The training session between both groups was now way underway with Kimimaro and his teammates having seemed to be put on the back foot.
So far both Chika and Kujira had been taken out by Hattori and Rokuro. And things weren't looking good for Kimimaro, who was currently trapped inside a water prison jutsu.
"Shit... How did I fall for this?" Kimimaro asked himself, still holding his breath having been trapped inside of the water.
Fuyōna watched Kimimaro carefully too, also wondering how he would deal with the situation, finding himself in a three vs one now.
Kimimaro scanned his surroundings trying to find a weak point in the jutsu, taking his time, already knowing the amount of time he had left while holding his breath.
"Looks like I have no choice." He said to himself, letting his chakra build before closing his eyes to focus.
Hattori had defeated Kujira and turned his attention towards Kimimaro and Kurōn who had the advantage.
"No way... He's losing." Hattori said, not sure who this Kurōn was, knowing that he must be strong if he could hold his own against his rival, never mind be winning in their match so far.
"Wow, that guy sure is strong." Rokuro also said, taking Hattori by surprise as he appeared next to him.
Hattori was surprised that Rokuro had won his fight but shrugged it off now, not really caring either way as he turned his focus back onto Kurōn.
"Who is this guy... And why have I never heard of him before?" Hattori asked, clenching his fist.
Kurōn held the water prison with Kimimaro inside of it, keeping an eye on him while waiting to see what he would do.
"Seems he's going to make a move." He said to himself, holding back the smile that would have formed on his lips.
"Here we go."
Kimimaro suddenly let his chakra burst to life, shooting as many bones from his body as he could in all directions. The shear amount of them was enough to force Kurōn to release his grip on the water prison and jump back, only to be hit through the chest by one of the bones before they crashed into the ground.
"He got him!" Koyuki yelled, punching the air in excitement.
"No... This isn't over yet." Haku said, seeing through his ploy.
Kurōn's body burst into water, revealing that it was another clone all along, leaving Kimimaro standing on the ground as he tried to catch his breath, his hair dripping water over his eyes and down his face.
"He broke free. Guess it's my turn." Hattori said as he punched his hand, not wanting Kurōn to take all the action for himself.
"W-wait, Hattori," Rokuro yelled, trying to stop him but to no avail.
Kimimaro didn't have much time for rest thanks to Hattori charging towards him with a loud battle cry.
"I hope you didn't forget about me, Kimimaro!" He shouted before activating his steel release and throwing a huge right hand aimed at Kimimaro's face.
Kimimaro reacted at the last second as he blocked the attack with his forearm, using his bones to reinforce it and take the force of his blow without breaking his forearm.
The two clashed in a battle of strength as they both pushed as hard as they could, trying to get the other to yield. However, both of them knew the other would never do such a thing, still pushing with all of their strength.
Kimimaro was the first to move, shifting his weight to the right before he counter-attacked with bones coming from his ribs. Hattori didn't even bother blocking or avoiding the attack as he used his left hand to slam a hammer fist into the top of Kimimaro's skull, landing a clean blow whilst the bones deflected off of Hattori's steel skin, doing no damage to him.
Kimimaro had already reinforced his skull and was able to take the hit without much side effect, other than his brain shaking in his skull for a second.
However, Hattori wasn't finished there, and knew that if he wasn't quick, Kimimaro would be able to counter attack.
Using his swift release, Hattori moved faster than Kimimaro could track, appearing from all angles as he attacked with more solid punches and kicks, smashing Kimimaro in all directions in a flurry of attacks.
Hattori hit like a tank, using the combination of his steel release and speed from his swift release, his blows were deadly. And if not for Kimimaro using his own kekkie genkai to harden the bones and under layer of skin in his body, he would have already been unconscious.
"Time to finish this!" Hattori shouted, already surprised that Kimimaro was still standing, trying his best to defend himself with his bones sticking out in all directions.
Kimimaro knew he had no choice, his bones may have been as hard as steel too, but still were not able to pierce through Hattori's defences.
Hattori changed direction one last time as he went to attack Kimimaro from the left, having moved from his right side in the blink of an eye, getting ready to slam a kick into the side of his face.
Hattori saw the opening and burst through, knowing that the bones that stood in his way would only bounce off of his steel skin again, proving useless to stop his advance. However, this time Kimimaro had charged his lightning style through all of the bones, giving them an extra edge to this cutting and piercing ability, something that Hattori had not seen coming.
Still, his kick landed flush into the side of Kimimaros's face, knocking him off of his feet into the air before he was able to flip and skid to a halt. But this time, Hattori had also been stopped in his tracks, seeing that the bone that had made contact with him had actually cut him, doing him damage for the first time.
"Lightning style..." Hattori said, knowing that he would have to be way more careful in how close he got to him now.
Kimimaro stood up and wiped the blood from his lip. Yet he smiled never the less, seeing the blood that remained on the edge of his bone, knowing he had done damage this time.
"Things won't be so easy for you now," Kimimaro said before standing to his full height and allowing as many bones as he could to slowly protrude from his body, coating each of them with lighting release.
Hattori wasn't impressed and took a low stance getting ready to charge in for another assault.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kurōn said, appearing next to Hattori with the warning.
"What the hell do you want, stay out of this." He said, not taking his words into consideration.
"Hattori stop! We should approach this as a team, it's three against one!" Rokuro also said, trying to get him to see reason.
Kimimaro on the other hand knew that his chances of victory were certainly a lot greater if he could fight them one on one rather than three at once.
Knowing that he charged head-on, not giving them time to regroup and come up with a plan.
"Look out!" Rokuro suddenly yelled, seeing that Kimimaro was already charging towards them.
Kimimaro quickly threw a barrage of bone bullets at the group, trying to put them under pressure before he got there.
Hattori could see that the bone bullets were not laced with lightning style, and simply blocked them with his forearm, letting them bounce off of his skin.
Kurōn blocked them with his short sword and moved back out of the way, wanting to see how Hattori would handle the situation. However, Rokuro didn't fair so well as he managed to dodge two of the bone bullets, but in his attempt to deflect the third with his kunai, the impact proved to be too great for the metal knife and shattering it, hurting his wrist in the process.
"Ah, shit!" Rokuro yelled, clutching it with his other hand.
Kimimaro could see that Rokuro was the weak link and quickly dashed towards him in an attempt to take him out first, quickly depleting their numbers if he could.
Kimimaro was fast, using his lighting release to boost his speed, getting on top of Rokuro before he even knew what was going on.
"I don't think so!" Hattori yelled, quickly smashing Kimimaro out of the way with a powerful punch, slamming him into a tree with the force.
Rokuro had sworn he saw his life flash before his eyes, only to see Hattori appear in front of him at the last moment to save him.
However, Hattori had taken more damage by charging in head-on again, seeing that both his arm and his chest had been cut this time, drawing more blood.
"Darn it, I need to be more careful," Hattori said to himself as he accessed his wounds.
Hattori looked back over to Kimimaro who had already recovered from his hit, knowing he wouldn't stay still for long.
"So, what did you have in mind to deal with him?" Hattori suddenly said as he looked at Rokuro, taking him by surprise.
----------------------------
Alright that's the end of this chapter! I hope you are enjoying the training fight so far.
As always thank you for supporting the story and I hope you all have a great weekend!