"Hurry up hurry up!"
Tsu said saying feverly to her students as she tried to hurry them out into the arena "Show up early... or on time even... and you'll look good. No last second stalling for us, we're not going to wait until it's almost dropped and appear in a puff of smoke."
Kano had a hard time keeping up with Sensei, they were running at full speed from the village. He just hoped they'd get a second or two to rest before going into the fight.
Ishiaki walked in, with his squad in tow, just a few moments after Tsu and her's. "Well it appears as if we had the same thought. Arrive earlier?"
"Yes yes, make a good impression and all that"
Tsu said, straightening her hat and casting an eye over her team that seemed to have a much older gaze than that little body should be able to achieve.
Akane strutted in behind her teacher. She tried not to look in awe at her first
real battlefield. Akane was wearing her usual ninja garb though her belt was equipped with twice as many feathers as usual.
It wasn't quite clear what
Oita was staring at, but he seemed to be facing the opposite team, and occasional glints from his glasses flashed across the opponent's faces.
Kami could not shield the awe from her face. She had expected to meet the others on a field or perhaps again in the forest. The spectator's stands had indeed become a surprise.
El was the last in his squad to arrive, huffing slightly and lugging his overly large guitar. His sombrero bobbed slightly as he attempted to gather his breath.
"Well then, Tsu. Let us not keep our audience waiting."
Ishiaki told her with a grin. He had informed his squad that they were to battle the others before the Council. But even he was impressed at what the Council had presented the young ninjas with. "The stands await us."
Kano couldn't help but stare at the massive arena that was seemingly built in just a few hours. His eyes settled on the small pond in the center, that was certain to cause a problem.
Oita noticed the glance and grinned, leaning over to Kami secretively and whispering softly in her ear "If you're after the fire guy, try to force him towards the centre and away from the trees. The water would work against him."
"Yes..."
Tsu turned her head so she gazed at the stand they would be taking while their squad battled "Lets head up shall we?" She waited for Ishiaki to make the first move, if he so much as caused a whiff of smoke she'd take off running.
Akane heard a bit of Oita's whisper to Kami and noted it. She took a casual glance at El from the other team. She examined his hat, clothing and any other items he could visually possess.
Ishiaki knew full well that his rival teacher would be expecting him to vanish with a touch of smoke as he had been doing recently, but decided instead to simply take a walk across the battlefield
Hinji knocked the dust off his jet black kimono and straightened his hat for maximum protection. This was most unfortunate for him that they went with this layout. It offered minimal shadow protection, not only would he have to summon on the run but would also have to make sure he didnt come out of this with third degree sunburns.
Tsu walked up to the stand slowly, taking a deep breath and bowing to the council before turning to face the pupils. She wanted to see how this would pan out... Who would win? Who would get through?
Kami gave Oita a firm nod. Her hands where already filled with kunai and she rested on the balls of her feet as she assessed the arena and Kano.
El did his best to seem unimpressed by the arena and upcoming fight. He used the brim of his hat to hide his eyes as he scanned the opponents and the court obstacles. His fingers couldn't resist recounting a tune he'd heard in an old spaghetti western once.
Akane brought her left hand into her right and promptly cracked her knuckles. She stayed on her tippy-toes from here on out.
Oita slowly took a large scrolls from his pack, a small blade appearing as well as he got ready to summon his puppets. He'd be pretty immobile while this was happening... he just hoped he could fight off Hinji well enough.
Hinji looked over the other team as his shadow raven cawed on his shoulder. He reached up and stroked the raven's feathers causing slight shadow wisps to fly off and vanish in the light. He also did a quick mental run through of all the cards he had "equipped".
The crowd silenced as a man stepped forward from among the Council. He was the duly elected Shimagunikage(the Island Nation Kage). The speaker and head of the Council. "Genin!" He addressed the group of young ninjas below him. "You have been summoned here to provide testament to your abilities! Your teachers believe that you are fully prepared for what we would have you do!" He paused to let that information sink in to all those in attendance. "We have arranged this test in order for you to do so! Prove that you are worthy and you shall be granted our trust!" With his speech finished, the Shimagunikage stepped down from the podium, allowing another member of the Council to step forward to explain the rules of the contest.
A rather squirrely looking man stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I will now declare the rules of combat for this exercise. First off, I am Myamoto Osaki and I will be the Shinpan(referee) for this test. The rules are simple. Disable your opponents or be disabled yourself. Kill, or be killed, if you will." He paused and smirked at that point, nobody would die here today, but there was no reason to make the students believe that. "You are permitted to use any and every technique that you have learned during this battle. At the sound of the gong you may begin."
Kano looked at his teammates, "Was he serious with that kill or be killed thing?"
"Killing? But I let all my poison tips at home"
Oita said loud enough that everyone, including the opposing team, could hear him. He liked scaring the opposition, and possibly the judges. Still he pressed the kunai tip against his palm, getting ready to slice and summon at a moment's notice.
"He was using a metaphor."
Akane said sternly to Oita. She refrained from calling him names in front of the council. He means to just disable your opponent."
Kami was going to ask what a metaphor was but in her glance of the stands she had noticed a face that caused her stomach to clinch substantially. Apparently a representative of the Smoke Village had been summoned and Kami tried her best not to catch her sister's eye as she looked down her nose at their team.
"Who am I going for again?"
El whispered to Hinji. "I forget."
Oita was just about to make a scathing comment to Akane but it died on his lips, just a small nod coming out instead as he looked around at Kami before the battle started. He noticed her frozen expression, turning his head to look at where she was too; his glasses reflection flashed over the Smoke village representative once and Oita turned back to Kami. "Come on" he said quietly "No time to freeze."
Hinji looked at El as he walked behind him. "I do not believe we had allotted each other a target. Which ever one you think you would do better against. Oita does puppet summons, Akane lies some significance in her feathers, and I honestly dont know what the Kami girl does." He continued past El and over to Kano. "Do you think you would be able to set and keep the trees ablaze while fighting?"
Kami's eyes darted to Oita and she didn't say anything. She tried to put the fact that her big sister was watching out of her mind and concentrate on Kano. She was not going to be able to use Master Risu and his ninja against him. She was not going to put the Shinobi of the hidden Acorn Village in the path of someone who could control and manifest fire.
"The wood will burn for as long as it needs to. All I'd have to do is light it, the trees will do the rest. As long as no one puts out the flames."
Kano told Hinji with confidence. "But I do believe that I won't be able to focus my chakra on keeping them aflame, if they go out, I'll try and relight them, but no promises."
"If they go out leave them out and focus on keeping your blood inside your body."
Hinji said seriously. He slide his black wood walking stick from his back and began petting his shadow raven again.
Akane stayed in a fighting stance until they would be told to start. She glared across the arena at the other team as they rudely chatted.
"What about the unoccupied stands?"
El asked "I'm sure our spectators will get a jolt out of it." El smiled for a moment, picturing their surprise when half of the unoccupied bleachers went up in chakra flame.
"I doubt that would be a good idea."
Kano stated as he looked at them. He swallowed hard as he saw the representative of his own village among the Council members. "Proving ourselves while endangering them would not be wise."
A very stout looking man walked across the bleachers tot he large gong and with one swing of his mighty hammer, struck the instrument, and the battle was declared to start.
Akane didn't hesitate. She wanted to be sure that she could get the first hit in. On her toes, she sprinted towards El. With her arms flared back, Akane put all she could into her speed. Between each finger was a long blue feather, her blades. Even though it appeared that she mindlessly barreled into fighting, she kept her guard up just in case El made any sudden movements or the other fighters on his team moved.
Hinji acted before Kano set the trees on fire to make sure he was ready. With his left hand he grabbed three summons cards, while the raven on his shoulder bit his finger, drawing blood. He wiped the blood on all three cards but only threw one. It hit the ground and suddenly a black mist burst forth which quickly drew itself up and into a humanoid form. Within the mist could be seen a samurai in full combat armor wielding a large No-Dachi. It seemed to scan the group before charging forward, straight at Kami.
Kano leaped into action as the gong was sounded. He jumped straight towards the treeline, his hands forming the signals in mid air. Bringing his fingers and thumb to his mouth as he jumped, he invoked the jutsu by calling forth it's name, "Fire Style-Dragon Breath!" He inhaled and then exhaled across them, sending an enormous stream of flame outward across the trees, igniting them in mere seconds.
Oita's blade ripped into his palm as he tossed the scroll into the air, unravelling it quickly and smearing his blood across the parchment. With a "poof" of smoke the tall, black headed figure of Candle stood before him. The blackened head turned at once to the samurai attacking Kami, then straight to Hinji. Attack the puppeteer and the puppet will drop, or at least the summon. "Burning torch jutsu" Oita said softly as his fingers twitched momentarily; the large blackened head of the puppet burst into flames at once, while it was no where as strong as Kano's flames it fought back the shadows. Silently the puppet raised a fist, then shot forward on a plume of flame straight towards Hinji. While this was happening Oita reached behind him, pulling out a second scroll and running his still bleeding hand across it. It dissapeared in another "poof", but seemingly nothing appeared.
Hinji smiled as the trees burst into flames, basking the battle arean in decent shadow. He was shocked though to see a large amount of flame shooting towards him. At first he thought it was Kano's attack gone awry till he saw "Candle" at the other end. He quickly dropped into a crouch position and did a side jump away from the flames. As he was airborn he threw another card, when it hit the ground it suddenly sunk into the ground. Only seconds later many large cords came bursting from the hole and screamed across the arena towards Candle trying to bind him up. Once Hinji landed he quickly vanished into the shadow cause by the trees, he made sure to keep himself moving so that the opposing team would have great difficulty in tracking him.
Kami was forced to change her plans, she'd so thought her first attack would come from Kano. Her assessment was short and prescience, shadows cast darkening and lightening cast's light. She stood her ground, fingers locking into the correct positions to summon the first lightening style justu she had ever learned. Still not skilled enough to summon without calling out what she was aiming, she said it to herself rather than shouting. "Raikiri." Which brought forth a crackle in the sky and sent a single bolt of lightening zigzagging towards the charging figure, connecting with the tip of it's blade. A thunderclap issued a split second after the bolt hit.
I have to be careful, if I rely heavily on my lightening style clouds will accumulate, offering Hinji more shadows to attack with. I just really hoped the thing is
made of shadow.
El took a seat on a nearby rock, all the while using his sombrero to block his eyes so he could keep his eyes on Akane. She was quick, really quick. His fingers had begun summoning a shockwave with which to propel her, but Kami's lightening bolt dazzled his eyes and this particular tune forced him to watch his left hand. Loosing sight of his fingers momentarily the shockwave backfired on him with a sour note, sending him skyward, out of Akane's threat range.
Not what I was looking for but effective any way. he thought to himself as he held onto his sombraro with one hand and used it to slow and direct his decent towards the field of stones. Being much slower than her, he could utilize the cover of the rocks and have time to play a proper jutsu.
Akane had speed on her side and it was easy enough for her to stay clear of the other team member's attacks. El seemed to have descended in a lonesome area of arena, leaving both him and her to their own attacks. Darting towards him once more, she jumped up so that she could see him behind the field of rocks. Whilst in mid air, Akane threw each feather that was between her fingers at him. On her descend, she scooped her hands down in front of her, sending an enormous blast of tunneling wind in El's direction as well.
Oita grit his teeth, but at least Hinji was going after the puppets. Candle was fast, very fast, and the moment the tendrils started to reach for him he was already burning away; if any got close they got singed by the plume of fire propelling Candle forward. Oita's fingers were dancing, twirling Candle around the shadows, scattering them around the flames as he tried to stop Hinji from teleporting away from the battle. Oita would find him and pin him down.
Hinji saw his samurai get blasted by the lightning but wasnt very concerned. Yes it definatly put the hurting on it but definatly didnt take it out of the fight. Even as he changed directions to keep an eye on El the samurai was standing back up from the ground and continuing its charge, closing the ground quick. The tendrils were getting burned away and were having no affect, with a quick gesture and a word the tendrils burst into mist and vanished. He didnt want to let Oita's puppets go and attack anyone else so, with a smile, he quickly threw another card which burst into a black cloud about a hundred feet away from Candle. The cloud quickly took on the shape of two winged goblin looking creatures wielding axes, with a sadistic grin they charged forward with a shriek.
Oita caught where that card came from this time, seeing it float through the air; Candle shot towards the place where Hinji was hiding, scattering the shadows as he approached. This was, of course, getting very close to the two wierd-axe goblins. Candle raised it's thin arms forward as it shot towards them, and just before it got within swinging range of the axes Candle slammed his hands into the floor; he cartwheeled and the plume of flame shot right at the goblins, and the place where Hinji last was.
Hinji knew it was only a matter of time before a card gave him away, he didnt expect a full assualt on his position however. The goblins managed to swoop out of the way and use their positions to close with Candle so they can attack with their axes. Hinji was less prepared and only managed to get out of the way of the flames, but not the illumination. He knew immediately that he was visible again and quickly leapt to his feet, he kept his third prepared card hidden behind his back ready to use it.
Seeing that both of his teammates were in a little over their heads with their opponents,
Kano had a difficult time deciding who to help. It appeared to him as if the others had forgotten about him. That was their mistake. He leaped atop a large boulder and made the handsigns again. Bringing his finger and thumb to his mouth, he aimed this attack at the pond itself. "Fire Style - Fireball Jutsu!" He declared, breathing outward and creating a fireball of such immense size that it completely covered the small pond in the center of the field. He lowered it and the second the flames touched the water, mist erupted in all directions, shrouding the entire field as the fireball ate away at the pond water
El shielded himself with his hat as her kunai-like feathers whizzed toward him. One stuck and being the boy he was he decided to leave it. He'd managed to play out a block just in time for Akane's attack to hit. He evaded again, striking all five strings at one, preforming a bounce manuver that shot him away from her again.
If I don't don't get a chance to attack soon I'm gonna be retreating the entire match. He'd not yet mastered the concept of playing and running at the same time.
Kami was not at all pleased that Hinji's samurai wasn't much effected by her lightening.
The key must be in the cards. she thought and evaded it's attack strategically. She focused her chakra into her feat so she could move faster and decided to take it on personally. Focusing her lightening into every punch and kick she attacked quickly, landing a few hits before taking off and circling back around again to attack some more.
Akane fell quite elegantly, landing on her toes like a ballerina. She wanted to get close enough to snatch that damn guiter out of El's hands but she had to get close enough. She chose to dart at him on foot once more. Though she started to hop from rock to rock when the terrain changed.
El ducked low between the rocks and finally removed his hat so he could hide easier. His eyes where still covered with a Zorro-like mask that's he'd taken up wearing when he was a kid. He could see above him now and spot Akane before she could throw any more of those deadly feathers at him. He placed his hat on a low lying rock as a decoy and slipped threw the rocks to find a hiding place. His fingers moved lightly on the strings of his guitar, the volume making little difference in the jutsu's he could summon. He was mustering up a nice one, so long as he could keep his digits from tangling.
Akane fell for the distraction and kept her stride towards the hat peeking up from between the rocks. Anticipating him, she opened her arms and linked her hands together. Whilst in mid-jump, she made three specific hand movements and blasted down between the rocks at his hat. Wind shot out but it only curved around the stone, lifting the sombrero high into the air.
Seeing his sombrero flying
El jumped to the top of one of the stones, just in time to finish his tune with a heavy down stroke on the strings. The result was five waves of sound chakra that attacked Akane one after another.
"What the-?!"
Akane asked, seeing the hat fly up without El under it. She was completely caught off gaurd by the blast of sound waves smashing into her. Akane was sent flying back, tumbling over the rocks.
Oita twitched his fingers quickly, Candle lifting one hand off the floor and starting to puff out intermitant streams of fire to propel him around and around, switching hands quickly to change the way he spun. It was keeping the goblins at bay with his after-burn and flaming head while still illuminating Hinji; it also began to burn away Kano's mist, so Hinji could not use it to escape into shadow. "Go Cane!" he yelled loudly, thrusting his right hand out as his second puppet slithered out from behind him; it resembled several lengths of thick knotted bamboo all connected to each other, right now conjoined into a snake so he could conceal it behind him as well. Thanks to the hot mist now shrouding the battle field thanks to Kano the wooden snake began to slither across the floor speedily, heading straight for Hinji invisbly; the only thing telling him that a puppet was approaching the shadowy summoner.
Hinji kept on the move so that Candles flames wouldn't touch him. "I have to find a way to get away from this light!" he thought to himself. The flying goblins ducked and weaved to avoid the flames and every so often closed to make a few attacks before getting out again. The samurai was taking the blows with noticeable effort and struggling to make any kind of attack. Kami was much faster then the samurai could handle and it was beginning to show.
Kami was staying several steps ahead of the samuria, that was good, but Akane had been caught out by the blast of wind.
Oita just hoped that she'd be able to catch herself before hitting the floor... But right now he had to concentrate on moving Candle along, spining him around and around and only just avoiding the axe blades... usually. More than once Oita heard a dull thunk of metal on wood and he had to catch Candle as he spun wildly; he had to keep him burning however, had to keep him spinning and moving to light up Hinji and try to keep him on the move. Now if Cane attacked like that... where would the surprise be? Straight into the light, a moving shape across the floor. No... no that would not do. With a sudden wave of his hand the snake form shot forward from the mists at the edge of Candle's influence. The frame of a maw opened, two small bamboo ends at the tip of the mouth sliding out some small but quite sharp looking blades. The snake puppet was diving at the axe wielding goblins, aiming to bite into the neck or wing, or at the very least the body. If that strike landed Oita was going to use the momentum to swing the puppet around, ripping deeper into the goblin's flesh with the blades as the blade in the tail lashed out across towards the other flying goblin. Like a scorpion's tail on an adder's bite.
Kami was getting a bit bored with zipping around the samurai, striking it with her fists and feet of lightening. She pulled a paper bomb kunai and sped for him again, slipping the blade of the kunai into the section where his helmet met his armor, then ran for the hills before the bomb could explode.
Kano came out of nowhere and kicked Kami square in the back as she was running from her paper bomb.
Kami had summed up quite a burst of speed as she fled the paper-bombed samurai. When Kano kicked her she went flying, cartwheeling head over heels until she splashed to a less than graceful stop at the receded shoreline of the water-hazard. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts, dizziness buzzed around her from the cartwheeling but it didn't take long to realize she'd landed in water. Or rather what was left of the water after Kano had caused most of it to evaporate with his fire. She splashed her face to get rid of the fuzziness and smiled inwardly
You might be cute but it was a bad idea kicking a lightening user towards water. Her fingers locked together in several different combination's and a rather large accumulation of clouds began forming from the steam that had begun to dissipate across the field. The clouds rolled in shades of purple and gray and formed above her. They where far enough away from Hinji that he couldn't reap the benefits of the shadows that now covered her and Kano. If she could summon enough clouds she might be able to bring forth some showers and hopefully that would douse some of Kano's fire.
The Goblins saw the snake puppet as it lunged, but one couldnt move fast enough. Cane's fangs sunk into the winged goblin's neck and spun him around with the momentum. A few seconds after Cane latched on the Goblin it burst into a cloud of shadow and evaporated. The surviving Gobling saw a new threat in Cord and began to attack him viciously trying to exact revenge for his fallen brethren. The samurai took a few steps in pursuit of Kami before the paper bomb detonated, bursting it into a shadowy cloud and it too evaporated.
Hinji watched all this in aggravation, he couldnt risk summoning at the moment due to the proximity of hostiles. He looked around him trying to find a good spot to run too.
El jumped off the rock with a pleased expression and went to zigzagging between the rows again. He wouldn't be able to get her to fall for it again, but just in case he draped his pancho over another low lying rock and worked his fingers into a similar justu as before.
Akane rolled up onto her toes after collecting herself from the fall. She wasn't doing very well in the mess of rocks, so she backed off and waited for him to make an appearance. "Fight like a man!" she shouted, egging him on.
Kano cracked his neck loudly and took a fighting stance. "You think I'm afraid of a little water?" He smirked, there was so much they didn't know about him it was funny. Fire style wasn't the only thing he had up his sleeves, or lack there of
But Cane was not the only puppet there, as the goblin began to viciously attack Cane, who was much faster than Candle and was darting in and out of the axe blows, the other puppet flipped out of his spinning dodges. As candle spun out of his attack he aimed his flaming head at the last goblin, trying to flaming headbutt the poor thing to death.
Oita was sweating slightly now as he tried to organise the puppets to keep attacking, and dodging at the same time, he knew if he didn't hurry their movements would start getting slower.
Hinji decided to take advantage of the puppets distraction to make his excape back into the shadows, but first he had to make it a much bigger distraction. He pulled out a few Kunai paper bombs that were specially made from his village. He threw a spread of four that struck the ground under the fighting puppets. Within a few seconds they bombs burst into large plumes of shadow clouds, much like what the summons come from, enshrouding them in solid darkness. Hinji then quickly ducked away a few trees down and vanished into shadow.
El remained hidden in the rocks.
No way I'm going out there. he thought to himself. Her speed was far too superior to his and there was no way he could match her in the open.
These rocks are my only chance.
Frustrated with her enemy's incompetence,
Akane ran and leaped into the air. With a swift hand, under her, a large blue feather formed under her feet like a surfboard. It shot her up into the air like a magic carpet, allowing her to hover above the field of rocks. El was easy to spot from here.
Kami again only said her attack rather than shouting it "Thundering Buffalo Stampede." And with a mighty crack of thunder the clouds which had accumulated above her took on the form of a marauding heard of buffalo. They snorted bolts of lightening from their noses and it crackled from their hooves as at least 30 strong stormed, quite literally, towards Kano.
Oita glowered at the spooky plumes as he suddenly yanked Candle and Cane backwards out of the black fog shrouding them, not moving them quite so elegantly this time, just getting them out of the blackness. Cane snaked long and across his back again as Candle's flaming head went out; best to keep them idling and not waste any chakra while he waited. He glanced over towards his team mates... they seemed to be doing alright actually.
Kano's eyes had a hard time staying in his head as the clouds transformed into a herd of angry buffalo. He didn't think that hiding behind a rock was going to work and he certainly wasn't fast enough to run from them and hope she burned out before they hit him. As the buffalo herd descended upon him, there was a white POOF! and a log appeared where he stood at the very last possible second.
Hinji took a little time to plot a course of action before going again. Realizing that a card through would give away his position, he decided to get a bit creative. He took one of his shadow bomb kunai and removed the shadow bomb, in its place he put one of his summons cards and slammed it into a tree. He moved away from it, closer to Oita before sending his raven with some of his blood on his talon. The raven wiped the blood onto the card which burst into a cloud of shadow before reforming into a giant cobra. It flared its frills before slithering towards Oita and his puppets at full speed.
Kami did her best to keep her chakra concentrated as she searched for Kano, the buffalo would see him for her if they spotted him so she split them into two groups. This wouldn't let her jutsue last very long but if she found him it wouldn't need to.
El snuck threw the stones, trying to listen for Akane or catch sight of her, any where. His poncho was still draped on a stone several yards behind him hoping to offer another distraction. It was so strange that his ears, so sensitive to sound, could not hear Akane moving threw the rocks. The thought to look up never occurred to him
Akane hovered right above him, pleased that he was oblivious. Making the feather under her vanish, she dropped down quickly from gravity. She aimed herself to land directly behind him in hopes to catch El by surprise and smash that guitar of his.
The kunai moved so quickly that
Oita didn't have time to notice where it came from, he heard the thud and spotted the paper but didn't realize it was a summon until the shadow raven smeared blood on it. "Dammit" he hissed as he twitched his fingers and Candle came to life again, his head burning brightly as he prepared for the giant cobra, Cane sliding to the floor slowly; he might have to turn Cane back for this...
Kano managed to make it to the treeline while Kami was distracted by his substitution jutsu. He kept his chakra levels low as to not grab her attention, while he caught his breath. It wasn't an easy thing to move that fast and it certainly wasn't something he could do again if needed. He began thinking if he could survive a hit from that thunderous buffalo jutsu of hers
Kami caught sight of Kano and managed to divert only one of the split heard towards the treeline. Given taller objects to conduct the electricity, lightening crackled threw the trees, striking the tallest ones first. Thunder crackled wildly over the field and fat drops of rain began to fall.
El was daft to Akane's presence till he sensed her behind him. Without enough time to summon a protective jutsu with his guitar, he acted more on instinct rather than decision. His voice broke, it wasn't a scream exactly, it was a note, all be it one that evoked a sound of alarm. This activated a chakra field of sound around El that blocked Akane's destructive blow on the guitar. However while his guitar remained intact, El's body took the rest of the shock and he went flying, propelled by a gust of wind that sent him cartwheeling into a rather large stone.
Akane was a bit startled from El's yelp and what it caused. She didn't want to waist any time in letting her opponent gather himself. Akane held back a fist and ran at El. She formed a justsu in the held back hand. Feathers collected around her fist and arm. In seconds, her arm was completely covered and formed something that resembled an eagle's razor sharp talon. "AH!" she grunted, moving to slash El's back.
Kano leaped from the tree when the lightning collided with it and made his flames grow a little more. "Yah know, for someone who should be helping their teammates, you sure are making alot more shadows for mine to hide in." He grinned and threw a kunai at her, trailing behind it was a quickly burning paper tag with very familiar writing upon it.(paper bomb)
When the paper bomb exploded a puff of white smoke revealed a section of wood and therefore a distraction.
Kami lost her concentration and the buffalo dissipated into normal clouds. The rain lessened but it still fell around them, hissing on the chard wood of the trees she's inadvertently ignited. She'd not yet perfected her 'Raven's Madness" genjutsu but her hands made the symbols nevertheless, running out of ideas. She tapped Kano on the back, hoping their eyes would meet when he realized she'd moved into position behind them.
El made the sound again, but this time his protection spell didn't activate as strongly as it had before. He felt Akane's talons slice threw his shirt but the spell prevented him from being lacerated too much. Her attack had met flesh but the cuts weren't too bad. He stumbled behind a rock to further shield himself and began to sing properly this time. However the only thing that came to mind was a lullaby his mother sang him to sleep with when he was younger. His voiced carried sweetly as he attempted to evade Akane further but the song could only offer a better protection if he could think of no other songs to recall. So he played the tune to the song on his guitar, reinforcing the protective sound barrier around him. He couldn't hide in a sound bubble for long, eventually he'd have to let his guard down for a better attack.
Frustrated that her attacks were being blocked,
Akane swung at him again and again. "Attack me!" she shouted, annoyed that this made her look like the 'bad guy'. She was almost starting to feel guilty....almo
st, especially with that sweet lullaby of his. Akane did her best to ignore it and went on slashing at the barrier like mad.
Kano wasn't one to get taken by surprise often, and someone tapping him on the shoulder in the midst of a battle threw him through a loop. As he turned around, to look at who he knew it was bound to be, his hands and feet burst into flame as he spun into a Tai-jutsu spin kick
Kami hadn't expected Kano's appendages to burst into flames but she managed to block and grab his leg as it came spinning towards her. Now that he was facing her it was much easier to see his eyes. Weather or not he would meet her gaze and fall under the genjutsu remained to be seen.
Hinji felt the rain falling and cursed Kami as the flaming trees hissed and sputtered away into nothing. When the fire went the shadows went with it, bringing Hinji back into visibility. He didnt worry much now as Oita and his puppets were occupied as the Cobra made strike after strike at what ever was closest whether it was a puppet or Oita.
Oita had been dancing the snake around by now, making the cobra strike out at Cane only to find the space Cane had occupied suddenly empty. When it struck at Candle however the puppet didn't even more, it just stood there; it would be like a snake headbutting a tree. Then the rain came... and Hinji came into existance again. When the snake finally struck out at Oita Cane snapped around it's tail like a bear trap, pinning it in place between several lengths of hard bamboo. With almost menacing glee Candle straddled the snake, aimed, and a burst of fire shot from it's base and fried the cobra. Oita's head turned, gazing at Hinji through his thick glasses; light reflected off his glasses, shining on Hinji, it was clear his target was out in the open and he was ready to go in for the kill... figureatively of course.
Hinji saw his cobra poof away after a thorough cooking and then caught Oita's gaze. A smile appeared on his lips, hidden by the brim of his hat as he tried to keep the sun off his face. Hinji had a two specific cards ready for them and another trick up his sleeve. These people thought he was all summon cards and nothing else, they would be surprised when his puppets closed on him.
El continued to sing while Akane's attacks sent him retreating backwards. He hit a rock and ducked before her talons could get at him. He brought his guitar up with a high note from the song and pushed it with all his might into Akane's torso. If he could push her back he might be able to hide and play again. She certainly was giving him a work out.
Akane saw El's pushing only as encouragement. She smirked and slashed again, "Come on! Didn't that cat teach you anything?!" she asked, slashing up this time.
"How do you like my Dragon Dance Jutsu?" Kano asked Kami as his flaming fist darted past her head. He was caught quite off guard by the fact she was able to catch him in mid-kick, but that didn't mean he was defenseless. He did not however want to barbecue such a pretty face and therefore sent his punch tot he side, rather than straight for her
Oita twitched his fingers, bringing the puppets around to face Hinji; the man was acting too calmly though, and Oita knew that sometimes when you thought you had them cornered people could surprise you most. Twitching his right hand Cane shifted suddenly, moving from the form of a long and thick snake; bamboo pieces folding out like lava erupting upwards from the floor. Bamboo piling on top of each other until the stick thin figure of a man, three pairs of arms waving, stood where the snake had been a moment before. "Lets go" Oita mumbled to himself as Candle shot at Hinji on a plume of fire, Cane taking off running as well.
Hinji twirled his black staff around before putting it behind him and flinging two summons cards into the air. The burst into the usual shadowy cloud, but instead of immediatly forming into something they began raining kunai with paper bombs attached. With each kunai that leaves the cloudo the cloud dwindles a bit in size. Both kunai showers aimed for the area in which Candle and Cane where in and might move to.
Oita hissed slightly as paper bombs began to rain from the sky, twitching his hands frantically. Candle immediatley took off in a sprout of flame, trying to keep in front of the kunai at all times, taking a longer circling route away. Cane was more trouble though, he was quick and slim so the kunai slammed down around him; he could run but he wasn't moving as fast as Candle. Oita's keen eye caught the fact that the bombs were following his puppets however, so with a twirl the puppet's trajectory changed, coming around towards Hinji, trying to dodge their way around the bombs and lead them back towards their summoner.
Hinji waited motionless as the two puppets brought the kunai back to him. His fingers twitched from holding onto the summons card he pulled and prepared from the beginning. All he would have to do was time it right.
Oita grit his teeth, Candle moving up higher as it raced towards Hinji, eventually circling above him for a moment in an attempt to draw the kunai down onto Hinji while staying out of range of anything he could throw. Cane on the other hand darted into the tree line, letting them shield his frail form from the exploding Kunai and disappearing from sight.
Seeing Cane disappear into the trees Hinji frowned. But didnt have much time to ponder it as Candle brought the kunai down upon him. He threw down his card and a large black, shadowy dome formed around Hinji. The Kunai rained down and detonated against the dome sending wisps of shadow out. Inside the safety of the dome Hinji spoke an order to his raven before sending him out quickly through the dome and pursuit of Cane. He ran his hands through his cards before settling on one. He bit his own finger and wiped the blood on the card, the second the explosions stopped he threw down the card and from the privacy of the dome shot forth huge shadowy, rocky spikes burst forth from the ground. Hinji rode up the spikes using them to get closer to Candle. If the spikes didnt skewer Candle then Hinji would be able to confront him in combat.
Candle hadn't managed to completely dodge the kunai it seems, as he rose up and away from the spikes as they exploded up Oita noticed the tag hissing away to nothing. "DAMMIT!" he yelled as Candle's end suddenly exploded, sending the fiery puppet on a mad spirally nose dive straight towards Hinji. The ball of spinning flames had practically no control, no guidance and was on a crash course straight for Hinji. Cane on the other hand was flickering back and forth beween the trees, Oita needed to try and keep a bit of eyesight to guide the puppet through the trees.
"This is going to be easier then I thought." Hinji said to himself as Candle came careening towards him. He leaped upwards a few spikes before making a powerful leap directly towards the puppet. He waited till he was almost past Candle before he did a quick spin and, using the momentum of the spin, used his staff like a baseball bat on Candle sending him straight towards Oita. This is when he noticed that part of his robe was aflame, in his efforts to put it out he didnt realize that the spikes were still coming and that he was now falling. When the flame was out he looked down and all the information hit him in a second, right before he was struck by his own summon he vanished and a small black log appeared which quickly poofed into shadow when hit. The spikes dissolved shortly after Hinji vanished.
Oita cursed as Candle was sent carreering away, hissing slightly and swiping his hand suddenly. Candle vanished in a puff of smoke... but no log replaced it; Candle simply dissapeared into smoke, Oita didn't want to risk him anymore. He was too damaged. Oita reached around him and took out another scroll... He'd have to work on Candle afterwards, fix his scratches and splits, until this was done he couldn't use Candle anymore.
With Candle out of the way and Hinji safely hidden again he set his sights on taking out Cane. He looked to the skies and caught sight of his raven and made his way, quickly and quietly, around in that direction. He began going through his mental list of available summons cards to see what he had left.
Cane, Candle, Clock and Casket, those were the four puppets Oita fought with and he'd taken down one. If Hinji thought he was out of the fight because one person went down then he'd definatley get caught by surprise. Gripping the scroll tight with one hand, he twitched the other frantically; he could see the raven hovering over it as well, one of the advantages of not actually being the one in the fight directly. Cane burst out into the open through the burnt trees, dashing out into the arena again while Oita cut his thumb on the scroll's sharp edge and rolled it out, smearing the blood across it as he did. It dissapeared into smoke... and nothing seemed to happen, for a second time.
Hinji burst forth from the trees a few seconds after Cane did and surged across the field. As he ran he tossed a mixture of exploding and regular kunai at the snakelike puppet. As he closed on his opponent a particular teaching from his former sensei came to mind, "When your cards are spent and your blood is dry you are not yet defeated. Use this Jutsu that I have taught you and you will live to bend the shadows to your will longer." When he was close enough he stopped and quickly did a series of hand gestures. "Shadow style - Shadow Augmentation Jutsu!". There was a small sound wave that emanated from Hinji's position before a dark, misty smoke began rising from his body and trailed his motions. He got himself ready for Cane and, mentally, ran through his Tai-jutsu training.
Cane just stood there however, stopping dead still as it appeared to just be watching Hinji. It was keeping him still, keeping him there... because a moment later the ground cracked beneath Hinji, two long extendable arms whipping out in an all encompasing grabbing motion, trying to grab hold of Hinji and drag him towards Casket as he erupted from under the earth.
Hinji felt the ground under him begin to break up as Casket burst forth. He wasnt about ready to let this thing suck him in so he acted as quickly as he could. He quickly batted away the arm that was closest to him and then used his staff to do a small pole vault a few feet away from Casket and towards Cane.
Oita was prepared for escape attempt however, the mistake that Hinji made was jumping FORWARD, towards Cane and into Oita's line of sight. If he'd gone backwards he would have earned enough time to get out of there. Instead now he found a stick thin, six armed puppet leaping up at him, arms out wide and a small collection of kunai blades sliding from the tips of every arm.
"This puppet is very determined." Hinji thought to himself as he reached for his last four paper-bomb kunai. He threw them at the approaching puppet hoping that if the explosive ones missed at least the shadow bomb one would hit giving him the destraction he needed. He brought his staff up as well in preparation for any attacks that may be made against him.
"She taught me how to keep my head." El said backpedaling and finally finding his footing enough to vult over a stone and put it between them. Having no better ideas he hit all his stings at once, playing a power cord his dad had taught him. If he did it right and allowed enough vibration to travel threw the wood, it would converge on the stone and send a shower of debris and concussive blast back at Akane. He really needed to hide if he planed to survive her relentlesness.
Akane went to jump over the rock much like El did, but was blown away(literally) by the explosion caused by his guitar. Her body was tossed back like a ragdoll. With her feather talons, she managed to knock away several of the stones in mid air but it wasn't enough. Due to the fact she lacked a prepheral vision on the side of her eyepatch, she never saw it coming. A rock hit Akane in the side of the head and she crashed hard into the rocks below.
El didn't stick around to see whether or not his attack had worked, the only thing that would save him from Akane was distance so he took his chance to run. The stones where his best chance for cover so he didn't leave the immediate area, he took his chance to string his spare guitar wires along the grass. his intention wasn't to trip her, but to alert himself to her whereabouts considering how silently she could move.
Akane was motionless for a moment but slowly stirred, placing a hand on her head. "Urrgh..." she groaned, wincing at the incredible headache. Damn peripheral vision. Akane sat up slowly, waiting for the landscape to stop spinning. She brought her hand forward from her head only to see it covered in blood. Akane merely scowled like she often did and looked around for that damn mariachi. Getting to her feet, Akane looked onward at the cluster of large maze of boulders. Fuck that. She then glanced over to the other side of the area to scope out how her teammates were doing. If El was going to dick around, she would find someone who would attack her.
El watched Akane from behind the cover of a bolder. She was changing her position, moving away from his chosen battle ground. Is she trying to lure me away from cover? he asked himself and remained suspicious as he moved to the edge of the stone field. He noticed that she was bleeding and felt an immediate pang of regret and wondered if there would be reproductions from his sensei.
Akane just managed to see the blow Kami produced. She smirked, pleased that at least those two were doing hand to hand combat. Now if only she could get her opponent to stand out and fight like a man. In the back of her mind, she wondered what the judges were thinking about her and El's fight. It was sort of...uneventful. Just a normal game of cat and mouse, really.
El wasn't going to come out of cover only to have Akane produce some super nifty attack. His fingers worked up a rather soft but complicated melody, something he could use incase she suprised him. He came out of the stones but stayed in the tall grasses, keeping his eyes on her.
A simgle stream of blood seeped down Akane's cheek. It stung of course, but she wasn't one to show pain easily. Ignoring the line of red down her face, Akane turned and glanced over at the rocks once more. Perhaps she shouldn't intervene with the others affairs. It would be better if she just kicked El's ass and be done.
For once El's dimunitive size came as an advantage. He was close enough to her than he could see the blood slide down her cheek but the tall grass managed to hide him. His fingers barely even toucherd his strings as he summoned another attack, the sound was nigh inaudible but the wind seemed to be in his favor.
Akane didn't see El at the moment. Staring off towards the boulders, she lifted a hand to her hair and pulled out three distinct blueish green feathers between her fingers.
Seeing that she was getting ready for an attack El decided if he was going to cxatch her off guard now would be the time. With a sweeping motion with his hand he released the attack he had summoned. If he'd played it right the echo would bounce back at her from three different directions.
Akane started into a sprint but was immediately caught off gaurd by the sound break. Her feather-like body was flung up into the air. She grunted her body started to drop down. However, from this height, Akane was able to see the dark skinned boy in the grass.
El was so glad his attack had worked he'd forgotten to summon another.
He was also too busy watching her feather light body go soaring to run.
Akane opened her arms and flung her body around so she was faceing down at El. Creating super fast justsu's, wind swirled around her and in a whirlwind, she shot herself down. With the knives between her fingers still, she spun herself like a drill with all intentions to slice El open.
El's eyes widened he definatly didn't have enough time to evade. So he did the stupidest thing he could think of and attacked. He leaped, propelling himself with a string of notes that emoted a Boing sort of a sound. He was humming, trying to bring up enough protection to ensure that his guitar couldn't be shredded. He filled his hands with Kunai and prepaired to protect his extremities.
The two collided in mid air. Wind and sound shot out from where they hit, blowing leaves, dirt and twigs away from the ground below them. Akane formed an air pocket that twisted around them, like a wind sphere. It kept them both hovered above ground. She used her feathers and attempted to cut him open. However, she only managed to lice up his poncho, not realizing that he was so thin under it. Frusterated, she spun and aimed a kick at his smug head.
El mainely used his protected guitar for cover but being trapped in such close confines gave hum little room to manuver. He found that he blocked a few of her strikes with his kunai but, he had to emerge from behind the oversized instrument to do so, earning himself a few nice gashes on his arms and back.
Akane was getting frusterated that his guitar was under some sort of protective barrier. "What?! You can't kick my ass without that thing?" she teased, kicking and jabbing at his instrument.
It took quite a bot of concentration to not let go of the genjutsu Kami was attempting to trap Kano in. As his blazing fist careened pass her head she smelled the acrid scent of her own burning hair singeing. She evaded the flames of his punch and arched her back, bringing in a swinging mid-kick towards his middle where there blessedly was no fire. She felt his not so soft abdomen connect with her curled toes and realized it might not be so hard to evade his flames.
When the kick connected with Kano's abdomen, his body curled, absorbing the kick, but remained in the relative position that he was in prior to the attack. (Arm still extended, leg still held by Kami, head locked looking straight ahead) Even though the kick clearly cracked some ribs, he showed no signs whatsoever of even feeling the impact. It was if he were frozen.
It took Kano's frozen state to make Kami realize that her genjutsu had actually worked. I did it! she thought I actually did it!
Kano's body remained frozen as he looked around at the battlefield. His eyes settled upon himself. "What the hell???"
Kami looked down at Kano and she knew that their was something immediately wrong. "Uh oh..." She knelt down beside him and gave him a poke in the side. Yep, he's frozen... great. "I think I miss-executed the genjustu."
Kano looked around, seeing nothing but blackness. He had heard of jutsus that can trap an opponent in a bubble of darkness, but he had seen himself. How weird was that?? Now there was nothing else here.
"I'm really sorry about this." Kami told Kano "I've never gotten the trap to work before but you should come out of it in a few moments. For now I'm going to go help Akane, I should expect to see you shortly.
Hinji's wishing seemed to help, even though the explosive kunai missed the shadow bomb one hit true. It exploded into a plume of black smoke, enshrouding cane in thick smoke and blocking Oita's view of Hinji. Growling slightly Oita twitched his fingers frantically, Casket emerging from the floor, the large round body seeming like a boulder pulling itself from the floor while it's large extendable arms swiped frantically in the air. They were just blows, there was no chance for him to catch Hinji, so Oita was trying to side swipe him into view. Cane meanwhile had began to whirl his six arms at the elbows, fanning the smoke away from himself to try and clear the view, and block any other attacks from Hinji.
From the black mist Hinji burst forth, but instead of going for one of the puppets he was going straight for Oita. The trail of shadowy mist was still emanating from his body and he seemed to be moving faster then normal as he made a straight charge for the puppet master.
Oita grunted slightly and began to frantically twitch his fingers; Cane turned slightly, his arms still rotating, but now every single one of them detatched at the elbow. The arms scythed towards Hinji, going much faster than he was, spinning towards the ninja's back withthe blade tips still extended.
Hinji heard the scything arms and spun around quickly using his staff to deflect as many as he could. A few of them imbedded themselves into his staff and a few more sliced past him cutting his kumono and him. He quickly resumed his charge at Oita, pulling a few of the puppet's arms that were in his staff and throwing them at Oita hoping to prevent him from attacking again with his puppets.
The arms that Hinji tossed at Oita however were just what the boy needed. Even though Cane and Casket's approach was slowed some what as he took control, eventually the arms turned in mid air and stopped, blades facing Hinji. Oita, still not touching anything, held six floating blades in front of him, waiting for Hinji to draw closer.
Hinji was not expecting the arms to stop in midair the way they did but he pressed on. He wanted to make sure Oita was more focus on defending himself then controlling the puppets.
A bladed arm slashed out at Hinji when he came too close, Oita frowning as Casket slowed to a stop, leaving it behind as Cane moved faster towards Hinji from behind. Oita would keep Hinji at bay with the floating puppet arms, slashing at him from all directions as the puppet gained ground. Hinji would need to act fast or he'd get caught again.
Feeling just a little like he was going to be fillet if he didn't change his tactics he sang "Nope." and swung his guitar at her like it was a baseball bat.
Having the sharper reflexes, Akane easily evaded the guitar coming towards her. "Ha! Ya can't kick my ass with it either!" she teased, aiming a low, swing kick to his ankles.
El was knocked off his feet and into the bottom of the sound bubble where he curled up under his guitar which was blessedly still protected by his humming.
Kami, having trapped Kano in a shoddy genjutsu, decided to give Akane a hand. She charged her chakra and headed for the stone field. She released a bolt of lightening that propelled her towards their sound bubble and aimed a mighty kick at the bottom where El was cowering beneath his guitar.
Akane didn't hesitate to attack again. She jumped at El, not seeing Kami's attack from outside of her wind bubble. The two were both coming on on him from both directions. Akane's goal was to damage, if not knock the guitar out of his hands.
When they both struck him El felt his world go completely black for a moment. When he came too again the ground was rushing up at him and his guitar was gone. Before he could register that he was falling he smacked into the ground and made an El shaped indention in the grass. he'd expected to get knocked out again but the sensation of hitting the ground made him realize he was quite awake. In pain but awake.
Akane gasped as Kami broke her wind sphere unexpectedly. She lost balance for a moment as she fell but was able to make a perfect landing on her feet. Her eyes were on El's body but soon were interrupted by the guitar hitting into the ground in front of her. Akane's eye glistened and she dove for it. Rolling forward and then jumping back from El, she held the guitar up high, like a trophy.
Kami landed with a roll and stayed poised on her haunches to see what was going to transpire.
El swayed a bit as he stood but managed to find his feet and spat, not as if he had anything to spit, but because he saw Akane grab his instrument and could do nothing to prevent it. However he could do something to get it back. He cleared his throat and broke out into song, singing in his grandfather's chosen language he sang a beckoning jutsu that had been handed down with this specific instrument. Four generations of Mariachi had been trained on that guitar and he felt his blood drawn to it as the jutsu took hold, propelling the guitar forward towards it's owner.
Akane had had enough. "Why you son of a...AUUHH!" She ran forward in a lighting fast sprint. With wind powering her thrust, she dove at El with her arms wide. All at once, she tackled him the old fashion way.
El hadn't been expecting that and Akane got the better of him for a moment. had he been in his poncho she would have tangled him up quickly but he was thin and wiry and managed to prevent her from completely pinning him.
"No you don't!" Akane scrambled over and around him. She was doing her best to keep this kid down. He was just so spidery! The two looked odd, and not very ninja, rolling around like siblings in the grass.
"GET CLEAR!" Kami shouted to Akane, her hands filled with blue crackling lightening chakra as she came thundering from the sky. Her manifested chakra swelled even larger as the sound of thunder accompanied her decent.
El's eyes widened when he heard Kami's warning but was too tangled up with Akane to retreat.
"HEY! He's mine! Go fight with your boyfriend!" Akane shouted seriously, making sure El didn't escape her hold. She jammed a feather through a corner of his poncho into the ground. If she could get a few more, she would have him pinned down.
Kami was already falling towards them, she couldn't redirect her course but not wanting to seriously hurt anyone she directed the summ of her chakra to the left of their location, inches away from what could have been a near fatal blow, blue electricity cracked threw the ground beneath them, splitting the turf and sending a spider's web of energy threw the ground.
Akane was just about to pin another feather in El's poncho when Kami's shockwave hit them. Debis shot up and over the two as they wrestled. They were thrown about five feet away, the planted feather ripping through El's poncho like a knife. "KAMI!" she shouted angrily.
the shock singed El considerably and provided him with enough momentum to disentangle himself from Akane. He was dazed but managed to extricate himself from their immediate vicinity and headed for Kano.
"I told you to move." Kami grunted as she stepped out of the small creator she'd left behind. her tone was not apologetic, not for the way Akane had treated her this morning.
"I was doing just fine til you butted in!" Akane argued, "El was mine and you were to fight Kano!" She was beyond frustrated. Not only did El push her buttons by running away all the time, but now Kami made her look like an idiot right before she had him pinned down. "And you don't tell me anything!"
Kami gestured to Kano's currently immobile form as if it where obvious she was stating who the stronger ninja was "You looked like you needed help." was all she said as she headed off after El.
"I don't need anyone's help." Akane muttered angrily under her breath. She sprinted behind Kami on her toes, quickly gaining on her. Reaching up, she pulled out feathers from her hair and held them between each finger.
"It takes many poles to raise a teepee." Kami said as they closed in on the boys location "Perhaps we can discuss it later?" He was summoning her chakra, not intending to give the boys time to regroup and attack.
Hinji quickly brought up his staff and parried the slashing arm. Then he quickly brought it around and attempted to bat it out of the air. His hope was that it would be possible and couldnt move back quickly, if so then he could just knock them all away and make it to Oita. He was amazed that there were this many obstacles in his way and he began to take notes.
There were six however, and every time Hinji batted one away Oita made another swoop in from behind and make the man stop in order to defend himself again. He tried to make them attack two at a time, one slashing forward at hinji from head on while the other stabbed directly at him from a blind spot.
This was turning from bad to worse as Hinji used his enhanced speed and agility to parry, block and dodge the six arms as they attempted to tear him apart. This is when he had a sudden inspiration, he let out a sharp whistle that could be heard across the arena then there was a sudden black streak and one of the arms was shattered. It was his raven and it was rising upwards and coming around for another strike on a different arm.
The arms paused in the air for a moment as the other shattered, turning as if watching the pieces drop to the floor. Oita's eyes flashed over Hinji angrily, his hands twitching for a moment before the arms shot forward; if he was targetting them then he'd make them keep moving, stabbing forward and shifting always while Cane got closer and closer. Hinji had smashed a puppet... oh he would pay.
Hinji could see the fury in Oita's face and a rare grin formed on his. He began defending himself and making swipes at the arms in conjunction with his raven, who had missed on his second dive succeeding only in spinning it around a few times. Hinji had to start thinking of what cards he had left that could help him.
The raven was lashed at savagely with one of Oita's floating arms as it attempted to break another piece. Still the arms dove and stabbed at Hinji, but now Cane was practically within striking distance; the puppet was closing it fast, seemingly trying to run head on at Hinji.
Hinji was unaware of Cane sneaking, quickly, up from behind. It wasnt until he heard a loud "Caw" from his raven that he turned and saw the bird attack the puppet's face. "Time to end this before he gets torn apart. He grabed an old worn looking card from the back of his hat and, using some blood from a recently sustained wound, threw it into the ground. There was a large poof of shadow that was quickly followed by a loud deep buzzing as a gigantic swarm of, what looked like solid black locusts now covered that entire area obscuring the view of anyone trying to look in. The swarm was about a hundred feet in diameter and was constantly shifting.
Oita hissed slightly as he saw his puppets dissapear into a swarm of bugs, gritting his teeth and pulling suddenly; the puppet and arms shot free of the cloud, moving quickly without any hint of control. He'd basically just yanked them out of that cloud before anything bad happened to Cane.
As Oita yanked his puppets out, a large portion of the swarm detached and made a straight line for him looking to keep him thoroughly occupied as Hinji quickly put a plan together.
Oita grimaced slightly as the swarm made it's way towards him. The best thing to battle this would be Candle, but he was too damaged. But Oita's eye glimpsed something else... something he'd left behind... He took off running, trying to dodge around the swarm and run the opposite side of Hinji.
The break-away swarm stayed on Oita's heels the entire time as the main swarm seemed to move to keep its collective sights on Oita. "He's moving, most unexpected." Hinji said as he flicked a shadow locust off his face and into a poof of smoke.
Since Cane was battered to a dangerous point and pretty useless at the moment, the figure and the limbs vanished in a puff of smoke. Oita could call him back if need be, he just hoped that he wouldn't need to. His destination became clear as he kept running, the swarm getting closer and closer as he ran towards the figure of casket, the large puppet body opening wide to show the hollow inside, standing up slowly on his short legs as he waited for Oita to get there.
"What in the world is he doing?" Hinji found himself wondering. Amazingly, there was a aprt of him that didnt want to interfere as to find out what he was going to do. "He cant be getting into it as it could kill him." he thought as he watched, "Maybe he has some jutsu that would strengthen it." he got ready to order the bugs onto his hands to try and prevent him from doing any hand gestures.
Oita grimaced as he felt the bugs trying to wrap around his hands, pulling away quickly as he tried to keep up his run. He was quite fast without his pack on, and soon he was close enough to Casket to do it. He jumped and twisted in mid air, ducking down as he slammed bodily into Casket's open cavity; with a twitch the body slammed shut around him, trapping him inside... At least it seemed like that up until the eyes of Casket's head slid back, showing Oita's flashing glasses as he say inside the puppet. He was small enough to sit in here relatively comfortably, he was wearing the puppet like a suit of armour. Slowly the Casket stood up, stuby fingered hands curling into a fist as Oita got ready to fight.
"Very impressive." Hinji said as he moved in unison with his part of the swarm towards Oita. He commanded the other half of the swarm onto Oita with new orders that were simple: Get inside. The bugs slammed and thudded against Oita's armor and attempted to crawl in through any opening they could find.
There were practically no gaps however, all places sealed up by either Oita's glasses or by small wooden covers that seemed to be able to be slid over gaps in the puppet body. Oyu had encased himself in the armour of his own puppet, and was wading forward through the bugs like they were nothing while not having to lift a finger; well he did, quite a few, but that was all he had to do. Oita was searching for Hinji in the swarm and when he found him there'd be hell to pay; he BROKE Cane's arm!
As Hinji has feared he had taken to long to stop Oita and was now faced with a much larger challenge. He brought the bugs back and gathered them more densely around himself before charging towards Oita, seeing no alternative at the moment.
As the swarm retreated Oita found his vision cleared, letting him see the tight ball of buzzing insects that was Hinji. He needed to scatter that swarm... Reaching down slowly, casket's thick fingers dug into the floor, gripping a large chunk of earth before ripping it slowly from the floor and holding it above his head. Oita braced, then tossed the ground at the tight ball of flies which Hinji had hidden in.
"Oh my." Hinji said as he dropped to the ground to avoid being hit by the ball of earth. He quickly rolled to his left and leapt up to resume his charge. "Gonna end this now."
Oita grunted, Casket swinging a large extendable arm towards the approaching cloud of bugs; since the man was constantly charging Oita thought it best to give wide sweeping attacks, making him stop the charge becase dodging sideways would likely get him caught in the next swipe. Soon after one arm whizzed overhead a second one came the other way, criss-crossing in the air as they tried to drive Hinji back to a ranged area, somewhere Oita could watch him.
Hinji charged to just within reach of Oita and kept his locust swarm moving and buzzing furiously to keep his image blurred and Oita's accuracy low. He stayed on the defensive to keep from getting pummeled and would make an occasional strike, swift and hard, on the puppets limbs and body joints hoping to slowly disassemble the puppet.
The joints seemed so flexible that they didn't break, just ripple slightly with the staff hits, and the arms were heavy even though extendable. Oita had designed Casket to be a power house, not subtle, not sly, just a big puppet that beat people into submition.
Hinji was quickly realizing the futility of his efforts but was determined not to give up cause he knew he would find a weak spot eventually. No one except a master could create a perfectly flawless puppet and Hinji planned on exploiting that. He kept up his attacks but put less emphasis on them and more on keeping his head on straight and looking Casket over thoroughly.
Kano knew what he had to do to escape from a genjutsu, but this was unlike any that he had ever seen before. He could see himself standing exactly where he was when he had looked into Kami's eyes. Everything else was darkness, in a usual genjutsu something at the very least happened while you were there. Maybe she had screwed the jutsu up? He heard her say something, but it was extraordinarily muffled and garbled to him. He suspected that the usual release jutsu wasn't going to work this time. He positioned himself alongside of himself and began to focus his chakra. It was a difficult move to do, turning off one's chakra, especially during a battle. He closed his eyes and began to slowly stop the flow of his own chakra
El slid to a halt in the chard grass next to Kano. "These girls are going to do me in." he said out of breath as he looked as his friend "Genjutsu, how do we break it mi amigo?"
As soon as he felt his chakra cease flowing, Kano unleashed it all at once. His eyes snapped open and the air around him rippled when he burst through the genjutsu. He just about fell over from the store momentum of his previous attack. When he realized where he was and what was happening, he looked at El. "What?" His breathing was labored, never having actually to do such a technique, he was out of practice.
"you will have to tell me how you did that once this is all over." El said holding out his hand to help Kano up.
"Gladly. It's a good trick to know." Kano said as he got to his feet. "How long was I out?" He asked him, trying to regain his bearings as he surveyed the battlefield. He couldn't even find Hinji, so that must have been a good thing.
"It takes many poles to raise a teepee." Kami said as they closed in on the boys location "Perhaps we can discuss it later?" He was summoning her chakra, not intending to give the boys time to regroup and attack.
"Good thing we aren't indians!" Akane shouted, running past Kami. She, on the otherhand, wasn't allowing the boys(specifically El) time to regroup.
"I am uncertain." El told Kano "I had my hands full with Akane, just look at my guitar." the over sized instrument was smeared with dirt and had at least half a dozen shallow slashes gouged into the wood "Perhaps you should take her, I have no effect and her wind may feed your fire."
Kami was gathering the same attack she had used when she inadvertently allowed El to escape. Perhaps driven into the center of Kano's chest it may do some good.
Akane was still in a sprinted toward the boys. "HAH!" she grunted, throwing six feathers like throwing stars in their direction.
Kano's hand was ablaze in an instant, waving it before them and igniting the air. He formed a wall of fire to block the speeding feathers
Akane kept her sprint. She clapped her hands in front of her and kept them pressed flat against one another, like she was praying. Wind swirled around them, eventually consuming her entire figure. She would dart through the fire by moving the flames with the wind.
"If you've got any ideas, I'm all ears, El." Kano offered as he continued to feed the wall with his chakra. He couldn't keep it up forever, eventually he'd reach his limit and he was already getting close because of having to break that genjutsu
Akane was getting pushed back as the flames roared around her. She was pushing herself deeper into the thickness of the wall itself. With her hands planted together, Akane swirled an immense amount of wind around her form, keeping the flames away. She was already started to perspire.
Kami continuously gathered her chakra, the air was immensely hot but the clouds she had summoned earlier rekindled and crackled above them. Again the thunder heads took on the form of buffalo but instead of attacking with them she concentrated on bringing forth rain with which to hopefully douse Kano's flames.
"I exasperated all my best tricks already." El confessed "I must recoup my lost chakra before I can be much use."
"Alright then. Plan B." Kano said, stopping the flow of his chakra to the firewall. He could tell someone was coming through and now the rain had started up again. This was not going to be good. They needed to regroup, by now Hinji had to be running low on chakra as well.
Kami was still building the thunderstorm, it didn't cover much of the field but she managed to cover the four of them. Akane's wind was doing a nigh idealistic job of keeping them from being roasted but the rain didn't provide much of a relief from the heat. What would normally be large fat drops of cascading rain where nearly being evaporated by his heat.
"And what would this plan entail?" El asked, he'd just about caught his breath but the thrumming in his head from being slammed into the ground earlier had finally gone completely.
Akane was starting to get quite tired right after Kano released his fire wall. She dispersed her wind, saving as much chakra as she could. "Seriously?! Did that cat woman teach you nothing except to stand around and look like idiots?" she teased, pulling knife-feathers out of her hair.
"Buy me some time." Kano told him, slapping his comrade on the shoulder. "I need to gather my chakra for this." He looked over his shoulder and could barely make out what was going on on the other side of the battlefield. "Hinji's in need of some help too, I'd say. Hopefully this jutsu of mine works..." He said quietly to himself
El let out a small whimper and cracked his knuckles "You'd better be right about this." he ran out from behind Kano in a wide arc, hopefully drawing Kami to him while Kano had Akane busy.
Kami spotted El making a break for it and asked Akane "I'll try to keep the rain falling, are you going to be ok here? "
"Fine. I'll clean up your mess." Akane said coldly, moving into a sprint at Kano. With her knives between her fingers, Akane leapt into the air and threw them at Kano.
Kami suddenly had a very deep dislike for Akane, more so than earlier in the day. She almost let the rain stop but deciding it was best to take the high road she jumped free of Kano's fiery gale and headed for El.
Kano jumped back a few paces as the knives came out of nowhere. He needed time to gather his chakra, not run from a psycho with kunai! This fight seemed to have gotten way out of control, but the Council wanted to test their mettle. He was certainly going to give them the show they came here for. It was finally time for him to prove himself to his Elders, when they saw what he had plan, there was no way they could not notice him
Akane, not having much more chakra to work with decided hand to hand would be best. She ran closer and started to swing several speedy kicks and fists at him.
Kano dodged and blocked as many of her fast-paced strikes as he could, all the while continuing on his retreating jumps backward. He needed to get distance so he could activate his jutsu. When one of her kicks collided with his chest, the wind belted from his lungs and he found himself struggling to keep from falling over as well as defend himself
Kami knew that a quick attack was the best way to hamper a sound ninja so her fingers bade a few quick signs and the rolling clouds above them crackled with blue lightening. Followed by a giant thunder crack a bright blue bolt of lightening went rocketing at El.
El almost didn't see the lightening coming, he purposely played a sour not that sent him rocketing skyward as they usually did. His silhouette became a dark blot, camouflaged by the deep gray of the clouds.
Akane wasn't pleased. She was panting from exhaustion and her movements were a lot more slow then normal. "What?! You are just going to run away like El?!" Akane wanted someone to FIGHT her, not run away. She seemed almost bloodthirsty.
"Ever think maybe I'm baiting you into a trap, dollface?" Kano asked her as he bounced back again, this time hopping up onto a boulder and tossing a kunai with a paperbomb attached to it down at her
"Keh." Akane grunted, "Thanks for the warning!" She threw a feather at the kunai. It hit it's target directly. Unfortunately the blade sliced right through the feather. Before she could react, the bomb his the ground at her feet. It exploded upon impact, sending her flying backwards through the air.
Kami tried following El's trajectory but lost him in the darkness of the clouds. For it being early afternoon she was surprised at how dark it had gotten, it was certainly becoming quite a strain to keep her chakra stored and flowing.
Kano chuckled as Akane went flying. He hoped that she was alright, but he sure was happy that the paperbomb worked so nicely. With her flying away, he parked his butt on the top of the boulder and began gathering his strength
Akane's body spun in the air before she hit the ground and rolled a bit. She is useless when her balance is knocked out of wack. She didn't move yet.
El's decent to the ground was a bit less graceful than it had been with his hat to guide himself. He was forced to duck and roll noisily and worried that Kami would hear him.
Kami looked in El's direction, not exactly hearing him land but feeling some sort of disturbance. She rubbed her hands together and they crackled with blue electricity, she placed the on the ground in front of her and focused her chakra out like a spider's web.
Akane suddenly coughed and rolled over. She panted there for a moment, slurring a long list of curse words. Gathering herself, she got to her feet. Again, she sprinted at him as fast as she could. Exhausted, it would be difficult to gather chakra right now. Akane wanted to remain in close proximity to Kano and for their fight to continue based purely on their physique. When Akane became close, she vanished- only to reappear to his right. In a burst, she aimed her fist at his jaw.
Kano wasn't expecting her to bounce back so quick. When she appeared at his side, he didn't have any time whatsoever to bring up his defenses as her fist slammed into his jaw. He spun from the hit and landed harshly on the ground beneath the boulder. He got to his feet quickly, despite the obvious swelling on his jaw. "Nice shot. But I bet you can't stop this." His hands flew, forming the symbols to summon his ultimate jutsu. He hadn't managed to gather as much chakra as was necessary, but he hoped it would be enough for this...The earth shook beneath him as the symbols flowed out from the base of his feet in an ever growing circle
Akane started to shake. She jumped into the air and hovered a bit, not wanting to lose her balance again. Doesn't mean I can't avoid it... she thought, getting ready to dart.
Oita was slowing slightly now, panting from all the use of Chakara; his blows were sweeping, hard and mostly mementum by the end, just trying to side swipe Hinji away. Casket's body resembled a barrel, strong and difficult to penetrate, the center being able to open up to let him drag something inside or for Oita to climb in himself. The legs were short and had a lot of weight on them, but the long arms were trying to keep Hinji at bay.
Hinji was likewise growing tired from the physical excertion. He had spent the largest majority of his training in his summons and very little in physical combat so even this small amount was draining him considerably. It was because of this that he didnt evade as quickly as he would have and was swatted across the head. It spun him around and sent him a few feet before planting him on the ground, where he laid motionless. His raven landed quickly on his shoulder facing Oita and fluffed out its feather and made aggresive sounds.
Oita didn't need to do anything else... the boy was down, taken across the head with one of Casket's blows... and his pet was defending him. He'd knocked him down if he got back up but apart from that Oita needed a moment to rest. Slowly Casket's movements stopped, the puppet standing completely still as Oita watched Hinji from inside the casing as he tried to conserve his energy. He might need to help the others, but right now he also needed a rest.
He was doing just fine in fact, resting up nicely and panting slightly within his puppet's body; that is until he began to roll sideways because a volcano was forming behind him. He scrabbled about, hissing slightly and struggling within his confining puppets before fighting his instincts and making his puppet stand up again. It took only a moment to realise what was going on. He had to get out of here... but his eyes strayed to the prone Hinji; he'd knocked the boy on his ass, and he didn't know when he'd get up. If he didn't see Hinji move soon he'd have to take drastic measures.
The ground throughout the battle arena shook violently as the ground began to shift beneath Kano's feet. The area within the symbols began to rise, taking the young ninja upwards with it. "Nobody escapes this jutsu..." he said quietly. He hoped nobody got seriously injured
Repeating an attack she had tried on El, Akane reared a fist back while she hovered into the air. Thrusting it forward at Kano, a cyclone of wind funneled around her arm and torso. The wind formed massive talons from some sort of bird of prey around her fist. "HAA!" she grunted with all her might.
El jumped to avoid the web-like lightening but played his miss-cord too late to completely be safe. A bright blue bolt leaped towards him, catching his foot long enough to blow his sandals off his feet and send him sprawling.
"Ah ha!" Kami proclaimed, proud of herself "I don't see how you where giving Akane so much trouble." She wondered if Akane was too busy to hear her chide El but put it from her mind and went charging towards him with another charge of chakra.
El was trying to wrap his fingers around an offensive melody when the ground began to shake. His fingers where numb from Kami's lightening attack and the few miss-cords he played only helped in propelling him further away from Kami.
Kano's hands and feet light up with fire as the ground continued to rise, taking him higher and higher. Chakra flowed off of him like water, pouring down intot he earth and causing it to rise higher.
Akane ignored Kano's dramatics completely to look over at Kami and her progress.
"Akane!" Kami shouted, she was running in her direction, pointing at El. If the two girls coordinated properly they could put an end to his neusance once and for all.
"Isn't he annoying?!" Akane shouted to her, immediately shooting herself over to help her comrade.
El couldn't hear what Kami had siad over the sound of his guitar and had no idea Akane had reapplied herself to their combat.
Akane ran a wide circle, planning to come around to El's side.
The volcano erupted around Kano. The entire battlefield shook as the hot lava surged from the top of the small jutsu-formed mountain. Smoke and ash exploded into the air.
Oita was getting out of there, and he was taking Hinji to a safe place. Scooping the man up into his arms and ran as quickly as he could through the forest around the edge, Casket's legs thumping heavily on the floor as he crashed through the trees; he didn't even bother looking around, he could practically feel what was chasing them.
Akane was starting to think twice about Kano and the volcano. "I think that is a little more important..." She turned to El. "HEY! PONCHO!" Akane called at him, "Control your teammate. He has lost it!"
El landed just in time to hear Akane and turn towards Oita and Hinji. Forgetting Kami and her lightening he ran for his teammates, scooping up his sombrero as he passed threw the stone field.
Abandoned by El Kami was confused, she'd missed what happened to Kano and felt a pang of anxiety, hoping he was alright. "What happened?" she asked heading for Akane.
"Dumbass over there is destroying the arena." Akane said flat out. "Any clue on how puppet boy is doing?"
The gong sounded before the volcano's assault would reach any further chaos. There was a flash from the stands and a great wave of ice surged from one of the ninja observers. The lava instantly cooled, steam belting upwards to mix in with the ash and smoke.
Ishiaki stood and drew his sword, aiming it straight upwards, a tornado formed from it and swirled the ash and smoke out of their skies and away from the audience.
Atop the small volcano, Kano fell to his knees then tumbled down it's small slop, laying at the base unconscious.
Akane curled her lip at her sensei's display. "I wonder who won." She rubbed her shoulder and winced, only now noticing that it was a bit bloody.
"I think it was a total mess." Kami said honestly then couldn't help but let her eyes wander to her sister's seat in the stands. She felt relief when she didn't see her sitting there, then sudden dread. What if it was a total mess and she reported negatively to their father?
El closed the distance between he and Kano and dropped to his knees next to his friend. he began fanning him with his sombrero as he asked "Mi amigo? Kano are you alright?"
Hinji stirred a bit in the arms of Oita's puppet. He opened his eye a bit and his bird immediatly went from pecking at the puppet to setting on Hinji's arm. "I believe I may be damaged." Hinji said as he weakly lifted his hand to wipe some blood out of his eyes.
Kano's head swam and he looked up at his friend. "Hey man...did we win?"
Oita was near the edge of the arena now, looking back and seeing if the lava was chasing after him. He sighed softly as he noticed the the lava had stopped... then looked down at the figure in his puppet arms. He might have saved Hinji's life... better not tell him, Oita hated the idea of someone really noticing him.
Tsu looked over at Ishiaki and frowned "Should I get everyone out?" she asked "When one team member is helping the opposite team because he doesn't want them to get burnt to a crisp by their own team mate I think this thing is over."
"I do not know amigo." El told Kano "You however are the only one on your back at the moment." El was immensely glad that the loud gong had been struck. His fingertips where throbbing and swollen, his blisters from the previous week had been aggravated again.
Akane motioned for her comrade to follow as they made their way out of the arena. She placed a hand on her eye, feeling a soreness coming from under her eyepatch. "Come on- let's get out of here." she called back, jumping out of the battle perimeter.
"We've not been dismissed yet." Kami said, extremely reluctant to leave until their sensei said they could/
Perched on the wall, Akane sighed. She looked over to the other side of the arena where her teacher was. Kami- always following the damn rules.
Stumble!