"I'll use this. A crossbow, and a ballistic knife. How about I get some ammo for these things?" Yukio said while showing off the weapons.

These will be perfect for me to use since my timing is my best feature.

Yukio held the crossbow in his right hand, and the ballistic knife in his left. Yumi gave him two pouches, one full of bolts and the other filled with ballistic knifes. He attached the pouch to his waist, and prepared both his weapons to face against Murakumo.

Come to think of it, I don't even know what weapons she's using. I'm completely in the dark when it comes to her fighting style too.

Murakumo spawned her weapons. She dual-wielded a huge cleaver in her right hand, and a spear in the left. Yukio took a mental note of her weapons.

First off, what the hell, how is she able to wield both of those?! Both of those weapons can only be used in close-combat situations, which means I'm gonna need to keep my distance.

Yukio loaded his crossbow and ballistic knife.

"The rules are simple, fight until the other one cannot. Ready, and begin!" Yumi shouted.

Murakumo immediately rushed towards Yukio, and quickly closed the distance. Yukio backed up and shot his first bolt, but Murakumo deflected it using her cleaver. Yukio began to panic, and he tried to strike her using the knife. Murakumo blocked the attack with her cleaver, and thrusted her spear towards Yukio. He dodged the strike, and jumped back while he shot the ballistic knife at her. The knife grazed Murakumo's shirt, and she rushed towards him.

Yukio's eyes widened as the ogre mask flashed in front of his face, and he got knocked back the Murakumo cleaver. Luckily, she attacked using the blunt side of the large weapon. Yukio tumbled to the ground, but quickly got back up.

Yukio loaded another bolt into the crossbow, and fired at Murakumo. She quickly dodged the attack, and went to strike Yukio with her spear. Yukio fired a ballistic knife at her arm, and it nearly missed. It left a scar on her left forearm.

Yukio couldn't see her face, but he could tell that angered her by the next lightning-quick attack. She aimed her spear for Yukio's head, and he barely dodged the attack. It left a scar on his left cheek.

Shoot, I won't be able to win at this rate. It's like she's trying to kill me. I need to use Timer.

"Timer!" Yukio shouted, and time stopped around him.

He ran towards Murakumo, but stopped before he attacked her.

Wait, let me test something.

Yukio aimed his crossbow, and pulled the trigger. However, nothing happened. He then aimed his ballistic knife and fired a knife. The knife is detached from the base, but it's frozen in the air.

What the heck? I guess my weapons are still frozen in time. I should just attack her for now.

Yukio aimed his crossbow down. He went behind Murakumo, and side-kicked her leg, which staggered her. Time started up again, and he heard a bolt piercing the ground. He then barely dodged one of his own ballistic knifes. However, Murakumo recovered and spin kicked Yukio to the ground.

"Holy crap." Yukio said.

That's interesting, let me try something then.

"Timer." Yukio said, and time froze again.

"Timer is supposed to last a minute or two, let's see how many I can fire until then." Yukio got up from the ground.

He ran around Murakumo, who was frozen in time, and fired off multiple ballistic knifes all around her.

Maybe I fired too many. I should grab a few and put them away.

Yukio touched one of the floating knifes, and time suddenly resumed.

"Shoot! Ti-Ugh!" Yukio's head throbbed and his nose started bleeding.

Murakumo ducked underneath all the knifes. Which made the knifes collide with each other, and fell to the floor. Murakumo took advantage of Yukio's headache, and whacked his chin upward with the handle of her staff, and roundhouse-kicked him into the stone stairs.

Ugh! Damn, these girls have really good senses.

Yukio stood up, and wiped blood from his nostrils.

Now, how am I going to fight her? I already showed her my tricks. The only I can do now is...

Yukio threw his crossbow to the side, and unbuckled his bolt belt. He tossed his ballistic knife into his right hand, and took a fighting pose.

...fight her head on. No more crossbow. This is my real weapon of choice.

Yukio rushed towards Murakumo, which took her by surprise. He thrusted his knife forward towards her, but she parried it with her cleaver. Murakumo countered with a spear thrust, but Yukio ducked under the attack. He sliced one of Murakumo's legs, which staggered her. He used this chance to kick her back.

Murakumo looked down at her leg, and saw a small cut where Yukio sliced. She looked over at Yukio. He flinched at the ogre mask staring at him.

That mask still creeps me out.

Murakumo rushed to Yukio, and he barely dodged a spear thrust. He thrusted his knife towards her, but she easily dodged it. Yukio dodged a downward slash from her cleaver, and stepped on the cleaver.

Now she can't attack using the cleaver.

Yukio went to strike, but Murakumo blocked the attack using her spear's handle.

Erg...wait, I've got it.

Yukio slashed again and again with his knife, but Murakumo continued to block using the wooden spear handle. However, the handle started to creak and chip off.

Just a little bit more...

Yukio refused to let Murakumo lift the cleaver underneath his feet. He shot a ballistic knife at Murakumo's right hand, which was around the cleaver's handle. She then let go of the handle, and poke Yukio in the forehead with her spear's handle. She held the spear with both hands, and thrusted down towards Yukio.

"Now!" Yukio jumped off the cleaver, and fired a ballistic knife at the her.

The knife hit the spear handle, and the handle broke in half in front of Murakumo. The broken handle didn't have enough room to hold with both of her hands, so she held it with her just left hand. Her other hand lifted the cleaver off from the ground.

Shoot, I thought I shortened the handle to be too small for her to wield anymore. I didn't do anything to weaken her at all.

"Impressive, boy." The ogre masked Shinobi said, as she pointed her spear towards him.

"Don't give me that crap, I didn't do anything to weaken you." Yukio replied.

"No you didn't, but that ballistic knife surprised me." Murakumo countered.

"Yeah, really means a lot since I can't see your face." Yukio said, sarcastically.

The two went silent, and Murakumo rushed him again. Yukio froze when he saw multiple Murakumo figures rushing towards him. Suddenly Yukio saw a blue outline of her just a few feet in front of Murakumo. The blue version went to strike Yukio, but then disappeared. The real Murakumo then went to strike the same way, and Yukio easily dodged it.

What the?! Was that Murakumo? Or was that me?

Yukio stepped back, and put a large amount of distance between them.

"Are you cloning or something?" Yukio asked.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Murakumo said, and tilted her head to the side.

"Uh...never mind, let's continue." Yukio said, as he rushed towards Murakumo.

Yukio thrusted her knife towards Murakumo. A blue outline of Murakumo surroundedher, and lifted her clever to block the attack. However, it disappeared before Yukio's attack landed, and the real Murakumo stood still. Yukio continued with his thrust, and Murakumo blocked the thrust with the same movements that the blue figure did.

What the hell was that?! It's like she copies whatever the blue figure does? Is that me, am I getting a new ability?!

Yukio saw a blue version of Murakumo's spear thrusted into his face, and he dodged the real spear as it followed the blue version's path.

So I see a glimpse of what my target's next movement will be or something? I don't know what this power is, but I guess I'll use it.

Yukio's head started to ache, and Murakumo used the chance to strike him with her cleaver. Yukio foresaw Murakumo's attack using the new ability, and ducked underneath the cleaver slash. He kicked Murakumo back, and put some distance between them.

Of course, using this power comes at a price. Ugh! I guess I need to stop relying on my powers, and stick with my guts and my knifes.

Murakumo rushed towards Yukio. He stepped back to dodge a strike from her cleaver. Yukio went to strike her mask with his knife, but she blocked it with her spear. Yukio shot out the ballistic knife, and it sliced the ribbon of Murakumo's mask. The whole mask then fell to the ground.

"Huh? Sorry, my ba-" Yukio noticed the mask on the ground, and looked at Murakumo's face.

Underneath the mask was a pair of sparkling olive-green eyes, with the sides of her hair reaching down to her shoulders.

One thing that took Yukio off guard was how pretty her face looked. With the fact that Murakumo wore a mask, Yukio expected a scars on her face or some other kind of marking. However, Yukio didn't see any of the sort.

Murakumo noticed that she wasn't wearing her mask. She blushed intensely, and started panicking. This reaction confused Yukio.

Yumi walked over to Murakumo, and gave her another mask that was identical to her previous one. Murakumo whispered into Yumi's ear.

"The fight is over, Murakumo refuses to fight anymore." Yumi shouted towards Yukio.

Yukio's eyes widened. "Huh? Y-You're kidding, right?" He didn't want to believe that he won.

What the heck?! Her mask got knocked off, and she just decides to give up? What's up with this girl?!

Yukio glared at Murakumo as she walked towards the stairs, leading to the academy. Murakumo stopped and turned towards Yukio. The ogre mask made him look away again. Murakumo also looked away, and continued walking up the stairs.

"Ugh...I really don't like that mask at all." Yukio said to himself.

"Congrats, Yu." The blonde wavy-haired Gessen shinobi was the first to approach him. "That fight was, like, beyond cool."

"You were serious about the nickname. Um...Shiki, right?" Yukio replied.

"Yep, that's me." Shiki proudly put her palm to her chest.

"Impressive fight, Yukio. You surprised all of us here." The blue bob-cut-haired, large-gauntlet-wielding Shinobi was the second to approach Yukio.

"Uh...thanks...Yozakura?" Yukio responded.

She nodded, and Yozakura patted him on the shoulder with her gauntlets. Yukio thought his shoulder was dislocated from the weight and pressure of the gauntlets, but was freed before it could.

"Ow." Yukio rolled his shoulder, and then saw a lollipop in from of him.

"For you, mister. You did a great job!" The brown-pigtailed Shinobi handed Yukio the lollipop.

"Thanks...I'm sorry, what was your name again?" Yukio asked as he grabbed the lollipop.

"I'm Minori. Nice to meet you, mister!" Minori grabbed Yukio's hand and shook it.

"Alright, Minori. Call me, Yukio." Yukio replied, and shook Minori's hand again.

"Yu-ki-o. Ok, Yukio." Minori responded.

It's like I'm talking to a kindergartner...A very polite kindergartner.

Yukio was then approached by Yumi, as the other girls backed away and followed their masked friend into the academy.

"How do you feel?" Yumi asked.

"I'm only a little hurt..." Yukio replied, as he fell to the ground. "...Ok, maybe more than a little."

"You should sleep for the rest of the day. Get your energy back." Yumi said.

"Sure, I'm not sparring with anyone ever again. I'm done, you can't make me." Yukio complained, then chuckled.

"But I wanted to spar with you, I guess that would have to wait." Yumi replied.

"I refuse to fight you." Yukio said.

She would freeze me to death without even trying, and I know that from experience.

"This is just the beginning of your time here, Yukio." Yumi said.

"W-What do you mean by that?! I'm planning to head straight to Hanzo as soon as you let me go." Yukio replied.

"Unfortunately, we require more information from you to ensure that you aren't a threat to the Shinobi world." Yumi explained.

"So then...when will go back to Hanzo?" Yukio asked.

"However long it takes to prove that you are innocent. Not just to me or my classmates, but to other Shinobi as well." Yumi responded.

"You've got to be...kidding me..." Yukio passed from exhaustion, and Yumi carried him into the academy.

"We're looking forward to your cooperation." Yumi whispered into Yukio's ear.

To be continued...