Mizuki's mind games

" I am going to start "

Said Iruka making a seal, the seal made at the beginning of a friendly fight.

Wasting no time Iruka ran towards Mizuki, practically flying in one step as he gave it his all from the beginning, he was here to confirm if Mizuki had enough strength to become Jonin, being able to take a full power chunin going for a quick takedown should be the least of his concerns.

* Swish *

Mizuki simply ducked down, smiling lightly, as Iruka kicked aiming for his head, having gotten behind Mizuki in his bout of speed.

' Does he have eyes on his back or something, he ducked just at the right time, with enough precision.. he's gotten stronger that's for sure '

Iruka didn't stop his attacks even as he thought, punch, kicks, even surprise grapples, he tried them all, and Mizuki did the same thing each time, he kept avoiding with minimum effort.

* Huff *

Wiping the slight sweat forming on his face from dealing attacks of such high intensity all this time, Iruka was starting to get a little frustrated at Mizuki's lack of action.

Seeing a lapse in focus from his opponent, Mizuki, not giving a chance for Iruka to think any further about his course of action, simply vanished.

Before Iruka's mind could even process what his eyes saw.

* Bam *

Iruka was sent flying as he skidded, rolled and almost ate dirt as he managed to stop somehow by digging his hands in the earth.

" Aah "

Iruka struggled to raise his upper body up as rubbed his now red forehead, it had a little red spot right at the centre.

" Did you just finger flick me this far..?! "

" Yes. Now get up, chop chop, I know you can do better..! "

Iruka's eyes twitched at his friends warm smile for the first time. That smile really didn't seem warm anymore.

But getting up begrudgingly, Iruka decided to see this battle to an end anyway, even if he was already certain Mizuki has far surpassed him.

" That speed, that power, Mizuki- "

* Bam *

Rolling on the ground, skidding and this time definitely eating dirt Iruka somehow managed to push himself off the ground, with sheer muscular force, he used the skidding momentum to flip back on his feet, now sitting in a crouching posture, ready for any sudden attacks.

Iruka didn't blame Mizuki for his sneak attack, he knew Mizuki was trying to caution him to be on guard during a Ninja bout, his friend was simply reminding him to regain his dulled senses due to the years at the academy, Iruka was sure of that.

' Hah, that was good '

Thought Mizuki as he was having fun playing around with Iruka, the fight might have multiple purposes behind it, but that wouldn't stop Mizuki from having his fun. And he was having a lot of it.

Iruka's eyes slightly condensed as he saw Mizuki gently smile as he put his hands in his pocket, and vanish from his sight once more.

' Not even an afterimage, such masterful body flicker '

Iruka's face was slightly sweaty as he was highly concentrated, searching for positions Mizuki would attack him from. Even if Mizuki was flickering around so fast he couldn't even see him, he cannot keep that up for long, even jonin don't have the chakra to do hundreds of body flicker in a row, Mizuki would stop soon, and he would have to come close to attack him, that's when Iruka would strike back.

Meanwhile Mizuki was chilling on a tree far away, eating some candy do get pass time

' Hah, keeping your concentration up for long like that is totally a death wish, you are gonna tire yourself out soon '

Did Iruka know this, of course he did, he was a Ninja, not knowing this was getting killed. Then why was he still doing this? Mizuki, that's why.

' Classic, I flicked him off twice, both times his brain couldn't see it coming, making it very frustrated and scared of the sudden pain, knowing something like that might happen again, the brain dedicated every resource to keep it from avoiding the feeling of pain this time around, making his mind foucus solely on this urgent task, completely ignoring the caution and basic training Iruka knows. '

Was it necessary for a person as strong as Mizuki to use tactics this deep for Iruka? No. But that would never stop Mizuki from doing it anyway.

He would always give the fight a fitting conclusion using fitting methods, if this was a death battle, the opponent wouldn't see how Mizuki took his life, but this was a battle not of death, but of assurance and fun, Iruka was going to be quite assured of his strength after this, and Mizuki, well Mizuki was going to have his fun.

' Where is he, how can he keep the body flicker going that long?!! Wait is he even here- '

' And that's my cue '

Thought Mizuki as he saw Iruka's brain coming out of the urgency state due to nothing happening for a while. Can't have that.

* Bam *

Just as Iruka started searching for clues around such as slight footprint in hopes of finding if Mizuki was still flickering, he went flying once more.

" Gah! "

This time around with a kidney shot, Iruka was feeling too much pain but he managed to struggle back up, just as he saw Mizuki giving his smile once more as he vanished.

' Shit! He was there! Just waiting for his chance, where is he gonna stirke from now! Think think! '

Iruka looked around with slightly bloodshot eyes as he searched for Mizuki.

Mizuki was hitting him hard, very hard.

But Iruka didn't complain, he knew Mizuki was taking this seriously as a sign of respect to him, so he knew he was in very real danger of massive harm.

Eyes darting everywhere, muscles twitching frequently, Iruka was completely on egde, he wasn't able-

' What's that?! A leaf? It wasn't that leaf, did he throw that? Was it blown by the wind of his flicker?! Shit ! Where is he?!?'

Mizuki was back at his spot again as he saw Iruka getting scared form a leaf blown by the wind.

' Fear conditioning. Now that he was gifted with a hit extremely painful when he thought I wasn't actually there, his brain will automatically avoid this conclusion for the duration of this fight, it can't afford to think of ' wrong ' conclusions that give massively painful results...

He would now try to concentrate on even tiniest of details to avoid pain, the longer he cannot find me, the more desparate he will become, the more he will start to... fear. '

Seeing Iruka's increasing unhinged look, Mizuki whispered.

" Fear comes form the unknown, what can be scarier than the fear of death haunting you, that you are desparate to stop but can't even seem to comprehend. "

Mizuki simply decided to lie down, Iruka was a lost cause, he would surrender himself soon.

' Even dying a quick death is preferable when compared to living while fearing for your life every walking second, Iruka would have either surrendered to the enemy or plunged a kunai in his chest from the stress in an actual battlefield '

Eating a healthy candy Mizuki enjoyed the taste while Iruka was beginning to see blurry, he was sure his mouth was feeling the taste of blood! It couldn't have been his could it?! But he couldn't afford to lose concentration, he couldn't-

* Bam *

...Iruka fell face first into the ground. Nose bleeding as he laid knocked out.

Mizuki turned his way as he saw it, raised his eyebrows and decided to take Iruka back.

" Knocked out...? Huh, he actually knocked himself out from his increased blood pressure? Hah, he really has gotten soft, pity, I had a whole thing prepared after the fight too "

Mizuki whispered as he wiped blood off Iruka's face with a wipe form his Ninja pouch.

His dynamic with Iruka needed to change a little, Iruka had a habit of questioning him far too much, this wasn't going to do, it would not do at all, Iruka's approach to their discussions needed to change, Mizuki might have been willing to partake in entertaining him before, as it would all but help him get his word out, but he wasn't willing to spend so much effort explaining his every action to Iruka now that this would no longer be necessary.

' Iruka would bring unforseen circumstances, his demand of a fight had the potential to ruin all my actions until now, I had managed to improvise and used this to my advantage, but only a fool would keep such a random variable in their plans, not everytime Iruka's involvement would be postive, not everything could be avoided, I do not wish for a situation as such to happen. '

Narrowing his eyes, Mizuki remarked.

' I had to put the concept of fear in him. The idea of my strength being so much higher that his worries are either unfounded or downright unnecessary.'

He would deposit Iruka to his house and leave, Iruka would be fine after waking up, a little unhinged for a few days, but fine nonetheless, as for what Mizuki would do.

' Gotta keep practicing, getting used to sage mode will only help me, from smooth application of increased power to the enhancements being in constant sage mode provide me, there is really no reason to not spend my free time adjusting my body to my sage mode '