Ryouma worked his tongue around his mouth and spat again. "I guess blood fireworks are a step up from exploding pigs, but you might wanna work on your aim."

"You made the blade," Genma countered. "And it was effective. Good work." He wiped the blood spatters from his senbon onto his pant leg, eyed it warily for a moment, then slid the senbon back into its holster.

Outside the newly splattered zone, Kakashi planted a hand in red-mud grass and shoved himself upright. Reading his face wasn't easy at the best of times, but the blood-masked avatar of vengeance did appear at least a little pleased. He rocked back on his heels and scratched the back of his neck, probably smearing one of his last remaining clean spots.

There was going to be a long afternoon of scrubbing in their future. First themselves, and then the showers.

Otani, whose sculpted hairstyle had almost certainly not been designed to deal with blood fireworks, maintained a rigid grip on her clipboard, and on her calm. "How close was that attempt?"

Seeing as Iebara hadn't actually managed to decapitate any of them — and not entirely for lack of trying — Ryouma thought Kakashi was doing pretty well.

Genma launched into a repeated explanation and comparison of Iebara's dual blades, their formation, and their durability. Kakashi wandered closer, ears pricked for praise. Ryouma decided they had it covered, and jogged back over to inspect the pig carcass.

The massive cut was entirely clean; even the spinal column had severed without crushing. The trampled grass of the training field was a marshy pool, but only a trickle of blood still ebbed from the sliced veins. They looked like little tubes, he discovered when he crouched down: like the sort of hollow rubber hose you used for watering gardens or running electrical wiring. That one was the external carotid artery, right in front of the backbone. So that was the exterior jugular, and there were the internal ones all clustered in and around the spinal column…

Much easier to spot than on fish or frogs. Maybe he should look into the price of pigs again. The Jutsu Records Office had provided these three for Kakashi's experiments, but they were notoriously stingy about subsidizing jutsu experimentation unless you filled out acres of paperwork and had someone pulling strings for you.

Which maybe he did, now…

"Tousaki!" Genma called, across the field. "How clean is the cut?"

"He's got a great career as a headsman, if this ninja thing doesn't take off!" Ryouma called back. He eyed the carcass, considered the prospect of holding a conversation while also holding a severed pig's head, and trotted back empty-handed instead.

"I've held katanas couldn't make that cut," he said, when he was close enough to speak instead of yelling. "You've got the edge and the weight. Or the speed, maybe."

"Comes at a disadvantage, though." Kakashi glanced at Genma, then carefully unfurled his chakra from its usual tight guard.