( 17 July- 12 years AK )
I let Kakashi be the one to begin the fight, I needed him to set the pace since I had no idea how to go around a non-lethal encounter. Sure, I knew submission holds, but when I had to capture someone I had no qualms about fracturing the spine and keeping the target alive with medical chakra until he spilled his guts.
That kind of tactic could not be applied in the circumstances I was in.
His swiping kick targeted my head, I had all the time to dodge, but knowing that he knew that too, I chose to do the opposite.
I stepped forward, my right hand clamping around his ankle and my left punch targeted his knee.
His hand came in simply jabbing my punch. A jolt ran through my forearm. Raiton?
His other kick caught me in the chest and thew me back.
I landed lightly on my feet and shook my left hand, trying to disperse the tingling. Incorporating nature manipulation in taijutsu? I wondered.
My surprise must have been obvious since the fucker had the gall to eye-smile at me.
It was something that I had never encountered before, and that I never thought about. It had several interesting applications.
I had thought we would go at taijutsu first, but it was clear that even in a spar, jonin meshed their techniques together, and the control he had exercised on it was... well perfect.
Trusting in his skill to survive, I spat a seal-less Teppodama at him and moved in a clockwise circle, pelting him with kunai.
He slashed at the incoming mass of water with a hand encased in lightning, disrupting the chakra that was holding it together, and for a single instant the arena was filled with the sound of one thousand chirping birds. He then proceeded to parry every kunai I threw at him with one of his own.
But I had not been idle, my water natured chakra took control of the mass of water and with nary a flick of my wrist, and a quarter of my current reserves, the mist encased the arena. I brought my hands in a famous cross-shaped seal whispering: "Kage bunshin no jutsu."
Without a sound or smoke, my clone appeared briefly at my side before jumping on the wall, cloaking himself into several layered camouflage techniques.
I moved silently into the mist, following the feedback the improved version of the 'line of water' was feeding me.
I cross blocked an axe kick and followed with a flurry of punches and countering his attempted holds, leaned back to avoid a punch that would have broken my nose and jabbed at his wrist. He violently disrupted the flow of his chakra, letting it out in a wave that dissipated the mist.
I jumped back, my hands blurring through hand seals.
I let my chakra free himself into his wind nature, shaping it with Boar, Monkey and Dragon. I pushed it aside, storing it in the tenketsu at the base of my throat, carefully keeping it from exploding and as such taking my neck away with it, before going through the following set of hand seals: Boar, Horse, Tiger.
I blew my Katon technique while letting go of my fūton one, molding them together, for Kakashi's benefit, I shouted: "Ninpō: Shiroi honō!"
(White blaze) and I let the wall of white-hot fire sweep the ground in front of me.
I felt Kakashi disappear from inside the mist a split second before my jutsu scorched the ground.
I turned on myself, staring pointedly at the ground. "Come on, I know you were going to hide underground, but making me wait is pointless."
I kicked sharply at the hand that tried to grab my ankle and stared blankly at Kakashi, who had climbed out of a hole in the ground.
His lone eye widened taking in the scorched ground we were standing on. I tilted my head with a smirk and shot forward.
He disrupted violently his own chakra flow, breaking a genjutsu my clone had placed him into and met my attack head-on.
We evenly exchanged a flurry of blows for several seconds, our speed mostly matched, then he made a mistake. Without any apparent reason he ducked like he had heard a kunai coming at him.
The merit of my clone's genjutsu, no doubt.
My knee shot up to hit his masked face, catching his crossed arms and breaking his guard. Before I could capitalize on the opening, he flickered on the other side of the arena, lifting his headband.
The Sharingan gleamed red, and even from that distance it was intimidating.
"I was wondering if you were going to give me the pink eye." I taunted.
He blinked, unraveling the genjutsus my clone was casting on him. One after another, with every single blink of his borrowed eye, they crumbled.
Oh, this is bullshit. I thought. Goddamn plot armor. What the fuck were you thinking Kishimoto? That thing is way too overpowered.
I broke through the genjutsu he had cast on me before it could affect my balance and stopped looking him in the eye. Bloody annoying.
I was about to envelop us in mist once again when I stopped. How many friendly spars against a Sharingan will I have before I have to fight an enemy with a doujutsu? I considered. And so, perhaps foolishly, I engaged Kakashi in hand to hand combat.
It was utter bullshit. He could see where, how and what I was doing before I actually did it. That was without even taking his Sharingan' genjutsus that he blinked on me. Without the gates I couldn't go faster than him, so the confrontation quickly earned me bruised ribs and a cut on my forearm. Son of a bitch.
I wasn't going to use any other combination technique, I didn't think he could copy those, but I wasn't going to risk it. I didn't even see it coming, he hit my head out of nowhere, and the world went black.
I awoke from my lucid dream with a start, my arms raising to parry a blow that wasn't coming. When I realized that I was safe in my yurt, I sighed.
"I need to come up with a way to face the Sharingan." I muttered to myself. And thinking about my options, I added: "Well, a not lethal way." I didn't want to kill Itachi or Shishui after all.
I was in a bad mood. Thinking about my shiny new genins, and the decision I pushed them into, I smiled. I could take it out on them. But how?
...
TEAM 10
At 6:30 am, Ino was surprised to hear her father calling for her, warning that she had someone waiting for her.
Her surprise could only rise further when she identified who were the ones waiting for her.
Shikamaru and Choji (who was still rubbing his sleep-addled eyes) were looking at her with a strange look.
Ino blushed, she had risen from her sleep an hour before, beauty didn't come on its own after all, but seeing Shikamaru, of all people presenting himself ahead of schedule, was mind-blogging.
"Shikamaru? What are you doing here? Do you feel unwell?" She asked the last question teasingly, and by the tired sigh that escaped her lazy teammate' lips, it was clear that he didn't miss the joke.
"I didn't sleep." Came the blank answer.
That awoke even Choji, who was now staring at his friend with wide eyes.
"Yesterday I thought about what choice ... sensei... wanted us to make."
And on those words, Ino gestured them both in the kitchen, where she offered them some breakfast. Looking at Shikamaru with an interested expression. She might not have particularly liked him, but she knew how to evaluate people, daddy had taught her that much, and with her talent for gossip, she could tell that he was about to say something huge.
"Daddy doesn't like him much." She said, hoping to gain a reaction from the aloof kid, who just nodded without revealing too much.
"Pops said that he owns the Pizzeria chain of restaurants." Choji butted in, eager to share what he had discovered.
When he became the object of two deadpan stares he shifted uncomfortably on his seat, but Shikamaru patted his shoulder calming him.
"I traded a favor with my father to access his records, the public ones at least, I only know that he made chunin at fifteen without a scratch, then he went and became one of the Twelve Fire Guardians.
Only for three years, but they are supposed to be among the best, so very skillful jonin. And he came back around the beginning of this year."
"Is that normal?" Choji asked, catching up on what Shikamaru was hinting at.
The Nara shook his head, and seeing the confused frown on Ino he chose to elaborate: "He technically was still a chunin once he came back, to be a jonin sensei one has to be a full jonin, meaning he went through two promotions in less than six months."
Ino was impressed, grudgingly, but impressed. If he only was black haired with dark eyes... No. She shook her head. She would conquer Sasuke-kun! And that was it!
"I want to be strong." Choji said, bringing everyone back on topic.
Ino's hand instinctively went to her throat, her eyes widening in fear for a second, before nodding her assent.
"We all remember Failure." Shikamaru said. And the whole team shivered at the memory of the monster inside of the genjutsu who single-handedly destroyed the academy, their friends, and the self-esteem of Ino, Shikamaru and Choji.
"Then there's nothing else to be said." the Nara drawled, and just like that, he fell asleep, with drool and snore, on her kitchen table.
When they reached the training ground 10 they saw their sensei performing a handstand on a pond. No, they weren't quite correct, he was balancing himself on the tips of his right-hand fingers, while a leaf was fluttering in a smooth pattern around his other hand.
When he saw them closing down on him their sensei sighed noticing that Shikamaru was being carried piggyback by Choji.
Not the most encouraging of the beginnings. Daiki thought.
"Have you made your decision?" he asked cutting the pleasantries.
Choji set down Shikamaru and shook him awake, he was immediately aware and his eyes zeroed in on their sensei, who didn't change his position.
"We'll give you our best." Ino said, and looking at his other two charges the sensei could see the determination in their expressions.
...
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