Ugokasenai Keito, Iwa Genin
"Earth Release: Green Needle Dance!"
"Earth Release: Rock Shelter!"
The two shinobi clasped their hands into the Snake seal and slammed their hands on the ground in unison; Ashima's grass senbon twirled, whistling through the air for a third time now. This time, however, Keito managed to respond with his own jutsu -- pulling earth up from the ground into a dome just wide enough to cover him and give him minimum breathing space. He could feel the natural needles
thunking against his protective shell, snapping from the force of the collision.
Through the pause, Keito listened, taking in the sounds of Tomiklone as she struggled against the large, raging Grass genin; at least she seemed to be steering him in the right direction, toward their own, reverse ambush. He let the dome fall, watching his opponent take notice; instead of preparing her jutsu, however, she flung shuriken at him, charging in with a surprising speed after her projectiles.
Pulling his sakabatou back from its sheath with its satisfying
chhk, Keito deflected the shuriken and jumped back, again in the direction of Mori and the real Tomiko. As he'd expected, Ashima attempted the same thing, charging in closer behind a flurry of shuriken; again, the genin of the Stone deflected her throwing knives and took a leap back.
"Damn!" She said to herself, looking back just long enough to keep an eye on Eugo, who was, himself, being led in a similar direction by Tomiklone; yet she still seemed distracted enough by the relative distance.
When Ashima came back to earth, she saw Keito had sent some kunai of his own in a probing counter -- although she had enough time to roll aside, it did catch her attention once again.
'Why you-' Ashima growled, running in in a calculated charge, weaving hand signs again. Keito thanked whatever god might be listening that this one was easily provoked.
'Earth Release: Grass Chains!'
This time, the grass around Keito's feet rose suddenly, wrapping themselves around his legs in curling spirals; even as he slashed them away with his sakabatou, more seemed to grow, grabbing at his waist and his arms or even neck. Before he knew it, the Grass genin had moved the distance between them, punching him first in the stomach, and then across the jaw. Even as he reeled back from the blows, Keito tried to keep concentrated the chakra he stored up in his mouth.
'Well this is disappointing,' Ashima of the Green Grass remarked, shaking her head as she tugged on Keito's hair, bringing their eyes to meet each other's again -- this time, with him looking up to her, beaten,
'You seemed so chatty, I thought you might have some bite to you as well. But, it's the first day after all.'
"It feels like it's been so much longer than that." Keito groaned. Then, he took a deep breath.
'Don't worry, you don't have too much longer left to go,' She tried to tease, when her captured prey exhaled his heavy breath, blowing air at her face in a disruptive, annoying act of defiance,
'What the- are you serious? That's so weir-'
Then, Ashima's body froze in place, twitching in frustrated, attempted movements. She knew what she wanted to do, but her body didn't seem to respond to her inputs. Instead, it fought back -- even while her trapped foe could feel her bindings loosen and slip away, returning to normal, undisturbed grass once more. Like a fisherman hooking bait on a line, Keito unreeled a thread of his own chakra which seemed to jut out from Ashima's nose. He could feel her squirming the whole way through, but she'd used just enough of her chakra that he'd been able to gain the upper hand for just long enough.
In spite of several options at hand, Keito chose simply to re-gain his distance from Ashima once again, even though his control over the genjutsu would weaken in spite of that. He could feel the Grass genin shaking with rage as she fought, clawing her way out of his control. And then, the thread snapped like a twig. Mad but free, Ashima seemed to have forgotten about her squadmate Eugo entirely.
Finally in range of his real teammates, the enemy squad of three now all separated from the other, Keito smiled.
"Now!" He called out to Mori and Tomiko, as the Grass genin came at him with a furious counterattack.