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After a little bit of discussing, Might Guy convinced me to spar with his team. He made a grand speech about 'YOUTH' and whatnot... Of course, I agreed to his proposition, after weaseling out a good word about Kusa getting put on the report to the Hokage. I didn't ask for this directly, of course. I just insinuated it, by speaking of the 'GREAT YOUTH' our villages shared, and so on and so forth.
After getting out of my thoughts, I looked at the spot we had picked for our sparring sessions. It was a random clearing in the blades of tall grass that surround Kusagakure. My first opponent was Rock Lee, who had asked me to fight him with all I have. I won't, why? Because I want to see how well I would fare up against him without Reinforcement and Projection, I need to prepare in case I ever end up in a battle of attrition.
Rock Lee shot towards me as soon as Might Guy had given the start. I waited for Mr. Bowl-Cut to attack, preparing to counter or dodge. To my surprise, the genin came to a halt just outside of the range of my arms and legs. I took a step forward and halfheartedly punched towards him. He took notice of my lack of trying, dodged my punch, and kicked me in the stomach.
This hurt a lot more than what I was used to, turns out Reinforcement also blurs out your sense of pain to a degree. Despite the pain, I took off towards Lee, and engaged him in taijutsu. His way of fighting is countered greatly by the Zenins taijutsu, which is based off of blocking, parrying and dodging attacks, before counter-attacking. Nevertheless, Lee was still holding his own against me, our strength and speed equal. But, unfortunately for him, I a height advantage and more durability than him, and so, I took advantage of them.
I gave him an opening as bait, than I grabbed him, and after a small struggle as we engaged in grappling, I caught him in a choke-hold. Shortly after, Might Guy saved his student from unconsciousness by calling the fight. After signing the seal of reconciliation, Lee rushed towards me and gave me a hug, shouting about 'YOUTH' some more. At first this was endearing, but now it has become annoying. I can't imagine how the other two could put up with this for extended periods of time.
I tried my best to keep my annoyed expression off my face, as I peeled the Konoha genin off of me. Instead of wasting any more time, Neji came forward and offered the seal of reconciliation, signaling he wanted to be the next to spar with me. I flashed him a grin as I also offered him the seal.
I wasn't about to take a Hyuuga casually, they were my techniques natural enemies. Projection can be predicted with their Byakugan, and their Gentle Fist was a perfect counter to the Zenins own. The gentle fist was agile enough to catch up with the Zenin style of dodging, it can disable limbs so I can't block or tank it before counter attacking, and Reinforcement and Recovery are disrupted by the Hyuugas ability to stop the flow of chackra to certain parts of the body.
This will push me to my limit, once my thoughts concluded, an ugly grin formed on my face as I prepared all three of my Projections. Neji stood in his place, unmoving, he must also know how good a match up he has against me, and wants to capitalise further on his advantage by forcing me to make the first move.
I looked him in the eyes, noting that his Byakugan was active, before my body relaxed completely. As I was falling face down in the dirt, I could hear him panic, and saw his guard frantically moving between my Projections. Just before I hit the ground, my hands and legs blurred, sending me flying towards Neji, forcing him to return his attention towards me, as he prepared to counter my attack, only for me to disappear just outside of his arms reach. I reappeared behind him, and once again shot towards him, managing to get a good kick to his right kidney, before I was forced to Project outside of his range once more.
I flashed him a cocky grin as I approached him once more, with the intention to bait him until he left an opening for me to exploit. From an outside perspective, this seemed like I was bullying a poor kid, but I have no other way to win this fight. Getting chip damage in little by little, was my only chance of winning. That is if Neji doesn't come up with a solution to my way of attacking in time.
To my surprise, this continued for a good bit, until Neji had seemingly made a decision. As I came in for a strike, he hit the positions of my Projections with his Gentle Fist, destabilizing the chackra in them, causing them to collapse. Seeing as I was out of options for an assured retreat, and just outside of his range, instead of remaining passive, the Hyuuga became proactive, capitalizing on the opportunity he created, and hit me in the chest with a palm. I was sent flying, but before I could recover, he was upon me once more, and he paralyzed me.
He flashed me a cocky grin as I was laying on the ground, unable to move. I simply exhaled air forcefully, in an attempt to scoff. After he unparalyzed me, we made the seal of reconciliation once more, and I went to leave. But before I could, my path was cut off by the girl in their team, Might Guy standing behind her, with a bright smile on his face, while she was complained under her breath that she would get beaten.
She wasn't wrong, unlike with Neji, with whom I had a bad match up against, and Lee against whom I tested my pure taijutsu, there was no real reason to test myself against her. My shurikenjutsu was good enough for the rare times I needed it, so I decided to end this quickly.
As soon as the formalities ended and Guy started the match, I shot forward towards her, she expected this, already having thrown some kunai towards me. Unfortunately for her, I Projected behind her. Everything she had thrown was now useless, and I could easily strike at her open back. I put her in a chokehold, and waited for Guy to stop the match. I didn't even need to use Reinforcement against her. Man, this is sad. How did she even become a genin? How did she get in this team, is a batter question. She doesn't match the other two at all, though I guess she is here to be a long range specialist and provides cover for the other two.
In the time I was considering her role in Guy's team, the Konoha jonin had called the match. I quickly let go of the Konoha genin, got up, and after dusting myself I said my goodbyes, before going back to my office.
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On my way back to my home, I passed by the city centre. On a bench just outside of it, was seated none other than old man Hōtai. A smile flashed across my face as I saw him, before I went to greet him. He was throwing seeds on the ground, for the birds. I promptly Projected beside him, before speaking.
"Old man! What are you doing today?" I asked, as I leaned back on the bench, while putting my hands behind my head. Hōtai slowly turned his head towards me, his whole body covered in bandages, as always. A grey robe was hanging loosely on his shoulder, covering more of his body, he raised a loose bandage from one of his eyes, a bright green peeking at me from underneath all those layer. I could hear a faint laugh, as he spoke;
"Look at yourself." His raspy voice wavered, going from coughing to laughing and in between, while his hand retrieved a hand mirror from his pocket. His shaky left hand stretched towards me, while he was covering the place where his mouth was hidden with his right. As I took the mirror from his hands, I wondered what he found so funny.
As my reflection gazed back at me, I saw why he was laughing. My robes went from clean and neat, to me being almost half naked, with rips where Guy's mini-me had hit me, my hair was now messy, with dirt being smeared through it. I looked back at him, unamused. This man had somehow survived the Third Shinobi War, and now he is laughing at me being a little dirty.
I gave him his mirror back, while looking at him, unimpressed. His one exposed eye peered at me, amusement evident from it. He put the mirror back into his robes, before taking out a scroll. His eye smile widened.
"Here is a mission. The Kusakage told me to give it to you as soon as possible." He seemed way too amused for this to be a simple mission. And it wasn't.
My face paled a little after reading the details. I forced myself to relax after seeing Hōtai's expression however, because, despite him being much older than me, our relationship was very much one of friendship. And right now, he had the same expression I used to have whenever I annoyed one of my friends. I scoffed, before asking.
"And why is the Kage bothering me with the work of messengers? My time is more important than that." Of course I knew the reason I had been chosen to deliver this message. This was an diplomatic pact that would make Ame and Kusa guarantee each others independence. It wouldn't stop any of the Five Great Villages, but stopping minor nations from trying something against us is always welcome, especially because shinobi populations have required quite a bit since the last war.
"Because this needs to get to Amegakure by... Midnight." It was already noon. I had about four hours to travel through both the Land of Grass and Land of Rain. If I used my Projections perfectly, I would travel that distance in... Four hours. Fuck.
I took off. I ran with the wind, as fast as Reinforcement and Projection would get me. In moments like these, I regretted that Projection doesn't keep ones momentum through it.
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