Shimo entered the arena and made his way to one of the empty sparring rings. It was a good sized ring having plenty of room to move around and use jutsu if it was needed. A white circle drawn in the sand about thirty feet in radius with a few bits of sand stone and rocks that could be used for cover as well placed inside the circle.

After deciding on a sparring ring he made his way to a weapons rack and found a good solid boken a wooden training sword and a set of 10 dull kunai knives. After choosing the boken he made his way back to the sparring ring and found took a seat on one of the rocks.

While he waited for Kantaro he stretched his arms by placing a hand on either side of the boken and twisted it back and forth. While he was patient when it came to certain things he didn't like waiting in one spot for very long.

Kantaro eventually decided it must be nearing time for his match. He sat down and meditated for a bit, focusing his mind and gathering static electricity into himself, and then changed into his combat gi.

It wasn't a very long walk to the sparring facility. Once he arrived, Kantaro looked around until he saw his cousin waving to him from one of the rings. "There you are," he shouted as he crossed the area and entered the ring.

"Hey there how's it going?" Shimo greeted his cousin pleasantly "you ready for a bit of practice?" Shimo asked as he pulled his desert cloak off. "I just do have one request for this time around. Would you mind if we didn't use jutsu? Just make this sparing session about just plain physical prowess rather than the little tricks we know for now at least?"

He didn't know what kind of jutsu that Kantaro used but for right now all Shimo was really looking for was a bit of a warm up. "Does that sound fair?" Shimo asked as he made his way to his starting position giving a little bit of a flip of the boken he was using as a surrogate for his regular sword one which he would need to get soon.

Soon as he got into position he gave a bow and stated "Ready when ever you are."

"No jutsu? All right, sure." Kantaro forced reluctance into his voice, though in reality he was relieved. It wasn't as if he had any ninjutsu to speak of. Just sticking to Taijutsu would allow them a chance to test each others' pure physical abilities.

Kantaro settled into a light stance across from his cousin, staring him straight in the eye. In the space of five seconds he had already formed the foundation of a couple different strategies. Now the flow of battle would determine which one to develop. "A sword is a lever," he thought to himself. "If I block near the handle, almost none of the force will be transferred to me... And as this is a bokken, I don't need to worry about an edge." Now he spoke aloud. "All right then!"

Kantaro nodded once to himself and launched himself forward, hands open. He was attempting to catch the sword just above the grip with one hand while performing an open palm strike to the solar plexus with his other.

Shimo nodded to himself and thought ~distance is your friend.~ But still if his opponent got past the boken well then the collision would hurt. And here came his cousin Shimo grinned underneath his face wrappings. As Kantaro closed he feinted a swing of his sword but at the last moment. He brought his boken up in a mock attack and in a juggling kind of a flip tossed it into the air bringing his rear foot to the front and caught the sword in his off hand following through with a powerful back hand swing.

Kantaro almost smiled as he closed the distance but decided to save that for when he actually won. As he had predicted, his cousin swung his bokken--a little more swiftly than Kantaro had thought he was capable of--towards Kantaro, and the ninja struck out in anticipation of intercepting the attack.

But... Now the hand was empty, the sword swinging up into the air. It was in Shimo's other hand, and the Kenjutsu-ka was rotating and swinging the sword around.

Kantaro quickly raised his arm up in a double bone block, groaning in pain upon the impact. That was going to leave a mark in the morning. However, taking that hit had gifted Kantaro with an opening--Shimo was now in an open position. Without delay Kantaro leaped forward, aiming a powerful kick at Shimo's unprotected side.

Taijutsu Used:

Chakra: 75/80

Shimo took the kick in the ribs whoo that'll be felt tomorrow. Well the fight was just getting started and to quit now wouldn't be becoming of any one. He sucked it up and continued the fight. Stepping back he winced and rolled his boken from his off hand back to his main hand and in the same fluid motion dropped the boken right at Kantaro's leg. He could have dropped toward the knee but that can cripple a person and this was just a fun little match instead he aimed for a few inches above the knee right in the meat of the leg.

When Kantaro saw his kick was going to connect he eased up on the power. No point in breaking bones during a friendly sparring match.

This time Kantaro was waiting for a trick, and sprung back as soon he saw the sword begin to spin. However, he didn't jump at the right angle and the blade still ricocheted off the side of his kneecap. This caused the ninja to stumble, and he had to put himself into a backwards roll into order to put himself out of a vulnerable position.

"Nice work," Kantaro huffed as he pulled himself to his feet. Cursed sword. He would need to develop a jutsu to counter swords some day. At the moment, however, he only had one option. It would most likely bring about some nasty bruises the following day, but it was the only option which would allow the Karate-ka to get anywhere near his opponent.

Kantaro put himself in a closed stance and crossed his hands in front of him, pointing his hands like daggers. "Hidden Taijutsu: Sword Hand Style!" The boy rushed forward, ready to meet the sword-user head on, swinging his hands around to block and strike.

"I was aiming for your leg..."Fwap, whack, smack, fwap, whack, smack, fwap, whack, smack, Shimo tried to block the attacks that he could and the ones he couldn't he took as best as he could. Those were going to leave welts and he was already feeling the sting of the hits. There was always something about wild and rapid swings and Shimo backed off some putting a bit of distance between him

"Well I was going to save this for a special occasion but...." Shimo rolled his boken once to get the feel of it and then pushed off in a powerful charge. Just before getting into his cousins striking distance Shimo pivoted striking Kantros hand down and to the side spun and gave a half powered attack toward the head and chest.

Madmartigans Charge:

70/80 chakra. ((OOC Hope I did that right.))

Kantaro gritted his teeth with every strike. He knew he was causing a fair amount of trouble for his opponent, but barehanded Taijutsu at his current level was not meant to be sustained against a hard surface. Sure he could do an impressive breaking of a single brick or tree, but all these hits being blocked were making his hands begin to twinge and ache.

He noticed Shimo trying to back away, and backed off a bit himself in order to catch his breath. Then he remembered the reach of his cousin's sword and advanced again.

Suddenly Shimo was coming as well, and before Kantaro could react his wrist had been heavily smashed and with an elegant feint Shimo twisted to the side and attacked. Kantaro blocked the strike to his face but his bad hand was in no shape to block his chest, and so he tried to roll with the hit and only ended up flying back two feet.

Shakily Kantaro rose to his feet. He simply had no chance against a sword user with his bare hands. He didn't even have gauntlets or any armor to cushion the blows. "All right then," he called out. "I guess I need to start getting a bit more serious with this." He began shifting the static waves throughout his body, cutting off the nerves providing feeling to his wrist. The pain receded for the time being, but Kantaro knew he still needed to be careful of the injury.

"Let's try this again!" He forced the static electricity through his arms and legs, increasing his speed by a full 20%. As soon as he was close enough--"Shuto no Renda! Sword Hand Barrage!" These strikes were far more powerful and swift than his previous attack, especially with the electric speed flowing through his limbs.

Taijutsu Used:

Chakra: 65/80

Well now two can play at that game, shifting his feet Shimo began to roll his boken focusing his chakra into the fast twitch muscles of his arms and upper body. As enough chakra got pushed into his arms he juggle tossed the boken from one hand to the other then he fanned the blade. Flipping the sword back to his main hand he rolled his boken quicker. Attacks incoming at his shifting body and flipping, rolling and juggling blade style.

He couldn't and didn't move his stance and maneuvering was purely defensive.

Jutsu Used:

Chakra left 60/80

As soon as Kantaro's attacks were finished Shimo stopped his flourish. "I think we're going to keep stalemating each other. My ribs are bruised and my wrist is starting to ache from where one of your wild swings connect from it." He rolled his sword hand and it popped several times and he handed the boken to Kantaro. "Take this I want to show you some thing.

Kantaro nodded breathlessly. He could barely move his hands from the pain but he took the bokken anyway, stepping back to see what his cousin was trying to show him. "Good fight," he said when he had his breath back.

“You bet it was a good fight” Shimo said as he smiled relinquishing the boken to Kantaro. Stuffing his hands in his pockets Shimo stated “You know every person that uses a weapon has to know its weaknesses as well as its strengths.” He then stepped to about eighteen inches from his cousin and instructed “From our current position try to hit me with the boken. Try an over the head swing or even one from the side or the other.” Shimo knew that from where he was standing any attack would he hindered from the attackers own arms.

Kantaro winced as he raised the bokken. The strain of stretching his fingers around the handle added even more pain to that pulsing through his fingers. He raised the sword awkwardly and then sliced it down at his cousin. He was fairly certain he knew where his cousin was going with this, but the actual application against someone who can swing a sword so fast it is hard to see was pretty much out of his reach. Still, might as well humor Shimo. He might even be showing him something he didn't know.

The swords arc was to wide to be effective at best the swords hilt could be used to smash an opponents chin at worst it could only slap the opponents back. Shimo chuckled and lightly nudged his elbow against Kantaro's gut just hard enough to make the point followed by a light and almost lazy two knuckled tap to the forehead. "See the heavier the weapon the slower it moves or the more chakra it takes to move it at speed. I think if you charged in with your elbow you could drop me." Shimo encouraged his younger cousin "Either that or you can just get a bo-stafe and get some wicked skills with it." Shimo shrugged and gave Kantaro some room.

Kantaro "Oof!"-ed at the elbow and grinned wryly. "Perhaps," he reasoned. "Either of those might work, I suppose. For now, though..." He replaced the bokken on its wall rack and kicked a bit of sand into the air. "I'd better get all this seen to. Wanna go get curry or something later? To celebrate our first fight. You might even be able to get us some sake."

Shimo laughed as he got up "He how about a soda or some thing? Sake just tastes like rubbing alcohol" Shimo shrugged and put the dull practice kunai back where he found them. "Either way you can generally find me in the market or out on some mission." Shimo stated and stretched a bit "I guess I'll see you then." With that Shimo gave a bow of farewell to his cousin before heading his own way.

Kantaro laughed too. "If you say so. See you then." He waved to his cousin, and then headed back to get his wounds seen to.

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