Snow was pelting the village, as Kenji struggled to enter the Akako dojo. He had made it all the way to the entrance in the vehemently falling ice. He leaned into the door as it slowly became ajar. The difficult journey did not take pity on his body, taking such a toll he wasn’t even able to open the door fully. This was looking like it would turn out to be a complete waste of time. I have to push past my limits if I want to be a great ninja, I can’t let a little stroll through the snow impede my progress. Kenji thought to himself in hopes the self-pep talk being enough to motivate him to follow through with his training. The fatigued ninja shook the snow out of his blue hair as he sat his backpack he wore on the floor of the dojo to change into his training attire. Kenji changed into a sleeveless white shirt with a high collar. He also changed into a pair of loose fitting white pants. The dojo obviously had an exceptional insulation system, as it was much warmer inside, not just a little. There was a grand and prestigious atmosphere about the renowned dojo, said to be where all the great Kenjutsu practitioners honed their skill. As an aspiring Kenjutsu master, it was almost mandatory that he visit this temple of training periodically.


The genin was beginning his stretching routine, when a figure appeared in the far corner of the dojo. Kenji paid the spontaneous appearance of the stranger no mind. He was very skilled at masking his emotions; if he was taken off guard he wouldn’t let this lurker know it. “You don’t belong here; this is a place for skilled close combat fighters. Only the best are allowed in here without a partner.” Once again Kenji gave little thought to the remarks of the rude interrogator. This was a public place and he would not be made a fool of by some bully trying to push him out. The blue haired ninja was not big on words in situations like this; if this guard wanted him gone he was going to have to enforce this fake rule physically. “I guess you’re deaf and weak. Didn’t you hear me, you need to stop stretching those weak muscles and do some push ups at the academy.” The increasingly annoyed teenager was starting to reach his ignorance threshold. Kenji’s lungs and tonsils were still thawing but ignored it for the time being, “Look guy, I’m no more interested in seeing your face than I am interested in hearing your voice. So here’s the ultimatum: Continue your rant outside, or stay inside and shut the fuck up. The choice is completely up to, I only ask that make your decision promptly.” After speaking his first words to the relatively tall boy, who was the same height but had more muscle tone, he resumed preparing his body. Kenji shot a quick glance upward to catch the boy’s reaction, what he saw was actually intimidating. The teenager’s face had a look of calmness to it; he knew that look very well. That was the look of someone coming to the realization that words will not do, that look meant combat. “So, are you ready to show that your fighting skills are sharper than your tongue?” Kenji said as he knew what would come next. Mucasi? His shirt had his family name on it. Kenji had actually heard a little about the Mucasi family, they were Taijutsu specialist with a concentration in Taekwondo. This was partially confirmed due to the fact there was no weapon in Mucasi’s vicinity. The Taijutsu fighter after hearing Kenji’s words, he ripped his shirt off. Kenji gently closed his eyes as he was slightly embarrassed; Kenji had a decent body but no where near this guy’s. “Everything is legal except weapons. The name’s Juke by the way.” “Kenji” The blue haired genin replied. Juke had short golden hair and a light brown complexion as many people in the Cloud village had. Which Kenji always found rather peculiar since it was always so cold. Kenji then proceeded to toss his sword aside. He was now without his second most prevalent skill, but his most prevalent skill genjutsu was still in play. The fact that Juke hadn’t excluded Genjutsu and Ninjutsu let Kenji know he was at least competent in those fields.


Soon after Kenji disposed of his sword, without any jerk, flinch, or tension, his opponent was propelled at him with tremendous speed. Kenji’s great flaw has always been Taijutsu, mostly because he never had to resort to the skill due to him always having a weapon at which he could keep the fight at a distance he preferred. The only thing that can be said about Kenji’s Taijutsu skill is that he has competent defense, due to his agility. In a matter of seconds Juke had traveled 15 meters to where he was already in striking range. Kenji was always composed on the surface, no matter how much his mind was racing he was always confident he’d find the solution to the problem he faced. Kenji assumed an amateurish defensive stance, which out of he quickly snatched his head to his right to avoid a fast right cross. Juke instantly followed his punch up with a sweeping left kick to Kenji’s rib cage. The landed attacked forced the overmatched genin to favor his right side as he was double over. If that wasn’t enough to confirm Kenji’s disadvantage in close, without pause a vicious forearm rained down upon his back as he collapsed on all fours. As Juke stood above him he shouted, “Is that sharp enough for you?!” If it wasn’t, he didn’t want to wait around and let it get there, that was for sure. “You should you use your time down there wisely and do some push-ups.” His opponent taunted. He did just that, as he used his hand to blast him off the ground and shot a fluent uppercut aimed for Juke’s chin. A slight shift of Juke’s face was all the close ranged fighter needed to avoid Kenji’s uppercut, and upon dodging the strike, he delivered a short but powerful uppercut of his own that sent Kenji right back where he came from, on all fours. “You must really like it down there.” Kenji had to admit he liked it better than being up while he got pummeled into the next millennium.


If only Kenji could use his Kenjutsu without a weapon, and then it occurred to him. My sword thrust, I use quite a bit of force with extending my sword straight forward. If I mimic that maneuver without my sword I might be able to buy enough time to create some distance and cast an illusion. Kenji swiftly positioned himself in a crouched stance and thrust his right hand into his opponent’s sternum, despite Juke’s impressive abdomen; the blow was enough to cause him to faintly curl up. Kenji then performed a straight downward kick to the side of his vulnerable foe’s knee. This strike had brought Juke to the ground, a position Kenji had come to know all too well during the course of this fight. However, the resourceful genin took no time to revel in his small victory, as he knew it wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep this skilled fighter down for long. After a sequence of retreating leaps, Kenji had put a significant distance between him and his opponent. As he performed three quick yet deliberate hand seals his opponent had raised to one knee, he was overflowing with anger. Kenji initiated the trigger for his genjutsu by completing his 360⁰ spin; his opponent would see it as a 540⁰ spin as everything in his opponent’s line of sight is now the exact opposite. The illusion only exist at a range of 30 meters, so if Kenji’s actual position was to ever exceed 30 meters the illusion would be broken. The illusion also only existed in the opponent’s direct line of sight, so if Kenji was to ever fall in Juke’s peripheral vision the illusion would be broken as well, that’s why it so imperative that the user delivers a finishing blow very quickly, which wouldn’t be difficult since the effectiveness of any attack will be amplified due to the opponent not being able to foresee it. Usually Kenji would use this small window to use a projectile, seeing as it can travel much faster than he could, but in this case he would have to hurl his body instead he rushed his recovering opponent. Juke being caught in an illusion saw the Kenji running in the opposite direction. “Ha! So you’ve decided to run, it seems you’re not as stupid as you look. Yea that’s right, and don’t ever co..” A foot shot out of a cannon found a home right on Juke’s nose. His head went flying backwards; eyes wide open not knowing what hit him. He stood for a few seconds after the impact before tumbling to the floor. “I guess this concludes my training for today.” Kenji said aloud, but more to himself since his opponent was still dazed and confused.


A few minutes late after Juke came to, the two skilled fighters talked to one another. Discussing how one another came to choosing combat as a life long pursuit. Although Juke has his ego bruised a bit, he insisted the only reason he was defeated was because Kenji used “trickery”, instead of actual fighting skill. This spawned an argument that died down shortly after its manifestation, and ending with the two teenagers laughing. An hour had gone by before they bid their respective farewells. Kenji wished he learned a little Taijutsu but he didn’t, only thing he could really take from the encounter were general skills. He was incredibly disappointed in letting such a skilled close range fighter get so close so easily. Kenji was convinced he should’ve lost that fight. And on top of that the main reason Juke got in so close was because he let his guard down, even more unforgivable. “You live and you learn.” Kenji said to himself has he went to bed, as he was satisfied with the win; convincing himself that the ends justified the means.