The arena was quiet as the morning started to settle in, as two ninjas walked through the main entrance, both wearing the basic uniform for the Suna ninja; the olive body armour over a black pair of leggings and basic shirt. The taller, and clearly older one, was wearing a white turban underneath his Hitai-ate of pure white silk, whereas the younger one wore his headband around his neck with a pair of strangely futuristic looking goggles on his forehead, pulling back his navy hair. They continued walking into the arena, although there was nobody there, this battle would be as important as any that could need to take place here. It wasn't about honour, nor about proving themselves, it was about making the chunin stronger. The chunin smiled at his trainer, his augmented hand flexing slightly, trying to get the blood flowing.

"So, you understand what you've asked of me, Tomoya-kun?" Tomoya nodded. Of course he knew what he wanted from this. He was strong as any when it came to taijutsu, especially with his athletic frame, and he was good at Ninjutsu, but he just wasn't good enough. Whilst he could easily defeat anyone of his level in close combat, what would happen if he had to go up against someone stronger than him? He wasn't stupid and knew that if he risked getting into close combat against someone better than him, he was pretty much screwed. Diversions could only do so much. As such, he had come to get help from his old sensei; Shujin Jukuren-sensei.

Shujin was a young man, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties, with a rather handsome face. He was as toned as Tomoya, if not more so, and seemed to have the same navy hair, a tuft of which was sticking out through the turban. If anyone looked at him, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was just out of carelessness, but this was actually the way he liked to look, and surprisingly enough, a lot of girls liked it. The most pronounced feature on his face was, clearly, the massive long burn mark scar from a battle against a Konoha ANBU that wanted information from Sunagakure. Shujin had killed him, but hadn't managed to leave without a mark to remember the fight by. Still, he never complained about it, as he was a ninja and everyone knew that ninjas were able to put up with whatever they had to

"Alright then. Tomoya, you need a challenge to make you push through and learn how to control your chakra enough to learn how to use stronger techniques. With most of my pupils I'd have them find out what their chakra style is, but we already know about yours. You're wind and fire, something that seems to go with your family. So, let's start with whatever you're able to do already. You already passed the chunin exam, let's see if you've gotten rusty in the last six months... hit me with your best shot."

505/2000

Start with the best of the best, right? Of course that was how he should do it, and it was especially good since he'd learnt this in the last six months after the chunin exam. He ran forwards, heading straight for his teacher, seeming to be more interested in fighting with taijutsu than he was in ninjutsu. This, however, couldn't be further from the truth as a small current of wind started trailing over the floor, blowing a bit of sand. Normally, this wouldn't have been so bad, it could even have been just wind, but this was tomoya, and it was clear that whilst fighting wind was never just wind.

---

Shujin knew that better than anyone, having been the man who'd taught him since he'd been a genin. The boy was a tactical genius, and if he wasn't so intent on being an author then he'd be damned good at being a ninja. Hell, he might even hit anbu one day. Still, the problem now was that with the wind kicking up like this it was clear that something was going on. Of course it was, this was ninjutsu training, and it would be stupid not to be using ninjutsu but... The wind slowly picked up, and soon it was so hard that the sand was being flung about so hard that Shujin couldn't even see him anymore. He looked around as he saw a dancing silhouette move through the fog, nothing but the silhouette was noticeable however. He grinned, thinking for a second that his pupil had forgotten what kind of lesson this was, and called out mockingly
"Oh, Tomo, silly boy. fighting with your fists is Taijutsu, this is Ninjutsu training." and with that he stuck his hand out and summoned a ball of fire to fire at it... little did he know that this was the wrong move.

****

As the wind had launched up, Tomoya had waited until the sand was kicked up into the air and he was finally hidden from view. His hands had moved over the handsigns that he had practiced with this maneouver so many times, whispering the name of the jutsu underneath his breath as his cheeks puffed out and he let out a strange almost invisible gas from his lungs, flying around his sensei, completely masked by the miniature sandstorm. This was his fire release move, his Mist Blaze Dance technique. All it needed was that little spark, which his teacher had so kindly given him. Running forwards, he waited until the explosion detonated and called out his third jutsu
"Kawarimi No Jutsu" the only thing that was hit by the exploding gas, apart from his teacher, was a very unfortunate piece of log thinking "oh no... not again.". If we knew why it thought this, we'd know a lot more about the universe than we do now.

Tomoya appeared once more on the edge of the sandstorm, smiling as his handiwork went off. He knew that his master would survive this, but he also knew it would have taken it's toll. And what was that last thing that he'd said before the explosion? Oh, this was more than definitely Ninjutsu training, he wasn't even close to done yet. What fun would there be in letting this end so unbelievably quickly? this would have been enough to end a fight against a genin, but he had no intention of letting it be that easy against a jounin

***

As the explosion hit him, Shujin flicked his hand through his hand movements, the dirt infront of him spiralling up into a shield stopping him from being hurt by the explosion.. or so he thought. A part of his turban had been outside of the shield, catching fire and causing him to have to throw it off before it set his hair on fire. He was a little annoyed by having to lose his turban, but it was nice to know that his student had gotten so smart as to use his opponents skills against them. The same attack wouldn't work twice, and he knew well that this would take a little time to charge again. Plus he couldn't use the same jutsu so quickly, and he knew that was a combination of most of his techniques. How would he deal with having to force his body to use the strongest technique it had?

[1236/2000]

Tomoya was smiling, but he knew that most of his techniques would no longer be able to work. He also knew that his sensei knew that, and that if there was any time that there was going to be a counter-attack it would be now whilst he couldn't use most of his attacks. Of course, he still had his strongest technique, something he'd only mentioned in generalities to his master. Why would he tell him about his attacks when he could save it for special occasions like this. After all, who would be stupid enough to, even for a second, consider losing the element of surprise by having a flapping mouth. Certainly not Tomoya, maybe one of his cousins but not him. He knew all too well what happened if you lost even the slightest bit of advantage on the battlefield. Talking about advantages, if he remembered rightly, his master was an expert in using close combat styled Ninjutsu, which meant that if he didn't close in for something like this it would be highly stupid. With that in mind... Tomoya grinned slightly, knowing exactly how he would present the next challenge. Come and get it, Sensei.

---

Shujin moved out from behind the shield, running back to where he saw the silhouette. There was no way this one would be a fake, and he could manipulate it properly. His hands moved through his handsigns, quickly summoning clones that moved along with him as they all summoned earth gauntlets, running forwards to attack the student. They were getting near the edge of the storm now, but tomoya... was running towards them? That was stupid, he would have the same loss of advantage as Shujin did, and he already used his sneak attack. What was he planning? Still, it wasn't for Shujin to complain, this just made it more clear that Tomoya was being confident, especially as he lowered his head and charged straight through the clone to Shujin's right, piercing through it and bursting it with a poof of smoke. One down, two more left.

The three remaining Shujins turned around and started attacking at once, punching and kicking with their earth-augmented bodies. Still, not a single one hit him as he dodged, twirled, and at one point grabbed the fist of one clone and slammed it into the gut of the other, wiping one out. He was clearing the clones... as if he knew that what he wanted to do was highly important. Was there a limited amount of the weapon he was going to be using?

---

Tomoya continued his onslaught, with one final high kick that caught the final clone in the chin he pierced through it and turned around, his secret weapons already cast. As he had run into the battlefield he had summoned a small area of wind chakra into his right hand, and had since used his left hand to trick the clones into breaking themselves. He'd always made sure that the clones had been destroyed by anything apart from the hand with his jutsu in it, and now that he was alone with his sensei he smiled

"Something wrong, master? I thought you were better than I am!" He knew that, on an equal battleground, he would lose almost instantly to his master, but right now he had three things that were tipping the fight in his favour. First- the element of surprise, The man didn't know what his attacks were, as he'd learnt a few of the tricks since his lessons. Second - he was used to fighting in sand storms like this, whilst his master wasn't. Third - His master had to get in close for his attacks, and the moment he tried that he would be able to launch his final attack. and, of course, it came. Shujin lashed out with his fist. which Tomoya caught with his left hand, before slamming his ball of wind chakra into his outstretched arm, fracturing the bone. His master cried out in pain as Tomoya flipped him over his shoulder, knocking him to the floor as he summoned a second one, slamming it into his forehead, drilling him into the floor and knocking him unconscious with the additional pressure of his trapped head. As he had won. tomoya pulled the unconscious body over his shoulder and moved him, taking him out of the storm, and out of the arena towards the hospital. this wouldn't be hard to heal, but it would certainly need healing. Whilst his master might be weaker, Tomoya was tougher than ever, able to use more ninjutsu in succession than ever before.

[2012/2000]