A Battle for the Sand Bridge [Solo Clash]

Spoiler:

Rarely did Letony leave the confines of Nikkousato, but a new mission would have him currently standing on a 60-meter bridge. His task was to gain control of the massive bridge, ensuring Nikkousato would retain it as part of their territory. It could not be allowed to slip into anyone else’s hands, and Letony was here for just that reason. Letony stood four meters from the entrance to the bridge, facing the opposite direction he came. That meant that there was 56 meters of bridge left ahead of him. He placed himself five meters from the bridge’s side railing, meaning he was roughly centered in relevance to the width of the bridge. Today Letony’s short silver hair draped across his head, glistening in the sunlight as though he applied a lucrative amount of hair lotion. His white hoodie rested against his shoulders, just as the black cloak which covered a bit of his attire. There was a red sash wrapped around his waist, and a belt below it to secure his black jogger like pants. Letony’s chest was covered in a white vest; the bright orange Konowari symbol the prevailing characteristic.  

The flooring of the bridge seemed to have rather durable wood like hickory, and it all meshed together using metallic supports and railings. Surrounding the bridge there were palm trees and white sand; enough to form a small wooded area of vegetation on either side of the bridge. What the bridge traversed seemed to be a large crater of sand in the earth; rather than a river of water, one could call this a stationary river of sand. The drop didn’t seem fatal, but it would definitely be unpleasant. From the bridge the coast was easily visible, you could see the ocean out to the horizon. Today the weather was considerably fair; not too hot, not too cold. Though, it was partially cloudly but mostly sunny skies. The humidity is quite high due to the bridge’s proximity to the ocean.  

As he stood there Letony contemplated who his adversary might be, if any. The missions he’d been carrying out lately were too boring, this fifteen-year old needed some excitement at some point. He wasn’t very optimistic at this moment and expressed it with a disgruntled scowl. His eyebrows were narrow; if someone didn’t show up, he would be pissed. As if he didn’t appear to be already. Even the weather couldn’t cheer this depressing bastard up.

The breeze had picked up slightly. The weather really was quite different today than it had been most of his time out this way. Perhaps it was coming toward the change of seasons. This thought amused the young man who walked up the bridge from across the way. He would continue walking until he was within competent hearing distance providing the man before him didn't try to strike, but he had a feeling this was going to be far more interesting than that. His standard under clothing was black. His shins as well as his forearms were all wrapped up tight in bandages. He wears a light jacket wrapped around himself and tied around his sides. The jacket was a light blue in color, and on the jacket was a much lighter blue dragon that looked as though it was moving about the light jacket. His hair was black and his eyes were an icey blue.

He was wearing gloves that cut off at the base of each finger. His face was fine and things were quite angular and defined. His shinobi shoes were black to match his under clothing and appeared standard. He had come to look toned under this light jacket of his. Around his neck his light blue fabric head band was tied, bearing the symbol of the moon village beneath it. As he walked, a hilt would be slightly visible across his lower back. It was clear that with him he held at bare minimum some sort of blade. He rose both of his hands, in a gesture of don't fire yet. He hoped to at least talk a little before the fighting started.

Letony stood watching as someone approached the later side of the bridge. His light brown eyes narrowed in an attempt to get a clear glimpse of this new person. ‘This must be them,’ Letony thought, his body tensing slightly from the excitement. He left his excitement within and began to take steps toward the new person holding the same scowl he maintained since his arrival. Letony would move forward five meters toward the far end of the bridge.  

Just when he would become stationary from his last step, he noticed the person throw their hands in the air, as though to say hold on. Letony elevated his chin slightly as to acknowledge him. Although Letony only displays negative emotions, he is a sensible person and would like to know more about this person before fisticuffs took place. Even still from such a distance, Letony took note of the headband around his neck.  

He could only discern that it wasn’t a Sun village shinobi headband and this meant that this person had to be his adversary. “And who might you be?” Letony yelled across at the man disregarding all sense of modesty. He couldn’t help his aggressive nature, but he would at the least not attack yet.

Ryojin could care less about the man's tone and demeanor. It didn't turn him away from continuing forward though until he could speak comfortably. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ryojin Tosho! You can call me Anything but Ryo, and I look forward to a competition with you! I haven't gotten to meet you yet! So I just wanted to say hello before we began sorry! I love meeting new people you see. I come from a place that's really cold and boring and always has the same people, but uh, my father you see brought me to the moon village and I became a shinobi there because of abilities. So. Yeah there we go. What's your name?" Ryojin gave a toothy grin, it was a brutal honesty that one of his favorite things to do was meet new people. He clearly wasn't necessarily cut form the same cloth as other shinobi. Even after having killed someone, he lacked a certain sense of ruthlessness that maybe he would need later on or come to regret sooner or later. Regardless, Ryojin simply was who he was.

He would wait, not show any signs of aggression or plan to attack, he would wait for either his opponent to make the first move or to respond. Either way, this was going to be a lot of fun he could tell already. In truth, he was brimming with excitement. He was looking forward to this mission for some reason. He couldn't help but wonder if his opponent had stood like him before atop a bridge doing this very type of battle. He wondered if his opponent would give him his all and how ruthless he too was. These were the kinds of thoughts that always plagued him coming into the grasp of a new opponent.

“The names Letony, Konowari. I’m a member of the Konowari clan and a shinobi of Nikkousato,” Letony spoke after listening fully to what Ryojin had to say. Something piqued Letony’s interest as the man spoke; something about coming from a place where its cold and boring. Letony could relate to this on a personal level, considering he was raised in the Frostlands prior to leaving and joining Nikkousato. It left a bitter taste in his mouth to be reminded of his life there and the abuse he faced at the hands of his caretaker. From hearing the expression of Ryojin, Letony could already see the huge contrast in personality types. This would be an interesting engagement.  

“I also know how irritating cold places can be. I spent many years as a child living in the Frostlands, and I hated every single moment of it. Don’t get the wrong idea though, I’m still going to remove you from this bridge. Even more so since your words have brought back memories I’d rather leave buried,” Letony says resuming an average paced walk toward Ryojin.  

This was perfect for Letony; his opponents few words were enough to give him some extra steam in this mission, and at least he knew who he was fighting. It seemed his opponent was exhibiting slightly flamboyant behavior with his great deal of confidence and smirking face. It showed and Letony disliked it. However, it was now time to get down to business and show his true colors.  

There was still quite the distance between them, Letony managed to reach within 51 meters of the later side on his previous approach. His opponent was still at least 40 meters ahead of him when he stopped to respond. After Letony resumed walking he was now about 35 meters out from Ryojin; not even in his own attack range.  

“Prepare yourself. I don’t normally give anyone the chance, but since you were so kind as to reveal your whole bio, I’ll give you these last words.”

"Yeah I also have a jerk of a brother you see.. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to win this. I have to get back home now, to the moon I mean. I hope you won't take any offense and that we can do this again soon regardless of how it ends up okay?" He shifted his arms behind his back to stretch a bit then as he too continued to walk forward. Ryojin couldn't afford for this to take long, so unfortunately for this man, he was going to be quick and rather ruthless. He tilted his head to either side cracking his neck a bit. They he closed yet another seven meters between them, that made twenty eight left till they were nose to nose. At this point Ryojin had decided to break into running. After all, they probably weren't going to be talking anymore at this point, but they did still have some distance to close.

He made no attempt to hide his hand seals. At the end of his hand seals, it had begun to snow around them. Granted, this snow would take awhile to have any real effect, but by the time the distance between them was closed, the snow would be ready for him to use as aggressively as need be. He was going to try to be nice. At least, that was his goal. Hopefully this alone wouldn't deter his opponent. Seeing the snow fall. It would be clear pretty quickly though that Ryojin was also a ninja with cursed blood.

Breakdown:

“Ha. That’s fine by me,” Letony retorts steadily moving toward his opponent. It was a great occurrence that his opponent moved toward him in kind; after all, Letony could only move so far. Letony’s opponent broke off into a sprint toward him and he could feel his anxiety swelling. At this point they were now 23 meters apart. Letony watched as Ryojin formed hand seals; and quite openly at that. They seemed to produce a dramatic effect on the weather. Letony could tell this wasn’t your everyday ninjutsu. What was it he learned at the academy? Some shinobi possess Kekkei Genkai; this was Letony’s first encounter with such a person and his eyes widened in shock. Snow? This was far more advanced than the basic five elements, so how would he respond? There wasn’t much he could do but let his black cloak keep the snow from contacting his skin, at least to some degree. It was clearly beyond him to evade millions of falling snowflakes. The fact that his opponent possessed such a large range technique was clearly to his disadvantage; but this seemed to be more of a preparation for what was to come. Letony’s response would be to simply continue advancing. There was no reason for him to stop now. This seemed to be the worst type of opponent for Letony in his current state, but no matter, a battle is a battle!

Breakdown:

Ryojin closed the distance by yet another seven meters. Sixteen meters apart now. He whipped the sleeve of his jacket and into his hand fell a small metal bar. After a wrist flick in either direction, the metal bar fully extended to be a full sized bo staff. He was utilizing it in his left hand intentionally. At this point it would be noticeable that his left hand lacked an index finger. Noticeable due to the fact that clearly grip with this hand was slightly weaker. He still managed to spin the staff quite well, but it had obviously come with practice. His right hand, remained at his side for the time being.

He watched his opponent carefully awaiting the first move. By now, the snow was starting to notably collect on the ground. It was set enough to crunch beneath their feet. He would still wait patiently for a bit more distance closing before going all in.

OOC: So much distance lol

IC: Letony would narrow the sixteen meters down to eleven as he prepared himself the strike. The snow accumulated quickly on the ground, and was now enough to cause a crunch with each step. The temperature seemed to decrease; Letony unbothered by this due to already being quite overdressed for this location’s natural environment. The snow did concern Letony because he did not know what he did not know, however his resolve was clear. He only needed about a few more meters in proximity to his opponent before he could strike. This was like a staring match at the moment; each combatant positioning themselves for victory.  

What was rather odd about this scenario was definitely the weather and the environment. Many interesting things were taking place in the ecosystem because it was exposed to a foreign weather pattern. There were palm trees covered in snow now, and the white sand now had a thick glaze of snow on it. Even the river of sand below the bridge now appeared as a river of snow. Any wildlife which resided here would begin to scatter away from the snow; this unnatural phenomenon provoking the animals to flee with great haste. If there were any reptiles here; they were likely to have died or traveled underground to find warmth. Letony could not help but be impressed by the impact of the technique. He would need to be careful with his footing since falling was a real possibility from here on out.

Ryojin would this time make his rushing charge forward and close the distance to four meters, but as he ran he was forming handseals with his right hand. As they came exactly four meters from one another, the ground ahead of Ryojin began to shift slightly and the snow stirred. From the snow burst forward a large dragon head. This dragon's head was three meters across and it opened it's maw as it flew forward toward his unsuspecting opponent. "Striking Dragons! This is my new jutsu! Tell me how it looks from the other side, alright?!" Ryojin was grinning big now.

If this guy was good enough, this wouldn't be enough to stop him right away, but hopefully he at least figured out he wouldn't be able to out run it from this distance. The next set of hand seals made themselves, just as one handed as the last. Now the ambient temperature had dropped. It was interesting how bothered by the cold some of these sun shinobi were, but it made sense. They were mostly native to the desert after all. This time, ice chakra built up between his fingers, and in his right hand were three shuriken made of solid ice. He merely held these waiting for the right moment.

The Breakdown:

Letony would suddenly stop walking when he noticed his opponent rushing toward him from a now closer distance, but had not yet reached within four meters of him. Letony would allow his opponent to come to him by remaining stationary when they were eleven meters apart. He knew an attack was coming. He crafted hand signs simultaneously with his opponent, and when the snow shifted and his opponent was within four meters of him, the body flicker technique was used to evade the incoming dragon four meters to his right.  

The three-meter ice dragon head would miss him by 1 meter, crashing into the spot where Letony’s body was as he used the high-speed technique to remove himself from the radius of the ice technique’s range. Letony’s body would seemingly disappear. Letony’s body would appear precisely four meters from his previous spot now just a meter from the bridge’s side railing moving right but still clearly visible to his opponent. This placed Letony just 5 meters away from his opponent, the angle adding an additional meter between them. Letony would now be staring at Ryojin, forming hand seals of his own just as Ryojin made hand seals.  

Widening his stance slightly and extending his right palm, a compressed arrow of wind erupted violently from the center of Letony’s palm following his hand seals. The arrow appeared flat, transparent, and was approximately a foot in width. The compressed wind chakra was definitely sharp and had all the cutting power innate to wind release. The one arrow which remained connected with the palm shot out and multiplied into five additional arrows. Two arrows would remain connected with his palm, whilst the other four disconnected and shot out as projectiles aiming for his opponent’s head, chest, right leg, and right arm respectively. The two connected arrows would fan out from Letony’s palm one going toward Ryojin’s right, and the other his left. These would rush to cross one another just as the arrow aimed for the leg would have made contact, which would scissor Ryojin between the sharp sides of the arrows and likely bisect him through the torso.  

Jutsu
Body Flicker Technique (D-Rank)
Wind Release: Galactic Arrows (C-Rank)

Chakra: 85/100
Stamina: 90/100

Ryojin had used a body flicker of his own once the man had begun to use the wind jutsu. He placed them a opposite sides of the bridge. One meter between each of them and the respective edge of the bridge eight meters total distance between them. He threw the three ice shuriken now, simultaneously. In truth, one was targeted at the chest, one at the stomach, and one somewhere beneath the waist line, but it was irrelevant really as they were a distraction for more oncoming hand signs that resulted in Ryojin slamming a palm on the ground. When he slammed down the palm, the snow in front of him rumbled and roared and a ten meter long avalanche began. It would apex to being ten feet tall, but would push forward a total of fifteen meters.

He had begun the avalanche just in front of him. Was there any possibility this man would be able to travel either direction greater than five meters to get out of the jutsu? Maybe. Ryojin tucked his bo back away and instead drew forward his kunai sword. What would this man do next? He genuinely felt the excitement. Was this man going to be even more of an opponent that he thought? Was this going to be the most fun he had yet?

The Breakdown:

Letony noticed as his opponent employed the same method of evasion as himself and dodged his Galactic Arrows only to appear roughly eight meters from where Letony currently stood. He didn’t fail to notice the shuriken made of ice created following some previous hand seals by his opponent. Those couldn’t possibly be to kill him considering the high-level dragon technique used beforehand. Or was this man just testing Letony out? He couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed because of his opponent’s power. Was this a Chuunin? Or someone close to that level? Letony ponders removing his Katana which was much larger than his Tanto for what he needed. He aligned the blade to perfectly counter each shuriken simultaneously just as they had been thrown; the shuriken aimed at his chest colliding with the lower end of the blade towards the hilt, the one aimed at his stomach would similarly be countered by the blade’s middle section, and the last shuriken which was about groin level collided with the tip of the blade. Each shuriken would ricochet harmlessly off the bridge. Letony noticed this was a just a distraction, but it only took moments for him to counter the technique and focus his attention back on Ryojin. Ryojin was now slamming his palm against the ground which meant something big was coming. Letony removed an Explosive Note from one of his pants pockets as the snow began to rumble and quickly attached it to the Katana he now held. ‘I’m not actually sure I can survive this kind of battle at my current level,’ Letony thought as he lunged the Katana into the oncoming avalanche with all his strength. After tossing the blade, Letony broke into a sprint away from the avalanche, the tag pre-timed and detonated within the incoming avalanche.  

The explosion from within the avalanche would be enough to break its forward momentum, whilst also dispersing and evaporating much of the snow it consisted of. So as the remainder of it reached Letony it would be akin to a 4ft pile of snow rather than a 10ft nightmare. Letony couldn’t avoid half his body being covered in snow however. What a terrible position he was currently in. "Hell, maybe I'm actually incapable of moving you after all."

Items Used
x1 Katana (Destroyed)
x1 Explosive Note (Used)

Now Ryojin formed more handseals. This time, water began to churn in his gut and he opened his mouth pushing it out. This was the water Collision wave jutsu. A jutsu that would push forward twenty meters and end up leaving behind an entire foot of water. He really had thrown out jutsu after jutsu this time around. Maybe he could've been a little nicer, but he figured in the future that this guy would be on his same side next time.

If the incoming wave weren't enough, Ryojin was riding it too, Kunai sword in hand coming toward his opponent. "Let's wrap this up okay? I've really got to get heading back to the moon sorry! We should do this again some time." He threw forward his own kunai sword toward the man jumped back off the wave. There was no clear escape this time. Even Ryojin knew that. He pulled his bo back out. If this wasn't it, from here on out would be direct heavy contact.

The Breakdown:

Letony’s light brown eyes widened as his opponent created more hand seals. What next? Letony thought as he struggled to get some of the snow off of him; trying to find his footing once more. This battle would be a strong lesson for the 15-year-old Letony. He shouldn’t have run his mouth so casually. In Letony’s current position it would be difficult to actually move to avoid anything else his opponent was about to throw his way. There was only one more course of action Letony could possibly take, but it would spare his life and make him the loser in this engagement.  

After running from the giant avalanche and being caught in its residuals Letony was now thirteen meters from Ryojin. As he saw Ryojin create hand seals he would form hand seals of his own, having already found his footing and rid himself of some snow. This was followed by removing his Tanto in his right hand, and extending his left palm to form a single Galactic Arrow as the water crashed from Ryojin’s belly toward him. One arrow multiplied into five additional arrows from Letony’s palm and the purpose of the arrows was to simply mitigate the impact of the colliding wave. Each arrow, a foot in width, would impact the water simultaneously, and directly where it would crash into Letony all at once. The sharpened arrows would pierce into the water, cutting an area of relief. With the reduced impact, Letony was able to counter the incoming Kunai blade with the Tanto in his right hand. The reduced wave would still carry Letony almost off the bridge though, luckily, he held his breath right before the water hit him. He would use the same Tanto to stop himself from flying off and down into once sandy river below the bridge by stabbing it into the hickory wood. Letony struggled to lift himself from the foot of water that accumulated after the water wave, still holding his breath until he emerged.  

Lucky enough for Letony the water naturally melted most of the snow, but being cold and wet? This was turning dangerous really fast and Letony decided he would escape to fight another day, or potentially join this worthy adversary. “You said the magic words. I can see I can’t win here, so the bridge belongs to you,” Letony relented, he hated this, “And next time... I'll be ready for you,” he says rising to his feet and walking in the direction from whence he came, his legs soaked almost up to his knees, but in reality, he was drenched entirely. Letony’s hand entered his pocket just in case he needed to utilize his escape plan, but he didn’t think it would be necessary. After all he was the one picking a fight, and his enemy seemed too nonchalant to seriously be trying to kill him.

Jutsu
Wind Release: Galactic Arrows

Items Used
x1 Tanto

Chakra: 70/100
Stamina: 90/100

"Come see me in the moon next time, okay?" Ryojin grinned big, then after collecting his own kunai sword, he would await his opponent to actually step off the bridge. The winning goal was clear enough. His opponent would have to actually be completely off the bridge. He had been taught well enough not to trust other's words. Kaijin, his own brother, had taught him that better than anyone.

He took this moment to take a bit of a seat, and yawn softly. "We should definitely do this again some time. Maybe but instead of enemies, we could be allies."

As Letony made his way off the bridge he could hear Ryojin’s voice in the distance. The Hidden Moon village? Letony thought to himself. He wasn’t quite familiar with all the territories and who they belonged to. He just knew that many places beyond Nikkousato were filled with danger beyond his current talent. “A trip to the Moon village eh? Sounds intriguing,” Letony yelled back at Ryojin without turning around. Letony could hear the man yawn, and it pissed him off slightly, “Allies. That has sort of a ring to it. I might just take ya up on that,” he frowned as though comradery was now the source of his anger. “Rest assured we’ll meet again, and not as enemies.” Letony exerted forcefully now removing his smoke grenade from his pocket. He looked at it, and shoved it back. He was quite annoyed at all the sloshing around he was doing; he even contemplated if the damn thing still worked after getting drenched with snow and water.  

As he exited, the environment was completely different from when he arrived. It seemed devoid of life, and it seemed some plants were dying or had been frozen over due to the battle. The white sand was drenched capriciously about with signs of heavy moisture.  

Letony would return to report his failure soon, and wasn’t looking forward to it, as thick as his skin was. It bothered him greatly to lose, and he would use this motivation to continue training to become stronger. He would not allow this battle to be in vain.  

[Exit.]

He would finally begin his way back home now that his opponent had left. The journey would be long and arduous as per usual, but that's quite alright it was something he was used to. He began his trek down the garden path as any good little soldier did one foot in front of another. With this the sun would begin to set and Ryojin could pick up to full speed on the way home as he had promised his father he would return after seeing the frost creature with his own eyes not days later. He could hear the lecture he would be receiving already ringing in his ears.

[Exit.]