Naruto DX
Chapter 3
"Don't get too mad after I win, Ryan-san." Tio smiled, putting his hands on his knees calmly.
"Like hell you'll win!"
Neji took a seat on the ground once again, seeming a bit more interested in this fight than the last. "Begin."
"One hit win!" Ryan pulled up his sleeve, then ran forward toward the boy at full sprint.
Tio's brows raised a bit, but his smile didn't falter. "You'll have to play smarter than that." He brought his hands together and began forming seals rapidly.
Ryan's eyes narrowed, pulling a shuriken from his holster and throwing it. "No jutsu for you!"
"Too late! Earth-style: Earth Wall Jutsu!" He hit the last seal, and the ground rumbled beneath them. A crack formed in front of Tio, and quite suddenly the entire ground around Tio elevated itself off the ground. It rose up to about fifteen feet in height, allowing the shuriken to embed itself into the solid pillar of earth and stone. Tio sat upon the structure, leaning slightly forward to look down. "How's the weather down there?"
Ryan scowled, walking up to the pillar and ripping the shuriken from the pillar. "Asshole!" But all the same, he rubbed the back of his head staring at it. How was he going to get around this? They didn't cover wall-climbing in the academy. "Uh..."
"I should have held onto my laptop, played some minesweeper."
"...! Fine, you asked for it!" Cracking both his knuckles, Ryan nodded to himself and dug his fingers into the dirt pillar. Then he embedded his feet into it and began to scale it step by step.
"Climbing it? Ingenious."
"Shut up!" Ryan shouted, gritting his teeth as he pulled himself up, each second pissing off gravity more and more by his defiance. He felt like he weighed a thousand pounds up here, and he had no confidence in the holding power of this dirt. But nevertheless, he'll win this damn fight no matter what! "Al... most... there..!" He groaned, bringing one hand up to grasp the top of the pillar. "Yeah!" Both hands grasped the edge, and in one pull Ryan launched himself up and landed rather gracefully on the structure. "Now I've got you, you cocky, cripple ba--...WHAT!"
Ryan's eyes widened as he came to face not Tio, but a teddy bear doll with the word 'Dummy' written on it. "A substitution! But you need legs to substitute yourself!"
"How's the weather up there?"
Ryan spun around, but immediately jumped back upon noticing his proximity to the edge. He leaned forward, looking down. There was Tio, sitting a healthy distance away from the pillar, at ground level. "You ass!"
"Heh. Perhaps."
"Hmph. Whatever. Now I got a perfect sniping spot to shuriken your immobile ass." Ryan smirked, pulling out several weapons from his bag and holding them ready to throw.
"You're right... I should take care of that." Tio began forming hand signs again.
"...Eh?" Ryan blinked. Take... care of it? "Whaddya..."
"Earth-style: Mudslide Jutsu!" He formed the last seal, then positioned his hands toward the pillar.
Ryan blinked slowly. "...Nothing? ...Hah! You suck at life apparently."
"..." He smiled.
"...And now to shuriken that smile off your face!" He drew his hands back, and stumbled. The entire pillar shifted, the earth groaning under it's own weight. "Wha...?"
"Pay attention. Mudslide jutsu. Though I didnt use it as one normally would. I transformed the core of the base of the pillar... into mud."
"...!"
"So if you thought it was flimsy before..." The base of the pillar cracked, mud flowing out like blood. The pillar shifted again, and began to collapse on itself.
"Shit! Shit!" Ryan dropped the shuriken, just trying to concentrate on keeping his balance. He's pretty high off the ground. Falling with all these rocks will...
Tio set his hands on his knees as the entire structure broke apart at once, watching the rocks and his opponent plummet into one massive pile of dirt. It created a dust cloud around the scene, growing thicker as the collapse began to settle.
"Well that was easy. But don't worry, Ryan-san. You're pretty good too." Tio spoke in a consoling voice, still watching the dust slowly thin away. "If you want, I can teach you some jutsus to-- ...!" He stopped abruptly, leaning forward with furrowed brows as he looked upon the pile of rocks and... a log sticking out of the top!
"You can keep your jutsus." Came the redhead's voice from directly behind Tio.
"..." His eyes widened a bit.
"I like the old-fashioned way of doing it! Hyah!" Ryan laced both his hands together to form a large fist, and brought them both down directly onto the top of Tio's head like a club. "Gotcha!"
Tio's eyes shut upon impact, body becoming still for a moment, then he burst into a puff of smoke and what was left was a log with a crack across where the boy's fists had impacted.
"Bastard...!"
"Fire-style jutsu!" Called out a voice from behind, to which Ryan immediately leaped forward and flat on the ground as a sphere of flames collected directly above him.
"Gah! Damn him and his gay high-level jutsus..." He grumbled, hands holding his hair down from the flames. But how was he going to contend with this? Sure, he aced all the academy stuff... but this shit wasn't even mentioned in the academy!
The fire died down slowly, finally leaving only a bit of smoke emitting from Tio's lips. He lowered his hands. "Scared enough to give up yet?"
"Like hell!" Ryan suddenly rolled onto his back, throwing a kunai as he rolled.
"..!" Tio swayed to the side, but the weapon caught him across the cheek. A bit of blood rolled down his skin. "...Ahh... Okay. Time to get serious." He frowned, forming rapid seals again.
Ryan's brow jerked up a bit. So that's how it is...
"Fire-style jutsu!" Tio called out again, and blew through the seal, a ball of flames pouring out toward Ryan yet again.
"Ah!" He threw his legs back as fast as he could, trying to rolled his way out of the trajectory of the fire. But it caught the back of his vest, to which he quickly reacted to with a shout and frantic roll across the ground. "Damn it that's hot...!"
"..." He let the fire die down, then wiped the blood from his face with his hand. He looked at it, then wiped it off on the grass. "Done yet?"
"Not a chance!" Ryan quickly responded, jumping up to his feet and glaring at Tio.
"Then you're only going to get more Jutsus thrown at you..." He began forming seals.
"I know your damn tricks now!" Ryan suddenly leaped froward, landing on the ground just a couple of feet from Tio, which startled him and momentarily delayed the seals. "Here it goes!" Ryan began forming seals.
"...!" Can he...!
"Fire-style jutsu baby!" He hit the last seal, then blew outward.
Tio recoiled a bit, closing his eyes and expecting the worst. ... A couple of seconds passed, and Tio cracked open an eye. He did the jutsu alright. But. It was barely a foot long and 'sphere of flames' was around the size of a tennis ball.
Ryan stopped the jutsu. And Blinked. "..."
Tio blinked. "..."
"..."
"..."
"...hyah!" Ryan drew his hand back and punched Tio across the cheek, sending the boy rolling back across the ground. "Yeah! Ninjutsu/Taijutsu combo attack!" Or spur of the moment idea, whatever.
Tio groaned, hand over his face and writhing a bit. "Argh...ahh..."
"That's enough." Neji got to his feet, stepping forward across the clearing. "Ryan, looks like you win again."
"...Yeah? Yeah! Hell yeah! I beat both of you down! Can't touch the Ryanator! Can't...Ugh...touch...m-m..." Ryan swayed very suddenly, then dropped to the ground unconscious.
"...Hm? Ryan?"
"Fire-style... " Tio muttered, pushing himself slowly back up to a sitting position. "The jutsu drained most of his chakra. It was probably the first time he did it."
"... Byakugan!" The veins around Neji's eyes engorged, his pupil becoming dark and visible now. His eyes fell on Ryan. "You're right. His chakra is nearly all gone just like that."
"It's not for every genin."
"No. But you seem to do it with ease. There are chunin in the village who can't effectively use some of the techniques you seem to have mastered."
"...Heh. Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Neji-sensei." Tio smiled a bit, some of the shame of losing slipping away after those words.
"Well then, I trust you can get home on your own, Tio?"
"Yes, sensei."
"Good. I need to take these two home and brief each of them." He knelt down, picking Ryan up off the ground and slinging him over his shoulder. "We'll be meeting at eight AM every morning, understand?"
"Yes, sensei."
"Good." He straightened, and turned to where he'd left Matt... but the boy was gone. "... I see. I'll have to visit him later then." He frowned distinctly. "Farewell, Tio. Until tomorrow." With that, his sensei jumped into the trees and vanished behind the leaves.
End Chapter 3