June 1, 1 bNb
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Although the two Uchiha opted for differing approaches—Izuma had launched himself forward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked from the sheer force, while Fugaku remained stationary—both had the same red and black hue twirling in their eyes.
The Sharingan.
Izuma made the first move; his fist snapped toward Fugaku's face, then twisted mid-strike into a low sweep aimed at the older man's knees.
Fugaku shifted his weight a fraction, leaning back as the kick passed harmlessly by, and answered with a sharp downward chop that Izuma barely deflected with his forearm. The impact reverberated up Izuma's arm, numbing his fingers.
Izuma ignored it; he had fought shinobi who hit harder. Rather, he twisted away, spinning on his heel and darting back in from Fugaku's blind angle. Or what would have been a blind angle for anyone else.
Fugaku pivoted smoothly, meeting him head-on.
Their hands blurred and formed what the two considered, but any onlooker would only be able to call a blur, a monotonous pattern of strike, parry, redirect.
Both sides refused to commit fully, each probing for tells that the Sharingan all too eagerly fed them.
A twitch of a muscle, a slight shift of balance, the all-seeing Red Eye captured it all.
Whizz!
Fugaku's fist flew over Izuma's head, as the younger Uchiha hurriedly ducked and drove an elbow toward Fugaku's ribs, already rotating his hips to chain it into a follow-up strike.
Fugaku absorbed the blow and slid back a half step, catching the elbow on his forearm in the process, dispersing the force through his stance.
The counter came immediately in the form of a short, brutal palm thrust aimed at Izuma's sternum.
Izuma crossed his arms just in time, boots skidding as the impact forced him back across the packed earth. Having tempered himself on active warfronts, he instantly began forming hand seals as he slid back.
Only a two-handed Tiger seal was necessary for Izuma to launch a white burning ball of flames toward the more experienced jonin.
The fireball tore across the space between them, heat rippling the air and bleaching the ground beneath it white. Fugaku vanished a heartbeat before impact.
The fireball struck.
A thunderous detonation swallowed the clearing as flames erupted outward, a pillar of incandescent white and orange blasting skyward. Trees at the edge of the clearing cracked from the sheer force, and their leaves were incinerated mid-fall.
At the center of the inferno, a substitution log was obliterated, reduced to cinders before it could even finish breaking apart.
Substitution Jutsu.
Truthfully, Izuma didn't expect the attack to do any real damage. His purpose was to simply use it as a probe and to set some of the clearing alight. Fugaku was content with being on the back foot during this spar, hence Izuma would slowly take away space, forcefully creating an enclosure.
His thoughts lasted less than a fraction of a second before he was already on the move, meeting Fugaku head-on again.
The Uchiha patriarch, despite his build, moved akin to flowing water, slipping in and out of Izuma's guard, waiting for the right moment to pounce with his might. The Red Fang, however, proved his name, giving up no such opportunity.
A kunai flashed into his hand mid-step and skidded across Fugaku's guard, sparks snapping as steel met steel. Fugaku deflected it aside and answered with a short burst of chakra-enhanced speed, his silhouette seemingly splitting for an instant—becoming nothing more than an afterimage—as he reappeared at Izuma's flank.
Red opposed red as Izuma met his mentor's eye and instacast a genjutsu that would muddle the distance between them. It was broken instantly.
They don't call him Wicked Eye for nothing, he thought bitterly. Yet, the genjutsu did its trick all the same, distracting Fugaku for just enough time for Izuma's body to twist and for his forearm to block the question mark kick barreling his way.
The impact drove him sideways, momentarily knocking him off balance entirely.
Izuma was hurled clear of the exchange, boots leaving the ground as the force of the kick snapped through his guard.
Weightless, that was what Izuma felt like as the kick sent him airborne. The surprise didn't last long—he twisted midair, using the momentum to fly back as eventually his feet found bark as opposed to earth.
Creak!
The towering mass of brown and green nearly toppled over as Izuma's feet planted sideways into the trunk, but ultimately, despite a slight wobble, both Izuma and the tree held strong.
Chakra had surged through the soles of his sandals the moment he made contact with the footing, hence he was anchored at a perfectly horizontal angle off the tree. The bark splintered beneath the sudden load, grooves tearing outward, but Izuma paid it no mind.
His Sharingan ignored everything else as it locked back onto Fugaku.
There was no pause in his movements.
Izuma kicked off.
The tree shuddered as Izuma used it like a springboard, launching himself back into the clearing in a blur of motion. Wood exploded behind him as the trunk cracked, and the tree was finally toppled, but it had served its purpose well—Izuma had closed the distance in an instant.
Poof!
His tanto slid into his grip from the seal at his wrist, its edge glinting with firelight and moonlight as he zeroed in on Fugaku at breakneck speeds. His blade was brought up and thrust down immediately afterward, shooting straight for Fugaku's centerline.
Clang!
Steel had flashed into Fugaku's hands as twin kunai slid free from their sheaths. The blades caught Izuma's thrust with a sharp, grating noise that both veteran shinobi had become accustomed to from time spent at the front lines.
The impact jolted through Izuma's arm—the same was true for Fugaku, if the grunt he gave was any indication—the vibration was biting up to his shoulder as Fugaku twisted his wrists and moved the tanto from its previous potentially lethal position.
Sparks spat between them, scattering like fireflies as metal screamed against metal.
Izuma scowled, and his blade hissed through the air as he brought it near Fugaku again.
Too late. A knee was already being driven forward immediately.
Izuma altered the trajectory of his blade with practiced ease, jamming the flat of it across his sensei's thigh, absorbing the blow.
He barely had time to reset his footing before Fugaku was on him again.
One kunai slashed high, the other low—no wasted motion.
Izuma ducked the first, felt the second rake across his sleeve, fabric tearing as steel kissed skin. He answered with a short, savage cut meant for Fugaku's wrist. Fugaku released the kunai without hesitation, letting it fall as he caught Izuma's forearm instead.
The second kunai came up underhand, aimed for Izuma's ribs.
He immediately dropped his tanto, catching it in his other hand with an upward motion.
Clang!
Steel met steel again, but Izuma had coated his tanto with wind chakra—vacuum blade—and unsurprisingly, it tore right through Fugaku's chakra-ehanced kunai, as it made way toward the patriarch himself.
Fugaku promptly released his vice grip, creating enough distance to avoid being cleaved.
Unluckily for him, Izuma had already resealed his weapon and weaved through hand signs.
Ram → Snake.
A wide wave of flame, meant to hem Fugaku inward, burst forward. The power of this jutsu wasn't very high, but it need not be. It simply allowed Izuma to control his opponents' movements.
And control it did.
Fugaku's response was, rather predictably, to leap into the air, avoiding the flames altogether.
Finally got you, old man, Izuma allowed a grin.
His hands had already flown through another set of hand seals, lightning release this time.
Lightning Release: Lightning Ball.
A slew of yellow balls of lightning, each about the size of a basketball, fizzled into existence behind Izuma and shot forth toward Fugaku.
Boom!
Smoke from the collision blocked Izuma's view, preventing him from seeing whether his assault was successful or not.
A moment later, a charred log clattered harmlessly to the ground as Fugaku reappeared standing upon the branch of a tree. Fugaku's gaze remained apathetic as he stared down at his student.
Izuma smirked back, and Fugaku's eyes widened as his ears buzzed.
Boom!
Over a dozen trees had been decimated, claimed by the explosion of multiple balls of lightning.
"I guess it's true—art is an explosion," Izuma laughed, staring at Fugaku's slightly disheveled figure.
The head of the clan had managed to escape the explosion, but Izuma caught the faint sight of blood as a bit of wooden shrapnel had embedded itself in Fugaku's forearm.
The older man snorted, ignoring the injury, as the two opposing generations of Uchiha mirrored one another's movements.
Ox → Dog → Dragon → Rat → Dog → Boar → Snake → Tiger.
The final hand seal was accompanied by both men flinging a singular shuriken.
The single shuriken did not last.
One gave birth to Two, Two gave birth to Three, and Three gave birth to all things.
Shuriken Shadow Clone Justsu.
Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank, clank, clank!
The noise of shuriken meeting shuriken filled the clearing, erasing even the sound of Izuma and Fugaku's breath.
Yet both Uchiha paid the clash of metal before them no heed. The very instant they had finished their hand signs, they both darted forward into the volley of shuriken.
The Sharingan. Considered by many to be the most powerful dojutsu, its ocular prowess giving birth to arguably the strongest clan in the Elemental Nations.
As Fugaku and Izuma rushed forth, it proved why it had such an illustrious reputation.
Time itself seemed to grind to just shy of a halt as the two men dodged every stray shuriken and began their taijutsu clash again.
Fugaku tilted past a haymaker; however, before he could counter a shuriken that had veered off its path due to a collision made its way toward his head. He was forced to duck.
Izuma capitalized immediately, aiming a sidekick straight toward the middle-aged man's face.
Fugaku leaned back further, falling backward, but catching himself with a flip.
"Tch, almost had you."
Fugaku shook his head at his protege's words, but he couldn't help but allow a small smile. It had been a long time since someone had forced him to actually try in an actual fight, much less a spar. The fact that it was his own student brought him no small degree of pride.
"I think I've seen enough," Fugaku began, his eyes darting around the forest. "Even though the village doesn't use this forest too often, I think the Hokage would still have us pay for damages," he finished with a wry smile.
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Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter—writing fights are probably the thing I'm worst at, so hopefully it didn't turn out too bad, lol.
Quick note on Fugaku's strength in this fic: he's the fifth strongest person in the village at the moment. I won't give away who's above him, but it should be quite obvious.
Izuma is hovering anywhere between 7-10, so he's quite strong, but still has room to grow.
Also, this fic won't take into account the light novels when scaling characters, mainly because I haven't read them LOL.
Anyway, have a great rest of your day, and if possible, I'd appreciate some power stones and comments. Thanks!
Peace out, folks.