Being dangerous as a shinobi was of course an utterly astonishing feat. Jounin rank and Master Jounin was considered a true honour, and shinobi often struggled to reach even such a rank in their careers. Yes, they were powerful, immensely so, as they were able to push everyone aside and claim dominance over them in such a manner. They were so strong that they could take on three Genin and brush them off without even trying, they commanded armies in wars, and they provided the village with elite status.

But then there were the Sennin.

These individuals were even stronger than the Jounin, and would most likely be able to defeat them just as easily as the lower-ranked shinobi could push aside Genin with ease. It wasn’t very often that Kimiko thought herself to be a strong kunoichi. When she put in a request for a day of training, however, she was reminded of it very bluntly. The receptionist in Administration had to go and get numerous other higher-up members of faculty to explain to the Katsumi that it was unsafe to train in the training grounds, especially in the way that she was planning to. Endurance training of such a high level just spelt out danger for the rest of the shinobi training, and it would be unfair to ask them all to leave and train elsewhere only to come back to an utterly ruined space where they wouldn’t be able to train for a while. Instead, the ebony-haired woman was given a special permit which allowed her access to the Forest of Death in the Fire Country; a self-contained area with fauna and animals more dangerous than anywhere else in the whole land, hence its rather tell-tale name. It was like hitting two birds with one stone, really. While not only the Sennin would have undisturbed training time for as long as she wished, the currently over-populated area would receive a necessary cull. This spoke volumes about the power that such high-ranking ninja possessed, literally being requested to take training outside of the village for the safety of everybody else in any near vicinity. It didn’t bother her much; in fact, it made her happy knowing that there was no way she could harm anyone. If she was an egotistical person, this would have most certainly given it a huge stroke in her favour, being told that she was powerful enough to train alone in the Forest of Death without fear of actually dying… instead, it would was more of a fear for the animals inside the sectioned area.

She thanked the woman in Administration and started on her way, having already prepared and packed all of the provisions she would need for her intensive training. She needed to keep improving if she wished to be chosen as a Hokage one day, and now there was a possible war on the horizon, she had to be ready to defend her village to the last. As one of the elitist ninja in the village (of which there were only two, excluding the Hokage at the time who wouldn’t be fighting on the front lines), she would be placed at the top of the hierarchy for war/ become the literal Ace in a deck of cards. There was no way that she could let Konoha down, and thus, she had to keep her training up to par as much as humanly possible. In spite of her busy schedule, she would find the time no matter what the costs. It wasn’t like she was an indispensable part of the written Administration work; she literally only did that to help out, so she wouldn’t be too missed. The staff would be able to do it for themselves, she was sure of it.

As she made her way through the village shouldering her rucksack fill of provisions and training items, her mind was cast onto how far she should actually take this training. She had a wedding approaching, after all, and she didn’t wish to be crippled for it/ in hospital on the day. She hadn’t actually told her fiancé about her plans for the day, because she was sure that he would protest and wish to accompany her to make sure that she didn’t get too injured. Alongside her affinities (all three of them) and contract with Lion summons, she was best known for her unbelievable endurance levels. She was able to continue fighting when most would have either passed out, or died altogether, even if it meant fighting with a broken leg, heavy gash in the abdomen, or whatever other serious injuries came to mind. Chances were that if you could name it, she would have sustained it and continued fighting in spite of it. Many would call it foolish, of course, but it was her way of fighting her battles. And thus far, she had most definitely proved that it worked, because she was still here, right? The moment her plan/ preferred way of fighting didn’t work was the moment that she would no longer be alive. A grim thought, yes, but she knew what she was doing. Considering how she always wished to come back to her family and loved ones, she would never risk her own life without good reason and assuring that she would always come back. She approached the main gates of the village and flashed her signed permission to the guards that she knew well at the gate. They both read the note quickly and started grinning to themselves, laughing and calling after the Sennin as she walked past them. “Wahey, have a good training session, Kimi-chan!” One of them shouted, waving his hand vigorously as a clear sign of farewell. She looked back over her shoulder and grinned, casually raising a hand in a motionless wave before continuing on her way. “I will, don’t you worry, guys.” She called in return, eventually disappearing down the dirt road leading away from the village. The two guards were silent for a moment before they looked at each other, and they started to boisterously make bets.

“I’ll put my wages on the fact that there’ll be no more Forest of Death when she’s finished there!”
“Oh yeah?! Well, shake on it then, buddy boy!”
“Done!”

It didn’t take long to reach the famed area and its imposing fences surrounding it, especially not since Kimiko had walked particularly fast. She was ready for this training, and couldn’t wait to get started. As to why she was here alone, she thought that it was particularly unfair to bring anyone along with her. Her father’s forte was not in physical prowess, so he couldn’t truly test her endurance. Her younger brother was doing his own things. Her fiancé was also keeping to his own agenda. Those were the only high-ranked shinobi that she knew of in the village aside from her constantly busy aunt running the Hospital, and for obvious reasons she couldn’t be there to aid her niece in the Endurance training. But she wasn’t truly alone, in the fact that she was going to call upon the help of a familiar animal species to aid her. She opened up the gateway leading into the Forest of Death and closed it behind her, making sure that it was locked up properly before proceeding into the huge area. She kept walking until she reached a goodly sized clearing that she could use as her base, and after arriving at this place, she dropped her bag and stretched a little to limber herself up. Then, she raised her right hand up to her mouth, and swiftly used her sharpened canine teeth to slice across the pad of her thumb. With a firm slap on the ground from her hand slamming down, a huge black seal spread out from where she had first made contact. From the seal, a poof of white smoke leapt from it, and when that cleared, a huge lion was sat on his hindquarters looking at his summoner in a very questioning manner.

“Kimiko-sama…” He muttered in his strangely loud, booming tone. “What seems to be the problem?” He proceeded to ask, pushing himself up from the sitting position and instead beginning to stretch himself out. He arched his long, majestic back and stretched each individual powerful leg, and finally shook out his long lustrous mane. “Ah, Aslan-san!” The Sennin chirped, as if the Lion had calmly popped by for a nice chat as opposed to being summoned by her for a purpose. "You see, I have quite the dilemma… as in, I have no-one to train me in the extreme arts of Endurance. Due to your specialties and our match of rank…” She trailed off a little, gesturing with her hands that this was a continued sentence that she wouldn’t say. Aslan understood the implied meaning straight away, yawning widely and sighing a little softly. “You think that it would make the most sense for me to aid you in this endeavour, correct?” He asked bluntly, swishing his long tail from side to side slowly as he spoke. “Yes, that’s right!” She claimed, grinning up at him and holding out her hand towards him with the palm facing the lion himself. In turn, he raised his front paw and placed it very gently against her hand; his appendage dwarfing hers by comparison. “Well, let’s begin.” He smirked and took up a stance opposite her.

It seemed rather strange indeed taking up a fight against a huge lion. Of course, anybody would feel greatly outmatched. But Kimiko was merely excited, grinning insanely as she felt her blood pump madly around her body in turn from her heart quickening its pace. “Don’t hold back on me! I need to keep taking hits!” She called out to him, slipping into a fight stance of her own. Right off the bat, Aslan was going all-out. He powered a huge amount of chakra and stomped one of his large feet on the ground, having adopted a human stance, to send quakes through the earth. The ebony-haired woman took the first hit at full force, flying back through the air and into a very solid tree about ten metres away. With a small groan and shake of her head, she leapt back from the tree and onto the ground. Now, she used her feline hearing in order to pick out where the quakes were heading so that she could dodge in plenty of time. She leapt and landed gracefully, over and over again, until she was able to reach a level with her huge, imposing summon. As she soared through the air, she was aware of a huge paw in the shape of a fist coming towards her, and she managed to manoeuvre her body just in time to dodge, even if one of Aslan’s drawn claws raked its way down her left leg. She merely gritted her teeth and flipped in mid-air, heading back to the ground again. While she was in freefall, she started to channel chakra in the form of Fuuton, creating a high density tornado which flew out in front of her. The tornado struck its intended target’s right leg, and proceeded to explode out in all directions, uprooting nearby trees and sending the airborne Kimiko even further afield. This time, she slammed against a different tree, literally breaking it off at the roots.

She didn’t stay down for long at all, as she lifted herself up again while exhaling a deep breath. As strange as it sounded, she couldn’t even feel the heavy bleeding and deep gash wound inflicted on her leg. She spared a casual glance at it, but wasn’t even perturbed by the sight. ‘I’m sure that Momo will heal me up after this.’ She thought with a soft chuckle, beginning to run again straight for her target. Aslan had been knocked down by the Pressure Damage jutsu, and was recovering his composure ready to strike his summoner back. Both forces clashed right in the middle of their clearing; one utilising a huge S-Ranked Katon jutsu, and the other aiming to cause devastation with an S-Ranked Taijutsu. The ensuing blast was enough to shake the entire area, ripping trees up, obliterating plants and creating a huge crater in the centre where the strike actually happened. Both summoner and summon laid sprawled on their backs panting with over-exertion.

"H-Hey Aslan-san…” Kimiko panted, raising her eyes to see a mass of soft brown fur and mane. “Yes Kimiko-sama?...” The lion replied, obviously short of breath as his own pants were heard. “I think the Forest of Death should be more afraid of us than we are of it…” She grinned to herself, obviously finding amusement in this fact and how they had destroyed the area rather effectively. Both of them laughed and started coughing, completing it all with a soft groan of pain. Needless to say, they wouldn’t be moving for a fair while…

Kimiko's Jutsu:

Aslan's Jutsu:

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Complete!