However, my trick had meant that while I didn't train constantly only my body 'Lee Style' I was almost on par with his rate of growth.
It would take me more time, but I would reach Guy's level. After all, he was the best teacher I could have wished for, he had a bit of overbearing personality, but nobody was perfect.
...
"Yes, my most youthful student!?" the answer of my sensei distracted me from my reflections and remembered me what I was about to ask.
"I have sparring set up five minutes from now on training ground eight. Could you observe and point out our flaws when we finish?"
My sensei too big eyes started to water. He snuffed. "How youthful, my students w..."
I tuned him out with practiced ease, and I turned my head up looking at the cloudless sky. The night had been windy and there was a thrilling chill in the air. It was a good morning for a spar.
From the drivel my sensei was sprouting about friendship, I deduced that he agreed to watch my spar, and teach me more after. So I was set for the day. I started running toward the training ground 8, my sensei on my side.
I dug deep into the drivel the main characters of Naruto were always sprouting and turned at my sensei with pleading eyes.
"Sensei, someone asked me to... watch over someone dear to him. And asked for the spar to see for himself if he could entrust a life into my hands... It's in preparation of a life and death situation, can I use it ?"
His expression grew serious like I had come to learn happened when it was necessary. "Who is the one that you are sparring with?" He asked with narrowed eyes.
But we had arrived at the training ground, and Itachi was already there. My sensei' eyes grew wide recognizing the young prodigy, and gave me permission with a slow nod. Then he reverted to his 'extremely youthful' standard personality.
After a long time spent introducing himself, my sensei stepped aside, leaving us space.
I was dressed in my standard uniform for long term missions. Boots with blackened steel tips, long cargo pants of a dark brown, held tight below the knee by wrapped bandages, so that they wouldn't rustle. Sleeveless chainmail under a baggy shirt with the sleeves cut halfway, my arms wrapped in bandages and armguards.
Fingerless gloves with a steel plate, and over it a hoodie made with a tear and water-resistant dark green material, with grey streaks breaking the monotony of the single color. It had a deep hood that I raised only when it rained. Shin had insisted, it was our camouflage expert after all.
For the same reason, I had rubbed my headband with the leaf symbol with a mixture of charcoal and soda wash, making it of a dull grey instead of the shiny steel it was when I first earned it. My long hair was tied into a tight braid at the base of my skull and reached my lower back, at the end of it there was a steel point.
My chakra control was good enough to direct it through my hair into a bastardized version of Jiraya's Hair Jizō.
I started needing Tiger, Horse, Boar, Ram, Rat and Snake. And I was grateful I remembered those from the manga, and I tinkered with it until I managed to mold my chakra without hand seals. My braid acted more like a mesh between a whip and a fifth limb than the perfect shield it was capable of becoming. But it was a work in progress.
I quickly divested myself from my boots and the hoodie, before unwrapping the end of my trousers and taking down even those weights.
I rewrapped the bandages around the lower end of my trousers after sealing away my clothes into an empty storage scroll that found its way back to my belt.
I rolled my shoulders and jumped a couple of times, to get used to feeling so light out of the blue.
Itachi had looked me impassively the whole time, with his half-lidded eyes that somehow did manage to convey his irritation. Hehe, making him wait was a must. I knew he was an Anbu captain already, if only because Danzō needed a spy among the Uchiha that other Anbu agents couldn't question.
There were two things I was truly good at, or at least, comparatively better than my other skills: Taijutsu, and dispelling genjutsu, even high ranked ones. Why? The first explained itself. The second? I was paranoid. And terrified to be trapped into a genjutsu a là Matrix.
So I worked my ass off to become good at unraveling genjutsu. I was still young to be a ninjutsu monster since my coils were still developing, and my genjutsus were not battle-ready. I also didn't want to rely on my Illusion, it was a kind of secret resource.
Itachi? I was presuming that he was good at everything.
We assumed the Salute position, we stood at ten meters of distance from each other and assumed the half ram sign with our right hand.
"Ready? Begin!" thundered Guy sensei.
I shot forward as fast as thought, opening with a high knee shot at the face of Itachi. He bent backward and tried to land a punch on my uncovered back, my braid whipped at his arm and if it wasn't for his arm guard it would have bruised.
The first exchange had been a draw, even if Itachi still had to move from his position, he didn't need to raise an eyebrow to make clear that he was unimpressed. I recognized there the birth of the blank expression he would one day wield in battle. The one that said 'you are an ant beneath my notice, I'll walk over your dead bodies'.
I charged again.
I opened with an open palm strike, and noticed external chakra trying to influence me, I fluctuated violently mine and broke through the genjutsu before it could even settle. He dodged on the left, I followed in a flurry of knees, kicks, elbows, and punches.
He was never where my hit would have landed. It was like fighting the wind, even if he was far sharper in its movements. They were broken, without a pattern, and nonetheless effective.
After a while, he started answering. He was cautious, never exposing himself and attempting to strike only when he could keep his balance and guard up at the same time.
Punch, dodge, twirl, guarding with the elbow, intercepting the following kick. Kick, sidestep, jump over leg sweep, punch, swipe, disengage. Repeat.
He suddenly jumped back, his hands blurring, and spat at me a fireball.
I yanked at my chakra and molded it while throwing two kunai in the fire. I seallessly used kawarimi and switched myself with a pebble at the feet of the young Anbu captain, wincing internally at the added chakra cost from the sheer difference in mass.
Landing, I impressed a standard explosive seal on another stone on the ground and followed through the whole Konoha's whirlwind kata, unable to hit him, but I didn't give him space, didn't let him breathe, nor gave him a single opening.
He started slashing with kunai in unpredictable patterns, that didn't manage to break my movements, but I faltered for an instant during which he managed to land a solid kick on the side of my head.
I rolled with it and jumped at him again, executing a slash from high to low over his head, he executed a perfect cross block with his forearms but was left open for my kick that... He vanished.
Suddenly he rose the speed of his movements and was at my back. With a desperate tweak, I kawarimed with the stone that I marked before, which, disrupted by the chakra overlapping with the seal, exploded in Itachi's face.
He dodged the shrapnel without difficulties, and once more we stood at ten meters of distance.
His face was still blank, but the scuffle did get my blood running. I was excited. I was enjoying it.
I assumed a Muay Thai pose, distractedly noticing a surprising sound coming from my sensei. He never taught me anything similar. However in my first life I had read and watched a lot of different martial arts, and it had been reasonably easy to put together what Guy had taught me in a form that resembled it.
I took a deep breath, reaching inward. Itachi was keeping his Sharingan active. Paranoid son of a bitch.
In my mind blossomed an idea. I kept gathering myself and started performing hand seals.
Horse, Boar, Ram, Rat, Tiger, Horse, Tiger, Dragon. I trust my right arm forward, using my left hand to grab tightly to my wrist like I needed a wast amount of concentration to direct my jutsu. "Ninpō!" I shouted. I rose my middle finger:" Fuck you no Jutsu!"
I heard Guy screaming 'Unyouthful!' and Itachi' eyes, which were a little wide, eager to see what I was about to do, lost their Sharingan, and due to surprise, he blinked.
"Kaimon, kai." I whispered. And faster than ever, my knee slammed into the crossed guard of Itachi, broke through it, and pummeled him into the undergrowth. Releasing my breath, I closed the gate, returned in my waiting position, and half a second later I had a blade held against my throat. I laughed.
"You're a scary kid, Itachi."
Our sensei called the match, I had lost.
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