The next day, Takuma's muscles ached from sparring against Masaaki while wearing the weighted gear. It had been a while since his body hurt as much as it did after sparring, but he'd sparred much harder and more often than usual too.

The pain was good because it represented growth, but that didn't mean he had to like waking up in agony at the slightest twitch.

"It was a boon that you chose Masaaki as your first sparring partner," said Maruboshi as they stood in the same field the following day.

"How so?" asked Takuma as he stretched with his weighted gear on.

"Because his combat style is similar to yours, you have an example you can draw from. You said Masaaki and another man known as Masumoto inspired your fighting style. I want you to mimic them. Try out what they do and see how you feel."

"That doesn't make sense," Takuma replied. "Both of them are willing to trade damage."

"I don't know about the other one, but Masaaki only traded damage when he thought he absolutely needed to. You go into fights knowing you'll trade damage. They do it for a reason; you don't."

Takuma touched his toes and thought about the two other fighters.

Masumoto was Bishop's real name; they had only fought twice, so he wasn't sure about the man's philosophy, but if he had to infer, Bishop wanted his opponent to feel stifling pressure throughout the fight; all of his decisions were geared toward that single goal.

As for Masaaki, he preferred to linger around and wait till he could get a devastating strike and believed in quality rather than quantity of attacks.

Maruboshi continued, "Since they inspired you, why not try mimicking them and see if you can find answers on how to further your own approach to combat."

Takuma didn't think there was anything wrong with his style, but he kept that thought to himself and glanced a few steps away from him where Nenro was doing his warm up routine.

"I'm happy to help with anything," Nenro had said with a blinding smile when Takuma requested he be his sparring partner.

Takuma couldn't help but sigh at his friend's good looks; those same looks had made him immensely popular. He, on the other hand, had made a baby cry when he was out grocery shopping—his new scar apparently made him look like he was itching for a fight.

Nenro was his second invite after Masaaki. The two were different but equally skilled fighters, and Nenro had insisted on helping him even though he was swamped and liked to relax during his free time.

"Let's start with the first round," said Maruboshi, looking between the two of them.

Nenro nodded and sprinted to a tree on the other side of the field to finish his warmup.

Maruboshi noticed Takuma gazing at his friend with a sombre expression and asked if something was wrong.

"When I first met them, Masaaki used to be tougher to fight. Now that I fight like him, he's easier to handle—but Nenro has become a more challenging opponent." Takuma was stronger, but if he limited himself to Nenro's level, the spars were some of the most challenging he had fought and that included the brutality he faced within the Ring. "He's my perfect counter when it comes to ninjutsu... Lightning trumps both Water and Earth."

"Lightning, that's rare," said Maruboshi. The Land of Fire got its name because a majority of the country's natives had the Fire nature as their primary affinity. Similar patterns could be seen in other major nations. There were theories with insufficient proof, but no one knew the exact reason why such patterns could be seen across the lands.

"And knowing him, he must have improved in the past year... I don't know if I can beat him if I limit myself to his level."

Maruboshi thought Takuma was putting himself down because he had been talking about changing his fighting style and wanted to reassure him when he noticed the fire in his eyes. It seemed like he didn't need to say anything.

"Go on then, let's see if you can adapt on the fly," said Maruboshi.

Takuma walked up to Nenro, who waited for him with a smile. Nenro used to have shorter brown hair, but in the year Takuma was away, he had grown his hair and now wore it in a short, low ponytail. His face had lost its baby fat, making his features sharper, but the most significant change in Nenro were his eyes.

They always seemed intelligence to Takuma, but now there was an added layer of wisdom that imparted maturity to his appearance.

"Masaaki said you have gotten stronger," said Nenro.

"I hope you haven't let yourself stagnate with your recent workload," Takuma replied.

He was surprised when he heard that Nenro was leading missions as a genin, but he was also proud of his friend. Out of everyone their age, Nenro was the one who always seemed to have things together the most. While Takuma was frantically juggling drug dealing, the Ring, and then the Police Force—Nenro was taking planned steps, working under several chunin who took different missions to learn as much as he could and build himself a solid foundation.

All of that had paid off now and Nenro was getting the recognition he deserved while he built a jump pad to reach the next stage in his career.

"Fight me to find out," Nenro smiled. "I assume we're going with the full range?"

"It won't be fun otherwise," said Takuma. With Masaaki, their spars were restricted to taijutsu because that's what they enjoyed facing in each other, but with Nenro, he used everything in his arsenal.

Clanking metal sounded as Nenro put his left hand behind his back while he raised his right hand to form the Seal of Confrontation, not even trying to hide that he was pulling out a kunai. The spar had already started, Takuma thought as he looked at Nenro smiling before him. He raised his Seal of Confrontation, too, while chakra trickled into his other hand.

"You can start," said Nenro, pulling a kunai out behind his back.

"No, please, be my guest," said Takuma before remembering that he was supposed to mimic Masaaki and Bishop to find the answers Maruboshi wanted him to seek. He thought about what Bishop would do, and the answer was that he would take control of the fight's momentum by taking the initiative.

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"I insist," Nenro smiled.

Takuma shrugged and abruptly made the move first. His body blurred as he shot forward with his arm cocked back, ready to unleash a punch. Nenro was ready and zoomed backwards, not as fast as him, but he compensated by throwing the kunai at his legs.

Takuma skipped to the side to evade the kunai, hopped from one foot and punched out while spinning all in one uninterrupted motion. Chakra Augmentation: Second Form. The ranged blast shot out his fist. A surprised Nenro brought up his guard, but a part of the force hit him square in the chest and threw him off his feet.

This proved that Masaaki hadn't told Nenro about Takuma's new tricks, however, the Second Form augmentation was inspired by Masaaki's range bukijutsu, and Nenro had faced that an ample number of times. Instincts kicked in, and he gained control of his body in mid-air and landed on his hands before pushing off to land on his feet.

Pressure, Takuma repeated the word in his mind like a mantra to keep himself from falling back into his habits.

He weaved hand seals for the Water Release: Wild Water Wave, nostrils filling with humid air as he sprayed out a powerful jet at Nenro, who used the momentum of his backflip to continue retreating. He still got hit by the wave, but had made so much distance that it felt like running full-speed into a heavy door rather than getting hit by a C-rank jutsu.

Takuma's hands rose on instinct. It felt natural to use the Water Release: Eight Tentacles afterd creating a water source, but then he remembered that the same habit had been exploited by Maruboshi two days ago.

More pressure, he thought and shot toward Nenro.

Nenro lost footing when he landed and skidded onto his knees. Before he was even stable, his hands moved rapidly to form seals, but contrary to his expectations, Takuma didn't stop to create his tentacles and charged toward him.

Nenro's brows creased into a frown when he saw that. Two choices lay ahead of him. Abandon the hand seals and get up with enough time to face Takuma or complete the jutsu with the risk of getting throttled into the ground by an augmented strike that was sure to come.

It took him mere milliseconds to make a decision, and he rushed through the hand seals faster.

Takuma arrived before Nenro and pushed out a vicious, augmented front kick. At the exact moment, Nenro finished his hand seals, and the ninjutsu came alive. As Takuma's foot crashed into Nenro's chest, an azure lightning current sparked at the point of contact.

Nenro felt like an elephant had stomped on him, and his body slammed into the ground, creating a local tremor in the field. Takuma, on the other hand, screamed as an intense wave of lightning struck his body from his foot, and he momentarily lost a significant portion of his strength, falling to his knees as his muscles spasmed out of control; he looked down at his hands that were trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"I-I learned that because of you and Masaaki." Takuma looked up to see Nenro getting on his feet with a pained expression as he clutched his chest. Hair-thin currents of lightning sparked across his body at random. Nenro smirked, "Want to experience how it feels to face you? I've got just the thing."

Takuma clenched his fist and punched the ground before getting up. "Oh really? Show it to me then," he said, but at the same time, he wondered what about the jutsu. Other than some lingering pain, he didn't feel much else.

The worrying part was the loss of muscle control.

Nenro raised his hands and attacked Takuma, who moved back while dodging. He couldn't compare with Takuma and Masaaki when it came to taijutsu, but he wasn't a slouch either. He moved quickly with light steps and tried to pry open the opponent's guard with jabs before striking out with combos.

Takuma raised his guard as Nenro struck out with a kick to the thigh and was already set to counter with a body shot when a current jolted through his leg, causing it to spasm. It wasn't bad enough to make him kneel, but he halted, and his other leg had to take over to maintain balance. He forced himself back in control, but in that time, Nenro got in two more hits.

Takuma felt his right shoulder and left forearm momentarily paralysed after sparks of lightning upon contact. This was when he realised Nenro's ninjutsu—and how dangerous it was—he literally couldn't allow Nenro to touch him. He charged his leg with chakra and stomped the ground between them as hard as possible, causing debris to fly and forcing them to back away.

The separation gave Takuma time to think about how to proceed. His initial thought was to go for it and let himself get shocked if he could get the opportunity to punish Nenro, so he wouldn't dare let Takuma come close from the fear of getting punched. But he immediately recognised that he was once again falling back on his habits, a realisation that frustrated him.

If he mimicked Bishop, the correct course of action was to continue pilling up the pressure. He couldn't let Nenro think he was scared of his ninjutsu, and getting aggressive was the best way to accomplish that. But that wasn't an option, so he went the other way to think what Masaaki would do.

Quality over quantity. Takuma's tense shoulders relaxed as he decided to slow down. He needed to judge the situation to come up with the optimal solution. He didn't know what this jutsu was, but there had to be a weakness. However, Takuma also wanted to end the spar quickly, so instead of drawing out the fight to figure things out, he decided to work with what he had.

Touching Nenro was a no-go, so what else could he do?

'Second Form?' thought Takuma before rejecting the idea because he would be too close, and Nenro was skilled enough to make contact with him even with the augmentation.

What else? The answer was apparent. He had the perfect jutsu for ranged damage.

Takuma started by controlling Nenro's movements with shuriken and kunai. Nenro was invested in coming close, but Takuma kept him away using projectile weapons. He even used two weights tied on a string weapon to trip him. Nenro came close a few times, but Takuma managed to keep him at a distance with the threat of the Second Form augmentation.

He could use the Hidden Mist Jutsu to create the opportunity, but he wasn't in the mood to use that, and it could complicate the situation, given that Nenro used Lightning nature and had a few ninjutsu that could put him in trouble.

Nenro, realising what Takuma was trying, stopped chasing and began to form hand seals. Takuma could guess what jutsu Nenro was going to use because of their numerous spars and began to form hand seals as well.

Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder

Earth Release: Earthen Dome

Nenro split his hands after forming the final hand seal, and a wave of lightning currents jumped between his hands. He thrust his hands in Takuma's direction for a surge of powerful lightning to head toward him, ripping the ground in its path into shreds, burning everything it came into contact with.

The earth around Takuma rose to form a dome that began to crumble the moment lightning surge made contact due to the type-disadvantage. At any moment, the lightning could pierce through and strike Takuma, but he didn't escape using theEarth Release: Hiding in the Rock jutsu and trusting his skill with the jutsu would allow it to stand up just long enough for him to mount his counterattack.

Outside the dome, Nenro waited for the dome to crumble so he could send a second surge to strike Takuma. But before the dome could crumble, something pierced through the dome from the inside.

Nenro was hit by three water bullets that had been dulled enough that they wouldn't do any real damage but would hurt like hell. The shock of getting hit three times square in the chest shattered Nenro's concentration on the jutsu and left him clutching his chest from the pain.

The dome crumbled, and Takuma stood up with a water globe floating before his hand. He could still shoot three more times, and the globe was stable. His mastery of the jutsu had increased since he had last used it, and he felt like he had finally reached the bare minimum mastery over Water Release: Spirit Water Wave.

"And that's one win for me," said Takuma as he let go of the jutsu.

He turned to look at Maruboshi and found him smiling on the sideline. Takuma looked back at the fighting, and he had to admit it had gone better than expected. If he was fighting as he usually did, the battle would have turned into one of endurance to see who could take the most damage before giving in.

"Alright... I'll give this adjustment thing a legit try," he whispered.

On the sidelines, Maruboshi's smile widened.