9 Training Ground Pounding

     "Hey there, gang! How have you been? Are you guys ready to give it your all today? Remember, I want to see everything you've got." Sozen Sensei asked.

     " "Yes, Sensei." "

     "I'm ready! Let's do this!"

     "Haha! Calm down there Yusuke! Why don't you let me and Naburo go at it first?"

     "Alright, I'll wait." Yusuke said, with a bit of resignation in his voice.

     "Haha! Don't worry, Yusuke! Everyone will get their chance, before the day is through."

     Seeing that Naburo was already in position and apparently eager to get this fight started, Sozen nodded towards him and assumed the Whirling Fist fighting stance.

     Naburo decided to start things off with a few shuriken, while dashing towards Sozen, which Sozen causally deflected. Arriving in front of Sozen, Naburo began attacking relentlessly. The two exchanged dozens of blows, before Naburo sent forward an open palm strike that Sozen was about to block.

     Suddenly, a white boney spike appeared in the middle of Naburo's palm forcing Sozen to look surprised, grasp the attacking palm at the wrist, and sling the boy away from him.

     Seeing this, Yusuke smiled and realized his teammate had reached a new level of control over his Kekkei Genkai. As a matter of fact, it could be said that with just that one action he had already realized the first part of his dream. If he could activate his Dead Bone Pulse to this degree now, then it should only be a matter of time, before he's a regular Kimimaro.

     Yusuke watched, as Naburo placed his feet and a single hand on the ground, as he flew backwards, to slow himself to a stop. Recovering quickly, Naburo did quick series of hand signs and the earth beneath Sozen's feet began to rumble, before shooting straight up into the air in the shape of a stalagmite. "Earth Spike Jutsu!"

     Sozen Sensei had dodged in plenty of time, only to find the place where he was dodging to was also being assaulted by an Earth Spike. Sozen doged three more Earth Spikes before having a trap go off to his right, sending several shuriken flying towards him.

     Sozen then dodged the shurikens to the right, as Naburo brought his kunai up from the direction he was dodging, forcing him to block with his own kunai.

     Naburo sent a follow up kick towards Sozen's head, which was blocked. Attempting another kick with his other leg, Sozen grasped hold of his leg and his even his other leg upon his next follow up kick.

     With both of Sozen's hands tied up, Naburo brought his kunai above his head and bent backwards aiming a thrust directly at Sozen's upper thigh. Realizing the trap he'd fallen into, Sozen once again tossed the boy away from him.

     However, this time Naburo used the moment of his flight to spin around, while channeling Lightning Chakra into his kunai. Releasing the kunai at a tremendous speed, not even leaving Sozen time enough to blink before being forced to dodge.

     Sozen watched as the Lightning Kunai missed his face by just a hair's breadth but quickly realized something was wrong.

     Naburo had given up on softening his landing and he also began forming hand signs, as soon as his kunai had left his hand. Allowing himself to absorb the impact of the landing, he controlled his tumbling and quickly stabilized himself, placed his hands on the ground, and sent another Earth Spike directly underneath the mid dodge Sozen.

     Naburo smiled broadly for the first time, since meeting his teammates, whenever he saw the former image of his Sensei vanish in a cloud of smoke only to reveal a small log, split in half by his Earth Spike, tumbling to the ground.

     "Hey! Nice going, Naburo!" Sozen's voice called from behind him. "That was an excellent spar! You really had me going with that Lightning Kunai! Are you satisfied with the results? If there's anything else you want to show me, now is the time."

     Naburo just showed a slight grin, left over from his initial reaction, shook his head, and said, "Thank you, for the spar, Sensei!" As he bowed slightly, before returning to where his teammates were standing.

     As Sozen watched his student react this way, he couldn't help but think, 'Yep! It's definitely getting worse! It's like training is some kind of religion or something for these freaks! No! No! No, Sozen! They're not freaks! They're your pupils and it's entirely improper for you to ridicule them for their lifestyle choices!... Even if those lifestyle choices are super freaky!'

*Breathes Deeply*

     "Alright! Emiko! How about you go next?" Sozen gestured towards her.

     Emiko nodded, stood up, and walked into position across from Sozen Sensei.

     A few seconds after both parties acknowledged their readiness, Emiko bolted into action by running towards Sozen's left side, while forming a series of hand signs.

     "Ice Senbon Jutsu!"

     Four senbon shaped icicles formed in between the fingers of both of her hands and she immediately began throwing them towards Sozen. Every time she would throw the four senbon she held in one hand, she would bring her hand back into its starting position where four more senbon would form.

     Emiko continued running in a circle around Sozen, throwing senbon towards him and forcing him to either block or dodge.

     Once she had made a complete circle around him, she focused chakra at the bottom of her feet and began a high speed dash towards Sozen, while throwing more Ice Senbon towards him every couple of feet.

     About three feet in front of Sozen, Emiko channeled her forward momentum into a roundhouse kick. As her attacking foot came into position, she released control of the Ice Senbon she had attached to it, while running.

     Seeing the Ice Senbon flying towards him at such close range, Sozen quickly deflected it and began to move to the side. Her follow up roundhouse had just released another Ice Senbon in his direction and she was currently forming more hand seals.

     After dodging all of her attacks, Sozen prepared himself for her next jutsu. "Ice Wall Jutsu!"

     At the same time that a door sized wall of ice appeared in front of her, she activated one of her traps, sending a wide horizontal spread of shurikens flying in Sozen's direction, forcing him to deflect at least a few.

     Before Sozen was able to deflect her shuriken, she had already produced a clone and a Water Clone. At the moment that Sozen deflected her shuriken, her Clone ran out from behind the Ice Wall and began running a circle around him while seemingly throwing individual Senbons at him, which inevitably just passed right through Sozen without harming him.

     Realizing that this was a clone, Sozen was about to look back at the Ice Wall only to notice a shadow above him.

     Emiko's Water Clone had jumped high into the air from atop the Ice Wall and was now throwing an Ice Senbon at Sozen standing below her. He knew this wasn't a  Clone because it had a shadow and so he started to dodge, when suddenly his entire back was porcupined with Ice Senbon.

     Only a split second after Sozen's back was porcupined with senbon, he heard an exclamation. "Great Breakthrough Jutsu!"

     The great gust of wind traveled swiftly to its mark, blowing away the cloud of smoke and the log that had already appeared in place of her Sensei.

     "Very nicely done, Emiko! It's already rare for someone of your clan to awaken their Kekkei Genkai but to be so skilled in its usage at your age is really impressive!"

     "Thank you, Sensei!" Responding much the same way Naburo did, with a slight grin and a slight bow, she quickly returned to her place beside her teammates.

     "Well, Yusuke? It looks like it's finally your turn! Are you ready?"

     "You betcha!" Yusuke said, as he Body Flickered into the same position the others had taken.

     This move had surprised both his teammates and Sozen. "Ha! It looks like you've already mastered the Body Flicker Jutsu! Well done, Yusuke! This fight should prove to be interesting!"

     "Actually, Sensei, I have a confession to make! You're aware that I was held back a year at the Academy right?"

     Sozen looked a bit confused at this question. He was aware of this fact but the beginning of a practice spar with your Sensei didn't exactly seem like the place for a confession. 'What kind of confession could possibly be relevant in this situation?'

     "Umm...sure, I'm aware of this."

     "Well, it just so happens that I had been hiding my abilities and, while you may have already guessed as much, you almost certainly haven't guessed why I was doing so. 

     "You see, Sensei, during the time I was held back, I was actually working on an absolutely amazing Fuinjutsu that can make me almost invulnerable to almost any attack. I still have some work to do on it but it's already pretty amazing. 

     "The reason why I'm telling you this is because even if I can't beat you here today, if you decide to attack me, not a single one of your attacks will be able to land. Now you've been warned, so now we can start." Yusuke told his Sensei, as he allowed the ink's liquid state to go crashing down to the ground around him, leaving him completely naked.

     All three of his teammate's eyes went wide, upon witnessing this. Yusuke even noticed a tinge of blush upon Emiko's cheeks. Smiling at this, Yusuke brought his ink back up around his body but only enough to cover himself in a thin film. The rest was split in half and formed into two separate clones of himself.

     Now, Yusuke appeared as nothing more than a black shadow with human eyes standing amongst two other shadows with no eyes. Connecting one single chakra thread to each Nij Clone, he then pulled out his five Death Sphere Puppets and began his assault.

     Sending both of his Nij Clones out running side by side, with two puppets apiece and one hanging back for support, he commanded them to split apart at about ten feet from Sozen.

     Whenever Sozen had initially heard what Yusuke was claiming he was, of course, skeptical and about to chastise him for being foolish. Everything that happened after he finished speaking, however, was simply too bizarre.

     After witnessing everything that Yusuke had done and now looking at these clones and their accompanying puppets, he was no longer certain whether Yusuke was being foolish or not. 'Maybe I'm the one who's being foolish!' Sozen thought, as he watched the two clones coming at him.

     The two Nij Clones took up positions on each side of Sozen, they accessed the many projectile weapons they held in their storage, and then began assaulting him from both sides.

     Shuriken, Senbons, Kunai, they were all thrown into the mix. Ever since Yusuke had successfully created his Nij, he had spent at least some time every day placing either projectiles, chakra, jutsus, or all three into the appropriate storage spaces of his Nij.

     His Nij Clones may not be able to perform any of his jutsus the way he can but whatever jutsus they store can be popped right back out again, on his command.

     After testing Sozen Sensei's reactions for a bit, Yusuke sent six Lightning Senbon out of his left clone causing Sozen to dodge backwards. But this is exactly the reaction he was anticipating and there were already several shuriken, from his right clone heading to that location.

     Sozen saw this and brought his kunai out to deflect as many as he could but then the left clone flew, literally flew because it's being puppeteered by Yusuke, silently towards Sozen, landing a powerful kick into his back.

     This sent Sozen flying and also caused him to be hit with all of the shurikens from the right clone. Soon a puff of smoke was seen, along with a shuriken covered log.

     'What the freaking hell just happened? How did that damned clone sneak up on me? What the hell are those damned clones made out of anyways? Did this kid really create some unbelievable Fuinjutsu? It's really hard to believe but the more I see of those freakish clones the more it really does seem like the case.

     'Alright, Yusuke! No more messing around! I didn't want to do this but you're the one who was talking all big earlier. I'm about to obliterate those clones of yours and force you into a one on one. Then we'll see how big you talk.'

     Sozen dashed out of the tree he had been hiding in and almost immediately Body Flickered in front of the clone that had kicked him. Turning immediately into a roundhouse kick that went straight through top half of the Nij Clone and put a smile on Sozen's face. 'Ha! I'll never land an attack, eh, Yusuke? It seems like you were just bluffing, after all. Now, for the next one!'

     Following through, he completed his three sixty spin and was now facing the right clone. He immediately began making a series of hand signs and was preparing to use the Body Flicker, when his left side received a powerful impact that he was certain very nearly broke some of his ribs.

     Sozen's real body was sent flying this time and as he left the ground he could see the same clone that he thought he had destroyed standing on one leg and the other leg stretching up towards the sky.

     Sozen landed on the ground several meters away and was rolled by his inertia several times, before coming to a stop. He didn't know how this had happened but he suspected it had something to do with him severely underestimating his student, Yusuke.

     'Dammit! This is embarrassing! Getting beaten up like this in front of my Genin pupils, by a Genin! Damn, I don't know how Yusuke is capable of any of this but it'll have to wait for another time. Right now, I need to suck it up, put on my Sensei face, and send these kids away, so I can get to the hospital.'

     Sozen smiled through the pain he was experiencing, as he stood up, waved, and Flickered over to Yusuke's position. Yusuke had already put away his puppets and reshaped his Nij into his regular clothing.

     "Haha! Wow, Yusuke! You really weren't lying about that new Fuinjutsu of yours! It's pretty incredible! Yep, I'd say you're definitely the strongest of the bunch, which isn't to say you guys didn't do well. You all did great too! 

     "And, now that our little match is over, well, I've got a lot to do. You've all given me a lot to think about and so you guys can go ahead and get back to your training or whatever you do. I'll see you guys later! Bye!" Sozen said, with his forced smile still in place, as he immediately Flickered away.

     'Well, damn! So much for showing all of my abilities! I knew I shouldn't have used a Great Breakthrough to power that last kick. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll get another opportunity. That little scuffle had bound to have roused Sensei's curiosity.'

     "Well, that was fun wasn't it?" Yusuke said, turning to his normally stoic friends only to see them standing there with their mouths hanging halfway open, while staring at Yusuke.

     'Okay, so I'm guessing this is going to be more of a headache than I imagined?' Yusuke thought, as he attempted to snap his teammates out of their daze.