Naruto: Snow Cold

Training Grounds 27.

A week had passed since gaining my mother's approval to undertake the exam required to finally graduate. I was still about 47 days away before the time came, but it was good enough.

Better than having to wait a whole year, am I right?

Anyway, I was waiting for a certain idiot to come. I wanted to know if he managed to get permission, too.

Surprisingly, only seven other people applied for it. Those being: Hatake Kiyoshi, Hyuuga Yui, Hyuuga Itsuki, Suzume, Uchiha Yuuma, Uchiha Takumi and Senju Masato.

This made for a total of nine applicants if we included Sora and myself.

Today, I wanted to have an actual fight. It's not enough with the Taijutsu sparring at the Academy, because what's the point of having jutsus you can't even use in battle?

That's why I asked Sora to give me a serious sparring session, instead of the usual Taijutsu-only matches we had.

Everything, no bars held. My Kekkei Genkai, my Wind and Water Release techniques, Kenjutsu, Body Flicker, clones, everything. I wasn't going to hold back.

Besides, it's not really like we're gonna be trying to kill each other, so it wouldn't really be going 'all out'—not like a situation where you're fueled by pure adrenaline and driven by instinct.

Leaves fluttered in the air and swished past me, and I turned around, only to see a familiar figure.

"When are you going to stop doing that?"

Sora chuckled, "It's just fun, and really cool. Makes me feel like I'm Kakashi or something."

I stared back at him, my face blank.

"So you like to make impressions of a guy who reads porn on the daily."

His eyes widened comically, "He does that?"

"Yeah?" I replied, my voice deadpan.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I really am starting to forget. You gotta give me a summary of the series later, y'know."

"Probably." I giggled, "Anyway, did you manage to get Mika-san to fill out the forms?"

In response to that, he shot me a thumbs-up. "You bet I did. She was actually quite proud that I was graduating this early. How about you?"

"It was a little troublesome, but I managed. I can participate in this thing." I dismissed it with a wave of my hand.

"I see..." He held his chin. "That means we can graduate together, then. The only problem would be team placements. If I remember right, there's several types."

"Correct."

"Heavy assault teams, reconnaissance, special operations, and a few others. Heavy assault teams consist of the rookie of the year, the kunoichi of the year, and the dead last, yeah?"

I mhm'd at him, "Yup. It's basically built for brute force."

"But then, that means we can't be on the same team. I've been training, but I can't seem to outdo Kiyoshi. The Hatake are real monsters, you know that?"

Is this guy for real?

"Dude. You have almost twice as much as chakra as me, and I wouldn't be surprised if you finally reached the threshold of a Tokubetsu Jonin, even if its the bare minimum. I can sense it with my passive chakra field."

And lie, I did not. It was practically flaring, this guy was probably flaunting it on purpose!

"Yeah, I can't really complain." He snorted, before stretching his arms. "How about we stop wasting time and get right to sparring? Time is precious, after all."

Finally.

"About damn time. Bring it, you gender-equality loving Kazuma wannabe!" I shot back, doing a couple backflips to gain distance, and dropping into my stance.

What? It's just fun to do them. I learned how not too long ago. Might be stupid and wasteful for my stamina, but it's pretty cool, so there you go.

Sora stopped in his tracks for a second, clearly caught off guard by my statement. "What the hell is a Kazuma?"

"Seriously? You don't even know who he is?"

He deadpanned, and in a flat tone he replied, "Nope. Sorry that I didn't have the time to catch up with all those series."

"Extremely boring, you are."

"You're not Yoda. Also, since we are going all out..."

He slowly took the Fuinjutsu seals off his forearms, legs, and chest. I knew where this was going.

Dropping them onto the ground, it caused some dust to rise up, as if a few 100-kilo weight plates had been dropped.

"We gotta take off the gravity seals for once. It's been so long since I've moved free without these things!"

Taking off my own seals, I replied, "Couldn't agree more. These are so stupidly restricting."

He started hopping in place, as if to warm up before our match, his shirt lifting slightly with each jump. I don't care what anyone says, the things this guy does are equally as ridiculous as what I do!

"Ready?" Sora said, still hopping in place and cracking his neck.

"Never been more ready," I said, repeating the same actions as him.

I shot a drizzle of water onto the air through one of my fingers.

One... Two... Three...

It hit the ground. Go.

The branches trembled slightly under our weight, but we didn't stop. In combat, talking was useless—unless it was to buy time or throw off an opponent's rhythm.

Sora knew that just as well as I did.

A shift in the air. A kunai.

My senses are truly coming to life here, especially with how much they're being enhanced by the unconscious effort of directing chakra towards these areas.

I twisted my head slightly to the side, causing it to whizz past my ear and embed itself into the trunk behind me.

Then, a clap.

My chakra field flared instinctively, picking up a flicker of chakra moving past me—fast, precise, and unmistakably aimed at the kunai.

Substitution!

I quickly turned, preparing for whatever was about to come.

The kunai vanished in a puff of smoke, and without wasting time, Sora aimed a fast roundhouse kick at my side, which I barely blocked with my forearm.

Fuck, not only is he fast, but he's strong!

It knocked me off the tree, the force behind his kick sending me flying to the ground.

Midair, I twisted my body and aimed my palm at one of the other branches. I released a quick and thin chakra thread that swiftly latched onto the bark, and with a sharp tug, I pulled myself up, flipping onto the branch just in time to evade Sora, who had already flickered to where I would've landed.

This bitch really is aggressive today! Nothing compared to how defensive he was before.

As I was pretty high up on the tree, I took the best course of action, which was to use Shurikenjutsu.

"Try to dodge this, idiot!" I shouted, before flicking a set of shuriken at him.

His focus was now on the steel stars, his eyes narrowing as he calculated their trajectory.

Unfortunately for him, I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve!

One shuriken was dodged with a side-step, and another was parried by a kunai. The third one seemed to sail past him, but that was exactly what I wanted. With a movement of my fingers and expelling my chakra into the atmosphere, I activated Wind Redirection.

A sharp gust of wind blew just behind the shuriken, changing its course mid-flight.

His eyes widened, and before he could try anything, it flew past and nicked his right cheek, drawing blood.

He let out a low 'Tch' in response, quickly swiping at the wound with a flick of his hand. The blood fell to the ground, but he didn't flinch for long. Instead, he started weaving the hand signs for a jutsu.

'Fire Release, Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!'

A barrage of mini fireballs shot out from his mouth, and my focus quickly shifted to those. I made quick use of the Subtle Drizzle jutsu, spamming it to the best of my ability—not just to disperse the fire, but to also use the steam as cover.

Pffft, what cover? We are both sensors, for Christ's sake.

The steam cloud was dense and covered my vision, but it didn't affect me as much. Chakra did wonders to your eyes, after all.

I was about to start hunting for him, but then, a realization hit me.

His chakra wasn't even above ground anymore. He must've used the Hiding Like A Mole technique!

In that case...

I began infusing more chakra than normal into my right arm's muscles and fist, along with a coating.

"Haaaah!" I grunted, before pulling back and punching the ground with all my might.

It shattered, creating a very small crater that paled terribly in comparison to someone like Tsunade, but the shockwave still sent ripples through the ground, which was exactly what I wanted.

Dust and chunks of earth flew in all directions, except I couldn't feel him coming back up.

Did I just create more air pockets for him to breathe through? I'm so fucking stupid!

What's the point of shattering the ground if you're just going to give your enemy an advantage, you big idiot?!

Think, Amai, think!

Whatever.

There's no chance that I'm letting him win this match, so...

You're not getting away this time!