Ai’s POV:
I knew I had slept later than usual, but wasn’t sure why I hadn’t been woken up yet. I turned over, turned on my Sharingan…, and saw Master Jiraiya still asleep. Sighing, I pulled out some clay and started molding figurines of birds while I waited for Jiraiya to wake up. I had a nice big pile of C-1 explosives sitting next to me by the time he finally opened his eyes. I set another ball of clay in my palm mouth and let it mold while I made tea and breakfast.
“So…you work with clay?” I nodded and set the food down for him. “Thank you. So we’ll start off with a fight today, just to see how strong you are.”
I set the figure with the others and gave my palm hands more clay to play with. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea, hm. I’ve only been trained to kill my opponents, hm.”
He smiled. “Good, then this will be an interesting fight. Just stop yourself before you actually kill.”
I nodded, and after he finished eating, followed him outside to a large clearing in the forest. He crouched into a fighting position, and I let both of my palm mouths make a C-2 explosive, unsure of how strong this guy was. He ran at me and punched me, sending me flying across the clearing. I blinked and healed my split lip, spitting out a clot of blood. I turned on my Sharingan so I could see, and started throwing my C-1 explosives, setting them off as I did. At the same time, I pulled out my sword and got my C-2 figure ready in my other hand.
“Black with red clouds? Interesting.”
I nodded once and threw the explosive. As he dodged, I let the Stone change me into the half-tiger form and roared, sending him flying through quite a few trees. He looked at me, surprised, and suddenly found my sword at his neck, and my free hand holding both of his wrists at a pressure point.
“Impressive. Now, again.” I went back to my full human form and crouched into a fighting position. “You don’t talk much, do you?” he asked.
“No, Master Jiraiya, hm.”
He gathered a ball of chakra in his hand, and my eyes widened. I ran my sword in front of my chest, and the Stone made it grow. Red chakra formed around it, and I waited for Jiraiya’s attack. He ran at me and sent the ball of chakra at me, but I met it with my sword. When they collided, chakra exploded around us, and I was starting to be thrown back. I quickly went into my Gelel transformation and roared again. We both flew back and were thrown into boulders. I stood and sheathed my sword, going back to my real form, and waited to see if he was still fighting. He was. He ran at me again, and we threw punches and kicks wherever we could, each hitting the other quite a few times. I couldn’t tell who was winning, and that fact was starting to make me very angry. Luckily, my armor was holding up, and even if it got dented or broken, I could easily repair it. Jiraiya formed the ball of chakra again and held me in place. I threw my C-2 and made it explode just before the chakra could hit me. Still, he landed the punch, and I was thrown back into a boulder again. I slowly stood, holding my sides.
“You’re pretty strong, Ai. I’m impressed.”
I nodded. My breathing was heavy, but I still had plenty of energy…or so I thought. My vision was starting to go black around the edges, and I was feeling very lightheaded. I had used more energy than I had thought, and fell to the ground, exhausted. It was times like this in my training when I really wished I could use a demon to heal me and add to my strength. My eyes closed, and I lost consciousness.
Kakashi’s POV:
I woke up in my camp, completely hidden from view. Ai had once again escaped, and had she stayed to fight, she probably would’ve won. A very aggravating thought. It looked like I had been out for three days. I sighed and packed up camp, then headed to the Land of Tea, asking anyone I saw if they had seen someone wearing all black with red clouds as a design. Someone had seen a small group with that description, walking to a hotel downtown. I walked to the hotel and found out that Master Jiraiya was there as well, so I asked for his room number.
