Yozakura did not know whether she wanted to kiss or kill her fellow student Yumi right now. She wished she could have somehow accomplished both tasks at the same time, thus satisfying both of her very complicated and contradicting internal desires, but killing Yumi to kiss her would not have been very pleasant nor would the aftermath be anything but traumatizing, and so would kissing her and then killing her right after. In any case, she did not let her gaze waver as she glared up at the gorgeous young ice maiden that was holding a blade of crystallized snow to her throat. Yumi glared right back.
"Yozakura, you need to keep focused." Yumi ordered her.
'How can I keep focused, when every time I see you move like that, I get...!' Yozakura stopped her thoughts from going any further, and she wasn't about to let said thoughts become the words on her tongue anytime soon, that was for sure. "I'm sorry. I lost focus."
"You can't risk losing focus on the battlefield! You're lucky that I'm one of your allies! Imagine what an enemy would do! They wouldn't waste this chance to end you if they could!"
Yozakura scowled. She had no love for evil ninja either, and she was never going to speak up in their defense, but the gauntlet-wielding girl had always thought that Yumi had taken their grandfather Kurokage's teachings to a level that could not have been considered mentally healthy. She was a nice girl, an unequivocally sweet girl at times, but when it came to training with friends or engaging in real-life battle, Yumi was like another person, someone who was willing to enact justice by spilling blood if need be, and she wanted to enforce that mindset into anyone she worked with. Yozakura hated that about her, but she found it sort of attractive too, like watching a good girl go bad for just a little moment. Yozakura feared that Yumi was turning her into a terrible pervert the longer they spent time together.
This transition from distrust to lust had been steadily developing, ever since the day they first met as mutual orphans.
"Let's try again, Yozakura."
"...Alright."
Yozakura stood up. She brushed away the dust and dirt that had gathered on her clothes. Fortunately, nothing had torn yet. She hated how easily ninja techniques seemed to be able to rip through fabric. It cost a pretty yen to have to replace one's clothes after every battle. Yumi dispelled the ice blade, but it would not be long before she summoned them again, if Yozakura knew her as well as she did.
"You fight with hand-to-hand combat, and for a ninja, that is going to put you at an extreme disadvantage, especially against opponents who use long-range techniques and weaponry...such as THIS!" Yumi swiped her fan through the air, sending a razor-sharp icicle flying at Yozakura's ample bosom. Yozakura leaped to the left to avoid it, just in time, as it zoomed past. Yozakura could only imagine what it would feel having her breasts pricked by that thing.
Yumi had no intention of letting up; the fan was moving in her hand nearly too fast for eyes to follow as a barrage of icicles were sent flying, all of them charging straight for the other girl's position. However, some of the icicles began to diverge from the set path, moving more to the left and right at a slight angle, aiming to catch the opponent if they dared to try and avoid the main squall. The icicles in the middle were always the thickest and hardest, while the ones meant to try and ensnare you were thinner, smaller, but still ultimately just as dangerous. Yozakura knew this tactic well, it was a Yumi classic.
There were many things Yozakura knew about Yumi, some of them things that she doubted Yumi wanted her to know in the first place. She knew that Yumi adored shaved ice with sweet red bean syrup. She knew what Yumi's breast size was, although that was mostly because of the school's medical records and a little 'curious' digging. She knew that Yumi loved vanilla and disliked chocolate. She knew that Yumi was someone who tried to be the cool leader of the bunch but was really as susceptible and easily embarrassed as the rest of the Gessen girls. She knew that Yumi was good at making sweets but terrible at cooking meat. She knew that Yumi would sometimes cry when she thought no one was watching her. It was terrible of her to admit, but Yumi looked beautiful when she cried too.
Yozakura raised her massive gauntlets in front of herself in defense, just as the icicles finally hit. She held her stance as the shards of ice collided against her, the icicles either shattering against her gloves or tearing apart the parts of her outfit that they managed to reach. The pounding of the icicles was like a drill into her brain, a dull thunk over and over. It never seemed to end. When it did stop, though, Yozakura moved her throbbing arms back down to rest, her clothes barely anything more than tatters and underwear now.
Yozakura grit her teeth. It hurt, but it hardly meant anything at all, it was barely any pain at all compared to what Yumi put her poor, aching heart through every day. She should have been thinking about taking down the evil Hebijo Academy for good. She should have been thinking about her poor brothers and sisters, the siblings she was apparently unfit to raise on her own, all of them separated from one another and living with relatives across the country. Instead, she thought about Yumi all the time. She thought about this girl and she hated her and she loved her. If anything, she wanted to strangle her while telling her how much she damn well meant to her. But it would have been pointless. Love was the farthest thing from a priority in the life of a shinobi.
Yumi stared back at her with cold eyes. It wasn't just her style of fighting, everything about her could be cold in a way. Yozakura shuddered.
"You did well blocking that, Yozakura. But you need to be faster so that you won't even have to block it! You could have dodged it!"
"Yumi..." Yozakura raised her fists and bared them, clenching them tight enough to make the real hands within nearly bleed. "Shut up and keep going. Please."
Yumi was still for a moment, but she slowly complied, raising her fan high over her head. Yozakura prepared for another blast of ice, but suddenly, Yumi swung herself to the right, spinning her whole body as she did so, like a step in a dance. She fired a massive ice shard as she spun, and Yozakura shattered it apart with a swing of her fist, feeling something good from getting to finally punch something for once in this fight. She started charging straight for Yumi's position as the ice maiden continued to fire more shards. They were batted away like little more than harmless flies.
Yozakura didn't know why, but she suddenly felt rather good, and quite strong, stronger than usual. It might have been the adrenaline rush of it all.
She didn't know when she first realized that she was definitely in love with Yumi. It may have been during one of their previous training sessions. Maybe it was the time they were cooking a meal together and she saw up close how lovely Yumi looked when she laughed. Possibly that time they were both stuck completely nude and their chakra worn out, forced to walk all the way home as punishment for their losses. It could have been at any moment in the lives they'd spent together up until this point. Yozakura didn't remember at all, but she didn't fear about that. She just knew that, right now, she loved Yumi more than anything. Loved her enough to want to punch her in the face.
Yumi gasped; Yozakura was upon her faster than she'd expected. Yumi had to duck her head as Yozakura's gauntlet came swinging full-force at her. A second later and she would have been lying on the floor, her face completely caved in. She could have sworn she lost a few hairs on the top of her head, though. Yozakura's other fist went after Yumi next. She tossed her fan to her other hand and whipped it up in time to craft a small but fragile ice shield, using it to buffer the initial impact and keep her arm from being broken, but it still sent her sprawling across the floor nonetheless.
Yozakura was panting. She was starting to lose the adrenaline rush. She followed after Yumi, to try and catch her before she could get up, just as the ice maiden had done to her before.
Yozakura didn't care about winning or losing in this fight per say, as it was only supposed to be training, but to her, if she could truly pin Yumi down here and now, it would have meant something between the two of them. She didn't entirely know WHAT it would have meant, though. It wasn't like she could finally confess her feelings, and then Yumi would reciprocate said feelings, they would become a couple and then eventually marry and raise a bunch of kids. Still, like some sort of mental thing would happen between them, like ESP, and they would both know what it meant without them actually knowing what it meant. Yozakura figured that would happen...maybe.
Yumi was already beginning to get back onto her feet. She tipped her fan and fired another ice blast, this time a crack across the surface of the earth that took aim at Yozakura's feet. However, Yozakura, with whatever energy she still possessed, leaped over it and landed directly on top of Yumi. The ice maiden squealed, which Yozakura thought was very cute. She grabbed Yumi by the arm and rolled her over so they could stare into one another's eyes. Yumi's kimono was beginning to slip, revealing a hefty amount of cleavage.
"Yozakura..." Yumi gasped.
Yozakura realized that this was the first time that she'd ever managed to pin Yumi down.
She couldn't help herself anymore. Without even thinking, going on pure instinct and impulse, she leaned in and kissed her, gently, on the lips. It was a rather chaste kiss, very tame compared to the sort of thoughts that ran through Yozakura's mind on the darkest of nights. Still, it was probably the most simple and most reasonable way she could ever imagine to express her feelings properly for this girl.
'I shouldn't have done that.' Yozakura immediately thought as her lips parted from Yumi's. This hadn't been part of the plan...but to have Yumi under her like this, so open for attack...it couldn't have been helped. Not in a million years.
When she pulled away, Yozakura discovered that the ice maiden was literally weeping. She had tears rolling in tiny beads down her smooth, pale cheeks. Yozakura was stunned. Yumi tried to speak once or twice, but she was crying so badly that she choked on her own words. She took the other girl into her arms and held her. Yozakura expected her touch to be ice-cold, enough to freeze her down to the bone. However, Yumi was actually quite warm. Yozakura slowly wrapped her arms around her to return the embrace. She was careful not to squeeze too hard while wearing the gauntlets.
Apparently, Yumi had felt similarly for a very, very long time. Nearly as long as Yozakura herself. They had both been suffering from keeping quiet for far too long.