The Night After the First Round of the Tournament
There are two people sitting in a luxurious room. Said room is well furnished and has expensive furniture, all in all it would be considered a very nice hotel room for a pair of individuals on vacation. But the two people sitting across from each other are not on vacation, nor do they look remotely happy. Each of them is showing their displeasure in their own way.
The blonde woman is consuming a lethal amount of alcohol. Around her on the table are numerous empty bottles of various liquors, both expensive and poor. Despite the impressive feat of drinking it all alone, she doesn't look the slightest bit drunk or even tipsy. At this point it's almost like the action of drinking is her coping mechanism rather than drinking itself.
The other person is still, almost unnaturally still. Only his silver hair is moving, swaying gently on the breeze. He's hunched over with his elbows placed on his knees and his fingers are laced together before him. His one eye, the only visible part on his face, is locked onto the blonde drinker.
Tsunade finally takes a break from drinking as if the world is coming to an end. "Kakashi, what would you do in my place?"
"Keep Hinata under constant guard. Have Kurenai with her at all times at the minimum." He quickly barks out.
"Not that." Tsunade sighs. "Kusa probably won't make a bold move against her now, especially since I didn't let them keep the poison in her system. They should know that I know they tried that. I mean about Orochimaru."
"I don't know." He honestly replies after a moment of consideration. "On one hand, we're obligated to at least attempt to kill Orochimaru."
"Yet on the other we have to consider Alvarcus's position." Tsunade takes a swig of a dark brown liquid. "He's still ours, he's still on our side."
"The world doesn't know that." Kakashi cuts in. "The only thing that they know is that Orochimaru is parading around in front of us."
"We can't let him walk away. We have to do something." Tsunade comes to the grim conclusion.
"Yes." Kakashi reluctantly agrees. "It's one thing to let gennin go, but Orochimaru himself? We have to react. We have to strongly react to his presence here."
"Or else the rest of the world will see us as weak and timid. They'll think we're still licking our wounds from the invasion." Tsunade finishes her bottle and grabs another.
"Correct." Kakashi curtly confirms Tsunade's idea.
"In other words, we need to send the best we have available to kill him." Tsunade downs half the bottle in one go and grimaces at the taste. Even she doesn't like some types of alcohol. "And whoever he is with."
"Who will most likely be Alvarcus and Sasuke, along with anyone else he brought with him." Kakashi sums up. "And the best we have here is you, me, Gai, Kurenai and Asuma."
"And it could very well take all five of us to bring him down." Tsunade take a large swallow of her latest bottle and winces again at the taste. "I'm the only one who can stand on equal ground with him. Gai could if he opened enough Gates but that's a double edged sword. He'd have to open at least six, maybe even seven to win. But if he has that many Gates open..."
"His attacks become so destructive that he would harm his allies along with his foes." Kakashi finishes. "Orochimaru isn't above using that against us."
"That means all five of us have to work together to take down Orochimaru." Tsunade downs the rest of her vile drink to move onto the next. "Leaving everyone else he's traveling with for the gennin to defeat."
"Alvarcus, Sasuke and the Sound Four. Orochimaru's bodyguards." Kakashi grimly says. "They wouldn't even know that they're attacking their friends."
"That's not even the worst of it." Tsunade rubs her forehead, trying to alleviate the stress she feels. "The textbook way to do this is to ambush them and kill as many as we can as quickly as we can to reduce their numbers as efficiently as possible."
"We'd have to order our gennin to use lethal force unknowingly against their friends." Kakashi sums up.
"Yes." Tsunade starts rubbing her temples in another failed attempt to reduce her stress levels. "I don't want to give that order."
"You might have to."
Near Konoha, Location Unknown
"Danzo-sama." Says a kneeling shinobi. "I came to report."
"Good." The bandage clad older man says. "And where are their heads? I specifically asked for each of them."
The kneeling shinobi doesn't flinch at the harsh tone his superior used with him. He's been trained better than that. "The assassination unit has been defeated."
A great deal of displeasure overtakes Danzo's face. "How... surprising. How many are in the hospital? Who has the most severe wounds?"
"None, Danzo-sama." The kneeling shinobi feels a deep pressure settle on his shoulders. Danzo is disappointed in their performance.
"I sent twelve able bodied men and women to take out two deserters." Danzo levels a cold glare at his subordinate. "Two gennin level missing nin. You're telling me that they ran away from twelve of my shinobi?"
"No Danzo-sama. The targets didn't run away from the assassination team. They killed them all." The shinobi's words quiet the room, not even the sound of breathing can be heard.
"Tell me how it happened." Danzo finally breaks the tense silence. He may be livid that his team failed and got themselves killed but he planned around that possibility. That's why he sent this specific shinobi to only observe. "Next time will be different."
The Next Morning, With Alvarcus
"Summoning Jutsu!" I place my hand on the ground and a small cloud of smoke fills the room.
"Hey Al." Shirokumo says once the smoke clears.
"Hey Shirokumo." I greet him. "So is Dokuso ready to be summoned?"
"Should be. She's had plenty of time to prepare and she knows that it'll be happening around now." He nervously looks around. "Just make sure it's only you two here. She isn't a fan of... well socializing. She hates going out, always says something about how only her poisons understand her."
"Great." I groan out in sarcasm. "Well I need her skills. I'll just have to put up with her."
"Yeah... have fun with that. I'm going back." Shirokumo poofs away.
"Yay, time to summon an antisocial spider and ask for her help. I'm sure nothing can go wrong." I fly through the hand seals for the summoning technique. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Instead of smoke filling up the room, something different happens. It's almost like a mass of shadows spawned into existence, like whoever was summoned didn't want to make the traditional flashy entrance and opted for this more discrete one instead. In moments the shadows fall away and disappear into nothing revealing a large spider where they were.
Large doesn't do Dokuso justice, she's massive. She has to be the size of a full grown leopard. She's easily the second largest spider I've personally seen, the first being Arachne. Her exoskeleton is a pure dark black. There's not a speck of dust on her or a mark of imperfection, except for one exception. There's a brilliant red hourglass mark on her abdomen. She's a black widow spider. For one of the best users and makers of poisons, I shouldn't be surprised that she's one of the most venomous spiders in the world.
"Dokuso-san, it is a pleasure to meet you." I give her a respectful nod of my head.
She quickly takes in the room, making a special note of all the exits and best hiding spots. She's paranoid, that's a marking of a survivor. That's a trait of a warrior, of a shinobi. That's interesting.
Finally her gaze settles on me. She does a quick once over of me, observing my spider-made attire and the concealing nature of my clothes. There's a hint of approval gleaming in her fourth eye. "So you've met the Weavers. Bet that was annoying."
That's... not how I expected her to respond at all. "They do take some getting used to." If that's how she want the tone of the conversation to go, I am more than happy to oblige. "They're best in short doses. And when they're not making me clothes."
"Ha! Finally someone agrees with me. They tried to give me a bright orange scarf. Said it matched my black exoskeleton. Can you believe that?" Dokuso chirps out. "To business then. You wanted poisoned weapons, Summoner?"
I irritably roll my eyes, she doesn't see it. Even if my mask is off I have my sunglasses on. "Just call me Alvarcus. There's no need for the 'Summoner' stuff. I'm just another guy who can summon spiders, that doesn't mean I should get a fancy title out of it. If anything it should be Alvarcus the Spider Summoner. That does us both justice."
She snorts. I didn't know spiders could make that noise. "You... you I might be able to stand. In short doses of course."
"Whatever." I give a halfhearted shrug. "You were right. I need poisoned weapons. What can you offer me? A vial of poison or something? Maybe a brush to apply the toxin to weapons?"
"I've got better." Using one of her long, hairless black legs she reaches under her and pulls out a harness of sorts with what must be multiple weapons strapped to it. It looks like a belt or a sash made to hold a set number of kunai or knives. "Each of these has been soaked overnight in different poisons I personally made. Each one will do exactly what I made it to do, barring those who have techniques to counter the effects or are adept enough at medical jutsu to neutralize it. Even then, my poisons are fast acting. They could run their course before they can be countered."
Dokuso, using another leg, grips one of the handles of a weapon. On further observation, I notice that each of the six handles are different colors, no two are the same. She pulls out the blue handled weapon. "This blue one is the one you specifically requested, it will paralyze an opponent after ten seconds of being in their system."
She grabs the green handle next. "The green will sap their strength, making them feel weaker and tire quicker. It basically shortens their stamina."
She grabs the next handle. "Yellow will cause their five senses to distort. They'll hallucinate, they'll feel things crawling on their skin, they'll hear noises that don't exist, they'll taste things not in their mouth, and they'll smell things that are not there. Each sense could feel either something foul or pleasurable, it could be either. Don't be surprised if they start laughing randomly because they feel like they're being tickled."
Dokuso pulls out the fourth weapon. "Orange is one of the more dangerous of the poisons. The others are not fatal, eventually they will run their course and be flushed from the system. This one can kill. Once it comes in contact with flesh it melts it away. It's acidic, it will cause wounds to fester and become infected. If stabbed in the right spot, it will eat away organs and cause death."
Next is the fifth weapon. "Red is my personal favorite to use. It causes intense pain wherever it enters the body and will spread throughout it. Lightly scratch someone on the hand, five minutes later they're begging you to cut off their arm."
Dokuso draws the last weapon. "Black. This one is fatal. One scratch with this will cause death within minutes. Do not even draw this unless you want your target to die. Be beyond careful handling this, should you cut yourself summon me immediately. I will apply the antidote and hopefully it will save you. There's still a 90% fatality rate even with the antidote applied. That is how dangerous this one is."
~Don't worry host, only the orange one has a chance of working on us. All the others I will not let circulate into our system, including the black.~
Thank Kami, that makes me feel much better about accepting these.
"So uh... just one question for you." I point at the blades that are laid out on the floor between us. "Are those made out of teeth?"
If a spider could grin, I'd be looking one. Dokuso seems glad that I brought that up. "Yes they are. The teeth were taken off of some of my prey, in fact I used some of these poisons on them."
"Okay. But why teeth?" I really hope there's a reason.
"If they undergo a specific process I can make teeth capable of being soaked and absorbing liquids, in this case my poisons. Whereas metal can't do that, you'd have to apply a new coat of them daily, maybe even twice a day and they would require a special sheath to keep them away from the elements." She quickly sheaths all the blades and holds out the leather harness to me. "Using this method the blade will be able to hold the poison for at least a month. This way I don't have to go out as often."
I take the harness and fasten in to me. It's a muted black leather and it's slightly too long to be a belt for me. Instead of wearing it around my waist I'm wearing it draped over my left shoulder, across my chest and back, and around my right hip. It's a sash of scary teeth.
Dokuso scuttles over and using her two front legs adjusts it for me so it fits better. "Plus it looks much more intimidating. Everyone uses metal, but seeing someone come at you with a fifteen centimeter long tooth? That's scary."
I chuckle. "You know, I think we will get along just fine."
"Short doses." She cheekily responds.
"Of course. May I call on you if I need more poisoned blades or a specifically crafted poison?"
"Yes. But I would like notice first, I have my own life to live."
"I can do that."
She vanishes the same way she came, in a swirl of shadows. They rise up from the floor like tendrils of the night and surround Dokuso in moments. Then they settle back on the floor and dissipate into nothing, never to be seen again.
"I've got to make my shunshin look like that."
Hours Later, 11:00am
"OI!" I pound on the bathroom door, shaking it in it's frame. Okay so maybe I could have hit it less hard, but Sasuke has been in there for over an hour. "You ready yet?!"
"I am." The door sweeps open and a pristine Sasuke, finally dressed up in his mission gear and mask, confidently strides out.
"What took you so damn long?" I aggressively ask.
"Unlike some people," He puts emphasis on the word 'some' and glares at me, "I can't just roll out of bed and be ready to go."
"I'll have you know that I've been up for five hours already, thank you very much!"
"Yeah and only about ten minutes went into making sure you look presentable." He takes stock of my new addition to my arsenal. "And why on earth do you have that strapped to you?"
"Oh these?" I pat my new toys tenderly. "They're a gift from a spider. A very poisonous spider."
"Ah, so they did come through for you. Think they will work on Hiro?"
I shrug. "They should. In the end of the day he still has flesh and organs, it's just that the Jiongu surrounds them. He's still susceptible to poison it'll just be harder to get it into his system."
"Good. It would be a shame to see you lose to your beloved Hiro-chan." There's a tinge of playfulness in his voice.
"Oh Red, you poor poor boy." I say with my female voice and face. "Did you forget that today is a new day? I can take revenge again."
Sasuke stops mid step.
Good. "You know, I might have to apologize to Hiro and Lee for my brashness yesterday. After all," I flutter my eyelashes at him, "I'm spoken for already. It's just I was so disappointed that my dearly beloved didn't stand up for me and I let my emotions run wild."
Sasuke shudders with suppressed fear.
I think he needs just another little push, then I'll call it good. "Perhaps if one of them can best you I might consider them more worth my time. Could you imagine both Lee and Hiro bugging you for a contest? Constantly coming up with ridiculous challenges for you to take? All because you thought it was amusing to tease me?"
"I will cease my actions at once." He smartly barks out with a waver of fear in his voice.
I don my mask. "Good. Now let's get to the tournament field."
Alvarcus and Sasuke both leave, neither one of them noticed the shocked Orochimaru standing in the doorway to a conjoined room.
"I am very, very glad that I don't have a daughter." Orochimaru's fists are tightly clenched and in the absence of his students his bloodlust in unrestrained. He reeks of certain death. "There would be a trail of bodies like this world has never seen."
The Contestant Gazebo, 11:50am
"Would you look at that. We're the last ones here." I idly say out of the corner of my mouth to Sasuke.
"It isn't unlikely. We did only arrive ten minutes early."
"Yeah, but Eito has us here an hour early already. We're early to being early." I complain. "Isn't that just wonderful?"
Everyone from the first day is back at the gazebo, even those who got knocked out of the tournament. Hey, we have some of the best seats here. Might as well use them if you can.
Sasuke leads us over to the table with Hiro and Noboru at it again. I hate to admit it, but these two are the least problematic for us. Let's face it, the Konoha and Suna shinobi both hate us. Leiko has a serious bone to pick with me so there's no sitting by her. All that leaves us with is this spot.
"Green-chan, Red. Nice to see you both again!" Hiro chirps out once we sit down.
"Actually," Sasuke starts to say and I just know I'm not going to like this, "she's Midori now."
"Midori-chan?" Hiro experimentally tries out. "I like it! Why the change?"
"Orochimaru-sama was impressed with my display yesterday and he decided to give me a name. Hence, Midori." I calmly force myself to explain. It's really good that I came up with the idea that Sasuke and I need to earn our names, otherwise this random name change would be weird. Okay, it would be more weird.
"That has to be the strangest thing I've ever hear a shinobi village do." Leiko condescendingly says from her spot near her brother Yuri and Kiri friend Sachihiro. "Do they put all the gennin through that or just those like you?"
I turn towards Leiko. "It isn't a system used for all his gennin. It's only for those that he wants to be remade, it's a system of breaking down a person so completely and utterly that they accept a new name with open arms. Neither of us have had a name for years, we've been called colors, seasons, by our rolls, by our genders, by anything our senseis can think of except something that provides an identity."
"What, we're you that stupid?" Leiko scoffs at me.
"No, we were that good." A look of confusion falls over her face, it isn't just her's either. All the other gennin are attentively listening to me. They're getting a glimpse of how Otogakure functions from a first hand account. "We shined in our Academy, we out did everyone else. We caught the eye of Orochimaru-sama himself and he decided that we would be remade to better serve him. He squashed out our personalities, he removed our ties to our families, he severed any connections we had to anyone but him. He had our senseis mold and shape us into exactly what he wants us to be, and once we achieve that he graces us with a new name. One that we've earned."
Each gennin is riveted to my tale, no one is even considering interrupting me.
"Mock me if you wish. If you think me getting a new name is humorous then laugh at me. But know this: I have earned my Kage's respect. He recognizes my achievements and has deemed me worthy. Does your Kage feel the same way about you?"
The sad thing is, I'm not exactly lying to everyone here. Orochimaru does use that system. If he finds a promising shinobi, one that has too much free will or refuses to be chained down, he will put them through that system. He will break them then he will build them back up to his specifications.
He's even using a mild version of it on me. He's beyond violent with me, he constantly gives me grievous wounds that would kill a normal shinobi. He's trying to turn me into what I told him I was, a juggernaut. He's teaching me to shrug off insane amounts of damage and keep plowing forward until I achieve my goal.
It's working. It's working marvelously. Just look at how I handled the Root assassins. I lost limbs, I lost hearts, but I didn't stop moving forward. No matter what they did to try and slow me down I pressed forward with a single goal in mind.
"That's messed up." Tenten quietly says to herself, but with as quiet as it is everyone heard her. "Do you even remember the name your parents gave you?"
"... No. I don't." I somberly say. "It's been taken from me."
A sad silence falls over all of the gennin. Each and every one of them is looking at Sasuke and me with pity. This isn't how I expected this to go, but I'll work with it. If they pity us, they might hold back in our fights. It's mean, it's underhanded, it's despicable. But it's also effective.
Eventually pointless conversations resume, but Sasuke and I remain quiet. We're not among the carefree ranks of the other shinobi here. We're burdened, him with his desire to kill Itachi and me with trying to undermine Orochimaru.
After the rest of the hour is up, Eito casually strolls out to the middle of the field. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for the second round of the Chunin Exams Tournament!"
The crowd roars as Eito swings an arm towards the contestants, or more specifically me and Hiro.
"Would Green of Otogakure and Hiro of Takigakure please come forward!"
"Well, it's time for our battle!" Hiro happily says. "Are you ready Midori-chan?"
I join him and we both walk out to Eito. "Yes."
Alvarcus vs Hiro
"Green, Hiro." Eito greets us. "So it's the same rules as last time. Remember them?"
We both nod our consent.
"Great." He raises his voice loud so that the other crowd can hear him. "Fighters ready?"
"Yep!" Hiro chirps out.
"I am." I confidently reply. I've prepared for this.
"Begin!" Eito vanishes in a swirl of leaves.
Neither Hiro or I move, we're still standing slack and observing the other. He's seen me take a beating, one so severe that almost everyone else would have died from it. It will be interesting to see how he plans to work around that. Maybe he'll try to restrain me? Probably not, he did see my strength already. Honestly I have no idea how he's going to approach this.
"So, Midori-chan, how about we make a bet?" Hiro breaks the tense silence.
That's... weird. I didn't think he was the betting type. "I'm listening."
"If I win, I want to take you out on a date." He's oozing confidence. "I have a whole night planned already, so we can do it tonight before we have to go our separate ways."
Oh hell no! Okay, okay just play it cool. There's no way I'm going to lose here. It'll never happen. Look at this as an opportunity to get something then take your revenge once he has been beaten. "And if I win?"
"Uh..." Hiro looks blankly at me, then his face lights up as if he's just thought of the world's best idea. "You could take me on a date!"
"NO!" I yell out. "Absolutely not!"
His face falls in defeat. "What do you want then?"
I... uh don't actually know. There really isn't anything I want from him.
I swiftly spin and face the Kage's gazebo before kneeling. "Orochimaru-sama, is there anything you desire from this gennin?"
My response hushes the crowd. Before there were whispers, quiet conversation that were talking about how cute we could be together or how adorable Hiro is to going to such lengths to woo me or even remarks about how cold my heart is.
Orochimaru grins in glee and eagerly leans forward in his plush chair. He's so happy that I thought to ask him before making my own terms. "Choices choices! There isn't much a gennin can offer, but for him I believe I can come up with something! A piece of his Jiongu would be satisfactory. It would be interesting to compare it to other kinjutsu and bloodlines."
He wants the Jiongu again? Well, it would provide a nice baseline to compare against mine.
I turn back to Hiro. His jaw is hanging open and he's starring at Orochimaru in equal parts fear, awe, and terror. It isn't everyday that someone casually reveals your trump card for you, especially in front of an audience.
"That is my term. I want a piece of your Jiongu. Do you accept?"
"You want Taki's most revered kinjutsu? All I asked for was a date!" He shouts in disbelief. "Those two things are not anywhere near the same value!"
"I'm glad you agree, your price is far steeper." I will not go on a damn date with anyone! If I do it'll be in my normal form not this female one! Why is this happening to me? Being Midori is a terrible idea, I'm never doing it again!
"But, but it's a kinjutsu..." Hiro trails off while looking flabbergasted.
"And we're talking about my first date. Much more important." I can't believe I'm actually going through with this. "So do you agree or not? Pretty sure we were supposed to be fighting like five minutes ago."
"Uh... you know what? Yes, I do accept. It isn't like I'm going to lose!" Hiro falls into a taijutsu stance.
"Thank you for the Jiongu. I'm sure Orochimaru-sama will cherish it." I mirror him and take up my own taijutsu stance.
We fall into a tense silence again. We're staring at each other, neither making the slightest movement. Then at some unspoken command we both burst into action.
I lunge at him while pulling out two of my new weapons. The blue blade in my right hand and the green in my left. I plan on at least getting one of them into his system, the blue could end the fight and the green will make him easier to get to if I can't make the blue connect.
But before I can stab or slice him, Hiro lightly jumps backwards and flies through hand seals. He's prepping a jutsu. "Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!" A long eerily green blade of pure wind forms between Hiro and me and launches at me.
I side step out of the way, the speed of his jutsu isn't enough to catch me off guard. It barely slowed my assault.
Something sharp cuts through the top of my left shoulder, barely enough to break my skin but enough to reach it through my multiple layers of clothing. "Huh." I reverse my berserker charge and hop a few meters away. "So there were two blades? Not just one?"
"Wrong." Hiro smirks and points towards my right arm. "There were three."
Sure enough, there's a tear in my coat. Wow, I must be slacking. I'll have to take this a little more seriously. "I liked this coat."
I place a hand on my shoulder and leave it there for a moment. If everyone assumes I'm a medic nin, I might as well play the part. My hand comes away with a smear of blood on it, the Jiongu pushed some out to match the size of the wound.
"I'm not sorry." Hiro taunts. "You excel at close range, there's no way I'm going to let you near me. Plus I have no idea what those... are those teeth? Yeah I have no idea what those do and I don't want to find out."
"Fine." I sheath the two poison blades again. "Long range it is." I fly through hand seals at an astonishing rate, much faster than Hiro did. "Earth Release: Ten Thousand Fists!"
As my innumerable fists of earth surge towards Hiro, a specific sound can be heard above it. It's one I'm intimately familiar with. It's the sound I hear whenever I push out a monster.
SQUELCH
A mass of black threads forms between Hiro and my fists of earth and takes the hit unflinchingly. He used one of his monsters as a shield. Judging by the mask he has it wearing, it's his earth heart. That makes sense, earth is a naturally defensive element. But having the monster take the hit? That's just mean.
~Thank you for not doing that.~
Yeah yeah, just be quiet.
"Oh no!" Hiro taunts me again. "It looks like your attack failed! Whatever shall you do now?" He grins at his monster. "You won't be able to get past this, they're indestructible."
"Really now? Let's test that." I do something crazy, I charge at the monster.
The distance between us is closed in two seconds, but that is enough time for the monster to swing a fist at me. Unlike my battle with Lee, I nimbly contort out of the way and the fist sails past me. I firmly plant both feet on the ground a spring up well within striking distance of the one weak spot of the earth monster. I yank out the orange blade and plunge it deep into the monster's head, I don't go through the mask, rather I go around it utilizing the natural curve of my toothy weapon. Instead of withdrawing it, I let it stay embedded into the monster's head.
Then something happens that shouldn't happen, the mass of threads crushes me in a bear hug. I'm pinned between it's arms and chest. I must have missed the heart.
"Well this isn't embarrassing at all." I say with the ease of someone going for a walk instead of someone being submitted to crushing force.
"You can talk still?" Hiro pokes his head around the hulking body of his monster. "Earthy here is strong enough to squish grown men."
"Uh... did you not see my first fight?" I reply without a hint of strain in my voice despite the suddenly increased pressure. "Or did you happen to forget that I made a lot of craters by being thrown into the ground?"
The pressure increases again. "I remember. I didn't want to hurt you too badly though. I want you to be presentable for our date! Oh you should wear a dress! We can go to a fancy restaurant and everything, I can wear a suit and I'll buy you beautiful flowers-"
"My lovely orchid no!" A distinctly youthful voice is heard from the sidelines.
"-definitely not orchids. Perhaps lilies? Or roses? Oh I know, a bouquet of red roses!" Hiro isn't even paying me any attention anymore. He thinks he's got me trapped. "Doesn't that sound wonderful?"
Any second now. Just be patient. It'll be any second now. Then I can beat him to a bloody pulp.
"Midori-chan?" Hiro asks out of concern. "Is it too much now?"
"No. Just waiting." I growl out. I'm going to enjoy what happens next.
"For what?"
Hiro's earth monster writhes in agony and loses it's grip on me. I waste no time and leap away from it.
If the Jiongu can feel pain, Hiro's certainly is right now. The black threads that made it up are little more than a heaping mound of struggling serpents. The vague humanoid appearance is long gone, it's just a pile of flailing limbs.
After ten seconds, the monster dies. The threads stop moving and they start to waste away into nothing, they're becoming dust. My dagger clatters to the ground.
I always wondered what would happen if a heart was destroyed in a monster. I got my answer.
"That. I was waiting for that."
"What did you do!?" Hiro shouts at me from a fair distance away. As I watched his monster die he put a lot of space between us. "You missed the weak point! You didn't hit the heart! So why did it die?!"
I casually pick up the orange dagger from the ground and merrily twirl it between my fingers. "This baby. She's coated in poison, and this unique blend is acidic. It melts flesh, by leaving it embedded in that thing I gave it ample time to come in contact with it's heart. All it needed was the slightest of touches. I just had to wait for it to eat through the Jiongu first. Pretty cool right?"
Hiro's whole demeanor has changed. He's not as carefree any longer, now he's serious. Now he's dangerous. "You destroyed my heart."
"I did." I confirm. "How many do you have left?"
"Enough." Another monster leaves Hiro's body with a sickening squelch. This one has a fire themed mask.
In unison both Hiro and his monster ready a jutsu. Not good. If I destroyed earth, that means he still has wind and fire. I personally know that mixing those two is a hell of a lot of fun for the jutsu user but not for their target.
I don't like being the target.
"Combination Jutsu: Fire and Wind Bullet!" Hiro roars.
"Wait that's it?" A pathetically puny fireball launches at me. Sasuke's Grand Fireballs are way hotter and bigger than this, and my version of using fire and wind can melt stone. But Hiro can only do this? "Mediocre."
I don't even bother to dodge. I simply coat my hand in chakra and backhand the weak attack away.
"That was a disappointment. You're Fire Wave or whatever that was is way better than that." I shake my head.
"It wasn't meant to do damage." Hiro says from behind me. "It was just a distraction." His warm hand grips the back of my neck and black threads wrap the rest of the way around it. "Will you surrender?"
He made a mistake. He got in close. Since he's behind me, he can't see me grab my blue dagger. "I will not." I spear the dagger towards his gut.
It doesn't make it into him, he grabbed my wrist before it connected. "I'm not eager to find out what the other colors do."
Unknown to everyone but me, a grin of victory forms on my face. "Too bad." I bring out my Jiongu enhanced strength and overpower his grip and plunge the dagger deep into his gut. He didn't have a chance of besting me in strength.
Instantly the hold on my neck is released and Hiro once again puts distance between the two of us. "Aw crap." He grabs the blue handle sticking out of him and gives it a sharp yank. "What does this one do?"
"Give it a moment." I cheekily taunt. "Any second now."
THUD
Hiro falls face first onto the ground.
"There it is!" Ah that felt good. "The blue handle," I casually stroll over to the now incapacitated Hiro, "is a paralytic. Have fun with that."
Eito shunshins in a swirl of grass next to us both. "So... he's not getting up is he?"
"I would be surprised if he did. He should be down for an hour or two. Maybe less if the Jiongu helps flush the poison."
"Well right now he's at your mercy, so this is your victory." Eito turns to the crowd. "Winner by KO, Green of Otogakure!"
"You know, I thought this would be more of a challenge." I idly say to myself as I poke Hiro in the arm with my foot. "It isn't every day you get to fight against a kinjutsu. You just don't know how to work with it yet. That's too bad."
"You don't happen to have an antidote do you?" Eito asks from over my shoulder. "Kinda need him off the field now. We don't want him to die either."
"I can promise he won't die, but I didn't bring an antidote with me. I'm already resistant to all of my poisons so I never really see the need to." I quit poking him with my foot. "I can get him off the field for you though. I'll bring him over to the contestant's gazebo and everything."
"Cool. Go do that." Eito urges me to do his job for him.
"Yay." I pick Hiro up by the back of his shirt collar. "Let's go." I proceed to drag him back to the gazebo. "Oh no, is that a rock up ahead?"
A pitiful whine escapes Hiro's lips as a rather sensitive part of the male anatomy collides with the rock.
"It was, silly me." I don't stop dragging him, rather I angle his head so he can see in front of us. "Don't worry, only three more to go!"
After three more bumps and whines of a higher and higher pitch, we are finally back at the gazebo.
"Up we go!" I toss him into his chair. He flops over in it like a sack of potatoes. "This isn't going to work. Oh I know!"
I stomp the ground and a study earth pillar rises up. Then I fly through some hand seals and lightly touch the ground.
POOF
"Summoner?" A scratchy voice calls out. There are sharp inhales of breath and even a very unmanly squeak from Shino.
"Murasakino!" I happily answer. "So glad you could make it! See this limp noodle here?" I gesture at the slack Hiro. "I want to make sure that he has a nice view of the field where the fights happen, so we're going to tie him up to this post!" With a grand flourish I gesture at the pillar I made.
"I'm not so sure we should..."
"He ruined one of my coats."
"Hold him up." Murasakino demands and I comply, holding up Hiro against the pillar. Murasakino tenderly runs a hairy leg down the left side of Hiro's face. A terrified squeak manages to break through the effects of the poison. "Let me know if this is too tight deary."
In the next two minutes, Hiro is completely cocooned to the post with only is face free.
"Thank you Murasakino!" I send her back and then I lean in close to his ear. "That was for trying to force me into a date. When someone says no, they mean no. Or was me literally screaming that I don't like you not a big enough clue?"
I happily trot over to my chair and relax in it. Finally, I'll not have to deal with Hiro for a while. At least until the poison wears off.
"Okay, so I'm never going to piss her off." Sachihiro boldly breaks the silence.