Running felt strange, I registered the soft thumps of my feet hitting the floor but nothing more. The fact that my senses were unaffected made my eyesight and hearing sharpen as a result, the air was thick with the smell of my sweat which made it slightly unpleasant.

'Not looking so good.' I thought, noticing that Ichiban was now moving at a snail's pace, he seemed to have run out of shuriken and was now occupying Guy's attention with nothing more than two Kunai and a scowl.

'Even if he's insufferable, he's got guts.' I realised, a small smile on my face as I understood his character a little more, perhaps peace was still an option.

"ICHIBAN! FALL BACK!" I shouted as Kuroda and I approached. Even though he was prideful beyond belief, a look of relief washed over his face as he backed away.

Guy's expression was a tad different.

Perhaps this was only due to how my normally sharp senses were heightened even further due to Kuroda's Jutsu, but I noticed his eyes widen until they were saucers, however, this only lasted for a moment before they flickered back to normal.

It happened so quickly that I could've been convinced I imagined it.

'Are his facial expressions also fast as fuck? How does that even work?'

Instead of launching another strike that would result in me being thrown a kilometre away, I slowed down when I was barely out of his reach, his not moving was an unreliable clause that I felt I had to rely on for now, if only for a moment.

I broke into a fully defensive stance that I wasn't experienced in using and approached Guy, my feet rooted to the ground.

"Kuroda! NOW!" I shouted. I could feel my throat vibrate as I screamed, but the feeling from my vocal cords as I screeched it out was absent.

Immediately, Kuroda sunk into the ground and disappeared.

'Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation; only D-rank, but very versatile.' I recited, making sure everything was going as it should while Kuroda sunk into the earth.

Guy merely smiled at the Yamanaka's demonstration, he didn't move and kept standing, unmoving from his position as I had hoped he would.

From the anime, I knew how the Jutsu worked. The user would burrow themselves underground, once there, their hands would burst out from underneath the dirt to grab the target and pull them down, only leaving their head out in the open. The Jutsu's name was a nod to what happened to those caught in this trap with no way out.

Guy tensed his muscles, preparing to react to Kuroda's attack when he made himself vulnerable; probably in an attempt to demonstrate how we can't rely on such an obvious attack to take a Jonin out.

I jumped forward, forcing Guy and I to enter each other's strike zones.

Guy cocked his arm back and got ready to punch the ground, waiting for Kuroda to pop up before he hit him.

He'll be waiting some time then.

*BOOM!*

Kuroda's hands burst out from beneath the ground and grabbed my feet, pulling me into the dirt a few inches before stopping; by the time I stopped sinking, my ankles had sunk into the ground.

'Perfect.'

Kuroda followed my instructions to a T.

First, I made sure he wouldn't pull me in fully; just enough to cover my feet and a little more. Second, I made him stay underground while grabbing my feet instead of coming out of the earth, this would give me some much-needed stability and help me stay rooted to the floor.

Maybe this was excessive, but I also circulated Chakra through my foot to make it stick to the ground even further. The soles of my feet couldn't bear my weight from the ceiling yet, but every little bit helped.

Guy had a freakishly wide smile when he saw my plan come to fruition, taking "Lesson number three" into account, I interrupted the words he had bubbling in his throat with a heavy strike.

I broke into a Taijutsu stance that used heavy hits accompanied by rolls of the body and shoulders to dodge, it wasn't ideal, but this would be the best style to use given my situation.

Guy smacked my hand away, and with a glimmer in his eye... kicked my side with his leg.

*SMACK!*

Even with the Mind Numbing Jutsu, a short bolt of pain spasmed through my body before it subsided. He had hit the same area of my body that his first kick had targeted, elevating the pain even more.

Even if it hurt, there wasn't even a small part of me that reacted to the strike. My mind was occupied by the fact that my half-baked, patchwork'ed, makeshift MacGyver'ed plan had actually worked.

'I'm still here bitch!'

I did my best to not yell that thought out loud though... even though I really wanted to.

Punch after punch, dodge after dodge; Guy and I locked into an intense spar. For every hit I threw at him, he threw five at me.

'Stop blocking!' I resisted screaming that out too.

It was frustrating, no matter how fast I moved or how far I pushed myself, each punch was smacked away with a light wack from his hands. Guy's strikes on the other hand connected over 80% of the time, I didn't doubt that if it wasn't for Kuroda's Jutsu, I'd probably be crying out in pain right now.

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Every time he hit me, my body felt a concentration of pain where I was struck before it ebbed away, even though the pain wasn't an issue anymore, the accumulated damages soon reared their ugly head.

My punches got slower, my dodges started to fail, and even my eyesight began to darken. I knew couldn't keep this up for much longer.

That meant it was time for part 2 of the plan.

I wasn't delusional enough to be under the impression that I could take him on solo, I was just the distraction.

I shook my right leg, spasming it to alert Kuroda that it was time for the second part of the plan. I tried to mask my movements by doing it during the small window where Guy's punch landed, banking on everything that Guy wouldn't notice any difference.

Or if he did, that he'd be charitable enough to let me pull it off.

Winning against this beast was fucking impossible, everything I've done is to leave as strong of an impression as I could... one I don't want Guy to forget anytime soon.

I felt Kuroda's grip around my legs loosen, disappearing soon after. The only thing that held me in place was the ground I was stuck to and the Chakra circulating through my feet. A shocking revelation made me stand my ground and attack Guy back with more fervour.

The amount of Chakra I could spool to my legs began to increase dramatically, subconsciously, through the pain and adrenalin of this moment, I was doing something I never could before.

But as always, it still wasn't enough.

Guy's punches started to stagger me, I could hear the crunch of the ground as it began to give way.

'Just a little longer...'

Behind Guy, a small divot opened up from the ground and a pair of chubby hands emerged from within, beginning to form a series of seals.

For a moment, I dared to hope that it might work.

*SHOOM!*

I had thrown a slow and wobbly punch that I expected Guy to whack away, instead, my fist was met with air where the Jonin was supposed to be.

My mind a haze, I looked around and noticed Kuroda kneeling by my side, gasping for air. Guy stood a little bit away, clapping his hands up and down to smack off some of the dirt that was on him. He'd managed to dodge the Jutsu, pull Kuroda out of the ground and chuck him at my feet in one fell swoop.

'Ah... shit.'

That was it, my plan's fucked.

I couldn't come up with anything more than this with the short time we had... I was out of moves.

Looking around, I saw Ichiban jog at Guy with one Kunai in hand, it went about as well as I guessed it would. Instead of attacking him directly, Guy grabbed his shirt, bunched it up with his fist and threw the boy at me, landing near my sunken feet.

I stopped circulating my Chakra and forced my knees to pull themselves out, breaking the ground with a little strain.

The sound of my ears ringing was deafening.

Guy stood still, not moving, it seemed he was observing us.

'I wanna go home...'

My body screamed in protest as I took a step forward. Kuroda's Jutsu had started to come undone and I felt a level of pain that I didn't think possible. There wasn't a single area of my body that had been free from Guy's incessant barrage of attacks.

It was strange... the pain used to feel hot, burning me from within. But now, it felt cold. The icy grip of agony gripped my entire body, refusing to let go.

"Kuroba... Ichibo... geb up.." I muttered, hoping they heard. I couldn't even fucking speak properly. I recognised the sound of them scuffling around, but I didn't waste what little energy I had by craning my neck down to look at them.

We all stood up, facing Guy. I opened my mouth to suggest that we should try and go for one final attack all at once, but I was interrupted by a shout from Guy himself.

"SEVERE LEAF HURRICANE!"

From a few metres away, Guy cocked his knee up and kicked the air with blinding speed. There was no time to react before a truck-sized wall of wind crashed into us all, flinging all three of us even further away.

The pain had grown to such a degree that getting thrown back made no discernable difference.

We all crashed into the ground with a thud, groaning in pain as we ate dirt. Kuroda started to whimper a little while Ichiban just growled, in pain or anger, I didn't know. I couldn't even manage to sound out my hurt.

He went too hard. Guy's fucking insane. These kids can't move and they didn't get hit even half as hard as I did.

'What are they complaining about? Get up and fight him, you pathetic... ugh...'

Thinking hurts too much.

'I'm done.'

'Fuck it, I'm done.'

I collapsed back into the ground, stopping my body from instinctively trying to get up again.

'It hurts too much. Guy went way harder on me than the others, it's not fair. It's not fair at all! Fuck this. Fuck him too... honestly fuck all of this.'

'Fuck Guy, that bitchy kid, the tubby one and the stupid dirt in my stupid fucking mouth.'

Resignation and hollowness coursed throughout my body. I knew I was being unreasonable, but I couldn't help it. My body was unwilling to move, and my mind was wracked with tiredness.

'Are you really throwing in the towel now?' a small voice chimed in from inside my head.

'Spouted all that shit about wanting to be a ninja, the best Taijutsu user ever... and you're already done. Damn, good job Aoki! Think you broke a few records there!'

I could hear Ichiban and Kuroda start to get up, the dirt crunched out in response as they stood, but I continued to lay on the ground.

'You know what? Why don't you spare Tomo, Sasuke and the kids some trouble and just die now? You're not cut out for this.'

Fuck you bitch.

Yeah, it's me who's said it, I'm the bitch.

Fuck me too.

Ahh... fuck the word fuck. I'm sick of it.

'...'

I don't know how, or when, but I found myself standing up, shaking like a kitten in a storm. Kuroda and Ichiban were on my left and right side respectively, they were both heavily panting while occasionally groaning in pain.

"He's too strong..." Kuroda said, wincing as he held his side. Ichiban grunted in response, panting heavily.

"One mobe timbe... Ichibo... Kubo..." I said, limping towards Guy with my fists up. It felt like they had weights strapped onto them but I held them up, refusing to let them drop.

'There's a reason... there's a reason he hit me this hard. Keep going, Aoki.'

'Keep... going.'

Every movement felt heavy, like I was walking through water with ropes tied around my body. My thoughts were the only thing keeping me moving.

All of us inched closer to Guy, we were doing our best to reach him as quickly as possible but our speed was barely above that of a regular walk.

Through my blurry vision, I could see Guy spread his arms out with a wide smile on his face.

"YES! THIS IS HOW YOUTH SHOULD BE! COME! ATTACK ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!" His shout barely registered.

Time didn't flow as it normally did, I don't know when we reached Guy, but I saw his feet in my vision and knew we were close enough to strike.

I tried to throw my fist out for a half-hearted punch but my arms fell by my side and refused to move. Unwilling to not attack him, I bent my knees down and pushed off, headbutting him with all the measly force I could muster.

Kuroda and Ichiban grunted in unison, both punching Guy's stomach with minimal strength. It was honestly just a bunch of pathetic attacks I never thought Guy would allow to reach him, but they all had hit.

'He hit you hard for a reason... he let himself be hit for a reason...' I kept repeating to myself, hoping that as long as I would remain thinking, I would remain concious.

"The three of you..." Guy whispered, his voice unmistakably emotional. I could feel his body start to tremble from my head which was leaning against his stomach, unmoved from the headbutt.

Guy's splayed-out arms closed in around us as he grabbed our bodies with a tight embrace, the two boys grunted in pain as I did my best to not pass out from the force of the hug.

"ALL PASS!"

Those words doused the wispy embers of stubbornness I was clinging to; as my mind calmed down and my thoughts grew silent, I fell limp into the sweet embrace of sleep.