Thanks For Listening
Aiko & Mai
Aiko & Mai
Mai grunted as she walked. She really didn’t want to do this. Still, her options were Aiko or Takara. Aiko was kind and understanding, right? She was also the strongest in their team for Genjutsu. As far as everyone knew, Mai was as bad as Hideki, but that waaaasn’t quite true. Mai had been working on it in secret for quite some time. She never had to use it on an opponent in a fight, hers all focused on herself, so no need to let anyone know…. Except lately she’d had some real struggles. Her Freedom of Movement genjutsu was almost complete, but, well… she’d exhausted herself trying. Time to ask someone better.
Knocking on the door to her teammates house, Mai hoped it didn’t sound too awkwardly. Mai had to use her wrists rather than knuckles so it just sounded like she was hitting it.
Would Aiko even believe she was working on an A-rank genjutsu? Or that Mai had any talent there. It must come so naturally to Aiko, sharingan and all that.
“Hey, Aiko, you there?”
It took awhile for Aiko to answer the door. She hadn’t been busy doing anything, but upon hearing the knock at the door, her sharingan activated to get a read on who was at the door, and that it wasn’t some kind of trap. But, the chakra at the door was pretty familiar. Annoying, but familiar.
After fixing herself up a little bit, Aiko finally answered the door.
“What do you want?”
Mai took a deep breath.
“I need help with a jutsu, and I need you specifically for it. There a time I can borrow you?”
Aiko didn’t answer. Mai hardly ever asked for help. What was so important that she felt the need for her now? Besides that, Mai always seemed to have dangerous ninjutsu. She didn’t want to be involved in anything that could potentially blow her up.
Then again, Aiko couldn’t just leave her friend hanging.
After almost a whole minute of internal debate, Aiko responded. “Fine. Right now then.”
“WOOHOO!” Mai exclaimed jumping in the air.
“Well, uh… DON’T tell Takara I’m working on this…. Or Hideki. I like’em thinking I’m dumb. Anyways, can I come in to talk ‘bout it. I’m trying my hand at genjutsu. Need just a lil’ bit of help. Hope you can help me go over it.”
Nodding, Aiko moved and held the door open for Mai. “Don’t blame me if you catch a cold then… wait, why do you want them to think you’re dumb?”
As usual, Aiko’s home was cold. Today it felt like the inside of a refrigerator. A big fur coat hung on a hook on the wall. Aiko grabbed it and tossed it to Mai.
Mai happily grabbed it. She hated the cold, buuut it was a good friend, she’d hate to insult her.
“Well, cause one of these days they’re going to recognize me, and I don’t want it to be because I picked up a talent others consider ‘smart’. I want it to be for what I do. So yeah.
Anyways, uh… Well… guess I’ll get started. I’m working on a jutsu called Freedom of Movement, its a bit difficult. Its a genjutsu on myself. When I use it, it lets me control my nerves rather than my brain. Means I can move my hands and paralysis doesn’t work. Problem I’m having is it misfires sometimes. Doesn’t always work when I whistle. Been working on it for a looong time, if I had to rank it, I’d say maybe… A? You got a sharingan, maybe you can tell me what I’m doing wrong? Mind turning it on? Maybe in return I can help you with a jutsu. I know Takara’s probably a better person to do genjutsu with, but, well… I’m not bad at it per say. You want to try anything I’m game. What jutsu are you working on? Oh wait, asked you to help, sorry! Let’s go!”
Sitting down, Mai took a deep breath, then let out a loud reverberating whistle. She lifted up her hand and started trying to move her fingers. Nothing happened.
“An A-Rank jutsu you cast on yourself… not exactly my specialty but I’m sure I can at least point you in the right direction.”
Aiko found it hard to believe that Mai was suddenly going to come up with an A-Rank genjutsu out of the blue. Hell, Aiko hadn’t seen her even mention genjutsu more than a couple times before today. But if she insisted she was good at it, she’d have to see for herself.
Aiko activated her sharingan, the warm red eyes gazing down at the chakra that flowed through Mai’s hands. It was uneven and choppy. It reminded Aiko of herself about a year ago. Hell, it was her current problem now. At least she’d be able to give Mai some tips.
“Well, I can tell that your chakra control is garbage.”
Mai rubbed the back of her head, her chakra quickly depleting.
“Yeah… comes with years of avoiding jutsu, but I need this one so I guess I’ll work on that. Think I’m going to stick with genjutsu targeting the self, seems I need a lot of it. Next I’m working on some genjutsu to try and control myself a bit more. Emotional genjutsu I guess. Kinda hurts flying into a bloodrage mid combat. I, uh… learned some things when Daisuke kidnapped me. If I ever kill a bastard... Speaking of which, how are you holding up?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m fine. Sometimes I get cold enough to make myself shiver, but it’s off and on. At the very least, I can turn this cold aura into a pretty solid defense.” Aiko sighed, and plopped herself down in a chair. “Anyway, I’d say you should practice a simpler genjutsu yourself. Getting used to the feeling of it will make this ‘A-Rank’ jutsu of yours go much smoother I’d say.”
Even though it sounded like Aiko might know what she was talking about it, she was more or less taking what her father told her about her own chakra control.
Mai nodded.
“Sorry for asking. Well, let me know if you ever need to practice that ‘solid defense’. Or anything taijutsu related. Might not know much, but I got taijutsu nailed down pretty good. And yeah… I guess I should start simpler. Just didn’t want to ask Takara-sensei. That, and gotta learn a few more anyways… Hey, Aiko, you ever figure out why Daisuke took me too?”
Mai’s question made Aiko’s brow raise. It never did really occur to Aiko that Mai had been the odd one out of those Daisuke had captured. The Sanada were apart of a pretty big clan compared to some. But if he was looking for kekkei genkai, then wouldn’t that be the wrong clan to harass?
“Well, he must’ve thought he’d have a fun time experimenting on you. Maybe he wanted to try and give some special abilities or something. I hear he did that to some people…” Aiko paused, and rubbed her forehead. “or, he thinks you already have something special in you, besides stupidity.”
“Hey, my stupidity is my own brand!” Mai tried to laugh, but it didn’t last long for an awkward silence. “Yeah… clan doesn’t know I know, but apparently we do got one. When we get in danger, we get a crapton of chemicals in us. I ain’t a doctor like my Mom, so I don’t know it too much, but it's kinda like a high. Makes everything slow down, and well… You see how I get when things get fun. It’s why I’m going after genjutsu honestly. If I can control other people with it, means I can control myself, right? Yeah, the high is fun, but I don’t want to accidentally hurt someone again. He made me fight, and well… it didn’t go too well.
But anyways, enough of the dark stuff, just figured I had to tell SOMEBODY. But you helped me out with a tech, let me help you. Anything your working on, anything at all? ”
“Oh… I guess that explains a lot then. You’re gonna have to ask them about this ability eventually if you want to know what you’re dealing with. The only reason I’m good with ice is because my dad taught me just about everything.”
A devilish smile appeared on Aiko’s face. “There is a new jutsu of mine I need to try out. I’ll need you to help me out with demonstrating it though.”
Aiko hopped out of her chair, and headed to the door, heading outside.
Mai returned the smile. If she knew Aiko… and if she knew that smile… Hideki was in for a bad time whatever the ‘jutsu’ was. Or some other hapless person. Maybe it was Mai. Oh well, sounded like fun! She followed closely.
Outside, Aiko turned to face Mai. She formed a series of handsigns, and the temperature began to return to normal. “Here’s the deal. If you can hit me even one time, I’ll convince mole boy I’m in love with him! But if you can’t, then that’ll be your job.”
It was a risky proposal, but nothing made a ninja better like life or death situations.
Mai smiled. There waaas something she’d been working on with Takara…. Mai crossed her arms, the air starting to shake as her muscles bulged.