There was applause after a few moments of prolonged silence from the observers. The Shimagunikage stepped up to the podium with a wide smile upon his face. "Well done. Well done indeed. It appears as if we of the Council owe an apology to your sensei for thinking you ill-prepared for the tasks ahead." He nodded his head to the two Sensei and then continued. "You have proven your worth and skills here today on the field of battle. You will be allowed a day to rest and regain your strength before we issue any further orders for you. You are dismissed." With those final words said, half the observers vanished in a POOF! of ninja smoke, the Shimagunikage included.
Oita took a deep breath, slamming his puppet back onto it's backside as everything slowed before finally everything seemed to reduce to a ringing in his ears. He was panting deeply, the puppet dissapearing as he let the chakara vanish; he just managed to catch Hinji as he dropped from where the puppet had been holding him. Right now everything was buzzing in his ears, his eyes were unfocused through his glasses; god he was so tired...
By now the clouds that had accumulated from the gathering of
Kami's chakra had now dissipated. She now stood in the sunshine, perplexed. She'd sworn they'd made a great mess of things and now after hearing the Shimagunikage'
s words she felt that perhaps her sister's report wouldn't be so bad.
"That's it?" El said. He was inspecting his serape, noting the spots where Akane had nearly ruined the fabric. At least he knew how to sew.
From her perch, Akane examined a cut on her elbow. She had gotten it from being tossed across fields of rocks. "A bit anti-climactic."
Ishiaki landed and approached the members of his squad who were closest, being Kami and Akane, "You'll be debriefed later on what all just happened after the analysts look over the footage again. It was one hell of a show though."
Tsu moved quickly, dashing forward and picking up Hinji's unconcious body from Oita's arms, quickly moving to the others with Hinji in her arms. "Alright boys" she said to El and Kano "I knew this place wouldn't last with you in here but damn you surpassed even what I thought you'd do."
Oita blinked as Hinji disappeared, shaking his head wearily and walking slowly back out into the main arena.
Akane stayed quiet on her perch when her sensei spoke. "Should we wait to be debriefed, or will it take a while?"
"You've been dismissed to rest. When we receive word from the analysts, we'll debrief you. For now though, I suggest we take the much needed break from the look of things." Ishiaki explained further.
Kano looked at Tsu and smiled, "We get 'em, sensei?"
El who usually kept his head tilted down so no one would see that he wore a mask over his eyes found it hard to keep his head down. He'd grown nearly three inches at the sound of Tsu Sensei's words and found it difficult to keep the smile off of his face.
"What is your opinion Ishiaki sensei?" Kami asked "Is One hell of a show a good thing?
"You got them Kano... and you got the seats, the floor, the entire arena" Tsu let out a soft laugh and gazed down at Hinji in her arms "I should really get this guy to the hospital, just to check that he's really ok."
"I can only say that it impressed many of us observers. And that is certainly a good thing, Kami." Ishiaki explained to her with a gentle smile.
"I figured since our first plan wasn't working, that we'd go out with a bang." Kano told his Sensei with a smirk. "I warned her though...She's not hurt is she? I kinda lost sight of her."
"That is a relief." Kami said and smiled at Akane, then she remembered she was supposed to be mad at her and her smile quickly went away. She quickly noted that friction between them wasn't going to be good for the team and made a mental note to try and speak with her later.
"So what's the plan now, sensei?" Akane asked.
"Recuperation." Ishiaki explained with but a single word. "Take a look around. We're gonna have to repair this arena, not to mention you've all got some wounds that need healing."
Tsu scratched her head and looked down at Hinji in her arms, then back to Kano "No one's injured Kano, they all managed to escape. Hinji fell before then though... and put up a hell of a fight."
Oita stumbled forward, then slumped over onto his knees next to his team mates and his sensei "Very... very tired" he mumbled. He was almost blacking out... only really just hanging on.
"WE?!" Akane grumbled. "Kano is the one who tore everything up. How about our team gives him a broom and call the job done?"
"Jumping to conclusions, aren't you?" Ishiaki asked Akane with a smirk. "We as in the village altogether. The arena must be repaired, but not buy our two squads. We'll be given missions once you're all well rested and healed up."
El placed his hand on Kano's shoulder and said "It was a spectacular display of chakra."
Kami smiled hearing Ikishai Sensei say they would be getting missions. She could hardly contian her excitement but did her best not to reveal it.
Oita smacked onto his face, Ishiaki, Kami and Akane all deciding to ignore him apparently as he passed out beside them.
Akane's attention skimmed over Oita as a puff of dust rose from his recent fall. "That's all you." she said to Kami.
"It's not exactly how it should have worked though..." Kano explained sheepishly. "I really need to work on it more."
Kami scowled at Akane and knelt beside Oita to see what was wrong. She felt a bit guilty for having not noticed he was in distress "Oita? Oita are you alright?" She took a small canteen of water from her pack and pored a little on his face. When she saw the water trickle off his forehead she realized how utterly thirsty she was. She rectified this by taking a few drinks before offering Oita the rest.
Oita was still out cold, his chakra very drained away; he needed rest, needed to just sleep in a bed for a little bit until he had enough energy to stand up again. He'd managed to drive Hinji unconscious as well, but it had taken everything out of him to do that.
"Hey now, don't splash water on the lad. He just needs some rest." Ishiaki told them softly. "What a puppet show he put on." He patted Oita's arm softly as he knelt beside him. "Truly a thing of beauty to watch."
There was a small POOF of white smoke not far from Kami's right. Master Risu, Hokage of the Hidden Acorn Village had not visited Kami since she'd summoned him since her first day and it was apparent that he'd traded in his green vest for a new set of red robes. "Kami, there you are, I've come to-" And it was then Master Risu noticed that Oita was unconscious. "I see you've all been training." The old gray squirrel replied, turning a fond eye on Ikishai, whom he thought was perfect for their squad.
"A bit, yes." Kami told him. "Ikishai Sensei says he will be fine."
"Smells like chakra exhaustion." Master Risu said hopping up on Oita's chest. "An energy ball would do it but he's going to need real rest... I know!" Master Risu searched in his robe for a moment and brought something out. "Squirrel sized, it'll give him enough energy to get home." He dropped the suspicious looking ball into Oita's mouth, hardly the size of a sesame seed it wouldn't take long to dissolve under his tongue.
Hinji's eyes fluttered open and he immediatly regretted it, the sun burned his eyes and was starting to burn his face. That and it also reminded him of the blow he took and the pain from it. He looked up at Tsu with a surprised look on his face. "Sensei?"
Immediatley Tsu covered up Hinji's eyes, knowing that the lad would be even worse after that blow he'd taken "The match is over Hinji, Kano blew up the arena." She giggled slightly, her small body holding Hinji's larger one close "Don't worry, we'll get you looked at soon."
Hinji just nodded and closed his eyes again and relaxed. He could feel his Raven near by and he smiled mentally, trying to reassure the worried creature that he was alright.
"I didn't mean to, Sensei." Kano said, though it wasn't quite the truth...then again it wasn't quite a lie either.
"Well you did" Tsu was trying to sound patient and understanding "And it was dangerous. But it was a powerful attack and you wanted to end this. Our next training will be on developing different attacks in order to compensate for current short comings."
Through a stifled yawn, Kano said quietly, "I just have to make it work...I know I can make it work..."
"It works for what it is, but what it is does not work well with the fact that you had a team mate completely out of it in plain sight." Tsu huffed softly and cast a glance to Hinji "Oita grabbed him to keep him out of harm's way."
Oita jerked up with a cough, his glasses almost coming off as his body convulsed with a round of body shaking coughs. He hadn't been expecting a jolt like that, specially not while asleep. "W-who shocked me?" he managed to splutter, pushing his glasses up his nose.
Kami jumped back when Oita jolted and Master Risu pounced off Oita's chest and onto Kami's shoulder. "You will be fine young ninja. I gave you an energy ball, but one of my clan design. Too small to prevent you from getting that rest you need. You should go dark again once you reach home, but I suggest you be on your way before Kaminiri has to carry you."
"I'll help you." Kami said getting to her feet and taking Oita's arm. He was quite tall compared to her and she didn;t look forward to dragging him home. She doubted Akane would even offer her help.
"Yeah... yeah just let me..." Oita moved a little way away, picking up what was left of his back pack off of the floor; he'd had to abandon it in the action. It was thankfully unscathed, so he carefully pulled it onto his shoulder, grunting at the weight before going to Kami again, his balance off put by the pack.
Akane puckered as she watched her teammates. "Mm-" she muttered between her lips, wishing they had done a better job on the battlefield.
Kami smiled and quickly went to grab Oita as he teetered. "I won't let you fall." She told him and steered him in the direction of his house, which he'd been so nice to share with she and Akane.
"S'ok" Oita muttered softly as he tottered along "I'm used to it." He gave a weak grin, then looked around for Hinji; seeing him safe and relatively awake, he sighed and let Kami lead him home.
"That's just it, Sensei...I should be able to control the lava flow." Kano pointed out sadly. He pouted unhappily at his utter failure to control his volcano jutsu.
"Alright, let's get you guys back where you can rest." Ishiaki told his team as he ushered them out of the arena. They needed to regain their strength if they were going to get missions anytime soon
"We'll work on it" Tsu sighed, gently placing Hinji on his feet and patting his back lightly as she looked at the other two "I think we're going to all go for a rest now, then I'll buy us some food later on."
"Sounds great." Kano said with a smile. The prospect of rest right now was a really nice one.
Hinji stumbled a bit before catching himself with his staff, using it heavily to keep himself standing. He brought himself upright and took in a deep, painful, breath through his nose.
Tsu placed a gentle hand on Hinji's back, stroking it slowly and frowning "Should I carry you to the hospital? That last blow might have been a little bit harder than I thought..."
"Aren't there any medical ninjas around here?" Kano asked curiously. He would have thought they'd be assaulted by them after the little battle
"There'd been a small... accident around the place, the leaders didn't think you'd get quite so beaten up. The medical ninjas are all working on the builders who were caught up in the accident, but they shouldn't be too busy to give Hinji the once over" Tsu sighed, patting Hinji's back lightly and smiling.
El followed along quietly, his fingers too sore and blistered to even bother playing. With his guitar slung over his back he'd pulled the roll of bandages they'd seen him use since he'd arrived. He wanted nothing more than for the pads of his fingers to finally callus over.
Hinji took in a quick sharp breath through his nose at Tsu's offer. "I believe that I can make it on my own." What he wanted to say was that there was no way on Earth or in Hell that he was going to let her carry him.
"I'd be a useless sensei if I didn't look out for me students wouldn't I?" Tsu tutted, shaking her head but letting Hinji have his pride... at least until he collapsed.
"Then how bout we just go to my apartment? You know, we haven't really had the chance yet to check out the place." Kano offered with a smirk. They'd been here for a little while now, but they'd spent the majority of the time training with each other for this very battle, though they hadn't known about it beforehand
"And it is closer." El said from the back of the group, thinking about the distance Hinji would have to travel.
That settled it, together the team followed Kano to his Kazankage's Commissioned Apartment
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