"We will be taking a short interlude to fix the field." Eito yells out to the crowd. "They... kinda broke it."
He's not wrong, there's craters and after effects from my usage of earth jutsu and a lot of suspiciously body sized indents around the field. Most of them are from me.
Okay fine, they're all from me.
"So what kind of food do you like?" Hiro asks me with renewed interest.
Must not kill contestants. Must not kill contestants. Must not kill contestants.
"Pfft, kid that's not how you win a maiden's heart. You have to figure out what they like, then offer that to them." Noboru cuts in. "So, what do you like? Besides getting the beating of a lifetime."
Underneath my mask my left eyebrow is furiously twitching.
"Books." Sasuke idly says from my side. "She likes books."
My head snaps to him, he's getting a sick sense of satisfaction out of this.
"Books huh?" Noboru rubs his chin in contemplation. He turns to Hiro. "Ask her what kind of books."
"So Leader-sama," Hiro attempts to sound smooth and cool, "what kind of books do you enjoy reading?"
Must not kill contestants. Must not kill contestants. Must not kill contestants.
I can feel Sasuke grin under his mask. "The ones I've seen her read the most is Ich-"
My arm darts out and punches Sasuke right in the shoulder and pushing him off his chair. He wasn't ready for that blow at all. Plus I may have used just a little bit more force than necessary.
"Worth it." He says from his spot on the ground.
"Yeah well now this is happening." I storm out of my chair and stomp my way over to the wide eyed Konoha gennin.
Either they're still shocked that I can move -since most of them here know exactly how hard Lee can hit- or they're shocked that I'm a 'girl.'
I'm about to do something petty. Very petty.
"You!" I point at Hinata. "Hyuuga! Remember the blonde that you went to check on? You know, when you freaked out on me with the 'did you hurt whats-her-name and insert-dude's-name-here?"
"... You mean Ino?" She hesitantly replies. There's a tinge of worry in her eyes, she's scared of what I might do next.
"That's her name? Cool." I haphazardly gesture over my shoulder at Sasuke, who is fortunately back in his seat, before continuing. "See Red over there?"
She slowly nods her head.
"He thinks she's pretty." A not so subtle feeling of my doom starts wafting off of Sasuke. "Is she here? And can you introduce them?"
"Why on earth would I do that?" Hinata fumes in anger. "What could possibly make me even consider doing something so utterly deplorable?"
"Hm." I strike a thinking pose. "I could take it easy on the next Konoha shinobi I fight? If I fight another Konoha shinobi. I mean come on! Did you not see that out there?"
Her eyes dart to Kiba and Shino. Including Hinata herself they're the only ones left in the tournament from Konoha.
"NOPE! Not touching this! You couldn't pay me to touch this!" Kiba instantly shouts. "I'll take the beating. I'll take that over a pissed off Ino any day!"
"I too will refrain from answering." Shino stoically adds. "It would not end well."
"But what if it turns out she likes him?" I bait her. Please just do it. I need revenge, I need something!
"Green-chan!" Kami damn it now Lee's back! This is great, just great! "I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"
He falls to his knees and bows deeply to me.
"I didn't mean to cause you such pain!" He's literally groveling at my feet. "I promise to make it up to you! Please forgive me!"
Tenten snorts. "Green, meet Lee. Lee, meet Green." Then she sends me a sly wink. "Just between you and me, I think he likes you."
"WHAT?!" Lee springs to his feet with a beet red face. "Tenten no! I-I-I mean it's not that I don't like you or anything! But it's just-"
"What?" Tenten interjects again. "Is she not pretty enough for you?"
"OF COURSE SHE'S PRETTY! LOOK AT HER!" Lee shouts, drawing the attention of literally everyone in the gazebo and half of the stands as he sweeps an arm at me as if I'm a world renown piece of artwork. "She's like a blooming green orchid, simply breathtaking!"
There's a beat of my five hearts where nothing happens.
His hands fly to his mouth and cover it as his face soars to a new shade of red.
"Psst!" Tenten is grinning like a predator that just sunk it's claws into it's next meal. "Lee! Ask her to go get food or something!"
Lee nervously scoots closer to me. I'm frozen in shock. Is this really happening again?
"Green-chan?" He timidly says, his face is tilted towards the ground but his eyes are darting up to look at my covered face. He's idly poking at the ground with one of his feet and his hands are clasped together behind him. "Would... would you like to get something to eat later?"
"Hahaha! Ahaha! HAHAHAHA!" Sasuke's boisterous laughter fills up the abrupt silence. "HAHAHAHA- ow!"
I threw a spool of ninja wire at his face to get him to shut up. "What do you know, guess bringing that was a good idea."
"Not so fun when your own idea is used against you, is it?" Tenten grins evilly. "Have fun dealing with Lee. He's very enthusiastic about certain things, and I think you just made it to the top of that list."
"... Well played." I promptly turn on my heel and head back to Sasuke and the others.
"Green-chan!" Lee calls after me. "You never answered me!"
"Leader-chan! He got to use chan so that means I can too right?" Hiro eagerly asks as I get closer.
"Right, not going back there." I turn on my heel again.
I look towards the Sand Siblings, more specifically Temari.
"No hard feelings?" I hold my arms out as if I'm going in for a hug even though I'm meters away from her.
She draws a kunai and starts twirling it on her index finger with an Orochimaru-like smile. "Of course sweetie, you're more than welcome to join us."
"Oh hell no!" I sprint back to Sasuke, Hiro and Noboru.
"Leader-chan! You came back for me!" Hiro gleefully says the moment I sit down.
"Okay let's clear this up right now." I pin each individual here with a stern glare. "I'm not here because I want to be, I'm here because you all annoy me the least."
"The next fight will be between Hiro of Takigakure!" Eito's loud voice halts all other conversation.
Oh thank Kami, I'll be spared of his presence for a while.
He quickly rushes onto the field. "Be sure to watch me Leader-chan! I'll win this for you!"
Sasuke and Noboru both snicker.
"I will end you both." Pure malice is dripping off my words.
Noboru's eyes widen and he pales slightly, almost as if the idea that we might end up fighting each other never occurred to him.
"Whatever you say Ice Queen." Sasuke isn't daunted by my threat.
I narrow my eyes at him. Revenge will be sweet, but it'll have to wait.
"Oh, and remember that favor you owe me? For keeping your sleeping habits quiet?" He cockily says.
"Yes." I force out.
"I'm cashing in on it. You can't seek revenge for any actions I do today." That arrogant bastard. "Oh and today means until the sun rises again. I'll have all through the night to tease you relentlessly."
"... Agreed." There goes all my fun.
"And his opponent will be Shino Aburame of Konohagakure!" Eito calls out again.
"Go get 'em Shino!" Kiba gives his teammate a slap on the back.
"I believe in you!" Hinata adds on top.
Shino accepts it with grace, but no words, and confidently walks onto the field.
"So, hoping your beloved Hiro-kun is going to win?" Sasuke says to me.
This is worse than torture. This is so much worse. "No. The opposite really, I want the Aburame to win."
Out of the corner of my eye I see a few surprised looks on the faces of the rest of the Konoha gennin.
"Maybe then he'll leave me alone. He could be too embarrassed to show his face. I thought these Exams wouldn't be stressful."
"Not like we haven't dealt with worse." Sasuke responds, no doubt alluding to our first Exams, then falls silent.
It's time to watch the fight, we can chat later.
Hiro vs Shino
"Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a part of a clan right?" Hiro asks Shino as he goes through various warm up stretches.
"Yes." Shino replies while analyzing his opponent, this is a fantastic opportunity for Shino. Observing what Hiro decides to stretch out the most, be it his legs or his arms, will depict his fighting style.
"The Aburame clan to be more specific." Hiro bends over to touch his toes.
"Correct. That is my clan." Shino curtly responds. He might not talk much, but no one can say he was rude. After all he took the time to reply to these ridiculous questions that were literally answered when the proctor called his name.
"The clan that uses bugs." Hiro rises up from his stretch.
"Beetles." Shino says with emotion for the first time. There's a hint of warning in his tone, no one insults his beetles. "Kikaichu Beetles to be exact."
"Perfect!" An evil grin forms it's way onto the only shinobi from Taki here.
Shino's hands clench slightly, and if I could hazard a guess I'd wager that his eyes are narrowing too.
"Now that you've both gotten the pre-battle banter out of the way, can we start?" Eito gruffly says. "I don't likestanding here like an idiot."
"I am ready." Shino is quick to respond, I can tell that he wants to teach Hiro a lesson in how dangerous insects can be.
"Let's go!" Hiro smacks his fist into his palm. "The quicker this fight is over, the quicker I can go back to Leader-chan!"
Sasuke snickers off to my side, but I ignore him. This fight is important to me because I will face the winner in the next round. It'll either be Hiro or Shino, this is the only chance I'll have left to prepare and get a plan of attack together.
"Begin!" Eito disappears in a swirl of grass clippings and reappears in his chair. That man is addicted to being lazy, I bet Kakashi and him would get along amazingly well.
"How are you feeling, Hiro-san?" Shino asks as he slowly takes a few steps backwards to put extra distance between them.
"I'm great!" Hiro grins happily. "Simply wonderful!"
"... And your chakra levels?" Shino pointedly asks. "How are those doing?"
"Huh?" Hiro scrunches up his face for half a second. "Oh you sneaky bastard! That's playing dirty!"
"We are shinobi, there is no 'playing dirty.'" Shino slightly raises his arms, they look like an upside down V, and a think black smoke bellows out of his sleeves.
Except it's not smoke, it's his hive. He's already got some beetles on Hiro to show him what they're capable of. Now he's going to try to end the fight by catching him with his swarm.
This is a good match up for Shino, from my information gathering I know that Hiro can use earth and wind jutsu, he did tell me himself. Neither earth or wind jutsu are going to be that effective against the swarm. Sure wind will disperse the cloud of insects, but it probably won't kill them. Sure it's feasible to make and earth wall then tip it over onto the swarm, but that's impractical. Just because it might work doesn't mean it will work and Shino has had a lifetime to work with his Hive. Something as simple as those ideas aren't going to work here.
"Oh no!" Hiro blatantly fakes being scared, he's mock cowering while hiding his face behind his arms. "How ever will I go on? There's bugs everywhere!"
Shino twitches minutely, if I wasn't expecting him to react badly and looked specifically for that kind of a reaction I would have missed it.
What's Hiro's plan? What does he gain from taunting Shino like this? All that's going to happen is Shino will attack. Hiro doesn't even have a defense up.
More insects flow out of Shino and join the rapidly growing cloud. There's so many beetles that the buzzing of their wings is becoming audible.
Shino raises up his right arm fully and points at the still fear faking Hiro. "Drain him dry."
The entire swarm comes to life, no longer are they idly standing by near Shino, they're doing as ordered to. They're attacking.
"Oh dear! Whatever shall I do now?" Hiro flamboyantly says. Then a his faces twists into something sinister. "Perhaps this?"
His hands blur as he moves through hand seals at a rapid rate. He takes a deep breath, then shouts "Fire Release: Fire Wave!"
True to it's namesake, a literal wave of pure fire pours out of Hiro's mouth and completely engulfs Shino's swarm. He taunted Shino to get an overwhelming number of insects set at him so that he could capitalize on the only time he could surprise Shino.
"What?!" I shout. He shouldn't be able to use fire techniques! He told me himself! Wind and earth! Ikki even commented how weird it was for someone to have both! Hell I saw him use earth, I know he has that one. Did he lie or does he have all three? How could he have all three?
~Host, he has all three now. Back when you two first met he did not lie, he only had earth and wind.~
So he does have all three then. How is it possible for someone to train up an element in such little time? Hell how is it possible he has all three? That's the bigger worry. If Taki discovered a way to unlock multiple affinities easily then their standing in the shinobi hierarchy just skyrocketed. I don't remember that ever happening in cannon and there's no way in hell my presence changed what goes on in Taki of all places. The plot is super fucked up if that's the case. It could change everything.
Wait. Just hold on a second, Hiro is from Taki. I already know of something from Taki that grants multiple affinities, one could say that I'm intimately familiar with it. But they shouldn't have it. Kakuzu took it and Taki has never been able to re-create it since. Or have they? Could it be that they've never been able to find a host without knowing Kakuzu's bonding process? Could it be that Hiro got lucky, like I did?
Does he have the Jiongu?
~It's possible, no matter how improbable. It would also explain why he feels familiar to me and his strange fixation on you. Could it be that he feels the same familiarity and is misinterpreting it?~
"Fuck me." The words escape my lips. Whoops, probably shouldn't have let that slip.
"What's going on?" Sasuke asks. "Something wrong?"
"Sort of." Should I tell Sasuke? Can I reveal it to him with everyone present? Well, he's not the one that might be fighting Hiro, I am. He technically doesn't need to know. "If Hiro wins my next fight got a lot more interesting."
"Should I be concerned?"
"Nah. Now back to the fight."
"So bug boy," Hiro idly dusts his hands off. "now what's your plan? How many bugs you got left after that? And how many more are you willing to sacrifice?"
Shino's hand twitches. Hiro pushed one of the most sensitive buttons Shino has, he is belittling his beetles. "I still have enough. Burrow."
"Burrow?" Hiro tentatively looks at the ground. "You have some beneath me- OW!"
Hiro smacks a hand onto his thigh, as if he swatted a pesky mosquito.
"OW!" This time he smacks his chest. "OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! DUDE! Bug bites aren't going to win you the fight! They're just annoying!"
"They aren't biting you." Shino helpfully informs his prey. "They're doing what I commanded, burrowing. They're going into your body and finding your weak points. Your most vulnerable targets, most major organs, nerve clusters, large veins and arteries, even places on you spinal cord. Once they're in position, a simple command from me will have them slowly start biting it. At first it will only feel like a needle prick, then the pain will grow. Eventually you will bleed out and become paralyzed and then you will die."
Hiro quits swatting at random places on his body to look Shino dead in the eyes. "Dude. That's gross. How do they even know where to go?"
"They live inside me, they have first hand knowledge of the inter-workings of the human body." Shino calmly explains. "Now, will you surrender? Or will you force my hand? If you surrender, I will withdraw all of my beetles without damaging you further."
"Hmm... tempting offer." Hiro idly taps his chin in thought, then something happens to him. Tendrils of something shift under his skin, it looks eerily like his veins bulged and came alive for a few seconds.
Most everyone missed it, I didn't. Judging by the gasps from Hinata and the sharp inhale from Neji, they didn't miss it either.
"Interesting." Neither did Orochimaru.
"What was that?" Shino asks. "You did something."
"Yep! I killed all of your bugs that were inside me." He shivers. "Oh gross does that mean there's squashed bug guts in me now?"
"... So it would seem." Shino turns to the proctor. "Eito-san, I surrender. I am not equipped to fight against him. Any more combat would further harm my hive and I lack the tools I need to defeat him."
"Winner by forfeit, Hiro of Takigakure!" Eito bellows out. "Talk about an underwhelming fight. At least the last one was flashy."
He's not wrong. Lee and my fight was very aesthetically pleasing, we were flashy and loud and very showy. Hiro and Shino's fight was how most shinobi battles will happen, quietly, decisively and as quickly as possible. Prolonged combat is a bad idea for shinobi, the longer your opponent is alive the more time they have to come up with a plan to defeat or even kill you.
Unless, of course, the power gap between opponents is ridiculous. Take my run in with Kisame for example, he toyed with me. He could have ended that fight quickly, but he didn't have to. He knew that even if I had weeks, months to prepare he'd still win. So he figured why rush?
"Leader-chan!" Hiro sweetly calls out as he cheerfully trots back to our table. "Did you see that? Was it cool or what!"
"Oh she's practically smitten with you!" Sasuke answers before I could. "She was so worried for you the entire time!"
"He's lying." I growl out. "I couldn't care less."
A pleased smile forms on Hiro's face. "Leader-chan, you don't have to hide your feelings!"
"NO!" Lee suddenly shouts out. "She is supposed to be my beautiful budding orchid!"
"Yeah you tell him Lee!" Tenten eggs him on.
"She's clearly taken by me." Hiro does a quick once over on Lee. "Clearly I'm the superior specimen."
"Will both of you please just SHUT UP!" I shout out, drowning out all other conversation. "Hiro!" I whirl on him. "I don't like you. Get it through your thick skull, it's not changing. EVER. Lee!" I whirl on him. "I don't like you either! I'm not your damn tulip or whatever the hell you call me! Now leave me the fuck alone!"
I turn my anger on Sasuke now, "And YOU!" I viciously jab him in the chest. "I don't care if I can't take revenge on you, I will not stand idly by as you try to mess with me!" I lower my voice to deathly quiet levels so only he can hear me. "Or did you forget what we learned about Tayuya? You sure you want to fuck with me about relationships right now? Cuz that's a really bad move."
Sasuke recoils from me. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't think. It's just, you always handle things like that well, you bounce back so quickly. I didn't think that this one would be getting to you."
"Yeah well it is." I hiss out. "You should have known better."
"Ahem."
"WHAT?" I turn and rage at the idiot interrupting my conversation.
"We need the next contestants to come to the field." Eito calmly says to me, as if he's trying to talk down a stampeding wild animal. He's a tiny bit nervous. "Your little... whatever the hell that was, distracted them and they didn't hear their names called."
I plop down with an angry huff. "Not sorry. That shit needed to be cleared up."
Eito quirks an eyebrow at me before turning to the rest of the gathered gennin. "Would Kiba Inuzuka of Konohagakure and Yuri Kazumi of Kusagakure please come with me?"
Both contestants rise up and make their way to the field.
No one dares to talk to me. Good.
Kiba vs Yuri
"So, you're a Kusa shinobi." Kiba says as he pets Akamaru lovingly on the head. "Hope you don't mind if I beat you in front of your village."
Yuri shrugs. "Don't worry about it." Yuri is the tallest gennin here by a considerable margin. He has a shockingly bright mop of orange hair and vivid blue eyes. But there's something off about him, and it's a glaring detail. He's wearing fancy civilian clothes, almost approaching formal wear with how nice they look, and there's not so much as a senbon on his person. Either he's extremely confident in his own abilities or he's one of the most stupid people on the planet.
"Really?" A shocked Kiba asks.
"Yeah, you won't. I'm going to put you in the ground. I can't believe I'm going against a kid. This will be a piece of cake." Yuri confidently says.
"Dude you're a kid yourself!" Kiba points accusingly at the taller nin. "You've got to be like seventeen!"
Yuri grits his teeth together. "I am twenty two."
Silence.
"...You sure?" Kiba asks in confusion as Akamaru let's out a questioning yip.
"Yes you moron!" Yuri rages.
"And you're still a gennin? You must really suck."
"Proctor!" Yuri shouts while sliding into a rugged looking taijutsu stance. "Start the match!"
"Yeah let's get this over with!" Kiba glides into his Inuzuka style taijutsu stance.
With grand sigh, Eito calls out "Begin!"
"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba instantly leaps into the air and rotates at crazy speeds. He's opening with the big guns, he must feel like he has something to prove after I beat him during the last Exams. "Here I come!"
Yuri slowly moves through hand signs, with the lack of speed that he's moving at it's a wonder he made it this far into the Exams, and then slams his hand onto the ground. "Earth Release: Wall!"
A fragile wall of earth painfully slowly rises up between Yuri and Kiba. "Ha! You can't get through my defense!"
Kiba drills right through it without losing any velocity. That wall could have been made of paper for all intents an purposes.
"URK!" Kiba nailed Yuri right in the gut, and the latter of the two goes flying across the field. He bounces off the ground a few times -ruining his tailored clothes- then smacks into the same tree that I did. Except he didn't leave behind a body sized indentation in the bark.
"Uh... Yuri?" Kiba calls out once he stops spinning. "You okay?"
A pitiful whine is the only response, Yuri is incapable of forming words.
"Yuri is no longer able to continue." Eito irritably says. I feel like he's done this before. "Winner: Kiba Inuzuka! What a disappointment."
Kiba walks back to the rest of the gennin while looking like he just ate something sour.
"Well done Kiba!" Hinata applauds her teammate. "You've made it to the next round!"
"Yeah... that didn't even feel like a fight." Kiba dejectedly says. "I mean come on! I wanted a challenge! It was literally one hit!"
"Yes, but now your next opponent knows much less about you. That's an advantage." Shino points out.
"But still!" Kiba whines. "Dude shouldn't have even been here. How did he make it this far?"
"Because I carried him. He's my older brother, it's the least I could do. Leiko Kazumi at your service." The unnamed Kusa kunoichi says from across the gazebo, she appears to be seventeen. She has midnight black hair, easily rivaling mine for how black it is. Her eyes are a muted blue and have a heavy weight on them, probably from looking out for her brother. And unlike her brother, she's armed to the teeth. Kunai, senbon, shuriken, a short sword, even scrolls strapped to her belt. Who knows what else she has hidden away.
"Isn't that usually the other way around?" Tenten asks her. "Don't the big brothers look out for their little sisters?"
"Usually yes, but mine's an idiot." Leiko nicely sums up. "This is the last freebie he's getting from me though, I plan on winning whole thing. I got him here five times. Five times. The idiot still didn't pass."
"Do you think you can win the entire tournament?" Lee asks. "Green-chan was quite the opponent and her healing abilities are nothing to dismiss!"
Leiko shrugs and spares me a quick glance. "Medic nin aren't that rare, sure she might be able to heal wounds quickly and with more severity than most but that alone won't win her the fight. It only helped with Lee because he is a taijutsu type and had no other way to end the fight. Her skills are simple, somehow using her knowledge of the body she's capable of increasing her strength. She did display clever use of earth jutsu -like how she used it to push herself out of the path of his punch- and must have more chakra than normal if that 'Ten Thousand Fists' is anything to judge by, but in the end she didn't do anything I couldn't handle. She simply outlasted him. I have a plan if I face her, but that's only if we both make it to the finals. Who knows, maybe Hiro over there could knock her out of the running."
That's a very interesting take on my skills. Should I tell her I'm not a medic nin just to mess with her? Nah, but I will say something. "Or maybe you will lose your fights."
Leiko snorts, "Yeah that ain't happening. No one here has the skills to beat me." She eyes Gaara suspiciously. "Except maybe the jinchuriki."
"You are well informed." Gaara drones out. "Perhaps we will do battle together, there are only three matches left in the first round."
"Perhaps." Leiko agrees.
"The next fight will be between Red of Otogakure!" Eito shouts outs, bringing the conversation to a halt. "And his opponent will be Sachihiro of Kirigakure!"
Sasuke rises up in indifference and walks onto the field while oozing confidence.
"Guess it's my time to shine." Sachihiro get up and I truly take in his appearance for the first time. He's on the younger side, probably around 14 or 15. He has almost neon blue hair that falls down to his shoulders and frames his face like curtains. He's ridiculously muscled, like body builder muscled. There's no way that's healthy for a young teenager. He's wearing a dark blue vest and generic black shinobi quality pants. He has on a leather belt, and strapped to it is a single innocent looking scroll.
"Kick his ass Sachihiro." Leiko encourages him from her chair.
"That is the plan, but if he's anything like Green over there this will be one hell of a fight." Sachihiro strolls onto the field.
Sasuke vs Sachihiro
"So," Sachihiro opens up to Sasuke while pointedly looking at his sheathed chokuto on his hip, "you fancy yourself a master swordsman?"
Sasuke grips the handle of his blade. "I am by no means a master. Yet."
Sachihiro grins, displaying a mouthful of pointed teeth. "I'll be the judge of that."
"With what sword?" Sasuke taunts. "Did you leave it at home?"
"Nah," Sachihiro grabs his scroll and unfurls it. It's a storage seal. "I've got it in here."
With a quiet poof and a lot of smoke he unseals his blade.
It's a giant meat cleaver. The blade is almost as long as Sachihiro and the handle is huge, it has to be so that the wielder can swing it around correctly. It's polished brightly, almost like mirror, and has a half meter long red ribbon tied onto the end of the handle. It's no wonder he carries it around in a seal, that thing must weigh a ton.
"Say hello to Kappukeki." Sachihiro heaves up the massive sword and rests it on his shoulder. "Still think your toothpick can stand up to it?"
"You named your sword cupcake?" Sasuke monotonously asks. "Not cleaver? Or chopper? Or chomper? Or decapitator? Or literally anything except cupcake?"
"Hey! Me and Kappukeki go way back! She's seen me through thick and thin!"
"Ahem." Eito clears his throat. "May I start the fight now, or are you two still arguing about who has the better sword?" That sounds so wrong, so very very wrong.
"Ready." Sasuke draws his own blade and holds it out before him vertically.
"Let's do this!" Sachihiro grips the hilt of Kappukeki with both hands eagerly.
"Begin!" Eito disappears in a swirl of grass to get away from the swordsmen.
Instantly Sasuke tilts his sword minutely, just enough so that the sunlight bounces off his blade and hits Sachihiro directly in the eyes.
"So you want to play that game!" Sachihiro blinks furiously as he listens intently for the sound of feet crushing grass. He's a shinobi, he doesn't have to see to do battle. Plus when you're a brute like him, all it takes is one good hit to take an opponent down.
The sound of footsteps comes from off to his left.
Sachihiro heaves his cleaver off his shoulder and swings it in a wide arc parallel to the ground. He doesn't hit Sasuke, all his blade felt was air.
"Damn." He says to himself as he finally regains his vision. "There you are you pesky runt!" Sasuke is standing straight in front of him with his chokuto at the ready. "My turn!" Sachihiro tilts Kappukeki and using the much larger and much more reflective surface area of angles the sunlight into Sasuke's eyes.
Out of pure reflex, Sasuke raises up is left arm in a failed attempt to block out the sunlight.
Sachihiro grins deviously and leaps at Sasuke, closing the distance between the two. He firmly plants both his feet and swings Kappukeki downward, intent on cleaving Sasuke in two.
SHINK
"OH FUCK!" Sachihiro shouts out. "Shit shit shit I thought he would dodge!"
Sasuke's body is still standing, there's a fatal red line straight down the center of his body. He's been chopped in half.
Then the body does something it shouldn't be able to do, it laughs.
"Well done Sachihiro! I applaud your skills!" The cleaved Sasuke says. "You've bested me. But I'm not the real one."
Sasuke bursts into hundreds black snakes that scatter into the grass.
"Sachihiro." A voice calls out from behind him. "You've left yourself open."
Sasuke is standing behind him with his chokuto ready to stab right through his heart. He lunges.
CLANG
"You'll have to be faster than that!" Sachihiro got Kappukeki in-between himself and the Oto shinobi in time to block the stab.
"I am." Sasuke's voice whispers into Sacihiro's left ear as he lightly cuts his left cheek vertically. The Sasuke that attempted to stab Sachihiro bursts into snakes.
Sachihiro whirls around but is facing an open field. "Alright punk, you're fast. I'll give you that." He touches the fresh cut on his cheek. His fingers come away red. "Ow, that stings a little."
"What good does that massive blade do you?" Sasuke's voice seems to come from everywhere. "It seems like more of a hindrance than a sword to me. Surely it must be hard to use?"
Sachihiro lunges at one of the few trees in the field, he's thinking that his opponent has to be hiding behind one of them. There's no other place to hide!
With a mighty swing, he cleaves the tree in two.
"TIMBER!" Sachihiro shouts as the tree topples. "I've always wanted to say that."
The impact of the tree on the ground shakes the field.
"Good guess." Sasuke whispers into his ear again and adds a cut on his left cheek to join the first.
Sachihiro doesn't bother to turn around this time, he throws back an elbow to attempt to at least get a hit in. All that his blow hits is air.
"You're really starting to piss me off." Sachihiro calls to the empty field. "Come out and fight me like a man!"
"Why would I do something as unintelligent as that?" Sasuke's voice echoes through the field. "We are shinobi, we don't fight fair."
"Then you won't mind if I do this!" Sachihiro swings his massive cleaver parallel with the ground again, but this time something is different. He's channeling chakra through his blade. "Wind Sword Style: Air Cutter!"
A blade of pure wind launches off Kappukeki and is heading straight for another tree. It cuts right through it, like a hot knife through butter.
"Haha!" Sachihiro is starting to get winded, even for someone with his build it isn't easy to wield a sword of this size. It takes years, decades to be able to wield one properly. "Did that one get you?"
"No." A third cut joins the other two on Sachihiro's face. "You've missed again."
Sachihiro doesn't bother with trying to identify if Sasuke is actually behind him, instead he blindly swings his cleaver around hoping that Sasuke is still in range.
All he hits is air. Again.
"Alright -huff- punk. You're pissing me off with -wheeze- all this hide seek bullshit."
"I'm not hiding." A fourth cut is carved into Sachihiro's face. "You simply can't keep up with my speed."
"You know what! Fine! I can't keep up with your speed!" Sachihiro shouts out, then he let's Kappukeki's tip rest on the ground. He's holding the blade straight out behind him with an insane gleam in his eyes. "But you can't dodge this! Wind Sword Style: Full Tilt!"
He swings Kappukeki around in a complete circle while constantly pouring his wind chakra into the blade. A ring of deadly sharp wind rips off the blade, cutting through the remaining trees in the field. Sachihiro doesn't stop with one rotation, he keeps going. Twice. Three times. Five. He stops after ten full revolutions and falls to a knee in dizziness and exhaustion.
"Got ya." He says between large gulps of air. "Bet ya -wheeze- didn't dodge that."
A fifth cut diagonally crosses over all of the others on Sachihiro's cheek, making the cuts look like a tally count. "I did."
"Oh come on!" Sachihiro pushes himself up while using Kappukeki as a crutch, even if he's muscular as hell he still has his limits and he's dangerously close to reaching them. "Will you quit it with the face already! How am I supposed to woo the ladies back home with a fucked up face?"
Sachihiro freezes, he locks up all of his muscles and won't move an inch.
"I will grant that request." Sasuke says from behind him while holding the cold unforgiving steel of his chokuto against Sachihiro's throat. "Surrender, you have been bested."
"Why should-"
Sasuke applies pressure with his blade and one brilliant drop of crimson rolls down Sachihiro's neck.
"Point made." Sachihiro gives in. "Proctor, I surrender."
"Winner by forfeit: Red of Otogakure!" Eito calls out. "That was the most underwhelming fight I've ever seen."
"What?" Sachihiro shouts out. He gave it his all!
His vision cracks like a pane of glass, everything contorts at weird angles before shattering into millions of pieces. He's not standing where he should be, he's still in the same spot he was when Eito said begin. It's like he didn't move at all. Even the battlefield is different, there's no felled trees, there's no rents and gouges from his various sword swings. It looks like their battle never happened.
"What the hell?" Sachihiro is completely baffled. His hand darts up to his face and feels smooth skin. "The cuts are gone. Even my chakra magically returned, I'm not even winded anymore!"
Sasuke turns and starts walking back to the gazebo with the rest of the contestants.
"Red!" Sachihiro shouts after him. "What the hell did you do to me!"
Sasuke doesn't reply, he keeps walking. He elegantly sits down next to me and turns his head my direction. I can feel the smirk on his face.
"I always knew you'd be scary good with genjutsu." I warily say to him. "So, what did you show him? No one but you and him knows what he saw."
I feel Sasuke's grin grow wider. "I showed him exactly what would have happened if we fought."
"You destroyed him." I blandly say back to him.
"Utterly and completely."
I'm really glad genjutsu doesn't work on me.