Atsuo sat by himself in front of the evening bonfire. No one could work up the courage to sit next to him after witnessing the brutality he inflicted on Kotetsu day after day. That is, until one girl approached. Atsuo turned to look as Keina, the girl that easily beat Kotetsu, plopped down right next to him.

  “It’s been three days now. How long do you plan to let that boy stay out there?”

  After using his temporary position as clan leader to forbid the other members from abandoning their post to go spar with Kotetsu, Atsuo had been going out to the woods everyday to fight the boy alone. The question was valid. Even still, he struggled with an answer.

  “I’m humoring him. It’s not like he’s harming the clan by being here.”

  “Well… If you humor him for too long, the clan expedition might return and see to his removal themselves.”

  Atsuo considered Keina’s point.

  “...Why do you keep taking his challenge? Why haven’t you beat him?” Keina pushed.

  “I… I don’t know.”

  Atsuo turned back to the bonfire. Keina could see the confusion on his face. Sighing, she stood up, and walked away.

  —

  Kotetsu had been living in his own personal hell for three days. He could barely go to the bathroom without some kid trying to challenge him. He had run out of anything edible by the end of the second day. He quickly stopped trying to forage for scraps after his opponents began offering food and water in exchange for fighting him. He didn’t trust their generosity at first, but after sampling the goods he quickly accepted their offerings. He considered this the best thing to have happened to him so far. Except for the part where he gets his butt kicked due to overestimating his own abilities.

  As the days went on, Kotetsu noticed that the crowd grew smaller. The more advanced clan members stopped challenging him after beating him once or twice. Only those that failed to beat Kotetsu or fell multiple times to him came back to improve themselves, which was convenient for Kotetsu as he, too, improved. At the end of each day, Atsuo would show up to personally challenge him. Each day, he would end never having even hit Atsuo once. He brought his frustration out later in fights against the other members.

  The end of the fourth day came around. Atsuo entered the clearing. Kotetsu could feel that this was the day. The two said nothing as they stepped toward each other, Kotetsu covered in bruises, sweat, dirt and small cuts up and down his body, and Atsuo looking as if he had never seen a spot of mud in his entire life. Kotetsu felt as if he had a better than zero chance at hitting Atsuo in this next fight.

  Over the last four days, not including the day he met Dan and the others, he had meticulously studied their fighting style. There were key elements that made up the way the clan fought. Unlike the Hyuuga form, which involved keeping the entire battlefield in focus, the people from this clan fought as if the only things that existed were themselves and their opponent. Each one of Kotetsu’s opponents had been extremely aware of their own movements and his own, making every attack they made a step closer to finishing the fight. Kotetsu felt this closing pressure the most when he fought Atsuo, or the few times he fought Keina. This method of combat was the opposite of the Hyuuga style, which was designed to incorporate the environment into the fight. The weakness that Kotetsu abused with the Hyuuga clan fighting style was the lack of focus on their own body that arose from this method; an unguarded angle, a forgotten wound, or even a misplaced foot. Kotetsu had trained himself to identify and abuse these factors that a Hyuuga member might miss due to trying to keep track of everything else going on. Kotetsu had begun to identify a weakness with Atsuo’s fighting style.

  Atsuo looked into Kotetsu’s determined face. Not that the face was any different from the other times they fought. He took his stance, waiting for Kotetsu to make the first move.

  As the days had gone on, Kotetsu continued to practice the art of tree jumping. He was so amazed at the skill that he put all of his effort outside of sparring into it. From that training arose a curious side effect. He found he could double, almost triple his fastest speed. He had begun to use it to great advantage in his spars, suddenly able to wipe the floor with anyone that previously put him down once or twice. It wasn’t that they couldn’t move at similar speeds, it was their ineffectiveness at catching Kotetsu off guard with their movements. As far as he was concerned, they were just punching, but faster. Kotetsu had only discovered this speed earlier that day. This would be his first opportunity to use it against Atsuo. Planting his feet and focusing on the rush of Chakra that moved down his legs, he took one step.

  Kotetsu flickered.

  Atsuo barely had time to raise his guard, unable to dodge as Kotetsu’s fist drove itself straight past his arms and into his chest. Atsuo flew off his feet, sliding roughly on his back as the force of the punch sent him away almost a dozen feet. Kotetsu stood, arm and fist stuck in the air, astonished. Atsuo raised his head up and looked at Kotetsu in surprise, trying to get his breathing under control. He could hardly believe what just happened. His eyes had barely registered Kotetsu’s speed. Focusing on his legs, he began to get up.

  Before Atsuo could react again, Kotetsu moved forward, looking to put him down for the second time. Kotetsu was caught off guard as Atsuo anticipated the movement with a leg sweep, switching from standing up to kicking one leg out, causing Kotetsu to trip and stumble through the air over Atsuo’s head. Atsuo quickly returned to his feet and moved at Kotetsu, grabbing an arm and a leg before twisting and throwing Kotetsu a distance away. Atsuo needed to make distance now. Thinking fast, he turned to the trees above and began to jump, climbing to a lower branch. Kotetsu regained his footing after getting tossed and looked up to find Atsuo clinging upside down to the bottom of a tree branch, peering down at Kotetsu.

  “That was good. Let’s try something new.”

  Kotetsu felt his jaw drop as he stared up at Atsuo. Then, snapping his mouth shut, he focused on his feet and jumped. After days of sticking and unsticking from the sides of trees, Kotetsu was confident in not falling. Walking along the side of a tree still left him feeling unbalanced though. He jumped up along a separate tree until he was roughly eye level with Atsuo, standing upward on a thicker tree branch. He didn’t trust his skills to stay sticking upside down yet.

  Atsuo felt a rush of excitement he had not anticipated. Kotetsu had experienced a sudden burst of growth, and now his speed and power could match his skills. That was really the only thing holding Kotetsu back. Atsuo now began to see Kotetsu as an interesting opponent. The kid’s fighting skills seemed to advance in leaps and bounds, unlike his Chakra skills. Atsuo had not expected himself to become so excited at this prospect, but he intended to use this situation regardless. Now, he could fully use all of his prowess, though he dared not reveal the Sharingan. He intended to test and refine his own style against this boy, all to perfect his technique against the Hyuuga clan.

  Atsuo rocked back and forth along the tree branch, then without any warning, swung forward and jumped straight for Kotetsu. Kotetsu was transfixed by the graceful movement as Atsuo arched through the air, up until the leg came down and slammed directly onto his shoulder, sending Kotetsu collapsing off the branch. Kotetsu scrambled, reaching arms out and barely finding a perch in the tree, preventing him from falling almost 25 feet to the ground. He tried to climb back up, only to find Atsuo’s foot slamming down right where his hand tried to grab, barely missing his fingers. That’s when Kotetsu remembered his feet, and found himself kicking at the branch and jumping away from the tree to another nearby empty branch. Kotetsu landed roughly, barely staying upright, trying to keep his breathing in check. He turned his head up at the quick steps of Atsuo as he rushed Kotetsu from the end of the branch.

  This was an entirely different way of fighting that Kotetsu was entirely unprepared for. He understood this. Even still, it wasn’t long before he found himself falling back down to the hard ground, barely getting his feet under him just in time to absorb some of the impact. Atsuo landed on the ground in a more dignified manner. Kotetsu thought he would fight more comfortably on the forest floor, but his legs would no longer move. He found himself on his back looking up into the trees shortly afterward with Atsuo standing over him.

  “You did good. Still needs a lot of work, but better.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Kotetsu groaned for what felt like the thousandth time as he pushed himself off the cold ground. This time, he didn’t even bother to respond as he walked over to his cot, intending to go to bed early. Atsuo meandered over and sat down as Kotetsu wrestled with his sleeping gear.

  “You know, there’s a small village roughly a day and a half west of here. A boy with skills like you could easily work and earn a place to stay.”

  Kotetsu stopped with his struggles and leveled his stare at Atsuo.

  “You’re not escaping me kicking your butt that easily.”

  Atsuo chuckled. “You’re not even close to that. Maybe get better at dodging aerial attacks before you go talking.”

  “That was my first one…” Kotetsu mumbled.

  Kotetsu made his preparations as he finally got his sleeping bag unraveled. The nights were getting colder, and Kotetsu had gathered sticks and large stones intending to make a fire that night. He placed everything in order, then prepared to use his fire-starting Ninjutsu. Kotetsu had a stupid grin stuck on his face as he went through the appropriate hand signs, holding a stick between his palms. He held the stick completely still for a few seconds. Then, a small fire danced to life across the pile of twigs after Kotetsu dropped the burning stick.

  Atsuo watched the display of Ninjutsu with covert attention. This was the first time Kotetsu had actually shown any proficiency in using any Jutsu, outside of Chakra control. Atsuo could tell that Kotetsu was simply mimicking the movements of a technique he had seen, not actually fully understanding what he was doing. He immediately regretted the next words he spoke.

  “You’re doing it wrong.”

  Kotetsu turned sharp eyes onto Atsuo.

  “You can do better?” Kotetsu challenged. Atsuo slowly shut his eyes and mouth, trying to reverse time. Nothing happened.

  Kotetsu quickly shoveled dirt with his hands over the barely lit fire, extinguishing it. Then he turned to Atsuo expectantly.

  “Well, come on then. Show me how it’s done. Or was that all talk?” He said, smirking.

  Knowing this was now a life or death situation for his pride, Atsuo scooted over to the half burned pile of sticks. He told himself to just get it over with. Clearing his head and inhaling a long breath, Atsuo effortlessly moved through a short string of hand signs, then breathed out of his mouth. Kotetsu quickly crab-walked away, surprised by the roaring flames Atsuo spewed from his mouth that engulfed the sad pile of sticks.

  Kotetsu sat in stunned silence for a few seconds as Atsuo got to his feet nonchalantly, brushing his legs off like nothing happened. He then turned a sly grin down at Kotetsu.

  “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

  Kotetsu blushed and stood up.

  “You… You just have more practice! Don’t get cocky!”

  Stomping over to the fire pit, Kotetsu kicked dirt and sticks into the fire, causing it to dance higher into the air. He stumbled backwards and fell on his butt. Atsuo lightly facepalmed himself in exasperation. Looking up, he reached one hand out, focusing on the now roaring flames.

  Kotetsu felt his body run cold when he saw Atsuo shove first one hand, followed by his whole arm into the fire. He thought for sure that Atsuo would end up with a toasted limb. His jaw dropped when Atsuo instead pulled his arm out, fire seeming to stick to the entire length. The fire appeared to wrap around his arm like a rope, rotating and coiling in mesmerising patterns, somehow flowing back down to the fire pit. Kotetsu could only gawk when Atsuo stuck the other arm down into the flames. Splaying the two arms out to either side, the fire split itself as if connected to Atsuo’s arms by strings. The exotic display was cut short as Atsuo slammed his palms together, sending an invisible wave of energy out that somehow dissolved all the fire it came in contact with. The two sat in silence for several seconds as tendrils of smoke crawled up from the now empty pit.

  “...Uh… Show off.”

  Atsuo turned and sneered at Kotetsu, who was giving him a snarky look in return. The two sat like that for several heartbeats before Atsuo turned and started walking off.

  “Hey, wait! Stop! You gotta show me how to do that!”

  Kotetsu jumped and grabbed Atsuo’s arm, getting dragged along as Atsuo kept moving along.

  “Nope. This wasn’t part of the deal. All I said I would do was come out here and fight you.”

  Atsuo was kicking himself for flaunting his Ninjutsu skills. At this rate, Kotetsu might actually follow him back to the clan camp, which would not go over well whatsoever. He would never hear the end of it if that happened. Kotetsu tried digging his feet in, but only found himself churning the dirt as Atsuo refused to stop. He fell over when the older boy came to a sudden halt.

  “Fine.”

  Kotetsu quickly returned to his feet, happy to have won this fight. Atsuo sighed as he turned and impatiently walked back toward the fire pit. He wondered how the situation had spiraled out of his control.

  “Ok… I'll show you what you did wrong. However, don’t expect much in the way of explanation. Figure it out yourself.” Atsuo said in an exasperated tone.

  Kotetsu rapidly nodded, waiting with what he thought was reasonable patience. Atsuo grew more annoyed as the hyperactive boy bounced up and down on his heels.

  “First, is the breath. I breathe in to begin my action.”

  Atsuo took a slow, deep breath, then slid through his hand signs. Kotetsu barely caught all of them and was still attempting to memorise the formations when Atsuo released his breath, sending flames tumbling out of his mouth and into the fire pit. Kotetsu simply stared in silence as he thought about what he saw.

  “Did you catch it all?”

  Thinking for a moment, Kotetsu nodded.

  “Do you want to try?”

  Another nod.

  Atsuo was concerned about Kotetsu. He wouldn’t show it in any way outward, but observing Kotetsu perform Ninjutsu gave him a sense that the boy really didn't know what he was doing. He didn’t want to see Kotetsu be discouraged when this inevitably failed.

  Kotetsu thought he understood what he might be missing. In all of his attempts at using his fire-starting Ninjutsu, it always felt as if he was straining himself all to produce a simple spark. If what Atsuo showed him was true, then the key to producing a larger effect came down to making a larger motion. He mentally kicked himself for never trying such a simple tactic. Mayuka, the old lady he studied to learn his fire-starting Ninjutsu from, had never actually shown Kotetsu what she did after performing the hand signs. She had concealed her hand and whatever action she might have performed in the logs of the fire pits.

  Kotetsu stood still, closing his eyes, thinking about the sensation of Chakra flowing through his body whenever he used his Ninjutsu. Instead of letting the feeling spread out across his body, he focused on his lungs and breath. After almost a full minute of standing in silence, he brought his hands up in front of his chest. He moved slowly through the pattern of hand signs he had seen Atsuo perform. Then, he inhaled.

  “Don't be discouraged, okay? It takes months to learn a skill like this. You'll get better through practi-”

  Kotetsu exhaled, and Atsuo's breath was knocked out of his chest as a stream of fire poured forth from Kotetsu's mouth like water from a faucet, spilling down and across the cold forest floor. Atsuo found himself stumbling back as the fire gained momentum, covering the distance to his feet in a matter of seconds. Kotetsu opened his eyes in shock at the viral nature of the fire he summoned. He stood in the middle of a pool of flames, seemingly untouched as the blaze whirled up and around him. There was just one problem. Kotetsu jumped nearly 20 feet straight into the air as the flames hungrily licked at his legs and feet, barely grabbing a low branch and keeping himself from descending back down into the inferno.

  Atsuo was left speechless as he turned to look up at the yelping Kotetsu. The amount of flames Kotetsu could summon was almost unreal- an amount that had personally taken him weeks, months of training to produce. Yet, Kotetsu seemed to possess lungs of fire. As Atsuo looked up at Kotetsu, who had positioned himself safely on the branch above, his mind snapped to attention as he suddenly realised the situation he was in. Looking back down, he shouted and barked as he furiously began stomping out the spreading flames, the sounds of Kotetsu laughing and crying echoing from above.

  —

  Night had fallen, and Dan sat alone in front of the clan entrance, whittling away at a stick with his knife. He glanced up at the sound of hefty footfalls as a figure slowly approached. It was not Atsuo like he had expected. The damaged, bloody form of his father, Tan, stumbled into the small clearing. Dan rushed forward, dropping the stick and concealing the knife, catching his father.

  “Father! What happened to you? Where is the rest of the clan group?”

  “Safe… For now. Most of us barely escaped with our lives. We have wounded men. The rest of the group is still over a day out, making their way back slowly…” Tan coughed as he made his report.

  “We need medical supplies. Some of the men likely won’t make it without intervention. Where is Atsuo?”

  Dan looked down in a nervous gesture as his father tried to make eye contact.

  “I was the fastest and least wounded man left. Now, where is Atsuo?” Tan questioned.

  Hesitating, Dan answered. “He… Is not here at the present moment. He will be back soon. I will assemble a group and move out with the supplies. You need to tend to your own wounds.” Moving quickly, he coaxed his father into the camp under the light of the full moon.