Twisted Pinwheel

[1986ctcel]

[X] "Make me."

I look forward to our inevitable beat down by Hinata, at which point we will have free rein to conscript her as our Evil Dragon, Trusted Lieutenant, and Dark General of our armies.

Click to shrink...

Plus it's the first step on the road to Saki (and Mio) domming her

Boring options are necessary, too. They make us appreciate the non-boring options when those appear. Consider: if every tea you drink is sweet, you soon stop noticint the sweetness.

On the other hand, this is Chibi-Reaper's quest. What do you mean by "boring" options?

Click to shrink...

Except stories/quests are not tea! So "boring options" are just boring not contrast that makes you appreciate the exciting parts.

I know I certainly didn't appreciate the battle of Helm's Deep more just because I had to slog through reading the rest of the Twin Towers.

And no, I drink sweetened tea every day and I certainly haven't stopped noticing the sweetness.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

You know, given her slack approach to training, I'm rather surprised how dedicated Mio turned out to be once she got this into her head. I expected her to spend hours ever day, working on this, sure, but every waking moment and attempting to hold it while she sleeps? I think even Gai doesn't train when he sleeps (though if anyone does, it's Gai).

I have to wonder if she's actually not getting it down at this point because she's too sleep deprived for fine control anymore.

 

[Bobs Beard]

You know, given her slack approach to training, I'm rather surprised how dedicated Mio turned out to be once she got this into her head. I expected her to spend hours ever day, working on this, sure, but every waking moment and attempting to hold it while she sleeps? I think even Gai doesn't train when he sleeps (though if anyone does, it's Gai).

Click to shrink...

It's all about the right motivations; for MIO, trying to do well for class ranking, or to make herself more survivable as a ninja post-graduation... things like that are too ephemeral and longterm and unrelated to her current interests - they don't motivate adequately. But something practical to her daily life (being able to do more of the fun silly stuff she likes), rather cool (a special trick a Jounin came up with that so far the other kids are saying is impossible-as-understood) and that she's invested in (already made multiple update efforts without success so stubbornness to get what she wants kicked in) - that is central to most of her current life motivations, and per that she's putting in serious effort.

In a way, this is rather like Naruto, who underperformed, shirked and slept through much of his formal ninja training, but also dumped oodles of effort into getting better at a bevy of skills for the purposes of his pranking/hobby.

I have to wonder if she's actually not getting it down at this point because she's too sleep deprived for fine control anymore.

Click to shrink...

Actually, there is something to be said for the value of building muscle memory equivalents even when so tired you're in a fugue. So far as I've seen there isn't any research suggesting sleep deprivation turns off the... more basic parts of how the brain processes stuff - it kinda can't since lots of that overlaps with stuff needed to keep you breathing/heart beating, etc. For sure she's likely not going to remember discreet notions and theories about what she's doing, but plenty of how the brain processes doesn't get impacted by any but the most severe of cognition disturbing lack-of-sleep - as in so severe that she'd be actually imminently dead from lack of sleep. Ingraining new reflexes/muscle memory/subconscious familiarity is all in that more resilient group.

Of course, chakra could easily flip the table on all this real world based nonsense I'm farting out, so this is merely a tentative guess until we have in-quest precedent.

 

[Minion #Q]

[X] "Make me."

 

[Chibi-Reaper]

Well, yeah.

It hurts. It really hurts. Forcing chakra out of a tenketsu feels something like being stabbed with a hot knife, only from the inside out, and holding on to the chakra afterward is like a dull burning ache representing pulled muscles in your soul.

... With that said, the elders' fucking gentle-dissuasion jutsu that they've kept breaking out since your mother kicked it makes this feel like you just stubbed your toe. And you remember when you were really tiny, just the effort of breathing and walking around on your own hurt sort of like this.

You don't think you're supposed to remember that long ago, but you think that might have been the feeling of your chakra coils and tenketsu all settling into proper place, so you feel like you're on the right track here for something, even if it feels like crawling over hot coals sometimes.

The hell if you're going to stop just because someone tells you to.

"Make me." you snort, obstinately.

Both Hinatas in front of you look despondent at the rejection.

"You can't.." she stammers, working around the words.

If you were civilian kids, it would be a cute fluster of her not knowing the right words to say.

... Since you're both the children of clans famed for shinobi of great prowess and ocular jutsu, it's instead a visible display of her trying to work out how much to say to make her argument without letting on about clan secrets. She's visibly frustrated, and almost despairing.

"Don't bother." You say, interrupting and focusing hard, until all three Hinata merge into one. You pick your nose with a pinky and flick it away. "There's nothing I'm interested in hearing from you. Get lost already."

Hinata's bangs have fallen over her eyes.

"Shoo, shoo." you say, waving a hand. "I'm the glowing golden genius here, I know what I'm doing." More or less. Sort of.

"Shiny and yellow, anyway. Does she wash her clothes in glitter?" one of the onlookers gathering mutters.

"... You w-won't stop?" Hinata says. "Even though... you're just making it worse?"

You make a rude gesture in her general direction. You're pretty sure. Your vision is swimming a little at the moment. Someone gasps.

"Are you gonna take that from her, Hyuuga!?" Someone yells from elsewhere on the playground.

"..." Hinata says, something too low for you to pick out. Can't read her lips from this angle either. "... people that don't understand... anything but fists..."

"... Eh?" you say.

The words strike you as something you remember from recently... a lecture from the Taijutsu instructor? A couple of days ago, some of the other students had a bout of pacifism when a nose got broken and bloody, and there was a patriotic bout of assuring the new trainees that of course they weren't just learning to go out and hurt people for money, but that sometimes people really, really needed to be hit.

... Wallflower Hinata seems to be unexpectedly taking it to heart, though, as she moves into a stance.

"Fight, fight, fight!" someone cheerfully yells.

... Something about this, though. Er. The Hyuuga...

... Something about attacking the chakra network? You don't know much about the intricacies of their style beyond that, except that they can see the chakra system with their doujutsu and do stuff to it.

Ah, hang on. Hinata wants you to stop.

You throw yourself into an ungainly dodge, wobbling and flopping and rolling out of the way of poking fingers.

Not quite fast enough, as one clips near your wrist and slices away your grip on something like a solid hour's worth of gathered chakra to dissipate uselessly away.

"Hey! Do you know how hard it was to hang on to that!?" you snap, rolling up to your feet.

Hinata doesn't say anything because she didn't let up on the attack and is right in your face.

You reflexively try to escape, realize that you can't dodge everything at this face-to-face range, and then reflexively escape anyway.

It takes you one hearbeat to realize that you just used the Shunshin. You body-flickered away. For another heartbeat you brace yourself against passing out from chakra exhaustion.

Which... you don't feel.

You only moved a couple of feet, which is usually useless for a Shunshin, since the drain is the same up to somewhere near fifty meters away. In combat, especially when you don't throw up some sort of obscurement with it, it's worse than useless as a mobility technique because of how draining it is.

... Only, this time it wasn't.

What was different? You used a much smaller amount of chakra than you should have, less than a twentieth of the usual... and it was very close. So close, that you were still inside of...

Ah!?

The difference was that you moved within the area that your chakra was already clouding up, the zone of control where your chakra filled the air? In terms of the technique... you weren't moving your body somewhere far away. Your chakra system is a part of your body, and so the effect of having part of the chakra still... technically inside of your system, but outside of your body...

Your 'body' isn't constrained by the outer limits of your skin, as far as the technique is concerned?

Low cost, ultra short range combat Shunshin, instead as an emergency escape or non-combat travel technique? And people thought Shisui had something interesting, just because he obsessively trained with it and has a lot more chakra to blow on it than normal!

... Your thoughts race in an eyeblink's time, and that eyeblink of time is enough for Hinata, not caught up in BLINDING FLASHES OF GENIUS like you are, to start whirling around with both hands outstretched, her ruination fingertips at the ready.

Reduced specialty Shunshin costs or not, you don't have enough fuel in the tank to keep pulling that off right now.

So instead you try and spontaneously master the replacement technique, a much more typical close-range evasion jutsu.

Someone helpfully rings a bell as Hinata's fingers drive into a randomly selected bystander's body. He hurks loudly, spasming, and then flops to the ground, unconscious.

"... Na.... Naruto?" Hinata gasps, seeming genuinely shocked for a moment.

She looks at her hands.

Then she looks at you.

Then all expression melts off of her face, until you seem to be staring at a fragile doll posessed by an absolutely murderous ghost.

---

[ ] "Bye." Time to ditch class for the day. Also tomorrow, probably.
[ ] "Oops." Shrug apologetically. Maybe you can talk this out?
[ ] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"
[ ] ??

 

[Plotvitalnpc]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

So we've got a thing now.
Here's hoping we can get the thing we wanted, some time.

 

[Ct613hulu]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[Koled]

[] "Oops." Shrug apologetically. Maybe you can talk this out?

"I want to be friends Polna...Hinata."

Well a way todo close combat shunshins.Maybe also a way to extend some hand range jutsu?

Testing needs to be had.

And rejoice for mio has awakened Hinata murder instinct.The Hiashi will send us a fruit basket any moment now.

edit:changed my vote

 

[Irked]

[X] "Oops." Shrug apologetically. Maybe you can talk this out?

also been browsing for an image that really fits Mio but all that really jumps out to me is female Dio pics like this one due to there not being any blonde female sharingan wielders i could find.

Spoiler: IT IS I MIO

 

[1986ctcel]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

 

[redaeth]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.
​

 

[Plotvitalnpc]

[X] "Oops." Shrug apologetically. Maybe you can talk this out?

also been browsing for an image that really fits Mio but all that really jumps out to me is female Dio pics like this one due to there not being any blonde female sharingan wielders i could find.

Spoiler: IT IS I MIO

Click to shrink...

MIO isn't blonde though, is she?
Oh, wait, Naruto's hairdye might still be in effect.

 

[Sirrocco]

[x] "Oops." Shrug apologetically. Maybe you can talk this out?

 

[Kerfirou]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[Bobs Beard]

I'd vote Oops, except MIO was just confirmed as too tired and loopy for proper talking.

She's only spent chakra since.

Instead I'd rather make it about actions, rather than words - or rather make the words-getting-sleep-janky not matter for Hinata by redirecting them.

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

Even if MIO totally bungles articulating her apologies to Naruto, he'll still accept them - it's kind of a core character thing, how easily and stubbornly he'll stretch 'friend' to allow horseshit if given an excuse. And he'll be able to offer them probably, since stupidly fast turn around on recovery from everything - unconsciousness included - has been a staple of his since before the story started, rather than a consequence of him unlocking it. Lastly, having made MIO's first concern 'whoopsie someone I give some crud about got hurt' after doing something that resulted in Hinata hurting Naruto... well that sends a message to her. As will, inevitably, Naruto - who could well end up needing help getting to class, and at the moment Hinata is both the closest not-MIO student near him, and the one currently the most invested in making sure he gets to class, if he doesn't wake up with a spring in his step.

And really, if this can't IC mitigate the situation, then we might as well just buckle up and enjoy the rival/dark(?)Hinata ride - we're not exactly playing a social-fu or conciliatory character.

 

[Hyp3rB14d3]

[x] "Bye." Time to ditch class for the day. Also tomorrow, probably.

 

[prandom]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

 

[DuskAtDawn]

[X] Shout for a medic-nin to take care of your minion. This fight is a draw. If any adults ask questions, this was a training accident.

 

[Ephemeral_Dreamer]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[Valette-Serafina]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

 

[EvaUnit01]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

 

[Xicree]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"


Miho is at the edge of some Seriously scary combat techniques once she's no longer too tired to think straight.

 

[Adyen]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[Drak4806]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[CrossyCross]

She looks at her hands.

Then she looks at you.

Then all expression melts off of her face, until you seem to be staring at a fragile doll posessed by an absolutely murderous ghost.

Click to shrink...

Oh god HInata's angry we are fucked.

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

 

[angelofwhim]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

Mio gone loco...RIOT!

 

[Avalon Du Lac]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

Isn't the point of having a trainee goon to let them get sucker punched in your stead?

 

[Armok]

[X] Pick up a student and throw them at another student. "Riot!"

No way this can backfire

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Aw shit, did you get your trainee-goon/stylist (you're STILL loving the loud look) suckerpunched there? That's the sort of stuff that might make him not share his next big idea on how to be the center of attention - can't have that.
-[X] Go wake Naruto back up for class, apologize... and then you're pretty sure that bell was the class bell, wasn't it? Time to go sleep and mull your inspiration over.