Chapter 29 : Combat Practice (1)

Fujin started to learn Demonic Illusion : Hell Viewing jutsu. This jutsu was more advanced than the previous one. In its simplest form, it affected the opponent's vision and showed him the view that the caster wanted to show him. Alongside that, the caster also had to affect the opponent to trigger fear and dread. This jutsu could be improved by influencing the opponent's sense of smell and hearing too. Fujin recalled, 'The Genjutsu that Kakashi casted on Sakura, had Sasuke asking her for help. So I guess he controlled her hearing too. I am not sure if he influenced her sense of smell too, then he could have added a stench of blood.'

He began practice for this jutsu. He practiced triggering his clone's fear and dread, and then influencing his sense of sound and smell. It took 7 days to get all these 3 down. He then had to work on creating an illusion, however he hit a roadblock, 'So what exactly am I afraid of?' He thought for a bit, 'The only thing I fear right now is Danzo forcefully inducting me into Root. But even then, it's not something I dread. I guess that's my good luck that I don't have any mental demons.'

He thought more, and then it finally clicked him. He casted the Genjutsu on his clone. His clone allowed the Genjutsu to be cast. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then the clone saw something. There was a small black dot over the horizon, and it kept getting bigger. He soon noticed what it was and thought, 'Fucking Tailed Beast Bomb???' As soon as he saw it, he felt fear and dread! However, having experienced it for a few days, he understood that Fujin had triggered his fear and dread. The tailed beast bomb hit him and the illusion was over.'

The clone then dispelled himself to pass the memories back to Fujin. Fujin thought, 'That went well. I guess right now, my biggest fear is dying like a cannon fodder, without being able to do anything about it!'

He then thought a bit more about the illusion, 'The illusion was pretty well. However the shape of the Tailed Beast Bomb wasn't stable, that has to be improved. Also the ending was abrupt. While a weaker opponent, like Sakura, might fall unconscious, a hardened ninja would definitely not be unconscious after the illusion. So perhaps it could be expanded further to give me more time to deliver a killing blow. Perhaps after the explosion, I could induce the smell of soil and blood, and maybe show the opponent an image of his own dead body, make them think they died and are now a soul or a ghost for a few seconds!'

He continued working on improving his illusion. It took a week for him to be satisfied with the illusion he created.

After he had learnt those 2 Genjutsu, less than 3 months were left for final exams. Fujin was progressing very well on all parameters. However, there was one important aspect that he hadn't focused on yet.

He thought, 'Alright, everything's going well. My chakra level is already on par with the weaker academy teachers. My Ninjutsu and Taijutsu too have probably surpassed genin level. Fuinjutsu is going well, I should be done with the current scroll in another 6 months. In Kenjutsu, basics have been learnt well and chakra flow has become much smoother. I can easily cut through a tree with my sword. Heck, I can cut a boulder too. And I have started with Genjutsu too.

However, I severely lack combat experience. In fact, it won't be wrong to say that I have no combat experience at all. After all, there's no danger to life or even any permanent injury in the Taijutsu tournament. We aren't even allowed to throw shurikens at each other. Another important thing is battle and survival instincts. To be able to make a move purely on instinct in the middle of a fight, or to be able to sense if my life is in danger, is something that is incredibly important for any ninja. Otherwise, just a sneak attack with a shuriken is enough to kill anyone. Luckily, my instincts are much stronger due to me being a sensor, however it ain't enough. So over the next 3 months, I need to spar frequently with my shadow clone.'

He thought a bit more and decided, 'To start with, let's use wooden weapons. After I'm comfortable with it, I can move on to real ones.'

On the next Saturday, he went to a mini-forest. After confirming no one was around, he made a clone, and decided to spar.

Both he and his clone were armed with 24 wooden shurikens, 6 wooden kunai and 2 wooden swords. They stood face to face, 10 metres apart.

Fujin picked up a pebble, and tossed it into the air. The pebble hitting the ground was the signal to start the fight. Since the clone was made after all the planning was done, there was no need for any dialogue.

As soon as the pebble hit the ground, both Fujin and his clone jumped backwards and launched Great Breakthrough jutsu. The jutsus clashed with each other, creating a lot of sharp winds that broke a lot of branches.

After launching the jutsu, both flickered away to stay out of the range of the jutsu. Once the winds started dying down, Fujin and his clone started observing the patterns within the winds. Fujin soon spotted an opportunity and thought, 'There!' Quickly, he threw 3 shurikens in the winds. Due to the flow of the winds, they changed direction and we're headed straight to the clone.

The clone noticed that, and flickered 50 metres to his left. Fujin noticed the clone flickering and observed properly, 'That direction' and tossed another 3 shurikens out. Next, he performed Projectile Control jutsu and controlled all 6 of his shurikens to target his clone.

Looking at the 6 shurikens heading at him, the clone kept using Body Flicker to dodge and waited for the right moment. It soon came and the clone prepared 2 spheres of wind and instantly launched Wind Explosion jutsu. The twin explosions destroyed 3 shurikens and threw 2 out of Fujin's control.

However, Fujin directed the remaining shuriken on his clone, not allowing his clone any rest.

The clone looked at the last shuriken and thought, 'Trying to block it will be risky if he makes a sudden change in direction. I need a distraction.' The clone moved backwards and slammed his hands on the ground and brought a rock shield up.

Fujin changed the direction of the shuriken to curve around the boulder, but there was nothing behind there. He thought, 'Damn, did he substitute or go underground?' and flickered on a branch of nearby trees. He then fully activated his sensor mode and focused underground and sensed his clone.

He thought, 'Alright, just gotta wait till he surfaces' and prepared a wind sphere in each hand.

The clone underground was heading straight up to Fujin to make a sneak attack. However, he sensed himself being sensed by Fujin and also the chakra built up for Wind Explosion jutsu, 'Damn, can't launch an attack now. I need to get out of the ground, my speed underground is much slower. But I don't think I can dodge his Wind Explosion jutsu.'

The analysis was done within fractions of a second, and the clone decided to leave the ground directly. Fujin, sensing his clone, flickered close to where his clone would surface. As soon as the clone's head popped out, Fujin launched both the spheres and started preparing more.

The clone, whose head was barely above the ground, thought 'As expected' and created a rock shield that he had already prepared. He had put much higher chakra into the rock shield, due to which, the shield was much larger and sturdier. The wind spheres clashed with the rock shield and exploded. The winds eroded the surface of the shield, but couldn't break through it.

As soon as he saw the rock shield appearing from the ground, Fujin, who had already prepared two more wind spheres, flickered to get a better shot at the clone. Even before the rock shield was entirely erected, he was already adjacent to his clone and only around 10 metres away from him. The clone couldn't see Fujin flickering due to the rock shield, however on seeing that he was so close to himself, he fired a couple shurikens on Fujin.

Fujin saw the 2 shurikens shooting towards himself and thought, 'Tch… I don't want to engage them.' and sent a wind sphere to counter them and launched the second one on the clone. The clone however flickered away and Fujin chased after him.

Over the next minute, they flickered around at very high speed and tried to hit each other with Wind Explosion jutsu, shurikens or kunais. However, neither were successful.

The clone found an opportunity to surround Fujin with 6 shurikens, and in the only direction that he could escape, the clone fired a couple of wind explosion jutsus. Fujin thought, 'Damn, escaping normally will be risky. Let's go underground' and he entered the ground using Earth Military Movement jutsu. However, remembering his clone's earlier predicament, he didn't close the distance, but instead went in the opposite direction and kept sensing his clone and the wind spheres.

He thought, 'Alright, I now need a distraction for getting out of the ground.' He prepared Great Breakthrough jutsu. As soon as he got his head out of the ground, he saw the clone launching 2 wind spheres at him while manipulating 6 shurikens too. However, Fujin blew it all away with Great Breakthrough jutsu. The clone itself was in the range and escaped underground.

Fujin tracked his clone while thinking, 'I guess he'll try something similar as I did. I wonder if I could disrupt his underground movement.'

He then approached the place which was directly above the spot where his clone was and punched hard using chakra infused punch. The ground cracked a bit. The clone underground felt the vibrations due to that punch, however it didn't cause any damage.

Fujin thought, 'Dang, that didn't work! Sigh, I guess I'm nowhere near Tsunade's level.' He then flickered on a nearby tree and prepared 2 wind explosion jutsus while also readying himself to flicker away. As he waited for his clone to surface, he thought 'I really need to learn a way to force someone out of the ground. The ones I can think of are that jutsu which Onoki's son used and maybe flooding the ground with water to restrict access to air.'

The clone on the other hand too was planning, 'That was close! If I was stronger, then that punch could have dispelled me. So what do I do now? I can sense my main body has prepared Wind Explosion jutsus and is waiting for me to pop out. I don't think that the rock shield will work very well this time.'

He was still noticing when he felt something, 'Wait, I can breathe? I see, the cracks in the ground due to that punch allowed some air to seep in. I guess that sucks for the main body. Also, though I never thought about it, it's surprising that a shadow clone needs to breathe. I wonder if Tobirama couldn't create Shadow Clone jutsu without adding the ability to breathe or did he add it just to improve its efficiency to perform infiltration missions. If it's the latter, then I need to find a way to remove the breathing requirement of the shadow clone. That way shadow clones could stay underground for hours!

Anyways, now that I don't have any time pressure, I'll just wait here till I can come up with something good. After all, I don't have anything to deal with someone hiding underground.'

Fujin on the other hand kept on waiting on a tree branch, for the clone to surface. After waiting for 5 minutes, his thoughts were, 'Does a clone not need to breathe? Surely those cracks can't provide air all the way down, can it? Sigh, I really can't do anything. Only Mud Moat jutsu can have a chance, but it's range is too short to work. I wonder if my clone has some strategy or is he just wasting time.'

He kept sensing the clone for another 5 minutes, and finally had enough and dispelled the clone. On getting the clone's memories, he sighed at the clone's tactic to wait patiently underground, 'Sigh, that's my clone alright. I remember that one Counter Strike game I played in my previous life. Both my team and the enemies went at each other, and within 5 minutes all my teammates were dead and only 2 enemies were alive. They thought they won, but then realized that they still had one more to kill. Poor guys tried to find me for 5 minutes straight! And finally when they entered the cave I was hidden in, I killed them!'

[A/N : This was my first attempt at writing a fight, please let me know how it was. Tips/Criticisms are welcomed.]