Sparring? (P, NK)

Masaru spun around when he heard Ayumi shout, realizing that he had been a fool to give her enough time to do something large, thinking that she would merely try to get around and attack him from behind or something similar to that. He realized just how bit a mistake that had been when he saw what she had been doing that time. He had underestimated her quite a bit. He had never imagined that she would be able to use such a powerful technique against him, and that might very well just have lost him the spar. Would he be able to use the Substitution Technique quickly enough? Well, in this situation, he could not trust his speed with hand seals to save him from that.

Instead, he had to rely on something more… instantaneously. Unfortunately, this would most likely mean that he had to repair it after the fight. But well, better to sacrifice a pawn than losing your king. Masaru sent his puppet flying towards the dragon, hoping that the water dragon would either explode or stop on impact. He had, however, made sure to detach the metal gauntlets before sending the puppet towards the water dragon, as those would be the most expensive parts to repair. He judged that the dragon was a little more than twice as fast as his puppet, but the puppet was just a meter or two from him, while the water dragon had been sent from what Masaru thought was just around 20 meters. Taking his reaction time in account, he believed that the puppet and the water dragon would collide about 5 meters away from him, possibly a bit less.

WC: 3680 (+280)

Ayumi saw Masaru using the puppet to stop the dragon but was too late to bend it to its right or left, as she was sitting with little stamina and chakra. The dragon hit the puppet 4 meters away from him, making it explode. Puppet's parts were now flying all over the training ground as the dragon's head got smallar from the impact. Out of the small smoke coming out of the impact, it got out of the puppet's inside, reaching for Masaru. Its power and speed were lessened, but it was still at least as strong as a C-rank jutsu.

Ayumi thought she would lose if the technique missed, but the spar just got more interesting. If he were to dodge or block this somehow, it would be a spar between a puppeteer without a puppet against a ninjutsu user with little chakra. But she couldn't be sure, he could have another puppet somewhere hidden or in a scroll, also she took the metal gauntlets. Was it to use them or just because they were expensive? Still, Ayumi decided time would be in her favor, as he wouldn't be able to repair quickly but she could regain chakra. If he were to dodge, she would try to start a conversation to waste his time. "You sure have improved... or you really held back that time." she would smile from where she was sitting.

WC:2461

It had cost Masaru his puppet itself, and he had merely weakened the dragon. He had hoped that it would have stopped the water technique, but again, he had hoped, not expected. And now he did not have his puppet for the rest of the spar. Well, good thing that he had detached the metal gauntlets, especially due to the fact that they were the only defense that he had. And he would need them, if he still wanted to try to win this match. He quickly made the metal gauntlets fly towards him, arming himself with them. This was most likely going to hurt, Masaru thought, as he held the gauntlets out in front of him, using them as an improvised shield to block the diminished dragon’s head. Meanwhile he focused his chakra in his feet, while bracing himself for the impact that would happen shortly. If this did not knock him out, he would have to move in fast to finish the spar. Ayumi would most likely have depleted quite some chakra casting that water dragon technique.

And then the dragon hit him. Or rather, the splash from the water colliding with the gauntlets hit him, as the dragon had lost its remaining power when it hit the metal gauntlets. However, he could not allow himself to be stunned. Although drenched due to the fact that the water dragon had disappeared in a splash against the metal gauntlets, Masaru began a charge towards Ayumi, fists, covered by the metal gauntlets, held high, preparing himself for hand-to-hand combat. While he would prefer to fight from a distance, controlling his puppet, he did not that that many options left. Sure, he could try to fight her from a medium distance with kunai, but he would gain no advantage from that, as Ayumi could just use her water shield technique. So, however much he normally preferred not to be in it, melee combat was currently the best choice for Masaru.

WC: 4009 (+329)

Masaru understood the situation too, so he charged right at her with the metal gauntlets on his hands. She guessed he wouldn't be as good as her in hand-to-hand combat, since puppeteers are known for their weakness in close combat. But she was starting to get exhausted, so she thought this would be more or less an equal matchup, adding the fact he has some strong gauntlets. "Alright, let's finish this." she stood up, seeing he had no intention of stopping and started running towards him with 1 kunai on each hand.

WC:2556

Masaru had to admit, part of him had hoped that Ayumi would surrender when he came at her with gauntlets held high. However, it would be rather interesting to see how a melee between the two of them would go. As far as he knew, Ayumi was both faster and stronger than him. However, Masaru had his gauntlets, where Ayumi only had two kunai. The gauntlets could be used to block her attacks, and while the kunai could probably match the claws on the gauntlets at least somewhat in sharpness, there were a claw for every of Masaru’s fingers, while Ayumi had only one kunai in each hand.

Well, it was a good thing that Ayumi most likely had her chakra reserves depleted, because with these gauntlets on, Masaru would not be able to form hand seals, and thus he would not be able to use any of the Techniques that he knew, barring chakra threads. And he would prefer not to use those just yet, as he felt that his puppet had taken enough hits for him this fight. He would prefer not having to use the surviving parts of it, at the moment one and a half arm as well as a leg, in order to block her attacks. His gauntlets should be able to take the hits from her kunai, so there was no reason to sacrifice more pieces.

WC: 4241 (+232)

As they were about to reach each other she threw both the kunai one to his head and one to his left shoulder, she quickly drew another kunai to her left hand before they reached each other. Then, she bent down quickly as she swinged her left leg towards Masaru's leg. This was the Sweeping Dragon Tail technique she learned recently, and she was able to increase her speed and strength in her leg for this technique. If this were to connect Masaru would be swept and find himself in the ground, she would then throw the last kunai to his knee while he is still falling, making it very hard to block or dodge. If not, she would react according to his move.

WC:2672

Not exactly expecting his opponent to throw away her weapons, Masaru was somewhat surprised by the kunai flying at him. Well, she most likely had more, so it was not a bad move, especially as it forced him to cover his eyes for a moment, as he used his gauntlets to block her kunai. He covered his left shoulder by holding his right arm in front of him and protected his head by holding his left arm up to cover his face. Both kunai thus hit the metal gauntlets, and thus they did not do much damage.

However, in doing this, he had to cover his face, which meant that he was not able to see her for a precious few seconds. When he once again had Ayumi in sight, he could see that she had another kunai in her left hand, and that she was about to hit his left leg, which he would be too slow to do anything about. Or rather, he was too slow to stop the attack with one of gauntlets or to move out of the way. He could, however, gather chakra in his feet and overload them, timing it so that when Ayumi hit her leg, he would be sent up in the air by his chakra, after which he summersaulted through the air, landing two meters from her. He winced a bit as the leg that she had hit hurt a bit, and decided that he would not be moving much more during this spar.

Well, not much more, anyways, a bit could go. He held his right arm a bit out, and then swung it towards Ayumi. However, this was no special technique or anything like that. No, it was merely the kunai and wire that Masaru had set to his wrist at the start of the wrist, and not used before now. His hopes were that the kunai would swing around Ayumi, impairing her movements due to the wire. The moment the kunai was flying, Masaru charged towards Ayumi once more, gauntlets held high again, hoping to overpower her right side, as she had only taken a kunai in her left hand.

WC: 4603 (+362)

Ayumi seeing the kunai and him coming towards her, quickly used her Afterimage technique again. She expected it to be over after her last sweep so seeing him charge towards her like this was impressive. She jumped 15 meters away, into the river and threw 2 more kunai to him when she landed, she also drew 1 to each her hands again, standing on top of the water. She noticed she only had 1 kunai left in her pouch after drawing one to each hand, so she used 6 already? She needed time, it looked like he wasn't as tired as her after all that. If she could just buy some time to regenerate chakra, victory would probably be hers.


WC:2774

As she had jumped 15 meters away from him, Masaru was able to dodge the two kunai without much trouble. However, his right leg was hurting, so he would prefer not following her. 2 meters had been bearable, but 15 would probably hurt enough to impair his ability to fight. Well, the fact that she had gone to the river probably meant that she had, or would soon have, enough chakra for another Technique, but not enough to use it without a source of water. Well, Masaru did not feel very strongly for just sitting around and waiting for her to finish resting and/or preparing for her next technique. For that reason, Masaru half ran, half limped over to the trees, gathering the pieces of his puppet while doing so.

He was not sure if he could repair it here, but it was worth a shot, especially since it would most likely force Ayumi to do something to him. While her chakra reserves could be replenished if he left her alone for long, his leg would most likely improve as well, if it was given time. Besides, he might be able to do something with his puppet, especially since some parts of it was still whole.

WC: 4809 (+206)

Ayumi sat and rested as she watched Masaru pick up some parts of his puppet, she was sure there was a big hole in the puppet but its arms and legs could still work so he was probably trying to put the puppet back together in the "time advantage" she had. Ayumi saw him limping though, so he actually did get injured but didn't show it last time he charged. She smiled and stood up, she had some chakra regenerated but she wanted to go for the same technique again, it worked last time how wouldn't it work again? Still, she could use this as surprise as well.

She ran towards Masaru, if she reached her in time she would quickly bend down and this time move her right leg towards Masaru but if he tried to do the same trick and she saw the chakra coming to his feet she would stop at halfway and instead hit him with her left fist on his stomach.

WC:2946