At the training ground, Izumi and Homura stood facing each other.
Both raised their hands and formed the Seal of Confrontation, which was the traditional gesture marking the start of a sparring match. Their fingers interlocked briefly before they separated and settled into ready stances.
"We'll start by testing your abilities in normal combat," Homura said. "Get used to your improved physical capabilities first. Then we'll move on to the Mangekyō."
"Got it. I'm coming at you, so be careful!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Izumi activated her three-tomoe Sharingan. The crimson pattern spun to life in her eyes as she surged forward, closing the distance between them.
She launched a roundhouse kick at his ribs.
Homura raised his arm and blocked it. The force behind the strike was noticeably stronger than before.
But Izumi didn't pause. Her blocked leg touched down and she immediately pivoted, driving a low kick toward Homura's shin. But he had already read the movement through her body language. His own kick shot out faster, catching her knee before she could complete the attack.
The counter threw off her balance. She stumbled, arms windmilling as she tried to keep from falling flat on her face.
"Careful," Homura said as she caught herself. "The Mangekyō awakening boosted your strength significantly, but you haven't adapted to the changes yet. You're fighting with your old habits and leaving too many openings. Take it slow. Let your body adjust."
Izumi straightened up. She could feel it now that he'd pointed it out. Her movements felt off, like she was piloting a body that didn't quite respond the way she expected. The timing was wrong. The force behind her strikes was stronger than she anticipated.
"I understand."
She took a deep breath, then came at him again. This time her approach was more cautious. She threw a testing jab, then another, feeling out the new parameters of her body.
Homura matched her pace, staying just ahead of her attacks while applying enough pressure to push her forward. It was the same principle he used when training anyone: find the edge of their abilities and keep them working right at that boundary.
Minutes passed in this rhythm.
Gradually, Izumi's movements became smoother. The awkward pauses faded as muscle memory adapted to her enhanced strength and speed. Her strikes began to flow naturally, each combination linking into the next without the delays that had hindered her earlier attempts.
Homura watched her progress with satisfaction. At first, she'd been purely defensive, barely managing to block his attacks. Then she started finding small openings to counterattack. Now she was moving fluidly, meeting his strikes and launching effective counters when opportunities presented themselves.
The improvement was exactly what he'd expected. This was her power, drawn from her own body and chakra. Once she adapted to it, the strength would feel as natural as breathing.
After another few exchanges, he stepped back and created distance between them.
"That's good enough. You've adjusted to the physical changes. Now let's test ninjutsu."
"Okay!"
Izumi's hands blurred through seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
She drew in a deep breath and chakra flooded her lungs. When she exhaled, an enormous fireball erupted from her mouth, easily ten meters in diameter. The heat was intense enough that Homura felt it from meters away. The fireball roared through the air toward him, leaving scorched earth in its path.
Homura formed the same seals and created his own Great Fireball Technique. The two spheres of flame collided mid-air.
BOOM!
The explosion sent fire scattering in all directions. The ground where the fireballs had met was blackened and cracked, the earth baked hard by the intense heat. The air above it rippled and distorted from the temperature. Small fragments of stone smoked faintly.
"Not bad," he said, genuinely impressed.
The Great Fireball Technique was the only Fire Release technique Izumi knew. She'd practiced it endlessly, refining the execution until it became second nature. The power had always been respectable. But now, backed by the massive chakra reserves the Mangekyō awakening had granted her, the technique had reached a completely different level.
"I'm really strong now too!"
Izumi planted her hands on her hips and grinned proudly, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"Next up, the Mangekyō abilities," Homura said, ignoring her boasting. "Let's see what you can do."
Izumi's expression shifted slightly, becoming a bit awkward. "My Sharingan abilities are kind of weird. They might hurt you."
"Shadow Clone Technique."
A duplicate appeared beside Homura in a puff of white smoke. The original walked over to stand next to Izumi while the clone remained in the center of the training ground.
"Don't you know how to use shadow clones? Use the clone as a target and show me what you've got."
"Huh? I forgot," Izumi said, looking embarrassed as she stared at the clone. "I still haven't learned the Shadow Clone Technique yet, so it didn't occur to me."
"You ninjutsu idiot." Homura reached over and ruffled her hair roughly. "You're a jonin and you still can't manage a B-rank technique after all this time?"
Izumi batted his hand away and protested. "The Shadow Clone Technique is difficult! Besides, I'm close to getting it. I can feel it."
"Sure you are." Homura's tone made it clear he didn't believe that for a second. "Just test your dōjutsu techniques already."
Izumi huffed but turned her attention to the shadow clone standing patiently in front of her. Her three-tomoe Sharingan activated first, then the pattern began to shift. The tomoe spun rapidly, merging together and transforming into the unique design of her Mangekyō.
The pattern in her left eye rotated faster.
Crimson-gold flames suddenly erupted across the shadow clone's body. They appeared without warning, materializing directly on its form and spreading rapidly across its entire surface. Within seconds, the clone was completely engulfed.
"Ah!"
Izumi cried out and lowered her head, her hand flying up to cover her left eye. Blood seeped between her fingers.
"That hurts!"
She stood there for a moment, breathing through the pain as the damage from using the technique recovered. Finally, she lowered her hand and looked at Homura with a pitiful expression, like a kicked puppy.
"That's because it's your first time using the Mangekyō technique," Homura explained. "You're not practiced with it yet. You consumed too much ocular power all at once. Once you get used to controlling the drain, that won't happen anymore."
While they'd been talking, the shadow clone had dispersed. Its memories flowed back to him, letting him experience what the technique had felt like from the receiving end.
"The flames themselves don't cause physical damage," he said thoughtfully. "They only burn chakra?"
The clone hadn't disappeared because it had been injured. It had run out of chakra completely, consumed by the crimson-gold flames until nothing remained.
"Yeah!"
Izumi wiped the blood from the corner of her eye and nodded.
"The technique in my left eye is called Enkūson. I can summon crimson-gold flames anywhere within my line of sight. When they hit an enemy, they burn their chakra as fuel. But aside from consuming chakra, they don't damage the enemy's body."
Homura nodded slowly, thinking it through.
The ability reminded him superficially of Amaterasu. But the mechanics were completely different. Amaterasu created real flames that burned everything they touched, though in practice they rarely seemed to kill anyone in the series. They spread slowly and could be escaped by quick thinking.
Izumi's technique didn't burn flesh. It consumed chakra directly. And from what he'd seen, the flames spread across a target almost instantaneously once they ignited. No chance to escape by shedding clothing or armor like those samurai from the Land of Iron had managed against Amaterasu.
The shadow clone's memories confirmed his initial impression. The moment the flames appeared, the clone's chakra began draining at an alarming rate. After a few seconds, the consumption slowed to a more sustainable level but continued steadily until the reserves were completely exhausted.
"There's more," Izumi continued. "While the flames of Enkūson are burning, my own injuries and chakra recover. Like just now, my eye hurt really badly when I first used the technique. But it healed super fast while the flames were active."
"That's quite an impressive ability. It's perfect for a taijutsu specialist like you who isn't great with ninjutsu."
Combining the clone's experience with what she'd told him, the pattern became clear. The initial burst of rapid chakra consumption had coincided with Izumi healing the damage to her eye. Which meant the more severely she was injured, the faster the enemy's chakra would be drained by the flames.
It was a perfect counter to drawn-out fights. The longer an enemy engaged her in combat and managed to wound her, the faster their chakra would be consumed by the flames she could summon on them. It was basically a self-sustaining cycle that turned her disadvantages into advantages.
"What about the other technique?" Homura asked. "Do you need me to make another shadow clone?"
"No, the ability in my right eye is used on myself," Izumi explained. "It's called Enseison. It summons flames that burn across my own body. While they're active, my strength increases dramatically."
She looked at him eagerly.
"Fight me again!"
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