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"Excuse me." A voice called out, ripping her from her focus and making her kunai miss the target and go straight into the forest. She glared at the post for a moment before composing herself and turning to the voice that interrupted her. How long had they been there? How did they sneak up on her?
"What?" Hana asked, only barely not sneering in instinct. It suddenly became much easier not to sneer, however, when her eyes locked onto the pretty Uchiha girl that had just moved up to her class, and she instead had to fight not to blush. Guremaru huffed in what she knew was a laugh, because he was rude, and she kicked him in the side without looking down.
"I was wondering how much longer you'd be here. No one usually uses this training ground because it's so close to the Uchiha compound, so I don't usually bother renting it out, but I don't really have much free time to train." She answered, and her voice was the same irritating monotone of most Uchiha, but her body language was weird- not expressive, exactly, but looser, as if she could be blown away by a stray wind, and much less snobbish then she would expect from an Uchiha. Hana could even smell guilt at interrupting someone else's training, clear as day.
She didn't even know the arrogant, up their own asses Uchiha could feel guilt for something as beneath them as inconveniencing other people.
"I'll probably be here a while. My usual training ground got torn up." Hana shrugged, stuffing her hands in her pockets and trying to look cool and giving the Uchiha a sharp glare, refusing to shuffle her feet like a love-struck civilian. Pretty and loose or whatever didn't really matter- Hana was here first. The Uchiha- Uzime? Inozo? crap, Hana was terrible with names- frowned in disappointment but nodded, and Hana refused to feel a little bit guilty.
The ravenette didn't leave though, just stood there, and Hana's smile gained a few too many teeth as she felt a little unsettled. What was the Uchiha waiting for? Her to get creeped out and leave or something?
Fat chance! she thought with a mental snort and fixed her posture to go back to throwing kunai without turning her back on the Uchiha.
"...Want to fight for it?" The Uchiha suddenly spoke up, and Hana almost choked as she barely avoided fumbling with her kunai in surprise. That certainly wasn't what she was expecting. She was expecting the girl to turn and walk away with a dismissive gesture, or demand she get the training ground anyway in a holier-then-thou Uchiha voice, maybe.
It's not quite that Uchiha didn't start fights, really, but they were rarely so blatant about it, usually more then content to goad someone into throwing the first punch.
She must have taken a second too long to answer, though, because the Uchiha tilted her head at Hana's silence, and her brain short circuited as the sun caught the girl's coal black eyes and seemed to set them alight-
"Yeah. I kinda do, Uchiha-hime." She blurted- did not squeak, thank the sage- before her brain could catch up with her mouth, and suddenly the girl was right in front of her. She clumsily smirked at the girl and rolled back her shoulders, trying to radiate the confidence that her bite was as good as her bark. The Uchiha gave a soft and mysterious half-smile that was gone before she could blink, and she could swear she felt her heart stop mid-beat.
Hana remembered, with a distinct horror, the whispered rumors that the Uchiha girl was only known to spar with Shisui and Itachi Uchiha, monster prodigies of the Uchiha Clan. Hana realized, with a distinct horror, that if the rumors were even slightly true- and they were Yamanaka Rumor Mill rumors, so they probably were- then the girl had to be fast and clever and to manage that with any degree of success.
It's not like that would make her just give up, though. fast and clever were probably just about an even match for stubborn and viscous. Her smirk solidified.
"...You are in my Academy class this year." The girl in front of her comments with a tilt of her head, and Hana has to look down a little to meet her eyes. "Inuzuka Hana, yes?" The Uchiha says, more soft then monotone, now, as if her words were as easy to blow away as she looked to be, and Hana doesn't even notice she's nodding until the Uchiha hums in acknowledgement. Her mouth is dry.
"Yep. That's me." She confirmed with a blink, clearing her throat and giving the Uchiha an assessing look. "I can't say I'm very good with names, though. What's yours again, Uchiha-hime?" She asks, putting an emphasis on the honorific that was meant to be mocking but somehow came out more playful.
"Uchiha Izumi." The girl said promptly, and that senbon-thin smile was back. "Though really, aren't you a clan heir? Wouldn't it be more accurate for me to call you Inuzuka-hime?" She returned lightly, almost purred, and Hana had to stop herself from openly gaping.
Did the Uchiha just make a joke? Did she just flirt with Hana? Was Hana absolutely certain that she wasn't trapped in a Genjutsu?
That last question was answered as Hana felt the stabbing pain in her palms where her nails- almost claws- were digging into her skin. The last two were still, mystically, left open to interpretation. Hana had no damn clue what to do with that.
"No weapons?" Hana proposed, not even a little subtly shifting the conversation back to the matter at hand. She dropped the kunai and shurriken she borrowed from her mom, and the sound was almost deafening.
"Ok." the Uchiha acquiesced, adding her much shinier weapons to the pile, and, like that, Hana could almost breathe again. "Your Ninken?"
"They fight with me." Hana snarled automatically, the silent you gotta problem with that? impossible to miss. They were her partners, and she was more then used to them being dismissed by non-Inuzuka's that didn't understand. She wouldn't- couldn't leave them out of a fight. She tensed, waiting for a snark or a dismissal or a scoff-
But the Uchiha- Izumi, her name was Izumi- just nodded, like the question was more of a formality then anything else. Like Hana's response was the most obvious and expected thing in the world.
Hana really wanted to be angry, or something, that Izumi acted like she was that easy to read, but- but she couldn't, really. She was too relieved and pleasantly surprised to not have to defend the honor of her partners. Her life companions. Her partners. It was nice for someone outside of her clan to just...accept that, for once.
"Then I suppose I may use my Sharringan?" The girl said mildly, and Hana had to stop her brain from going too far down the 'holy shit she already has her Sharringan that's so cool-' road as she gave a nod. 4 against 1-with-freaky-clan-eyes. She could do this.
--
She could not do this.
Not that she was giving up, duh, but even she had to admit that this fight was above her skill range.
This Izumi chick was an absolute beast. Hana had been prepared for the usual Uchiha tricks- Genjutsu and Fireball-Ninjutsu, mainly. She had already lined up Suiton in her head to counter, and was convinced that her opening would come when the Uchiha tried to pull a Genjutsu because Inuzuka were infamously bad with then, and then Hana would surprise attack her because Hana was, actually, pretty good. She braced herself to hold out for that.
It was becoming pretty evident that that moment wouldn't come.
No, instead, Izumi had surprised her by going straight for her fucking throat as soon as she said 'go'. She didn't even try any fancy Genjutsu or Ninjutsu. She didn't bother bidding her time. She launched straight into an onslaught of devastatingly fast Taijutsu.
It started with a straight forward throat-punch that she wouldn't expect from an uppity Uchiha. She tried to duck it, but wasn't quite fast enough and caught the punch to the nose instead of the throat, and she was almost out at the first blow. Luckily, her Ninken jumped to her defense, giving her the precious few seconds she needed to recover, not even bothering to heal her nose.
She had a feeling she'd want to conserve her Chakra.
By the time she was ready to jump back into the fight, her Ninken were almost down for the count. It had been, maybe, five seconds, and only Guremaru was left standing. Hana growled and sharpened her finger nails, leaping on Izumi when her back was turned.
Izumi shifted her footing so subtly that Hana barely noticed, up until her hand was too close to dodge and Izumi's leg kicked out to hit her chest. She grunted but clawed onto the leg before it pushed her back too far. She twisted the leg sideways, making Izumi lose her footing. The girl complied, legs kicking into the air, but supported herself on her hands and kicked up at Hana's jaw.
Hana dodged this time, seeing it coming, and spat out the blood that leaked into her mouth from her nose.
Oh, she was so fucked. The longer they fought, the more Izumi's glowing red eyes started to mimic her fighting style and come up with improvements and counters for it, apparently just on reflex. There was no way she'd last more then seven minutes, It was terrifying.
(It was beautiful, holy shit-)
She was fucked, but this was going to be the best seven minutes of her life.