Naruto: Tango with Death

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When I arrived at the training grounds of the Uchiha Compound, I felt felt a few gazes land on me, but they quickly disappeared recognizing me.

As I approached a certain pair of black haired boys discussing with each other, I saw both of their faces morph into surprise as the one with short hair asked, "Look who's here! My favourite demon!"

I grinned and winked, "Vacation's over, Shisui."

He grinned and approached, me, followed by Itachi, who looked happy to see me. Itachi asked, "How was your training?"

I titled my head and asked, "How did you know I was training? I don't remember telling you."

Itachi froze for a second, and Shisui laughed, "Of course we were worried when you didn't show up for several weeks. Lord Hokage told us you took a leave for training. By the way, where did you go, Lord Hokage kept it confidential."

I replied with a smile, "The Summon World."

Shisui rose an eyebrow, and Itachi asked, "What's your summon clan?"

"Owls."

"Owls?"

"Owls."

Itachi's face suddenly looked a little awkward, so I turned to Shisui who grinned, "Owls and Crows always had a bit of a beef together, so to say."

I nodded in realization, before asking, "What about you? Itachi showed me his, but you never told me what's yours?"

Shisui shrugged before turning into a bunch of crows, disappearing with a Shunshin. Had it been before this month, I wouldn't have been to react in the slightest, but now I felt him appear behind me, his hand going for a pat on my head.

I didn't choose to let him go at it though as I made a roundhouse kick, catching him off guard as I didn't make a sound.

I'm not sure whether he didn't have the time to dodge or if he simply thought it was unnecessary, but he stood rooted as he blocked my kick with his arm.

I found great pleasure in watching his face change as he felt the strong impact of my leg against his unprepared arm. He took several steps back to stabilize himself, shrugging his arm as he asked, "What was that?"

I grinned and replied, "Results of my training. How is it?"

Shisui squinted his eyes and said, "I see I won't have to hold back as much as I did before. Did you train with your sword for the past month?"

I shook my head, and Shisui looked at Itachi as he said, "She ignored my teachings! I'm hurt Itachi!"

Itachi rolled his eyes and said, "I'm just going to leave."

Grinning, I patted his arm and asked, "Why don't we spar? We never did, I'm sure it will be fun."

With a deadpan face, Itachi replied, "We did spar before. Several times, all of which you lost and conveniently decided to ignore."

Blinking, I replied innocently, "I have no idea of what you are talking about and will never admit anything. So, interested by a first spar?"

Itachi rolled his eyes and moved to the sparring circle. I sent a look at Shisui, who showed both of his thumbs up, and followed Itachi.

We stood five meters apart, with Shisui standing at the side. Before Shisui could tell us to begin, I warned, "I advise you to activate your Sharingan."

Itachi didn't say a word and immediately activated it, making me smile. Any normal person would take that as a taunt, but Itachi really did it. But good for him, it wasn't a taunt.

As Shisui raised his arm, signalling the beginning of the fight, I suddenly used the Body Flicker. Compared to the past, I was at least several times faster.

Unfortunately, while I tried to use my Shunshin Slash, it would seem I was still not good enough for it as I only unsheathed my blade when I arrived next to Itachi.

Itachi ducked under my sword, not trying to block it as he couldn't know for sure whether I had used my full strength against Shisui, and he sent a palm strike at my kidney.

In our last spar- which definitely never took place- he had taken me out with this exact same strike, but now I was prepared.

I knew that even with my recent training, I didn't have the reaction time to react to such an attack, so I instead prepared myself for a possible failed attack.

Hence, instead of putting all my power in that attack, I raised one of my feet, lowering my strike's power but giving me better manoeuvrability as I slightly leaned forward, allowing my body to follow the momentum of my sword and spin on myself. That, is what you call experience.

Unfortunately, I wasn't facing a newbie, and even though I was quite proud of my strike, I felt nothing get hit by my foot, so I quickly regained my balance and looked at Itachi.

My mistake was to look at his face, right into his Sharingan as I felt the world around me wrap.

Not hesitating for a second, I reached for the ground with my hands and spun my feet around as I activated one of my recently learned Jutsus, creating a gale as I spun.

I called the Jutsu 'Futon: Spring Breeze'. Bit of a poetic soul myself, this jutsu was quite weak as it generated a very meagre amount of wind with my attacks. However, what was interesting about it was that the wind would stack, in a way, and so as I spun on myself the wind picked up, forcing everything around me back.

The reason I went for this Jutsu right away is because of Itachi's illusions. You see, Genjutsu is nothing more than a disruption of the opponent's chakra. Sometimes it can be hard to feel, but fortunately for me, because of my Chakra Hypersensitivity, I can always feel when I get under an illusion, and thus break it swiftly.

That is something Itachi discovered in our second spar, since he didn't even need to use it in our first, and so being the total badass he was, he came up with a counter right away. If sending me into a deep hypnosis was impossible, then he let go of subtlety.

Instead, Itachi opted for what I considered the most dangerous kind of Genjutsu, one that only slightly alters reality.

In this case, Itachi didn't turn himself into a flock of crows or any reality shifting craziness. Instead, he tricked my mind into receiving false information. So if he ran at me, my mind would not take in that information, and instead take whatever the illusion is feeding me.

In other words, Itachi used Genjutsu to alter my senses, even if by a little, and so while under a Genjutsu I couldn't trust any of my senses, hence why I went for an AOE attack.

By the time my spin ended, I had broken away from the Genjutsu, and saw Itachi with several shurikens in hand.

I instantly fell forward as the shurikens came for me, and slammed my hands into the ground, using another of the Jutsus I learned to raise a small barrier of rock in front of my, stopping the projectiles. That was 'Doton: Standing Stone'.

Then, without breaking a sweat, I flipped forward, grabbing the shurikens stuck in the rock as I threw them towards Itachi. I couldn't fool him with my bad aim, but the sheer number was more than enough to turn them into a threat as Itachi made a bunch of handsigns in a tenth of second, calmly said, his breathing rhythm not even changed, "Katon: Great Fireball."

A giant ball of fire was sent hurling my way, engulfing the projectiles in it and rapidly closing in on me. Tensing all my muscles, I used the Body Flicker to jump into the air, before spitting downward another Jutsu.

"Suiton: Drizzle."

A light rain was spat out from my mouth, most of it landing on the passing fireball and creating a mist around the arena, blocking sight.