The Avatars of Nature (Takoda)

I was content. For the first time in a long time I actually felt like I was improving, actually gaining strength instead of disappointing everyone around me. My friends told me I helped in the mission, and along with the training with Rohim I did every once in a while I felt like they actually saw worth in me, something I wanted my family to see more than anyone. It was mild out, mild enough for me to where black shorts and a short that contrasted with my snow white skin. I was sitting against a tree with Shiro laying down to my left, he looked back at me with his vibrant red eyes and I back to him with mine. As of now all I was doing was sitting here observing the actions of the academy students only a little bit younger than me, soon they'd be on par with me and my friends.

Takoda was walking around parts of the village trying to figure out what to do, I had come here today to deliver a few things for the blacksmith in Elkwood but as there was a lacking of entertainment in the smaller town I was looking about for people I knew. Eventually I saw a few academy students walking past and then looked down to see Hebi and Shiro leaning against a tree. Smiling I knocked on the trunk as I circled around it to their side, "Sup buddy."

Shiro and I both looked over when we heard a knocking on the tree we were leaning against, it was Takoda. I smiled to my friend and said to him "Takoda, why are you out here? Don't you live in Elkwood with Rohim?" After my questions Shiro clicked a welcome to Takoda himself. I was curious as to why he was here, did he want to watch the class under us too?

I nodded, "I do indeed but I came here to deliver a few things for some side cash, figured I'd stick around fora bit and see what all is going on around the village. You watching the kids practice?" I would drop down to the ground in a cross-legged position and look at the academy students practicing, a few of my cousins were in this group and I was impressed by the progress at this stage in their training.

I nodded back to Takoda and said to him "Yeah, It's interesting to see how the class below us is doing, it looks like most of them could beat me already." I laughed half-heartedly at the joke. I may have seemed joking but I actually semi-believed that most of the academy students would be capable of beating me in combat. I think Shiro felt my thoughts and crawled over to me resting his head on my lap with his sharp red eyes looking up at me.

I chuckled a bit, my new friend was certainly lacking in confidence when it came to combat even though his display in the trial mission had been extremely impressive and proved he had the raw talent of an excellent shinobi. Being both myself and a general Kuma I then decided that I would help him draw out this power and refine it to be his own at all times. "I have an idea, lets go over to a practice arena the students aren't using and we can spar a bit, I know you could be a great fighter and who knows maybe I can help pull that out. Our two clans have always worked well together even if they dont want to admit it."

I looked at Takoda with slight surprise, where did this challenge come from? I was even more surprised when I was called an excellent fighter, my clan always said I lacked the furiosity to be a functioning member of our clan. I figured I needed to train more though, regardless if I had the drive to do so or not. I needed to make myself stronger to prove to the others I can be a ninja. I slowly nodded to Takoda and said in a slightly shaky voice "Alright, I don't see why not." Shiro took his head off my lap and I stood up brushing off my clothes, preparing to move to the training ring.

I rolled onto my back and continued on until my feet hit the ground toes first to help myself stand up. Brushing the seat of my pants off I nodded. "Alright then lets be on our way shall we, should be an instructor somewhere that can tell us which rings are free for a while." I put my hands in my pockets after sweeping my scarf back into place around my shoulders and started walking towards the class.

I followed Takoda with Shiro close to my heels. We reached the instructor and told him of our request to train. He pointed us towards the ring and we began to head towards it. I noticed all the academy students looking at us an whispering...why were they doing that? There isn't anything special about me. Unless they thought Shiro was cool looking, which he was. We arrived at the ring and I said to Takoda in a low voice "So does Shiro need to sit this one out? I think this ring would be too small for him to function well in." He would click to me disapprovingly and I would simply wait for Takoda's response.

When we got to the ring I would start stretching my calves and Hebi would ask me if his partner should sit out. I would quickly finish u and stand up straight before answering. "You can use him if you'd like or we can go hand to hand without him. I know Shiro is a big part of your clan's style so if you choose not to use him I'll hold off on using any transformation to make it even. Though I don't know how Shiro would feel on the sidelines." I would chuckle as the clicking lizard seemed to nod in agreement with me though in the end it was Hebi's choice and I would finish preparing for the spar as a group of younger kids started gathering around the arena while whispering things about how they were going to get to see real ninja fight and that made me smile.

I would look to Shiro, then back to Takoda. I then crouched facing the lizard and began clicking to him "You're my closest friend, and I know it'll be hard for you to do, but I need you to sit this one out okay? I need to learn to be strong personally before we can become strong as a pair." He would look at me with his saddened red eyes for a few seconds before clicking in agreement, I smiled and patted him on the head before standing up. He moved out of the ring and I reached into my pocket and pulled out my headband which I then tied on my head. This act seemed to cause all the kids around me to start giggling with excitement...I wasn't sure how I'd handle this crowd. I walked into the center and said to Takoda "I think I need to train myself before we work as a team, Shiro is sitting this one out."

I nodded as my friend said he would fight alone and then put on his headband. I would tighten mine a bit and point at it with my thumb, "With the heart of the dragon then." I would then hold both my fists out in front of me for him to bump over and under like two boxers before a match. After we did this I would move back a few yards and get ready to start this.

I would nod and copy my partners style. I would begin bouncing around and prepare myself to dodge when he would throw a fist at me. The clan always said while they were training me that I was amazing at hand to hand combat, but I lacked the battle drive to use it as efficiently as I could. This fight would have to be the judge of that I suppose. I continued to bounce around with my hands up waiting for my opponent to make the first move, as I usually did.

I would watch my opponent's form as he bounced and did the same, eventually after a few seconds syncing up with him and following his movements perfectly. I then ducked and charged, closing the gap quickly and coming up towards his jaw with a swift uppercut that I knew he would be able to block. Due to this I was preparing myself to twist around and kick him in the side when that happened but even that wasnt a sure shot since I had been watching closely in the academy when others thought I was sleeping and knew that he was on my level when it came to hand to hand combat.

He came at me with an uppercut aimed at my chin. At this point the fight just became a defensive game to me, I was gonna try to just dodge or block efficiently and preform tiny hits or grabs to knock him away. When the uppercut came up to my chin I leaned back sending it flying up past my face. Shortly after I notice and reacted to the punch I ducked down and went for a sweep kick under his legs aimed to trip him. After the kick I would jump back three feet and bend my knees with my hands out in front of me in an open-hand style designed for grabbing. I had to treat Takoda like a moving training doll, I had to block out that he was my friend if I was to be able to fight properly.

He dodged my punch as predicted which was followed by me going through the motions to the spin kick to his side but my foot would find nothing but open air as Hebi ducked down for a sweep kick. At the same time we both jumped back three feet and bent our knees, he fell into an open-handed style while my hands were perched like those of a mantis with most of my weight on the front of my feet. I would wait now, I had given the first move last time and wanted to see what my friend could do when forced to strike.

I stood across from Takoda waiting for him to make a move. It was apparent he wasn't planning on doing so and I was forced to react. I would run forward and feign a punch to his face and then if he moved his arms up to block I would crouch and grab Takoda's right leg and jump backwards with the intent to trip him. If it succeeded I would jump back three feet again with a smile on my face, the intention of the move was just to screw with him a little bit by knocking him down.

From my stance I did a matrix lean backwards as Hebi came in with his fake punch, reacting quickly as he went in for a grab I lifted my feet off the ground to continue on my path for a backflip with my head just an inch off the ground. Once more it seemed we were at a stalemate seeing as how I had predicted correctly and the two of us were on the exact same level of power when it came to fist fighting. In a normal fight I would change things up with chakra but I was enjoying myself and the students surrounding us seemed to enjoy it as well seeing as they were getting rather excited and making sounds every time we made an exchange of blows. I stood up to full height and swept my leg around to jump the small gap towards Hebi, my fist was pulled back for a bruising-level punch ready to launch that was released when I got in range. I once again had an escape plan, ready to take a light hit it needed and roll over to the side to back up.

He predicted my attack perfectly once again. I saw him use the momentum of a spin to cover the gap between us and then a fist came flying towards my face. I would duck to the right sending his punch over my left shoulder. When his arm would go over my shoulder I would grab it with both my hands. I would turn around quickly with his arm still in my hands and pull it forward in an attempt to flip him onto his back. If this succeeded I would then jump back 3 feet again and assume the same stance from earlier, ready for anything he would throw at me.

He grabbed my arm and turned in an attempt to flip me, as I went sailing over him I grabbed onto his back and as I continued over so did he. I ended up on my back and after flying about three or four feet so did Hebi. I spun around on my back and got to my feet, allowing a slight grin to the other boy to show that this was alot of fun and just laughed randomly a little bit which seemed to cause some confusion with the crowd but then one by one they were seeing that this was a battle between friends and not rivals so they got perspective and cheered a bit, after our names had been passed around from my cousin's they seemed to split in two cheering each of us on. I got back into a fighting stance and looked a Hebi, it was time for the fight to continue.

I thought I had finally succeeded in getting a hit on him with my throw, but he already had a counter for me. After I threw him I felt myself flying through the air as well, he had grabbed the back of my shirt? Clever. I landed on the ground and rolled a bit and ended up on my stomach, I looked up and saw Takoda grinning at me and the crowd began to chant our names. I couldn't help but smile, was I actually having FUN from sparring? This has never happened to me before. I pushed myself off the ground and brushed off my front before assuming my open-hand stance and moving towards Takoda slowly. When I would get within 2 feet of him I would quickly duck down and initiate a sweep kick again, I predicted he would jump back again and so straight from that kick I would use the momentum of the spin to launch myself towards Takoda in an attempt to land on his chest and pin down his arms.

Just as before I dodged by jumping back but when I looked back up I saw Hebi launching himself at me, I barely managed to land before he hit me. However I decided that it was time to use a little bit of my hidden strength. As he grabbed my arms I also grabbed his but I then released some chakra and performed the famous kuma grip technique. I felt bad since the power of my grip would cause some damage to his bones but I would make it up to him by healing the wounds when we got done. I fell to the ground on my back still holding him, due to the position of m arms though I was able to roll over and make it so that he was the one that got pinned. I held him there, a bit of sweat starting to form on my face which I shook off so it didnt fall on his face. I needed to think up my next move but this fight had gotten a little intense pretty quick and I needed some time.

90/100

Spoiler:

I thought I managed to pull off a good move in the fight but it was quickly shut down by me being pinned by Takoda. I felt the grip he had on my arm increase and a rush of pain shot through my body. I thought we agreed on not using any techniques? I got a little angry and the smile faded from my face and I began to try and release the prehistoric rage passed down through the clan. I began to struggle underneath Takoda as my bone white tail came out from my lower back. My nails began to form into claws and my teeth became fangs, and lastly my eyes became reptilian and a bright red. I felt my strength beginning to increase and I managed to lift the arm not affected by the grip. I gripped Takodas hand and began to close my fist causing my claws to begin cutting at his skin and tension to build up in his joints, I had gotten serious now.

I noticed that his inner fighter was at last coming to the surface, everything according to plan and right on schedule. I released my grip on him and flipped backwards to get to my feet, shaking a bit of the blood from my hand off and forming a pair of fists to meet the enraged Lacerta warrior, I had opened up something very dangerous but in the end assuming I didn't end up with a broken neck it would be worth it for Hebi to gain his confidence.