Chapter 31
SixPerfections
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Chapter 31
000
'Resistance training' with the Rats wasn't what you might expect. In Rei's old world that term was just a fancy way of saying lifting weights and other exercises that were meant to build up your muscles. What she was doing now was much, much different.
Rei set her jaw as she looked at the three innocuous looking ink bottles in front of her. In front of the bottles arranged in a neat line were three small glass syringes. Mentally Rei prepared herself for what she knew was coming. The blonde could with all confidence say this was the least favorite part of her training.
As she reached for the small bottle on the far left the girl tried not to think too hard about what was coming. Reading the label she made sure three times over it was the correct one she wanted. Mentally she went over what she knew about its contents.
Substance three, otherwise known as "Gut Wrench"
Route: Dermal breach.
Medium: Oil-based emulsion.
Expiration: Six to eight months.
Effects: Vomiting, incapacitating abdominal contractions, occasional loss of bowel control.
Duration: Two to ten minutes depending on factors such as dose and general constitution.
Action: Almost immediate (typically less than one second).
With her features set Rei removed the wax-coated stopper from the small bottle and set the two items down right in front of her. She then reached over and picked up the first syringe. With a careful and experienced hand she withdrew the appropriate dosage for that day. 1.1 milliliters. With the ease of practice Rei recapped the bottle and held up the needle in front of her face, slowly putting pressure on the plunger to push out all the excess air.
Reaching down she pinched the skin of her thigh and in a practiced movement pushed the needle underneath her skin. This is going to suck… I just upped the dosage again today. Here goes. With a determined expression someone might wear when they were getting ready to go to war Rei pushed down on the plunger sending the poison straight into her body.
Almost immediately Rei felt like her abdominal muscles and stomach suddenly decided they wanted to tear themselves out of her body. The abdominal pain the strength of the muscular contractions were immense and doubled her over almost immediately. Rei focused on breathing as she hunched forward and cradled her stomach, unable to stop herself from curling inwards even if she'd wanted to. Thankfully there was none of the uncontrolled vomiting associated with this particular poison (those first few times had made her want to punt a Rat into a wall) but every time her training called for her to increase her dosage it made her violently, violently ill.
Rei kept stealing glances at the clock as she grit her teeth and rode out the effects of the poison. As always it seemed like a small eternity before it began to pass and as always the time was a lot shorter than she would have guessed. She noted the time it took before the effects eventually died down to what she considered to be a tolerable level. Nine minutes. Recapping the needle and putting it aside Rei pulled out a small notebook she kept for just this. Meticulously she recorder the date, dosage and time it took her recover from the poison. Once the effects persisted for less than thirty seconds it would time to up her dosage again.
The things I do for power. When she had learned that she was going to be learning poisons Rei had been excited. That was before she learned that the Rats insisted she build up a powerful resistance (there really was no such thing as true immunity) to a wide variety of poisons, especially the ones she was likely to use on a regular basis. Unfortunately there was no way to do that other than poisoning yourself over and over again in increasing dosages.
It was just awful. It was in some ways mentally scarring. The Rats had been impressed by her determination. Frankly Rei was just stubborn and, she could admit, just a little bit obsessed with her goals. All this pain would be worth it one day. She had to believe that.
She did believe that. She did. Rei wasn't about to start doubting that. Not after she had already come so far.
Rei looked down and examined the three poisons in front of her. "Gut Wrench" was one of the more reliable fast acting non-lethal poisons available to her and the one she tended to coat all her weapons with. One application could last for months making it incredibly convenient and by now accidentally cutting herself with her own weapons wouldn't incapacitate her. Hell at this point she could cut herself a half dozen times with her own poisoned blades and she wouldn't even feel the least bit nauseous. Such was the power of building up your own resistances.
However Gut Wrench wasn't the only poison she used and she couldn't count on it to work in all situations. With a sigh Rei looked at the two remaining untouched bottles and their corresponding syringes still laid out neatly on her desk. The effects of substance three faded quickly. These other two would last just a little bit longer.
Closing her eyes Rei gathered her will and her determination around her like a worn but unbreakable cloak. Other people wouldn't have the willpower to keep up the stringent resistance regiment she put herself on. Other people would coast by on doing the minimum but Rei constantly pushed the dosages to the absolute limit that she could without risk of serious injury. So what if it made her feel like death? Her mind could overcome the complaints of her body. The body was weak, forever whining and protesting about the things she did to make it stronger. The mind was strong. In her private moments Rei acknowledged that in some ways she was deeply flawed but if there was one thing that was beyond reproach it was the strength of her mind.
Opening her eyes she looked at the two remaining bottles with a kind of serene will. Reaching for the she began to prepare her next dose.
It would take her a bit longer to recover from these two. It should leave her just enough time to leave the house and go meet up with her kouhai.
000
Facing off in a shaded training field near the academy stood two girls. One was relaxed and observant, wondering what her opponent was about to show her and how much she was going to have to hold back. The other stood in her family's traditional on-guard position, the tension on her face and shoulders giving away how apprehensive she was about the whole thing.
"Come on Hina-chan," said Rei patiently as she stood in a deceptively open-looking stance, "I can't gauge where you are until I see you in action. I won't hurt you and you won't be able to hurt me. Now come on, stop hesitating and attack me already."
The younger girl swallowed nervously (there's that nervous habit again) before tensing up and rushing at Rei. Sloppy. She has to know tensing up telegraphs your moves.
Hinata extended her fingers as users of the Gentle Fist almost invariably did and aimed a quick strike at her shoulder. Rei sidestepped almost lazily and redirected the attack to the side with two fingers. The Hyuuga didn't stumble like Rei thought she would but she did momentarily hesitate for a split second before flowing into her next attack. More than enough time for a skilled opponent to exploit.
Hinata came at her swiftly with a combination that Rei had seen many times before, the younger girl's face set in an expression of concentration and determination. Rei dodged and deflected all of it with ease, her quick footwork and years of familiarity with the Gentle Fist making the task almost trivial. Deciding to test something Rei patiently waited for the strike to her stomach she knew was coming. Hinata came forward with the predicted palm strike and Rei snatched her wrist out of mid-air with a vice-like grip. In a complex maneuver Rei went low, swept Hinata's legs out from under her and threw the Hyuuga Heiress over her shoulder.
It was an almost gentle throw by ninja standards and Rei watched carefully to see how Hinata reacted. Her body tucked in on itself, the girl rolling in the direction of the throw and using the momentum to rise to her feet in one smooth fluid motion. That was a textbook roll-and-recovery maneuver and Hinata just pulled it off perfectly. That was all muscle memory... which I suppose isn't surprising given how much training she's had.
Hinata didn't immediately resume her attack, the concentration and determination that had previously been on her face now suddenly tinged with doubt and apprehension. Rei said nothing and just watched with a bland expression waiting to see what her kouhai would do. After pausing for a few moments the girl briefly bit her bottom lip nervously (another one of her tells) before once again going on the attack.
Rei dodged and evaded, staying just out of reach as her impressive mind began analyzing the girl in front of her. Hinata was clearly no Neji. She was slower, stiffer, could not adapt almost instantaneously to new unexpected situations and perhaps most significantly did not display the amazing creativity and on the fly improvisations that her older cousin could pull out of thin air almost effortlessly. However what Rei was seeing wasn't all bad. For one Hinata's form was textbook perfect. Every movement, every transition from stance to stance, every flow from attack to attack was done with the correct angle of the fingers, with her toes pointed in the exact direction that they should be, with her knees bent exactly as much as they were supposed to be.. no more and no less. Rei could find very little to critique on that front. It was obvious that her tutors had drilled her over and over endlessly until her body knew exactly what to do every time perfectly and without fail. Rei felt a smidge of respect grow for the girl who was currently trying desperately to land a hit in on her. She knew from experience just how many hundreds and thousands of hours Hinata must have spent training in order to be able to maintain such a crisp form during a spar.
However there was a lot more to fighting than just form. Rei frowned a little. Hinata was definitely missing something.
"Come on Hinata-chan," Rei said with a hint of demand in her voice, "Neji's been hitting me with Juken strikes since I was seven. Don't hold back. Trust me I can take whatever you can dish out."
Hinata's face showed distress for a fraction of a second before she suddenly began to attack even faster than before. However it almost instantly became clear to Rei that just attacking faster wasn't fixing the problem. Hinata's strikes, her moves, her offensive… they lacked Spirit. They lacked Intent. They lacked any desire or willingness to inflict injury. A punch without a strong intent behind it was just like a blunted kunai. It looked right but it was ultimately pretty much useless in doing what it was supposed to do.
As an added complication Hinata seemed to be losing confidence now that they had been sparring for a short time and the girl hadn't come even close to landing any kind of hit. Rei had to hold back a disapproving frown when she noticed that. Really? A few minutes of failure is all it takes to shake your resolve?
"Come on," she said to the girl with half a growl, "stop trying to hit me and hit me."
Okay so Hinata might not have understood what she meant by that but there was no reason her to start doing even worseafter a comment like that. Except she did. Her strikes became more choppy and hesitant and by the look on her face Rei could tell her words had hurt the girl's mental poise. Hinata struck again and again, her from still there but with failing flow, the smooth organic movements of the Juuken suddenly disappearing from her aggressive barrage.
What to do? Rei was tempted to start beating on the girl, thoroughly crushing her into the ground, something to get a more martial reaction out of her than this hesitant meek showing… but somehow Rei instinctively knew that wouldn't work at all. Not with Hinata. What to do then?
Instead of just dodging and deflecting Rei changed to an offensive, pushing one of Hinata's strikes aside and attacking her with an overhand chop. Not expecting the sudden reversal Hinata scrambled to get out of the way, stumbling as she backpedaled away from Rei's blow. The older girl didn't take the obvious opening and waited until Hinata had recovered just enough. Rei then let loose a rather restrained roundhouse kick at Hinata's hip. This time the girl responded appropriately, blocking the Rei's leg with a textbook perfect maneuver and by reflex moving her fingers in position to cripple her leg with a Juuken strike. Rei pulled her leg back fast enough to avoid the (theoretical) blow but slow enough to encourage a follow up offensive. Thankfully Hinata took the opportunity to press the attack even if it was more out of in-drilled reflexes rather than any personal desire to emerge the victor.
They fought like that for a while, Rei pressing Hinata just hard enough and giving her enough openings to encourage the younger girl to keep attacking. To Rei the young Hyuuga heiress was an odd mix of textbook perfection and deep flaws in execution and application. Rei began to see why the Hyuuga clan had experienced so many problems trying to improve Hinata's fighting prowess. Both confidence and lack of fighting spirit, that tenacity to win no matter the odds seemed to be the problem. A few times Rei deliberately left herself open and Hinata had hesitated before trying to take advantage of the chink in her armor. Why did she do that? Was she afraid of hurting people? If so… maybe you should have been born in my old world Hinata-chan.
Before long it became more than clear that Hinata was fighting with no expectation to win. Rei had to reign in her instinctive disdain… that wasn't really fair to Hinata. If anything she deserves my sympathy. They say a skilled fighter can learn a great deal about an opponent by crossing fists with them. To Rei it seemed obvious that Hinata didn't like fighting. People can enjoy fighting for any number of reasons, as an outlet for their feelings, as a challenge or a game to overcome an opponent, as a means to feel powerful, as a means to an end. Taijutsu was not something Hinata wanted to be doing. It was a chore to her.
That was three big problems Rei had identified in just their first spar. Maybe this "getting Hinata up to snuff" business was going to be harder and more involved than she'd first thought.
Doing something about these issues was going to take some doing. She was going to have to take some time and give this some serious thought.
Distractedly Rei caught a half-hearted fist aimed at her face. "Enough," Rei said in a thoughtful and soft voice, "I've seen enough for now. Come on, let's sit down and we'll talk about it."
000
Moments later they were seated with their backs against a very large tree. Rei had sat herself about a foot away from Hinata, closer than what was a normal social distance but not too invasive. She didn't think Hinata had noticed yet though. The younger girl was too busy breathing hard and trying to force her breath under control, her forehead covered in a sheen of fine sweat. By contrast Rei was completely unruffled and indeed what they had just gone through could barely be called a warmup for her nowadays. The blonde sat patiently with her legs crossed at the ankles and her hands behind her head as she leaned back against the tree. In contrast Hinata was curling forward and hugging her knees as her breathing finally began to slow. What an odd pair we make.
"Feeling better?" Rei asked a short while later.
Hinata looked at her with a bit of uncertainty and vulnerability on her face before nodding shyly. "Yes Rei-senpai. I'm fine," she said in a small voice.
Rei frowned a little at that. What is it now? As far as she could see there was no real reason for Hinata to be acting so meek at the moment. Unless…
What normally happened after her training sessions? If Rei had to guess this would be the time when Hinata's instructors would rake her over the coals for all her deficiencies. And yes, there were some very glaring deficiencies to be corrected. Still Hinata looked like she was waiting to get hit, looking apprehensive and almost cringing away as if anticipating the sharp sting of the rebuke that she expected to come.
It was then and there that Rei decided she was going to be different. They had to talk about her problems but she was going to find a way to do it that didn't make the girl feel like crap. It wasn't productive anyway since it had never worked for the Hyuuga. That could wait for some other time though. No need to talk about her faults today, especially when Rei still didn't know what she was going to do to address them.
"How do you think you did?" Rei asked as an open ended question, her tone soft as if she were speaking to an easily spooked animal.
Hinata seemed a little surprised by her question before looking away and fidgeting nervously with the hem of her clothes. Rei wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing that the straight posture and poise of a Clan Heiress from their last meeting seemed to be absent today.
"I think… maybe not so good. I'm not very good at taijutsu," Hinata said sounding down. Her tone of voice said she really believed it.
"Why do you think that?" asked Rei, genuinely curious.
Hinata shrugged. "It's what everyone always tells me. I never do as well as people want me to. It's not exactly advanced sealing. It's kind of hard to miss."
"Well…" began Rei and she saw Hinata physically tense up, "I think you've got some definite bright spots in your taijutsu."
Hinata's head turned quickly to look at her, disbelief clear on her features. "Really?" she asked, sounding mostly skeptical and just the smallest tiniest bit hopeful.
That reaction convinced Rei she was taking the right approach. "Really," said Rei, nodding and treating it like it was not anything unusual, "your forms are executed extremely well. Better than all the kids in my class that's for sure." Except for Neji went without saying.
Glancing over at Hinata Rei noticed that she was stunned speechless. She looked like wasn't sure or just didn't know how to react to what she had just heard. When was the last time anyone complimented her on the skills she's obviously spent huge amounts of time and effort acquiring?
In the end Hinata looked away, her cheeks coloring a pretty shade of pink. "T-thank you Rei-san… senpai… but I-I'm sure that isn't true. You don't have bend the truth on my account."
Wow. This girl really is screwed up isn't she? The Hyuuga shouldn't be allowed to raise a cabbage let alone a young girl. "Hinata look at me," Rei said kindly but with a note of command behind her words.
Hesitantly the girl turned to look at Rei until their eyes met. The blonde held Hinata's gaze in place with willpower and intensity alone. She needed the girl to see how serious she was. "I don't like the suggestion that I'm lying. I'm here to help you and I can't do that if I make things up and lie to you about your ability. Now there are good points to your taijutsu. Good solid foundations we can build on. Maybe you don't see it yourself but trust me, it's there. Now I need you to trust that I'm telling you the truth. Can you do that Hina-chan?"
Hinata looked like she wanted to look away but found herself unable to do so. "Y-yes I can do that," stammered Hinata, sounding both awed and intimidated by the girl sitting barely a foot away from her.
"Good," said Rei before finally breaking eye contact. Hinata sagged a little in relief as Rei leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. "I'll probably need a bit of time, a few days at least, to come up with a good plan for training now that I've seen what you can do. Do you have any questions you want to ask? Really, anything at all that you want to know about or are curious about Hina-chan?"
Hinata was silent for a few minutes, so long that Rei thought the girl wouldn't ask her anything. When she spoke up her voice came as something of a surprise. "Um… the taijutsu style that you used. It was a bit… unusual."
Rei opened one eye to look at Hinata. "How so?"
The girl bit her lip again in a nervous gesture. "Well, your offense looked like a slightly modified version of Konoha Standard. Your defense however looks completely different. It's like you're using two different styles but only using one to defend and one to attack."
Rei was a little surprised Hinata would even ask about that since she didn't seem to like taijutsu in general. However it wasn't really a surprise that she had noticed. "Well you're not wrong," Rei said casually.
There was another long pause before Hinata gathered up the courage to speak again. "Why do you do that? If you don't mind me asking that is."
Rei pursed her lips as she thought about how to answer that. The fact that she held the Rat contract was pretty much common knowledge among the upper echelon and senior ninja of the village. It probably wouldn't hurt to let Hinata in on what she considered to be her crowning achievement up to this point.
"I've been taught Rat Style taijutsu by my personal summons," Rei began, "that's the style you didn't recognize. The reason you saw me only use it defensively is because that's pretty much what it does. Rat Style is pretty much all defense and has almost no offensive capabilities to speak of."
For a few moments Hinata looked absolutely dumbfounded, her mind trying to process what she'd heard. "You have your own- how-… what-… how, how is a taijutsu style purely defensive? How would that even work?"
Rei thought she might be most curious about that since she suspected Hinata had some latent 'pacifist-ish' tendencies. She could understand Hinata's confusion. This wasn't like her last world where many people advocated the use or martial arts exclusively for defense and self-protection and many martial arts reflected this philosophy. 'Self-defense' was not a concept Rei had even heard of in the Elemental Nations. Taijutsu was simply put a tool for war. It was meant to neutralize your enemies as quickly as possible before they could do the same thing to you. To anyone in the Elemental Nations having a taijutsu style without offense would be akin to having a knife without a blade. That is, completely nonsensical and absurd.
Still she was being more than a little misleading by implying Rat Style was somehow not stupidly dangerous. As Rei thought of what she was going to say to Hinata her mind wandered back to when she had first been introduced to the style and what her reaction to hearing about it had been. The blonde couldn't help but smile a little at the memory.
"Well…"
000
Two Years Ago
Rei stood high in the branches of the enormous Hashirama tree in her back yard, her back against the trunk and her arms folded in front of her, a scowl set clear on her face. Elder Black sat in a nearby branch somehow managing to appear dignified whilst relaxing in the natural leafy environment. While he wasn't going to be one of her primary teachers he was still taking the time to give Rei the rundown of some of the basics of the Rat Arts. Still Rei couldn't help but feel that right now Elder Black was pulling her leg.
"Why would I want to learn a style of taijutsu that is purely defensive?" she asked skeptically. After a pause she added, "why would anyone want to learn a form of taijutsu that was purely defensive?"
"You be criticizing pup but it be obvious that you not be understanding. Not one whit," said Elder Black as he moved and sprawled himself out across a thick branch like he was getting ready to sunbathe. "There always be a reason for the things that we do. Defensive also does not mean Rat Style is not dangerous. It simply means it lacks ways to initiate a confrontation, though it does excel at quickly ending them."
Rei considered what Elder Black had just said and then shook her head. "I still can't imagine why you would come up with a style like that. Why sacrifice offense? It makes no sense. You limit yourself unnecessarily."
"Do we?" Elder Black said with a chuckle, "I think you be a bit young to be educating us on the nuances of taijutsu. Especially when you don't understand why our style developed the way it did in the first place."
"Ok, I'll bite. Explain it to me," said Rei with a dismissive gesture, "what makes a defensive style like this so great?"
"Thank you," said Elder Black with humor and a hint of mockery, "for your kind regard little one. It not be that complex really. By necessity a form of taijutsu cannot be equally good at everything. A form that focuses on aggressive attack will sacrifice some of the nuances of defense. A form that seeks to maximize defense will suffer in offensive capacity. A form that seeks to balance both will always be merely 'good' at both as opposed to 'great'. Strong strikes sacrifice some subtlety. Subtlety sacrifices some power. Do you see what I'm getting at?"
Rei made a thoughtful humming sound as she thought about it. "So a style that focuses solely on defense will theoretically have the strongest defense of all. Any taijutsu style can only become truly good at a limited number of things."
"Correct."
"But… the problem still remains," Rei said shaking her head, "if you can't go on the offensive that is a gigantic hole in your skillset. How are you supposed to win a fight like that?"
"And that," said Elder Black suddenly sitting up pointing the end of his walking stick at her chest, "be showing that you have a piss poor understanding of the Way of the Rat and how it be that we do battle."
Rei hesitated for a few moments before reluctantly speaking. "Okay, there's obviously something I'm missing here. I don't really understand how Rats do battle since I haven't been taught yet. Could you please explain it to me Elder?"
"Certainly," Elder Black said sounding pleased. "In order to understand our choice of taijutsu you must understand how a typical encounter goes for a Rat. What do you think is our first order of business in any confrontation?" At seeing Rei's puzzled look Elder Black answered his own question. "The first order of business in any confrontation is always to go into stealth. To hide. To completely vanish from the senses of our enemies. To fight like a Rat means to always seek to hide your true location from your opponents."
"Okay…" said Rei, not sure how this tied in to taijutsu yet but extremely interested in what she was hearing just the same.
"Once a Rat is concealed he will always seek to end the confrontation in a single strike," continued Elder Black in lecturing tones, "once they cannot detect you their ability to defend from any attack will be severely crippled. Always strike from stealth, always aim for the kill. This is where the most obvious use of our poisons comes in… one scratch from any of our blades usually means death. A sleeping opponent, a distracted opponent on guard duty, an alert opponent actively looking for you and expecting an attack… it doesn't matter. The principle always remains the same. Become unseen. Strike from the shadows. End their miserable life in one attack. Simple in theory, not always so easy in execution."
Rei felt a thrill of excitement… and just a hint of fear at those words. The principle appealed to her. Two ninja crashing into each other like rams in heat had some appeal but overall it lacked… artistry. Elegance. It certainly didn't seem like the smartest way to fight. Different methods all had their place but Rei felt this was probably a lot more in her wheelhouse.
The Rats were also very much about learning how to kill which scared her a little. Her other ninja training wasn't nearly so blatant about it even if was ultimately teaching her to do the same thing. It just made it that much clearer that killing wasn't something she would get out of doing forever.
Rei was brought out of her musing when Elder Black asked her a question.
"Of course that is what happens when everything goes right. Tell me pup what do you suppose happens when things go wrong?"
Rei blinked at that, not expecting the question. "You mean when they detect you?"
"I mean more when your attack fails. It is certainly possible especially against high level opponents. What then?"
"Well," began Rei raking her brain for an answer, "going by what you said before I suppose you should disengage and re-enter stealth to try again."
"That is ideally what you would do yes," said Elder Black with a firm nod, "but think about the situation you find yourself in: you jumped out of the shadows to slash at your opponent with a poisoned blade. He dodges at the last second and you hit nothing but air. Suddenly you find yourself facing an opponent that's larger, stronger, more skilled and more experienced than you face-to-face. He isn't going to simply let you hide from him again without a fight. What happens then?"
Rei frowned at that. "Why would you assume that your opponent would will be so much better than you?"
"Rats always assume they'll be fighting someone bigger, stronger, better than them," Elder Black said passionately and emphatically, "remember our history. Remember who we are. Rats physically are among the very weakest of the summon clans. We have no claws usable for violence and no fangs, we do not grow to be very large, we are not especially fast or strong or agile. The other clans often had centuries of battle experience over us. In order to survive we needed a method of fighting that would minimize or eliminate our disadvantages. Thus a situation such as this, immediately after a failed assassination attack, is when we would be the most vulnerable," Elder Black fixed Rei with a look, "that is where our style of taijutsu comes in."
"Ah," said Rei as she started to get it, "I see… so. You didn't really want a form of taijutsu that would outright let you beat your opponents. You wanted something that would allow you to survive and disengage so you could hide yourselves and strike from stealth once again."
"Close, but not entirely accurate," said Elder Black with something that might have been a hint of pride in his voice, "it's not that Rat Style does not allow us to beat out opponents. Quite the contrary actually. Though it is called a 'defensive' style this is a bit misleading. Rat Style thrives in turning the aggression of an attacker against them. The more intense and violent their attack the more violent our potential counter attack and in some ways, the more powerful our defense becomes. Rat Style could also be called a 'counter attack' art. We throw away all offense in favor of an unbreakable defense and turning their aggression against them with vicious and very final results. Our opponents have the option of either attacking us and running into a taijutsu style that solely exists to crush enemy aggression… or letting us disengage and once again vanish from their senses."
"It can't really work that neatly all the time," Rei said a bit skeptically though she was beginning to understand why a group of assassins would design a purely 'defensive' martial art. When it was explained it made sense. It was a bit counter intuitive to Rei but she could make it work.
If she wanted to crush someone hand-to-hand she'd just have to goad them into attacking her extremely aggressively. Not a problem. That was certainly something she would be able to pull off. Hell she'd probably even enjoy it.
Besides she was already really fucking good at Konoha Standard. It left her with some offensive taijutsu options if she felt like going that route. Good thing too. While Rei could see value of Rat Style within the framework of The Way of the Rat she would have felt like something was missing if she couldn't simply walk up to someone and punch them in the face.
"Of course not pup. This is a theoretical 'ideal encounter' we are talking about. Things always tend to go a bit wonky in the field. Still things do work out that neatly as often as not," Elder Black said with a shrug, "if our methods were not effective our clan would never have been able to claw it's way back from the edge of extinction. Once things devolve into a chaotic brawl however it is usually the most skilled individual at using their respective tools who is the victor. Solid tactics will never fully be able to replace raw skill."
000
Present Day
"… I'm not sure what to tell you. Basically it just works really well with my style of fighting. Don't worry about it too much. We'll probably be sparring pretty often and you'll get to see more of what Rat Style can do."
Hinata looked a bit curious and skeptical but just nodded. No one really expected ninja to go very in depth about their techniques at any rate and Hinata was a nice enough girl that she wasn't going to press the issue. If their association continued for some time (still a bit up in the air) then she would learn all about Rei's fighting style eventually… Neji certainly had.
"So I want to ask you something," began Rei in easy, soothing tones, "there is no right or wrong answer. I just want to figure out if it's a problem or just something I imagined."
It took Hinata a minute to realize Rei actually expected an answer. "Ah.. yeah I guess that's ok," she said shyly. Rei could tell Hinata was starting to feel a little more comfortable around her but it was still a work in progress.
Rei nodded and watched Hinata closely out of the corner of her eye. "Hinata-chan… are you afraid of hurting people?"
Hinata's face contorted into a pained grimace for a split second before she quickly covered it up and looked away. "I-I've just never had any talent at the Juuken or the ninja arts in general. That's really all there is to it."
Bullshit. Again Rei was seized with the impulse to begin battering Hinata until she cracked and all her carefully kept reasons and secrets came pouring out. With a not inconsiderable effort of will Rei restrained herself. She's not your enemy. Not really. She probably likes the idea of being forced into this life about as much as you do. Well that probably wasn't entirely accurate but some parallels were clearly there. Instead of calling out Hinata on her poorly concealed lie Rei just nodded her acceptance without another word causing the younger girl to visibly relax. At least now I know the answer to my question. That's all that really matters.
At that point in her estimation the two of them were pretty much done for the day. They had sparred and the blonde thought she had seen and heard everything she needed to for now. Rei would need a bit of time to plan how to attack the 'Hinata problem' and how her difficult to tackle issues could be overcome… perhaps Worm would have some insights when she finally caught up to him again.
Still… Rei didn't feel like letting Hinata go just yet. Her eyes slid to the side to observe the younger girl, her analytical mind spinning. She had observed something when they had met for the first time the day before. An… unusually strong reaction when Rei had casually touched her in a friendly manner. The curly haired blonde had her suspicions as to why that was… perhaps now would be a good time to confirm or deny her theory.
Thinking fast Rei pulled out one of her kunai and held it casually in front of her. "Hina-chan, if we're going to be working together there are a few things you should probably know for your own safety."
Without waiting for a reply Rei picked herself up and scooted closer to Hinata until their shoulders and hips were touching. Hinata inhaled sharply and froze like some kind of small forest animal that had just spotted a predator. Rei ignored the reaction (she had been expecting something like it after all) and held up the kunai close to their faces so they could both see it.
"Do you see this oily looking sheen on the blade?" Rei asked casually while pointing at the aforementioned blade with her free hand. "It should be easier to see when it catches the light but even then it can be hard to spot."
Hinata's whole body seemed to tense and relax over and over again, like she was debating about whether or not to move away. However it was very telling that even with her obvious discomfort Hinata chose to stay put and not move. Interesting.Very interesting.
"Y-yes, I… ah, I see it," Hinata stuttered, fumbling over her words. Her gaze kept flitting nervously between Rei's face and the blade. Rei for her part continued to act as if nothing was wrong.
"That's poison," said Rei and she felt the girl next to her start a little at her declaration, "if you're going to be around my tools you should be aware of it. I don't always carry poisoned weapons around but it happens pretty often. It's nonlethal however so don't worry about it if you cut yourself. You'll just be violently ill for a few minutes but an hour later you won't even feel any of the aftereffects."
"Ah…" Hinata seemed at a loss of how to respond to that. "T-thank you for showing me Rei-senpai," she said looking at the kunai with a cautious air.
With a flick of her wrist Rei vanished the kunai into her long sleeves. "No problem. Just something to be aware of."
They sat there for a few moments in silence, the contact between them no more intimate than something a person might experience on a crowded bus. Slowly, ever so slowly Hinata began to relax. She never got to 'relaxed', the girl still held a lot of tension in her body, but at least Rei didn't feel like she was a split second from jumping to get away. Rei looked at her out of the corner of her eye, noticing her uncertain eyes and the confused, troubled and slightly guilty look on her face.
"Is something wrong Hina-chan?" Rei asked softly, turning her head to look at the girl sitting next to her.
"N-no. Not really," she said, but her tone of voice was far from convincing. Her looking away and refusing to look at Rei was also a big clue that she wasn't being entirely truthful.
"Does this make you uncomfortable?" Rei asked in a soft intimate voice, pushing Hinata with her shoulder a little bit to emphasize what she meant.
Hinata was quiet for a long time before she drew a long shuddering breath. "It's not that Rei-san… Rei-senpai… it's just…"
"Yes?" prompted Rei, leaning a little more into Hinata as a show of support.
"Just… it's unusual… it's been a long time since…"
"Your mother?"
Hinata gasped, turning to look at Rei with wide amazement in her eyes. "H-How did you know?"
Exactly as I had suspected. Excellent. Rei gave Hinata a slightly humorous smile. "Lucky guess going from what I know about the Hyuuga. It wasn't hard to figure out." Rei's eyes suddenly turned sharp and calculating. "You don't dislike it do you Hina-chan?" she asked in a soft tone that was deliberately made to sound just a hint vulnerable.
If Hinata noticed anything unusual she didn't show it. Instead she blushed prettily and looked away. "It… it's not so bad," she said in a whisper, sounding embarrassed.
Looking at the sweet emotionally vulnerable girl sitting next to her Rei felt a powerful impulse come over her. Making the snap decision to go with it Rei bumped Hinata's shoulder in a friendly fashion with a wide honest smile on her face. "Would you like to come to my house? It would be nice if we could spend the rest of the afternoon together."
Hinata suddenly looked nervous, once again looking away as she seemed to do whenever she felt uncomfortable about something. "I-I really shouldn't. I should get home-"
"Actually you have at least four more hours set aside for training with me should you need it. I know exactly how long I'm allowed to keep you. You don't have to be home for a long while yet," said Rei, cutting her off with a hint of bite to her words.
If anything hearing this made Hinata's anxiety worse. Her hands started shaking and her breathing got a little ragged. "I… I don't think I should-"
Screw this. Rei stood up suddenly and without warning. Hinata was left looking surprised and, unless Rei misinterpreted her look, suddenly missing the warmth of the contact the two of them were having. Rei whirled on Hinata, her eyes suddenly hard and unyielding. At seeing her look Hinata couldn't help but instinctively shrink back and swallow nervously.
"Hinata," Rei said in a no nonsense tone, "you're coming with me to my house."
Hinata just stared at Rei for a second and the older girl could actually see the moment when Hinata's resolve folded like a deck of cards. The younger girl hung her head in submission and hugged her knees, curling in a little bit on herself subconsciously. "Yes Rei-senpai," she whispered.
Knowing it wasn't a good idea to leave it at that Rei approached Hinata and held out her hand. When the younger girl looked up Rei gave her an encouraging and half-apologetic smile. "Come on, let's go. I promise it won't be bad. If you relax a little you might even enjoy it."
Hesitantly and with a small tentative smile of her own Hinata reached out and grasped Rei's hand. The older girl pulled her to her feet with little effort.
"Follow me," said Rei encouragingly, "my house isn't too far."
Let's see what we can do with this need you have for human touch Hina-chan. Rei turned and looked at Hinata with hungry eyes when the younger girl wasn't looking. How can I turn this to my advantage?
000
They didn't say much on the way to the Yamanaka compound, each girl preoccupied with their own thoughts. Rei did however did find a few instances to 'accidentally' or 'innocently' touch Hinata. A brush of shoulders here, a few fingers on her back to guide her through a crowd, a touch to her elbow to get her attention. It was both amusing and kind of fascinating to watch Hinata jump and fumble over her words with each instance.
The gates of the Yamanaka compound weren't as impressive as those of the Hyuuga but they were extremely large and imposing just the same. Rei led them past the guards as several of them greeted her with a friendly and respectful 'Rei-sama' which for some reason seemed to surprise Hinata. What about all that is surprising I wonder? As they entered the Yamanaka compound Hinata unashamedly looked around curiously taking it all in... unlike Neji who had acted like such a display would be below his dignity. It was all very different from the Hyuuga compound and Rei found herself wondering how often Hinata had visited other clans before.
It didn't take long for them to reach her house. Hinata paused a little and stared at the place as Rei turned off the street towards her front porch.
"You live here?" asked Hinata with an odd note in her voice.
Rei looked at her house. It was a two story single family home that was rather modern by Elemental Nations standards. It was… kind of cozy. Her mother even kept flowers planted in the front yard. It looked like a family home rather than a statement of power and wealth like the sprawling estate Hinata lived in.
"Yep," said Rei popping her P, "my whole life."
"Must be nice," Hinata muttered.
Rei walked up to the front door and let herself inside with Hinata following close behind. As they took off their shoes the young Hyuuga looked around. She could see the living room from the entrance and like the outside it was cozy, made up of stained woods, warm colors, throw rugs and furniture that looked like it was designed for comfort rather than show. Rei pretended to ignore Hinata's fascination with the place as she tugged on the girl's sleeve.
"My room is upstairs," Rei said with a smile motioning for her to follow.
Hinata smiled back shyly and nodded following Rei up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs however there was an unexpected complication.
Just as Rei and Hinata reached the top of the stairs Ino came out of the bathroom at the end of the hall. The oldest girl's eyes widened in surprise. I thought she would be out for the rest of the day. Remembering their fight earlier that day made Rei inexplicably feel like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Like her sister Ino could definitely have a temper. Rei waited for her sister to notice them and mentally prepared herself for anything that might follow.
When Ino did notice them her expression turned surprised as her eyes first landed on Rei and then on Hinata before quickly flicking back and forth between the two of them a few times. Her expression then quickly morphed from surprise to hurt to anger. Sending Rei and Hinata both a withering glare Ino squared her shoulders and lifted her chin with as much dignity as she could. Without a word she marched into her room and slammed the door behind her so hard it was wonder she didn't crack the door frame.
Rei rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Lovely. That was the worst timing ever. It had only been hours since their last fight and bringing Hinata to the house had probably just made things exponentially more difficult for her to fix. Rei felt the strong impulse to go knock on Ino's door and sort this out right in that very moment. She didn't like having her little sister's displeasure hanging over her head.
"Rei-senpai?" Hinata asked uncertainly, looking a little confused and uncomfortable after seeing how Ino reacted to their presence.
Rei glanced over at her younger charge. That's right I can't deal with Ino right now. I have Hinata here now – and Hinata is business. Pretty damn important business. I can't ditch her at the first sign of family drama.
"Me and Ino just had a bit of a fight earlier today," Rei said casually with a small reassuring smile for the girl, "don't worry about. Once she cools down a bit we'll work it out, that's usually how it works."
Without giving Hinata time to think about it Rei walked up to her room and opened the door. "This is my room. Come in."
Looking a bit nervous Hinata swallowed and followed Rei inside.
000
As she walked into her room Rei tried to look at it from the point of view of a first time visitor.
Rei was extremely neat and organized stopping just shy of being anal about it and her room reflected that. Except for a stray pen on her small desk everything was neat and in order. Her room was simple but cozy. The comforter on her small bed was thick and fluffy, the colors in her room warm and inviting. The place looked lived in and it was probably the only place in the whole of Konoha that Rei felt more or less safe in letting her guard down.
"I like your room," Hinata said shyly, standing a little awkwardly near the entrance.
"Make yourself comfortable," said Rei before moving to close the door behind them. Suddenly the two of them were alone in her room and Rei could practically feel Hinata's uncertainty.
Rei crossed the room and sat down on her bed with a sigh. "Why don't you take off your jacket?" Rei suggested, thinking she would be more comfortable. Spirits knew why she wore something so hot in the heat of the Land of Fire. It would also be, symbolically, stripping off a piece of the armor that Hinata used to protect herself.
Hinata hesitated and fiddled with the hem of her coat. She glanced at Rei with a slightly pleading expression before looking away. It was obvious to Rei that for some reason Hinata didn't feel comfortable taking off her jacket. Had she been a less forceful person who was only thinking of Hinata's comfort Rei would have let the issue drop. However they were still establishing boundaries, figuring out what their relationship would look like in the future. Rei also wanted Hinata feeling exposed and vulnerable as much as possible.
"Hinata." Rei said firmly, pinning the girl with her gaze, "Take off your jacket."
The girl twitched as if fighting with herself about what to do. When her uncertain eyes finally met Rei's piercing commanding ones the last of her resistance broke. Hinata reached for her zipper and began to take off her jacket. Thankfully once the girl committed herself to a course of action there relatively little hesitation. The girl slipped off her coat and folded it efficiently before giving a Rei a questioning look as to where she should put it.
That's twice now, once when I asked her to come to my house and once now. When I asked she seemed to waffle and hesitate but when I told her to do something she did it right away. It seems that she's the type who responds better to orders than suggestions.
If that was really the case… that wasn't really a good trait for a leader to have. But… but it might not be such a bad thing altogether.
Looking at Hinata standing in front of her holding her jacket, looking uncertain and waiting for direction from her, Rei was struck by how utterly vulnerable this young girl in front of her was. Rei felt a powerful feeling spread through her, warm and growling like a beast. Hinata was vulnerable, she was valuable and powerful and the temptation to do something about it was strong. Very strong. So strong Rei didn't think she was going to even try to resist it. The feeling was heady and it made her feel strong.
"Just put it down on the bed," Rei said, motioning with a tilt of her head. Hinata quickly moved to comply and Rei saw that the girl had been wearing a dark blue short sleeved shirt underneath the jacket. It actually matched her hair.
So far Rei had been playing it by ear but that thought gave her an idea of what to do next. She smiled a smile that was mostly reassuring but also a tad predatory.
"I was wondering Hina-chan… does anyone ever brush your hair?"
Hinata seemed surprised by her question before a shadow of pain crossed her eyes. "No," she said shaking her head lightly, her tone sad and her eyes seemingly far away. "Not for a long time."
Rei couldn't help but feel a moment of sympathy before she put it aside and pushed forward. "Well I figured I could brush your hair while we talk," Rei said gently while at the same time making certain to make it sound more like a command and less of a suggestion.
Hinata jerked, her eyes for a moment going somewhere far away before coming back to the present. The girl gave Rei a pleading look that said she wasn't really certain if she wanted to do this. Rei ignored it. The honey-blonde just gave Hinata a meaningful look until - once again - her resistance crumbled. Hesitantly the girl gave Rei a small nod of assent.
"Great," said Rei with a reassuring smile, "sit in the chair and face the mirror."
Hinata did as she was told, sitting down in the chair in front of the dresser. Rei felt an unexpected thrill at seeing Hinata being so obedient.
Rei stood up and walked up behind Hinata reaching around her to pick up a hair brush that had sitting on top of the dresser. Hinata's hair was really too short to do this properly but Rei was going to make a go of it anyway. Gently Rei brought the brush to the crown of Hinata's head and began running it slowly through her hair.
The young girl squirmed in her seat at first like she had ants biting her bottom but Rei was pretty certain it wasn't really that she disliked what she was feeling. It was all just rather overwhelming for the girl. After a couple of minutes of running the brush through her thick too-short hair however Hinata began to relax, calm down and actually enjoy Rei's ministrations. She stopped squirming, her breathing evened out and her eyes naturally half-closed at the feel of the brush lightly pulling on her hair. It wasn't long before it Hinata seemed to fall into a nearly trance like state, her body occasionally giving a little shudder of pleasure at the simple feel of someone running a brush through her hair gently and confidently.
Good, Rei thought as she carefully watched and analyzed every expression, every reaction of Hinata's in the mirror. Very good.
"You know," began Rei in a soothing, almost hypnotic voice, never stopping the rhythmic movement of her hands, "originally I was doing this because your father asked me to and because he was able to help me with something. After I met you though Hina-chan it made me genuinely want to help you."
There was no response as Hinata really did seem to almost be in a trance as someone brushed her hair for the first time in who knew how many years. Rei however was positive that the girl was very much listening to every word she said.
Still it didn't hurt to have a little insurance. Rei took her free hand and slid her fingers into the girl's hair at the nape of her neck. Hinata gasped when she felt Rei running her nails lightly across her scalp.
"I want you to know you can trust me," Rei said intimately into Hinata's ear. Her eyes closed completely at the sound of Rei's voice, at the feeling of her hand in her hair and her fingernails against her scalp. Hinata's breathing came deeper and faster and Rei couldn't help but smile a little. "I know you've been holding back on me and that's okay. We all have our secrets and we haven't known each very long. Unfortunately we can't keep doing that forever. I want to help you Hinata-chan but I'm going to need your cooperation in order to do that. If there is no trust between us then all our efforts will be in vain. I really need you to trust me Hinata-chan. Can you do that for me?"
Hinata's eyes half opened and it looked like it took some real effort for her to speak. "Y-Yes…" she said in a breathless voice. Rei believed her but she wanted to make sure.
"That means no more secrets, no more holding things back from me. I promised you anything you tell me will be kept a secret from your father and from anyone else. Anything you tell me will be just between you and me. You don't have anything to be afraid of. You can trust me. Can you do that for me Hina-chan?"
In lieu of replying with her words Hinata just nodded emphatically with small jerky movements as her eyes slid shut again. Rei's grin was triumphant and just a little terrifying. The blonde was beginning to feel like she had real power over this girl and it was new, and it was thrilling, and it was exciting.
She was also enjoying brushing her hair a great deal, surprisingly.
A more prudent person would have probably left things there but Rei was always one for pushing boundaries. Rei causally threw her brush onto her bed, deciding to give up the pretense that Hinata's short hair needed any more brushing. The blonde wanted to see just how far she could push. With gentle flowing movements Rei buried both her hands in Hinata's hair, using a bit more pressure now as she scraped her fingernails across Hinata's scalp. The girl shuddered and subconsciously pressed her head harder into Rei's attentive hands, tiny mewls of pleasure escaping from her lips.
"I like your hair color," said Rei in an intimate hypnotic tone. There was no response form Hinata. Her eyes were closed, little sounds escaping from her lips and she appeared to be in bliss. "It's a very unique shade. I've never seen anyone else in the village with such beautiful midnight blue hair. You should really be proud of it. Too bad you keep it short."
Hinata frowned a little and Rei could tell she was affected by that remark. Rei couldn't help but feel pleased by that. She wants my approval. Good.
"It's really much too pretty to keep it so short," said Rei as she continued massaging Hinata's scalp, "Why don't you grow it out?"
"W-What?" said Hinata, opening her eyes part of the way and looking puzzled and hesitant, like she wasn't completely aware of what was going on or that she had heard right.
Rei chided herself silently. That's right she does better with direct commands than suggestions doesn't she? Rei had to hold back a smile as she realized she would fully get to indulge her domineering side when dealing with Hinata.
"Your hair," said Rei a little bit more forcefully than before. Then she stopped her hands running though Hinata's hair. "I want you to grow it out."
She looked at Hinata in the mirror and at herself standing behind the seated girl. Rei gave the girl her full dom stare, willful and unshaking with a small smile playing on her lips. Hinata looked torn and some part of Rei suspected that perhaps her mother had had long hair and that had something to do with why she kept hers so short. It was just a theory but that wasn't going to stop her. When Hinata took too long to answer for her liking Rei slowly pulled her hands out of Hinata's hair. As she did so Rei could physically see the girl's disappointed sense of loss and her desire to have that contact again. Rei just lifted and expectant eyebrow and settled her hands on her hips, her small smug smile never falling from her lips.
Just like she knew it would eventually Hinata's resolve to hold out against her broke and she lowered her head in submission. Acceptance came over her features and she nodded slightly. "Okay. If you really think it will look better…"
"It will," Rei said confidently, a triumphant smile playing on her lips
Again Hinata just nodded her acceptance. "I-I'll let my hair grow out for you then Rei-senpai."
Rei had to keep herself form laughing joyfully, an energized and thrilled feeling spreading throughout all her body. This is going even better than I imagined. I think this deserves a reward little Hina-chan.
Rei noticed that once she had accepted what she was going to do Hinata seemed more at peace with her decision, not conflicted about it like she been before. Perhaps she felt more secure when other people took charge? Was she actually happier with someone else telling her what to do? Something to think about later. Maybe I'm getting a little too much into this.
Rei rewarded Hinata by once again slipping her hands into the girl's hair. The contact elicited an involuntary moan of pleasure from the girl. It might have embarrassed her but Rei didn't think she even noticed. She dug her fingernails even harder into Hinata's scalp this time and the girl seemed to really enjoy it. Feeling experimental Rei branched out and began lightly ghosting her fingers over Hinata's ears, neck and jawline. The young girl shuddered and with her eyes closed seemed to completely lose herself in the pleasurable sensations.
"You're such a good girl Hinata," Rei whispered, "I think you and I will be very close. Just follow my lead and everything will be fine."
Hinata made a pleased humming sound. "Okay," she whispered in a soft happy voice.
Something dark and wicked laughed in the back of Rei's mind. You're mine Hinata. You just haven't realize it yet.
000
'Resistance training' with the Rats wasn't what you might expect. In Rei's old world that term was just a fancy way of saying lifting weights and other exercises that were meant to build up your muscles. What she was doing now was much, much different.
Rei set her jaw as she looked at the three innocuous looking ink bottles in front of her. In front of the bottles arranged in a neat line were three small glass syringes. Mentally Rei prepared herself for what she knew was coming. The blonde could with all confidence say this was the least favorite part of her training.
As she reached for the small bottle on the far left the girl tried not to think too hard about what was coming. Reading the label she made sure three times over it was the correct one she wanted. Mentally she went over what she knew about its contents.
Substance three, otherwise known as "Gut Wrench"
Route: Dermal breach.
Medium: Oil-based emulsion.
Expiration: Six to eight months.
Effects: Vomiting, incapacitating abdominal contractions, occasional loss of bowel control.
Duration: Two to ten minutes depending on factors such as dose and general constitution.
Action: Almost immediate (typically less than one second).
With her features set Rei removed the wax-coated stopper from the small bottle and set the two items down right in front of her. She then reached over and picked up the first syringe. With a careful and experienced hand she withdrew the appropriate dosage for that day. 1.1 milliliters. With the ease of practice Rei recapped the bottle and held up the needle in front of her face, slowly putting pressure on the plunger to push out all the excess air.
Reaching down she pinched the skin of her thigh and in a practiced movement pushed the needle underneath her skin. This is going to suck… I just upped the dosage again today. Here goes. With a determined expression someone might wear when they were getting ready to go to war Rei pushed down on the plunger sending the poison straight into her body.
Almost immediately Rei felt like her abdominal muscles and stomach suddenly decided they wanted to tear themselves out of her body. The abdominal pain the strength of the muscular contractions were immense and doubled her over almost immediately. Rei focused on breathing as she hunched forward and cradled her stomach, unable to stop herself from curling inwards even if she'd wanted to. Thankfully there was none of the uncontrolled vomiting associated with this particular poison (those first few times had made her want to punt a Rat into a wall) but every time her training called for her to increase her dosage it made her violently, violently ill.
Rei kept stealing glances at the clock as she grit her teeth and rode out the effects of the poison. As always it seemed like a small eternity before it began to pass and as always the time was a lot shorter than she would have guessed. She noted the time it took before the effects eventually died down to what she considered to be a tolerable level. Nine minutes. Recapping the needle and putting it aside Rei pulled out a small notebook she kept for just this. Meticulously she recorder the date, dosage and time it took her recover from the poison. Once the effects persisted for less than thirty seconds it would time to up her dosage again.
The things I do for power. When she had learned that she was going to be learning poisons Rei had been excited. That was before she learned that the Rats insisted she build up a powerful resistance (there really was no such thing as true immunity) to a wide variety of poisons, especially the ones she was likely to use on a regular basis. Unfortunately there was no way to do that other than poisoning yourself over and over again in increasing dosages.
It was just awful. It was in some ways mentally scarring. The Rats had been impressed by her determination. Frankly Rei was just stubborn and, she could admit, just a little bit obsessed with her goals. All this pain would be worth it one day. She had to believe that.
She did believe that. She did. Rei wasn't about to start doubting that. Not after she had already come so far.
Rei looked down and examined the three poisons in front of her. "Gut Wrench" was one of the more reliable fast acting non-lethal poisons available to her and the one she tended to coat all her weapons with. One application could last for months making it incredibly convenient and by now accidentally cutting herself with her own weapons wouldn't incapacitate her. Hell at this point she could cut herself a half dozen times with her own poisoned blades and she wouldn't even feel the least bit nauseous. Such was the power of building up your own resistances.
However Gut Wrench wasn't the only poison she used and she couldn't count on it to work in all situations. With a sigh Rei looked at the two remaining untouched bottles and their corresponding syringes still laid out neatly on her desk. The effects of substance three faded quickly. These other two would last just a little bit longer.
Closing her eyes Rei gathered her will and her determination around her like a worn but unbreakable cloak. Other people wouldn't have the willpower to keep up the stringent resistance regiment she put herself on. Other people would coast by on doing the minimum but Rei constantly pushed the dosages to the absolute limit that she could without risk of serious injury. So what if it made her feel like death? Her mind could overcome the complaints of her body. The body was weak, forever whining and protesting about the things she did to make it stronger. The mind was strong. In her private moments Rei acknowledged that in some ways she was deeply flawed but if there was one thing that was beyond reproach it was the strength of her mind.
Opening her eyes she looked at the two remaining bottles with a kind of serene will. Reaching for the she began to prepare her next dose.
It would take her a bit longer to recover from these two. It should leave her just enough time to leave the house and go meet up with her kouhai.
000
Facing off in a shaded training field near the academy stood two girls. One was relaxed and observant, wondering what her opponent was about to show her and how much she was going to have to hold back. The other stood in her family's traditional on-guard position, the tension on her face and shoulders giving away how apprehensive she was about the whole thing.
"Come on Hina-chan," said Rei patiently as she stood in a deceptively open-looking stance, "I can't gauge where you are until I see you in action. I won't hurt you and you won't be able to hurt me. Now come on, stop hesitating and attack me already."
The younger girl swallowed nervously (there's that nervous habit again) before tensing up and rushing at Rei. Sloppy. She has to know tensing up telegraphs your moves.
Hinata extended her fingers as users of the Gentle Fist almost invariably did and aimed a quick strike at her shoulder. Rei sidestepped almost lazily and redirected the attack to the side with two fingers. The Hyuuga didn't stumble like Rei thought she would but she did momentarily hesitate for a split second before flowing into her next attack. More than enough time for a skilled opponent to exploit.
Hinata came at her swiftly with a combination that Rei had seen many times before, the younger girl's face set in an expression of concentration and determination. Rei dodged and deflected all of it with ease, her quick footwork and years of familiarity with the Gentle Fist making the task almost trivial. Deciding to test something Rei patiently waited for the strike to her stomach she knew was coming. Hinata came forward with the predicted palm strike and Rei snatched her wrist out of mid-air with a vice-like grip. In a complex maneuver Rei went low, swept Hinata's legs out from under her and threw the Hyuuga Heiress over her shoulder.
It was an almost gentle throw by ninja standards and Rei watched carefully to see how Hinata reacted. Her body tucked in on itself, the girl rolling in the direction of the throw and using the momentum to rise to her feet in one smooth fluid motion. That was a textbook roll-and-recovery maneuver and Hinata just pulled it off perfectly. That was all muscle memory... which I suppose isn't surprising given how much training she's had.
Hinata didn't immediately resume her attack, the concentration and determination that had previously been on her face now suddenly tinged with doubt and apprehension. Rei said nothing and just watched with a bland expression waiting to see what her kouhai would do. After pausing for a few moments the girl briefly bit her bottom lip nervously (another one of her tells) before once again going on the attack.
Rei dodged and evaded, staying just out of reach as her impressive mind began analyzing the girl in front of her. Hinata was clearly no Neji. She was slower, stiffer, could not adapt almost instantaneously to new unexpected situations and perhaps most significantly did not display the amazing creativity and on the fly improvisations that her older cousin could pull out of thin air almost effortlessly. However what Rei was seeing wasn't all bad. For one Hinata's form was textbook perfect. Every movement, every transition from stance to stance, every flow from attack to attack was done with the correct angle of the fingers, with her toes pointed in the exact direction that they should be, with her knees bent exactly as much as they were supposed to be.. no more and no less. Rei could find very little to critique on that front. It was obvious that her tutors had drilled her over and over endlessly until her body knew exactly what to do every time perfectly and without fail. Rei felt a smidge of respect grow for the girl who was currently trying desperately to land a hit in on her. She knew from experience just how many hundreds and thousands of hours Hinata must have spent training in order to be able to maintain such a crisp form during a spar.
However there was a lot more to fighting than just form. Rei frowned a little. Hinata was definitely missing something.
"Come on Hinata-chan," Rei said with a hint of demand in her voice, "Neji's been hitting me with Juken strikes since I was seven. Don't hold back. Trust me I can take whatever you can dish out."
Hinata's face showed distress for a fraction of a second before she suddenly began to attack even faster than before. However it almost instantly became clear to Rei that just attacking faster wasn't fixing the problem. Hinata's strikes, her moves, her offensive… they lacked Spirit. They lacked Intent. They lacked any desire or willingness to inflict injury. A punch without a strong intent behind it was just like a blunted kunai. It looked right but it was ultimately pretty much useless in doing what it was supposed to do.
As an added complication Hinata seemed to be losing confidence now that they had been sparring for a short time and the girl hadn't come even close to landing any kind of hit. Rei had to hold back a disapproving frown when she noticed that. Really? A few minutes of failure is all it takes to shake your resolve?
"Come on," she said to the girl with half a growl, "stop trying to hit me and hit me."
Okay so Hinata might not have understood what she meant by that but there was no reason her to start doing even worseafter a comment like that. Except she did. Her strikes became more choppy and hesitant and by the look on her face Rei could tell her words had hurt the girl's mental poise. Hinata struck again and again, her from still there but with failing flow, the smooth organic movements of the Juuken suddenly disappearing from her aggressive barrage.
What to do? Rei was tempted to start beating on the girl, thoroughly crushing her into the ground, something to get a more martial reaction out of her than this hesitant meek showing… but somehow Rei instinctively knew that wouldn't work at all. Not with Hinata. What to do then?
Instead of just dodging and deflecting Rei changed to an offensive, pushing one of Hinata's strikes aside and attacking her with an overhand chop. Not expecting the sudden reversal Hinata scrambled to get out of the way, stumbling as she backpedaled away from Rei's blow. The older girl didn't take the obvious opening and waited until Hinata had recovered just enough. Rei then let loose a rather restrained roundhouse kick at Hinata's hip. This time the girl responded appropriately, blocking the Rei's leg with a textbook perfect maneuver and by reflex moving her fingers in position to cripple her leg with a Juuken strike. Rei pulled her leg back fast enough to avoid the (theoretical) blow but slow enough to encourage a follow up offensive. Thankfully Hinata took the opportunity to press the attack even if it was more out of in-drilled reflexes rather than any personal desire to emerge the victor.
They fought like that for a while, Rei pressing Hinata just hard enough and giving her enough openings to encourage the younger girl to keep attacking. To Rei the young Hyuuga heiress was an odd mix of textbook perfection and deep flaws in execution and application. Rei began to see why the Hyuuga clan had experienced so many problems trying to improve Hinata's fighting prowess. Both confidence and lack of fighting spirit, that tenacity to win no matter the odds seemed to be the problem. A few times Rei deliberately left herself open and Hinata had hesitated before trying to take advantage of the chink in her armor. Why did she do that? Was she afraid of hurting people? If so… maybe you should have been born in my old world Hinata-chan.
Before long it became more than clear that Hinata was fighting with no expectation to win. Rei had to reign in her instinctive disdain… that wasn't really fair to Hinata. If anything she deserves my sympathy. They say a skilled fighter can learn a great deal about an opponent by crossing fists with them. To Rei it seemed obvious that Hinata didn't like fighting. People can enjoy fighting for any number of reasons, as an outlet for their feelings, as a challenge or a game to overcome an opponent, as a means to feel powerful, as a means to an end. Taijutsu was not something Hinata wanted to be doing. It was a chore to her.
That was three big problems Rei had identified in just their first spar. Maybe this "getting Hinata up to snuff" business was going to be harder and more involved than she'd first thought.
Doing something about these issues was going to take some doing. She was going to have to take some time and give this some serious thought.
Distractedly Rei caught a half-hearted fist aimed at her face. "Enough," Rei said in a thoughtful and soft voice, "I've seen enough for now. Come on, let's sit down and we'll talk about it."
000
Moments later they were seated with their backs against a very large tree. Rei had sat herself about a foot away from Hinata, closer than what was a normal social distance but not too invasive. She didn't think Hinata had noticed yet though. The younger girl was too busy breathing hard and trying to force her breath under control, her forehead covered in a sheen of fine sweat. By contrast Rei was completely unruffled and indeed what they had just gone through could barely be called a warmup for her nowadays. The blonde sat patiently with her legs crossed at the ankles and her hands behind her head as she leaned back against the tree. In contrast Hinata was curling forward and hugging her knees as her breathing finally began to slow. What an odd pair we make.
"Feeling better?" Rei asked a short while later.
Hinata looked at her with a bit of uncertainty and vulnerability on her face before nodding shyly. "Yes Rei-senpai. I'm fine," she said in a small voice.
Rei frowned a little at that. What is it now? As far as she could see there was no real reason for Hinata to be acting so meek at the moment. Unless…
What normally happened after her training sessions? If Rei had to guess this would be the time when Hinata's instructors would rake her over the coals for all her deficiencies. And yes, there were some very glaring deficiencies to be corrected. Still Hinata looked like she was waiting to get hit, looking apprehensive and almost cringing away as if anticipating the sharp sting of the rebuke that she expected to come.
It was then and there that Rei decided she was going to be different. They had to talk about her problems but she was going to find a way to do it that didn't make the girl feel like crap. It wasn't productive anyway since it had never worked for the Hyuuga. That could wait for some other time though. No need to talk about her faults today, especially when Rei still didn't know what she was going to do to address them.
"How do you think you did?" Rei asked as an open ended question, her tone soft as if she were speaking to an easily spooked animal.
Hinata seemed a little surprised by her question before looking away and fidgeting nervously with the hem of her clothes. Rei wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing that the straight posture and poise of a Clan Heiress from their last meeting seemed to be absent today.
"I think… maybe not so good. I'm not very good at taijutsu," Hinata said sounding down. Her tone of voice said she really believed it.
"Why do you think that?" asked Rei, genuinely curious.
Hinata shrugged. "It's what everyone always tells me. I never do as well as people want me to. It's not exactly advanced sealing. It's kind of hard to miss."
"Well…" began Rei and she saw Hinata physically tense up, "I think you've got some definite bright spots in your taijutsu."
Hinata's head turned quickly to look at her, disbelief clear on her features. "Really?" she asked, sounding mostly skeptical and just the smallest tiniest bit hopeful.
That reaction convinced Rei she was taking the right approach. "Really," said Rei, nodding and treating it like it was not anything unusual, "your forms are executed extremely well. Better than all the kids in my class that's for sure." Except for Neji went without saying.
Glancing over at Hinata Rei noticed that she was stunned speechless. She looked like wasn't sure or just didn't know how to react to what she had just heard. When was the last time anyone complimented her on the skills she's obviously spent huge amounts of time and effort acquiring?
In the end Hinata looked away, her cheeks coloring a pretty shade of pink. "T-thank you Rei-san… senpai… but I-I'm sure that isn't true. You don't have bend the truth on my account."
Wow. This girl really is screwed up isn't she? The Hyuuga shouldn't be allowed to raise a cabbage let alone a young girl. "Hinata look at me," Rei said kindly but with a note of command behind her words.
Hesitantly the girl turned to look at Rei until their eyes met. The blonde held Hinata's gaze in place with willpower and intensity alone. She needed the girl to see how serious she was. "I don't like the suggestion that I'm lying. I'm here to help you and I can't do that if I make things up and lie to you about your ability. Now there are good points to your taijutsu. Good solid foundations we can build on. Maybe you don't see it yourself but trust me, it's there. Now I need you to trust that I'm telling you the truth. Can you do that Hina-chan?"
Hinata looked like she wanted to look away but found herself unable to do so. "Y-yes I can do that," stammered Hinata, sounding both awed and intimidated by the girl sitting barely a foot away from her.
"Good," said Rei before finally breaking eye contact. Hinata sagged a little in relief as Rei leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. "I'll probably need a bit of time, a few days at least, to come up with a good plan for training now that I've seen what you can do. Do you have any questions you want to ask? Really, anything at all that you want to know about or are curious about Hina-chan?"
Hinata was silent for a few minutes, so long that Rei thought the girl wouldn't ask her anything. When she spoke up her voice came as something of a surprise. "Um… the taijutsu style that you used. It was a bit… unusual."
Rei opened one eye to look at Hinata. "How so?"
The girl bit her lip again in a nervous gesture. "Well, your offense looked like a slightly modified version of Konoha Standard. Your defense however looks completely different. It's like you're using two different styles but only using one to defend and one to attack."
Rei was a little surprised Hinata would even ask about that since she didn't seem to like taijutsu in general. However it wasn't really a surprise that she had noticed. "Well you're not wrong," Rei said casually.
There was another long pause before Hinata gathered up the courage to speak again. "Why do you do that? If you don't mind me asking that is."
Rei pursed her lips as she thought about how to answer that. The fact that she held the Rat contract was pretty much common knowledge among the upper echelon and senior ninja of the village. It probably wouldn't hurt to let Hinata in on what she considered to be her crowning achievement up to this point.
"I've been taught Rat Style taijutsu by my personal summons," Rei began, "that's the style you didn't recognize. The reason you saw me only use it defensively is because that's pretty much what it does. Rat Style is pretty much all defense and has almost no offensive capabilities to speak of."
For a few moments Hinata looked absolutely dumbfounded, her mind trying to process what she'd heard. "You have your own- how-… what-… how, how is a taijutsu style purely defensive? How would that even work?"
Rei thought she might be most curious about that since she suspected Hinata had some latent 'pacifist-ish' tendencies. She could understand Hinata's confusion. This wasn't like her last world where many people advocated the use or martial arts exclusively for defense and self-protection and many martial arts reflected this philosophy. 'Self-defense' was not a concept Rei had even heard of in the Elemental Nations. Taijutsu was simply put a tool for war. It was meant to neutralize your enemies as quickly as possible before they could do the same thing to you. To anyone in the Elemental Nations having a taijutsu style without offense would be akin to having a knife without a blade. That is, completely nonsensical and absurd.
Still she was being more than a little misleading by implying Rat Style was somehow not stupidly dangerous. As Rei thought of what she was going to say to Hinata her mind wandered back to when she had first been introduced to the style and what her reaction to hearing about it had been. The blonde couldn't help but smile a little at the memory.
"Well…"
000
Two Years Ago
Rei stood high in the branches of the enormous Hashirama tree in her back yard, her back against the trunk and her arms folded in front of her, a scowl set clear on her face. Elder Black sat in a nearby branch somehow managing to appear dignified whilst relaxing in the natural leafy environment. While he wasn't going to be one of her primary teachers he was still taking the time to give Rei the rundown of some of the basics of the Rat Arts. Still Rei couldn't help but feel that right now Elder Black was pulling her leg.
"Why would I want to learn a style of taijutsu that is purely defensive?" she asked skeptically. After a pause she added, "why would anyone want to learn a form of taijutsu that was purely defensive?"
"You be criticizing pup but it be obvious that you not be understanding. Not one whit," said Elder Black as he moved and sprawled himself out across a thick branch like he was getting ready to sunbathe. "There always be a reason for the things that we do. Defensive also does not mean Rat Style is not dangerous. It simply means it lacks ways to initiate a confrontation, though it does excel at quickly ending them."
Rei considered what Elder Black had just said and then shook her head. "I still can't imagine why you would come up with a style like that. Why sacrifice offense? It makes no sense. You limit yourself unnecessarily."
"Do we?" Elder Black said with a chuckle, "I think you be a bit young to be educating us on the nuances of taijutsu. Especially when you don't understand why our style developed the way it did in the first place."
"Ok, I'll bite. Explain it to me," said Rei with a dismissive gesture, "what makes a defensive style like this so great?"
"Thank you," said Elder Black with humor and a hint of mockery, "for your kind regard little one. It not be that complex really. By necessity a form of taijutsu cannot be equally good at everything. A form that focuses on aggressive attack will sacrifice some of the nuances of defense. A form that seeks to maximize defense will suffer in offensive capacity. A form that seeks to balance both will always be merely 'good' at both as opposed to 'great'. Strong strikes sacrifice some subtlety. Subtlety sacrifices some power. Do you see what I'm getting at?"
Rei made a thoughtful humming sound as she thought about it. "So a style that focuses solely on defense will theoretically have the strongest defense of all. Any taijutsu style can only become truly good at a limited number of things."
"Correct."
"But… the problem still remains," Rei said shaking her head, "if you can't go on the offensive that is a gigantic hole in your skillset. How are you supposed to win a fight like that?"
"And that," said Elder Black suddenly sitting up pointing the end of his walking stick at her chest, "be showing that you have a piss poor understanding of the Way of the Rat and how it be that we do battle."
Rei hesitated for a few moments before reluctantly speaking. "Okay, there's obviously something I'm missing here. I don't really understand how Rats do battle since I haven't been taught yet. Could you please explain it to me Elder?"
"Certainly," Elder Black said sounding pleased. "In order to understand our choice of taijutsu you must understand how a typical encounter goes for a Rat. What do you think is our first order of business in any confrontation?" At seeing Rei's puzzled look Elder Black answered his own question. "The first order of business in any confrontation is always to go into stealth. To hide. To completely vanish from the senses of our enemies. To fight like a Rat means to always seek to hide your true location from your opponents."
"Okay…" said Rei, not sure how this tied in to taijutsu yet but extremely interested in what she was hearing just the same.
"Once a Rat is concealed he will always seek to end the confrontation in a single strike," continued Elder Black in lecturing tones, "once they cannot detect you their ability to defend from any attack will be severely crippled. Always strike from stealth, always aim for the kill. This is where the most obvious use of our poisons comes in… one scratch from any of our blades usually means death. A sleeping opponent, a distracted opponent on guard duty, an alert opponent actively looking for you and expecting an attack… it doesn't matter. The principle always remains the same. Become unseen. Strike from the shadows. End their miserable life in one attack. Simple in theory, not always so easy in execution."
Rei felt a thrill of excitement… and just a hint of fear at those words. The principle appealed to her. Two ninja crashing into each other like rams in heat had some appeal but overall it lacked… artistry. Elegance. It certainly didn't seem like the smartest way to fight. Different methods all had their place but Rei felt this was probably a lot more in her wheelhouse.
The Rats were also very much about learning how to kill which scared her a little. Her other ninja training wasn't nearly so blatant about it even if was ultimately teaching her to do the same thing. It just made it that much clearer that killing wasn't something she would get out of doing forever.
Rei was brought out of her musing when Elder Black asked her a question.
"Of course that is what happens when everything goes right. Tell me pup what do you suppose happens when things go wrong?"
Rei blinked at that, not expecting the question. "You mean when they detect you?"
"I mean more when your attack fails. It is certainly possible especially against high level opponents. What then?"
"Well," began Rei raking her brain for an answer, "going by what you said before I suppose you should disengage and re-enter stealth to try again."
"That is ideally what you would do yes," said Elder Black with a firm nod, "but think about the situation you find yourself in: you jumped out of the shadows to slash at your opponent with a poisoned blade. He dodges at the last second and you hit nothing but air. Suddenly you find yourself facing an opponent that's larger, stronger, more skilled and more experienced than you face-to-face. He isn't going to simply let you hide from him again without a fight. What happens then?"
Rei frowned at that. "Why would you assume that your opponent would will be so much better than you?"
"Rats always assume they'll be fighting someone bigger, stronger, better than them," Elder Black said passionately and emphatically, "remember our history. Remember who we are. Rats physically are among the very weakest of the summon clans. We have no claws usable for violence and no fangs, we do not grow to be very large, we are not especially fast or strong or agile. The other clans often had centuries of battle experience over us. In order to survive we needed a method of fighting that would minimize or eliminate our disadvantages. Thus a situation such as this, immediately after a failed assassination attack, is when we would be the most vulnerable," Elder Black fixed Rei with a look, "that is where our style of taijutsu comes in."
"Ah," said Rei as she started to get it, "I see… so. You didn't really want a form of taijutsu that would outright let you beat your opponents. You wanted something that would allow you to survive and disengage so you could hide yourselves and strike from stealth once again."
"Close, but not entirely accurate," said Elder Black with something that might have been a hint of pride in his voice, "it's not that Rat Style does not allow us to beat out opponents. Quite the contrary actually. Though it is called a 'defensive' style this is a bit misleading. Rat Style thrives in turning the aggression of an attacker against them. The more intense and violent their attack the more violent our potential counter attack and in some ways, the more powerful our defense becomes. Rat Style could also be called a 'counter attack' art. We throw away all offense in favor of an unbreakable defense and turning their aggression against them with vicious and very final results. Our opponents have the option of either attacking us and running into a taijutsu style that solely exists to crush enemy aggression… or letting us disengage and once again vanish from their senses."
"It can't really work that neatly all the time," Rei said a bit skeptically though she was beginning to understand why a group of assassins would design a purely 'defensive' martial art. When it was explained it made sense. It was a bit counter intuitive to Rei but she could make it work.
If she wanted to crush someone hand-to-hand she'd just have to goad them into attacking her extremely aggressively. Not a problem. That was certainly something she would be able to pull off. Hell she'd probably even enjoy it.
Besides she was already really fucking good at Konoha Standard. It left her with some offensive taijutsu options if she felt like going that route. Good thing too. While Rei could see value of Rat Style within the framework of The Way of the Rat she would have felt like something was missing if she couldn't simply walk up to someone and punch them in the face.
"Of course not pup. This is a theoretical 'ideal encounter' we are talking about. Things always tend to go a bit wonky in the field. Still things do work out that neatly as often as not," Elder Black said with a shrug, "if our methods were not effective our clan would never have been able to claw it's way back from the edge of extinction. Once things devolve into a chaotic brawl however it is usually the most skilled individual at using their respective tools who is the victor. Solid tactics will never fully be able to replace raw skill."
000
Present Day
"… I'm not sure what to tell you. Basically it just works really well with my style of fighting. Don't worry about it too much. We'll probably be sparring pretty often and you'll get to see more of what Rat Style can do."
Hinata looked a bit curious and skeptical but just nodded. No one really expected ninja to go very in depth about their techniques at any rate and Hinata was a nice enough girl that she wasn't going to press the issue. If their association continued for some time (still a bit up in the air) then she would learn all about Rei's fighting style eventually… Neji certainly had.
"So I want to ask you something," began Rei in easy, soothing tones, "there is no right or wrong answer. I just want to figure out if it's a problem or just something I imagined."
It took Hinata a minute to realize Rei actually expected an answer. "Ah.. yeah I guess that's ok," she said shyly. Rei could tell Hinata was starting to feel a little more comfortable around her but it was still a work in progress.
Rei nodded and watched Hinata closely out of the corner of her eye. "Hinata-chan… are you afraid of hurting people?"
Hinata's face contorted into a pained grimace for a split second before she quickly covered it up and looked away. "I-I've just never had any talent at the Juuken or the ninja arts in general. That's really all there is to it."
Bullshit. Again Rei was seized with the impulse to begin battering Hinata until she cracked and all her carefully kept reasons and secrets came pouring out. With a not inconsiderable effort of will Rei restrained herself. She's not your enemy. Not really. She probably likes the idea of being forced into this life about as much as you do. Well that probably wasn't entirely accurate but some parallels were clearly there. Instead of calling out Hinata on her poorly concealed lie Rei just nodded her acceptance without another word causing the younger girl to visibly relax. At least now I know the answer to my question. That's all that really matters.
At that point in her estimation the two of them were pretty much done for the day. They had sparred and the blonde thought she had seen and heard everything she needed to for now. Rei would need a bit of time to plan how to attack the 'Hinata problem' and how her difficult to tackle issues could be overcome… perhaps Worm would have some insights when she finally caught up to him again.
Still… Rei didn't feel like letting Hinata go just yet. Her eyes slid to the side to observe the younger girl, her analytical mind spinning. She had observed something when they had met for the first time the day before. An… unusually strong reaction when Rei had casually touched her in a friendly manner. The curly haired blonde had her suspicions as to why that was… perhaps now would be a good time to confirm or deny her theory.
Thinking fast Rei pulled out one of her kunai and held it casually in front of her. "Hina-chan, if we're going to be working together there are a few things you should probably know for your own safety."
Without waiting for a reply Rei picked herself up and scooted closer to Hinata until their shoulders and hips were touching. Hinata inhaled sharply and froze like some kind of small forest animal that had just spotted a predator. Rei ignored the reaction (she had been expecting something like it after all) and held up the kunai close to their faces so they could both see it.
"Do you see this oily looking sheen on the blade?" Rei asked casually while pointing at the aforementioned blade with her free hand. "It should be easier to see when it catches the light but even then it can be hard to spot."
Hinata's whole body seemed to tense and relax over and over again, like she was debating about whether or not to move away. However it was very telling that even with her obvious discomfort Hinata chose to stay put and not move. Interesting.Very interesting.
"Y-yes, I… ah, I see it," Hinata stuttered, fumbling over her words. Her gaze kept flitting nervously between Rei's face and the blade. Rei for her part continued to act as if nothing was wrong.
"That's poison," said Rei and she felt the girl next to her start a little at her declaration, "if you're going to be around my tools you should be aware of it. I don't always carry poisoned weapons around but it happens pretty often. It's nonlethal however so don't worry about it if you cut yourself. You'll just be violently ill for a few minutes but an hour later you won't even feel any of the aftereffects."
"Ah…" Hinata seemed at a loss of how to respond to that. "T-thank you for showing me Rei-senpai," she said looking at the kunai with a cautious air.
With a flick of her wrist Rei vanished the kunai into her long sleeves. "No problem. Just something to be aware of."
They sat there for a few moments in silence, the contact between them no more intimate than something a person might experience on a crowded bus. Slowly, ever so slowly Hinata began to relax. She never got to 'relaxed', the girl still held a lot of tension in her body, but at least Rei didn't feel like she was a split second from jumping to get away. Rei looked at her out of the corner of her eye, noticing her uncertain eyes and the confused, troubled and slightly guilty look on her face.
"Is something wrong Hina-chan?" Rei asked softly, turning her head to look at the girl sitting next to her.
"N-no. Not really," she said, but her tone of voice was far from convincing. Her looking away and refusing to look at Rei was also a big clue that she wasn't being entirely truthful.
"Does this make you uncomfortable?" Rei asked in a soft intimate voice, pushing Hinata with her shoulder a little bit to emphasize what she meant.
Hinata was quiet for a long time before she drew a long shuddering breath. "It's not that Rei-san… Rei-senpai… it's just…"
"Yes?" prompted Rei, leaning a little more into Hinata as a show of support.
"Just… it's unusual… it's been a long time since…"
"Your mother?"
Hinata gasped, turning to look at Rei with wide amazement in her eyes. "H-How did you know?"
Exactly as I had suspected. Excellent. Rei gave Hinata a slightly humorous smile. "Lucky guess going from what I know about the Hyuuga. It wasn't hard to figure out." Rei's eyes suddenly turned sharp and calculating. "You don't dislike it do you Hina-chan?" she asked in a soft tone that was deliberately made to sound just a hint vulnerable.
If Hinata noticed anything unusual she didn't show it. Instead she blushed prettily and looked away. "It… it's not so bad," she said in a whisper, sounding embarrassed.
Looking at the sweet emotionally vulnerable girl sitting next to her Rei felt a powerful impulse come over her. Making the snap decision to go with it Rei bumped Hinata's shoulder in a friendly fashion with a wide honest smile on her face. "Would you like to come to my house? It would be nice if we could spend the rest of the afternoon together."
Hinata suddenly looked nervous, once again looking away as she seemed to do whenever she felt uncomfortable about something. "I-I really shouldn't. I should get home-"
"Actually you have at least four more hours set aside for training with me should you need it. I know exactly how long I'm allowed to keep you. You don't have to be home for a long while yet," said Rei, cutting her off with a hint of bite to her words.
If anything hearing this made Hinata's anxiety worse. Her hands started shaking and her breathing got a little ragged. "I… I don't think I should-"
Screw this. Rei stood up suddenly and without warning. Hinata was left looking surprised and, unless Rei misinterpreted her look, suddenly missing the warmth of the contact the two of them were having. Rei whirled on Hinata, her eyes suddenly hard and unyielding. At seeing her look Hinata couldn't help but instinctively shrink back and swallow nervously.
"Hinata," Rei said in a no nonsense tone, "you're coming with me to my house."
Hinata just stared at Rei for a second and the older girl could actually see the moment when Hinata's resolve folded like a deck of cards. The younger girl hung her head in submission and hugged her knees, curling in a little bit on herself subconsciously. "Yes Rei-senpai," she whispered.
Knowing it wasn't a good idea to leave it at that Rei approached Hinata and held out her hand. When the younger girl looked up Rei gave her an encouraging and half-apologetic smile. "Come on, let's go. I promise it won't be bad. If you relax a little you might even enjoy it."
Hesitantly and with a small tentative smile of her own Hinata reached out and grasped Rei's hand. The older girl pulled her to her feet with little effort.
"Follow me," said Rei encouragingly, "my house isn't too far."
Let's see what we can do with this need you have for human touch Hina-chan. Rei turned and looked at Hinata with hungry eyes when the younger girl wasn't looking. How can I turn this to my advantage?
000
They didn't say much on the way to the Yamanaka compound, each girl preoccupied with their own thoughts. Rei did however did find a few instances to 'accidentally' or 'innocently' touch Hinata. A brush of shoulders here, a few fingers on her back to guide her through a crowd, a touch to her elbow to get her attention. It was both amusing and kind of fascinating to watch Hinata jump and fumble over her words with each instance.
The gates of the Yamanaka compound weren't as impressive as those of the Hyuuga but they were extremely large and imposing just the same. Rei led them past the guards as several of them greeted her with a friendly and respectful 'Rei-sama' which for some reason seemed to surprise Hinata. What about all that is surprising I wonder? As they entered the Yamanaka compound Hinata unashamedly looked around curiously taking it all in... unlike Neji who had acted like such a display would be below his dignity. It was all very different from the Hyuuga compound and Rei found herself wondering how often Hinata had visited other clans before.
It didn't take long for them to reach her house. Hinata paused a little and stared at the place as Rei turned off the street towards her front porch.
"You live here?" asked Hinata with an odd note in her voice.
Rei looked at her house. It was a two story single family home that was rather modern by Elemental Nations standards. It was… kind of cozy. Her mother even kept flowers planted in the front yard. It looked like a family home rather than a statement of power and wealth like the sprawling estate Hinata lived in.
"Yep," said Rei popping her P, "my whole life."
"Must be nice," Hinata muttered.
Rei walked up to the front door and let herself inside with Hinata following close behind. As they took off their shoes the young Hyuuga looked around. She could see the living room from the entrance and like the outside it was cozy, made up of stained woods, warm colors, throw rugs and furniture that looked like it was designed for comfort rather than show. Rei pretended to ignore Hinata's fascination with the place as she tugged on the girl's sleeve.
"My room is upstairs," Rei said with a smile motioning for her to follow.
Hinata smiled back shyly and nodded following Rei up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs however there was an unexpected complication.
Just as Rei and Hinata reached the top of the stairs Ino came out of the bathroom at the end of the hall. The oldest girl's eyes widened in surprise. I thought she would be out for the rest of the day. Remembering their fight earlier that day made Rei inexplicably feel like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Like her sister Ino could definitely have a temper. Rei waited for her sister to notice them and mentally prepared herself for anything that might follow.
When Ino did notice them her expression turned surprised as her eyes first landed on Rei and then on Hinata before quickly flicking back and forth between the two of them a few times. Her expression then quickly morphed from surprise to hurt to anger. Sending Rei and Hinata both a withering glare Ino squared her shoulders and lifted her chin with as much dignity as she could. Without a word she marched into her room and slammed the door behind her so hard it was wonder she didn't crack the door frame.
Rei rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Lovely. That was the worst timing ever. It had only been hours since their last fight and bringing Hinata to the house had probably just made things exponentially more difficult for her to fix. Rei felt the strong impulse to go knock on Ino's door and sort this out right in that very moment. She didn't like having her little sister's displeasure hanging over her head.
"Rei-senpai?" Hinata asked uncertainly, looking a little confused and uncomfortable after seeing how Ino reacted to their presence.
Rei glanced over at her younger charge. That's right I can't deal with Ino right now. I have Hinata here now – and Hinata is business. Pretty damn important business. I can't ditch her at the first sign of family drama.
"Me and Ino just had a bit of a fight earlier today," Rei said casually with a small reassuring smile for the girl, "don't worry about. Once she cools down a bit we'll work it out, that's usually how it works."
Without giving Hinata time to think about it Rei walked up to her room and opened the door. "This is my room. Come in."
Looking a bit nervous Hinata swallowed and followed Rei inside.
000
As she walked into her room Rei tried to look at it from the point of view of a first time visitor.
Rei was extremely neat and organized stopping just shy of being anal about it and her room reflected that. Except for a stray pen on her small desk everything was neat and in order. Her room was simple but cozy. The comforter on her small bed was thick and fluffy, the colors in her room warm and inviting. The place looked lived in and it was probably the only place in the whole of Konoha that Rei felt more or less safe in letting her guard down.
"I like your room," Hinata said shyly, standing a little awkwardly near the entrance.
"Make yourself comfortable," said Rei before moving to close the door behind them. Suddenly the two of them were alone in her room and Rei could practically feel Hinata's uncertainty.
Rei crossed the room and sat down on her bed with a sigh. "Why don't you take off your jacket?" Rei suggested, thinking she would be more comfortable. Spirits knew why she wore something so hot in the heat of the Land of Fire. It would also be, symbolically, stripping off a piece of the armor that Hinata used to protect herself.
Hinata hesitated and fiddled with the hem of her coat. She glanced at Rei with a slightly pleading expression before looking away. It was obvious to Rei that for some reason Hinata didn't feel comfortable taking off her jacket. Had she been a less forceful person who was only thinking of Hinata's comfort Rei would have let the issue drop. However they were still establishing boundaries, figuring out what their relationship would look like in the future. Rei also wanted Hinata feeling exposed and vulnerable as much as possible.
"Hinata." Rei said firmly, pinning the girl with her gaze, "Take off your jacket."
The girl twitched as if fighting with herself about what to do. When her uncertain eyes finally met Rei's piercing commanding ones the last of her resistance broke. Hinata reached for her zipper and began to take off her jacket. Thankfully once the girl committed herself to a course of action there relatively little hesitation. The girl slipped off her coat and folded it efficiently before giving a Rei a questioning look as to where she should put it.
That's twice now, once when I asked her to come to my house and once now. When I asked she seemed to waffle and hesitate but when I told her to do something she did it right away. It seems that she's the type who responds better to orders than suggestions.
If that was really the case… that wasn't really a good trait for a leader to have. But… but it might not be such a bad thing altogether.
Looking at Hinata standing in front of her holding her jacket, looking uncertain and waiting for direction from her, Rei was struck by how utterly vulnerable this young girl in front of her was. Rei felt a powerful feeling spread through her, warm and growling like a beast. Hinata was vulnerable, she was valuable and powerful and the temptation to do something about it was strong. Very strong. So strong Rei didn't think she was going to even try to resist it. The feeling was heady and it made her feel strong.
"Just put it down on the bed," Rei said, motioning with a tilt of her head. Hinata quickly moved to comply and Rei saw that the girl had been wearing a dark blue short sleeved shirt underneath the jacket. It actually matched her hair.
So far Rei had been playing it by ear but that thought gave her an idea of what to do next. She smiled a smile that was mostly reassuring but also a tad predatory.
"I was wondering Hina-chan… does anyone ever brush your hair?"
Hinata seemed surprised by her question before a shadow of pain crossed her eyes. "No," she said shaking her head lightly, her tone sad and her eyes seemingly far away. "Not for a long time."
Rei couldn't help but feel a moment of sympathy before she put it aside and pushed forward. "Well I figured I could brush your hair while we talk," Rei said gently while at the same time making certain to make it sound more like a command and less of a suggestion.
Hinata jerked, her eyes for a moment going somewhere far away before coming back to the present. The girl gave Rei a pleading look that said she wasn't really certain if she wanted to do this. Rei ignored it. The honey-blonde just gave Hinata a meaningful look until - once again - her resistance crumbled. Hesitantly the girl gave Rei a small nod of assent.
"Great," said Rei with a reassuring smile, "sit in the chair and face the mirror."
Hinata did as she was told, sitting down in the chair in front of the dresser. Rei felt an unexpected thrill at seeing Hinata being so obedient.
Rei stood up and walked up behind Hinata reaching around her to pick up a hair brush that had sitting on top of the dresser. Hinata's hair was really too short to do this properly but Rei was going to make a go of it anyway. Gently Rei brought the brush to the crown of Hinata's head and began running it slowly through her hair.
The young girl squirmed in her seat at first like she had ants biting her bottom but Rei was pretty certain it wasn't really that she disliked what she was feeling. It was all just rather overwhelming for the girl. After a couple of minutes of running the brush through her thick too-short hair however Hinata began to relax, calm down and actually enjoy Rei's ministrations. She stopped squirming, her breathing evened out and her eyes naturally half-closed at the feel of the brush lightly pulling on her hair. It wasn't long before it Hinata seemed to fall into a nearly trance like state, her body occasionally giving a little shudder of pleasure at the simple feel of someone running a brush through her hair gently and confidently.
Good, Rei thought as she carefully watched and analyzed every expression, every reaction of Hinata's in the mirror. Very good.
"You know," began Rei in a soothing, almost hypnotic voice, never stopping the rhythmic movement of her hands, "originally I was doing this because your father asked me to and because he was able to help me with something. After I met you though Hina-chan it made me genuinely want to help you."
There was no response as Hinata really did seem to almost be in a trance as someone brushed her hair for the first time in who knew how many years. Rei however was positive that the girl was very much listening to every word she said.
Still it didn't hurt to have a little insurance. Rei took her free hand and slid her fingers into the girl's hair at the nape of her neck. Hinata gasped when she felt Rei running her nails lightly across her scalp.
"I want you to know you can trust me," Rei said intimately into Hinata's ear. Her eyes closed completely at the sound of Rei's voice, at the feeling of her hand in her hair and her fingernails against her scalp. Hinata's breathing came deeper and faster and Rei couldn't help but smile a little. "I know you've been holding back on me and that's okay. We all have our secrets and we haven't known each very long. Unfortunately we can't keep doing that forever. I want to help you Hinata-chan but I'm going to need your cooperation in order to do that. If there is no trust between us then all our efforts will be in vain. I really need you to trust me Hinata-chan. Can you do that for me?"
Hinata's eyes half opened and it looked like it took some real effort for her to speak. "Y-Yes…" she said in a breathless voice. Rei believed her but she wanted to make sure.
"That means no more secrets, no more holding things back from me. I promised you anything you tell me will be kept a secret from your father and from anyone else. Anything you tell me will be just between you and me. You don't have anything to be afraid of. You can trust me. Can you do that for me Hina-chan?"
In lieu of replying with her words Hinata just nodded emphatically with small jerky movements as her eyes slid shut again. Rei's grin was triumphant and just a little terrifying. The blonde was beginning to feel like she had real power over this girl and it was new, and it was thrilling, and it was exciting.
She was also enjoying brushing her hair a great deal, surprisingly.
A more prudent person would have probably left things there but Rei was always one for pushing boundaries. Rei causally threw her brush onto her bed, deciding to give up the pretense that Hinata's short hair needed any more brushing. The blonde wanted to see just how far she could push. With gentle flowing movements Rei buried both her hands in Hinata's hair, using a bit more pressure now as she scraped her fingernails across Hinata's scalp. The girl shuddered and subconsciously pressed her head harder into Rei's attentive hands, tiny mewls of pleasure escaping from her lips.
"I like your hair color," said Rei in an intimate hypnotic tone. There was no response form Hinata. Her eyes were closed, little sounds escaping from her lips and she appeared to be in bliss. "It's a very unique shade. I've never seen anyone else in the village with such beautiful midnight blue hair. You should really be proud of it. Too bad you keep it short."
Hinata frowned a little and Rei could tell she was affected by that remark. Rei couldn't help but feel pleased by that. She wants my approval. Good.
"It's really much too pretty to keep it so short," said Rei as she continued massaging Hinata's scalp, "Why don't you grow it out?"
"W-What?" said Hinata, opening her eyes part of the way and looking puzzled and hesitant, like she wasn't completely aware of what was going on or that she had heard right.
Rei chided herself silently. That's right she does better with direct commands than suggestions doesn't she? Rei had to hold back a smile as she realized she would fully get to indulge her domineering side when dealing with Hinata.
"Your hair," said Rei a little bit more forcefully than before. Then she stopped her hands running though Hinata's hair. "I want you to grow it out."
She looked at Hinata in the mirror and at herself standing behind the seated girl. Rei gave the girl her full dom stare, willful and unshaking with a small smile playing on her lips. Hinata looked torn and some part of Rei suspected that perhaps her mother had had long hair and that had something to do with why she kept hers so short. It was just a theory but that wasn't going to stop her. When Hinata took too long to answer for her liking Rei slowly pulled her hands out of Hinata's hair. As she did so Rei could physically see the girl's disappointed sense of loss and her desire to have that contact again. Rei just lifted and expectant eyebrow and settled her hands on her hips, her small smug smile never falling from her lips.
Just like she knew it would eventually Hinata's resolve to hold out against her broke and she lowered her head in submission. Acceptance came over her features and she nodded slightly. "Okay. If you really think it will look better…"
"It will," Rei said confidently, a triumphant smile playing on her lips
Again Hinata just nodded her acceptance. "I-I'll let my hair grow out for you then Rei-senpai."
Rei had to keep herself form laughing joyfully, an energized and thrilled feeling spreading throughout all her body. This is going even better than I imagined. I think this deserves a reward little Hina-chan.
Rei noticed that once she had accepted what she was going to do Hinata seemed more at peace with her decision, not conflicted about it like she been before. Perhaps she felt more secure when other people took charge? Was she actually happier with someone else telling her what to do? Something to think about later. Maybe I'm getting a little too much into this.
Rei rewarded Hinata by once again slipping her hands into the girl's hair. The contact elicited an involuntary moan of pleasure from the girl. It might have embarrassed her but Rei didn't think she even noticed. She dug her fingernails even harder into Hinata's scalp this time and the girl seemed to really enjoy it. Feeling experimental Rei branched out and began lightly ghosting her fingers over Hinata's ears, neck and jawline. The young girl shuddered and with her eyes closed seemed to completely lose herself in the pleasurable sensations.
"You're such a good girl Hinata," Rei whispered, "I think you and I will be very close. Just follow my lead and everything will be fine."
Hinata made a pleased humming sound. "Okay," she whispered in a soft happy voice.
Something dark and wicked laughed in the back of Rei's mind. You're mine Hinata. You just haven't realize it yet.
