[ AOI SETSUNA ]
All the previous matches were either boring or just one sided, guess my fight is coming sooner than I thought.
'Who was I fighting again?'
"Next match!" Iruka-sensei's voice cut through my thoughts, echoing across the training ground. "Jinichi Wataru versus Aoi Setsuna! Step forward into the ring."
'Jinichi Wataru, huh.'
I pushed off the tree I was leaning against and walked toward the white chalk circle. I couldn't really remember much about him, but I do remember he was getting on Sensei's nerves a bit with how much he was sleeping off during lessons.
As if on cue, a loud, exaggerated yawn echoed from the opposite side of the crowd. Jinichi stumbled forward, scratching the back of his messy hair. His eyes were half-lidded, heavy with dark circles, and his jacket was slightly lopsided. He looked like he had literally just woken up from a midday nap.
"Is it my turn already..." Jinichi muttered, blinking sleepily as he dragged his feet into the circle. He didn't even bother taking a traditional shinobi stance. Instead, his arms hung loosely at his sides, totally defenseless.
I stepped into the ring opposite him and centered my weight. If there was one thing I knew about ninja, it was that the lazy ones were either total pushovers or hiding something dangerous.
Iruka-sensei raised his hand between us, checking that we were both ready. "Form the Seal of Confrontation."
We both raised our hands, index and middle fingers extended. Jinichi's sign was incredibly lazy, barely reaching his chest.
"Begin!" Iruka shouted, dropping his hand.
[ JINICHI WATARU ]
"Begin!" Iruka shouted, dropping his hand.
Without a moment's hesitation, I start on the offensive, I close the distance between us in a second and launch a mean punch to her right side, she slips under the blow.
She counter attacks with and overhand aimed at my face, the blow is parried, her left leg lashes out its target: my jaw, I block the kick and try to take hold of her leg, but she's faster, she turns mid-air and kicks I duck under the blow and counter attack with a straight punch to the gut.
[ *BAM* ]
She grunts as she blocks the blow but she's pushed back to the edge of the circle. I don't give her a moment's rest.
I rush towards her, fake an over hand and go for a low leg sweep
Predicting my low leg sweep, Aoi had already launched herself into the air. With her momentum carrying her upward, she whipped her heel down in a brutal axe kick aimed directly at my temple.
'Too slow.'
I didn't bother trying to pull my head back. Instead, I drove my hands into the dirt, using the momentum of my missed sweep to execute a seamless, low-profile backspring. Her heel slammed into the ground right where my face had been a millisecond prior, cracking the dirt.
Before she could even recover her footing, I twisted mid-air, landing on my feet and immediately springing forward again. I wasn't going to let her breathe.
I unleashed a rapid three-punch combination—left jab, right hook, left uppercut. Aoi's defense was tight; she deflected the jab, ducked under the hook, and crossed her forearms just in time to absorb the rising uppercut. The force of the impact lifted her slightly off her feet, but she used that exact momentum to flip backward, creating a crucial five feet of breathing room between us.
We both landed, staring each other down. She was panting slightly; her eyes narrowed in a mix of surprise and irritation. My arms slouched right back to my sides, my shoulders dropping as I let out another quiet sigh.
"You're pretty quick for a guy who sleeps through every lecture," Aoi spat, wiping a speck of dust from her cheek as she slid into a more aggressive, blade-like stance.
"That hurts you know, you can't just assume that I can't fight because I sleep of in class." I muttered, cracking my neck.
But internally, my mind was racing. Her reactions were top-tier for an Academy student. If I kept pushing with basic Taijutsu, this match was going to drag on forever.
'Truthfully I'm surprised that I'm even lasting this long, she's really strong for a civilian ninja, if I had fought her last week I would've lost from the first exchange.'
from the looks of my classmates faces, I can tell they are surprised I'm still standing, hell even the sensei's are surprised.
!!!
' I take my eye of her for a split second and she's already on me.'
Focusing back on Aoi, she had already closed the distance, in that split second, her fist was cocked back.
'That's a predictable over hand'
I tilted to the right to dodge the blow.
!!!!
only for me to feel my cheek cave in from a hook, my teeth rattled from the impact.
'WHAT!!!!'
[ *BAM* ]
My vision blurred for a fraction of a second as the impact threatened to spin my head around. A feint! She had masked the hook perfectly behind the trajectory of the overhand.
My feet scraped against the dirt as I stumbled backward, my balance completely broken. Aoi didn't give me a single heartbeat to recover. Capitalizing on my disorientation, she pressed forward, her leg whipping around in a lightning-fast low kick aimed directly at my knee to take me down for good.
Adrenaline surged through my veins, wiping away every trace of sleepiness.
Instead of trying to pull my leg away—which would have been too slow—I threw my entire weight forward, collapsing into a messy, desperate dive. Her kick missed my knee by an inch, slicing through empty air with a sharp
whoosh.
I hit the ground hard, rolling over my shoulder to scramble back up to my feet just as she turned to pursue me. I rapidly blinked away the black spots in my eyes, tasting iron on my tongue as a thin trail of blood leaked from the corner of my mouth.
'Damn it, that actually hurt.'
Looking over at her, I noticed a fierce, confident smirk growing on Aoi's face. She wasn't just fast; she was smart. She had used my own assumption that she was a straightforward fighter against me.
From the sidelines, I could hear the crowd erupting.
"Did you see that? Aoi actually caught him!"
"Jinichi is done for, he's just running away now!"
Even Iruka-sensei had his eyes wide open, his hand hovering a bit to call the sparring match if it turned too dangerous.
I wiped the blood from my lip with the back of my hand, keeping my eyes locked dead on her.
'Alright then, lets do this.'