Death and Birth [Raikaru]

Tekato turned to see Raikaru walking toward him clapping his hands. He seemed to be impressed with what Tekato was doing, or he was mocking him. Tekato smiled and said “Thank you Raikaru, that means a lot coming from the top shinobi of our class.” When Raikaru told him he wanted to show him his skills with the sword he noticed that the way he reached for his sword he displayed pre-mature Gyakusatsu techniqiue. He wanted a duel. Tekato’s smile turned to a serious face. “I will not duel you Raikaru, I won’t draw my sword against a comrade.” Tekato thought about what his father told him as a child about how important life was. He remembered the first time he drew his sword, he was with his father traveling outside the village. They witnessed a woman raped and killed by three men, but they were too late to stop it. They both drew their swords to avenge this woman, but his father killed all of them before Tekato realized what happened. Even though he knew Raikaru was cocky and over-confident, he wasn’t going to lose his morals to show him up. “There ae things you need to learn to understand that Raikaru.” He told him. Being the naïve child he was he didn’t think about the fact this might provoke Raikaru and assumed he would take the statement as a piece of advice.

Tekato heard the insult and took little offense. He looked to see Raikaru who had just thrown a shuriken by his head. His eyes narrowed, it looked like he wasn’t going to get out of there without fighting Raikaru. He looked at Raikaru as he came running at him his fist in the air preparing to strike at Tekato. Tekato was surprised that Raikaru would attack him like this and instead of dodging he let Raikaru hit him. He flew into the air but compensated quickly and adjusted his body so he would land upright. He didn’t mind this, as long as they weren’t fighting with swords he didn’t mind it. He heard him say that he was weak and that the shimura clan was a baby compared to the Takari. He then heard the laughing. “Only a real pussy would attack someone from behind.” He smirked. Now it was personal, he wasn’t going to let him win. Inside he felt more excitement than anger, he hadn’t had a good fight in a while. He knew Raikaru was strong and at the top of the class while Tekato was probably twelth or thirteenth. He knew that class rank didn’t matter in real battle though and didn’t let it get to his head. “I’ll bet you a shimura without his sword, could beat any Takari even with his sword.” Tekato was still smirking, he drew his sword from his sheath and extended his arm and the sword away from his body to the right. He let the sword drop from his hand and stick into the ground. Tekato then stepped 5 feet from his sword toward his opponent. He identified some objects in the nearby trees such as stray cut logs and rocks. “Don’t underestimate me Raikaru, that first hit was a cheap shot.” He took a kunai from his pouch and took a ready position with his kunai held in front of his face for a more practical position to block from.

Raikaru was far enough away that Tekato had plenty time to dodge the shuriken. He moved out of the position and focused on Raikaru who was coming in on his side. He threw the kunai he had in his hand to the ground beside him as he saw Raikaru coming up at him. When he saw Raikaru put his hand on the ground and turn his body horizontally Tekato would react by jumping up and flipping his body forward doing a full front flip avoiding the attack. At the latter part of the flip he extended his left foot forward which would be driven into the side of the horizontal facing Raikaru. If the attack connected he would immediately roll off of Raikaru and jump up to kick Raikaru once again because most likely he would get up way before Raikaru would since he had been hit to the ground and was in a more awkward position to recover from.

Tekato’s hit landed like he wanted but Raikaru converted the downward momentum into horizontal momentum to make him roll away from Tekato. Tekato had to go a farther distance to get his next attack in. He saw that Raikaru wasted no time in his recovery and was already using hand seals. Tekato wasn’t able to catch what they were so instead of running in for the attack he rolled to his kunai and picked it up in the process, and then quickly got to his feet and readied himself to react to whatever was coming because he knew it was too late to stop it. He saw Raikaru was about 5 meters away holding the rat seal and had his eyes completely shut. He recalled this familiar sight from his master as he was gathering chakra in his eyes to use a lightning flash technique. Could Raikaru be using the same technique. Tekato closed his eyes instantly and went to put his arm over his eyes to shield them but he was too late. His eye lids were the only thing between him and the 7 seconds of flashes. Of course his arm shielded the last 6 seconds or so, but at the end he opened his eyes and he could only see outlines of the things in front of him. He knew he was in no condition to fight back if Raikaru were to take advantage of this, as a last ditch reaction he decided to copy him. He knew what technique Raikaru used, it was a more effective version of his technique because it blurred ones vision after blinding, while Tekato’s just blinded. This came a price though, his technique was 3 times faster because it only required the rat seal once, there was no bird or second rat. Tekato rolled backwards 1 meters so that Raikaru would still be within 10 or so meters away and while doing so formed the rat seal and held it while he quickly formed chakra in his eyes. He rolled instead of jumped because he knew rolling would conceal the rat handseal he was holding. This technique was much faster so it only took a second to gather the chakra for the one burst in his eyes. Right after Tekato landed he opened his eyes toward Raikaru to blind him. There would be no hesitation as he then formed the ram, snake, and tiger seals to create 20 clones using Bunshin no Jutsu. The 20 clones would then circle around Raikaru as soon as they appeared. Since his vision would then quickly come back because he had his eyes closed when the technique was performed (thus it was less effective). Whether or not his vision was back by the time his clones were back he would still get up and open his eyes and take a ready position in the circle of clones 5 meters to Raikaru’s left. He commanded all of his clones to do the same exact position (with his mind? I assume you don’t have to yell it out since you control their chakra?) so that there was absolutely no differentiation between a clone and the real thing. He hoped that because Raikaru would be blind he would not see where the real one was hiding and would gain his vision back after he was already surrounded by clones having no idea who the real one was.

Tekato saw that Raikaru put down a smoke bomb so he immediately ordered all of the clones to clear the smoke and create a circle around the smoke. Tekato was still in the same spot before. He gathered chakra in his hands and performed his wind push technique which would create a small funnel of air toward the center of the smoke as he lunged forward his palm. He did this so Raikaru might see the direction the funneled air was coming from, and not so much to push the smoke away because it was not big enough to do that. He then quickly switched placed with the clone at Raikaru’s 5 O’clock. He hoped that Raikaru would calculate in his head which “tekato” blasted the air through the smoke and attack where Tekato used to be. If that was the case he would come up and flank him from behind do a jump kick to his back. If however he did not fall for the attack and waited for the smoke to clear, Tekato would wait for the smoke to clear then have a clone at Raikaru’s 10 O’clock act like he was going to attack with a shuriken but then trip over its self into another clone. Tekato would realese the clone being tripped into right before the tripping clone hit the clone, making it appear the real tekato tripped and made a clone poof by accident. If Raikaru attacked the tripped clone, he would use his fire bolt technique to shot a fireball at Raikaru with his back turned to the real tekato.

Tekato was disappointed Raikaru used a range attack to check who was the clone, but it was the correct way to counter his clones. He saw projectiles coming at him and 3 other clones. He tried to make them dodge but they were too slow because he also had to worry about his safety. He was able to dodge the kunai that was coming at him completely but the other 3 clones poofed away. He knew Raikaru had no proof but chances are he would think he was the real one because he dodged most effectively. He saw Raikaru jumping out of the smoke. He pointed at him and shot a lightning bolt at him. He wasn’t expecting that and had no way of dodging it because he was still recovering from his movement to dodge the kunai. His shoulder was shocked, it was only a slight shock but the real defeat was he was now obviously not the clone. Tekato released the rest of the clones so he didn’t have to concentrate on what they were doing and could focus on the battle. Raikaru was suddenly on his right side and was aiming a kick to his chest. He was quick. Tekato quickly put his arms out in an x formation to block the kick. This kick was strong enough break through his block, but it was have little impact on his chest. The impact when he blocked with his arms caused him to slide back 3 feet. That was close… he thought. He would quickly lunge forward at Raikaru and attempt to punch Raikaru first in the chest and then stomache to focus his attention to the lower part of his body so he could quickly swing his body around in the air for a swinging kick to the side of the head.

When his punch connected he saw him spit up blood but Raikaru wasn’t going to let him get in another attack. He was being tackled by Raikaru’s shoulder. Tekato was pushed back off balance. He rolled out of it and drew two kunai. Tekato was breathing heavily. “I guess.” He split up his sentence because of his tiredness. “I guess, I never took the academy that seriously, I attribute my learning to my father.” He smirked. Raikaru definitely lived up to the title of “top of the class”. The fight wasn’t over yet, and he wasn’t going to let himself lose such a great battle. He ran at Raikaru with his 2 kunai and went to engage Raikaru in a knife fight. He focused his attacks at the body with a few slices at the face area as a distraction. While doing so he kept his guard up to defend against any oncoming attacks. He tried to balance his offensive attacks with his defensive manuevers so he wouldn’t be lacking in either.

The battle was fierce and it seemed like it would never end. They were both so evenly matched, if one were to come out the victor it would be by a thread. Raikaru jumped over his spin kick and Tekato was able to lift his kunai up past his shoulders to block the attack at his shoulders. Tekato quickly rolled to his left while turning to face Raikaru and continued to slash at him with his kunai. He saw his attempt to throw the shuriken which he then blocked with his right kunai. He then blocked the slash at his face with his left kunai. The third attack at his stomach was too quick he didn’t have time to block it so he leaned forward to make his stomach move away from the attack, but it still managed to scratch him. He quickly bit the handle of one of his kunai and drew another from his pouch, he slashed at Raikura a few more time than threw one of them straight up in the air and took the one in his mouth and put it back in his hand. He slashed a few times at Raikura and then as he saw the kunai coming back down he sliced at Raikura’s stomache, then chest, and then threw a kunai at his face. In order to dodge it he would have to lean back, the falling kunai would then pierce right through his shoulder, though more likely he would see it and turn just enough to stop it from injuring him and it would leave the same type of scratch that was left on Tekato. The fighting would rage on until both were completely exhausted. Tekato jumped back about 10 meters just as Raikura did the same. He was completely out of breath, but so was Raikura. They were so evenly matched. Tekato thought about his family, and how Raikura insulted them. He thought about the times with his father Fadaro where he would pat him on his head when he was a little kid when he learned how to throw a kunai successfully. He thought about his mom Ayami and her loving smile when she was putting dinner on the table, his younger brother Hiro who he sometimes gave piggy back rides when they went on walks, his older brother Akira, who he saw as his greatest rival but also a close friend. They were all Shimura, and insulting a one Shimura is insulting all of them, he was going to win for his family. He threw his two kunai at Raikaru which if not defended against would impale Raikaru’s chest. Immediately after throwing the Kunai he ran at Raikaru screaming at the top of his lungs. He was going to put all of his force and will into this one punch, it was all or nothing, he was going to end this fight, he would not let himself lose.

As Tekato thrust his fist forward with all his might he felt his hit connect, but at the same time he felt a sharp pain in his jaw then he immediately blacked out.

He felt a cold wet sting on his forehead which dripped down to his eye and beaded up at the corner and slowly dripped down the side of his face, it appeared as though he could have been crying. He was suddenly aware of his existence, his eyes flickered a bit and slowly opened. It was very dark, at first he couldn’t tell if he was blind or it was night. His vision was blurred he realized as he turned his head and saw outlines of objects, probably trees, around him but he couldn’t make out distinct details. He turned his head back to an upward facing position. Moments later his vision began to normalize and he could make out different shades of what looked like extremely dark clouds. It was night time and it looked like storm or rain clouds were forming overhead.

His entire body was sore and he could feel stinging all over his body from the cuts that covered his body. A drop of water hit his cheek and ran off his face. It was raining, or it was going to start soon. He slowly got himself up to a sitting position. He quickly clutched his stomach as he realized the sharp pain coming from the cut on his stomach. He looked ahead of him and saw Raikaru about 15 meters away from him he seemed to be unconscious too and was regaining it as well. Tekato smirked, It was a draw he thought. He felt an odd respect for Raikaru despite his cocky attitude. He then would limp over to Raikaru to see how he was doing. “You’re strong.” He said as a sign of respect.