Sparring? (P, NK)

Masaru had to wonder just how wounded he looked, since Ayumi was moving towards him so soon. Well, since there were between 15 and 20 meters between the two of them, he had more time than he usually had to think about how he would respond to her attack. It was more time than when she had used the Water Dragon Technique or hurt his leg, although he would still have to think quickly. Well, he would not be able to put the puppet together right now, especially not before she reached him, so he would either have to use them in a different way or just forget about them altogether. He decided on the former, and had the whole puppet parts, an arm, a leg, as well as the two gauntlets, fly a bit forward, and begin trying to hit her with either of the four puppet parts.

He would naturally prefer hitting her with the gauntlets, as their claws would most likely be able to cut through her skin without much trouble. The arm and the leg was mostly intended to be a nuisance to her, trying to hit her if she tried to move to either of the sides or tried to perform a hand seal, while the gauntlets tried to hit her up front, with Masaru roughly 5 meters from where the puppet parts would “meet” Ayumi.

WC: 4834 (+231)

She was running towards Masaru when he used his puppet parts to attack her. The gauntlets as well as an arm and a leg were flying towards her. This was her final chance, if she got attacked by this, it would be the end of the spar, the gauntlets could even kill her at this point. She focused and used Afterimage one last time to run much faster, Masaru would expect the clash to happen 5 meters from him but she ran there before the clash and then jumped towards him, making her afterimage bump right into the puppet parts but herself dodging them. She landed behind him and attempted to put her kunai on his neck, ironically the way he beat her last time. If this were to succeed, she would wait until he surrendered or made a move.

WC:3086

Masaru had looked at the clash that he had thought had been about to happen with worried expression. It had, for a moment, seemed like his plan had worked too well, and that he was about to injure Ayumi, something that he neither planned nor intended to do. His worry for that might explain why he was so slow to realize that Ayumi would never have done as his eyes told him, and then connecting the fact that she had used a similar move earlier in the fight. The only logical conclusion to that would be that she had used the distraction to get close to Masaru in order to finish him off. As such, Masaru let the puppet pieces fall to the ground even before he felt the kunai to his neck, knowing that his final gambit had worked, and that she now had him.

“Queen to e2 with a cover. Check and mate.” Masaru said with chuckle, while he lowered his arms as well, acknowledging his defeat. “You know, I do not think that that Water Dragon Technique of yours is supposed to be used in spars, that puppet was probably more durable than either of us, so if I had tried to dodge and failed, you would most likely have had a hard time explaining that to the higher-ups.” He remarked, turning around and looking at her with a questioning look on his face, expecting her to defend herself from that. Well, quite a few of the things that they did in a spar could potentially kill someone, but there was, at least to Masaru, a difference between casting a potentially lethal technique like that, and then throwing kunai at people.

WC: 5118 (+284)

"Chess enthusiast huh?" she smiled as she pulled her kunai back. "I know it was extreme, I guess I got carried away. Sorry about your puppet." she looked to its pieces. "I would probably not be able to break your defence otherwise though am I wrong? And I could control the dragon's power although I was running out of chakra, I'd never let it hurt you too much if you couldn't defend." she sat down, she was very tired but she kept eye contact.

"You sure have tired me. By the way, I am pretty sure you like chess after all this, we should play some time!" she laid down to look at the blue sky and the clouds after she ended her words. She loved to rest like this after her sparrings and trainings with the river flow near her.

WC:3198

”What gave it away, the fact that I called my puppet ’Pawn’, or my calling you a queen?” Masaru replied with a grin, maintaining the eye contact while sitting down as well, but then turned a bit more serious. “Well, I am just glad that I made my puppet strong enough to eventually withstand the water dragon, although I should probably have given it something that it could use more defensively,” He said with a sigh, but then added, “But despite that, yes, you would most likely not have been able to get to me in the way that you did just now.”

“But well, I guess that there is nothing left about this than to forgive and, not forget, but improve.” He said with yet another grin, while thinking about the fact that she apparently played chess as well. He was a bit surprised that someone else knew about the game, but after all, he could not expect himself to be the only one who knew it. “Be careful with what you say, I might hold you up to it some time.” He said, with a teasing smile, thinking that he ought to keep a chess set with him where he went, since he was, so far, building his fighting style around it, but for now he would probably have to make do with the one he had at his house.

“But I’ll better get going now. I’d like to get a closer look at how my leg is doing,” Masaru said, standing up again, but hurried to add, “And I do not hold it against you, you get hurt when you train, so you are completely forgiven for anything that happened during the spar.” With that, he gathered the parts of his puppet, and recovered the bandages as well, and then bandaged the parts. “I hope that we meet again sometime, I like sparring with you. It keeps me on my toes.” He said, and turned back to smile at her, before he began walking back towards Konoha.

{Exit}
WC: 5458 (+340)
+27 stats, +54 JP

She looked at his leg and it did look pretty bad, she was even more impressed by his dedication in the spar. "I hope your leg is ok, and I am looking forward to our next spar.. or chess game" she smiled as he began walking, Ayumi would rest for 20-25 minutes lying there enjoying the day before she also stood up and went back home. It was probably the most equal and greatest spar she had so far, and she really enjoyed it. Victory made it even better and she really looked forward to their next spar. She wanted to see Masaru improve with her and she could see him as a true rival in the future.

{Exit}
WC:3319

+16 stats, +33 JP, +3319 words to Suiton: Suiten Hōfutsu, making it 7523/7500 --> level 5

Approved!