On the Ropes

"And you see this Knot is simply looped back through the first knot." Kensai said explained as Sanae, one of Kensai's classmates wiggled on the grass as if trying to get away, prompting Kensai to step on the ninja line of the completely tied up girl who'd ended up in the same position as Masaru had a few weeks earlier.

The sky was blue, the grass was green and the training ground was practically empty, something of a rare occasion, but now the three students were working on their rope techniques, namely it was Kensai teaching Kenji and using Sanae as a dummy, a living breathing talking dummy, that didn't want to do this anymore, though really the lesson had only just begun, and Kensai was quickly pointing out the little tricks in tying up an uncooperative subject, a role that the washboard blonde was really cut out for.

Kensai had recovered from the minor scrapes only needing about twenty stitches for the worst of the cuts on his body. He'd called Kenji here to show him the rope techniques that he'd learned from his classes, he'd done Sanae a sweet little blonde a favor in class by letting her have a few of his extra Shuriken during the academy's final exam. Now he needed a test dummy and she was it. She'd even been muffled here. And making a standard Umm! Umm! Sounds. "Hey. Don't go anywhere you owe me, and I'm teaching my team mate these rope techniques... it could save my life or his one day." He knew it was uncomfortable but there really wasn't much helping it right now. Really the teaching had brought his mind off of going hands on, on a girl.

Kenji, during the entirety of Kensia and Sanae's bickering, took diligent notes in a sketchpad he had brought with him. The intricacies of knot tying were a bit much to remember without a reminder, especially a technique this complex. He drew it out in steps, complete with bullet point descriptions on how to securely tie each knot in the rope. He partially wondered why he hadn't learned this in the academy, but then he assumed this must be some kind of advanced rope technique.

"I really appreciate the help, Sanae," he said, trying to appease the girl's reluctance. She was clearly uncomfortable, but then these knots were obviously not meant to be, such as they were supposed to restrain enemies. "I feel like this is something I really need to learn."

Kensai took a moment and untied Sanae, as she struggled against the ropes, thankfully they weren't using ninja wire, it was quite thick and soft cotton rope, more suited for climbing than actual knot tying or keeping a captive. However it was much easier to work on the larger diameter rope than with actual wire, and there was the thought that if they weren't careful they could garrote Sanae, something that all three of the young shinobi would want to avoid.

"Gah." Sanae gasped as Kensai took the gag part of the restraint off. "I think you like doing that way too much." She scoffed at the white haired of the two boys rubbing the parts of her body where the rope had dug in.

Kensai would hold the rope out for his partner Kenji, "Okay now you give it a try, step by step just like I showed you, remember that each knot is simple in and of itself, but the combination of knots is where you get a good restraint from." Kensai instructed.

Sanae sighed and held her arms out at her sides again, like Kensai had instructed her in the first place. "Just... please leave the gag off if you will."

Kenji read his notes over a few minutes before proceeding to give the rope tying his own attempt. Even then he had to stop to refer back to the diagrams he'd drawn and read his bullet points every few steps. His knots weren't nearly as tight or proper as Kensai had shown him, but they weren't terrible for his first try. Overall it took him about twice as long to get Sanae tied up as it did Kensai. He did, however, leave the gag off as Sanae requested. It was the least he could do, and the gag was pretty self explanatory anyway.

"So, um... how's that?" he asked, looking over the ropes that wrapped around the girl's waist and under her legs.

Kensai watched as Kenji worked through each of the knots and imagined his first attempt at such and it's abysmal result. In hindsight it was highly comical, but Kensai also remembered the frustration he'd felt after he'd failed so many times. When he gazed upon Kenji's first attempt the white haired genin gave a funny smile, it wasn't a bad first try. "Not bad but..."

Sanae on the other hand wasn't as quick to speak up quickly wiggling and twisting to free herself from her bindings, letting them slip down around her feet and stepping out of them. "You have to keep your leads tighter than that, and your knots were pretty sloppy." She'd used a sort of counter to the rope tying techniques, rope escape techniques.

Kensai stepped in and picked up the rope that Sanae had just left there, and quickly started undoing the knots. "Since you got the idea down..." He stated bluntly to Kenji, before turning his gaze to the lone female with them "Let me show you some pointers."

The look on Sanae's face was something akin to "Oh Shit" as Kensai was quick to do his initial binding on girl causing her to squeak for a moment.

It took only a moment and Kensai was already a two knots into his movements rope tying, "The first to knots are easy, but it's easiest to keep in tension if you keep your lead and your dead end in the same hand, that way I can use one hand to keep tension while I tie off with the other."

Kenji was more than a little disappointed when Sanae easily escaped the ropes he had tied around her. He knew he was still beginning at this, but he had expected to at least give her a little more trouble than that. Somewhere in his knot tying, things had gone terrible wrong. With a sigh, he referred to his notes again, trying to determine what he had done wrong. Perhaps he just wasn't very good at tying knots?

As Kensai started to walk through the process again and show him some pointers, Kenji put his notepad down and came in close, carefully studying every maneuver his teammate made. If he studied this long enough, then surely he would eventually get this down correctly. "Right...okay, I think I'm starting to get it. Maybe I was just going a little too easy on the ropes? You really seem to be yanking those things tight."

Just like sneaking or throwing Shuriken, tying knots was a skill that needed practice, Kensai who'd been forced to take a test on such a subject as restraining enemy combatants was quite proficent with the ninja line, for all the practicing he'd done with it. Though it could be said that he was far from being masterful.

Sanae on the other hand sharply inhailed as Kensai pulled down harshly on the line. "That's exactly it, as you tie there will be more slack in it. We're using heavy line so you don't have to worry about it biting in and breaking skin like you would with Ninja-wire."

"Speak for yourself." Sanae spat with rather unhappy that she was being tied up, she'd rather have Kenji have another go at it, the blonde boy was more of her type anyways.

"A few cuts wouldn't be a problem if you were an enemy." Kensai responded stepping back from his completed work and placing his hands on his hips. Before stepping back up to Sanae, "Ah I forgot. A standing opponent can still easily escape." And with a quick poke to the stenum the girl fell flat on her butt letting out an almost cute "Oof" when she landed.

"Standing...opponent...can still...escape..." Kenji muttered, as he scribbled the words down on his note pad. He didn't give much of a look to Sanae other than a quick glance as she fell to the ground. Then his eyes were back on his notes until he was done writing the needed steps. "Okay, I think I got it. Should I keep trying, or is that going to be it for the day? We've been going all morning as it is."

He had to give it to Kenji the guy was studious, however that same teammate had a point they'd been going since morning and maybe a study break was just the thing they needed for all the information that'd been thrown at the blonde since this morning to coalesce in his mind into something usable on the battlefield. "Yeah, lets take a break, my fingers are starting to hurt showing you all those knots. Maybe head back to town and grab some lunch."

"Uh... If you bozos are gonna take a break, then maybe you should get me out of this first." Sanae clamored wiggling a bit to show off her plight.

"Oh right." Kensai jumped feigning surprise as though he'd completely forgotten Sanae, eliciting a scoff from the same girl. When she was untied she promptly hopped to her feet, and gave Kensai a swift kick in the ass. "What was that for?" The white haired boy asked quizzically looking up at Sanae from the ground with his shoulders firmly planted, as though balancing his body over himself.

"That was for tying it so tight jerk." With that Sanae turn and was gone in all of a breath.

"I'm sorry?" Kensai responded completely confused to the assertion that he'd been too rough on their training partner. Before looking to Kenji, "Was something I said?"

Kenji blinked, watching Sanae leave after she kicked Kensai to the ground. He could only look back at his teammate and shrug with an unknowing hum. "Iunno. I guess it must get pretty uncomfortable being tied up like that a lot. But she did agree to it, right?"

A moment later, his stomach grumbled, causing him to shift slightly in embarrassment with a hand held to his abdomen. "Uhh... heh, whoops. Lunch really does sound good, actually. You want to head back to my place and see if Megumi has anything lying around, or hit one of the lunch stands on the way?"

"Well, yeah." Kensai responded to his team mate having completely missing the tone of what had just happened. Either way he'd let his body fall down and spring up to his feet showing off his acrobatic nature.

"I think you're right, I just got the last paycheck from my courier job. So lets have us a little feast to get our energy back and work on something else!"

The boys would hash out their plans as somewhere else in the training ground someone else was having a much harder day, trying to perfect her storm technique the busty silver haired shinobi repeated the same hand seals she'd been practicing all morning. Her focus was the sky, an advanced technique that would summon a thunder storm, Hurricane force winds, lightning, and hail. A real killer technique that turned the battlefield into a living hell. The only problem was that she couldn't exactly control the storm or where it formed, and sometimes it seemed the storm wouldn't even appear. So for now all she could do was practice away from everybody until she could get her weather powers under control.

Finishing the hand seals the beauty looked up at the sky and saw nothing, nothing but the blue that she'd seen most of the day. "Huh... it must have failed somewhere."

"I was thinking we could try some kind of team tactics or something..." Kensai was stopped cold in his tracks when a chunk of ice suddenly found the top of his head, the golf ball sized piece bouncing off his head and landing at Kenji's feet prompting the white haired genin to groan and hold his head where he'd been hit, "What the heck!?" He cringed wonder what was going on.

To say Kenji wasn't expecting a chunk of ice to fly down from the sky and strike his partne rin the head would be an understatement. The moment that the golfball sized object struck Kensai, Kenji jumped back in surprise, half believing they were under attack. He'd blame on his mind being in training mode. When he finally realized what had happened, he looked down at the ice at his feet and then looked up at the sky. "Uh...what? Where did that come from? It was supposed to be a clear day, wasn't it?"

No sooner than he said that, another flying piece of hail rained down and thwacked him right between the eyes. WIth a loud help, he fell backwards and landed on his ass, rubbing the spot. "The fuck was that?"

There would be no time for anyone to answer the boy's questions, as soon as they'd put voice to their concerns the pair would quickly be pelted by hundreds of the golf ball sized glazed ice projectiles. Their course being altered by the winds that picked up in the same instant. The sound of tree branches cracking, all manner of debris flying past them in a maelstrom of activity, lightning struck the ground near the boys...

When all was said and done Kensai was awoken from his daze by a ray of sunlight that broke through the clouds and shown down directly onto his face. It was in this moment that everything was going to be okay.

That moment was, however, only a moment as soon everything began to hurt, causing the white haired genin to double over in absolute agony as his entire body felt broken by the freak storm that had befallen them. Suppressing the pain as much as he could Kensai called out to his partner, "Kenji!" He hoped that he was okay

Kenji wasn't even sure he'd woken up. The last thing he remembered was being pelted by a chunk of hail on the side of his head, and then everything went dark. He vaguely recalled being swept off his feet after that into a raging storm, but it was all fuzzy. When the sounds of a calm world returned to his ears, from the chirping of birds and the buzzing of far off insects, he very slowly opened his eyes. Still, he didn't see anything--just darkness. Was it night? If that were the case, then why were the birds chirping? Maybe he was in a cave or something.

While he had no idea where he was or what had happened, he could be certain that his entire head throbbed, to the point where he thought it was about to explode. In particular, his eyes burned and watered, as though someone had scratched their nails across them. He rubbed his fingers against them, but that did nothing to help.

WHen he heard Kensai's voice calling him, he looked around in the darkness, trying to see anything. There was nothing. "Kensi? Where are you? What the hell happened?"

"I don't know." Kensai responded, his voice was obviously shaking, maybe it was the shock of what happened, but the white haired Genin knew one thing, he was hurt, pretty badly. He was pinned under tree that had him at the waist. He reached back but he couldn't get the leverage on it, to move it, and he felt numb, his body tingled and he attempted to do a push up but still couldn't get anything out of his shaky arms.

"Im hurt," Kensai looked around the debris for Kenji and couldnt see him. "Where are you bud? I don't see you! Are-" Kensai gasped suddenly as he got some feeling back, the pain causing him to gasp but he choked it off trying to continue to speak, "-you alright?"

"Uhh, I think so. Got a killer headache, though. And my eyes feel a little itchy." Kenji rubbed his palms over his eyes again, trying to get the burning to stop, but it was no use. They felt like he hadn't blinked in three hours and now his body was revolting trying to restore them. Standing up, he held his hands out to feel around so he wouldn't run into anything, and worked his way towards Kensai's voice. "Are we underground or something? Can't see a damn thing."

It took Kensai a moment to understand what Kenji was asking "Wha..." Before it struck him and he turned to look at the direction his partner's voice had been coming from, suppressing the urge to shriek in pain, to see Kenji's struggling towards him with a black scorch mark across his eyes.

Then came Kensai's somber explanation, "No. You've taken a hit to the face... You just can't see." He still had a tree across his back and couldnt hardly move himself, they'd been tossed around, and the damage from whatever hit them had taken away Kensai's sense of direction, the boys were in some deep shit, and the realization of it slowly dawned on Kensai.

"Wait, I can't what?" Kenji blinked again and rubbed his eyes, as if expecting that would suddenly clear his vision. When it didn't, he swore and stumbled forward with his hands held out in front of him. He couldn't be blind. Or maybe he was blind, but not blind blind. The medical shinobi at the hospital could fix it, right? They had to be able to. The problem would be getting there, considering he had no idea where they were.

Trying his best not to sound as nervous as he was, he kept moving until he reached where Kensei's voice was coming from, bumping into what felt like a downed tree trunk. "Wait, are you... under this tree? Hold on a second, I think I can...do something." Without being able to see, he had to keep himself almost draped across the trunk to know where it was, as he made a few hand signs. He promptly regurgitated a suitable amount of water from his gullet, and then made a few more hand signs. He directed the resulting water tentacles to grab the trunk and lift it, a few inches at a time. "I think...it's coming! Just, uh, roll out or something okay?"

Kensai could feel the weight of the tree shift as Kenji's technique still made it move, lifting it just enough that the boy could crawl forward and clear out himself out from under it. Grunting and gasping with each pull of himself forward, as he cleared the tree Kensai came to the stark realization.

He couldn't move his legs.He could only feel tingling below his hips, but that was all he could do, he couldn't move his legs or his feet or anything. He was paralyzed. "I..." He choked on the words feeling his eyes water, as the uncertain fear poured over him. "I-I can't move my legs." Kensai finally managed to choke out holding back tears of self pity.

"Wait, you can't what?" Kenji let the tree collapse back to the ground and turned around to try and stumble towards where his teammate was. If he was blind and Kensei couldn't walk, how the heck were they supposed to find their way back to the village? "Uh, okay, don't worry, I'm sure this will be fine. The medical shinobi can fix this, right? I'm pretty sure they can fix this."

At least, he hoped they could fix it. What an incredible stupid way for their shinobi careers to end otherwise, caught in a storm. And if Kenji was being honest, he really didn't want to not to be able to see ever again. He rather liked seeing things, and he was sure Kensei liked walking. "We'll just, uh, find our way back and--oof!"

Without being able to see, Kenji had no idea where he was walking, and in the process of trying to find Kensei ended up actually tripping over the prone boy. He promptly landed face first in a pile of moss and leaves.

Kensai had to focus, the panic was going to kill him, to kill both of them. But he couldn't help but panic, his breathing rate ticking up like he was going to hyperventilate. Then Kenji re-assured him that the medical shinobi could fix this stuff, they could re-attach arms, why not fix eyes?

Taking a deep breath and holding it, was the cure, unfortunately for Kensai, that was what he was doing when Kenji stumbled over him and knocked the wind out of him, his knee coming down right on the white haired genin's sternum knocking the wind out of him with a "Guh..." He took a few deep breaths and felt the water drain from his eyes, He looked over at his now prone partner and spoke slowly as to not get the voice caught in his throat.

"Can we beat this?"

Kenji promptly picked himself back up again as quickly and as gracefully as he could, which meant he only stumbled twice and didn't entirely fall down again. He hoped he didn't step on one of Kensei's hands or anything, but he had no way of knowing, other than the distinct lack of his teammate yelling at him for doing so. "Uh, sure, yeah, we can totally beat this. We jsut need to work together, right?"

In spire of his confident response, Kenji was just as nervous. He was just rather practiced in hiding it, after having to run and sneak and lie for most of his life to get by. Still, his heart pounded and his throat was dry. "Okay, so, I'll act as the legs, and you act as the eyes. Easy, right? So...how bad is the pain exactly? Would I be able to carry you?"

"Right." Kensai responded confidently, to Kenji's sure words. If Kenji could see however Kensai's face would be transparent, completely see through. Still, he was a Shinobi even if he couldn't walk, very well. He needed to keep his cool, and looking at Kenji, a privileged he still had, he could see that the guy was cool as a cucumber. That in turn inspired him.

"Yeah the pain isn't as bad without a tree pinning me to the ground." Kensai tried to sound upbeat but instead came off sounds more callous. "To be honest, with all the debris around I cant see to even make out where we are." He would reach out and touch Kenji's ankle to let him know he was nearby.

"I'll see if I cant make a harness out of the omni-weapon, I don't think it'll be comfortable, but it'll keep me from hurting my back more."

Unlike Kenji who'd been trained by his sister to overcome pain and use techniques, the less well traveled Genin needed to slap his hands together and focus. Draw his chakra in and forged a harness for himself with two shoulder hooks for Kenji to put on his shoulders, they could use the rope to secure it more. "Okay, It's ready, I'm right at your feet. Take your time." Kensai instructed, the focus pulling his mind from the fear.

And take his time Kenji did, not because he was trying to, but because the moment he tried to lift the harness onto his back he realized this might be more difficult than he thought. He had never exactly been physically strong, always fighting with speed and range rather than brute force, pretty much the exact opposite of Megumi. So, when he tried to lift Kensei, he only managed to strain his back on the first few attempts.

"Hold on, I got this." He tried again, managing to get Kensei halfway of the ground before he started to tilt backwards. "Fuuuuck!" Right before he toppled over backwards onto Kensei, he flashed a couple hand signs and braced himself with a sudden pillar of water that sprang up from the previous puddle and pushed him forward. Regaining his balance, he finally hoisted the harness properly into place.

"See? No...problem..." he uttered, his voice clearly straining against the weight. If they got out of this alive, he was going to make sure Megumi started him on some kind of weight training. "So which...way...do we go?"

Kensai did his best to try and remain still, only flailing when he thought they were going to go backwards, even giving a worried, "Woah..." Only to be caught and drenched by the pillar of water that came up to catch the pair, boy they looked stupid right now.

'If its stupid and it works it isnt stupid.' A mention from one of the academy teachers when a younger Kensai called a certain technique stupid, hell he didn't even recall the technique.

"Uh..." Kensai looked around, he pulled the rope form his person and used it to fasten himself to Kenji along with the makeshift harness. "I still don't recognize where we are." Kensai made an astute observation. The entire area looked familiar, but then again with all the damage from the sudden storm, everything would.

It was then that Kensai dove into the deep reaches of his mind, just like Kenji had training, he had training as well. Training like land navigation. And the first part of land navigation was determining your bearings, it was lunch earlier, and they may had been knocked out for a little bit, so the sun would have moved, Looking at the shadows on the ground, and how things cast their shadows he determined the directions. Orienteering had never been Kensai's strong suit, he was a brawler not a thinker, but he was glad that those lessons had hands on portions, or he'd have forgotten them entirely.

"The training ground was east of the village. So we should head west." Kensai walked through the logic out loud to keep Kenji on board with what they were doing. "Give us a quarter turn right." Kensai gave the direction, "Just a little more." He critiqued to his partner. "Now lets take it slow, there's a lot of debris around here, whatever storm hit us knocked down branches and kicked up rocks everywhere. " It was hard to see exactly what was at Kenji's feet from directly behind his head, but adjusting the harness so he could see meant going through the entire regimen of getting situated again, which wasted time.