A deciding match

Disclaimer: I don't own Nura or any of its characters

Yusuke's face was twisted into pure worry and discomfort as she hesitantly wrapped her other hand around the hilt of her sword. She slowly stood in a battle-ready position despite all of her arguing thoughts that told her to run away or at least refuse. If her thoughts continued their protesting then it would just worry and distract Yusuke.

"Calm down, Yusuke. It's just a simple sparring match; no-one will get hurt..." She mentally told herself, hoping to make herself worry less but unfortunately, it did not work. She was still concerned over the fact that she might do something wrong and end up hurting Itaku like she had before. Yusuke hated hurting others. She couldn't stand to see people in pain because of her doing even if they deserved it. Her uncle said that she felt that way because she was weak...and he was right. Yusuke is weak; she could barely handle her training back at the temple and could never hold her own in a fight. She could also be so easily hurt with words and lies, so not only was her body weak but her heart was probably even more so. Throughout the short time that Yusuke had thought through, she was unaware of the fact that her expression had become a more worried look with a tint of sadness.

"Hey, c'mon you guys, start the match already!" Awashima cried, impatiently. Yusuke swallowed hard at the blonde's pushy attitude.

"I'm keeping everyone waiting...I suppose I should just get this over with."

Yusuke pushed herself to move first, planning to strike from above. She jumped into the air, disappearing from sight for a split second before coming down, swiftly. Her action was so quick that it had managed to catch almost everyone in the training ground off guard. Even Itaku was slightly impressed at her speed...only slightly. Her attack would have hit dead on if Itaku had not pulled his sickle in front of him at the last second but just as he did so, Yusuke jumped to the right and aimed for a hit to the side all in one quick movement. Itaku moved back from her striking range only to be followed by Yusuke who swung her sword for a frontal attack. Itaku countered it with his right sickle while swinging his left towards Yusuke's torso who dodged the attack as if it were nothing before going for another swing. Itaku jumped to the side but was followed by Yusuke once again as she made another attempt of swinging her blade.

Yusuke was obviously trying her best to keep close to Itaku since she would stand no chance against his wind attacks from afar; it seemed that she had used all of the other sparring matches she had witnessed to her advantage by analysing his attacks and strategies. So not only was she fast but Yusuke was also quite smart in battle, her looks did not do her justice. She could be so easily underestimated by the way she spoke of herself and by her weak and defenceless appearance. Itaku would not be able to use his techniques while Yusuke was so close; his focus had to be completely on all of her swift movements.

Just as Itaku dodged her swing, he could suddenly feel a surging heat flow from both Yusuke and her blade, almost as if he were standing next to a fire. "She activated her fear!" Itaku realized. Her fear was rather weak but still had managed to catch him a little off guard. The heat that emitted from the half breed was so intense that Itaku could already feel his skin burning, making him feel as if he were standing in the fire itself despite the fact that Yusuke was a few steps away from him. Itaku took advantage of the short space between them by invoking his own fear into his sickles before throwing them both towards Yusuke. The half breed's eyes widened slightly upon noticing the two sickles coming towards her. She quickly stopped herself from running and dug the tip of her sword into the ground while kneeling on one knee in order to protect herself. Her quick defense managed to deflect the two sickles that then proceeded to cut down a few trees behind her but before she could get back on her feet, Itaku pulled out his third sickle and came towards Yusuke, aiming to inflict a quick attack and end the match. His plan was foiled however, when Yusuke quickly swivelled around, landing a bone-cracking kick to his stomach. The kick sent Itaku backwards as he let out a grunt of pain but Itaku was forced to recover quickly as the two sickles he had thrown came traveling back towards him. He caught them in his hands while throwing the third up and catching it in his mouth. Just before Yusuke could reach him from her distance and attack him, Itaku used his ninja art: Rera Makiri to send a shockwave from his sickles, towards the fast-approaching yokai. Upon doing so, the bark on the trees flew off and began to weave towards Yusuke, one managing to wrap around the wrist that held her sword while another wrapped itself around her blade, managing to pull it away from her.

Yusuke let out a gasp as her sword was yanked from her grasp and sent flying to the other side of the arena. Just as she was struck defenceless, the rest of the bark weaved around her waist and her other wrist, pulling her upwards. She was now trapped like a fly in a spider's web despite all of her desperate wriggling to break free. Itaku wasted no time by jumping up towards her and swinging his sickle in an attack. Just as he was about to inflict the damage that he had intended, a sudden raging fire had engulfed Yusuke in flames, causing the bark holding her captive to burn as well. The intense heat forced Itaku to cease his attack mid-way and land on the ground of the arena. Yusuke soon followed suit, her clothes still bearing small flames of fire in certain areas while the rest of the fabric (that had not already been burnt off) had smoke emitting off of it. The half breed took immediate action, seeming unfazed by the fact that less than a few seconds ago she had been completely engulfed in fire and began running towards her abandoned sword. Once she had finally reached it, Yusuke grasped the hilt and proceeded to pull the blade out of the wood it had ended up piercing through. Just as Yusuke did so, a cold blade of a sickle was swung in front of her, now being held in place pressed against her throat, Yusuke froze where she stood, realizing that she had just lost the match. Yusuke began panting, attempting to regain the air that she so desperately needed.

"You lose." Itaku stated between breaths of his own.

Yusuke's tense muscles loosened once Itaku drew back his sickle and slid them back into his holster. Yusuke slowly removed her blade and slid it back into its sheath. As she did so, the forgotten audience that had witnessed the battle stared in awe at the half breed. None of them had expected she would do so well in her match against Itaku. Yusuke sat still with a look of disappointment however, under the impression that she would not be trained by Itaku because of the fact that she lost. There was a brief moment of silence before being broken by the kamaitachi.

"Your movements weren't half bad but your flaw is that you only used your fear once in throughout the entire battle...that'll have to be improved." He spoke with his back facing Yusuke. The half breed blinked in confusion which was soon after, replaced with a bright smile after it had registered in her mind what Itaku actually meant.

"So...so you mean you'll really train me?!" Yusuke exclaimed with great enthusiasm laced in her tone. The kamaitachi sent a glance over his shoulder.

"What else could I mean?" He said as-a-matter-of-factly. His words caused the half breed's face to light up even more (if that were even possible). "Oh, um...I'm sorry about kicking you." She apologized, her face dropping to that of concern.

"Hn, what do you mean? Your kick didn't even hurt." Itaku replied while stepping off the arena. Awashima rushed towards Yusuke, hooking her into yet another playful head lock while Reira and Yukari made their way towards the two as well.

Itaku made his way to where Dohiko now stood (since sometime during the battle he had jumped down from the branch, leaving Amezo there alone).

"Wow...who ever thought she'd be this good, huh?" Dohiko spoke glancing towards his companion however, his statement fell on deaf ears as Itaku stood silently, his face barely visible through the gloom that swept down his face. Itaku's stomach still hurt as result from Yusuke's merciless kick. Despite stating that her attack did not hurt, the reality of the situation was the complete opposite. Her kick was so painful that Itaku wouldn't be surprised if he had obtained a broken rib or two.

"Hey Itaku, you okay?" Dohiko asked with a raised brow.

Amezo leapt down from the branch, landing in front of the overjoyed Yusuke. His yellow eyes scanned her up and down, noticing that her once white outfit was a charred mess of burnt fabric. The sleeves had were missing while one of the shoulders of the outfit had been burnt, exposing her left shoulder down to her abdomen (luckily she still had wrappings around most of her chest area that seemed to somewhat withstand the fire. One of the legs of her outfit had also been burned severely up to her mid thigh while the other had a few large, black-rimmed holes in it, similar to whatever was left of her white priestess uniform. Realization had fallen upon Reira as well as she examined the damaged clothing.

"Oh, Yusuke, your clothes are ruined." The yuki-onna pointed out with a frown molded onto her pristine face. Yusuke blinked before taking a moment to examine herself. A slight blush crept its way up her neck and planted itself onto her face.

"Uh, I-I'm sorry, I can fix it!" She spoke, apologetically. Reira simply smiled in return as she waved her hand.

"Don't worry about it, we can just find you another outfit to wear." Yusuke frowned at the pinkette's words.

"Are you sure?" Yusuke asked. Before Reira could reassure her friend, Awashima bumped his way into the conversation.

"Duh, they're just clothes; it's no big deal if they get ruined. Besides, now we can find you a way cooler thing to wear, not that stupid priestess thing." Awashima spoke with a large grin. Yusuke smiled to herself. For some reason the comparison of how her life used to be and how it was now found its way into her mind. She was a lot happier now then she thought she probably would have ever been. When she became trapped in Toono, she had believed at first that her life would have been much worse than it already was. But now, her life was so much better than it ever had been. Despite the fact the Yusuke should be saying that she somewhat missed the temple and the other exterminators, she was not emotionally attached to anything there, she had no friends there and no-one that truly cared about her happiness of wellbeing but now...she did have friends for once in her life...people that she could depend on and hopefully, people that could one day depend on her.

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Yusuke examined herself in the mirror with an unsure look on her pale face. Reira had taken her back to the temple to so that they could find some other clothes for her to wear. It took a little while but Reira had finally managed to find clothes that would fit Yusuke. She had managed to find a dull blue haori that came down to her hips which Yusuke kept tied closed. She also had a pair of black hakama pants which Yusuke tied at her knee. Her pants were actually Itaku's which resulted in them being a little baggier than they were supposed to be but Yusuke had no other choice, Reira only had two Kimonos and Awashima simply wore whatever he could find if his usual attire was being washed.

Yusuke looked herself up and down, her eyes stopping at her hair. She turned her head slightly, her eyes still peering at her reflection as she examined her hair. The memory of Awashima urging her to cut her hair settled in her mind. She tilted her head downwards a little. That was all it took for her long, rugged bangs to cover her entire face in a curtain of raven hair. She tilted her head back to its previous position, staring into the mirror for a long period of time as she fell into deep thought. After a few more moments of consideration, Yusuke's grey orbs turned towards her sheathed sword that was left, leaning against the wall. She slowly walked towards it and picked it up. She stared intensely at the sword before making her way back to the mirror. Yusuke pulled the scabbard off of the sword, exposing the shining blade that clearly reflected her decisive face. The half breed dropped the sheath before hesitantly bringing the sharp end of the blade up to her hair.

One thick lock at a time, Yusuke began cutting off all of her unneeded hair in the back until all that was left were her long bangs. The bangs that she hid herself behind, all her life. If she cut them off then she would no longer be able to hide her face any longer. Yusuke would have to learn to become more confident in herself so not to just run away and hide herself like a coward. As silly as it seemed, this was a very big decision for Yusuke, one that would change her life. After much hesitation, the half breed tightly closed her eyes before dragging the sharp end of the blade through her bangs, letting them fall to the wood floor. Once the deed was done, Yusuke slowly opened her eyes, being welcomed by her new look. Her shoulder length hair was now very short and spiky while her bangs barely came down to her eyebrows.

Yusuke's face lit up with a bright smile. She was truly pleased with her new look. It was as if cutting her hair had boosted her confidence, causing her to become almost a completely different person. Of course, she was still the same modest, cowardly, shy girl that she had always been but she sire as hell didn't feel like that at the moment. Her new hair due made her head feel so much lighter, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her mind or as of someone had just removed a stack of books that she had been balancing on her head. There was a knock on the door, most likely Reira.

"Yusuke, is everything alright? Do the clothes fit?" A soft voice called from the other side. Yup, it was defiantly Reira.

"Yes, everything fits really well...thank you very much, Reira." Yusuke responded while picking up the sheath from the floor and sliding the sword into its rightful place.

"Oh, that's great. Here, let me have a look." Said the yuki-onna as she slid the door open and stepped inside. Once her golden eyes had caught sight of Yusuke's new hair, a quiet gasp slipped out of her mouth.

"Oh, Yusuke...you look so beautiful. Your hair cut really suits you!" Reira complimented with a smile. "Just wait until everyone else sees you, I'm sure that they'll all agree." Yusuke's cheeks turned a slight hue of pink as she smiled sheepishly.

"No, it's really not that great." Yusuke spoke.

"What do you mean? Of course it is, you look so wonderful. And I see that the clothes fit okay?" Reira said as she finally averted her attention from Yusuke's hair towards her new clothes.

"Oh yeah, they're just perfect." Yusuke replied happily. Reira giggled, holding her hand to cover her mouth, slightly.

"Who would have thought that you were so close to Itaku's size? Well...he always has had a bit of a petite build but don't tell him I said that." Reira joked. The two yokai began giggling at her statement.

It was official...Yusuke was defiantly happier in Toono village.

Author's Note: Well, I apologize for the crappy fight scene; I'm just really bad at describing them so again, I apologize. But anyways, here is another chapter for you guys so I really hope you enjoyed! Reviews would be amazing :3

~FlammingAxel