Haru was enthralled. This battle was different from training and spars. Even though no lives were truly on the line, adrenaline was pulsing through his veins like a river. This was precisely the kind of situation that helped excavate his potential, and would ultimately result in tremendous progress in his fighting style.
With a devious grin, Haru resumed his onslaught against the four aspirant warriors that dared to antagonise him. Although two out of the three branch boys where down for good, one would be ready to battle again in a couple tens of second. It was perfect, as it left him with more than enough time to warm up against the most competent out of them all : the blond cocky brat.
Haru kicked him out early in the fight, but that didn't mean that he was actually useless. The later had just acted upon impulse, foolishly, and Haru made a quick job of taking advantage out of it. As his head cooled down a bit, instead of rushing in again he prefered rather observing the fight to get a proper understanding of an opponent that he realised he should rather not underestimate.
What quickly surprised him was Haru's combat intelligence. If in the beginnings his underling were slightly suppressing him together and he endured some light and unconsequential palm strikes, he had improvised his style on the spot in order to destabilise them. Many of his moves and battle tactics were quite ingenius, to not say innovative, and the main problem was that as the fight prolonged he simply seemed to improve every minutes, didn't make the same mistakes twice.
It was only when the youngest and weakest among his subordinates, Wabisuke, was thrown out at him that he snapped out of his torpor and he realised that Haru was now out for his blood, and that grin plastered on his face infuriated him for some reason.
"DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG ?! I'M OTSUTSUKI AKIHIKO, REMEMBER MY NAME WELL YOU BASTARD !!"
Carried by the vanishing steps of the Gentle Fist style, both clashed again in a split second in a fight of a heightened caliber compared to what had taken place until now. Their arms clashed at such speed and violence that the air itself seemed to shatter, thwacking noises resounding each time a palm was thrusted forward.
As his opponent was more than two years older than him, Haru found himself at a physical disadvantage. His muscles weren't strong enough, and his stamina was lesser. He wouldn't get tired for the next two or three minutes at this rate if he sustained that level of focus and intensity, but if his opponent decided to use ninshu or other stuff he may have learnt during the three years freshman period, things could get ugly. Not to mention that the last branch kid that got his head stepped on by him earlier could get back in the fight at any moment now.
But instead of growing worried, Haru's blood was boiling instead. It was the first time in his life that he truly felt the thrill of the battle, and it was pure bliss. He had the feeling that if he managed to pull it off with these odds, then his skill would advance by leaps and bound in all areas. He understood that pressure was what was required in order to make breakthroughs amidst battle.
Dodging a furious palm strike aiming for his gut with a backward step, Haru took advantage of that unusual motion by lifting his forward leg up in an front kick aiming for Akihiko's head. Unphased by his unusual taishu antics, the later counterattacked with a circular attack stance foreign to Haru that made use of his body's intertial momentum to throw him away.
Taken aback, Haru was sent flying toward another building's frontwall but like a cat, he made a quick job of landing elegantly with both his feet on the wall. The showcase of a pristine handling of the tree walking exercice surprised his opponent for a while, as it wasn't something Akihiko himself had learnt yet.
What kind of first year newcomer is that ? That's ridiculous !
Akihiko was quite frustrated by the battle prowess shown by Haru, who was almost a whole generation younger than him. It had to be known that Akihiko wasn't just anybody in his generation either. Sure he could admit being weaker than a couple of guys in his class, but he could still rank comfortably within the top five best of the second cycle generation. The fact that a guy two years younger than him that had barely started training about a month ago was tailing his level and knew techniques in advance that he did not didn't sit well with him at all.
Catching his breath, Haru sat on the wall for a few seconds and thought. Not good. We've made too much of a commotion and I have no idea when we're going to be interrupted and what will happen but it can't stop here ! I need more pressure.. And just as Haru was getting a bit anxious, he noticed that the last branch kid was finally up for a fight and rejoigned that blond dickhead.
"I don't have all day. Come together if you both aren't sissy pussies." Haru provoked.
That motherfucking son of a bitch !! Akihiko was absolutely livid. Never had he been mocked and humiliated that way. Haru's taunt worked so well that Akihiko didn't even bother to say anything before diving full speed across the street to attack him, swiftly followed by his minion.
Seeing his plan working, Haru didn't intend to simply take them head on like he did previously and instead began running across the wall. A mere second later, as the both of them closed upon Haru's position, the later jumped on the rooftop.
Suddenly understanding what his intentions were, Akihiko hesitated for split second before jumping up anyway, confident in his strength and his chances of victory with the help of the branch boy even in this environment that was very favourable to Haru as only he knew how to walk upon the walls.
It wasn't long until tiles shattered en masse under the strength of their kicks, and the momentum carried by their weight. Haru's breath was short, loud, but steady. Sweat pearled out of his skin, soaking his robes as for minutes now he was performing the most intense and demanding physical activity that ever did. Under the coordinated assault of both students years older than him, slowly his momentum was drawning, his chakra dangerously draining, and fatigue was gaining ground.
In a very counter intuitive manner however, Haru was only ever growing fiercer. Aiming to knock out the branch kid in one go, an incredibly loaded axe kick came down crashing upon the later, who swiftly jumped down the building to dodge. As soon as Haru's foot landed on the rooftop, it immediately made it collapse on half a dozen square meters.
Unbeknownst to Akihiko and Haru who were committing every single bit of their attention to the fight, a small crowd slowly formed that was made up of some local residents, passerbies, and law enforcement personel was quietly watching on the edge of the street.
The two branch boys following Akihiko that were knocked out earlier were among them, intimidated. They were both being healed and interrogated about the ins and outs of the situation by the law enforcement officers of Shirogakure.
"Shouldn't we intervene already, Ichinosuke-senpai ?"
Besides a tall blond haired seventeen year-old looking man stood another, who looked somewhat worried, was a bit shorter and didn't have Byakugans compared to the former. As the the head of the seventh team of law enforcement forces, in a village where virtually one out of five people had the Byakugan and the rest were sensors, it didn't take more than a few minutes for him to be notified about such a thing as a rogue street fight breakout among academy students.
When he arrived at the scene along with his five subordinates, his sight was greeted with half self suffocating kid, another one knocked out a bit farther, and three others who were and still are wrecking around the local rooftops. He wasn't surprised by the fight's intensity, as it was truly nothing but child play to him, but by his younger brother Akihiko being among the troublemakers.
Well he knew the boy had a big fat ego, for sure. He could also be a bit mischievious sometimes, to not say vicious, but he's never done something as reckless as this. But as he observed the fight along with the others, he became somewhat curious about his younger brother combat progress and hanged the order to interrupt the fight for a while.
Whilst it would be considered normal procedure to simply suppress and detain all parties directly, in truth such infractions to the law weren't punished heavily in Shirogakure. The council view quite favourably the youth's fiery outbursts even though they may be a bit destructive because it was a side effect of the kind of competitiveness among students they tried desperately to stimulate at the academy. One of the main reason the clan was so strong despite the lack of any noteworthy threats in the past seven hundred years was precisely the competitive culture of battle. Supressing it would thus be undermining their efforts, so a fine line of tolerance must be found in order to upkeep that endeavor and maintain the civil order at the same time.
Even though it was a bit annoying for the residants, as almost everyone in the village was at least a Jounin in terms of strength so no one was actually endangered by a fight of this scale.
The collapsing rooftop under Haru's axe kick made some of Ichinosuke's subordinate uneasy, fearing that the destruction was getting out of hand. Ichinosuke did nothing though, he felt that both aspirant warriors still had some more energy to spend. For now things were still under control so he let the fight unfold, closely watching.
The collapsing rooftop made Akihiko fall within the house's insides, unable to jump away to safety or to stick his feet anywhere. Thankfully, there was no one inside as all residents were discretely evacuated outside earlier even though any one of them would be able to smash the two brats into meat paste easily. In Shirogakure even if one had the power to do so, unless there was a life and death situation it was forbidden to intervene in a rogue fight if one was not a law enforcement personel because most of the time it would merely escalate the fight further, with more and more warriors brawling around.
Jumping down on Akihiko from the roof with yet another one of his axe kicks, Haru grinned as he knew that his opponent was trapped in this enclosed environment. A cold light flashed in Akihiko's eyes, as for the first time since the beginning of the fight he began spinning on himself. The majestic chakra dome of the Revolving Heaven manifested, wrecking the house's furniture even further.
Although Haru was a bit surprised, he didn't back down. Going down full force upon Akihiko's protective dome, he smashed it so hard that even though he didn't break the defense, Akihiko and his dome were thrown out toward the wall, breaking it in a hundred pieces before crashing down in the street below.
Calmly walking toward the car sized hole in the wall through which Akihiko was thrown out of, Haru contemptuously looked down at his opponent who was pathetically trying to stand up again from the heights of the first floor.
He had noticed the crowd outside, watching the mess they made like a show. In some way, it was. Thrilling fights were the most appreciated form of entertainments in Shirogakure after all. As long as they were not trying to interrupt the fight, he would have no qualms with it though.
Akihiko gritted his teeth, just to cough a bit of blood a few seconds later. The impact of the attack and then the crash shooked his internal organs and his bones, so much so that he had a strong desire to vomit his insides out at the moment.
Damn..
"Don't think you've won just yet, bastard. I'll let you have a taste of what ninshu is capable of !"
Akihiko didn't believe for a second that Haru had anything noteworthy to oppose his ninshu technique. As for him, as he lifted his hand in front of him, a very powerful wind chakra started rotating around his right hand and forearm. As if they were coated with a whirlwind, this was Akihiko's ultimate attempt to defeat Haru.
Haru's eyes frowned at the sight of the technique. This wasn't good news for him, and although he wasn't exactly defenseless against this, he would have rather prefered that things didn't come down to this.
Mobilising every bit of chakra he had left as well, a light green colored orb started taking shape steadily between his hands. It was the first time ever than he was using the complete form of the rasengan, and to his own surprise even though he expected that he would not have much difficulty in doing so if he used both his hands, it was more smooth sailing that he thought.