The temperature in the arena dropped sharply as Yukiko and Jun'ko took their positions. The morning mist seemed to naturally recede around the young Yuki, as if recognizing a superior force.
'I can't afford to use the same tricks as before,' Jun'ko thought, her eyes studying her opponent's perfectly controlled posture. 'She saw it all.'
"Begin!"
Jun'ko wasted no time. "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" The mist thickened in the arena, but almost immediately began to crystallize at the edges, where Yukiko's chakra touched it.
"A thicker mist than the one you used against Sora," Yukiko commented, her voice as calm as the surface of a frozen lake. "But also more unstable."
A kunai emerged from the mist, followed by two more. Yukiko deflected them in one fluid motion, small ice crystals forming where her fingers touched the metal. It wasn't a display of power - just controlled precision.
'She's different from her cousin,' Jun'ko realized as she attempted to position herself for her genjutsu. 'Her control is...more natural.'
"Kanashibari no Jutsu!" Jun'ko tried to replicate the strategy that had worked in the previous match, but Yukiko simply released a short pulse of cold chakra, dispelling the illusion before it could take hold.
"An effective trick," Yukiko said, ice crystals starting to form in the air around her. "But to be expected after seeing it once."
Jun'ko was forced onto the defensive. The mist, was becoming a trap - every particle of water suspended in the air was a potential ice crystal under Yukiko's control.
From the bleachers, Ren watched with clinical interest. 'Yukiko's true power is not the brute force of her ice, but the precision with which she controls it.'
Jun'ko tried to change her strategy. Her seals, executed with a speed that surprised even Fujimoto-sensei, began to weave a genjutsu more elaborate than anything she had shown so far. The mist moved in complex patterns, each layer of illusion overlapping the previous with surgical precision.
'I can't beat her in a head-to-head fight,' Jun'ko thought, sweat dripping from her forehead from the effort of maintaining so many illusions simultaneously. 'But maybe if I can confuse her senses enough...'
The first illusion showed multiple copies of Jun'ko, each performing a slightly different sequence of movements. The second subtly altered the distances, making each attack seem closer or further away than it actually was. The third, the most insidious, toyed with the perception of temperature itself.
For a moment—one glorious, brief moment—it seemed to work.
Yukiko hesitated, her chakra visibly fluctuating as her senses struggled to distinguish reality from the overlapping illusions. A thin layer of ice formed in the wrong direction, revealing that at least one of the illusions had breached her defenses.
"Now!" Jun'ko used that moment of hesitation to launch her true attack—a genjutsu hidden within the others, designed to directly target the chakra circulation system.
But Yukiko hadn't gotten this far by accident. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and then...
"Hyōton: Frost Touch."
A thin wave of frost radiated from Yukiko, turning the illusory fog into a myriad of tiny ice crystals that fell like snow. The genjutsu, deprived of its medium, dissolved.
"Your control has improved greatly," Yukiko said, and there was genuine respect in her voice. "But ice cannot be fooled by illusions."
Jun'ko knew it was over. Her chakra was nearly depleted, and every technique she knew relied in some way on the moisture in the air—the very thing Yukiko controlled with natural mastery.
With a final push, Jun'ko attempted a direct attack, hoping to catch Yukiko off guard. But the young Yuki moved with fluid grace, the ice responding to her will like an extension of her body. A thin layer of frost formed beneath Jun'ko's feet, causing her to slip.
"Match," Fujimoto-sensei declared.
Yukiko approached Jun'ko, holding out a hand to help her up. "Your genjutsu," she said softly, "have become more than the illusions of the academy."
Jun'ko accepted the help, a tired smile on her face. "And your ice is more than just a kekkei genkai."
As the two kunoichi left the arena, the ANBU exchanged meaningful glances. The level of control Yukiko displayed was remarkable—perhaps too remarkable for a first-year student.
"The next match," Fujimoto-sensei announced, "will determine who will faces Misaki in the semifinals."