The dojo owner lifted his arm up preparing to call the beginning of a sparring session. Usually Mana would’ve politely refused from a sparring session but after her experiences in the quest for the Box of Ultimate Bliss she had learned to appreciate its value, as well as the value of martial arts in general. Before Mana thought of it only as an art of hurting people “ something completely opposite to her ideals. It took a lot of hardship to change that around.
The magician prepared for a tough battle “ Kiyomi was a fellow genin who was actually above the rank she was in. Apparently she was supposed to have already participated in the Chuunin Exams but missed them due to unfortunate circumstances. That all by itself made it completely impossible for Mana to underestimate her friend’s abilities. The whole time the blonde held that precious role of Mana’s elder, almost like an older sister or an upperclassman, in a way.
True, this was not an actual one on one battle, the two merely wanted to train which meant that they won’t be trying to fight each other “ they’ll just be using moves and abilities that they wanted to try out, compare or perfect. That was much different from how real battles went. Still, it would give Mana a rough idea as to where exactly she stood in comparison to other stronger genin which made her feel a bit intimidated. The magician was rarely excited by a challenge, she was more of the kind to feel fear of challenge and tackle them with their best, respecting it as something of great importance and not some sort of a game.
Once the dojo owner lowered his hand declaring the beginning of the sparring session Mana and Kiyomi bowed to each other before making an honorable hand seal of confrontation which symbolled that they’ve challenged each other to battle they proceeded to go through hand seals. Mana completed her set the first by a significant margin “ that made the magician’s intimidation fade a little bit, she began realizing that she won’t be a weak underdog in this battle completely overshadowed in every way by her superior by age and experience.
The magician removed a blunted blade which the dojo used for training and pointed it at Kiyomi. Despite the fact that the blade was made of rubber, unless it was specially insulated through specific chakra sealing techniques it couldn’t at all insulate lightning techniques. Knowing that quite well Mana pointed it at her friend who was still working through her set of hand seals. The entire exchange of techniques would’ve happened almost instantly and completely unseen to a neutral civilian bystander but to Mana each fraction of the millisecond felt like entire minutes.
“Magical Shock Jutsu!” she shouted out channeling lightning chakra through the rubber blunted kunai that fired off a beam of lightning chakra aiming to shock and paralyze her opponent. While it wouldn’t have left much lasting damage on an actual ninja, the pain and paralyzing properties of lightning chakra would’ve given Mana time to properly setup her following attacks.
The beam extended on and on, moving just a tad bit slower than natural lightning but Mana’s worried eyes began feeling a bit bored by seeing the crackling sparks extend out from the beam as it extended towards her friend.
“Earth Style: Reverse Hacksaw!” Kiyomi finally finished her technique right before the beam of lightning hit her right in the chest, such an outcome would’ve burnt right through anyone without the ability to control chakra like a civilian, unless Mana specifically weakened the technique. Knowing the skill level of her opponent the magician pulled no punches.
Kiyomi leaned down, the beam crept up closer and closer until to Mana it seemed it was almost touching her gi. The blonde’s palms smacked into the ground erecting man-sized rock pillars from the ground that lined up and headed towards Mana. The very first pillar blocked Mana’s beam breaking it down completely. The ball was now in Mana’s court and understanding that as well as wasting no time for being surprised that her friend successfully protected herself from Mana’s attack, breaking her ninjutsu like it was a brittle breadstick, the younger kunoichi prepared her own response.
Going through a pair of hand seals in a flash, Mana began turning around her axis like a ballet dancer making a graceful and complicated pirouette. “Rebellious Twist Jutsu!” Mana shouted out as the wind vortex generating around her from Wind Chakra got hit by the sharp looking stone pillars that tore through the dojo ground but instead of busting through and hitting Mana the two ninjutsu counteracted each other for a moment before the stone actually broke through Mana’s technique, surprising the magician.
A moderate painful blast to the chest sent Mana sliding back and almost hitting the back wall of the dojo. The collision of her own protective Wind Style technique and Kiyomi’s ninjutsu weakened and shattered the stone a fair amount making the hit only sound and look strong but the actual ground shattered upon impact before leaving much lasting damage. Only a small red swelling was left that would soon disappear without a reminder of Kiyomi’s impressive ninjutsu showing.
Kiyomi went through a bunch of hand seals, ready to hit Mana with another ninjutsu technique but the magician prepared her own response weaving a single hand seal many times faster than her older peer could do the same.
“Friendly Gust Jutsu!” Mana chanted out the name of her technique releasing a strong gust of wind at Kiyomi that would’ve knocked a person off their feet or propelled any projectiles or paper tags at the opponent as well as hitting them with enough violent wind force to keep them rooted to the ground for things to come.
“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!” Kiyomi shouted out as she herself concluded the hand seals to her technique, once again, just before Mana’s picking up speed and strength Wind Release technique rushed at the blonde counteracting Mana’s technique, not only that but completely overwhelming it and sending a double powered gust back at the magician as if the blast of wind absorbed the speed behind Mana’s own technique using it to accelerate itself.
Mana grinned, she had planned this and was ready for it, her hands flashed through a pair of hand seals before the overwhelming gust of wind reached her blasting her through the back of the building and toppling it. “Spellword Jutsu!” she shouted out before gathering air into her lungs and blowing it out in large force, strong enough to blast an enemy back and overwhelm him completely, maybe even crack a few ribs through wind pressure alone. The techniques collided right up close to Mana and at first the magician’s gust pushed Kiyomi’s back but then both techniques erupted into a violent outburst of windy eruption and sent both kunoichi on their backs and slamming into the respective dojo walls.
“Your ninjutsu skills are superior to mine…” Mana smiled admitting it through a little bit of broken pride in her chest. The young kunoichi knew that her teammate had already known in but she wished to express her decision to move on to another area of expertise as there was nothing to gain from continuing to launch ninjutsu nukes at each other.
“Not entirely true…” Kiyomi shouted out scratching her aching back and coughing out dust and air that filled her lungs after the violent windblast. “The strength of my techniques, as well as their overall mastery, is greater on my side. However you can launch them much faster as well as in greater numbers “ you’ve launched two times more jutsu than me and we both seem to be at the same state. Our similar degree of exhaustion suggests that your much higher chakra level allows you to fire off a bunch of weaker techniques without bothering much about how much chakra they take”
Mana’s smile disappeared and was substituted by a respectful expression of surprise. Kiyomi truly had more experience and a much more skilled eye to analyze a battle with. That didn’t mean that she was smarter than Mana or a more skilled strategist, necessarily, it merely meant that the Yamanaka could focus better on the things she was supposed to notice first. The magician had to admit that she had noticed those things as well, she merely didn’t focus on them, choosing to single out the fact that Kiyomi’s jutsu were simply stronger.
“I must admit, I’ve never heard of your jutsu. Great Breakthrough is a very common Wind Release technique, it’s simple to use as well, don’t you know it?” Kiyomi scratched the back of her head.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve told you that already when we first met, I don’t like using someone else’s techniques. I invent all of my own techniques and build up my arsenal myself. A good entertainer doesn’t rip off the techniques of other people! That still hasn’t changed about me” Mana smiled while rubbing her nose with her index finger. Her own personal principles influencing so much of how she fought embarrassed her a bit.
“That’s weird… You should just read up some textbooks and learn some generic elemental release techniques” Kiyomi suggested.
“Nah, I’m fine like this. It has its own advantages “ no one knows my techniques when I invent them all by myself, they may be weaker but they also teach me a lot about the concepts of ninjutsu and genjutsu. Practicing and making new techniques teach a whole lot more than some book would “ I’d know. I’ve read most of them.” Mana laughed out.
Kiyomi answered Mana’s smile before beginning to go through a bunch of hand seals. She couldn’t believe that with all of Mana’s impressive hand seal weaving speed built up from specific training as well as her skill of being an impressive stage magician with second to none sleight of hand she still set up her technique first. The younger kunoichi must’ve lowered her guard and she’d pay for it!
“Genjutsu: Haze!” Kiyomi shouted out as a bloom of flower petals carried by a gust of wind that appeared from out of nowhere spun around the dojo’s inner fighting mat. Mana’s eyes began greying out as both her irises and her pupils became dulled out and grey. A flowery clone of Kiyomi’s separated from the kunoichi’s figure and leaped at the magician, exploding into a blast of cherry blossom petals upon contacting with the magician.
Kiyomi almost shrieked out in glee of catching her fellow kunoichi off her guard but as the petals cleared something felt odd. Mana’s frame was leaning back like some sort of a malevolent spirit or a serial killer from horror movies, the girl’s body then snapped back snapping her spine and exploded into a burst of light that blinded Kiyomi.
“What? Am I the one under illusion!?” she shouted out in disbelief after seeing clones of Mana come out from the ray of light that appeared to create a glowing portal on the mat. Kiyomi wanted to prepare to dispel the technique but she knew that often times if completely ignored the illusions may cause their negative effects after the illusion successfully goes its course. For example once the created clones hit their target, or created weapons hit the opponent, just because they are illusionary, it doesn’t mean that these attacks should be ignored for who knew what sort of negative mental effects they could’ve had…
Kiyomi jumped up kicking one of the clone into two pieces with a tornado kick and then rapidly dispatching of multiple more through awesome footwork and sharp and precise elbow, knee and fist work. A single connecting hit split the clones into bursts of light but even as the Yamanaka heiress dispatched of the clones quite fast she wasn’t anywhere near fast enough “ those clones appeared from the glowing hole in the ground faster than she killed them. At that point the Yamanaka decided to take the risk, she placed her hands in a hand seal position and let her chakra flow faster and more rapidly, burning more of it in the process.
“Dispel!” she yelled out spending a bit of chakra to cancel out the illusion but much to her surprise the clones continued to come at her. When the clones hit her it didn’t hurt, but her lungs strangely faltered as if it did “ her breathing became erratic which was slowly choking the Yamanaka. How could dispelling a genjutsu not work? Unless Mana didn’t actually target her chakra flow… She must’ve… To achieve such effects she must’ve targeted her brain specifically, hitting certain brain centers to emulate these effects.
“Dispel!” Kiyomi shouted out blasting another outburst of chakra straight at her brain’s vision center. Being a genjutsu expert herself she knew fairly well of the brain centers and their locations. Had she not had the knowledge of genjutsu she possessed, dispelling this illusion would’ve been close to impossible.
Finally the hole in the ground disappeared and all of the clones faded out. Only a smiling image of Mana holding the rubber blade to Kiyomi’s neck was left. As expected, the magician’s illusionary skills surpassed those of Kiyomi’s by far. Whereas Kiyomi’s ninjutsu was superior to Mana’s in power and skill, as well as experience of their use, genjutsu was an area where Mana had few equals, not only amongst genin but amongst older ninja as well. The illusionary craft was not a popular one and very few dabbled in it. Even the more famed village’s genjutsu experts could only use illusions categorized at B-Rank at most, some nukenin could surpass that. Soon Mana would hit the wall that the strongest illusionary ninja of Konoha stopped at and it impressed the Yamanaka greatly.
“Wow, my illusions are no good at all…” Mana worked herself up putting her blade away. “So far I’ve used them on you and Hokage-sensei and yet both of you broke out of them” she got distressed over it.
“Heh, well, I have to say I wasted… More chakra than I should’ve trying. As far as Hanasaku-sensei is concerned - I’m not even sure she has a limit of chakra to hit at all. That was amazing “ you caught me in an illusion before I could even initiate my own illusion giving yourself more time to act on me while I was out of it. Your genjutsu expertise is seriously gonna carry you through those Chuunin Exams, I’m not even kidding” Kiyomi complimented her teammate. The blonde was a fairly decent illusion user herself so she knew just how far ahead Mana’s skills were.
“Really? Guess that makes up for you beating me at ninjutsu…” Mana smiled shyly blushing over the compliment.
“Seriously, I couldn’t even see your hands move and do the illusion!” Kiyomi continued to obsess over the exchange of techniques. She was just so dumbstruck that Mana hit her with an illusion without seemingly moving.
“That’s because I used one-handed seals, one of my hands was crossed under the other, that allowed me to cover up my already fast hand seals…” Mana revealed the secret by locking her hands up just as she held them before the exchange happened. Finally Kiyomi could put together what had happened.
Suddenly the laughter of the two kunoichi was broken “ Kiyomi’s elbow strike whizzed right up next to Mana’s cheek opening up a strong gash. Such a blow, if uncontrolled could’ve caused violent earthquakes, just the air besides them could’ve created entire tornadoes and the shockwave from them could’ve been felt at the other side of the world. Yet Kiyomi perfectly contained the chakra inside the hit and only meant to transfer it to Mana, as a ninja willing to throw such strikes around must. That was a close call.
Kiyomi followed it up with a blindingly fast flurry of strikes, Mana’s head and upper body moved equally as fast. Both Kiyomi’s limbs and Mana’s upper body began blurring and disappearing from sight to the dojo owner who continued to observe the battle. He had little time or reason to look surprised “ he had seen much older and more powerful ninja going at it, after all.
Soon Kiyomi’s legs joined into the fray. Mana could dodge them “ the evasive training by Kouta as well as deflection training with Meiko, with the added bonus of martial arts training of the Sun Disc arena allowed Mana to avoid every single attack no matter how skilled and fast it was. However she was so taxed, so immensely troubled by Kiyomi’s offensive pressure that she had no hopes of responding. The blonde was simply stronger and faster physically and while Mana could easily deflect or evade a strike she couldn’t counterattack “ it was a deadlock.
Kiyomi kept on striking, her strikes either only hit thin air, or were gently pushed away from their intended targets by Mana’s own palms or feet, or were caught or blocked. Blocking Kiyomi hurt “ even through chakra augmentations so Mana tried not to do it. The blonde was seriously insanely strong behind those lightning fast strikes, she hit at least five times faster than the fastest person in the Sun Disc arena, she also appeared to have some taijutsu training giving her decent martial arts background. Enough to keep Mana busy and unable to respond.
Finally Kiyomi grabbed the collar of Mana’s gi attempting to slam her friend to the ground and shove a fist close to her face. This slow manner of attack allowed Mana to go through a pair of hand seals propelling her palms down and shooting a stream of wind chakra that blew Mana up into the air and Kiyomi down on her butt.
“Twist of Fate Jutsu!” Mana chanted out before kicking off the ceiling so that she didn’t hit her head into it and landing on her feet.
Kiyomi stood up, Mana turned around and the two approached each other. They made the seal of reconciliation to signal the end of a sparring session. No one really beat anyone but now they knew the extent of each other’s abilities first hand, they knew where they were compared to the other which was invaluable experience. Knowing that she was no weak link compared to Kiyomi made Mana’s own self-confidence bloom. She was beginning to believe that she would never be the weak link of a team again, she’d never need saving and her peaceful intent would never again cause her team’s downfall or any of her friends to get hurt.
“You’re a better hand to hand fighter, Kiyomi…” Mana admitted.
“Maybe, still, I couldn’t hit you once. That’s some weird style and some pretty slick moves!” Kiyomi nodded.
“Still, my physical style requires counterattack, exploiting openings given or created. You gave me some, I created more, but you were too strong and fast to exploit them. If we were to fight hand to hand we’d be fighting forever “ either you’d tire trying to hit me, or I’d tire evading causing the first to tire to lose” Mana shrugged.
Kiyomi weighed her hands down and bent up to her knees as her sweat began dripping on the ground excessively.
“Wow… Speaking of exhaustion! Wanna go grab something to eat? It seems this sparring session wore me out!” Kiyomi declared, looking surprised that Mana didn’t wheeze anywhere near like that.
“The illusion you were in made you swing at thin air, you were not fighting just in your mind. All the effort you put into it got transferred through your body and mind which is why you’re so exhausted” Mana explained to which Kiyomi only shrugged and nodded. The two friends rushed off to the showers before heading to get something to eat. The evening was approaching rapidly and it would definitely not be a pleasant one for either of the two…
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