Whispers in the Rain - Bleach X Naruto - Uchiha Itachi Love Story

Chapter 10 - Ranking

Saya pov:

I held the katana with both hands, breathing heavily and pretending to be unable to keep up sparring for much longer. Tsunade sama, Danzo san, Hiashi san, Kakashi san, Yamato san and two of the ANBU were still observing me as I fought against the unmasked ANBU. Hiashi san was using his Byakugan as he watched me and I knew that he was observing my chakra level as well as its flow pattern in my body.

I don't think I had any control on my chakra because I had never thought that I had any power besides my shinigami reiatsu. I would have to spend some time trying to sense my 'chakra' and compare its level with that of the people around me. From the reactions I had received from the ANBU as well as Hiashi san as he saw my chakra, I was sure that it was at an average level. I suppose that worked well for me.

Also, I had sparred enough to understand just how strong an ANBU level ninja was. In my current state, with my reiatsu limiter seal released, it seemed to me that an average ANBU was about half to three quarters as strong as me.

I'm pretty sure that there were other ninjas stronger than this guy and I would meet them sometime or the other. I also knew that there was no need for me to keep my limiter seal active. While I was in this world going out on missions, I would have to keep my reiatsu at a minimum level but if a really dire situation cropped up, I suppose I would have to expose the truth about myself. I was hoping I could keep this secret for as long as possible though.

I think I would have to find a way to paint a tattoo on my left hip too. Tsunade sama and the others had seen the seal and if it suddenly disappeared, they would most definitely question me about it.

That could be taken care of later, I suppose. Now, it was time to end this fight. To put it in the right words, it was time for me to get my butt whooped and surrender to the ANBU's oh-so-awesome power.

Up until now, the ANBU was fighting me half heartedly. He was slowly building up on his chakra for a strong attack and it looked to me like he was right about ready to strike at me with it. This was the finishing blow to which I would have to surrender.

We jumped at each other and exchanged a few more blows with him pushing me back effortlessly. I had been mellowing down my speed and the strength of my attacks to give the hint that my peak power was long gone and now I was being overpowered by him. At the moment I sensed the spike in tension in his muscles signaling the final hard blow, I narrowed my eyes, turned three sixty degrees and blocked his blade.

I mentally cursed though when I realized that I had instinctively raised my reiatsu to a level where I could not only block his blade but also push him back hard enough to cause quite a bit of damage. I hid my slip up well though, letting the ANBU feel the force of my block and thrust for a mere second – purely from the inertia – before letting the katana fly out of my hold violently and land several feet away. I also took a kick in the gut head on which threw me backwards. My back came in painful contact with the truck of a tree and I gasped.

I pulled out a kunai and tried to defend myself against the ANBU who seemed relentless in attacking me even after his final blow. The kunai too flew out of my hands and I choked as he landed another kick in my side. I met with another tree trunk and I sunk to its base while holding my aching side. My body had taken on a lot of strain and my muscles were sore. And I decided that it was time to stay down and give up on continuing this spar.

I coughed while holding my aching gut and I took the support of the tree trunk to try and stand. But I collapsed onto the ground again and leaned back against the tree showing the ANBU that I was done. He landed just about two feet away from me still holding the katana. He was looking down at me with an emotionless stare.