GL Recruitment Test - Kiyoshi Miyazaki

Kihaku sat beneath the balcony of one of Amegakure's taller buildings, sheltered from the onslaught of rain falling from the heavens. He idly considered whether the Village Hidden in the Rain had any sunny days, although it would be with a sense of irony he thought. Regardless of his residence in Kirigakure, this much precipitation every day would just piss him off eventually; hell, it was already getting to him. Mind you, he thought, better here than Suna with every able ninja trying to rip your balls off. This was the lesser of the two evils.
He wore a long cloak to shield him from the rain, which covered his full-body armour and two hip-holstered blades. His head was the only thing left uncovered; he preferred it that way.
Kihaku was here on business, to rendezvous with a new recruit. This one intrigued him more than most; the recruit wasn't a ninja. Miyazaki Kiyoshi-san was a monk from a temple on the border between the Wind and Rain countries. According to his rank, Kihaku had managed to determine him at roughly Chuunin level, although it was hard to generalise between the two systems. Either way, he knew Ate had faced this individual before. He had heard great things about Kiyoshi. He hoped he would experience them firsthand.
The letter that had been sent to Kiyoshi requested that he meet Kihaku at this time and location, so Kihaku expected his arrival soon. Once he got here, Kihaku would explain the test further, and then they would begin.

Through the heavy rain, Kiyoshi could already make out the village in the distance, visible as a dirty, grey blur. The monk did not disapprove of the weather - in fact, he found it quite pleasant. Mostly because it would make a positive contribution to the upcoming fight. It was nice and cooling, making a heated fight less exhausting. Also, rain like this caused many people to underestimate fire users. And as Kiyoshi did not know how much the man he was going to meet knew about his style of fighting, this might turn out to be a trump card. The eighteen-year-old's attacks were controlled enough to be only little affected by the rain - if at all. Boosting them with wind chakra would increase their power even more. However, the latter was a technique he had just started training. It was far from perfect.
Thus and similarly were the monk's thoughts as he approached the village of Amegakure, moving at a steady pace. He knew he had some time left and did not need to hurry. Looking up he noticed the sky was starting to tear up just a little. Enough to lessen the rain but not enough for it to stop entirely.
Less than an hour later, Kiyoshi reached his destination. Identifying his contact person was not hard, the streets were almost empty and the young man was the only person not hurrying to get his work done. Also, his appearance screamed 'fighter', Kiyoshi thought, as he observed the bulky shapes below his cloak. Either he was physically deformed, or he was armoured.
The only armour the monk himself wore were his clothes, shielding him from nothing but the rain. His fighting gowns were specially coated, so they did not absorb the water and thus did not get heavy, hindering his movement. They were more practical than fashionable, however, still brought out Kiyoshi's well-trained, youthful figure. His bo was strapped tightly to his back, while several smaller weapons were hidden throughout his body - a handy trick he had learned from his brother Shiro.
The troublemaker was the reason Kiyoshi was going through all this anyways. After all, as a brother it was Kiyoshi's duty to make sure the other was alright. As alright as he could be after all the things that had happened to him... Sighing the monk shook his head. It had been a lot of trouble to get this trip approved and most of what he had said to convince the elders had been more than close to lying.
But now was not the time to worry about such things. Kiyoshi knew what he was here for and he was going to get it over with before thinking about how drastically his life might change through this decision. Given that Shiro had already joined these... people, it was not really a choice to the monk anyways.
"Good day, Sir", Kiyoshi finally greeted the stranger. If he was the wrong man, the monk would notice soon enough.

Kihaku turned his attentions to the man that had approached him. His attire marked him immediately as one outside of the usual humdrum lifestyle; not civilian nor shinobi. The man bore a definite air of a monk; the robes, the bo staff, the way in which he held himself. Still, this being his first time meeting a monk personally, he was unsure of what lay beneath the outer layers of his persona.
"Hello there, I am to assume you are Miyazaki Kiyoshi-san? I am SIC Lieutenant Datenshi Kihaku-san, and I will be overseeing your test," he greeted in return, and extended his hand, indicating that they should walk. "Come, I shall explain the test further, and we can get started.
"The test you are about to carry out involves an adaptation of the standard "Bell Test". You will be ordered to obtain an object from me, by any means necessary. However, intertwined with this will be a terrain-shift. This means that I will be changing between locations throughout the test, whether you receive the bell or not, in order to test adaptability. From here, I will take you to the first of these terrains, a simple field landscape, and we will progress from there. Is this all clear?" Kihaku asked Kiyoshi; he realised that this may be all laid upon him a little too quickly, but so was the military life. "If you wish to proceed, follow me through the rupture. Through here is the first test site. It's perfectly stable." And with that, Kihaku passed through into a open field, pacing away from the rupture and producing a dogtag. "This will be your target." He clamped it to his hip. "When you are ready, begin."
Kihaku moved into fighting stance, shedding his cloak and holding his hands out. His fingers nimbly flicked through handsigns, programmed into his muscles from years of training. This was almost second nature to him now.

Kiyoshi bowed politely to the other, confirming his identity and acknowledging the other's. To the monk's surprise, Kihaku seemed younger than he had imagined. Judging by the sound of his voice, Kiyoshi guessed the other was barely older than the monk himself, despite all the confidence and formality in his words and tone. It was rather impressive for someone this young to be in such a high position.
Following Kihaku, Kiyoshi listened to his explanation of the test. It was the first time he heard of the 'Bell Test' and it reminded him of a game the kids at the monastery played in their free time to test their abilities. The thought made him smirk just slightly. However, he had to concentrate now, so he would not miss any important information.
What confused him most was the mention of a 'rupture'. Kiyoshi had no idea what to make of it - until Kihaku was gone. Cautiously the monk approached the area he had disappeared into, to find himself standing on a field moments later. The journey here had been far from pleasant but the feeling had reminded him of where he had heard of ruptures before. Ate had taken him and Shiro through one at least once. It seemed to be a more common method of travel than Kiyoshi had guessed.
Quickly feeling stable again, the monk watched Kihaku attaching a dog-tag to his hip. It was small and the way it was fixed to his hip would make it hard to get it off. Just gripping and pulling would not do much, Kiyoshi would have to either hold Kihaku in place long enough to detach it or beat him unconscious first.
Unstrapping his fighting staff, Kiyoshi took stance a few feet away from his opponent, concentrating and lowering himself into a meditative state of mind, making him calm, rational and quick. It was an essential part of his people's way of fighting. To show he was ready, Kiyoshi nodded at Kihaku. He stood still, observing the other for a moment, before taking a step forward, extending his bo to stab at the other's ribs. Behind the small movement was more force than it seemed, still it was only to see how the other would react. It was important to evaluate Kihaku as an opponent before pulling off anything more risky.

Kihaku took the force of the strike, gauging the level of power. Surprisingly, despite the little movement behind it, the force was greater than he'd expected. It would have felt like a sturdy punch to the chest, had his chest not been armoured with the sort of material they could use to make frigates. As it was, he simply felt a jolt of force and received a small bruise, but from such a small hit from such a seemingly fragile weapon, Kihaku was impressed. If Kiyoshi was capable of such force with such little effort, his abilities must be something to be admired with effort applied.
In retaliation, Kihaku simply grabbed the staff at his chest - noting the durability of it - and pulled Kiyoshi forward, extending his other armoured fist in a forceful punch to the ribs.

The attack's force came not only from Kiyoshi's arm and shoulder, but from the movement of his whole upper body. His feet and legs, however, remained uninvolved, he was not using the momentum of full body movement for the attack. Therefore, the pull to his bo barely affected the monk's balance and he almost instinctively sidestepped to the side of Kihaku's pulling arm, thereby avoiding the punch.
Immediately after taking the step, Kiyoshi let go of his fighting staff and started forming handseals. The lack of resistance might vitiate Kihaku's balance, but the monk did not plan on that. Instead, he planned on burning the other's face. So while Kihaku had to deal with keeping his balance from the pull, holding the bo in his one hand and punching forward with the other hand, Kiyoshi closed the last seal of Housenka no Jutsu and blew a ball of fire directly at his opponents face, standing close enough to feel the heat in a very unpleasant way but not close enough to burn himself. And definitely not as unpleasant as having a ball of fire blasted directly at your face.
Usually Kiyoshi would have held back, as this maneuver was definitely not a nice thing to pull off, even in a fight, but this was to protect his brother and keep an eye on him while serving a dubious organization. Everything was fine to do, as long as Kiyoshi would win.

Kihaku followed the attack through, falling through Kiyoshi's previous position as he felt the heat of the fireball pass over him. Letting the staff go and placing his punching hand to the ground, he pushed himself sideways into Kiyoshi's legs, spinning and kicking upwards towards his opponents face as he did. He sensed Kiyoshi's prowess in close quarter's style attacks; while usually Kihaku would take long distance attacks to counter, this was a test, and test Kiyoshi he would. He wanted to see the full force of his opponents fighting skill. He had yet to draw his blade or use a technique, but his mind was buzzing with tactics, all adapting, all covering possible outcomes.

The simple roll Kihaku performed surprised Kiyoshi, he would not have thought of something so simple. Instead of firing the next ball of fire at his opponent - as this would have hurt himself, Kiyoshi stopped the jutsu. At the same time, the other man hit his legs, causing Kiyoshi to plainly fall backwards. Damn this guy was quick - and pretty heavy when throwing himself at someone's legs. The impact on the ground was not too hard and while falling Kiyoshi had caught Kihaku's kick from the corner of his eye and managed to bring up his arms to catch the other's leg before it would hit his face. The force of the kick passed through to Kiyoshi's shoulder but did not cause much damage.
With both of them lying on the floor now, Kiyoshi was left with a handful of possibilities. However, in order to get this over with, Kiyoshi decided to grab Kihaku's leg, which he had just blocked with his arms, forcing him into a one-armed kneebar hold, using his free hand to try and grab the dogtag, while he was hyperextending Kihaku's knee.

Kihaku had hoped not to use this so early, but he was trapped in the hold and in danger of losing the tags quickly. Had he been anyone else, the round would be over. Luckily, he still had his back-up.
Flicking his hand into half of the Bird symbol, he released the technique that he had set at the beginning of the match. His body quickly dispersed, every particle in his body scattering at once, and he reformed once again several yards from the figure of Kiyoshi on the ground. He collapsed to one knee and breathed heavily, but his fingers were already working fast. Suddenly, five 2m arc-blades of Wind chakra appeared over Kiyoshi's body, in a circle facing inwards. They sliced downwards to the body, curving into the target's position and then crossing over each other in a C shape and flying out again, incase the target had left the first position. The curve would ensure that should Kiyoshi escape the blades could still connect as he retreated. The Wind chakra made the blades as sharp as any sword, if not sharper.

Kiyoshi was surprised when he was suddenly holding nothing but air. Kihaku seemed to be simply gone. Very sure that this was a bad thing Kiyoshi moved to a crouching position to quickly get away if something happened. This way, as soon as Kihaku reappeared, Kiyoshi darted towards him, forming hand-seals himself. The distance was pretty big but he could see the other starting a jutsu and decided it was probably best if he did not stop moving. Hearing some kind of impact behind him, Kiyoshi could not withstand the impulse of turning around - and feeling something soar past him, taking a bunch of hair and cloth with it, he was glad he did. Just by luck he had turned around and sidestepped one of the blades. It had been so close that Kiyoshi felt stunned for a second, before remembering he was in the middle of a fight and the blades might as well return.
Spinning around again, finishing the handseals he had started, the monk tried to make out the wind blade, still trying to regain his concentration. Was there not something else he should watch? Oh! Of course. Where was Kihaku?
Holding back the last seal, Kiyoshi waited for the right situation to arise before he activated his jutsu. He had to be quick, not giving that guy a chance to disappear again, however he had done that.

Drawing his blades slowly, he kept his eye on Kiyoshi. His movement was still limited as his body readjusted, but he was capable of fighting efficiently enough. Still, he would not be rushing anyone right now, so he simply stood ready, his stance in a way that led into any possible direction of evading should he need it. Chakra surged through his swords, held steady one before him and one to the side. This was where Kihaku's true talent lay; after so many years of training, from the early years of childhood, Kihaku was a master of swordart. His own swordart, at that. Datenshi-style duel blade. Once his movement was fully restored, he could act upon his ability. For now, he kept on the defensive and observant.

Kiyoshi took stance across from Kihaku, before quickly closing in. He was keeping an eye on the blades, but he knew that they were not his major target. As he entered the swords' radius of attack, Kiyoshi released his jutsu. Nothing obvious happened, as he was moving too fast for the normal eye to notice the air blurring in heat above his hands. The monk hoped to find Kihaku surprised, after all it was rather stupid to attack him 'barehandedly'.
Not slowing down, Kiyoshi used one hand to block an eventual attack of the blades and the other to punch Kihaku right to the stomach, seemingly ignoring the fact that he was wearing armor.

In his observant state, Kihaku was quick to cotton onto the change. He was surprised at first that the monk would attack without weapon, and so his attention moved to his hands. His vision picked up the radiating heat pouring from Kiyoshi's palms; though he could not tell it's overall purpose, it was obvious that the monk was armed.
Immediately he lanced one blade out to render Kiyoshi's arm useless, but was parried by some force. On closer observation, the heat was formed like a blade, capable of blocking material substance. That was a strong technique. But he had no more room for thought, as a blow from Kiyoshi's fist was sent right at Kihaku's mid-drift. He lanced his second blade round and pushed the heat-blade aside causing it to fly under his arm. He then clamped his arm back against his body, trapping the monk's, and drove one of the blades straight through it. At this proximity, it was unavoidable. The blade cut through muscle, tendon and bone like butter without even breaking skin or blood vessel; on the outside, there would appear to be no damage. But Kiyoshi would feel it.

As soon as Kiyoshi felt himself trapped he moved to free himself in time but he was too slow. Only a moment later he felt a searing pain throughout his whole arm and screamed. Instinctively he lashed out with his free hand, to get his opponent to distance himself. His trained concentration helped him keep the jutsu up for a few more moments, until he felt his arm be released.
The monk took a few steps back, fighting hard to keep standing. The pain was horrible, although he did not see how he had been cut, there was no blood, only pain and he could not move his arm. The pain caused him to feel sick, also he had burned himself as he had lashed at Kihaku, not being careful enough with his movements.
Keeping his eyes locked on his opponent, Kiyoshi tried to contain himself, forcing the pain somewhere to the back of his mind. It took a lot of will-power and concentration, but the upside of being a monk was that most of what he had been training were these things.

Jumping back after executing his attack, Kihaku caught the instinctual attack across his chest and gasped at the sudden searing pain. Though the attack was clumsier than usual due to it's reflexive nature, and the wound was immediately cauterised by the heat, Kihaku fell to one knee and clutched his chest. The cut was not overly deep, and the nanites had already set to work. Still, it would take awhile to heal through the cauterisation, and the burning in his chest muscles limited his movement. Swords were an inefficient option for now.
By this point the time on the first terrain was over, so Kihaku quickly moved them to the second, a rocky mountainous terrain devoid of flora and flat ground. The air was thinner up here, not ideal for fire. Kiyoshi would have to adapt or work harder with techniques of such a nature.
Still kneeling before his opponent, Kihaku sheathed his blades and flicked through several hand signs. Suddenly, pinpoints of blue light flared into existence across the terrain, perhaps 25 in all, and each grew into a football sized ball of blue fire. They floated silently over the rocks and through the thin air, mysterious and peaceful. However, at Kiyoshi's movement, they would home on his person and fly towards him. What was most sinister is that they weren't flames at all. They weren't even warm. This was a whole new experience for Kiyoshi, Kihaku imagined.