Division Without Derision

'My clone has died,' was the first thought that ran through Katsu's mind. He could feel a steady stream of chakra returning to his body — only what chakra the shadow clone had remaining upon its expiration.

"You're not going to introduce yourself, lad?" the man asked, "How can this be a fight to remember if you don't even know your opponent's name? How are you going to brag about it to the ladies or at the bar? Name's Jiro, by the way."

Katsu fixed his gaze on Jiro's slow approach towards him like he were a father leisurely coming to pick up his child from daycare. He felt he'd probably been underestimated. Any shinobi worth his salt would have made a better attempt at a sneak attack then throwing a single kunai, and a poor throw at that.

"Katsu — not that it matters in the end. Though I can't imagine killing a kid is worth bragging about." Katsu reciprocated the man's conversation.

"Haha, indeed it is not, laddie, which is why a bit of embellishment never hurt nobody," Jiro said, drawing ever closer, "It's not as though anybody would be able to call me out, anyhow. It is, after all, just us two in these here woods."

Jiro now stood within ten meters of Katsu, utterly unfazed by the boy's presence. Katsu was young enough to be his son or an early grandson even — too young to strike any modicum of unease into his experienced shinobi heart.

Though Jiro was not without caution. He was not foolish enough to believe the child powerless; The ingrained metal plate wrapped around his bicep was proof of that.

When Jiro was within eight meters of Katsu, he began to tighten his grip on the kunai in the palm of his right hand. He wondered, 'Why is the lad still just standing there?'

Jiro soon crossed within six meters of Katsu and said, "Waiting for me to make the first move, is that it, lad?"

"No," Katsu said simply before signing a few seals. Seven identical copies of himself soon appeared around him, who then turned to face Jiro.

The seven clones immediately stormed Jiro in a mass of bodies. Four rushed him head on, two took to his flanks, and another leapt in the air to attack from above.

'Shadow clones?!' Jiro thought in a panic, but soon his shinobi experiences paid dividends as he realized the truth.

The supposed shadow clones had left no noticeable footprint on the forest floor. No grass had been crushed, nor any dirt kicked up in their hasty assault.

The clones crowed Jiro in a jumbled mess, and when he pierced one through the chest with his kunai, he was unsurprised to find that it had simply passed through.

'As I thought, just simple clones. It seems they're trying to obscure my line of sight,' he concluded before leaping into the air and throwing a smoke bomb under his feet.

The smoke bomb consumed the clones in a dense cloud while Jiro landed on a branch to locate where the real Katsu had gone. He espied the ever-deepening darkness around him, listening carefully for any movement within the vicinity.

Looking forward, he saw something break through the leaves of the tree in front of him and pierce the trunk beside him with a thunk.

Quickly inspecting the object, he found that it was a kunai, but wrapped around its handle was a red and white paper with markings scribbled across it — a paper bomb.

Acting on pure instinct, Jiro jumped away, expecting an explosion to rock the forest and blow him away — but no explosion ever came. Still in midair, he watched the rigged kunai with puzzlement.

Katsu appeared on a tree branch behind the still-midair Jiro. Tucked inside the knuckles of both of his hands were six razor-sharp shuriken. He quickly loosed them from his hands with a single motion, sending them on a direct trajectory for Jiro's back.

Hearing the recognizable cutting of wind behind him, Jiro twisted his body and quickly signed three seals. 'Earth Release: Rock Gun!'

At the same time, another Katsu appeared on the branch Jiro had jumped from, quickly going through five hand seals of his own. 'Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!'

Jiro had just begun to spit high-velocity bits of rock at the incoming shuriken when he was slammed in the back by a strong gale of wind, throwing his body forward at an even greater speed.

'Damn!' Jiro thought in a panic.

Jiro did his best to knock down as many shuriken as he could with his rock bullets, but the sudden impact upon his back had thrown the trajectory of his jutsu off to a considerable degree and lessened the distance with the incoming projectiles.

Raising his kunai, he deflected a kunai aimed for his heart. Try as he might, he was unable to turn his body in time to avoid the remaining two.

One of the shuriken pierced his upper right shoulder while the other punctured his lower stomach. By the time he had landed on the forest floor, the Katsu responsible had already disappeared in a puff of smoke.

While Katsu stood on the branch, he retrieved his kunai and fake explosive tag from the trunk beside him. He had refrained from using an actual paper bomb, as he wanted to avoid attracting the attention of other Iwa shinobi, or in a worst case scenario, the speed devil from earlier.

Katsu exhaled with ragged breath. Suffice to say, he was spent — at least as far as his chakra reserves were concerned. His chakra reserves were never anything extraordinary, and his young age only compounded this fact. After recovering what he could from his shadow clone, he reasoned that he would be able to preform one more jutsu at the cost of remaining conscious — a last resort.

Jiro did not seem to be doing too well in his own right. Katsu imagined that the man's chakra reserves were likely in a good state, but physically was where the man's ailments lied.

Jiro dug both of the shuriken out of his body and dropped the bloodied pieces of metal onto the grass. He knew that doing so would increase the rate at which the wounds lost blood, but it needed to be done for the fight ahead. He could not preform at his best with them tearing into his flesh as he moved.

"Lad, come on out," Jiro spoke up to the trees around him, "That was a good move, but don't count this old man out just yet. Besides, I'm injured, need you really hide in the trees?"

Katsu walked out from behind a tree and said, "Fine, fine, I'll play fair. I'm out of chakra anyway, so what do I have to lose?"

"You're life, lad. You're life…" Jiro seemed to waver for a moment before correcting himself soon thereafter.

'It looks like blood loss is taking quite a toll on him,' Katsu thought.

"Now come. Show this old man what you Konoha kids are capable of."

Katsu didn't say anything else and took off in a sprint towards Jiro with a kunai in each hand. When he was within five meters, he hurled one of the kunai with an underhand flick of his arm.

Jiro deflected the kunai with a swift raise of his own, and promptly returned the gesture in kind with a few shuriken.

Katsu slid under the shuriken and quickly popped up to meet Jiro in close combat. Meeting together, his blade clashed with Jiro's, and he instantly followed it up with a swing of his leg.

Jiro blocked the kick with the side of his arm and delivered a kick of own, which Katsu avoided by disengaging and backing away.

They met again in a flurry of slashes and blows, vying to be the first to land a clean hit. Katsu, young, fast, and uninjured, slowly outpaced his older and bleeding foe.

After ducking under the swipe of a kunai, Katsu delivered a side kick to Jiro's chest, flinging him backward. Jiro slid on the soles of his feet for a few feet before collecting himself and readjusting his guard.

"You're speed is impressive, lad, and you're technique is also solid. You must've had a damn good teacher," Jiro contemplated while wheezing and clutching at his bleeding stomach.

"Oh you have no idea." Katsu smiled at the compliments. It always felt good to be praised, even from an enemy.

"But…" Jiro began raising his kunai as a fierceness overcame his gaze, "I'll be getting serious."

Katsu just tiled his head at that remark. "You weren't being serious when I stabbed you with shuriken? That seems like an awfully big risk to take just to pretend you're weaker than you really are."

Jiro relieved himself of his seriousness and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Okay, not really. I just wanted to frighten you a little. I'm injured dammit, give me something to work with!"

Katsu shook his head at the absurdity of the demand and engaged Jiro once again.

After another few seconds of heated combat, Katsu delivered an elbow to Jiro's injured stomach, causing him to wince in pain. He followed it up with an uppercut directly to the jaw, throwing Jiro onto his back some distance away.

Katsu intended to charge Jiro while he was down, but before he could, Jiro heaved his stomach and looked up at him.

Katsu immediately understood what Jiro intended to do and jumped away. Soon thereafter, a volley of spiked rocks was discharged from Jiro's mouth.

Katsu slid to the right and deflected what he could with his kunai, but a few rocks still managed to slip his guard and penetrate his left arm. His proximity to the origin of the attack was simply too much to make dodging the entirety of the attack plausible.

"Did you think I was out of chakra, lad?" the man asked with a smile.

Katsu wanted to respond but the man had already hidden himself behind an earth wall.

Katsu jumped upward onto the risen wall of rock and balanced himself on top as he located Jiro on the other side.

Jiro was laying on the ground, unmoving. The blood from the wound on his stomach and shoulder had drenched his Iwa uniform in blood. His face was dirtied and bruised while his eyes remained closed.

Clutching his arm, Katsu sighed a breath of relief. It was over.

Just to be sure, Katsu leapt down, vigilantly crouched beside Jiro, and shoved a kunai into his chest. The blade fell straight through, having met zero resistance whatsoever.

'Fuck.'

A foot slammed into the side of Katsu's rib, sending him flying and smashing through the earth wall. He traveled a few more meters in the air before crashing into the grass and sliding a bit more.

'As it turns out…' Katsu thought while laying on his back, facing the night sky, 'the clone jutsu is very useful.'

"Took that page from the possum's book," Jiro spoke from the other side of the wall, "As simple as it may seem, it's very effective, especially against the lesser experienced shinobi — much like yourself, lad."

Katsu pulled himself up at the protest of his ribs, which seemed to be cracked in a few places. Even still, he fought against the pain and readied himself for the incoming Jiro.

Jiro slammed his hands into the ground and muttered something, which was instantly followed up with a hail of shuriken. Not letting off the pressure, he unleashed another barrage of tapered rocks from his mouth.

Katsu ducked under the first shuriken and deflected the second. However, by the next few shurikens, he found himself backing up to create a bit more distance. After a few steps, he bumped into something behind him — an earth wall. When the storm of rock bullets finally arrived, any sort of defense he once had was now bust, and his body was riddled with many puncture wounds as a result.

Katsu wanted to dodge so damn bad, but his body wouldn't allow it. He'd already been nearly drained of his chakra, and now he was physically drained as well. He just wanted to rest — in a nice warm bed preferably. The holes in his torso and limbs only exacerbated this desire.

"End of the line, laddie," Jiro said from in front of Katsu, "You fought well."

Katsu watched Jiro with tired eyes, but they widened when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down, he could see the handle of a kunai that was lodged inside him.

Katsu's heart throbbed and his stomach churned. He could feel it — death looming around the corner. It would be soon, but he didn't want to go alone.

Katsu grabbed the arm that had buried the blade into his internal organs.

Feeling the tight grasp on his wrist, Jiro asked in confusion, "What are you doing, lad? This battle's over. Just let go. You don't need to fight in this war anymore."

Katsu smiled at him. "Did you think I was out of chakra?"

Jiro's face become one of horror as he tried to step away, but the hand on his wrist did not allow him to do so.

'Wind Release: Air Bullet!'

Jiro desperately reached for a kunai in his ninja bag to finish Katsu off, but Katsu would not give him the chance.

A singular bullet of highly concentrated air was fired from Katsu's mouth, punching a large hole directly through Jiro's sternum. The organs inside of his chest became visible to the outside world while torrents of blood slipped down his chest and back, painting the grass below him crimson.

Jiro buckled backward and clutched at the hole in his chest for a short moment before tumbling onto his back. Katsu slumped backward onto the earth wall and slid down it, slowly settling into a seated position on the ground.

"I suppose we both get to be free of this war, lad," Jiro said, staring at the stars that decorated the sky above them, "and we both got to see the stars in the end…"

Katsu slowly cast his gaze upward. "That we did."

Katsu looked back down at Jiro, who now lay silent on the forest floor.

"It was a good fight, old man. A good fight…" he mumbled, though Jiro was not alive to hear it.

Katsu wrapped an aching hand around the kunai lodged in his abdomen and forcefully yanked it out, tossing it to the side. It hurt like hell, but he was too weary to care.

Dropping his arms into the grass, Katsu gently brought his eyelids together for some much needed rest. It was not everyday that you got to sleep under such a beautiful night sky.

And as Katsu's consciousness faded, he only had one thought, 'Sorry, Sakumo-sensei… for not keeping my word…'

~~~~~

A minute later, a man dawning a black hood appeared nearby.

"I believe I saw him use only wind jutsu…"

The cloaked man leaned over Katsu and pressed a finger to the side of his neck. "Hmm, a waning pulse. He won't live for much longer. Lucky for you, recent events have given me a need for a live test subject. And with those Root lurking around any other potential options, you are my best choice, young as you may be. I just hope your chakra nature does turn out to be wind, or you'll be in for an… unfortunate experience."

The man tucked a strand of white hair that had slipped down back behind his ear and after wrapping Katsu's wounds, carried him away into the darkness.