Ding!

Sweat trickled down Akari’s head, slowly moving down before it was suddenly flung off by a swift movement from the dark-haired woman. Akari’s bokken was out, her hand firmly holding the hilt in her hand as she moved about the top level of the Grand Konoha Training Facility. Her sparring partner and she had been going at it for hours now and Akari was starting to get tired. Despite them being in a facility that was not in fact open to the outside world she had worked up quite a sweat and her red and black outfit clung to her in places from the perspiration. Her blue eyes looked upon her sparring partner and a smile graced her features as they fell upon the brown-haired form of Kagura. They had only been sensei and student for a week or so now, and that was also about how long they had been so much more. The memories of that day and the day after as well would keep Akari smiling for years to come. But now wasn’t the time for such things. They were sparring and Akari had disengaged from her partner and was standing ten meters apart from her. “Need a break?” She’d ask curiously, her breathing steady and even.

The effort from moving for so quickly for so long would put a strain on anyone. It’s shocking how much energy gets used in a fight of any kind so to spar for so long with no rest would be taking a toll on just about anyone now.

[1]

Kagura took a deep, slow breath, feeling her clothing sticking to her skin from the perspiration, knowing that Akari had to be running on fumes at this point. Her own Bokken was out, completely level and slightly above her head and backward like a cobra, ready to strike. She could feel herself improving, growing stronger, and getting closer and closer to her goal of catching up to the Hokage she loved, smiling even through her slow, controlled breaths. The brunette had honestly lost track of time with how long they had been sparing at this point, and her mind tried to wander to the thoughts of when they met, but she had to remain focused. The woman had asked if she needed a break, causing her smile to grow even wider.

“Not a chance… you can’t get away this time…” she boasted confidently, waiting a moment for the woman to strike. She had learned that Akari was a reactive type person, and always wanted to make Kagura strike first, making it more difficult for her using the Sharingan’s predictive abilities to counter her completely… but it wasn’t active right now. Was that just a trap? Probably… but at this point, she wasn’t sure how much she herself had left in the tank but was trying to work herself to the point where her stamina would last even longer, if possible. And if Akari was out of gas, this was her chance to finally win a spar against her. She had to have several breaks since they had started already, recharge while Akari continued to train… it was frustrating, but she made up for it with sheer willpower.

Dashing forward in a sudden burst of speed, she got in as close as she could, and began to barrage the woman with jabs to various parts of her body, using the woman’s own technique, Blade Mistresses Waltz to try to get in a strike where she wouldn’t expect it. From there she would only press the attack if possible.

[1]

Akari would smirk at Kagura’s response before settling in to wait for the strikes to come. She preferred playing reactive, even when she wasn’t utilizing the Sharingan like now. This was training for her as much as it was for her lover. She had to get used to fighting without her Sharingan as much as with it. To rely purely on the eye of insight would be a bad idea in Akari’s eyes and she had no intention of having such a reliance on something. Her breathing would become steady, even, and her eyes would narrow as she watched her lover carefully before she fell into a stance that Akari recognized all too easily. It was her own technique after all and she grinned as she saw her lover’s strategy.

Trying to reduce her own capability to perceive what was going on while striking faster was the best strategy in this case. However, in this case, it wouldn’t be as helpful for Akari could clearly see the attack coming at her and her bokken would flash out, batting the first thrust aside and locking the blade by using her own to hold it aside. As that occurred she would do something that she didn’t usually do. She’d strike quickly, and her right hand would flash out in an open palmed strike to the center of the chest. The intent to catch her lover off guard with the open-palmed strike and ‘tag’ her to so speak.

[2]

Kagura shouldn’t have been surprised… as much as she had been trying to wear the woman out, she just didn’t have the same reserves as Akari did… she would have to train on her Stamina to the point that it reached superhuman levels so there would be absolutely no contest in the future. Working to that end, she had to train as hard as she could now… so when her sword was locked up, Kagura instantly enacted her plan, using her open hand to go for a powerful uppercut to the woman’s gut. She didn’t like the idea of hitting Akari in any way, but there was absolutely no point to any of this if they didn’t train hard… and holding back punches, quite literally in this case, would be nothing if not an insult. She did hold back her actual strength, of course, but all the speed was there.

Apparently, Akari had something of the same idea, striking out with her hand, and considering she was mid-strike herself, and twisting to punch her, she knew that in order to avoid getting hit directly, she would need to do something and quickly. Akari had always been faster… so she wouldn’t be able to strike and then block. Instead, she simply continued to roll her shoulder, tucked her arm in, instead of actually committing to the uppercut, and lowered slightly so the woman’s hand would come into contact with her shoulder instead and it would break their weapon lock. She would push forward, hard, trying to shoulder-charge the woman and knock her down, all in one smooth motion.

[2]

As her palm flashed out, Kagura’s own hand would begin to come up, moving for what looked like an uppercut before her lover chose to instead roll the shoulder into the intended palm strike. However, Akari had other ideas. Mid strike, the moment her lover’s shoulder began to become the target of her open-palmed thrust, Akari would activate the one non-elemental ninjutsu she herself could use without any hand seals, Body Flicker. She wouldn’t use it to bowl into Kagura, she wouldn’t use it to move backward either. Instead, she’d use it to move to the right ten meters. Since Akari was left-handed and had locked their blades to the side that direction was left completely open with no obstruction whatsoever.

The moment she reached the point ten meters away she would turn on a dime and utilize Blade Mistress Waltz herself, the crippling disorientating effect working for her this time as she moved forward at her best pace and swung the weapon to impact with the doe-eyed lover’s leg. Intent to make it more difficult to put weight on it and therefore give her move of an advantage. Should the strike succeed she would twist her wrist to bring the bokken up toward Kagura’s head, intent upon giving her a good ‘thwack’ on the forehead. Nothing that would cause injury, it would just have enough force behind to let the brunette know that she’d been ‘kissed’. Should that land Akari’s force would ring out “We can take a break whenever you’re ready you know.” Her voice coming out calm to show the woman that she wasn’t anywhere near ‘out of gas’ at the moment.

[3]

Kagura charged forward into nothing but air, sending her off balance and causing her to stagger just a little bit at the lack of contact, and then whirling to face her lover who had dashed away. Unfortunately, that was just in time for her to raise her Bokken to block the strike towards her shoulder, except it wasn’t aimed at her shoulder, and pain stung on her leg, causing a gently wince. It was pure coincidence that her blade was so close to her face already, enabling her to lock blades with the woman as she tried to come down on top of her head again, and in that moment of pause, as they pressed against one another, she heard the woman ring out.

“Not… a… chance…” she would reply, her breathing labored again. It had happened several times already today; Kagura had burned herself out to such an extent that she had passed out completely and crumpled, and still, upon waking up she would turn around and start fighting Akari again. She was absolutely relentless, her drive to win just one spar fueling her forward. She wanted to try to strike again, but with their blades locked, she was going to try to be the one to counter for once.

[3]

Akari would grin at her love as their blades locked and she stated the odds of her deciding to take a break. This had occurred a few times today already and if her breathing was any indication then it would be happening in a few moments once again. “You sure, you seem awfully out of breath. We can take a break, you can get your breath. I’ll practice some kata’s, and we can count this as 80 in my favor and 0 in yours.” She would say, the barb deeply threaded into her words. Akari could tell that her lover didn’t want to attack first because it never seemed to work out in her favor. Akari’s hyper-analytical mind could piece that together without much effort and do she had changed her attack to something less physical and more psychological. Working to instill a bit of an emotional response from her lover.

Their blades were locked together but Akari was slowly losing that battle. Mainly because her own strength simply wasn’t at the same level as Kagura’s and probably never would be. That, however, wasn’t the point. Akari was faster and more experienced than her lover. She wouldn’t use the word ‘smarter’ per se, as that would be narcissistic of her to say even if it was true. However, Akari was smarter than everyone she knew so that wasn’t exactly new information. The point was, she could move better, faster, and reason things out swifter than her apprentice at that moment. So if the only advantage over her that Kagura had at the moment was in sheer raw strength, then the odds were woefully not in her favor. “What do you say? We stop today and go out to eat?” She would ask, her tone curious.

[4]

Kagura was pressing, feeling the way she was slowly, almost at a crawl, winning the contest of strength, but she had somehow had locked Akari into a standstill, which gave her exhaustion addled mind a moment to catch up. She had been going less on actual thought and strategy and more willpower and instinct as the day wore on… motivated by a score that she wasn’t even sure if Akari was actually tracking. Over the past few days, they had clashed a total of 79 times… this one would be number 80. Kagura had lost… every, single, time. She didn’t want this to be 80 losses… would do anything in her power to make sure of it… and so she came up with a last-ditch effort to squeak out a win.

She shifted her hand into a fist and prepared to drive it forward for another strong strike, but that was only to draw Akari’s attention because a fraction of a second after that motion even began to start, she let her blade slide down the length of Akari’s own, and drove her head forward in an attempt to headbutt the woman. It lacked any real damaging strength, but the speed was there, trying to make contact in a desperate gamble. This could go wrong in a hundred ways… but she had to try. Unfortunately, even if the strike was successful, she would never know if it would result in her claiming a win. The darkness had been on the edges of her vision for a while now, and using this last move, she finally lost her battle against the fatigue she had pushed herself to, collapsing at the woman’s feet and completely unconscious… again.

[4] {EXIT}

Akari would patiently watch Kagura for her actions, her heavy breathing, an exhausted mind, and probably sore body wouldn’t be doing her any favors at the moment and the dark-haired girl knew that she would be getting frustrated. 79 losses were hard to swallow, no matter who you were. If this became 80 Kagura would kick herself over it. That, however, was not a problem of Akari. At least, not while she was acting in the role of ‘sensei’ to her lover. She had to keep the two persona’s separate for the time being. Lest they end up doing exactly what they did on the first and second days here. She had to be acting in the best interest of the brunette as a teacher now and not her lover. At times the two could coexist, but this wasn’t one of them. At least, not this precise moment.

If Kagura lost for the 80th time and kicked herself for it, then she would be kicking herself into becoming stronger. If she was frustrated at losing then she would become that much more determined to win. It would drive her forward, and when she did finally win one, she would earn it the hard way. She would succeed and look down upon her bruised and battered body and know that she had managed to reach a higher level than before. So when Kagura went to perform her feint. Akari would see through it, mainly by seeing the set of the woman’s shoulders and knowing there was no power in that blow. When she shifted her blade to move their weapons aside to free her path for the headbutt. Akari would see it and she wouldn’t ‘let’ her win, she wouldn’t allow it of herself. Despite what she might want to do as someone who loved her dearly. Akari would never ‘let’ anyone win, they would earn it the hard way or not at all and so Akari would move her head to the side, causing Kagura’s final gambit to miss and when she fell unconscious from the effort the crystal eyed girl would take her weight, catching her so she didn’t hit the ground.

She would put her over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry and smile at her as she made a clone to collect any items they’d left around. Then she would carry her home, the duties of lover and teacher coexisting here, at this moment, unlike before.

Exit.