighed wishing that she could be as strong as these two. She then looked up as she saw Haruko run to Kenji, who was on the ground. Kyoma gasped a bit and began to run and help. She saw Haruko trying her best to heal Kenji, who seemed completely worn out. Kyoma bit her lip as she kneeled beside Haruko, and remembered the promise they made. That's right, I'm gonna try to be the best ninja. I shouldn't let other people's accomplishments make me feel inferior to them.

She watched as the wounds upon Kenji were beginning to heal. Her hands clenched onto her knees. Haru-chan is so strong, and she's really good with her medic skills. She doesn't have to try to be the best medic-nin, because she already is. "Is he okay, Haru-chan?"

Kenji hadn't even realized it, but after ceasing his will to fight through the pain, he had passed out for a minute or so before waking up, opening his eyes to see Haruko working very hard to heal his injuries. He already felt much better, but his hand still throbbed. "Haha...guess I overdid myself a little more then I thought. I am sorry for getting carried away, I'm just not used to giving up...but I should have remembered my duty earlier."

His smile had now returned to normal and the calm look on his face returned, but when he saw that Haruko was now struggling, pushing herself to heal him, he immediately no longer cared for his own injuries. He wanted to pull his hand away to save her the energy, but he had no idea if it would cause damage to what she was doing...after all, he had no skill with such abilities. "Please Haruko, don't push yourself to hard. I will be okay, please, take care of yourself, I would never forgive myself if you were harmed on account to heal me."

Kenji looked at his hand, and while there was still a scar there, the pain seemed to be completely gone. Flexing his hand few times to to make sure sensation was there, Kenji was able to feel slight twinges of pain, but overall the job that Haruko had done was great for how short a time it was done in. "You have an impressive array of abilities Haruko, some of which I have never even seen before. I must admit that though I had my suspicions, I was surprised to see you use throwing stars. I had not expected to stumble on a group of people who have similar abilities to my own in many regards.

..."So tell me, did you learn all of your skills here at the village, or is there a place that you call home where you began your training? I would be most fascinated to hear about it. Where I come from, these skills are only passed down within the clan, and many abilities, only within families. It is very strange for us to see others use these abilities as we do..."

Kyoma found herself getting lost in her mind as Haruko and Kenji carried their conversation about their abilities. She just couldn't stop thinking about how hungry she is. She rubbed her tummy hoping that it wouldn't growl. She heard words like "clan" and "special traits" that switched her thoughts to her past. She didn't want to think negative again so she stood up and walked to the nearest patch of flowers, which wasn't too far away. She smiled as she began to play with the flowers there, feeling the soft petals of flowers that were barely blooming. Getting bored, she looked around, making sure no one was looking, and did a few hand signs. She then touched the ground, letting the flowers bloom to their full extent, wrapping around her hand as they grew. She smiled down at the lillies, daffodils, and her favorite flower, the larkspur.

Kyoma found herself getting lost in the patterns the flowers that were now in front of her, but her ears popped up when she heard Kenji's question. She pulled her hand away from the ground and walked to them, smiling.
"There's a library in the Center of Town, and it has tons of books! I think that of all the libraries I've been to, the one here definitely has the largest variety of books. They contain anything from basic jutsu to ancient techniques used long ago." Kyoma held her right arm against her shoulder, her thumb pointing back to the village. "You can go check it out if you want. You'll be amazed of what you find."

Kyoma looked to Haruko thinking. It would probably take a while for Death-sensei to get here... "I wanna go to the library, there's some things I need to check out anyway." She smiled, "but you guys probably should check out your injuries first. Just in case."

Haruko nodded in response to Kyoma's suggestion, "Yeah, I know. So how about you head over to the library first and we'll come meet you there as soon as we can." Haruko looked around the meadow for a bit as if Death-sensei might just suddenly appear, "Hm, how about we do this? Haruko reached into her top and extended out her necklace which hung around her neck. The necklace had her clan symbol of a sparrow on it, smiling, Haruko focused some chakra into it and suddenly a small smoke cloud appeared in front of her.

Once it cleared, Rei (her sparrow summoning) appeared and flew towards Haruko in glee. "Good afternoon Haruko-chan, you know, I was getting lonely in the summoning world without you. You usually keep me with you everywhere." Haruko gave the sparrow a warm smile and patted its fur, "Sorry Rei-kun, but I've been really busy lately, I promise I'll make it up to you later okay? But for now, I'll be needing you to stay here and wait for Death-sensei. If he comes, I want you to tell him that Kyoma-chan, Kenji-san, and I are at the library." Rei nodded and Haruko turned her attention back to the others, "Now we won't have to worry about Death-sensei coming here and not knowing where we are."