Naruto: Tango with Death

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For better or worse, Laiko had set himself to annoy me. I guess I rubbed off on him, for he used every possible opportunity to annoy me.

In any case, with Laiko drowning somewhere in the lake, I started playing with the water while standing on it.

There exists something known as Elemental Affinity, something every human being has. This determines the ease with which one will be able to deduce and use jutsus of a certain element.

For me, because of the way I explored my Tenketsu Points, the jutsus I discovered by myself were not influenced by my elemental affinity. However, it didn't mean they were useless.

With the way I was working, it would take me years or even decades to get to high ranking jutsus, like B Grade, A Grade or even better. I couldn't just wait until then though, so I started learning jutsus through handsigns, like other people do.

And I discovered through testing that I actually had an affinity to the element of Water, something I suspected for some time now because I always found circulating chakra in the Tenketsu related to water easier than the others.

Something else I had found out was how much time jutsus could save me. It's common knowledge that to usually use a jutsu, one needs to make handsigns, and making a handsign is circulating chakra through specific Tenketsu.

That means that whatever Jutsu it is, as long as it works, then it means the path it takes is correct. For example, one of the Jutsus I was working on, the B Rank 'Water Dragon Bullet' technique.

Despite its relatively low rank, this was actually one of the techniques with the most handsigns, as it required 44 of them.

This was extremely interesting to me because it meant that every Tenketsu in that chain could work with one another, in that order. This saved me a lot of work.

So I also started collecting as many Jutsus as possible, even if I didn't learn them, I wanted to know the necessary handsigns to use them as it gave me precious analysis.

Of course, I wasn't given access to many techniques, as seeing the handsigns needed for a technique was equivalent to buying said technique, and I didn't have unlimited money.

So to save my money, I focused on buying strong techniques with big drawbacks. To keep the 'Water Dragon Bullet' example, the power of that Jutsu was A Rank at least, but because of the numerous handsigns needed to execute it, it was classified as a B Rank technique.

But since I was only interested in the handsigns, I bought the techniques with the most handsigns and that ranked as low as possible. This allowed me to earn a lot of time, and shorten my research by a lot as I actually recently managed to break through the 3rd stage of my research, and I was getting closer.

For a reminder, my research had 361 stages, with each one being longer than the one before. Being one stage 1 meant that my chakra passed through 1 Tenketsu, Stage 2 had 2 Tenketsu, and so on until Stage 361, where my chakra would pass through all the Tenketsu Points in my body.

Completing Stage 3 allowed me to earn a few more techniques, which were all E Rank techniques unfortunately. Same for Stage 4 actually. However, one good thing was that I was discovering a lot about Chakra, and I'm pretty sure some of my techniques do not fall under the Shinobi system.

Anyway, I quickly arrived at the center of the lake, where I finally dived down, now that I was completely isolated.

I could still see the shore easily since it wasn't a very big lake, and this meant I could see Izumi and Amai-Sensei joining one after another the lake. The other Guardian, Kitane, wasn't anywhere to be seen though.

I don't know whether its because of my affinity, but I liked very much to be in water, so I did not grow tired as I swam in the clear lake water.

All good things had to end though as at some point, Takashi approached me with a spear in hand, standing atop the water as he said, "I'm ready."

Confused, I titled my head as I placed my arms in support on the water surface, and asked, "Ready to do what?"

Takashi twirled his spear around and replied, "To challenge you of course!"

Still confused, I asked, "And why would you do that?"

Takashi, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, replied, "To marry you of course!"

I lagged for a little, before sighing, "Where did you get the idea I would marry you if you defeated me?"

This time, Takashi looked stumped, and he replied in a whisper, "You said you wouldn't date someone weaker than you…"

Oh, right. Our first encounter, several months ago. I think I did say that.

I asked, "You do realize how stupid that is right? I never said I would date you if you defeated me, only that I would date someone capable of defeating me. Or I would have to date many, many people."

Takashi blushed as he mumbled, "I didn't…"

"Think it through? Clearly. Whatever, let's fight, my muscles are stiff."

Joy returned to Takashi's face, and he exclaimed, "Right! Even if that doesn't make you my wife, at least I'll be closer!"

I snorted and added, "Also, stop talking of marriage. We barely met twice. That's not how normal relationships go."

Takashi tilted his head to the side, dropping his stance for a moment as he asked in genuine surprise, "Really? How…"

Before he could finish, I used the Body Flicker to suddenly appear before him, my fist going for an uppercut.

Takashi showed an impressive reaction time as he immediately stopped talking and tried to get back in his stance, slashing toward me with the spear.

However, before the spear could pick up in speed, my foot hit its base, completely messing with Takashi's control over it, and turning him helpless as my fist smashed into his jaw.

Takashi was sent flying upward, more than two meters above the water surface, stunned from the blow.

I watched as he fell back in the water, and emerge back a few seconds later, struggling to breath as he gasped, "That's cheating!"

I chuckled and helped him back onto his feet as I lectured, "I am a Kunoichi, meaning that when I fight, I fight for my life. There's no fairness in a life and death situation, only one survivor."

Takashi rubbed his jaw, his palm glowing green as he said, "Still, you could have held back a little."

I snorted and replied, "I held back already."

Takashi gulped, before shaking his head and plunging underwater. Before long, he reappeared with his spear in hand, standing across me.

I asked, "We start on three?"

He didn't reply as he narrowed his eyes, his muscles stiffening as he kept his stance, ready to attack or defend at any moment.

I couldn't help but laugh, before smashing my foot down. A large curtain of water appeared between us, and I jumped up as his spear pierced through the water.

Rapidly flipping forward, I tried to land on his spear, but to my surprise just as I was about to do so, the spear suddenly retreated, much faster than it should have, in a familiar way…

Circulating my chakra as fast as possible, two gusts of wind erupted beneath my feet, pushing me up slightly as I managed to dodge the second spear strike.

Obviously, Takashi didn't expect me to see this one coming as he stood rooted for a moment, which I used to kick him across the face, sending him flying.