A Foreign Offer - Side Story

The sounds of metal against wood was heard throughout the training grounds as Raphael worked on his spear work, moving his body in a fluid motion to use both ends of the spear to strike each dummy in as fast of a succession as possible. Raphael had arrived early to use the training grounds, as he found that other shinobi preferred to use this area as the day went on. Due to his nature, Raphael wasn't liked amongst the village. For a place that took in misfits, even Raphael stood out from the usual crowd. For now he was just going to mind his own training and stay focused on the task at hand, he had to get stronger.

His focus remained on the dummies, not alerting him to someone approaching.

"You're pretty good." The comment from a nearby spectator would come as a sudden break to the sound of training dummies getting cut up as the red-haired stranger leaning up one of the dummies called upon the man in armor about his training habits, "I mean you're awareness is shit, but otherwise I'd say you're damn good with a blade." He'd been watching for a while now and just now decided he'd seen all he needed to see. "The Village is always looking for individuals exceptional skill and talent." There was no killer intent, really no intent of any kind outside of curiosity.

"In your land I have no choice but to be good with a blade, not proficient with anything else" the knight said honestly before tossing the spear aside as it disappearing in a puff of smoke. Manners were a big deal where he came from, and he wasn't going to continue ignoring someone that was trying to speak to him when he could easily continue at another time.

Raphael smiled and just bowed his head with respect. "You are far too kind. My skill isn't that high, and I would not be of much use compared to a real trained shinobi. How may I help you today....I didn't catch your name?"

"Actually that's what I'd like you to help me with..." The man with red hair chimed in, "And my family name is Uzumaki, you can call me by that for now." He would uncross his arms and let them hang freely from his sides as he leaned up against the training dummy. "You know Honegakure while it has many shinobi has a shortage of highly proficient people. Most would rate somewhere in the Chunnin category or maybe even in the Specialist Jounin category." The man would push himself to standing on his own two feet before continuing. "See a village like Hone with limited funds and quite a few shinobi needs to limit those to a higher grade."

Of course Kai was going quite a length to give quite the round about explanation eventually deciding to go for a more direct approach. "On second thought.... On guard." Giving Raphael just a moment before producing a handful of shuriken from his sleeves a barrage at the knight!

Raphael just nodded once Kai revealed his family name. Raphael had spent a decent amount of time amongst nobles before, so he was familiar to referring to people by their family name. Despite this, Raphael just listened in silence as Kai spoke about the strength of the people in the village, and honestly had no idea where he was going with this. He just listened politely, knowing that Kai would get to his point eventually.

Raphael's eyes widened for a moment as Kai threw the shuriken forward. The knight quickly placed his hands forward before summoning a rapier in to his hand. The knight moved with speed and precision, and Kai would see that Raphael either fully deflected, or caught the shuriken by their hollowed out centers at the tip of his blade. Once the barrage ended Raphael leaned down and tilted his rapier to allow the shuriken to fall to the floor. "And what was the purpose of that Uzumaki?" Raphael asked. It was a curiosity question, and there was no insult or disrespect in it, Raphael just truly wasn't certain what Kai wanted from him.

"Maybe cause I wanted to see how you'd react, or if your reflexes were as good as your sword play." Kai responded with his sleezy smirk. "Or more likely, I was bored." With a motion he would unseal the diagram on his palm and his weapon the Fuuinken would appear into existence with a small puff of smoke that seemed to swirl around the hand-guard and blade as though it created a breeze of its own. He would level the weapon at Raphael and hold up a two fingered hand sign. In Konoha this would be challenging the man to a friendly duel, though from how foreign he was, the holdover from his childhood training must have been lost on Raphael.

However the thing that wouldn't be lost on Raphael is the momentary feeling of killer intent that he would glean from the man's expression and stance, experience in his travels would tell him that this Uzumaki wasn't someone to be messed with. "Since you're training and have nothing better to do, how about you entertain me."

Raphael chuckled as he saw what Kai was doing. So he wanted to see what the foreigner could do? Raphael had often been mocked for his accent, attire, and different personality. He had put more than one shinobi in their place though, and a sword duel was the kind of thing that Raphael excelled in. "Very well" Raphael said before making a handsign. The rapier disappeared and was soon replaced by a long sword and rounded shield.

Raphael hit the pommel of his blade against his shield, feeling it absorb and redirect the weight, and also using it as a sign to Kai that he accepted his challenge. Raphael needed an understanding of Kai though, or else he wouldn't know how to win this fight. HE needed to test Kai's strength. Raphael sprinted forward before bringing his sword down at Kai, hoping the man would block and reveal his strength. Raphael wanted to know if he needed to be more concerned with Kai's strength or speed.

It was a fairly straight forward attack, but Kai wouldn't dodge it, and he wouldn't block it, at least not in the traditional sense, he would wait for the last second before impact bringing his support hand up the spine of the blade and picking his feet up right at the moment of impact to send Kai back, dropping his feet again to skid to a stop, and leveling his weapon at Raphael for a moment before charging at the man giving a deft thrust at the apex of his reach, it was an unlikely hit, but it would give away particular information that a sword-fighter would like to have.

Raphael's eyes never left Kai, always following and watching his movements. As Kai came in for the counter thrust, Raphael performed a spin, using his shield to bash away Kai's weapon before moving in a flurried spin to strike at the side of Kai Raphael attempted to expose. It was a long shot, but balance was almost everything to a swordsmen.

The shield bash worked, and Kai's balanced was disrupted as Raphael had predicted, but Kai was quick to throw his shoulder down and roll through Raph's follow up, coming up clear of the man's attack. Kai would reverse his momentum on the pads of his feet throwing all of himself into a dropkick to the knights shield, back-flipping up into the air and throwing a barrage of shuriken and throwing knives down at the knight he'd just used as a springboard.

Raphael held his ground as he felt Kai kick off of his shield. The knight peered over the shield just in time to see the projectiles being thrown towards him. With his shield he deflected his several, while his sword hit the others out of the air. After the attack Raphael just watched Kai for a moment, thinking about the man's fighting style and how he could best defeat it. Raphael threw his weapons in the air and caused them to disappear.

He made another summon sign and caused a large scimitar to appear in his hands. The knight just smiled before moving forward, moving his arms to allow for relentless swings that continued the momentum forward with each swing.

It was a perfect three point landing as Kai made good distance between himself and his opponent, who decided to promptly change styles, It wasn't every day that someone fought with a shield, but people with two-handed weapons were much more common in the shinobi world. However this weapon seemed different, faster. Standing at the man's advance Kai's head bobbed a little like he was a cobra watching a performers flute.

At the last second that crimson cobra struck like lightning, it was a strike that would cause the man to slide back several feet, on his heels, as he'd moved into a block-then-counter attack, not realizing his opponents technique was to constantly build momentum. This foreign guy was quite a bit more exotic than Kai had realized. The crimson haired shinobi brought his sword across his body in a defensive stance, he needed a moment to think around his opponents offense.

Raphael tried to keep his eyes on Kai at all times, a difficult task with the spinning this move required. Still, he was committed to see it through, and thankfully it was paying off as he saw Kai bring his sword up in a defensive stand. Raphael swung the blade and started to twist his body once again, launching a kick up in to Kai's face after his own blade had been deflected. Whether it worked or not, Raphael would finish his spin and point his sword to his opponent, waiting to see how Kai would respond.

The kick would connect but only against Kai's arm as it was brought up to protect his head with the deflection of the blade, again Kai would jump back. This time however he was switching attack patterns. Stuffing the spine of his blade into his armpit and holding it there with the tension from his arms Kai did a quick string of seals, and unleashed a Great Fireball as he landed the short distance away from the foreign swordsman. Sending the burning sphere at his opponent like a giant molten marble carving a burnt trail out of the ground.

Raphael had almost forgotten that he was fighting a shinobi. Kai had done so well to using his swordsmanship that Raphael hadn't expected a jutsu of some kind. "OH!" the knight shouted before leaping out of the way to just barely dodge the fireball. The armor made him slower and land with less than normal grace. He quickly pushed himself back to his feet, watching Kai in the hopes of not getting caught off guard once again.

There was always a follow-up. When you changed the flow of battle to your pace you wanted to keep it at your pace to wear out your opponent who had to keep at your pace. That was one of the first rules of Shinobi combat.

Already the Shinobi was preparing a second helping of Great Fireball half way through the hand-signs as the Knight landed and righted himself. However on the seal a pair of hands-resembling-Uzumaki's burst from the ground and grasped Raphael by the ankles before the red-haired man released his potent attack!

Raphael moved to avoid the attack, only to find that his feet were held by some hands. "Damn it!" the knight exclaimed before turning to see the attack approaching him. Raphael brought his hands together in a summoning just before the fireball made contact. The smoke soon cleared to reveal Raphael standing before a large tower shield, also armed with a new long sword.

Raphael swung down at the two hands before sprinting forward, blade down before moving upwards in a vertical slash to put Kai back on the defensive.

When the smoke cleared and the man had changed equipment again to counter the attacks Kai was observably impressed, clapping his hands and mouthing bravo. Not only had this man figured a way to dodge the attack but also stop it cold by simply switching to a more defensive load-out.

The Raphael charged again laying out a defensive slash at him making Kai jump to pass over the man with a flip and pulling the sword out from under his arm again. That big board seemed like a defensive wall, but had to be heavy and slow to move around. Kai wanted to see how Raphael would do on the offence.

Kai was correct, under normal circumstances the large tower shield would be difficult to move. However, Raphael was a trained knight and had been training with shinobi for years. His strength was far above average. The knight quickly spun on the heel of his armor, lashing out as fast as he could with the tower shield in an attempt to bash Kai and open up his defenses. Should the strike work, Raphael's long sword would shortly follow.

Kai's plan was to quickly to dance backwards on his toes as the massive wall came around being able to push off the wall as quickly as it'd come around.

The red-head would have to retract his previous statement as the wall collided massive shield and was sent skidding backwards shaking his head from seeing stars for a moment. Thankfully as Kai had already started moving backwards when the metal wall struck him he was barely out of range the long sword cutting a gash in the Uzumaki clansmen's cape, during his improvised tactical retreat.


Skidding to a halt Kai put his sword up into the same defensive position he'd been in before. Though this time he quickly spun the weapon in his hands as a sort of flourish or taunt.

The strike of the blade had barely missed, but at least Raphael was putting Kai more on the defensive side of things. Raphael watched as Kai held his sword out, offering a flourish to try and egg the knight on. Raphael smiled before making a summon sign with only one hand. The smoke appeared and started to cover Raphel. Just as quickly as it appeared, a bolt shot out from the smoke, aiming right at Kai's chest. Raphael stood with shield and crossbow now, watching to see how well his bolt would strike his target.

When the smoke appeared Kai bounded backwards again, an opponent hiding their actions meant a big attack was coming and he wanted to open up reaction time. Maybe even give himself a little wiggle room.

Then the attack came. Kai's free hand quickly snatched the bolt from the air the point barely poking at the hole in his chest. It was definitely a close call, and Kai was glad that he'd given himself the extra space and therefore time to react to the attack.

Though the redhead was slightly disappointed, he was expecting a big attack, not just a crossbow bolt.

Raphael made quick work, dropping the shield as he loaded another bolt in to the crossbow. He raised up the crossbow and aimed right at Kai's chest again. It was the exact same shot and angle, however, this time the bolt would be channeled through with chakra to create a faster flying speed along with a more deadly penetration if Kai was struck by it. With the chakra used, Raphael pulled the trigger.

Kai's eyes would widen as the the bolt was shot at him, but unlike the first this one was faster. The improved velocity serving to catch Kai off guard enough to make him almost instinctively react to the threat the bolt catching fire as it neared the read head the shaft of the quarrel turning to ash and the metal head unable to maintain aerodynamic stability tumbling in flight, striking though it struck Kai in the chest, but without the mass of the shaft and having lost most of its speed in the tumble bounced clean off Kai's chest as though it were a thrown object.

"Now that was impressive. I've not seen a technique like that before." Kai praised with a nervous smile, he'd actually had to fall back on an emergency defense, his Fire Style: Immolation Barrier a technique used to stop incoming projectiles, by either destroying the projectile or by burning the air creating a vacuum and pulling the incoming missile off course.

"If you've got anything else like that keep it coming."

Raphael's head shot up in surprise as he saw the bolt catch fire. But how...how was that possible? It was only later he realized that Kai had created the fire that destroyed the shaft. It was a good idea, and forced the chakra that Raphael had empowered it with to be wasted. Raphael knew that Kai was a skilled shinobi, but he didn't like being toyed with. Kai was just blocking every attack or avoiding it, not even launching an offensive move at Raphael.

"Fine, you want something impressive? I'll show you impressive" Raphael said before making a summoning sign. All of his old tools and weapons disappeared, even Raphael's armor was replaced with a thin, light, black metal armor. The armor was covered by a ragged cloak that gave an ominous appearance. In front of Raphael three swords were stabbed in to the ground. Raphael reached forward and gripped the center one before making a handsign. He concentrated for a moment before suddenly grabbing the other two swords. As Raphael removed them from the ground, the third sword rose up and levitated behind him, seeming to move to support Raphael's movements.

With his three swords Raphael charged forward, but as he moved forward the third sword shot forward ahead of him, moving to engage Kai and distract him while Raphael caught up with his two swords. Kai was a skilled swordsmen and shinobi, but Raphael hoped fighting a style like this would be something he wasn't used to.