| abstract | - The morning was warm that day in the Land of Lightning, the sun having just risen over the tops of the mountains in which the village was settled. One of Kumogakure's young kunoichi had just awoken from her bed and was finishing eating breakfast while at the same time getting ready to start her day. Multitasking was a common thing in her morning routine but Akemi Shakunetsu usually found herself doing several things at once since she could remember, possibly as far back as when she started in the ninja academy. She was currently trying to finish a piece of toast while putting on her usual wrappings down her arms and around her knees. But she finally swallows the last bite of her small breakfast, her golden eyes quickly scanning her room to make absolutely sure she wasn't missing anything before pulling on her cloth wrist bands and quickly heading out the door. Her plans for that morning were for some solo training, the young Chunin wanting to be certain her skills did not dull and that she was continuously working to improve upon her skills. Difficult as it was Akemi had made it her life's goal to grow stronger, whether this brought about a title or recognition she really didn't care as long as she could prove that she was in fact still growing as a ninja. And the best place to start was at Kumo's training grounds which she was heading to now, leaping across the buildings that made up the village until she reached the flat, rocky terrain that served as their training grounds. And of course some trees to add to it. Though she had barely taken a few steps before Akemi began to realize she was not alone. In the Kumo training ground a Kunoichi was training in the art of Shurikenjutsu, which was normal for Ayame as she trains in the Kumo training grounds almost every day. Ayame made it her calling to protect Kumogakure with all her might and she was trained by Darui in order to reach the desired strength to protect Kumogakure. "Damn it, Darui-san is always asking me to train on my Shurikenjutsu." she thought to herself as she was disappointed that the aforementioned master was out of Kumogakure on a mission. For a moment Akemi listened quietly, hearing the familiar sounds of something being thrown before being embedded into something like a target. Curiosity got the best of Akemi, knowing she probably shouldn't be interfering with another who was training but today she didn't mind sparing the time to check it out who it was. Quietly moving towards Ayame's direction so as to not disturb the genin she took a few minutes before the other kunoichi was in sight, her eyes following the direction she was facing and making her wonder for a moment. "So you are a user of Shurikenjutsu as well?"She finally inquired out loud, mostly taking a guess just from the weapons this younger girl was using. Ayame looked in Akemi's direction "Hmm? yeah yes I am. I want to become stronger and Darui-Sensei will help me with that and Shurikenjutsu training is a direct order from him." She told Akemi. "Who is this kunoichi?" thought Ayame to herself. "Sounds a lot like my old mentor Kirei-sensai." Akemi told her as she came a few feet away from Ayame, leaving distance between them so she was for one not in the way should the genin have to throw her weapons and so she could have room to do the same. Smiling a bit towards Ayame the blue haired kunoichi reached back to draw out four shuriken between her fingers of her right hand. Her gaze became fixed upon one of the trees growing in the area before she brought her arm around and threw the four shuriken hard and swift, sending them sailing through the air to embed themselves into the bark of the tree and this first round not missing a shot. "My sensai taught me the way of Shurikenjutsu before I became a chunin, so maybe I can help until your sensai is back."She suggested before remembering her manners. "Oh, almost forgot! My name is Akemi Shakunetsu."She introduced herself, giving a quick bow of her head in greeting, the hair around her face moving with her and her ponytail swaying slightly. Ayame was so excited to leave the weaponry training and go into a real fight but she tried to remain cool. "A chūnin, Yes! now I can finally test my skills" She thought to herself before introducing herself "Hi, I am Ayame. It would be a great pleasure to have a sparing match with you until my master returns from his mission." She said with great pleasure which was clear in her eyes. "Nice to meet you Ayame and hmm..." Akemi briefly glanced towards where her shuriken had become embedded, wondering if she should really take the offer but decided it really couldn't hurt. It had been a while since she got to spar with anyone and this genin seemed pretty skilled herself. So what harm could it do? "Alright then, a spar it is." She agreed when looking back at her, grinning slightly to show she was excited for this as well. Ayame smiled and threw three shuriken at Akemi one towards the head another towards the stomach and the last one towards her right thigh. She then used the distraction caused by the shuriken she threw to hid behind the rocky structures which were present in the training ground. "Okay, I don't want to waste much chakra. I know she is a chūnin so she will be hard to beat." thought Ayame to herself awaiting Akemi's attack. Akemi's hand had immediately gone to the pocket in her brown vest, drawing out a kunai knife quick enough she was able to block the shuriken aimed for her stomach and barely avoiding the one towards her head. The third though still grazed her leg, leaving a shallow cut when she tried shifting her footing. That wasn't a bad throw she had to admit. It was also enough she had briefly lost sight of Ayame during the distraction but had noticed the direction she was headed. ' Sneaky one isn't she. I'll have to keep on my toes with her. 'She said, smiling briefly before drawing two more kunai, putting them between her fingers as well like she did with her shuriken before throwing them in the direction Ayame went before running to the cover of trees, retrieving her shuriken from before just in case. Ayame turned her neck slightly to see two kunai heading towards her, she quickly hid behind the rocky structure she was running towards and the kunai hit that rocky structure. "I have to figure my strategy now. This should be fun" she thought to herself and she giggled afterwards. Having found a tree to use as cover for now Akemi carefully peeked out from behind it, still having a view of the more open area of the training field before shifting her gaze to the rocky structure. There she saw her kunai which hadn't hit but her intent was not to cause serious harm to Ayame. After all this was a sparring match so a little damage here and there wasn't uncommon. For now though she had to keep on her feet and figure out her next plan of attack. "Got to be ready for anything, even from a genin."She thought to herself before leaning back around her cover and carefully going through various scenarios in her head. Ayame and three types of clones suddenly came rushing from behind Akemi and attempted to throw five shuriken at her. One aimed for the eyes and another for the feet and the three were aimed for her torso. When Akemi had turned her eyes narrowed when seeing Ayame and her clones before quickly moving aside to avoid the shuriken that came at her before lightning charged chakra began to glow in her hand. And between her fingers was her own shuriken that she quickly began to infuse with her Lightning nature, deciding it was time to make this a little more interesting. "Two can play at this game." She thought before throwing the four shuriken towards Ayame and her clones in hopes of slowing her down. The shuriken that Akemi threw hit all of her targets and revealed that they are all illusions. At the same exact moment the shuriken went through the clones five Senbon infused with lightning chakra were send flying from Akemi's back in hope for a surprise attack. The one who threw the senbons appeared to be Ayame, but she might be some sort of a clone like the earlier illusions. Akemi grunted as the senbon got her in the back, catching her by surprise. It seemed she'd have to be far more creative with this genin for whoever trained her trained her well. First things first she had to come up with a plan otherwise she'd likely be falling for the same trick of Ayame continuously using clones. Glancing back slightly to where she had felt the senbons come from she briefly wondered if this was the real Ayame or not, but she was at the moment checking where her opponent could potentially be before she jumped up and began moving through the trees while reaching back to remove the senbons she could reach. She managed to get three out with a little struggle but decided to worry about the last two later and briefly stopped on branch as she went through some needed hand signs, "Lightning Release Shadow Clone."Akemi spoke out, creating three different lightning-infused shadow clones beside her before all four faced one another. "Alright this should do." She said to herself before one of the copies of Akemi seemed to remain while the last three disappeared off into the rocky structures close by. The person who was presumed to be Ayame used Chakra Sensing Technique to locate Akemi's location then she said "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" creating five clones. Ayame sensed four chakra signatures who were similar to Akemi's so she presumed that she used shadow clones. She didn't know that they were Lightning shadow clones. The clones immediately went to Akemi's location. "So there you are." said one of them. "The battle is going as planned. However, I won't let my guard down." she thought to herself. They all made the (Tiger) hand seal and they all said "Meisaigakure no Jutsu!" as they disappeared out of site completely. They all rushed towards Akemi and her clones with great speed and attempted to injure them with a Kunai. It was a flesh injury attempt as Ayame didn't want to kill Akemi. Akemi landed on top of a rock as she turned to face the woods, frowning when she couldn't see her sparring partner. But with listening closely the young kunoichi did hear the faintest sound of Ayame's foot steps on the ground which caused Akemi to react immediately by jumping back as she drew a four senbon that became infused with her Storm Release chakra in a water-like lightning veil and throwing them towards where she heard the direction of one of Ayame's clone or her. In the distance one of the clones was struck by the attack and poofed but not before sending a shock through the kunai that struck it. One other met the same fate while her last remaining clone was also being observant. With Ayame using seemingly regular shadow clones this time Akemi would have to be on her toes. Her final clone did as well as she stood upon one of the ledges along the mountainous terrain surrounding the village, her eyes narrowed when seeing some of the pebbles tumbling down the side. "I got you now." She spoke as she tried throwing three kunai towards the location rocks were tumbling down, hoping she might force the clone back or destroy it or take down the real Ayame but it wasn't meant to kill her. Ayame saw how the lightning clone exploded and that was when she realized that these were not normal clones. She had to take a different approach when trying to kill them. "So that's how it is. Well I have to give it to her, I didn't expect it." thought Ayame to herself. She now had four clones left, one threw a Fuma Shuriken towards Akemi's clone which was infused with lightning chakra in order to increase the sharpness of the blade. While the Ayame which had weapons thrown at her easily deflected two of the senbon thrown at her, but she was hit by two of the senbon and revealed herself to be a clone which was destroyed. The other clone easily deflected the Kunai thrown at her because the kunai were bigger weapons and easier to deflect than senbon. Akemi's clone created the four needed hand seals as she noticed the shurikan that Ayame was getting ready to throw and just as it was coming towards her Akemi finally generated the needed chakra she wanted. "Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration"She spoke before firing a stream of electrical energy right at the Fuma Shuriken to knock it off course and missing her by inches. "Well Ayame I'll give you this, who ever this Darui is he's trained you well." Akemi said with a slight smile, before she drew two more kunai and charged down to strike the two clones up close this time. The real Akemi in the mean time was now wondering where the real Ayame was, having began to figure so far all the ones she's faced had been clones. "So, clones seem a favorite of her's, there's got to be someway to lure the real one out."She thought to herself as she once against went for the trees while once again going through the same hand seals to create three more Lightning Release Shadow Clone just in case. As one of Akemi's clones rushed towards the two Ayames one of them jumped away while the other clone rushed towards Akemi's clone who attempted to attack with a kunai. Ayame's clone exploded when she got near to Akemi's clone. The other clone who jumped away created five other clones and used Chakra Sensing Technique to locate Akemi and her clones. "Okay, now to deal some damage." Ayame thought to herself. As one of the clones Sunk in the ground. She then appeared from under the ground which Akemi and her clones were standing on and she revealed herself to be an exploding clone as she exploded beside Akemi and her clone. "Now lets see what this Chūnin will do" thought Ayame to herself. Akemi blinked slightly when her Lightning Shadow Clone was defeated but still gave her some knowledge of what had occurred. So she had exploding clones too? Well this was unexpected she had to admit, making Akemi realize she’d have to be far more careful of approaching her young opponent. “Alright, all three of you be ready to attack from the ground, time for a little divide and conquer.” She instructed her clones as they nodded and leapt down to the ground below as Akemi began making her way back to where Akemi’s five clones were and was preparing to make some hand seals until she heard the explosion and skidded to a halt on a branch. “That tactic again, but not a bad one. I’ll just have to keep trying but not with those clones, expending too much chakra as it is with them.” She thought as she continued her path knowing now she would have to work carefully with her chakra otherwise she might as well give up. But it amazed her this young genin wasn’t already a Chunin, she’d have no doubts that Ayame could become one quite easily. Finally though when she drew near to the area she began flashing through hand seals and lightning began gathering in her right hand before expanding outwards in a thin leash of lightning before manifesting into a hound-like creature, “Lightning Beast Running Technique.” She said softly, landing upon the final tree that came upon the rocky area where she noticed Ayame’s five clones. Whether they were Lightning clones or just Shadow Clones was a mystery to her but for now she had to try something. And this was when the beast growled and came running from the trees, easily charging up the mountain side and lunging towards the clones from their right side. As soon as the five Ayames were faced with that running beast, they ran away and scattered. "I have heard of this technique from Darui-sensei. It is a Chūnin level technique." thought Ayame to herself as she was running. Flashback "Well girlie, today I will teach you about a special technique, you're not going to learn it, but most lightning users use this technique. It's called Raijū Hashiri no Jutsu (Lightning Beast Running Technique). This is a technique in which the user manipulates a lightning hound most likely this technique will carry a high intensity of lightning as it's a chūnin level technique. Meaning that the user is strong enough to make this technique very strong. However, there is a weakness to this technique, although it might seem that the hound is attacking the target it's actually the user who is controlling this hound. Meaning that you can counter this technique by confusing your opponent. This will probably be the easiest way. If you fail, you can beat it with a stronger lightning technique. Ayame, listen carefully, I never saw a Kunoichi or even a shinobi with the amount of chakra pressure you have. Your chakra pressure is strong enough to restrain tailed beasts. However, I don't want you to count on that, use your head, make a perfect plan, and execute it flawlessly. And that's it for that section good luck." these were the words that Darui told Ayame during their training. End of Flashback "That's it, I will have to distract her in order to win and force her to loss control over the technique." thought Ayame to herself as the lightning beast was drawing near to her. She channeled chakra into her legs and feet in order to increase her speed dramatically. Making the ram followed by the snake and then the tiger hand seals "Bunshin no Jutsu!" she said creating about one hundred clones which ran around in random directions. Another clone threw a Fuma Shuriken and another Fuma Shuriken hiding in the shadow of the first. They targeted Akemi, one of them was invisible because it was hiding in the shadow of the first. Watching the clones scatter Akemi quickly shifted the leash of lightning so the hound would go after the nearest clone, but that quickly was stopped when seeing this Ayame clone taking off with enhanced speed. The young Chunin was well aware of the weakness behind the Lightning Beast Running Technique and decided to keep it close enough she could try using it as a kind of defense. Luckily she did as Akemi noticed the Fuma Shuriken, least the first one, and directed the beast to strike at that large shuriken as she leapt for another branch while releasing the lightning leash to allow the beast to run amuck for a short time it attacked any clones that came near. But her eyes widened as a second Fuma Shuriken came slicing through the air just seconds after she had moved. It was a clever move and could have been bad in her favor if Akemi hadn’t moved sooner nor had the beast as a slight distraction of her own as she drew smaller shurikens from her holding pack behind her. “This girl has an impressive amount of chakra, but that’s going to wear down on her sooner or later if she keeps using the clones." Akemi thought to herself. This time she once again coated her weapons in the water like lightning veil of her Storm Release, knowing it hardly used much of her chakra compared to her other moves. For Akemi she was far from giving up despite the fact she might be out matched by the Genin mostly by their chakra reserves. Akemi had quite a bit of chakra reserves herself but Ayame must have much more with the amount of clones she had created so far. Keeping this in mind Akemi quickly threw several shuriken towards the many clones that had been moving in random directions knowing her lightning hound might have taken care of a few itself before it had vanished. As the second fuma shuriken flew past Akemi as she jumped on the tree branch, this fuma shuriken revealed itself to be a shadow clone usein the Transformation Technique to trick Akemi. As soon as the fuma shuriken went past Akemi, it turned back into a clone and threw a Kunai with an explosive tag attached to it and triggered the explosive tag about 35 centimeters away from Akemi. This attack was launched from behind Akemi as the fuma shuriken went past her. The real Ayame however, had no problem chakra wise as the clones which were used to distract Akemi weren't shadow clones, they were illusions which were used to distract her in order for Ayame to launch her surprise attack. The shuriken Akemi threw at those illusions went through their bodies without affecting them as they weren't real clones. Akemi grunted as she was blown forward by the explosion, having not expected the attack which sent her flying off the branch and causing her to become disoriented slightly. Upon landing on her side the young Chunin began forcing herself to stand despite the impact jarring her body a bit, for now shaking off the dizziness that hit. These clones weren't exactly making things easier either, Akemi seeing they simply were illusions now and at this rate she'd have to lure out the true Ayame. Beginning to think of a plan now she quickly jumped up along the steep side to where her shuriken had embedded into the side just above a ledge. Removing them now Akemi turned to face the clones she could see, finding she had a decent height from the ground and decent view of the range she had to work with. "Alright Ayame, think it's time I used a much different approach."Akemi thought before she used the tiger to dog to snake to dragon hand seals before firing numerous beams of light from her hands. These lights than began to spread and weave around much of the area, Akemi doing her best to not do too much damage as the lights passed through the clones and expanded upon the forest and mountain range with her will. One way or another she knew Ayame would have limited options of avoiding this attack and it was the only chance she had left. The lightning attack went through all of the illusions revealing that the real Ayame is not amongst them. The clones she made earlier were destroyed too. The illusions disappeared after Akemi's huge attack which surely costed a great deal of chakra. "Wow, Akemi-chan that was flashy. But I think you went overboard with that technique. You wasted too much chakra."Ayame's voice came out of the surrounding area as if she was using a microphone. Ayame then appeared from the rocky structure that Akemi was standing on. She used Attack Prevention Technique to merge with the ground from the start of the battle. "I am sure you're wondering how I did that." said Ayame as she was standing right beside her opponent. "Well let me explain. At the start of the battle a used a certain technique which allowed me to merge with the ground. I then started fighting you using my clones and illusions. The highest rank technique I used was a B-Ranked technique which was the Shadow Clone Technique, other than that, they were all E-Ranked technique meaning that they are being taught at the academy which saved me a lot of chakra. I wasn't amongst any of the clones in the first place." said Ayame casually as she jumped back away from her opponent. Ayame then created two clones of some sort which went on an engaged Akemi in hand to hand combat. One of them attempted a punch to Akemi's face while the other one wielded two Kunai and attempted to injure Akemi by two slashes one targeted the right thigh and the other targeted the right claf muscle. "You could say I was wondering somewhat, mostly of where you were hiding. I figured by now you have the talent to use quite a bit of Shadow Clones and regular clones, but to be honest Ninjutsu has never really been my forte." Akemi stated as she watched the clones disappear before glancing towards the genin when she appeared from the ground. Well least she accomplished one thing, she figured out where Ayame was but luckily her chakra reserves were high enough she wasn't completely tired out but the drain was noticeable regardless. She'd have to continue to work to train herself more in ninjutsu and lessen the chances of tiring herself out so much like she usually did. "Honestly, I'm pretty lucky to have made it to Chunin level. Almost didn't last being a genin."She chuckled sheepishly, one of the more bitter times in her life not too long ago. But as the two clones were made the young kunoichi seemed to react quickly as she blocked the first strike with her hand, gripping the clone's fist as she quickly side stepped the strikes towards her right leg. with this she pivoted on her left foot while grabbing the clone's, who's fist she still held, underarm and throwing her over her shoulder to slam into the other which she let go after the action. It was then she jumped back and retrieved her shuriken that were still coated in the thin veil of her Storm Release and threw them yet again towards the true Ayame, using her will of manipulating this Storm-infused chakra towards her. Whether or not Ayame would dodge though was beyond her or if she was even expecting it. "Gotta give it to ya, it's amazing that you are still standing on your feet after the amount of chakra you used up." said Ayame. She then deflected the two shuriken using a Kunai. She made the shadow clone hand seal as four clones appeared beside her. One of the clones threw two kunai, one targeting the legs and the other one aimed for the head. The kunai had explosive tags tied to them, Ayame triggered the tags about twenty centimeters away from Akemi. After the explosion, the four clones went to attack Akemi using kunai knifes in their hands aiming at different part of her body, concentrating on the limbs. "Trust me, you have no idea."Akemi muttered, knowing her body was now reaching it's physical limits thanks to how much chakra she had expended, especially from that last attack. Much of this now was running on pure will power just to keep her body moving. But even then, despite her speed she had her reaction time had gone down considerably as she noticed the tags and only managed to jump back once before she stumbled. Even the force of the explosions were enough to knock her back like before in the woods, only having a slight more distance but nothing quite significant that it'd prevent her from being blasted. Holding up her arms did little to shield herself as she landed some feet away and only just recovered enough to see the shadow clones approaching. Her first instinct was to dodge as they struck towards her limbs, this time Akemi actually rolling to avoid the strikes though just barely. And she knew it would be now or never to end this fight as she sat up and waved a hand, "Ayame enough, I forfeit this time around. My will power alone isn't going to cut it this time since as you likely have seen my reaction time has gone down already." Akemi said as she chuckled, "Whoever your teacher is, my compliments to his teachings, you'll make a fine ninja of Kumogakure. I'm sure this Darui will be proud." Ayame stared at Akemi as the clones disappeared "Wow! thanks" she said with a wide smile on her face. "I hope we can fight again another time. This was fun and it made me forget about Darui-sensei's training, thank you very much for an awesome battle." she said as she walked away weaving her hands with her back to Akemi. "Later" she said as she disappeared in thin air.
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