Training turning sparring, redux (P, NK)

Upon leaving the river, his soaked clothes didn't feel any heavier then they once were except his white shirt now was glued to his body. He shook his brown hair to get the water out of it. If only he knew wind techniques he would dry himself. He looked to his right saw Ayumi standing a few meters from him. He was confused on what stopped her, but then he noticed her stance. He knew that she was probably going to perform another jutsu and that's when he realized some sort of fog come out of no where. "You've got to be kidding me!" Kahen seemingly yelled as he shook his head. He knew he wasn't going to stand around and find out what she has in store for him in this fog, plus, with them so near water he could be easily taken out again. Kahen knew he had to rethink his decisions on what to do, so he took off into the trees that were located to his right, just a few meters away since he was dragged a little far down from the current of the river.

A few seconds after reaching the dense thicket of trees. He jumped onto limb and from there he jumped onto another one another one till he reached the highest branch that could support his weight which was a about 2 meters from the top. From this position, he could see the fog and the area that surrounds it. He wondered if she has left the fog, to create a diversion for her to circle around and attack him from behind. Kahen looked around and wondered if she could see him but he knew the dense leaves gave perfect covering for him to hide and watch the field. Now, if only she will attack Masaru, I could think of plan,' he thought as he tried to located where Masaru was. He knew that he had to get her away from the river, but that technique she she used, that blasted him out of the air. She didn't even have to use the water. Kahen shook his head, she was going to be a tough opponent for him. Masaru on the other hand, he didn't know what he could do. He saw that he could do a clone jutsu and had great aim with his kunia's.

WC:1633+394=2027

Masaru had flinched as his kunai had been very near to hitting Ayumi. He had not intended to hit her; he had merely wanted to stop her, and that kunai had been far too close to possibly killing her. Nevertheless, he quickly had other things on his mind. Or rather, he had one thing on his mind; the mist that Ayumi had created. Just how did she get the required water for that? Well, he had to admit, it was a good move. What could possibly have turned into Kahen and Masaru teaming up against Ayumi was now more a vision to get away from the mist, or try to find some way to be able to see through it.

Would Kahen have some way of dealing with this? Well, the only thing that he had seen him use… well, to be honest, Masaru was not sure just what he did. He had seen Ayumi throw a kunai at what seemed like nothing, so he guessed that she was hit by a genjutsu of some sort, although she had blasted him out of the air what that water jutsu of hers shortly after she threw the kunai, so Masaru guessed that she had broken out of it. He wondered how the genjutsu had worked, as he had picked up very little about it from watching Ayumi break out of it, so he doubted that he would be able to break out of it himself, should he be caught in it.

Nevertheless, he would have to worry about that when he was hit by it. Right now, he had to deal with the mist. He knew where Ayumi had been when she did the technique, but he doubted that she would just politely remain stationary, allowing him to hit her in the mist. No, she would surely have the advantage inside the mist, as she probably would not have used it, unless she knew how to use it and how to fight inside it. Did she possibly have a very good hearing, so that she might be able to tell his location merely by sound? Well, he would not just stand around and test that the hard way.

He could not help but smile a little, as the soundest choice seemed to be heading back to the trees. Just how much of this match was he going to spend there? Well, at least he could see a little, although he would most likely not be able to see Ayumi before she hit him, should she decide to attack him. For those reasons, he hurried back to the trees, intending to continue his run vertically up the tree, hoping that he would be able to get to higher ground and thus get better visibility, although it would, once again, leave him rather exposed. He held tightly onto his kunai, as he had only brought four with him today, thinking that it was just going to be some normal training day. Now, he had to regret that choice, as he would have nothing but his bare fists to fight with, should he throw the kunai in his hand.

WC: 2835 (+525)

Ayumi created a water clone and retreated from the open field, she ran upto a tall tree and started resting and observing from a branch, she was covered with some leaves but she wasn't very good at camouflage so she would be seen if they were at the same tree or nearby. She looked around and saw noone around, making the chance of being spotted less. The clone sat on the exact location she used her jutsu as the mist started to fade. Under the clone was an explosive tag she placed, one her opponents wouldn't be able to see as long as the clone did not move. Her clone spoke: "Enough hiding, let's get this over with."

WC:1681

Kahen watched as the mist start to fade, leaving a figure standing in the open. Ayumi just stands there in the open and yells. Kahen's eye twitches, thinking that this girl as some nerve. Kahen was about to jump and attack this girl until his common sense smacked him on the brain. Kahen shook his head, he needed to wait and find a way around this girl and then strike her down, but where was Masaru. Kahen hasn't seen him since he ran off from the beginning. Maybe I should find him and take him out first then go after her. Kahen nodded in agreement with himself and jumped down from the tree branch, all the way to the ground, without making much noise.

He started walking through the forest, he wondered where Masaru could be hiding at. He looked up into the trees, he has to be hiding in a tree. He continued his search for what seemed to be the longest minute of his life and saw a figure hiding in the trees. Kahen smirked, finally finding Masaru. Kahen slid behind the tree, with Masaru faces the other direction. As Kahen was about to jump he saw something on Masaru that made him stop from advancing. 'Red hair? Kahen questioned himself and realized it wasn't Masaru he found, it was Ayumi. He realized she must've left the open area and retreated into the trees like they did. Kahen quickly left her alone, he didn't want another shower from her, well, not yet anyways and continued back from the way he came.

WC:2027+263=2290

Masaru merely stared at what he believed to be Ayumi right out in the open, once the mist had faded. Had he overestimated her earlier? Nobody with a good sense of strategy would just be out in the open like that, without sight of either of her opponents. One of them could be sneaking up behind her, preparing to blast her down with some technique, and she would be none the wiser. From what he had picked about her, there was no way that she would do something as silly as… ah, of course. It had to be a clone, right? It might even be a water clone, in which case Ayumi could probably just dispel it once someone got close to it, and use the leftover water to power one of her techniques from a distance.

Well… how could he use this against her? He had to keep in mind that Kahen was still lurking around, so if he just charged right at it, it would make Masaru himself a rather obvious target for both Ayumi and Kahen. Could he possibly make her waste some of her chakra? It would probably play off if he made her use her clone and a water technique on top of that to counter a simple clone of Masaru, but he was not sure if that would work, and his chakra reserves were rather small to begin with, which meant that the payoff chance on this gambit was too small for him to try it.

From what he knew, the clone would not be able to use any techniques by itself, which meant that all significant parts of this spar were now somewhere among the trees, and Masaru had no ideas about where his opponents were. Not good. For all that he knew he could be seconds away from being hit by the water technique that Ayumi had used to send Kahen into the water, or whatever Kahen had hit Ayumi with before she performed her jutsu. After a few moments of thought, Masaru came up with a different tactic, although this would be riskier than the one before. However, he would be rather surprised if either of his opponents would understand what he was doing before it was over.

After hiding his kunai in the right sleeve, he performed the Clone Technique, and had the clone move a bit, so that it was visible in the treetop. Not right out in the open, but a careful observer would be able to spot it without much trouble. While it moved, Masaru made sure to make some movement around it, which made the twigs move slightly, as if it had been the clone which was the cause of the movements. After that, he carefully dropped to the ground, and charged towards the clone, hoping that Ayumi and Kahen would spot his clone, and think that it was the real one, thus hopefully allowing Masaru to destroy Ayumi’s clone, and get away before she realized that he was the real one.

WC: 3341 (+506)

Ayumi was still sitting on a branch, resting when she saw Masaru on the top of a tree nearby. For now she was low on stamina after the action, so decided to keep resting and observing him until one of them attacked the clone or found the actual her hiding. She hasn't seen Kahen after he got washed by her jutsu and was wondering what he was up to. As she observed Masaru, she felt her clone technique disappearing, when she looked back it was again Masaru, charging into Ayumi's clone.

He was trying to run away when the clone disappeared, leaving water and an explosive tag behind. She thought Masaru couldn't make shadow clones, but this was because he made simple Bunshin the first time, he could have made those to fool her. She didn't activate the explosive tag right away, Masaru was still too close and the damage could be devastating. Telling him to surrender wasn't very clever, since Kahen would know her position and Masaru could even find the time to escape.

Even if it was a shadow clone, the explosive tag would go to waste if she didn't activate now, so after Masaru was 3 meters away from the tag, she formed the Snake seal and made it explode. If it were to succeed, Masaru would be pushed around 10 meters right into a tree. If not, Ayumi would keep resting and observing for now.

WC:1915

As Kahen was lurking around the trees he heard a sound of feet hitting off the ground and he quickly went to the open area and saw Masaru charging at Ayumi. Kahen was confused on when and how she got back to the open so quickly. Then he realized it must've been a clone, and the real her was still in the trees. Kahen smirked, 'smart girl, he thought as he slowly crept out of the trees, with his eyes set on Masaru and slowly followed him as he went for the clone. He knew that Ayumi was probably going to attack since both of them are out in the open but he didn't care at this point, he's the only one that been hit by anything. Kahen was slowly walking and was about 12 meters behind Masaru, when an explosion went off in front of him, making him jump. He didn't see what happened to Masaru for he ran back to the safety of the trees.

WC: 2290+168=2458

His earlier thoughts as to whether or not he was overestimating Ayumi was not put to shame quite efficiently. If anything, he had been underestimating her. Hiding an explosive tag under the clone? Had she underestimated them, and then Masaru had simply been blind-countered? Or had she actually predicted that he would leave a clone behind as if it was himself, and that he himself would attack the clone? Well, a third possibility was naturally that she had just left the explosive note behind as a precaution, with her not really expecting one of them to fall for it, but planning for it nevertheless. Well, she did not have to activate the note, so she could just dig it back up after the spar, if it was not used.

This was the trail of thought that Masaru went through when he heard the explosive note ignite. Aside from thinking, he had had very little time to actually react. He would be able to move very little, so he had damn better make the precious little time he had count. He would not have enough time to make any hand seals, which meant that he had a grand total of one technique available, and that technique was meant to make him walk in trees, not protect him from explosive tags. While the calculations were doubtlessly wrong, Masaru believed that he would, assuming that he did nothing, end up being blasted into the trunk of a tree.

His options were fairly limited. He could move a bit and up being smashed into another tree, he could try to stand his ground as much as possible by focusing his chakra into his feet, or he could jump up, ‘aiming’ for the treetops. While the second option did not involve him hitting any trees, it would leave him exposed, and he doubted that he would have much energy after the explosion, despite the fact that this would be the first time that he was hit in the spar. But he would be hit no matter what, so now he had to see what would be the best choice… And he ended up jumping a bit up in the air, just before the tag exploded, which resulted in Masaru being blasted directly into a treetop.

Damn, that had hurt. But he passed out from neither the explosion nor the impact. It might have been a different story had he hit one of the trunks, but that had luckily not happened. However, while his opponents had most likely been unable to see him flying due to the explosion, they would certainly be able to guess which tree he had hid, due to the Masaru-shaped hole his impact had created in the treetop. However, while he was down, he was not knocked out. He had to use this to his advantage.

As such, he created another clone, flinching slightly as the chakra left his body. That was his fourth clone during the spar, but both of his opponents had larger chakra supplies than him. However, as the smoke from the explosion disappeared, Masaru had finished the clone, which could not be seeing lying in the branch as if it was unconscious. However, the real Masaru had moved into a different tree, and he was now hiding among the leaves in that tree, with a clear view of his clone.

WC: 3903 (+562)

Before Ayumi triggered the explosion she saw Kahen out in the open behind Masaru, she finally caught his sight and she has been resting for a while now so this was good. She didn't see much after the explosion but Masaru flying away and Kahen running back into the area with trees. Ayumi quickly started jumping from one tree to another, closing into Kahen. She glanced at the tree Masaru flew into while running and saw him lying unconscious. She kept running after Kahen, hoping Masaru is fine and she didn't make the tag explode too early. Kahen was on the ground but she was on the trees so she saw him clearly but he would have to look up to see her. She wasn't being very silent though, so he would probably notice her before long.

When she finally was close enough, she jumped to a lower branch and performed the jutsu she used before, extracting water from her mouth in mid-air "Suiton Mizurappa!", around the time she landed to the branch, the jutsu would be about to hit Kahen. Whether he dodged it or not, she would then take her last kunai to her left hand and jump from the branch towards him for a subdue. If he dodged her Mizurappa, this jump would be coming right after the dodge, so he would need to either react quickly, or Ayumi would jump on him making him fall and would point her kunai to his neck, asking for a surrender. If not, he would be again swept away from the trees back to the open area and Ayumi would start running after him.

WC:2189

While the Zexus was running, he heard"Suiton Mizurappa," and that's all he needed to hear to make him turn around instantly to see the all to familiar water technique that nearly made him break his back. He instantly jumped to the side of the water current that headed for him, and saw that she was coming down at him with a kunia ready. Kahen smirked as she came traveling down at him. He jumped down back a few meters and realized he isn't going to attack her, he's wore out from all this jumping. His back is still tingling from the impact. Then he realized he was going to attack because she beat the heck out of him and plus she's still in the air. Kahen then ran with all his might at her and just when she's about to land, he pulls his fist back and throws his fist into her mouth. If this works, she'll go backwards, enabling him to grab one of her legs and throw her into the nearest tree. If she dodged, well, he is just screwed then.

WC: 2458+187=2645