Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 24- Spar

Yama and Kakashi walked out to the training grounds and positioned themselves atop one of the dueling platforms.

The two shinobi settled into their stances.

Kakashi was light on his feet, his legs somewhat crouched, and his hands held high, protecting his face and torso. His left foot and fist were forward in the standard orthodox stance for right-handers.

Yama was more upright, and his feet were solidly on the ground, his weight a bit further back in his stance than Kakashi. Yama had both hands clenched into fists. His left was held forward, his arm almost 60% extended, while his right has held low, a few inches from his belly button.

Most of the kids were inside, enjoying their lunch, but there was one witness. Iruka had left the classroom to be alone during lunch and went outside.

He was sitting by himself under a tree, not too far from the dueling platform, but not that great of a view either.

Kakashi spoke to Yama.

  "It's just taijutsu, right? Why don't you show me what you can do? I'll moderate my strength and speed."

Yama smiled.

  "Much appreciated Kakashi."

With that, Yama closed in on Kakashi. Kakashi was somewhat surprised with his speed. Even though Yama was unable to mold chakra, he was able to maintain high genin level speed. If you take into account the armor hidden under his loose pants and jacket, it was quite a feat of strength to move like that under such a burden.

As soon as he was within range, Yama threw a hard right straight at Kakashi's face leading into further strikes and combinations, all of which were evaded by the agile Kakashi.

Kakashi retreated at first, trying to gain distance, but Yama was mirroring his movements well. As Kakashi retreated, Yama advanced, and as Kakashi tried to circle out from the edge of the platform, Yama would circle the same direction.

Before long, Kakashi found himself in a corner of the platform and forced into meeting Yama rather than evading.

Kakashi started to throw strikes of his own, but was soon irritated with the way that Yama fought.

Whenever Kakashi threw a blow, Yama would block it with extreme prejudice, meeting him halfway through the strike, always with the hardest part of his body.

When Kakashi threw a jab, Yama would block it by hitting his forearm, sometimes with an uppercut from below, sometimes with a knife hand strike from above, often with the edge of his own forearm.

A straight would be blocked in a fairly similar manner, with Yama focusing on throwing blocks as hard as one would throw a blow of their own.

Kakashi was soon extremely uncomfortable, especially considering that Yama had metal armguards on and was not hesitating to use them whatsoever.

As Kakashi started to mix it up with hooks and uppercuts, Yama started to incorporate more blocks with the point of his elbow and Kakashi found himself having to pull some of his blow to avoid punching directly into Yama's elbow.

Kakashi started to throw more kicks, but it was futile as well. Yama met each kick that he could with shin on shin contact. Sometimes he would block with his knee, and if the kick high enough, his elbow.

No matter how Kakashi mixed it up, Yama's defense was near impregnable and extremely uncomfortable to go against.

Yama started to speak during the spar, much to Kakashi's displeasure.

  "This is the Konoha Strong Fist. It is a great choice to fight someone on equal grounds. It focuses on heavy strikes with the hardest parts of one"s body.