In Naruto: Reborn with Talent

Toneri watched Rei with a difficult expression that came off as a half-scowl and half-grimace because he was simultaneously trying to appear nonchalant. Right now, it was clear to him that he did not hold the proverbial edge in the fight which was a totally new experience for him.

Toneri spent a lot of time watching the ninjas from the Elemental Nations and comparing his skill to them, always getting the same result. He was simply unbeatable for them and as such, he never thought somebody could give him any difficulty. Yet, the man in front of him was doing exactly that.

'What kind of freak is that anyway! Did he really try to go for double suicide there? Who does that!?' Toneri's thoughts were much more distraught than his expression involuntarily showed. Realizing this won't be as easy as he previously imagined, Toneri decided to get serious right off the bat.

Rei instantly sensed a change in his opponent's chakra, mesmerized as it started to leave Toneri's chakra system and started to seep directly into his body, cloaking him in itself and changing the color from darkish blue to a much lighter shade of almost green. In fact, Rei could see the chakra with his very eyes because Toneri's body was as if bathed in it.

Quirking his lips, Rei frowned. He didn't expect Toneri to be able to enter chakra mode without having Tenseigan but clearly, he could. 'Here I thought I could just chill, but no! The guy clearly wants to try-hard it. How bothersome...'

The second Toneri's body finished charging up with chakra, he disappeared in a blur and Rei had a hard time blocking the brutal combo of punches Toneri unleashed on him. Evading and deflecting Toneri's fists, Rei tried to get a feel for his opponent's newfound power and speed, slowly adjusting his own tempo to match him while also checking how the chakra mode affected his body on a deeper level.

As he did this, he couldn't help but grin when the thought of Tsunade telepathically watching this fight through his eyes occurred to him. He had no doubt she was doing the exact same thing as him, already trying to come up with a way to 'recreate' the chakra mode for herself.

Toneri tried to use his superior speed to get his punches through Rei's guard, aiming at the gaps in his defense, yet, Rei somehow always twisted his hands in a totally unexpected circular manner and blocked Toneri's blows with his forearm or elbows. This led Toneri to become rather frustrated, which only made him more rash during the quick-paced exchange, but as the technique and precision of his blows lessened, the power behind them increased.

Rei found himself deflecting more and more, rather than blocking, moving all around the vast empty place in front of the castle while being happy he chose to pull Toneri outside for their fight. The surroundings were getting quite trashed up as cracks formed on the ground, and rocks were occasionally sent flying all around.

Somewhere during their fight, Rei understood that Toneri's chakra-enhanced blows would be too much for his base body. Instead of taking hits head-on, he rather redirected them away from himself. As Toneri became more impatient, this was becoming easier but also, the danger of injury increased as even a single hit could break a bone.

That actually surprised Rei a lot. His body could withstand Tsunade's chakra-enhanced punches with a minimal counter-enhancement. And here, a guy was almost matching, if not surpassing in some moments, Tsunade's strength. The technique he was using was rather ingenious.

Suddenly, Rei found a hole in Toneri's guard and instantly took it, sending a counter-strike at Toneri as he deflected his right arm to the side, aiming for his chin to incapacitate him. Smirk was starting to form on Rei's lips the closer his fist got to Toneri who seemed unable to react... Only for his fist to phase right through Toneri.

Rei blinked in surprise, momentarily not understanding what happened before a sharp sting in his abdomen pulled him out of his reverie as he found himself flying through the air due to Toneri's kick.

Toneri watched in satisfied fascination as the body of his opponent crashed into the rocky wall, creating a crater there while sending a massive cloud of dust into the surroundings. He clearly heard the resounding crack when his kick landed. Calmly walking forward, Toneri thought that this fight... was over.

The closer Toneri got, the more obstructed his vision became because of the dust cloud but he wasn't phased by it. This was the very first time he fought against a ninja from the Elemental Nations and honestly, he was surprised how strong his opponent was. Now he just wanted to savor the taste of his victo...

A hand suddenly pushed through the cloud of the dust, grabbing Toneri's face and pulling him inside with a mighty yank. Before Toneri managed to gather his wits enough to react, he found his body spinning for a moment before the back of his head was roughly bashed on the rocky wall, causing a spiderweb of cracks to form. Instinctively, Toneri's hands took hold of the forearm of his attacker who still held his face in a crushing grip and tried to push his hand away.

The only thing Toneri could see was the frightening grin on his opponent's face despite the resounding cracks that came out of the forearm Toneri's hands were squeezing. Yet, no matter how clearly Toneri felt his hands crush the bones in Rei's forearm, the hold of his hand on Toneri's face didn't cease, instead, it actually grew stronger, making Toneri feel very uncomfortable and almost painful pressure on his skull.

"You're gonna try a lot harder than this, boy. If you think a bit of bodily mutilation is enough to end a fight, then you clearly underestimate the ninjas of Elemental Nations far too much." Rei jokingly quipped, completely ignoring the pain in his hand while inwardly comparing his current situation to what usually happened during his spars with Tsunade.

That woman could be ruthless and tear his body to pieces at times only to get an excuse to put him back together. A few pulverized bones? That was what the guy who decided to destroy the ninjas expected to stop him? Wasn't that quite laughable?

"F-, Fi--n-" Toneri rasped through Rei's palm, causing Rei to lean closer, trying to hear what his opponent had to say.

"Come again? I think I didn't hear you quite well." He nonchalantly said, pushing Toneri's head a bit to the left, grinding the back of it on the hard rocks of the moon in a way he surmised was very painful. This allowed Rei to get a better look at Toneri's right eye and when he saw the look in it, his cheerful demeanor froze for a second.

That, however, was far too late as a yellow flash followed by a strong pushing force smashed into Rei, tearing his forearm away from his elbow due to Toneri's grip on it while the rest of his body flew back as the yellow exploding ball hit his chest point-blank.

It was only when he was flying through the air did Rei realized that the look in Toneri's eye was far from someone who was caught in an inescapable hold. Somehow, that made him release a small involuntary smile of satisfaction.

The fight was finally getting interesting....