Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_520: INTERLUDE_13.7: Uchiha Izumi, A Good Sparring Partner and Friend.

“Here,” Takuma said, tossing a water canteen to Uchiha Izumi as he sat beside her on the grass of the training field. They had just finished one of their irregular sparring sessions. Despite the willingness of both parties, they were never able to get anything regular on their calendars. It had taken Mikoto making them clear their schedules and holding them accountable just to get them together for the first few times. After that, both of them moved their sparring sessions up their respective priority lists to make time when one side asked for it.

“Thank God, it’s getting cooler now. Do you prefer hotter or colder weather?” Izumi asked, pouring some water on her muddy feet before drinking the remainder in small sips.

“I prefer the cold,” Takuma replied. “I would love to go to a mountainous area with enough snow to bury trees. There, I’d dig into the snow, go down like twenty or thirty feet, and make an under-the-surface, igloo-like shelter, start a small fire—the hard snow right above wouldn’t melt because that’s how cold the weather is—and spend a night just to see what that would be like. I bet it’s going to be warmer than what most would expect.”

“What about you?” he asked.

“I’m a spring and summer girl. The sun’s warmth on the body feels amazing. You can only appreciate cold when there’s something hot to contrast it. Ice-pops, cold foot baths, the gentle breeze in the evenings,” she smiled, thinking back to it all.

She glanced at him. He had changed in the past few months. Sometimes, he was too calm. Not in a creepy way. He was just steady. He listened more than he talked. When he did talk, people listened. It wasn’t that he didn’t get stressed or surprised by things. There was no hiding one’s true self during a fight, and after exchanging countless blows, she felt they shared an understanding. It was like he had already processed whatever problem was coming and had decided it wasn’t worth panicking over, preferring instead to focus on how he could help with what was under his control.

She didn’t know what had brought about the change, so she asked him about it.

“—I have had a lot of time to think recently—” he answered with a tone that suggested he didn’t know how to feel about it. She felt she was missing something that stopped her from understanding his words completely, but he had clearly matured.

“I know I’ve said this before, but thank you for this,” Takuma said as he capped his canteen. “Every time I fight you, it gives me a lot to think about.”

“Oh, you and your flattery,” Izumi smiled, gently pushing him on the shoulder.

They had been sparring to smooth out some kinks in Takuma’s combat style, and he had certainly improved.

Mikoto had drilled a wide variety of fighting styles that she had picked up during her career as a shinobi—and more that she had copied from other clan members—right into Izumi, who herself was slowly amassing her own catalogue of fighting styles.

With that vast amount of knowledge, Izumi picked the styles that held a distinct advantage over Takuma and forced him to fight against them. She wanted him to understand his weaknesses and then shove them in his face, round after round, until he was sick of them. It worked, as he began to plug the holes, which in turn created new ones, so she exploited them until he was at least aware of them. She didn’t think that process was ever going to end.

After a while, Izumi moved on to the next step. With all of her knowledge, she constructed a fighting style that was the perfect counter to his style—one that exploited every strength and weakness of his. A style centred on speed, evasion, precision, and an enhanced emphasis on defence against genjutsu. Takuma was the hardest melee hitter she knew and had enough chakra to absolutely abuse ninjutsu, so she made sure not to get hit or ensnared by his genjutsu, hitting him as hard as she could. It was a difficult phase for Takuma. Where before, each style Izumi threw targeted one or two disadvantages in his style, this style targeted everything all at once. She remained constantly on the move, pulling away when he tried to engage in melee, but closing the gap the moment she thought he would try a big ninjutsu.

Over three sparring sessions, Takuma won two rounds. It was the worst performance he had ever had against Izumi, and that included their first spar.

However, just as Izumi expected, the tide began to change as Takuma figured out his shortcomings, worked on them, and started his slow but steady climb against her. She could tell that period was very tough on him as he struggled, with most of his changes failing on first contact.

She was worried, if only for a moment, that she might be doing harm. Previously, they were dealing with one fault at a time. He could focus on that one thing, but now, he was barraged by a fighting style that was meant to beat him. He had too many things to consider every time he thought of introducing changes.

But then one day, he lay down on the ground after one particularly tough spar.

“—I don’t want to say it, but I have missed this. It has been such a long time since I’ve felt like such a worthless piece of shit—”

Izumi was worried that she had gone too far, but then Takuma shared that he had once been part of the underground prize-fighting called the “Ring” and that he hadn’t been hit that much since his early days as a prize-fighter. She was utterly surprised because she wasn’t expecting him to open up. Takuma wasn’t the type to open up easily. He wasn’t shy about letting his thoughts and opinions be known, so she knew the type of person he was, but he rarely shared personal details.

That was the first time he had shared something Izumi felt was significant.

And it turned out to be a turning point because that very day, Takuma asked for her help.

“—I-I have made some decisions that have put a divide between Arisu and me. I was wondering if you could help me fix things?—” He had looked uncomfortable making the request, but he was equally earnest about it. “—I don’t want us to drift away until we are strangers. She means too much to me for me not to at least try to save our friendship.—”

Izumi was friends with Arisu, so she knew that her friend and Takuma had grown very close to each other during their time in the Police Force, but she didn’t know that they had fallen out.

She recalled the talk she had with Takuma during Hana’s chūnin promotion party. It was only a few words from him, but it had helped. This was her chance to pay him back for what he had done back then.

“—Of course!—” she had replied brightly.

Izumi smiled as she recalled the plans they had made afterwards.

“No, I’m serious about it,” Takuma said, turning his head to look at her.

“Huh, serious about what?” Izumi asked as she sipped on her water.

“These spars have been more helpful than just improving my combat style,” Takuma said. “The way you use chakra is enchanting to say the least. My understanding of chakra is all over the place. I know things, but connecting those pieces so they can be greater than the sum of their parts has been a persistent problem. But you—you can do it, and getting to observe it has been helpful.”

Izumi didn’t comment. The path to chakra enlightenment was deeply personal for every shinobi. It was something that they had to tackle on their own. Raising one’s understanding of their chakra was one thing, but stitching the different pieces together, as Takuma had put it, was the more difficult aspect of the process. She didn’t want to influence him by saying something that might send him down the wrong path.

“Then… how about we schedule another one with Master?” she offered. Even if she couldn’t talk about it, there was nothing wrong with putting on a showcase. He could infer all he wanted from that. She would also get to observe his findings.

Takuma’s eyes gleamed. “I wouldn’t mind that.”

Izumi and Takuma were in the third and current phase of their sparring.

The problem with constructing a perfect counter for Takuma was that Izumi didn’t have sufficient tools to use it properly. In an ideal world, Takuma’s worst opponent would have defences to endure his offensive onslaught—something she lacked. Izumi had enough firepower to harm him, but it was hard to use it effectively when she was in danger of getting severely injured every time she was close to him. To get around that problem, she had to be constantly on the move to avoid giving Takuma any unnecessary chances—but that meant getting into a stamina contest with him, which was a foolish endeavour for most because Takuma did not get tired easily.

So, her “perfect” was amply imperfect.

Eventually, Takuma managed to raise his win percentage to half of their rounds.

It was then that Izumi decided that it was time to return to her personal combat style. Even though Mikoto had taught her how to analyse her opponent’s combat style and adjust her approach accordingly, Izumi had her own “base combat style.” Yes, targeting the opponent’s weakness was important, but so was utilising her own personal strengths.

It once again allowed her to gain a clear edge over him in their spars.

After the first time, Mikoto had only attended their sparring sessions three times—all occasions when they had agreed to use B-rank ninjutsu. They were serious affairs where they blocked out a large training field and submitted the necessary paperwork on Mikoto’s orders.

Izumi had faced the dreadful Earth Release: Earth Spear. It was awful. It completely transformed Takuma’s combat style. She had come to know how much chakra he truly had as he bombarded her B-rank Water Release ninjutsu. He became dangerously hard to hurt (or kill) and gained some dangerous weapons that he could use without worrying about gassing out.

Of their three serious spars, she had managed to win two. The second victory could have been his if the cards had fallen in his direction instead of hers.

Her Sharingan gave her a distinct advantage as a taijutsu-first fighter against another similar fighter. That was perhaps the thing that countered his Earth-Spear-powered offence. She was also confident that there was no worse matchup for him than her. She had fought him enough and thus knew him better as a fighter than he knew himself—his idiosyncrasies, his go-tos under stress, everything about him was recorded in her mind, ready for her to access with a jolt of her chakra to her eyes.

And yet, she had an inkling that if they truly fought to kill, he would be a different fighter. How did she know that? Because it was the same for her. At the end of the day, the most serious spar and a real fight to the death were two very different beasts.

Something told her that his adjustments would be vastly different from her own.

Takuma had changed in the past few months.

That new calm and steadiness didn’t stop at his demeanour.

She feared that in that hypothetical fight to the death, her knowledge might not be enough.

———

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A/N: The line about Takuma having a "lot of time to think".

I couldn't explain it because we didn't have access to Takuma's thoughts here.

There are multiple instances (clones) of Takuma running around for 8 hours at a time. They aren't working/training all that time; they also need to rest in between—can't lock in for 8 hours straight. And it's perfectly normal for their mind to wander as they stare into the distance, so at the end of the day, Takuma receives inklings of retro- and intro- 'spection' from his clones.

——

This was also a lot of tell. But because I'm skipping the year, this is the only way I could show this without getting into a 3-4 chapter fight. There won't be any combat in these interludes.