Sanae stood in a clearing in the training field forest, the grass knee-high with puddles of water scattered here and there. Soushi’s water clone was destroyed from training, and most of her chakra was already used up from fighting it. She was reading her purple and orange notebook, re-memorizing every single detail on the ninja of Konoha. Something in the bushes behind her moved, but she didn’t notice it. The figure started walking around her in circles, like a predator stalking its prey. A shuriken shot past Sanae’s ear, coming from the figure’s location. Shedodged to her left in time to avoid it, and turned to the source. A continuous flow of kunai came towards her, but she dodged all of them. They weren’t thrown with any skill, more like they were being thrown lazily. As if the person throwing them wasn’t even trying hard. She huffed impatiently, feeling insulted.
“HEY! DON’T TREAT ME LIKE A TOY!” Sanae shouted, and glared at its direction.
She thought she heard a familiar cackle, but she couldn’t remember who laughed like that. More kunai came towards her, and she started dodging again. This time, they were…quicker. Sanae couldn’t keep track of them all, and dodged without looking at the kunai. Then came a big group of kunai, all with exploding tags. They all exploded as they came near her, and Sanae was forced back, her arms infront of her.
Another group of kunai came at her, and she threw shuriken at the mass to separate them. Out of the smaller kunai emerged a windmill shuriken that was hidden among them. It headed straight for her, and she was too slow to dodge. Using a kunai, she deflected the huge shuriken, but the impact still forced her back, her feet leaving marks in the ground. Sanae grabbed hold of the windmill shuriken and hurled it back to the thrower. There was a slight ‘oomph’ as if the thrower caught the shuriken, but didn’t expect her to throw it so hard. Sanae smirked, and pulled out her sword from its hilt. She ran towards the trees, and swung the sword low, aiming for the figure’s feet. It was wearing a black cloak, the hood shadowing its face from her view.
Both people jumped into the clearing from the bushes and the mystery person took out a katana. Sanae heard a manly chuckle, and she scowled. He was playing with her.
“Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!” Two Sanae clones appeared, coming from the nearby puddles. They ran towards the hooded man, and attacked with full vigor. The real Sanae took out three kunai, exploding tags attached, and threw them at the target. He avoided them easily, and dodged the other kunai she was throwing at him. He dispersed the two water clones effortlessly with a punch to the gut each. Sanae threw a huge group f kunai at him, just like the one he had used. He laughed again, and threw a shuriken at the kunais to separate them. As expected, a windmill shuriken came out, and he redirected it to Sanae. It grazed her torso, and cut her shirt. A pearl of blood oozed out from the red cut near her stomach. She hissed and clutched the cut. She should have learned healing jutsu when she had the chance…
“Who are you?” she asked, tightening her grip on her sword.
“Ah…if you defeat me, I’ll tell you…Sa-chan,” he answered, his voice low and dark.
She gasped and looked at him closely, trying to see into his hood. But he covered his face with a hand, though she could see the shadow of a smile. He called her Sa-chan…was it Soushi?
Sanae swung the sword high, aiming his face, but then she changed course and tackled him, knocking the breath out of his lungs. The two fell onto the ground, and the man was almost suffocating from her weight. He pushed her off him, and she fell back. The man covered his face again, preventing her from figuring out his identity. She didn’t see his face when they fell, so she didn’t know who he really was.
She picked up her fallen sword off the ground, holding it like a baseball bat. Since hand-to-hand wasn’t working, she decided on non-direct attack. She jumped into the bushes where he had been a few moments before and picked up his shuriken. Sanae came out from the bushes, her arms full with kunai and shuriken with exploding tags. She threw all of them at the stranger, but didn’t activate them. They were scattered in a circle around him, and at the slightest movement, she would activate them. Sanae threw the windmill shuriken at him, aiming for his feet. He jumped, and she threw a shuriken with an exploding tag to land right behind him. He was too busy avoiding the windmill shuriken to stop himself from stepping onto the smaller shuriken.
The shuriken’s exploding tag activated, and created a chain reaction. The others ignited as well, and all the tags around him exploded, forming a dome of bangs and blasts to cover the stranger. He covered his face with his arms, taking the full blow of the attack. Sanae was barely holding up, and was panting from all the chakra use. First the Soushi clone, now him? Why did this person even come?
The smoke was blown away, but in the midst of it was the stranger, coughing out the poisonous smog. The hem of the cloak was singed and frayed, but the hood was still intact.
“Good, good…it seems you have grown, Sa-chan…” he said, his voice still unrecognizable.
“Who the heck are you?” she snapped, her hand twitching near her kunai holster. Unfortunately, she had used up all of her weapons on him, thinking he would give up after the last blow. ‘If it’s Onee-san, I’m not talking to him for a week…okay, maybe two days…’
He lifted his katana from the ground, dusting off the soot from the metal blade. The stranger didn’t seem to be paying attention to her, and this ticked her off.
“Hey! Listen to me!” She ran at him with her sword, and he looked up from his. He dropped it and held the blade of hers with his fingers. As if it was a feather, the stranger threw it away, and the sword was wedged into a tree. He raised his fists, indicating her to fight him hands on.
Sanae growled and started punching him, hitting his chest and face. He was shocked for a moment, not expecting her to respond to his taunt so easily. The stranger recovered and started to block her hits, so that the two were equally matched. She was hitting with all her strength, and he was slowly being pushed back. At last he began to get tired, though Sanae was maintaining a constant rate. His muscles began to ache and he could feel his legs turning numb as she punched and attacked him over and over again.
For a second he dropped his guard, and Sanae took this chance to punch his face. The strike landed, and she felt blood ooze from his nose. He staggered back, holding his face, the red liquid coming out through the holes between his fingers. The hood was pushed back, and she saw his face, as clear as day.
“Lucifer-san!” Sanae bowed, one knee on the ground. “I’m sorry!”
“No problem, Sa-chan. You’ve grown,” he said, wiping the blood off his face. Chakra seeped from his hand, covering his nose. “You even broke my nose…”
Sanae rose from her state of prostration and looked at her master. The bleeding had stopped, thanks to his healing ninjutsu, and his face had barely any traces of blood. He smiled and nodded approvingly. “You have surely grown since the last time we trained…I shall come again to spar with you some day. But until then, keep on improving.”
Lucifer ruffled her hair and picked up the katana off the ground. He smiled one last time and left in a poof of smoke. Sanae stood for a moment, and another noise could be heard. A distinctive sound of footsteps was getting louder and louder. They sounded urgent and concerned. Soushi emerged from the trees, panting and sweating.
“I got here as soon as I could. Did you really beat my water clone? Wow…” he said, and then looked around, noticing the burnt grass. “What happened here?”
Subject: Sanae's Training 
Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:18 pm
