THE WILL OF FIRE: 2. The Phoenix (A Naruto Fanfic)

The Phoenix, Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

I had nothing better to do but to sit around and read the scrolls that Lord Hokage gave me, waiting for the third round of the exams. I was sitting at this coffee shop when Shikamaru walked by.

“Yo. Talk about rising from the dead.”

“Hello to you too. Care to sit down? I got tons of money from my last mission.” I said it with a bitter taste in my mouth.

“So I heard. You’re that Orochimaru’s niece.”

“So it would seem, yes. What about you? Shouldn’t you be training for the third round?”

“Man, what a pain.”

“Come on! I’ve been so bored lately I would give anything for a good fight. Hey, how about you fight me. I could give you some pointers.”

“Fine, have it your way.”

So we found ourselves a nice spot somewhere out in the woods. All in all, I was just glad something exciting was going on in my life, something to get my mind off things.

“So, you’re main jutsu is your shadow, right?”

“To say the least.”

“But the thing is, you can’t do much with that, not while you’re fighting alone.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“So what’s your plan to win the match?”

“My plan?”

“You know. The one to win the match.” I couldn’t figure out if he was just playing dumb or really couldn’t care less. “Are you taking this seriously at all?”

“I don’t know. It all just seems like so much work.”

So I attacked him. It was a blunt kunai throw to get his attention. He dodged it, protesting, “What are you trying to do, kill me?”

“I’m trying to get your blood pumping and I’m not holding back.”

“Just try not to injure me too much. I’ve got a big match coming up in two days.” He smirked. “And if that’s what you call not holding back, well I have to say I’m a little disappointed. I was looking forward to fighting you.”

“Finally, you’re starting to take this seriously. As a reward, you get to choose: snakes or fire?”

“I prefer fire. I haven’t seen you in action yet.”

“Deal.”

He already set his shadow in motion but it was a weak attack. I easily dodged, ran up the side of a tree trunk and got behind him in a second, with my kunai at his throat. “Dead.”

He smiled and said, “Not quite, I was expecting that.” That’s when I saw his shadow locked with mine. “It was quite easy when you got this close to me.” He said. “Not that I mind, you smell quite nice.”

“So what’re you planning on doing now?”

“Well…”

“You don’t have a plan do you?”

“Like you said, this jutsu works best if it’s used while fighting in a team.”

“Well, have you tried dissolving it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, your opponent mimics everything you do, but if you pull out a kunai from your bag, they can’t mimic you if they don’t have a bag at the exact same place as you do. So, you pull out a kunai, start running towards your opponent and when you two are just about to hit, you cut the shadow, duck under and go for a full stab in the gut. But it’ll require you to be faster than your opponent, not giving them time to realize what’s going on.”