บท 21: Spar with Dad (1)

The sun was rising in the sky, and there was a chill in the morning air. All over training field 4, there was dew on the grass from the night before, and the atmosphere all around the field was becoming uncomfortable. As father and son looked at each other, with eyes as sharp as kunai, seeing who was going to make the first move, Shiran took the initiative.

'If I take the initiative to attack him first, I should gain a slight advantage, even if it is the tiniest advantage. In my current state, I cannot beat my dad in a spar, but that's not what I'm here to do this morning. I only need to land a clean hit on him to take the victory so I can snag the shadow clone jutsu from him,' I thought in my head while I flickered right in front of my dad, throwing out a quick right-handed jab.

"So you think taking the initiative is going to help your situation, huh?" my dad responded.

"It doesn't hurt to get any advantage I can to try and win in a fight; you're the one who taught me that," I remarked as I sent a leg sweep his way, trying to knock him off balance.

"I have to admit, though, that you are an impressive little brat. The power behind your strikes and your speed is way beyond anyone your age. It only makes sense that you're part of my bloodline, Shiran," my dad said, sending a cocky smirk my way.

'He's not taking this seriously. If he was, he wouldn't be throwing these comments my way,' I thought, shooting a frown towards my dad while flickering behind his back to send a left cross towards his backside.

He turned around and went to block my fist when I flickered once more to his left flank while making a clone to try and distract my dad, while I kicked at his ribs from my new position. My dad disregarded the clone since it couldn't physically do anything and held up his arm to block the incoming kick.

My kick hit his arm dead center, but since it wasn't a clean hit to his body, my objective still had yet to be fulfilled.

"I think I've had enough playing defense for right now," my dad remarked as he sent a hammer fist towards my shoulder, looking to put me out of commission for the day. Right before it was about to hit, I formed the hand seals for substitution and got out of the way as the log that I substituted with was split into pieces.

'Man, he's really not going easy this morning. I suspect he's using a power level of around low chunin for me right now. Oh well, up to this point, I've been able to keep up, and I don't see that changing as of right now.'

I stood back, observing my dad, thinking about what I could do. Up to this point, I've realized through the few spars I've had with my dad that I can turn on some kind of accelerated thinking (A/N: I might flip between calling it this and hyperfocus just an FYI) while I'm in battle. It takes a little bit of a mental toll, but honestly, it's so small that it's not really worth mentioning.

'Maybe if I make a group of clones, I can use them and hide in the middle of the group to try and momentarily confuse him. It wouldn't work for long, but perhaps it would give me a tiny edge.'

I flickered towards my dad, creating 15 clones in the process while hiding on the outskirts of the group towards the right side. As we approached, his eyes zeroed in on me while he stepped towards me. What he didn't expect was for me to substitute away using another log again and leave all my clones in a big group surrounding him.

'What is he planning? He created a big group of clones and then substituted away with a log before he made a move on me, and now all his clones are stationary,' Haru was going through his thoughts while looking for Shiran.

'I just need him to let his guard down a tad bit before I can undo this transformation and try to sneak attack him,' Shiran was thinking, while he was transformed into the log that lay on the ground.

All of a sudden, Haru smiled and threw a punch toward the inconspicuous log lying on the ground, forcing his son to undo his transformation and body flicker away to avoid getting hit.

"It's a good tactic, honestly. Against any Genin and maybe half of all Chunin, you would've gotten them to lower their guard and you would have had a free attack. Also, leaving your clones out and stationary while you were transformed was a sneaky tactic to try and confuse your opponent momentarily as well. That's the kind of thinking that will take you far in the world of shinobi, Shiran," Haru said while smiling at the figure of his son that had just flickered away.

I nodded at the acknowledgment and filed it away for later when I wasn't currently in the middle of a spar. I kept my eyes sharp as my dad came flickering at me, using his speed to his advantage to get close to me quickly.

I had no time to form hand seals, so I took the more direct approach and stepped up to my dad, not wanting him to take full advantage of moving first.

My dad aimed a blurred jab at my midsection, but with my hyperfocus, I was able to react in time. Sidestepping, I countered with a kick to his side, trying to get through my dad's excellent defense. Our movements were a blur of strikes and blocks, the impacts of them echoing in the empty field.

One minute, two minutes, five minutes. As the spar continued, I kept getting hit more and more frequently. It was as if I was stuck in second gear while my dad was able to keep climbing up to fourth and fifth gear.

The blows just kept on coming: a right hook toward my head, a left uppercut straight for my kidney, a leg sweep following the kidney shot. Each and every hit was raining down on me while I did my best to react. The only problem was that I couldn't quite stay ahead of the curve, even with my hyperfocus.

My muscles were screaming out in agony while my body kept on absorbing the impacts, trying its best to hold on but to no avail. I gritted my teeth and flickered around my dad a few times, trying to create an opening for myself to get a hit, but every time I stopped flickering to try and get a hit in and let my eyes adjust to what I was looking at, my dad would have already rotated with ease, either blocking the coming hit or dodging with practiced grace.

Out of nowhere, I saw an opening and stopped to throw a punch, and with the punch halfway to its destination, I felt my core get rocked with the devastating force of my dad's punch.

"Ugh," I fell to the ground on one knee, choking and trying to catch my breath.

'Damn, he left a fake opening for me knowing that I would take the opportunity and try to take advantage.'

"Come on, Shiran, you can't possibly be giving up right now," my dad frowned a little while asking in a disapproving voice. The truth was, that Haru was impressed with his son for being able to keep up with him while he was fighting at a low Chunin combat level. At the age of four and a half, that was amazing, but he couldn't tell him right now. Haru needed to see if there was another gear he could tap into.

"In the face of true power, no amount of schemes can save you. If you don't have the strength to put those plans into action, then what is the point of thinking them up? You're not strong enough to land even a single hit on me; what makes you think you'll be able to reach the peak of the ninja world if this is your ceiling?"

'He's right, I can't always rely on my brain to get things done; I need strength in this situation, I need to be able to go faster and hit stronger in order to survive.'

I caught my breath and took one last deep one before standing back up. After being driven to my knees by my dad, I made my mind up to do something I've only just started to practice and use; even my dad hasn't seen it in any of our recent spars yet.

'Well, this is as good a time as ever to try it out,' I thought to myself.

(A/N: How did you guys like the full combat chapter? I tried to keep the talking to a minimum to allow the battle room to breathe and be fully imagined in the reader's head. If you feel like there is anything that could be improved let me know so I can implement it in the future :)