The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 11

"Now, start."

The mountain side was bare, no place to hide.

So the three took the direct approach.

Niju leaped at his teacher, one fist pulled back.

Penami ran with her center of gravity low, almost touching the ground. A kunai glinted in one hand, four shuriken held between her fingers in the other.

As for Kansen.....she wasn't as direct as her teammates. She simply stood there, arms crossed. No intention of attack showed on her level face.

Boruto easily dodged Niju's flying punch, letting him fall to the ground on his head in a most disgraceful way. Penami threw her shuriken one by one from a distance, with the blond jonin dodging each one with ease. "Too slow," he called.

Kansen decided to make her move. She knew enough about the jonin's power now. She slowly grasped and pulled up the blades by her thighs. Metal brushed past metal without a sound. In a flash she was charging full speed, two one foot long and flat ended shortswords in her hands, edges pointing backwards. They were exquisite weapons, hand crafted by Senai herself specially for Kansen. The black rectangular hilt with rounded edges fit smoothly into her grip.

Boruto ducked and avoided the attack by a hair. If he hadn't seen the redhead coming from behind, he would have been decapitated. Said student swung out with her other hand, intending a downward stab.

"What are you doing, Kansen?! Are you seriously trying to kill him?!" An agitated Penami shouted. Niju was lying dazed on the ground, the world spinning around him. But he could still vaguely see Boruto swiftly rolling to the side and then kneeling with one knee up, the other pressed firmly into the ground along with one of his hands. The other was lying comfortably on the raised knee.

"He said we should go at him with the intent to kill him. I'm simply taking up the offer." Kansen replied, pulling her shortsword out of the ground where she had stabbed instead of her sensei's head. The blade had been completely pushed into the earth and rock beneath their feet, leaving only its black hilt visible.

For a moment the redhead stood still. She eyed the two bells softly jingling in the wind tied to Boruto's left hip.

She had read a history book somewhere in the library that had a full explanation on this exercise. How it was supposed to test your teamwork and all that cooperation nonsense. The redhead was taking none of that rubbish.

Kansen Reitsui, jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, was a solitary flier. End of story.

"You can't be solitary if you wanted to, girl. We're stuck together whether we want to be or not."

Kansen had learned how to not let her thought process be interrupted by her bijuu a few years ago. It really had become quite a problem to get distracted and stumble every time the fox decided to make a witty comment. Now, she could reply without missing a step.

"I'm aware of that. But what I can do is ignore and block you out." That was another handy trick the jinchuriki had learned by experience over the last few years.

In order to get the bells......she needed something to keep the jonin busy. That was apparently where the teamwork came into play. Well, too bad, Kansen could loophole the hell out of almost any accorded plan thrown her way. This one was no exception.

"You really think I can't get to those bells?" Kansen commented.

"Of course you can't. The Sixth Hokage got only one even by getting his whole team to work together, and the Seventh was only able to complete the exercise after he got to a jonin level," Boruto stated simply with a smirk.

"Well then, you asked for it. I'll get not one, but both of those bells from you within the next few minutes." Her gaze was now as unbreakable as the swords in her hands.

She momentarily surprised the jonin by tossing one of her shortswords up into the air and clenching her teeth firmly on the hilt of the other. Her purpose soon became clear. Now both her hands were free.

"Wind Style," she murmured with closed eyes at the end of her swift sign sequence that took little more than a few seconds.

"Air Impact."

As soon as her eyelids lifted, the gentle breezes flowing past her gathered into a wall of battling forces that moved forward with alarming speed.

Despite having figured out Kansen was going to use a jutsu, he didn't expect it to be that powerful. The wall of wind slammed into his body like a truck. How he knew what that felt like? He'd gotten hit by a truck once when he was a kid. But that was another story.

The force sent him flying over the cliff edge. He barely recovered enough to be able to focus chakra in his limbs and grab onto the cliff side. Even so, he slid downwards until his back hit solid stone. He wasn't sure which Hokage's head it was, but he really didn't care right now.

Kansen jumped off the cliffside after catching her thrown shortsword and removing the other one from between her teeth down to where the jonin was. Penami and Niju(who had just recovered his sense of balance) gaped at the sight of their teacher being forced into a corner.

Boruto watched his red haired student land lightly next to him. His guts felt like they had been crushed. Just like that time with the truck.......ugh. He probably shouldn't think about that. It would make his pain worse.

"You underestimated me," Kansen gingerly bent down and untied the two bells. Boruto barely felt anything, not even his clothes rippling in the leftover wind. That was how messed up his nervous system was right now.

She held the little silver spheres in front of her face, shook them a bit. Then she tilted her head to the side and showed what was becoming her signature smile. Closed mouth, lips bent slightly upwards in a smooth curve, eyelids slightly lowered.

"Looks like I win, Boruto-sensei."

I'm seriously terrible at writing battle scenes. Did I make Kansen a bit too overpowered?