Chapter 4: A Good Fight

The next morning, I walked down to the Hokage's house again. I passed by Eveline in the doorway and walked upstairs. I tossed a shuriken at the Hokage after opening his door and he caught it.

"Hey Obara, did you hear about the assassination?" I asked. He looked up at me.

"Yeah, looks like the masked vigilante got away again." He said. I cringed inside, wishing Obara wasn't actively against me. I got to the point.

"Any missions?" I asked. He smiled.

"Again? Normally you wait a few days at least." He teased. I grinned at him.

"Yup! I'm upping my game!" I said.

"No, but I'm thinking I'm gonna give you a team." My eyes widened. "Wait, why?!" I shouted. "You know I hate kids!"

"Exactly." He said, grinning from ear to ear. I glared at him.

"It better be a damn good team!" I said before leaving and slamming the door. I heard Obara chuckling as I walked down. Eveline popped out from around a corner.

"That didn't sound pleasant. What happened?" she asked.

"Apparently, I'm getting a team," I said as I walked out. I sought out Crimson and eventually found him eating a popsicle on a bench. I sat down next to him. He glanced over before pulling his popsicle out of his mouth.

"Yes?"

"So how'd your mission go?" I asked. Crimson had taken a borderline mission, a mission that was almost an S-rank, but not quite.

"Pretty good. I managed to get the rogue group and collect the stolen wares from them before I was knocked out. When I woke up, I was in a dungeon I broke my way out of and had to battle my way through a thousand enemies to get back." he said. I grinned.

"And by that, you mean you rode up to Sunagakure, got attacked a couple of times by harmless bandits, got the message across, and came back without a scratch," I said, all the while watching him pale.

"Well, maybe...but let me dream!" He said. I laughed and got up to get myself an ice cream cone. I sat back down and ate my food in silence.

"Hey, you wanna fight?" I asked. To that day, Crimson was the only one who had ever given me a real fight. He grinned.

"Let's go!" He said as he got up. We walked over to the training field, which was empty, thankful. We walked about thirty feet apart and got into our basic stances. Crimson busted out this weird, dramatic stance where he grabbed his coat collar with one hand and dropped the other down in a fist, while I raised my eyebrows and had my hands in my sweatshirt pocket. He yelled and ran at me. I ducked just as his foot went over my head and jumped away when he tried to axe kick.

"Come on Crimson! Put some effort in it!" I yelled as I landed. He grinned and launched at me with incredible speed. He punched me in the chest and threw me into the ground. I jumped back. "Now that's more like it!" I said grinning widely. We exchanged punches and kicks at impossible speed, then jumped back and formed hand seals.

"It's time for my new technique: Multi shadow clone giant rasen shuriken barrage!" He yelled as a hundred mini versions of himself ran at me with massive rasen shuriken. My grin turned into a snarl. "Eight Trigrams! 128 palms!" I shouted as I activated my Byakugan. As they flew toward me, I dodged past and destroyed them. I got all except one, who flew through my blind spot and hit me. I rolled forward and came up with a flying axe kick that caught Crimson off guard and sent him flying. I dusted myself off while he recovered. I looked to the side and saw a large group watching. I smirked. Our fights were legendary, and most of the city would watch them if possible. Crimson came flying through the trees, coming straight at me. I stepped back, but he reached out his chakra to hit me. I stumbled back a little, then recovered and blocked a combo attack he commonly used.

"Damnit!" He shouted as he realised I was blocking all of his hits. He jumped back and gathered chakra. I formed six hand seals.

"Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!" I yelled as a massive fireball flew out of my mouth. It hit Crimson and seared his clothes and hair, but he stayed mostly intact. His eyes opened and he jumped at me, faster than before. Oh right! I thought as I dodged out of the way. The angrier he gets, the stronger he gets! I blocked a kick and punched him in the stomach, staggering him. He kicked at me and I caught his foot, but he twisted around and punched me in the face. I flipped over and landed about four feet away from Crimson. I summoned a ball of spinning, condensed chakra. "Rasengan!" I said as I slammed it into his chest. He flew backwards and landed on his back. He got up, shook off the damage, and pulled out a bo-staff. I flipped up my disc and it transformed into a pair of scissor blades. I had made it with shape changing chakra, and it was able to become virtually any weapon, but it's strongest form was the scims. My scissor blades were fire and lightning release, and Crimson's staff was wind and earth. He swung his staff around and created three spinning shuriken-like projectiles out of wind. I dodged past them and rushed Crimson, a maniacal grin on my face. I swung one blade overhead and he blocked it, but I swung my other in a right hook and grazed his arm. He jumped back and surrounded his staff in wind, essentially making it a double ended sword. He swung at me and I blocked him, then ducked under another attack of his and stabbed him in the leg. He grimaced and jumped back, landing wrong due to the paralysis I applied to his leg from the lightning release in my sword. He dropped and his bo staff disappeared, but then he formed a bunch of hand seals. A massive hole opened up and mud projectiles started shooting out.

"Doryuudan!" He shouted. Then he formed more hand seals and shot fire bullets out of his mouth that lit the mud on fire. "Karyuu endan!" The mud gained speed and came from every direction. "Together, Katon! Karyuudan!" He shouted as they exploded on impact. When the smoke cleared, I was lying on the ground, bloody and beaten...or so it seemed. My shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and I walked out of the forest, unharmed. Everybody started clapping as Crimson struggled to his feet. "Next time, dammit!" He said, grinning. I helped him up and helped him walk to the infirmary. After depositing him there, I went back home to sit down and read, all thoughts of a team purged from my mind.