Now, three teams from Iwa had made it, Yugito's team had made it whole, another from Kiri, one from Suna, and finally my team. That was before the five wounded or exhausted ones went to the infirmary.
The matches started, and I carefully observed the competition.
...
Most of the genins had only one trick up their sleeve that allowed them to sneak their way forward. Commendable, really, versatility was one of the most useful traits to have.
I dedicated a particular kind of attention to those that picked my eyes as 'potentially dangerous'. Yugito was on top of that list.
She had long, straight, blonde, hair bound with taut bandages, dark eyes and she had yet to start wearing lipstick.
She wore a long-sleeved black blouse and purple pants, both of which had a design similar to clouds on them, purple fingerless gloves and a chain of blue beads wound tightly around her right wrist.
She also wore the standard Kumogakure forehead protector, sandals and a kunai holster, which was strapped to her right thigh. Her forearms were left bare, while there were bandages that kept the end of her trousers from flapping and revealing her position.
A dirty white belt around her waist broke the dark colors of her figure. All in all, similar to she would one day appear but with more care to camouflage.
The way she walked however, was far more revealing. Silently, like most, if shinobi and kunoichi did subconsciously, but she lacked that... 'I don't fucking care about the world' vibe that fully trained jinchuriki had.
From what I knew, she had a decisive personality, but her eyes darted around a bit too much for her to be sure of herself. It stood to reason that she wasn't as powerful as she was in the manga.
In it, she couldn't transform into the Nibi, so maybe she didn't even have the version 2 of the chakra cloak yet. I certainly hoped so.
It was Shin and Hana's turn. The referee gave the signal to begin, and Shin immediately surrendered.
Hana squealed. She hugged him tightly while the bewildered referee decreed her as the victor. And I gleefully noticed Shin blushing. Ha! And I bet that's not the sake's fault!
I could tease them so much.
Soon, it was my turn. I schooled my expression and walked down into the small arena. Kurotsuchi had jumped down from the balcony in a youthful example of enthusiasm.
I stared at the girl, my eyes scanning her. Iwa kunoichi, 135cm 31kg. Too young to have a niche, chakra coils not developed enough for intensive jutsus.
Likely reliant on taijutsu, shuriken and kunais to compensate. Dangerous kekkei genkai and a suiton user.
I looked again on the balcony, searching for her jonin. Kakashi hadn't bothered showing up, but the other' teams senseis were... ninja-ing their way around each other.
Likely searching for information while letting slip half-truths and bullshits in equal measure about their home country, maybe bragging about their genins. The referee shouted: "Start!" and the game was on.
Because for me it was a game.
I opened with a mocking smile that angered the girl. Well, there's no reason to not make friends with the next Tsuchikage, is there?
She threw a smoke pellet on the ground and used the following cover to... do something. I couldn't see her after all.
The telltale whistling of shuriken warned me with time to spare and I simply hopped to the side, leaving the smoke cloud in the center of the arena.
She tried to close the distance to... engage in close combat? Is she suicidal? Then I smiled.
The girl had been trained well, her solid bushin was done fast and quietly, and she didn't shout her technique out loud, instead likely whispering it under the sound of the smoke sizzling. However I had to be stupid to not notice the fizzling of the paper bomb on the back of the clone.
Instead of dodging or trying to put some distance between us, I kicked her bombed tsuchi-bushin.
The construct was hurled through the smoke, from were jumped out a startled kunoichi a second before it exploded.
"A naïve plan, bet well executed," I commented with an encouraging smile. "And a tsuchi bunshin at your age, impressive."
She raised her guard and glared at me, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead and her breath heavy.
Probably trained to keep quiet in a fight.
"But it took a lot out if you, didn't it?" I asked tilting my head. I took a step forward and engaged her. Still silent.
"Let's see your taijutsu before wrapping this up uh?" I offered. She kept quiet. It could have been unnerving if it didn't come from ten years old with pigtails.
I wasn't behaving like a patronizing bastard humiliating her or anything like that, I simply wanted to know what Iwa nin were taught. It was too soon for her to have learned a style beyond the basic one they taught at the academy.
So I was going learn their basic through our little match, if there was one thing team 10 was scary at, it was taijutsu, so we could decode a lot from the way she balanced her weight.
Soon, she stopped keeping quiet because of a strategic choice and started doing it because she was out of breath.
I went forward with a wide punch that she countered with a perfectly executed textbook block: her right forearm protecting her head, which had been my target, and her left arm shot forward, her punch aiming to my crotch.
I raised my left knee, stopping her in her tracks, before kicking her in the gut.
I was matching her speed and carefully controlling my strength, but my hit still threw her back a few steps.
"Your taijutsu is subpar," I noted. She had all the time to kick my leg sideways, or just sidestep.
She was pressing a hand on her stomach while shaking a bit her right arm, trying to loosen up her wrist.
"Don't block head-on when your enemy is physically stronger than you." I lectured.
And for the next ten minutes, we fought hand to hand, and I forced her to bend, sidestep, evade, looking with meticulous attention at how she moved.
I offered her openings to see how she would try to hit, I offered her more than one at the same time to see what she had been taught to prioritize.
Sometimes I left obvious openings that screamed 'trap', she started refusing to take them after I almost broke her arm when she had overextended herself.
I brought up very gradually the speed, every couple of minutes raising it a bit. She managed to keep up nicely, her sensei did a lot to raise her stamina.
But after a while, I felt that I learned everything that I could, and she would have been dead on her feet, if not for the heavy breathing and the occasional cursing.
"You're good for your age." I started.
"You adapt well, and even if your taijutsu is... crap, you adapt quickly. Your aim is mostly spot-on and you recognized some of the most obvious traps."
I slapped away her weak kick and swiped away the leg she was standing on.
"You're not good enough, but you'll get there." I smiled at her panting form.
She could barely twitch her fingers, rising from the floor was beyond her. Then I saw her breath deepening and her eyes closing. Uh, she passed out.
The referee came over. "The winner is Daiki from Konohagakure." I blinked, taking in the news.
That old bastard!
The Hokage had removed 'eatslug' from my papers!