A New Path

Ch. 36 Broken Pride

The sun was setting as Naruto faced Anko. He sported a few scratches on his face, his long-sleeved shirt was drenched in sweat and his breathing was uneven. His eyes were focused on his current 'sparring' partner. He found it hard not to groan, she didn't even looked phased by the hours they had spent sparring, in fact she looked as amused as ever.

A short distance away, a few clones could be seen training on the new taijutsu style. He had been relieved to know that Anko had approved of the method since she had said that the faster he learned, the better their spars would be. He was already familiar with the basic stances thanks to the many clones he had training. Unfortunately most of the clones had already dispersed by ricochet kunai, courtesy of Anko, though he didn't really know if they had been accidents as she sported a smirk each time one was 'killed.'

He turned back to the kunoichi, knowing that it wasn't time to think of other things. Slipping into his new taijutsu stance his eyes narrowed on the opponent, he shifted his weight to his left leg and waited for some kind of opening. She suddenly shifted weight in one foot, giving him the opening desired.

The Chunin shot off the ground and charged at the older ninja, his left arm on his side while the right was set in front of his body. He jumped in the air as he twisted his body to the right, throwing a punch with his left arm as he did so. Anko smirked as she easily caught the fist, feeling a bit of pain from the momentum the punch had gained, before using her other arm to throw a jab at the blond's stomach.

Naruto raised his right knee, blocking the attack, before using his other leg to kick at Anko's arm. He pushed against the arm with his leg, using the momentum to push himself off her grip. Landing a few feet away from Anko, he bent his knees and jumped at her once more, throwing a jab with his right hand.

Anko easily knocked the hand aside before throwing an uppercut to the boy's chin. The blond's eyes shut in pain as he sailed through the air. He gritted his teeth as he set his eyes on the ninja as he sailed through the air. Losing sight of her, even when being knocked around, always resulted in a painful kick to his chest.

Quickly twisting his body he took out a couple of kunai, flicking them at the older ninja without missing a beat. Anko took out her own kunai and flung it towards the incoming projectiles, impacting against one of them as she jumped after the blond. Naruto's eyes widened as she extended her hand and caught the second kunai without much trouble, before flinging it right back at him.

The blond quickly ran through hand signs, putting a hand around his mouth. 'Wind Style: Devastation!' a powerful gust of air shot out of his mouth, blowing the kunai away without any trouble. He landed on the ground and let out a sigh of relief, that kunai had been to close.

"Idiot!" Anko yelled in anger, appearing behind him in a cloud of smoke. She kicked the blond on the back, earning a yelp of pain as he turned to face the kunoichi with a glare, "I told you no to use ninjutsu!"

"What the hell?" Naruto yelled back, "You just tried to kill me! Was I supposed to let the kunai stab me?"

"You were supposed to knock it away with any kind of weapon. Any ninja with a brain would have done that," the snake mistress countered, "I told you not to use ninjutsu but that didn't mean that you were out of long-range attacks. You did use kunai but only once. Shinobi are supposed to use every available resource as a weapon, something that you didn't do."

Naruto crossed his arms, letting out a sigh. "Fine," he let out, "I'll keep it in mind."

Anko smiled. "Good, because we're done for the day," she announced as she began to walk away, turning her head to the bond, "Let's go. We're gonna go get something to eat, you can leave the idiot troop behind if you want."