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There were some difficulties getting scheduled lined up, but the promised day arrived a week and a half later. They met early in the morning at a private training ground owned by the Uchiha clan.
There was no audience other than the old groundskeeper and his young apprentice.
"It's been a while, Takuma," Izumi greeted him with a bright smile. She had a sheen of sweat on her face from warming up before he arrived. "I always intend to keep in touch, but it never happens. Clearly, I need to try harder."
Takuma had psyched himself up with a competitive spirit, fully intending to treat her like a Ring opponent, but seeing the goodhearted smile and what he believed to be earnest words made it difficult to keep that mentality.
He shook her hand. "The blame lies with me. I never rescheduled for that meal you promised me." She had invited him to a thank-you meal to show her appreciation for connecting her with Mikoto, but he was swamped with ANBU work, and the plans fell through before vanishing entirely
"I'll consider you helping me with this as a thank you," he said.
"Please, I'm more than happy to help. I've heard much about you from teacher."
"Only good things, I hope."
"Mostly childish complaints," she leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"I have sharp hearing!" Mikoto yelled across from where she was talking with the groundskeeper.
Both of them shared a laugh at their teacher's antics.
"It's admirable that you're improving yourself, Takuma. I have met many who refuse to accept that they need change, much less take steps to make it happen," she sighed.
"That's too high of a praise. She complimented you greatly, by the way. I fear I've been dethroned as her favourite, which wasn't saying much when I was the only option," he joked.
Despite the light tone, it made easy sense that Mikoto would prefer a sharingan-wielding kunoichi as her student. Izumi, being a taijutsu-forward fighter willing to learn her ways, was just a very attractive bonus.
"I want to learn; I hope you won't hold back for my sake. And I hope you'll be understanding if I'm rough," said Takuma. It went without saying that they wouldn't try to kill or cripple each other, but people took care not to unnecessarily annoy or insult their opponents, who were most of the time friends or close acquaintances.
Izumi smiled. "I'll do my best."
Not wasting any time, he warmed up to get ready for the spars.
Mikoto set up a round system for their spar, which was composed of three-minute rounds with a minute of break in between each, with a longer break at her discretion. The system was designed to motivate them to fight aggressively in the limited-time format, or else each round would result in a draw. Of course, it only worked if either side wanted to win, but she had already taken care of it by antagonizing Takuma earlier.
"Let's start to see who's better," Mikoto said out loud as they stepped in front of each other.
They looked at her before looking at the other. It wasn't a deep reason. They were from the same academy graduation class and both studied under Mikoto, bringing them as close as peers could be. Just like Mikoto, they also wanted to see who was better and do it in front of their teacher.
"Not gonna use your sword?" Izumi said, glancing at the sword he had put in the corner.
"Not today. I want to present my absolute best," Takuma said. "What about you? Not going to use your eyes?"
Izumi hummed with a small smile. "I don't know if I'll need them."
"Oh, you will."
"We'll see about that."
"Alright, enough chatter. Go!" Mikoto said.
Neither of them was surprised at the interruption; they charged at each other the moment she opened her mouth. Their kunai sang against each other as they immediately plunged into a dance of blades. There wasn't a moment of rest as both of them pressed each other to not only keep on the move, but also perfectly match each strike because any mistake or concession could end up in a wound.
He slashed ahead aggressively, fearlessly invading her space to attack like he was parched for blood, but Izumi's movements were fluid. She moved as though she already knew his next move and how to answer them with the least amount of effort.
A twist of her wrist, and his kunai carved empty air. Her arm blurred as she cut at his thigh, only for his hand to catch up with hers and parry her attack harshly enough that she stumbled back. Takuma barrelled into her with his shoulder before she could regain her footing. But instead of stumbling back, Izumi used the momentum to spin into a kick that he barely guarded in time.
Her kunai's sharp edge almost found his cheek and trimmed a few hairs beside his ear, but in return, he opened a thin cut on her shoulder.
Breaking apart, both Izumi and Takuma stood heaving only, to return to their fierce exchange. And so on they went, until Mikoto cheerfully called for a break at the end of the allotted three minutes.
Takuma gazed at his kunai with its chipped and worn-down edges from the near hundred clashes and counters during the course of the round and tossed it aside near his sword.
He gazed at Izumi, who stood with her back to him. No matter what he did, she reacted in a way that he couldn't chain his moves or build any momentum. Takuma was winning purely because of his superior physical ability.
Needless to say, he could tell she was going to be a frustrating opponent.
———
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Mikoto gazed at her student, who had just finished greeting each other while trying to poke each other with blades. Seeing them try to figure each other out was cute, but now that the initial round was over, she was curious to see what approach they would take in the second round.
Having trained Izumi, Mikoto knew her combat habits better; she could see the kunoichi go for another probing round to judge whether the insights she gleaned in the first round were at alluseful.
But what about Takuma? Unfortunately, he didn't have that freedom, but was smart enough to realise that time was working against him. From the moment she had set up the round structure for their spars, he likely knew that his chances at victory would plummet the longer these rounds dragged on.
Stretching a fight with an Uchiha was the worst combat tactic across the lands.
The Sharingan was just too powerful a tool. The more the eyes saw, the harder it became to fight against them. Izumi hadn't used her eyes yet, and Mikoto knew that she would rather not use at all—she had trained her student about the curse of over-reliance that many Uchiha fell for—but Takuma was not an opponent she could deal with easily.
Could she fight him without their clan's eyes and win? Yes, but would it be easy? No, it would most possibly be the worst spar of her life; people who fought like him were nothing if not difficult and clung to every chance of victory until.
However, there was no reason for her to make things difficult for herself. The second, or at most third, round would be the turning point.
———
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The minute break quickly passed, and the pair of Leaf chūnin returned to face each other.
Izumi was relaxed and skipped on her feet, ready to get started. Takuma was silent and seemed to be focusing on himself. Mikoto gazed at both of them and nodded to herself before giving them the verbal signal to start.
This time, they didn't rush at each other, and for a moment, it seemed like they were going to be passive this round, only for Takuma to spring into action, striking first with the subtlety of a battering ram. His fist whistled past Izumi's—and she was gone, side-stepping to the side like there were wings on her feet. He breathed out and he shifted while crossing his arms up to block a powerful kick aimed at his chest. Despite reacting appropriately, it still pushed him back a couple of feet. Takuma raised both of his arms for a double-handed swing that could have put holes in buildings. She ducked low and deftly spun out range, and his fists bit nothing but air and immediately flowed into a counter-attack that he stopped by kicking her in the knee.
He seemed to have one goal—overwhelm. Big, relentless, and aggressive, his strategy depended on chasing her down, cutting off her angles, and battering her defences until something cracked. Hooks, crosses, guard-breaking jabs, and an ample amount of punishing low and high kicks. Each one carried the force to end fights, but Izumi remained half a step ahead.
She used his momentum against him, slipping just outside his reach, blocking only when she needed, and letting him burn energy. Each time he pressed, she waited for an opening, redirected him, and took the smallest opportunities to score—textbook Uchiha Interceptor Fist.
A jab opened her guard, but Izumi managed to redirect the follow-up cross with a palm strike, only to feel a force jolt up her shoulder. Before she could think, he stepped in once again with another annoying low kick. She stepped back and threw a kunai to his right to shepherd him left. Izumi immediately whipped a roundhouse kick to his head, snapping it to the side.
As her foot retreated, Takuma tried to grab hold of it, but she moved back and he stumbled slightly instead. Izumi re-entered range to attack. Takuma righted his posture and swung at her in the same instant. Fortunately, she was agile enough to escape his punch.
Except she wasn't? She knew she had dodged the fist, so what hit her?
A wave of water hit her square in the chest. Izumi began weaving hand seals, even as the attack turned her head over heels.
Takuma signed a second set of hand seals and slapped his palms onto the ground.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears
Earthen spikes shot up from the ground around Izumi as she fell, but she contorted her body in the air to make every spike miraculously miss and then grabbed one of the spikes to push herself up into the air.
Splotches of fire sparked and materialised into nearly two dozen fiery rabbits, all of which immediately targeted and rushed towards Takuma. When had she weaved the signs? He hadn't seen her do it.
Chakra gathered in his fists as he shot two Second Form augmentation strikes out at the bunnies, successfully lining up two bunnies for each strike, taking out four of them, which caused them to explode. But then six bunnies jumped onto him and exploded, throwing him back.
It hurt, but not enough to take him out, as he landed on his feet and immediately got on the move, only to halt when he found himself surrounded by the dozen or so bunnies. Before he could do anything, they all exploded simultaneously.
It seemed they needed to make direct contact to cause any damage, though. All Takuma did was raise his arm to his face because of the light and smoke. But as the thought about why the bunnies hadn't made contact before exploding came to his mind, a flying kick slipped above his raised arm.
Izumi, who flew through the distraction fire of her jutsu, smashed her foot into his face.
But as Takuma staggered back, he forced himself to balance. He grabbed Izumi's feet and threw her down with a powerful grunt. He swallowed the nausea from what probably could be a concussion, but by the time he gathered his bearings, Izumi had finished a set of handseals from underneath him despite the pain on her face.
His breath caught as he immediately gathered chakra into his arm. Flames covered Izumi's leg, which she kicked up at him. At the same time, Takuma punched down. The chakra augmentation clashed against her Fire Release ninjutsu, blowing both of them apart.
When the dust settled, both lay flat on their backs. Takuma's arm sat limp at his side as he clenched and unclenched his fist. Meanwhile, Izumi slowly tried to put weight on her foot with a tight wince.
"Now that's more like it," Mikoto said, sounding utterly chipper as she watched their serious and sullen faces.. "Unfortunately, the round's not over yet. You've still got a little over a minute to go. Chop chop!"
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