The Lightning-Eating Lion [Shinrai/Shishi]

Shinrai stretched, reaching his hands up to the sky as he arrived at the training ground. The sun was high in the sky today bearing down on him with a heat that was uncommon in Kumo, but not unwelcome. In preparation for this, he dressed lightly, opting to abandon the ceremonial robes of the Raikage that would only serve to weigh him down.

He breathed in and out, appearing to savor the crisp clean air.

Training ground 21 was one of Shinrai's favorite locations to train due to its varied terrain. Normally, this would cause some to shirk it as it was a little to rough for ordinary training, but the craggy rocks and the sheer cliffs made it very useful when training to master difficult terrain. The cliffside to the north overlooked Lake Umiryuu, a large mountain spring that doubled as a hot spring on its far shore. Oftentimes the winds were wild here, but at the moment they were still and serene. He didn't doubt that they would pick up again at a moment's notice, however.

Overall, it was a great place to have a spar. Which brought Shinrai to his current situation. He hadn't told his advisors what he was up to, only that he was "going out" but he had arranged to have a certain Jonin under his command come spar with him. He felt like lately he needed to spend time on Taijutsu, and the Lion of Kumo was never lacking on that front.

Shinrai nodded. "Thanks for coming, Shishi. No need to bow." He had no particular feelings about Shishi either way, but as the Raikage, he always did his best to be amicable in order to earn the trust and loyalty of his subordinates. Using first names allowed him come across better as a friend, even if he was a superior. And no one would dare tell him that he ought not to.

"I felt that, in order to prepare for the coming push into Frost Country, I should work harder in training. As you know, taijutsu requires constant maintenance, so I felt we could both benefit from a spar." He was already limber now, but recognizing that his sparring partner might not be the same, he said, "During this spar you may use whatever ninjutsu you wish, naturally. And please, take whatever time you need to warm up. We can begin when you're ready."

Shinrai wasn't surprised that Shishi needed little time to prepare, and as Shishi fell into stance, Shinrai did too, shifting his center of mass lower to the ground. "Come." He said, and Shishi did, barreling at him with the force of an elephant. The young Raikage chose to bend and not break in this scenario, protecting the impacted bits of his body by turning them into diamond as he was flung up into the air.

Shishi turned around as Shinrai neared his apex, transitioning fluently from his Hurricane Mixer to a Lariat. Shinrai appreciated the respect afforded to him by Shishi in that he started out with an A-Rank taijutsu technique out of the gate, but that move was the Kumo special, and Shinrai would be unfit to be Raikage if he didn't have a plan to handle it. As Shishi approached, with his right hand, Shinrai created a flat disk of diamond which swelled to the size of Shinrai himself. His mirror, the Eternal Truth jutsu, would reflect the power of his Lariat back at him, in this case causing it to cancel out.

He held onto the mirror, hoping to leverage the cancellation of Shishi's momentum by converting the diamond of the mirror to Diamond Dust. He would shape the diamond into thick woven cords of diamond, hoping to ensnare his opponent before he could escape. If he managed to wrap the diamond cords around him, it would be a simple matter to use a diamond-enhanced foot to boot him to the other side of the battlefield.

Shinrai was ready for his next assault, coating his arms in diamond from his shoulders to the tips of his fingers, again having the tips end in sharp claws. "I would be unfit for my position if I were felled by that attack." He said, still only bearing a polite smile. Unlike his opponent, he didn't appear to glean any extra particular enjoyment from the fight, which was indicative of his mindset. This fight was simple maintenance of the body, not sport. Completely joyless as was everything in his life, really.

The use of lightning chakra mode prompted further consideration from him. It was nice that his opponent resorted to using S rank techniques--it made him using S rank techniques of his own seem more fair. Diamond Secret Jutsu: Vajra Lightning Claw would more than suffice for this, but instead of using that for now, he wanted to try something innovative.

In the space of half a second Shishi was already on top of him. Leveraging his expertise in chakra control, as the electric field of the lion's chop neared his neck, he used lightning chakra of his own, attempting to negate the wildly reversing electric field of his foe's hand. Shishi's hand connected, and a quick lattice of diamond over his skin was the only thing that saved him from certain doom as he felt what he'd dished out earlier -- Shinrai was sent flying backwards, rolling on the ground momentarily before he caught himself, sliding. From a crouch he sighed. "Well, that didn't work." The cracked diamond his collar and neck were made of slowly returned to unblemished skin.

He was close, though. The concept was a spur of the moment thought, but it had to have basis in reality. For now, however, he had to come up with a different plan. He surged forward with a quick Body Flicker of his own, preparing a Raikiri in his right hand, preparing to use the famed Lightning Cutter to slice apart his foe's armor.

Shinrai's attack hit home. To Shishi's credit, he more than held his own against Shinrai's Lightning Cutter, although he suffered a wound to his abdomen, which probably marked the first real blood drawn this battle. His triumph would not last forever--Shishi grabbed his hand and held him by the belt, tossing him up in the air yet again.

He wouldn't allow himself to fall for this. As Shishi left the ground to follow him up, Shinrai suddenly glowed bright white, blinding Shishi if he were looking at him at the time. The sudden discharge of lightning gave Shinrai an opportunity to weave an illusion and so he did, conveying the image that he was turning around in the air and returning to assault him again with Raikiri. However, his plan this time was a little more insidious. He created a diamond clone, swapping with it before fading away with Dustless Bewildering Cover.

Shishi would no doubt quickly break free of the illusion and see what he had done, but the clone was good enough to fool him for a little bit. When next he gave an opening, Shinrai would strike and end the match there.