Gritting her teeth, Temari made a tough decision. It was either get hit by some chains and get her war fan or leave her fan and dodge.
Naturally, her war fan would usually be the priority as it was an extremely important weapon for her but she couldn't afford to be injured. Not by Karin. Not like this. Not so easily.
Her pride was reeling in disgust at the thought. Plus, this fight would most likely be quite a long one and whoever would get injured first would be at a huge disadvantage.
Her course of action was set and Temari...
The formation of chains tightened as they fully encased the place where Temari was standing in a ball of chakra chains sharp enough to bisect a tree all over their length.
To the audience, it seemed as if Karin managed to get Temari with a finishing blow as the ball of writhing chains, grinding against each other in all of their shredding might, was a very menacing sight.
But Karing knew differently and stayed alert. Her sensing prowess caught something just before her chains struck. She was not certain what it meant but she was not about to underestimate her foe.
Her vigilance was rewarded five seconds later. The earth on the opposite side of the arena from the writhing ball of chains suddenly became sand and Temari emerged from it with a very put-off face.
Part of it was definitely the fact she had to leave her fan behind but Karin realized the biggest reason why she seemed so discontent was that she realized a sneak attack would not work because of how focused Karin was. To appear on the other side of the arena, her route definitely led underneath Karin and that meant, the opportunity for a sneak attack was definitely there.
Now... if only Karin could find out how Temari evaded her senses when she was underground. That was quite a worrying ability.
Nevertheless, Karin couldn't help but give Temari a quick smirk. She one-upped the uppity bitch so well, her ego's ass would hurt for ages!
Seeing Karin's smirk, Temari frowned. Yes, she lost her war fan but what's with that winning expression? Why was the Uzumaki brat grinning like a loon? As if she had already won?
Did nobody teach her the fight is not over until your opponent doesn't breathe anymore?
'This is why kids are so...' Temari inwardly shook her head in exasperation.
"I can admit that was a well-planned assault." Temari started speaking towards Karin. "But it looks like I will have to teach you an important lesson in the ninja world." She sighed, "How you can be so self-assured at this point is beyond me. Did nobody ever tell you that..."
Temari paused and put her hand into her kunai pouch and took out a very harmless-looking storage scroll.
Karin, who initially got on guard, looked at Temari in bewilderment. Storage scroll? That was it? Was she hiding a second war fan or something? That is the reason for her confidence?
What could a storage scroll contain? Kunais? Shurikens? Pfft, as if such tools were useful in a fight of this level...
Giving a glance at her deadly chains... Karin could not believe the Suna harlot could still maintain that condescending look.
'I will really have to cut her up real good to wipe that smug facade off of her face, won't I?' Karin narrowed her eyes and prepared herself. She refused to believe a second war fan is what made Temari so on top of her game despite her bad situation.
Temari's smirk widened as she noticed Karin getting focused, expecting some grand attack she would have to dodge or block.
"Expect the unexpected!" Temari leisurely said in a lecturing tone before she snorted and threw the scroll high into the air, right in the middle of where they both stood.
Karin blinked, resisting the urge to follow the scroll with her eyes.
She was not impressed. Misdirection was the oldest thing in the books. Trying to use an ordinary storage scroll to get her attention away from her opponent?
Hah~...
Karin was not impressed. Her eyes stayed firmly on Temari, giving her a deadpan look that conveyed, 'Really? That's your big lesson? Bluffing?'
It seemed that Temari's ploy failed as she stood awkwardly rooted in her place, her lips twitching when Karin's eyes refused to let her out of their sight while the small scroll spun in the air, reaching higher and higher.
"Pathe..." Karin dryly started.
She was however interrupted midway when the scroll burst open and an entire ocean of sand emerged above the arena, starting to fall down like an inescapable crushing waterfall.
And while Karin was too stunned to do anything, taken off guard pretty heavily, Temari just let out a pearl of laughter full of enjoyment and glee as her body seemingly turned to sand which then fell to the ground, forming a pile there.
There was no time for Karin to react as the ocean of sand reached the ground, burying the arena alongside her in itself, creating a small desert of quicksand.
The audience was utterly stunned at this usage of storage scroll. Many ninjas wondered what Temari intended to do with a storage scroll in this kind of fight but...
Nobody could even begin to guess that she stored a desert in it. In hindsight, having so much sand dropped on one's head would be indeed... unpleasant. The people wondered if the redhead was even alive at this point. Being buried alive by sand weighing several tons at the very least... that gotta be lethal, no?
After a few seconds, small tendrils of sand rose up from the new sandy ground, forming into a humanoid shape before they solidified, revealing Temari who kneeled down, putting her palms on the sand and chuckling.
"Surprise bitch. Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral!" She exclaimed and the sand underneath her compressed with such force, a crater was created on the surface of the sand dune, sending a cloud of sandy dust to fly upward, covering the arena.
The sand dropped around two meters in height. That's how much it was compressed. The individual grains of sand were so close to each other, the sand surface was now as hard as a chakra-enhanced rock.
When the ninjas in the audience saw that, they couldn't help but grimace while thinking, 'Yep, there is no surviving that one...'
And while many were utterly bewildered, the Suna ninjas in particular couldn't help but get chills when they saw someone other than Gaara manipulating sand in this manner. Gaara's Sand Coffin was extremely well known in Sunagakure. Seeing its upgraded version? Of course, the people old enough to remember Gaara's bloody childhood would not find it amusing that the technique got an upgrade.
Temari slowly stood up, rolling her tense shoulders.
This was it. She revealed her bloodline to the world. And damn if it wasn't such a drag!
"My body is so stiff! I shouldn't have channeled so much chakra through it into the sand." She loudly groaned, giving the compressed sandy ground a sheepish glance before uneasily muttering under her nose, "Er... was this a bit of an overkill? Rei would have saved the Uzumaki kid from being flattened if my attack was life-threatening." She tried to awkwardly comfort herself but the uncertainty was blatantly obvious in her tone. "Right?"
As she awkwardly stood in her place, hunched over from how weary her body was, Hayate stepped into the arena, deciding to end the match. In his opinion, there was no way the Uzumaki was still alive. This move could possibly flatten a few streets in a village.
'What a monster.' He thought as he glanced at Temari about to call her victory while inwardly feeling a distaste for her because of killing her opponent. "The w-..."
But as he was about to say it, the sandy ground of the arena suddenly started to violently tremble as many cracks abruptly emerged all around it.
It seemed Karin was not as dead as everybody thought.