Rikku frowned as the boy in front of her stepped in close. It was a stupid move, and she punished him by punching him in the shoulder. Surprisingly, Takuma didn't seem to be affected and kicked her knee.

She quickly caught herself before she could go off-balance and dug a punch into his side. She saw the flinch on his face, which meant he did feel it, but once again, he shrugged it off and attacked her with a closed fist. She raised her arm to block but felt a sharp sting. Rikku looked at her arm to find a senbon needle had gone clean through the width of her arm with the pointed edge sticking out the other side.

Baam!

As Rikku removed the senbon from her arm, she felt a devastating force hit her in the leg. It was utterly on another level from anything he had thrown at her. Nothing she could do could stop her from staggering, but she wasn't completely helpless as she controlled herself enough to stagger away from him.

Takuma raised his arm with a kunai in his hand that he threw at Rikku's shoulder.

Surprised, Rikku raised her arm to catch the blade. The kunai cut the inside of her palm because of her hasty move.

In an instant, Takuma closed the gap.

'Fast!' she thought, aware of the fact that he was wearing weights.

Takuma grabbed her arm and twisted it so the back side was up, and in one seamless movement, he slammed his elbow down at hers, forcing it to go against its natural motion, and with came the pain along with the fear that Takuma would force it past the breaking point.

But instead, he used the same elbow to smash in her face.

Rikku dropped to one knee and brought her arms together to form a block, but Takuma grabbed both of her arms, pulled them apart before slamming his knee into her face. At the last moment, Rikku turned her face away so he didn't get her chin or nose, but it was still painful.

This time, it was Rikku's turn to shrug the pain off. She jumped Takuma, pouncing at him using the strength she built up in her legs to compensate for her light body weight. It worked as Takuma's weighted gear worked against him.

They tumbled to the ground, and Rikku switched to wrestling, trying to lock Takuma in a hold so she could force him into submission. He struggled on the ground due to his weighted clothes and tried to struggle, but Rikku caught his head between her legs while restricting his hands with her own.

Rikku quickly got to work and tried to get him to submit. Takuma struggled for a moment before he stopped moving. Rikku thought he had given up and tried to push forward when Takuma suddenly returned with greater strength and freed one of his hands.

'It's okay, I can take it,' Rikku ignored the free arm and focused on making Takuma submit.

But when Takuma hit her in the side with one of those strong punches, she felt a stinging pain so bad that her grip went slack. Takuma escaped and rolled away from her.

Rikku had just stood up when she saw Takuma running towards her. She raised her guard, ready for the next attack.

'What's it going to be? A punch, kick, maybe a palm strike, or is it going to be one of those stronger strikes?'

Takuma came to a sudden stop a meter away from her and kicked the ground, gorging the soil, and flinging the loose mud towards her. Rikku covered her face, but some mud hit her face and got into one of her eyes, making her squeeze her eyes shut as an instinctual response.

'Shit!'

Just as Rikku rushed to open her eyes, she got punched in the throat. Her breathing got cut suddenly, and she gasped and coughed in panic.

Takuma took out a kunai and slashed one of her arms before stabbing at her stomach. Rikku barely moved aside, but the kunai still got her in the side.

Without getting any time to respond in any way, Takuma kicked her in the calf so hard that she felt the stress on her knee and hip. She fell down and helplessly watched as Takuma swung the kunai down at her.

She closed her eyes.

"And that ends the fight."

Rikku opened her eyes to see Anko standing behind Takuma, holding his kunai-bearing arm.

"The winner is Takuma," she said with a grin.

———

.

"Shouldn't you stop them," Kameko said to Anko as they watched Rikku and Takuma fight from a distance. Neither of them had noticed that they had spectators.

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"Why? They're just sparring," said Anko with a look of interest on her face.

Kameko sighed. With Anko like this, there was no convincing her.

Kameko was awakened by the sound of the door opening and closing in the morning. It was from the room across from her—Rikku's room. She didn't think anything of it as Rikku woke early in the morning, as did she.

But as Kameko gazed out of her room's window to start her morning, she noticed Rikku walk out of their house. Rikku trained in the morning, but when Rikku walked in the opposite direction to her usual training spot, Kameko was intrigued. Then she realized that Rikku was walking to the fields that Anko used as the training spot when she wanted to do a training activity.

Anko hadn't scheduled anything for the day. Then it dawned on Kameko that Rikku was going to meet Takuma.

'—I want to fight him—'

Rikku had said in passing when she had come to meet Kameko in her room on the day of her fight against Takuma.

'Don't tell me…'

Kameko quickly got dressed up and followed after Rikku. She knew how blunt Rikku could be, and she didn't expect Takuma to understand that the blunt way of speaking was just how Rikku spoke—she knew that Takuma wasn't above throwing poisonous words, and she didn't want her team to have more conflict against Takuma. She had decided to work with him properly even though she didn't like him.

By the time she reached the training field, it was already too late because they were already fighting.

"Now, this is a pleasant surprise."

Kameko flinched in surprise when she heard Anko beside her.

"Come on, let's not disturb them," said Anko as she dragged Kameko to a distance to watch the fight.

With Anko wanting to watch the spar, Kameko had no choice but to join her. The first thing she noticed was the gear Takuma was wearing.

"He's wearing weights?" she asked.

Kameko knew that Takuma was training with Anko, but not what type of training they were doing. All four team members had been offered training by Anko, but they had either refused or dropped out soon. Kameko followed her own training and didn't want to change her routine, but she understood the value of Anko's offer, so she went to Anko whenever something troubled her; Rikku only asked to spar with Anko once or twice every week; Iori wasn't interested at all; Daiki who had accepted the offer had only lasted two weeks before quitting.

"I like it," Anko smiled.

Kameko, having fought Takuma, immediately noticed the difference in his movements. He was moving sluggishly, finding it difficult to move around with the extra weight, which wasn't part of his body naturally. The weighted vest, which hugged his entire torso with equal weight distribution, was one thing, but the ankle and wrist weights were concentrated at a singular point, joints at that, were much more problematic. The arm and its two joints were essentially a system of lever machines, and with the weight concentrated so far away from the fulcrum, it got more difficult to move around. The same concept applied to the legs.

"He is at a disadvantage," she said.

"It doesn't look like they are using weapons or jutsu," said Anko.

"Rikku's strength is her strongest weapon. She will win if he doesn't remove his gear," said Kameko. The handicaps both had overtaken weren't equal.

"He has his chakra augmentation," Anko replied.

"It's going to be nowhere as useful if he can't move around," Kameko said.

The fight started with Takuma doing pretty well. Kameko noticed when Takuma felt the power behind Rikku's punches. Unlike Takuma, who augmented his strikes, Rikku used pure physical strength; Kameko, for the life of her, couldn't get used to the power that the petite frame could produce.

Naturally, things changed in Rikku's favor when Takuma couldn't move properly. He couldn't dodge or evade and could only block, which itself was damaging.

But then things changed.

Takuma was suddenly faster with his movements becoming tighter and crisper. His fighting style changed drastically, switching from being forced to be on defense to becoming recklessly offensive, but it seemed to work as Rikku was suddenly on the back foot.

"She forced him enough to use weapons," said Anko.

If Kameko knew Rikku well enough, then Rikku wouldn't pull out her weapons and stubbornly only use her body because Takuma was burdened by his gear.

As Kameko continued to watch, she found herself not recognizing the man in front of her from the man she had fought. She could still connect the combat style he used during their fight, but the one he was showing now was so different.

"This is very interesting," Anko whispered.

As Takuma temporarily blinded Rikku and took out his kunai, Kameko turned to Anko, only to see that her chunin lead was missing. Kameko looked back at the spar to see Anko standing beside Takuma.

Kameko rushed forward as well and helped Rukki get up.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, I just got mud in my eyes," Rikku replied.

Kameko noticed Rikku's bleeding wounds, but they weren't serious enough for her to be rushed to the medical house. The iryo-nin weren't going to be happy about healing Rikku so early in the morning.

Kameko turned to look at Takuma and found him on his hands and knees, wheezing, trying to catch his breath. Even though the weather was cool, he was dripping sweat from his face.

"I… hate… these," Takuma said as he could barely look up at Anko.

"Sometimes things good for you don't feel good," Anko grinned.

'Ah, he exchanged longevity for speed,' Kameko thought. Takuma probably pushed himself, burning his stamina in exchange for being able to move 'normally' with the extra weight.

Rikku stood up with Kameko's help. She faced Takuma, who was still on the ground, "You're strong, for sure. Let's fight again, seriously this time. I will bring my batons next time, so next time, fight me without the weight."

"S… Sure, whatever," Takuma said, stretching his words.

"Alright!" Anko clapped her hands. "Kameko, take Rikku to the medical house. We are already late for training."

"Training!?" Takuma exclaimed.

"Of course, I didn't tell you to spar with her," Anko chuckled.

Takuma groaned as he got up to his feet.

"Next time, give me a day or two's notice, you know," he said to Rikku.

"I understand. Let's fight the day after tomorrow," Rikku nodded.

Takuma's mouth opened and closed wordlessly before he nodded with a sigh.

Kameko supported Rikku as they walked to the medical house. On the way, Rikku didn't say a word; she was naturally taciturn, but Kameko could tell that Rikku was in deep thought.

"Is something wrong?" asked Kameko.

"He is dangerous," said Rikku.

"I know."

"No, I don't think you do," Rikku looked at Kameko. "What is your first instinct when you see an adversary?"

"…Disarm and detain?"

"That is mine as well," Rikku glanced back at Takuma and Anko in the distance. "I don't think that's his first thought… I think his first instinct is to kill."

Rikku rubbed her throat where she had been hit by Takuma during the fight.

Kameko didn't know if she agreed, but with the image of Takuma standing over the defenseless Rikku with his kunai, she could tell why Rikku would think that.