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| - He shouldn't have come back here. It brought back so many memories, both good and bad, a most bittersweet predicament. Naoki looked at the looming gates of his home and considered turning around. Ryu was returning from a mission, when he noticed a tall and masculine man with neck length, thick curly black hair, looking at the gates of Konoha. Ryu grew anxious so he approached the shinobi and asked him, "What are you doing here ? and where are you from ? you don't look familiar now are you ? ". Naoki at first, barely spared the tall, muscular blue haired man a glance, but he didn't want to show his back to this guy so he made a show of half turning around. "It's rude to ask other people's name without giving your own first. I was just passing through." "Ryu- I am Ryu of Konohagakure and you are ?" said Ryu taking an awkward posture. "Naoki." Replied Naoki simply, calm as ever. "You are not from the village, are you ?" asked Ryu. "And if I'm not?" Naoki answered almost rhetorically. "What will you do?" "There's nothing I can do, but I want to know your motives. Why have you come to our village ? " said Ryu. "I told you: I was just passing through." Naoki reiterated. "If that's all..." he trailed off, as if to dismiss him. "Whatever, Naoki you said right ? Alright I must report it to Hokage-sama" said Ryu. Naoki almost froze, almost. "Don't do that, kid." If they knew he was loitering around, they might try to convince him to return. He wasn't ready, the memories too fresh. "Why shouldn't I?" asked Ryu. "It'd be inconvenient for me." Naoki found that he was already slipping back into the mindset of a shinobi, not that it'd ever truly left him. Regardless, this brat was going to stir up trouble he didn't need. "Well then" said Ryu taking a foreign gesture with his Flying Thunder God Kunai, which Naoki could not have possibly seen before. Having not seen the strange kunai as he was already in the process of trying to catch him with his Shadow Sewing Technique, when he got him...What then? He wondered briefly but brushed the thought aside. Ryu threw the kunai at Naoki, and before he could even noticed he teleported himself above Naoki and tried to stab him. Movemovemove! His instincts practically screamed once he saw that Ryu was not behind and didn't come from below, so he must be above; and Naoki obeyed, taking a leap backwards, quickly doing the handsigns for the Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction, letting the chakra knead inside his body, convert into fire before expelling the flames from his mouth. Through his massive volley of flame came a kunai flying past his head, suddenly Ryu appeared behind him saying "Its over!" as he used Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique. Well, that hurt. Naoki thought sarcastically in his head as the shurikens scratched at his arms and legs, but luckily not hitting anything vital. He went through the Snake, Horse and Ram and silent used the Earth Release: Binding Chains technique, unsheathing his sword. Pinning the kid down was the main priority. "This match is going to be a battle of speed" said Ryu to himself, "the one strikes faster, wins !" he added.As he threw a Kunai towards Naoki. Naoki moved his head out of the trajectory of the incoming kunai, just barely evading as he then used Shadow Gathering Technique to catch it before it could hit the ground and whipped it back at the younger male, his sword also aiming to pierce his shoulder, he wasn't a killer - not anymore. The kunai he threw back was a clone and exploded shortly, before the shadow and the sword could reach him a kunai ran past Naoki's right eye and surprisingly Ryu was already at Naoki's blind spot with his technique prepared to launch and quickly he tried to strike Naoki while in close range with Chakra Sphere. Man, what a pain. The Nara thought to himself as he used Shadow Paralysis Technique, if he was getting hit by that technique, the kid was going down with him. Petty but he blamed it on old age. "Darn it !" shouts Ryu out of pain and annoyance. Pressing the advantage, Naoki made eye contact with Ryu and Genjutsu: One Thousand Deaths took effect. Ryu with his Mind's Eye of the Kagura noticed he was under a genjutsu and broke through it and used Eternal Loop on Naoki instead. This was Genjutsu. Naoki knew it, but despite trying to use the release seal, it wasn't working. Ryu broke through the paralyzing technique as the caster was under a genjutsu himself, he decided to finish of Naoki so he used Blue Flash Strike on Naoki. Naoki felt pain and saw a blue flash. Ryu walked away and said " you are a shinobi in true sense but yet you are too weak to wander around this place". The light was leaving Naoki's eyes when he saw someone leaning over him, before he was lifted up. Ryu carried Naoki to his house and treated his wounds. Naoki slept peacefully for awhile, for once not haunted by the past, it was...nice. Several hours later Naoki regained his consciousness, as he woke up he say Ryu. Ryu noticed Naoki is no longer asleep he turned to Naoki saying "oh you're awake !". Naoki looked at Ryu uncomprehendingly for a moment, still a bit tired but ultimately feeling better. "Yeah..." "You are one old man..." said Ryu smirking. A twitch developed over Naoki's left but he smiled pleasantly. "And you're a bishōnen." "Teme Korra !" said Ryu smiling but with his fist tightened. Naoki laughed, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "My parents were married." "Eh ? took it literally I guess" said Ryu out of confusion. Naoki shook his head, amused. "You have much to learn, fool." He said patronizingly, he had a weird sense of humor and knew it though. "...Is Tsunade-sama still in charge?". "You know I wish to become the Hokage but Orange Hokage is just too talented" said Ryu. So he achieved his dream. Good... "Maybe when you're seventy, he'll hand over the hat to you?" Naoki teased. " I am already a Jonin and the right hand man to him so ofcourse I am going to be the next Kage soon" said Ryu. Naoki clapped, as if applauding him. "There's a rank above Jōnin. I was ANBU at your age." "I left ANBU a year ago, thats not the right place for me" said Ryu. Naoki had nothing to say to that. ANBU wasn't for everyone. His stomach suddenly growled. "I will bring you something to eat" said Ryu. "That'd be nice of you, kid." Naoki muttered, embarrassed. After eating, Ryu asked Naoki " if you were in ANBU then how come you are so slow and suck at Bukijutsu ? I mean ANBU's are trained in Bukijutsu specially in Kenjutsu". "I...resigned from being a ninja. When you don't train or use your skills at all, they dull." Naoki said dryly. "Besides, if I wanted you dead, I'd have aimed for your head when I had you paralyzed." "You needed to break through my genjutsu for that ! and you think you are that good ? alright I challenge you to another battle!" shouted Ryu. "No mercy this time." Naoki was quieter than Ryu's shout. Ryu teleported him and Naoki to the training grounds, upon arriving he handed Naoki a sword and said "We go for Kenjutsu first". Naoki hefted the sword with ease, twirling it around his wrist in an unconscious circle motion that was second nature. "Agreed." Ryu drew his sword and said "lets dance!". Naoki darted forward, covering the distance between them quickly before lashing out with a straightforward strike toward his neck, testing him. For most, the strike of an iaijutsu is instantaneous, nearly impossible to discern, and even more difficult to defend against. But Ryu too was a master of the art, and had mastered all of its strengths and weaknesses. The subtle shift of Naoki's left leg was all the indication Ryu needed. With supernal grace and alacrity, he leaps mid-charge soaring above and over the strike his body twisting in a corkscrew in the air, evading the initial attack. His body reacts on instinct to the second, spinning as his blades flashed, clashing into Naoki's sword. Steel grinding against steel, sparks ricocheted off with such ferocity that it was if the air itself was igniting. The force of the blow had enough power to push Ryu directly up into the air, separating the fighters for a brief moment. Channeling chakra into his leg, he releases it in a spiral burst, creating a nearly solid cushion of air beneath his feet. This was one of his most prized techniques, with another push, he reorients himself before shooting down like a meteor, blades flashing outward as his body slams into Naoki's space, the sheer force upturning the ground around him. With a vicious snap of his arms, Ryu's swords hammers into Naoki's defenses, appearing as a flickering storm of steel! Blades continued to clash, as Ryu met Naoki blow for blow, weaving around his attacks like water, his body nothing more than a haze. No soon had they just began, Ryu's skills were proven to be superior when compared to that of Naoki's. An amused, almost feral smile spread across Naoki's lips. He countered and parried Ryu's sword strikes, more than capable of fending off the younger boy's assault. All the flashiness and posturing was unbecoming of a true shinobi in his eyes, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun. Using chakra flow he utilized his Fire nature affinity to turn his sword into a blade of flame, swinging it at the blue haired individual, simultaneously creating a ring of flame around him like a shield. Ryu leaped back and thought " a sword of flames ? but even fire take 3.023 seconds to burn human flesh so I have that much time to pierce through the massive ring of fire, clash against his sword and strike him. Even with my speed it will take me around 10 seconds to do that but then it will be over for me, unless I use that". As he came up with his strategy their was a smile on his face, Using Chakra Flow he channeled his chakra through his sword but maintained a distance of at least six meters with his enemy. Concentrating and continuously expelling chakra so that the sword became bigger and wilder, Naoki snapped his flame sword at Ryu, it extended, burning anything in it's trajectory to incinerate his opponent and at the same time, several pillars of fire rotated around him. Ryu noticed the flames getting bigger and as it continued to extend ,he leaped further away avoiding the flames and state "those slow moving piles of chakra can never match my speed". A battle of speed again, eh? Naoki's lips quirked upward. He did the Rat handseal before pressing his free hand onto the ground, silently saying the name of his jutsu, Earth Release: Black Pyramid Technique. Several earth spikes erupted from the ground below Ryu, attempting to skewer him, elognating Naoki's shadow, even as his flame sword suddenly circled around him again before multiple fireballs were blasted at Ryu with increasing velocity. "Alright!" said Ryu smirking as he disappeared from Naoki's sight , suddenly at Naoki's surprise awaited a Ryu with his sword charging through his flames and then Ryu used Flying Thunder God Slash on Naoki. Having figured that Ryu would attempt to use the same attack on him, though the probability was low, at least 53%, he wasn't very surprised when the kid disappeared from his sight, he shifted marginally so the attack wasn't as fatal as last time, using the few precious seconds to use Shadow Imitation Technique to hold him down. Ryu smiled saying "Gotcha !" as he exploded surprising Naoki and corrupting his sight as the real Ryu came down with amazing speed from behind using the real Flying Thunder God Slash which with no doubt was better than Flying Thunder God Technique. Blood splattered the ground and dripped drown Naoki's face, but the Nara paid little heed to it as he flashed through the Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram handseals and swiped his thumb over his face, collecting blood as he went and did the same to the tattoo on his right arm before slamming his hand onto the ground. With a poof of smoke, a white tiger as big as a small dog appeared. "Master Naoki, you're all banged up!" The tiger exclaimed, a teen girl's voice exiting it's mouth. "No time for explanations, Mei-chan. I need you to do your thing, please!" Naoki said hurriedly. Turning serious, the tiger, Mei, opened her mouth and a barrage of white flame erupted, hitting him in the chest and healing his wound before branching off and going directly for Ryu, these flames exponentially hotter and deadlier. Ryu used Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness trapping the victims inside a self-repairing dome of earth which is almost instantaneously able to reform,from which Ryu is able to absorb the chakra of anyone trapped inside, something he enjoyed greatly.Ryu's sets up another protective layer of the dome hence making flight nearly impossible. And his chakra is stronger and relatively denser,they distribute it throughout the dome making it difficult to escape. Naoki made a sharp hand gesture and Mei obeyed, cutting off her attack abruptly, only years of partnership made her understand those simple movements. Placing his hands in the thinking seal, he searched through his memories of every battle and attempted to recall why this technique was so familiar. Ah, the Sound guy's attack, but moderately different. "Dispel, please." Although concerned, Mei did so without arguing. "Guess there's no real choice. Heh, I just hope he doesn't step on me." The shadow using shinobi muttered underneath his breath before his eyes became serious. His chakra was being taken from him still but he had enough... Slamming his hands together, he forced as much as possible into this final technique and a white tiger slightly bigger than the legendary Gamabunta with a scar on his left cheek and slightly matted fur smashed through Ryu's technique, Naoki sitting on the saddle. "NAOKI!!!!" He did not sound pleased. "So you broke free ? good or no good ha ha!" commented Ryu on Naoki's actions, as he used Summoning: Rashōmon. "Lets see how does your shadows and that creature pierce through it". he added "I don't like this brat. At all. He's more tenacious than you and that's saying something." The gargantuan tiger rumbled and Naoki chuckled. "I don't think I was that cocky as a brat, Shirokaze-sama. What do you think though, can you get rid of his nasty summon?" The tiger slammed his paw on the ground, digging his heels in before opening his mouth, gathering chakra that became so bright and dense, it became hard to look at a few seconds and Naoki was forced to close his eyes - just in time as Shirokaze fired it once, twice, no, three giant balls of white fire which only became denser and bigger, absorbing the natural chakra in the atmosphere to become bigger than Rashōmon, the blast radius would be dangerous, putting it lightly. Ryu estimated the power of the technique and used Summoning: Quintuple Rashōmon blocking the jutsu completely and throwing back the three giant balls of white fire which only became denser and bigger, absorbing the natural chakra in the atmosphere to become bigger than they were previously. Shirokaze merely hmphed before swallowing the rebounded fireballs, his bright blue eyes showing satisfaction and amusement. Genjutsu he can reflect back onto the caster, I'd say we're evenly matched in Kenjutsu and he outclasses me in speed so Taijutsu would just be a waste of time and I'd rather keep my trump card under wraps... "You win, brat." Naoki called down to Ryu. He didn't consider it a loss, a shinobi knew when to tactfully retreat. "Sweet" said Ryu who was victorious in the battle. Naoki free falled off Shirokaze's back just as the summon dispelled itself, a gust of wind knocking him off-course, the Nara adjusted and nimbly landed on the canopy of branches, just hanging onto the highest one for a moment. "It's been fun, kid. But there's a whole world out there for me to see. Tell Naruto that Naoki Nara said congratulations for me~!" He hadn't given his surname before, this was his way of showing acknowledgement.
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