Ghost Lights - Yoru Uchiha [Solo, Training]

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It was shadows this time, she said. As vague and as frustrating as ever, that one. Yoru Uchiha. While there were many positive things that could be said about that clan, it also had a bit of a poor reputation in terms of their humility and pride, with the both of those aspects often getting the best of them. Yoru was certainly no exception, but it wasn't a directly condescending nature she possessed. No, it was more subtle. She liked to test things, to prod them, to see how they worked. To see how they reacted. Like a scientist using lab rats for experiments.

Once again, they were at the Uchiha Compound. The training room, specifically. Yoru was there on time, down to the minute. While there was a certain exploratory, whimsical nature about her when it came to delving into the minds of others and how they worked, when it came to business, she was disciplined and strict. Another example of that Uchiha nature she had, it seemed.

"You're ready, aren't you?~" Yoru didn't asked for permission, hopping forth and trading blows for her training partner. In the time it took for her to close the distance, she had pulled a kunai out of a pocket, the spar quickly becoming a clash between the two Shinobi's tools.

That said, close-quarters combat wasn't her speciality. When her guard was broke and kunai cast aside, she smiled wryly to her opponent as his weapon slashed along her collarbone. At least, that's what his eyes perceived. One moment she was there, and the next he was plunged into a shadowy abyss, as if the room had been dragged down into darkness, any hint of light suffocated and snuffed out. Beset by shadows he was, there were merely formless shapes left to make up the room's contents, darting this way and that. Yoru was one of them. But which?

It went on like this for some time. The darkness permeated into every corner of the room, like an oozing, black liquid. It was pervasive. Yoru appeared perfectly content to let the sensation linger as well, his attempts to strike at her replied with little more than the slightest sensation of movement brushing past him and feminine tones of laughter.

That darkness... While she was tight-lipped on its origins, her acquired talent for the Yin Nature supposedly occurred around the time she had unlocked the famed Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha. The reasons for that were something she kept similarly tight-lipped on, but given the reasons most had for gaining the Sharingan, it was considered in bad taste for those in the clan to ask another of how they managed to gain its power.

It was getting frustrating. She knew that he hadn't the means to fight against Genjutsu. It was probably why she had asked him to spar, in fact. Just when he was getting ready to start fumbling for the door out of the training room, if they were even indeed in the training room any more, a close, familiar voice whispered close to his ear.

"Turn around. I'll fight fair now." He glanced back to the source of the voice, and there in the darkness, all he saw was red. A pair of deep crimson orbs, locked intimately with his own, boring into the recesses of his skull. As he felt himself go weak in the knees, the room began to brighten up in fortunate timing, the darkness evaporating underneath the light, the crimson gaze disappearing in kind. Then there was the realisation that the light wasn't natural - it was coming from several orbs. They floated and bobbed around the training room to a languid rhythm of their own choosing, surrounding him. Briefly mesmerised by the eerily purple glow they left behind, it took the touch of one of them to wake him up from his reverie - a scalding sensation that spread through his senses like wildfire. Was this... real?

The man let out a gasp of pain just as all those flames blinked out, Yoru's form becoming visible once more in the middle of the room. She was smiling.

"Here, I'm sorry, let me treat your wounds..."

---

Precisely on time again. For as much an image of an enigma she weaved for herself, Yoru really was a creature of consistency and habit in some aspects. It was a different locale, however. She was bored with the drab setting of the Uchiha training hall, and wanted something a little more appealing to the eyes as an arena for their sparring. For this occasion, it was outside of their compound, late enough at night for the stars to illuminate the sky above. Yoru was standing by a brazier as she waited, hands outstretched above the flames, the embers lighting up her pale, delicate features.

With a smile and a wave given to his approach, she was every bit as welcoming and courteous as ever. For the ego that was as obvious that she might as well be wearing it upon her sleeve, the Uchiha did know how to maintain manners even in the face of those lacking them. Even so, she was just as quick to cast them aside if the situation demanded it, like someone tossing away heavy weight slowing them down. Two-faced as much as anyone would expect from their occupation.

There were no hints given as to the subject of today's training, the woman having left it as a surprise. She turned to face him, smile inviting as a hand slipped within a hidden pocket, pulling out a well-maintained kunai. That was all the fanfare given for the beginning of that day's spar, the metallic clanks of blade meeting blade breaking the silence of the evening. Yes, just like the last time, Genjutsu was definitely her speciality, but she expressed a desire that one day it wouldn't always be like that. A Shinobi must be adapative, multi-talented and to excel in all ways. To wield Genjutsu wasn't enough for her, and so, like their own little ritual, every spar started this way. A fight of Kenjutsu or Taijutsu.

Every spar went the same way, too. Yoru could hold her own for a little while, but inevitably she'd slip somewhere, her reflexes too slow, aim too unhoned. The gray-eyed woman never showed any sign of frustration to the way she was outclassed every time, but it must have aggravated her in some way.

There was another constant to these fights, as well. While it began with close-combat, it always ended with another kind of discipline. A kind of discipline he simply hadn't the means to fight back against without crimson eyes of his own. The eyes she was now wearing, leaving her face cast in an unnerving glow of red to contrast the black of that night that had engulfed them otherwise. It was odd, he couldn't remember at which point she had activated the Sharingan, as she had been fighting at a constant pace the whole spar throughout, mirroring his movements and thoughts with the mimicry one would expect from the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai.

Tiny purple lights began to blink around him, weaving to and fro like a swarm of fireflies. A blinding heat swept past his gaze as the insects danced, setting his mind aflame, and that was when he realized. Her Sharingan had been worn from the start. She had simply been waiting, circling, toying.

It was beautiful. The purple, twinkling insects danced, the night air their stage. It was overbearing. With every step, every beat of the rhythm, the heat rose to a new tempo, until it was all his mind could process. Gritting his teeth, he rushed forward to continue the spar, determined not to have it meet as short an end as the last time.

Yoru was still smiling, naturally. Even when she was forced to blind him with darkness to evade a kunai slice she couldn't block with her own skills, even when she had to force distance between them to evade a blow that would have cost her the spar, her expression was still jovial. She relished every failure as an encouragement to improve and took delight with every success she found within their moments together.

Slowly but surely, the purple insects began to blink out, like stars to the coming dawn. With the disappearance of each one, his thoughts became more lucid too, until the raging fire that had set his mind aflame calmed. He could finally focus again, pressing on with the aggression now that the illusions had abated. At least, he thought they had.

With a step in of a foot and a swipe with his dominant hand, he knocked the kunai cleanly out of her hands. Yoru's eyes widened in surprise, leaving her to take a step back. He looked her dead in those red eyes, a grin working its way to his lips in triumph at the notion of actually having won a spar for once. Yoru stared back. He lifted his kunai to point to her chest threateningly, yet when he blinked, he found himself staring at an empty space.

"Ja ne~" The Uchiha called to him from behind, already walking away, a casual wave of a hand announcing her departure. That wasn't a substitution and she definitely wasn't that fast, so that meant...

Genjutsu again. He supposed he'd consider it a draw, this time.