The Wolf Inside - A Naruto Fanfic - Watty Award Winner 2013

Chapter 71

Third Person's POV

"Tunnelling Fang!"

Crouching low to the ground, Ashley raises her head and narrows her eyes, just as Kiba, having been perched on the tree branches above, launches himself towards her at speed. Releasing his chakra, the Inuzuka begins rotating at high velocity, rocketing down into the ground, a movement that barely gives Ashley time to dodge.

Using the chakra concentrated into her legs however, Ashley manages to leap high into the air and land on another branch, only for Kiba to change direction and drill up through the air towards her. Huffing out a sharp breath of irritation, Ashley quickly jumps to the bough of another tree, before dropping back down to the ground. Kiba follows closely behind, crashing straight through the tree branches, his vicious attack ripping them to pieces and sending splinters flying in all directions.

Ashley glances over her shoulder while she races across the ground, gritting her teeth as she wracks her brain to try and think of a way to counter Kiba's attack. She was under strict orders, from Kiba, that she was only allowed to use Taijutsu during this fight.

Ashley knew she could beat Kiba in a fight if she was able to use all of her abilities, demonstrated by the fact that she had managed to beat him a few times when they had been training him to fight long distance. But when it came to only using Taijutsu?

The blonde girl knew she didn't stand a chance. And the annoying Inuzuka was taking it easy on her too, not even fighting alongside Akamaru for today's sparring.

Ashley had assumed that their regular training wouldn't take place today, when she had arrived at the grounds to find only Kiba and Akamaru waiting for her. Kiba had explained that Hinata and Shino were both training with their respective families today, but the Inuzuka was keen for a bit of one on one sparring if Ashley was up for it.

Suddenly planting her feet to the ground and jerking to a halt, Ashley darts to the right and makes a sharp turn, her shoulder rolling past Kiba as he continues tunnelling by her through the air. Ashley feels the rush of wind and the sting of chakra as she dodges around Kiba, her hair being dragged along through the air by his movements. Skidding to a halt once again, Ashley spins around on her heels and places her hands down on the ground, watching as Kiba arcs through the air to come back and attack her again.

Ashley had noticed during their training, that Kiba didn't seem to be able to make sharp turns when using his Tunnelling Fang attack, something that Ashley was hoping would give her a second to think.

Seeing the incoming Inuzuka however, Ashley growls under her breath and begins to build up the chakra inside her body as fast as she can. It didn't seem that her sneaky move was going to buy much time at all, so Ashley was just going to have to create as much power as she could in a matter of seconds.

This was going to hurt, but she couldn't think of any other way to counter Kiba's attack without using her usual arsenal of abilities.

"Tunnelling Fang!" Ashley shouts, before releasing her pent up chakra and spinning into the air.

Still nowhere near as adept at using the technique as Kiba, Ashley finds herself immediately feeling dizzy and disoriented, though she manages to keep her trajectory long enough to crash into Kiba head on.

Ashley lets out a grunt of pain as she and Kiba collide heavily, before the force of the hit throws the blonde out of her spin and she slams back down into the ground on her back. Kiba too is thrown out of his spin, though he manages to land in a crouched position on the ground not too far away from Ashley.

He watches as Ashley groans, one hand reaching up to rub at the side of her head. Smirking to himself, Kiba darts forwards again, looming over Ashley with one fist raised. Seeing him now above her, Ashley shakes the stars from her eyes and kicks out her leg, sweeping Kiba's out from under him.