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Chapter Eleven [EDITED]

  交際 Kousai 

"Great! I'm Ryuu."

After the hot springs, Yoru introduced Ryuu to Sasuke (as Kasai, of course) and they chatted for a bit. Ryuu showed them around town some after hearing their story but had to stop after showing them to an inn. Her brother, Darui, and the other male, C, came to pick her up so she could go back to her duties. Darui introduced himself and his partner as protectors of the Raikage and apologized for his sister's rude behavior. Yoru laughed it off, reminiscing about how much they reminded her of Kurotsuchi and her partner Akatsuchi from Iwa.

They stepped into the tavern after Ryuu promised to be back tomorrow to show them around some more, much to Darui's distaste.

Their night was pretty uneventful, but that was a whole other case for Ryuu. She was grilled for befriending outsiders that seemed suspicious and not even telling the Kage about it. That was where she told them the names and backstory of the two and when Darui was given a mission to keep them under wraps while they were in the village. The next morning, Ryuu showed up to the inn, like promised, but Yoru was confused when her brother Darui also showed up.

She nodded to him and held out her hand, "I don't believe we were properly introduced yesterday. My name is Kokoro and this is my younger brother Kasai."

He gave her a bored look, then nodded. Ryuu chided him for this, telling him to lighten up. That was the moment when she started to notice their similarities and differences. They were about the same height, with the same hair and eye color. But as to where Darui's eyes held a bored look, Ryuu's were light and playful. Their hair was different too, Darui's was straight and hung down to cover his left eye, while Ryuu's was slung back in a ponytail and was dreaded. Another thing she noticed was the tattoos on their shoulders. Darui had the words for water and lightning on his right and left shoulders respectively, while Ryuu's was the opposite.

Sasuke gave her a confused look when she started laughing, while Ryuu went along laughing with her. They made small talk as they walked through the village, Ryuu stopping occasionally to show her parts of the village. Their last stop was the training grounds, right after the Raikage's office. Ryuu requested to test Yoru's skills in battle since she had mentioned having shinobi training. She looked to Sasuke and shook her head, telling him not to interfere and agreed to spar. Their terms were no genjutsu, fuinjutsu, or kenjutsu.

Yoru took off her katana and made her way into the ring, Darui and Sasuke were off to the side spectating. Ryuu rolled her neck and flexed her fists in preparation. They stood there for a minute, each daring the other to make the first move. Yoru eventually grew impatient and started making hand signs. She punched into the ground, creating a mudslide reaching to Ryuu. Before Yoru could see, Ryuu had jumped out of the way and was making her own signs. Bolts of lightning shot from her hands and arced toward Yoru. She cursed and quickly employed her diamond armor, which took the brunt of the hit.

Yoru took a quick guess that since Ryuu used lightning, she probably also used water. She cursed again at her luck, earth was weak against lightning and her water techniques would only help Ryuu's lightning techniques. Time to do it the old fashioned way, she thought. She employed her diamond coated fist and pumped chakra into her feet. With a quickly thought up strategy, she raced towards Ryuu, hoping that her armor would protect her from those lightning bolts once again. As Ryuu was looking off to the side for just a second, Yoru jumped in and punched her in the face with her diamond fist.

"Didn't anyone teach you not to look away from your opponent?"

Ryuu threw her head back and laughed, "Didn't anyone teach you not to get so cocky?"