Fire Meets Lightning - Spar Time (Daisuke)

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Shouten was standing in the oasis, daydreaming about the day. Today, Daisuke had challenged him to a friendly sparring match. If the young man were honest with himself, he wanted to spar with Daisuke ever since their original training with Masami-sensei. Both him and Mizuki, for that matter. Wow, Masami-sensei. It had been quite a few days since Shouten was embarrassed by his Jounin sensei. He had fully recovered and even completed his training session. They still had yet to embark on a mission, but that was okay. They could use the time to practice for their first encounter. The poor boy had delusions of grandeur.

"I can see it now. Our first mission, an A-Rank mission given to us specially by the Kazekage. We'll be sent to pull off a brilliant assassination. Masami-sensei will engage him first, weakening him. Then Dai would go on and lay some lightning on him. Then it's my show, and I go for the kill. As reward, I'm rewarded by MizuMizu with a big ole...."

Shouten shook his head and snapped out of it. Experiencing hormones was terrible and he was going to let the awkward thoughts roll out of his head before he returned to daydreaming. Rather, he wanted to return, but it was at that point that Daisuke landed in the Oasis. He looked ready for a fight, but so did Shouten Li. His blade was over his shoulder, gripped tightly in his hand, rather than sheathed. He was tapping it lightly on his shoulder to give his hands something to do.

"Hopefully he'll use enough of his arsenal for me to start formulating some plans for the team. This ought to be fun. I think I'm gonna catch him off guard with some swordplay this time. He's already seen my Katon..."

"Yo Dai, let's have some fun!"

[Daisuke Hizuhiro]

Daisuke decided to make the trek back out to the very same Oasis where he and the other two genin had been so shamelessly beat down, only to find his ally, Shouten Li was already there. He looked like he'd been daydreaming or something, so Daisuke casually walked over ot him. Thankfully this time, since he was prepared for the trek into the desert, it hadn't been too taxing.

A determined look crawled upon Daisuke's face, he knelt down and unsnapped the pouch on his leg, removing two of the four Kunai that rested there, stood up, and flipped the knives around in the air, catching them upside down, so that the blade was coming out the bottoms of his fists. He then made eye contact with Shouten, smiled, and said, "Yes, let's."

Daisuke wasted no time analyzing the situation, it all went through his mind in a blur. He was aware of the fact that Shouten had bought a sword a few days earlier, and he'd no doubt trained with it, so Daisuke would need to foster the idea that close combat would be a factor here. Daisuke's mind flashed to his ninja pack located on his rear, which normally contained a small amount of tools, now contained 7 scrolls, each sealing something different.

He already had a plan to deal with Shouten's close combat, but his fire jutsu would likely be a bit of a problem. At the end of the day, he would discover nothing if he didn't engage him, so he took a big breath and then he was off. He charged forward with both hands trailing behind him until he got close, ducked in low, and made a sweeping kick for Shouten's legs, holding the Kunai inward to counter and retaliatory blows. If he could break his base, he could break his swordplay.

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Shouten's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't expected Daisuke to make the first move. Normally the boy was very calculative and took ages to attack. This time it seemed like pure instinct. Shouten smirked to himself. This would be a great fight. He watched anxiously as the boy drew two kunai from his pouch. At that instant he assumed the battle was on and readied his hands for handseals. Was it counter productive to sheathe his sword? Yes. Still, he would need jutsu if Daisuke planned on throwing kunai at him.

Sadly, Shouten guessed wrong. An amateur mistake on his part. Still, there was time to recover. He watched as Daisuke dashed towards him and decided to save the chakra use Katon techniques. He might as well test Daisuke against fire ninjutsu. Especially since, given his forward charge, he was new at fighting a potentially long range opponent. Daisuke seemed to be a bit quicker than Shouten's handseals, so he abandoned attempting to shoot fire at him mid-charge. Instead, he waited for Daisuke's attack to come.

The leg sweep came at Shouten, but he was prepared for an attack. He sent chakra to his feet and leapt up into the air. From his aerial perspective, he could counterattack. Quickly, the young Li Leader crafted the proper handseals. Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!"

The boy yelled with all his heart. He chose this technique, rather than the much stronger Grand Fireball, for a great reason. He could split the attacks, much as he had attempted to do in their Genin training. He fired a few fireballs downward, directly at Daisuke. The rest, however, he fired a few feet behind Daisuke. He figured he was guessing wrong yet again, but he had hoped Daisuke would dodge backwards. It was natural instinct after all, considering a forward dodge would be uncomfortable from his position. Damned, the boy hadn't thought his course of action completely through. He had two issues. If Daisuke were hit, he'd be burned. Burns are extreme for a sparring match. More importantly, he hadn't figured out how to get down softly...

[Daisuke Hizuhiro]

The Genin's attack connected with nothing but air, and his surprised face turned upward to watch Shouten ascend. It wasn't long until the handsigns began to form, and Daisuke prepared himself for another one of his fire jutsu, likely the same one he'd shown at their test. So it was only natural that the momentum of his kick carried his dodge. He just tucked his body together and rolled forward through the sand, coming back to his feet and running a dozen yards or so before he deemed himself safe from the barrage, and turned around, to see Shouten beginning his descent, nearly vertical from where he stood.

Perfect! Daisuke wasted no time in pulling two scrolls from his back and unrolling one of them fully, the other one would be unrolled just once. Out of the first he unsealed a smoke bomb, setting it off at his feet, and once the smoke was up, he unsealed a good amount of makibishi spikes, laying them about on the ground. Since where they were fighting was so near the oasis, there was just a small layer of sand above some good solid ground, providing the perfect cover for this trap.

Surely the young Li boy would be upon him by now, so he took care to jump out of the cloud of smoke, and ready himself for the very potentially angry Shouten.

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Shouten smirked. He was happy that Daisuke had dodged the attack. It would be boring if he had been beaten so quickly. The boy's back was open to Daisuke, but it seemed as if the attack would not come. He landed softer than he had thought on the ground. The sand was soft, and he was a ninja after all. As soon as his feet made a solid connection, he turned around poised to attack Daisuke. He watched as the boy was covered in a cloud of smoke.

A trap. Easy. Shouten knew that a ninja wouldn't use a smoke bomb at far range unless he were preparing something within it. Perhaps it was a jutsu that would require a prep time. Perhaps even Daisuke was hoping to confuse Shouten in the smoke with Taijutsu. He really screwed up buying that sword in front of him. Oh well, it wasn't going to work this time. Shouten gauged his chakra supply. He really only had about three Katon techniques in him before he was going to fail embarrassingly. He thought it out, and decided that long range was the best way to combat Daisuke for the moment. He reached into his holster and pulled out as many shuriken as one Genin could hold. Then he threw them in a spread towards the cloud of smoke.

The plan was simple. Daisuke would either take the shuriken, like an ass, be completely unaffected like an ass, or jump out of the smoke like a winner. Once he showed his face, Shouten would litter it with fireballs. Once the Genin threw his shuriken spread, he took a few more steps towards Daisuke's assumed position. He wanted to make sure the gap between him and a potential fireball was quite short.

"Come on, Daisuke. Show that face of yours, so I can blow it away."

[Daisuke Hizuhiro]

Daisuke watched as Shouten descended beyond the smoke cloud, so that it was the only thing seperating them. It accomplished what he wanted, and that was distance. However, he wasn't going to just sit there defenseless, he reached back and pulled yet another scroll, unsealing a Fuuma Shuriken, twirling it between his hands, causing it to unfold to it's full extent. He expected some sort of attack, though he had no idea what that would be.

Sure enough, it was not a moment later that a dozen or so shuriken came flying out of the smoke, headed straight toward him. He ducked and dove around a few of them, deflected a few more with his fuuma shuriken, and finally it seemed the barrage was over. He reached into his leg pouch and pulled out a spool of high density wire, tying it to the shuriken, and winding back to throw.

He let the spinning blade of death fly off to the right, around the smoke cloud, and then gave a sharp pull on the wire when he felt it had flown a good distance. If he was lucky, the attack would be headed straight for the Li Clan head, otherwise, if the attack had overshot, the wire would at least catch him and the blade would wrap around, essentially trapping him by tying him up, which would work just as well.

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Shouten watched the smoke cloud intently. It looked as if his shuriken plan was completely ineffective. Luckily for him, Daisuke's counterattack was not very well thought out. Finally, Shouten drew his sword, because he needed some serious skill to catch a Fuuma Shuriken. Skill that he did not possess. When the weapon was in proper range, Shouten slammed down on it hard. The shuriken lodged itself into the sand. Seeing an opportunity, Shouten picked the shuriken back up. He didn't have an infinite amount, and if he chose to continue this range game, he'd need more ammo. He was shocked to find that it was attached to a wire of some sort.

The boy grinned. First, he sheathed his sword. Then, he tugged as hard as he could on the line. This served two purposes, albeit very stupid purposes. His first hope was that the pull would be hard enough to cause Daisuke to stumble. That was a pipe dream considering the sand and the boys' weight, but it was possible. The second, more obvious plot, was to discover Daisuke's location. Shouten formed a single handseal and burst into a cloud of smoke.

"Sand Village Art: Mirage Blade."

When Shouten's vision was perfect again, his sword was drawn, aimed to strike. The smoke had since cleared, and he was going to attempt a slash into the shoulder. Survivable, but painful nonetheless. Daisuke's back looked as inviting as a birthday cake. He wouldn't even see the attack coming!

[Daisuke Hizuhiro]

Daisuke held on the the line loosely, as one might hold a kite, until he felt a slight release in pressure, knowing his strike either landed, or perhaps he'd stopped it. Damn... I should have attatched an explosive tag to that before I threw it, oh well, hindsight is 20/20.... In any case, having a connection to the line which was now in Shouten's vicinity would only be a problem for him, so he drew one of his four kunai that were not sealed in scrolls, and with a slight effort, cut the line and placed the spool back in his pack.

It wasn't long before he heard the telltale poof of the Shunshin no Jutsu, and his eyes widened as he realized the implications of what that sound meant. A glint of light caught his peripherial vision as the sun glanced off of Shouten's sword, which was drawn and ready to strike. There was no time. There was less than no time. Every muscle in his body worked at optimum potential to carry him from danger. And yet, it wasn't enough. A gash cut its way into Daisuke's forearm as he had spun around to face his attacker, but through the pain he continued to push forward with the kunai in his hand. The wound wasn't too bad, but more painful than he would have expected. He'd never experienced pain like this before, but somehow, it seemed to accellerate the intensity of the fight, as the kunai headed beneath Shouten's sword and toward his torso.

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Damn. Shouten was caught completely off guard. He could see it in Daisuke's eyes. He had forgotten that they were only sparring. Understandable considering Shouten had just sliced him. He was wide open, his hands were occupied, and he couldn't mold chakra from this stance.

The kunai didn't go into his gut very easily nor painlessly. In fact, it hurt like the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Were he a civilian, Shouten would have doubled over in pain. However, the Li Leader was a ninja. His arms were still extended in a slash and Daisuke was preoccupied attempting to dissect him. It was now or never.

Shouten swung his arms in another slashing motion. From his position, he would more than likely decapitate Daisuke. That was obviously not the plan. He aimed to stop his blade at his fellow team mate's neck. A sign that the fight was over without further bloodshed. As he moved though, he swung with only one arm. The other was focusing, trying to mold chakra. If Daisuke didn't listen, he would have to use jutsu. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"Damn it. I'm not going to lose again!"

Plans began to run through Shouten's mind. He was down, but not out.

[Daisuke Hizuhiro]

Daisuke felt the kunai connect, a grim smirk crawled over his face, but it was short lived. The pain from his arm was all the more real now, and in the moment he took to wince from the pain, Shouten's sword was at his neck. His immediate reaction would have been to jump upward, knocking the blade out of lethal range, but he'd probably have lost a piece of ear for his effort. He wasn't beaten by a mile, but Souten was right, they'd gone too far. Daisuke removed his hand from the kunai and nodded. He took a step back and ripped off his sleeve, allowing himself to examine his wound.

It looked bad, but it could have been much worse. His eyes flickered over to Shouten's stomach, the kunai hadn't stuck far, but any lower torso wound would have to be treated immediately. Daisuke took care in slowly reaching back to unseal his emergency scroll which contained some dried fruits and meats, a canteen full of clean water, and some bandages. He did it slowly so as not to scare Shouten into attacking again.

He unsealed the canteen and some bandages, splashing water on his arm and applying a long strip of the bandage, before handing them to Shouten. "Here... you should clean that wound now, the trip back to the village would leave that infected for sure." Clearly the two were quite evenly matched, it was somewhat unfortunate they'd never find out for real who was the more powerful of the two.

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