Ask to Join Naruto: One's Nindo

[Retro Master]

“Looks like it’s over. Tsuki lost…”

His first thought was not of his opponent, but of his fellow Mist ninja. He wondered how she was feeling. Probably not very pleased with the loss. However, her showing should’ve been enough to display how tactically skilled she was, even in a tense situation. By the time the match ended, he could tell just how much the poison was affecting Tsuki. She had fallen completely unconscious. Fortunately, it appeared her opponent carried spare antidotes in her weapon pouch, which Yua gave one to a medic before they took Tsuki away on a stretcher. That at least told him she would recover from whatever the poison did.

Kiro wondered if he would have time to go see Tsuki before the start of his next match. Besides checking on her, perhaps he could ask if she had anything else to share about Yua. If not, Kiro still had a fair amount of knowledge to go off of. After all, having closely watched almost the entirety of the match between Tsuki and Yua, Kiro had gained quite a bit of information about his next opponent. Added to the fact he was well rested, after having been the first match to conclude, Kiro felt confident in his capability to avenge Tsuki. After being in a relaxed position for so long, Kiro stretched before he went to go find Tsuki.

On his way back to the medical area, he recalled that the pathetic Uchiha had also won his match against Shiho. Kiro had been disappointed by the loss of the Hyūga, but it was also another small incentive for him to beat Raiku. Hopefully, they could meet in the finals. If Raiku could make it that far at least. In any case, Kiro eventually found Tsuki’s room and after getting the okay from a doctor, he went inside. There were a few things he noticed when he went inside. First was Yua, in the room with Tsuki for some reason. Probably to finish her healing process. Kiro simply nodded in her direction and gave her a soft hello before his eyes found the jugs. There was an empty jug and one full with water. The empty one being in Tsuki’s possession, causing Kiro to raise an eye brow.

“You alright, Tsuki? Did the fight make you that thirsty?”

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo, during the Chunin Exams
At long last, the heavily anticipated ssecond round of the Chunin Exams had begun properly. Upon hearing the announcement telling the fighters to report to their arenas, Taiyo wasted no time in making his way to his designated arena. The fiery shinobi felt a wave of relief wash over him, as the announcement had seemingly coincided with the awkwardness of the moment that he, and more importantly, Keito had to endure thanks to his soon-to-be opponent. He could at least nod in response to the Iwa shinobi's encouragement before responding to Hisato's friendly elbow.

"Looking forward to it," The friendliness in his voice had become evidently strained, and the "friendly" jab that he returned in kind had more force than necessary. He waved to Furijia before briskly walking away from the group. On his way to the arena, he noticed a familiar face making a deliberate attempt to intercept his route.

"Hey kid, you'll be needing these," The seemingly disinterested voice of Satō Morishita accompanied his hand reaching out, revealing bottles of kitchen grease and alcohol much like the ones Taiyo usually carried.

"Oh thanks. I ran out..." His voice trailed off as he remembered the reason he had to restock those supplies.

"Don't think about it. You've got more important things to address." Still sensing uncertainty within his pupil, the older shinobi placed his hand on Taiyo's shoulder and made more of an effort to encourage him.

"The only person that can defeat you now is yourself. And I have reason to believe you won't need help to conquer yourself." After expositing his wisdom, Satō got out of Taiyo's way and made his say to the stands to observe his pupils progress. Meanwhile, the younger shinobi proceeded on his route to the arena.

The crowd watching the second round matches were smaller, the pool of bets had decreased and so had interest in seeing the exams through. When Taiyo walked in, he felt an uncomfortable silence pervade through the arena. Though his relatives had left, he still expected a few of the people from the leaf to cheer for him, but it wasn't hard to figure out why that wasn't the case.

That doesn't matter anyways. I'm ready to kick his shit in. You?

Yeah, this should be fun. Let's do our best.

And I'm guessing we won't try to use that technique, huh?

Nah, it didn't work last time, no sense in thinking it'll work now...

 

[jade421]

Yua had watched and carefully guided the process of injecting the antidote into Tsuki's system. The antidote itself was less a special chemical to combat the poison and more worked to accelerate the natural process of the poison breaking itself down into harmless protein which ensured to work there'd be no trace for the poison in her system and allow the Mist ninja to recover. The rest was up to the Lead medical ninjas as she had taken her vile back and now rested to allow her battered body in particular that bleeding shoulder to be treated. Slowly as Yua got healed Tsuki seemed to come too and while she had no way to guess what was on Tsuki's mind her question came up which caused Yua to raise an eyebrow. Indeed, one of her clan elders would've probably suggested to reserve use of an antidote like this as she knew she'd get likely scolded for it. Yua looked down as if in contemplation before a quick sigh escaped as she glanced to look her former opponent eye to eye.
"This was an exam, not a fight to the death. If I just let you die knowing I could've saved you, I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I have no regrets."

Yua seemed to have some conviction behind her answer, and as she had spoken another figure came inside. One if she recalled right was named "Kiro" who had likely come to check on his fellow Mist ninja and also just happened to be Yua's next opponent. Course Yua had not gotten a chance to see him personally in action but she'd have to just trust in her own skills when that time came as she waved a soft hello back to him. Soon enough she had gotten her shoulder and body tended to and was given the okay to move as she took her supplies and had began to walk out of the room; stopping as she turned back to Tsuki. "Wish you a quick recovery."
With that she had left the room and prepared for the round to come.

~~~The Following Round~~~​

Yua, with her staff in hand and having been cleared to compete, moved to her scheduled arena for the second round of these exams. Yua felt she had put on a good showing with Tsuki, but knew she had also been a bit reckless with her supplies and felt she needed to try and step up her game against her next opponent. Naturally members of the Tameru Clan had been in the crowd to watch the action and she wanted to do herself justice for them and her nation. She'd wait for her opponent to come as Yua worked to get herself mentally ready for the inevitable struggle that had been destined to come.
Alright, all eyes are on you. Just gotta give it everything I have and hope I can make it even further along.

 

[DemonicHoneyBun]

Kaito smirked at the girl before his becomes covered in smoke and turned into Gamaru and got hit by the girl, attack and got sent flying and got stuck onto the ground.

"Hey Boss, I got their attention now's your chance, Po!"

Kaito stands on a tree branch and finishes his hand signs before exhales and stares down at the girls and cat.

"I really enjoyed myself, but let's finish this now!"

He slams his hand down on the ground, as he does the air around him seems to shake violently as a dragon made of wind appears behind him and roars making the air itself vibrat.

"Jet Style: Soaring Jet Dragon!"

The Dragon begins to rush towards the two girls with it's mouth wide open, if the dragon successfully grabbed at least one of them it would begin to swirl in the air and then fly towards the ground and slam them violently.

 

[Godjacob]

Azumi wasted little time, the moment the proctor had given the signal and moved back she herself worked to get some space and formed hand signs in succession. Soon her canteens she had on the belt around her waist popped open a that water had been guided by Azumi’s chakra and soon enough a clone in Azumi’s likeness had been created.

“Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!”​

As the real Azumi discarded her old belt and produced a new one with fresh canteens to strap around her belt from a scroll, the clone with its own umbrella charged at Tomiko as the initial plan seemed to be to feel out the kunoichi as the clone tried to swing at her side with the umbrella.

-----​

Tomiko had remained where she stood though had bent her knees slightly and had her arms forward and fists raised, though given how quickly Azumi moved to action Tomiko waited to see what she had to defend against. In this case, it seemed to be a water clone that quickly charged at her and Tomiko seemed to smirk.

“What, no needles?” Tomiko asked Azumi as she had noted how she started previously with Keito, before she moved to jump over the swing of the clone’s umbrella as she aimed to deliver a solid blow to her back; the goal to break the clone quickly so she’d be able to charge the real Azumi.

 

[Hecotoro]

Asahi giggled at the sad attempt by the toad to try and get a jump on her. She was about to start making fun of him, when her eyes caught the real Kaito getting ready to attack them. She jumped on top of the carriage, not wanting to cause another incident with the remaining flames, she had seen enough horses suffer already. She took in a deep breath, she had never actually attempted to do the following technique, since it was just a theory she had come up with. But seeing how her opponent could just throw giant wind dragons at her, she should be able to do so also, except not with dragons.

She started working on her hand signals, almost keeping up with Kaito's, she had to do it slow in order for it to work, since it was her first time trying something so grand. She locked her eyes on Kaito's jutsu, watching as the wind dragon emerged and began heading towards them. Just in time she finished, setting up her hands as if she was sending a prayer and closing her eyes. In just in the last second, she took a strong fighting stance. "Buda's Fist!" She called out as she punched the air with her right hand as hard as she could.

What came out was a giant fist like blast of wind that smashed into the incoming Soaring Dragon. Of course the impact of both caused a powerful gust of wind to explode, sending the remaining wagons to flying a few feet and causing most of them to flip over on their side. This also caused Asahi to get swept away by the wind, crashing into the ground, rolling a few times until she finally managed to flip upwards and land on her two feet.

"Did you see that?!" She called out excitedly towards Sagiso.

Tok tok! Kas hit Sagiso's harden hair one more time. "I have to admit, I was afraid for my life for a second there." She whispered to her companion's ear again, her voice giving of the feeling of relieve.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

The frog managed to eke out a few words before it was encased in ice; how bold of it to sacrifice itself for a greater plan. This was the first glimpse of teamwork she’d seen from their opponents and though it was doomed to fail, the Skillful Star looked forward to the attempt.

The wind dragon’s roar shook her down to the core; ruffling the veneer of confidence she’d carried despite losing half her arsenal and being outnumbered, for a moment a trace of shock and uncertainty surfaced on Sagisō’s face. She took an unsteady step backward, her focus claimed by the dragon. Her mind worked through solutions: could she destroy the dragon? No, not enough time to weave hand seals; even if she did have enough time, she didn’t have a jutsu nearly strong enough to match it. Maybe she could adhere herself to the ground with chakra and sticky water? No, not even the land would be spared the dragon’s wrath—it’d only buy her a few more seconds until the very land beneath her feet was ripped away.

It seemed there was nothing to do except grit her teeth and—“Buda’s Fist!”

A violent fist slammed into the wind dragon, the two large-scale wind release techniques colliding in mid-air. Although she hadn’t seen when Asahi had leaped onto the carriage, her voice and signature technique made her immediately recognizable.

“Asahi...?” Was all she could manage before the torrential winds swept everything away: her voice, nearby horses, carriages, and even her disbelief.

Knowing Kas was hiding within her hair, Sagisō fluffed it as much as possible, increasing its volume as she was sent rolling across the ground. She managed to anchor herself by stabbing a kunai into the ground, but the violent winds prevented her from getting a good footing.

When the clash of jutsu finally died down, Sagisō stared numbly at the devastation. She pulled herself to her feet, a wry smile on her face as she responded to Asahi’s excitement with a double thumbs-up. Kas’ next words caused her smile to falter, lips pressed into a line, and she declined to comment.

Instead, she turned her attention to what remained of the caravan. Enough messing around.

“You, Prince, tell us about the Wandering Ninja clan.”

Sagisō reasoned that kidnapping the prince was unneeded, and after that wind dragon, she was less comfortable about their chances. Not that they wouldn’t succeed, they’d managed to get this far already but, in the process, the so-called escorts had annihilated nearly half of the caravan they were supposed to protect. They seemed far keener to throw around big flashy jutsu than protect their charge and now that the prince was exposed Sagisō feared an actual fight would result in his premature demise. That would defeat the purpose of targeting the prince in the first place.

As Sagisō scanned the prince’s face she saw...blank confusion.

“The Wandering Ninja Clan,” she reiterated. “The shinobi your family hired!?”

Staring at his chubby cheeks, wan from over-indulgence, she got an overwhelming impression of ‘head empty, no thoughts’. Dumber than a bag of bricks, surely. But didn’t that mean he was useless?

Sagisō’s mood soured.

“Uuuuuggh, then wasn’t this a waste of time?”

Since the prince didn’t know anything, then they’d have to investigate further when they went to the Land of the Moon.

“Oh...? Well, I guess you won’t be completely useless. You’re taking us to the land of the moon.”

 

[Retro Master]

After Kiro finished checking on Tsuki and resupplying his storage seals just in case, he began to make his way towards the designated battlefield for his next matchup. The roar of the crowd grew louder the closer he neared the entrance to the arena. Anticipation for the next round of the Chūnin Exams seemed to be at an all time high. Of course, Kiro felt similar as well. Being the first match to have been completed meant he had been waiting for quite a while.

Fortunately, that allowed Kiro enough time to mostly recover from some of the serious injuries Riceball dealt to him during his last fight. Primarily, the damage to both of his legs, which were now wrapped in bandages. Besides recurring pain every once in a while, Kiro felt fine. Still, there was a lingering voice in his head telling him to take it easy for now and not over exert his lower extremities to prevent re-aggravating the injury. The thought he might not have the freedom to even choose to fight at full strength was enough to annoy him.

That’s why he pushed those thoughts to the back of his head. He would choose how he could fight. Even if the doctor advised him against performing extremely high-speed movements for a while. All Kiro needed to do was be careful with his legs. Simple. After all, he needed them to be the fastest. Kiro didn’t know how many people in the crowd saw his lightning armor in action, but they should be able to surmise that he was also pretty fast without the technique. Not as fast as the speed booster, but it could be seen as a reason why he was so fast with the technique. Essentially, the better his base speed, the faster he would be with a booster. As long as he wasn’t completely hobbled, Kiro should be able to move just as fast as he normally did.

Of course, even if Kiro was limited, he’d just find other ways to win. That’s what was expected of Kiro and the brown-haired girl he found waiting for him on the battlefield. Unlike his last opponent, he actually knew the name of his current one. Yua of the Tameru clan. Kiro had a sneaking suspicion Yua was part of that noble clan due to the poison she was flinging around and the village she was affiliated with. He’d have to ask, but it was hard to not know of the clan from Sunagakure infamous for killing people with just a touch. Needless to say, the possible kekkei genkai alone made Yua very dangerous. Perhaps a part of these exams was a showcase for the privileged.

When Kiro finally stepped foot onto his side of the battlefield, he locked eyes with his opponent. Her green eyes seemed kind and genuine, but he knew there was something toxic lurking inside. There was a part of him that wanted to attack Yua as soon as the match started and Kiro even ran a hand through his black hair as he considered it briefly. However, his own personal rule prevented him from doing that. If it wasn’t for the ‘advice’ from his mother, he honestly wouldn’t care to. That was the only courtesy he gave to his opponents. So like with Riceball, he would let Yua have the first move. Maintaining his cool, somewhat relaxed composure, Kiro readied his hands and calmly spoke up for Yua to hear his generous offer once the proctor started the match.

“Go ahead, Yua. The first move is yours.”

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Lin Arasaka...~

Lin watched the fighting going on. She didn't hop in. Plenty of the ninjas were fighting each other. At least Lin could count on Shura and Ayaka to help her protect the prince. Lin motioned her puppet to a got position so that it could move at a moments notice if the Hasa ninjas tried to go after the prince.

If you wanna go to the moon village, then WHY THE FU-Why the hell are you doing this stupid shit? Completely wasting everyone's time and energy. Yall coulda joined the mission... or pretended to be circus workers... or just followed from a distance...? or done something other than this. Either one of you need to lose a leg or something cause this is some stressful shit!" Lin lashed out angrily.

"The sooner we all get to the moon village, the sooner this mess ends" Lin said just wanting to go back home and relax.


~Hisato the great and powerful Gato whom never procrastinates...~

Hisato looked over at Taiyo, "Ready when you are!" Hisato said back flipping. He headed down to the starting area. If Tsuki could fight well, then perhaps He could too. Though hopefully he would also win his match too. With Tsuki outta the way, Hisato wanted to win the match for her. "Hisato waved at Tsuki, "This one is for you!" Hisato said cheerfully hoping he'd win.

Hisato stood in a fighting stance cheerfully.

"Whatever happens... I hope we both have fun this match!" Hisato said enthusiastically awaiting the start of the match.

 

[Hecotoro]

Asahi skipped towards her sister, watching as the fight began to die down. She heard Lin's yapping, but again, she had no interest in talking to someone who wants to cut people's legs off. Instead she turned her attention towards her sister Karui, waving at her and signaling to join them.

"They're taking us? After the mess THEY made, we might as well get there before them." She placed her hands behind her head, realizing the wound she had there, but decided to pretend she didn't notice. "I mean, look around. They have like, two working wagons? I also don't want to share a ride with those Hyuga. Did you notice they just stood around watching their teammates fight? Seriously, how cowardly is that? Then that one guy setting everything on fire, I mean, who does that? I am against it!" She raised her hands as if giving up and began to walk past the escort group and the prince.

She headed towards the last carriages, some horses still tied up and struggling to free themselves. Asahi drew her sword and began cutting them lose, letting some run wild and others didn't seem to care much, while the wounded just sat on the ground. She picked up a lose apple, cleaned it with her shirt and took a bite out of it, checking for any more animals that could use her help. Finally, she reached the end, where a black and white mare was still being held up by some reins.

"You're so handsome! Oh, wait..." She walked around towards the back of the horse and peeked under its belly. "You're a girl! Welcome to the team, I am Super Kami Guru Megami, but you can call me Megami. You're officially a Hasa sister, which means you will go with us everywhere and I will feed you, bathe you, brush you and take care of all your needs." She released the horse with a strike of her sword and adjusted a rope around her. "You're going to love my sisters, just watch out for the one with crazy hair, she's a little bossy, but she's a softy deep inside."

Asahi offered the rest of the apple to the mare and watched with joyful eyes while the horse ate. "I here by name you, Milk, because you look like a cow." Feeling proud of herself she began petting the Mare's neck and talking to it like if the horse actually cared.


Kas sighed as she rested her chin on Sagiso's shoulder. "Hope you don't mind me hanging around a bit, my leg is killing me." She couldn't help but let out a low growl as she saw Asahi feeding the horse in the distance. "You're not letting her keep that thing are you?"

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

Sagisō declined to comment on Lin’s tirade, instead, she just shrugged; after all, they had disguised themselves as circus workers and wanted to sneak along with the group at first. It was the appearance of the escort squad that’d caused them to forsake stealth. That said, Lin didn’t need to know any of that.

“They’re taking us because they have a ship and they know where the land of moon is; since we don’t, it’s easier to have them carry us. As for the rest...well, that’s exactly why Princey doesn’t have a choice. His escorts are well...”

A wave towards the destroyed carriages ahead of them illustrated her point.

“We can keep fighting if he wants, I doubt the rest of his stuff will survive; I doubt he’ll survive, and we weren’t even trying to kill him.”

It was a less-then-subtle threat; if the Prince rejected them, he could kiss his goods and likely his life goodbye. He’d already seen the result of putting his faith in his escorts so she believed he wouldn’t be too keen on testing that threat.

She left the threat to hang in the air, watching as Asahi went over and claimed a mare.

“Of course, she can keep it. Horses are great!”

In fact, she wouldn’t mind claiming a pair for herself; but, first she needed to ensure the ‘negotiations’ were dealt with.

 

[DemonicHoneyBun]

Kaito had gotten blown back from the incredibly strong gust of wind and had been sent flying back into a tree and hit his head and then fell on to the ground, back first. Once he hit the ground his hair reverted back to black and the cloud disappears, he quickly gets up and rubs his head as it begins to bleed.

"Ow, ow, ow! Damn, I wasn't expecting them to have a counter to that jutsu and now Gamaru is frozen, this is just getting worst and worst."

Kaito slowly picks himself up and begins running back to the caravan, while still holding his head in pain. Hopped on top of one of the caravans and heard Lins screaming as he sat down on the caravan and crossed his legs.

"That was a good threat and all but can you set Gamaru free? I would really appreciate it."

Kaito said in a annoyed voice, mostly at the fact that he wouldn't get to finish his battle, but with the way things turned out, he was just glad no one got terribly injured.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Lin Arasaka...~

Lin grumbled to herself, the attackers didn't seem to have much manners. "Okay... I guess we keep going now. I wonder if the new ninjas will pull their weight around here" Lin said kicking a burnt piece of board. Lin wasn't expecting them to be helpful. Looking at all the destruction that had happened.

"Now what? Do we just continue?" Lin said Looking at the Prince.

"I still don't trust them, what do you guys think?" Lin said to Shura and Ayaka.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

“Pull our weight? Don’t worry, we don’t plan to involve ourselves with your mission; but, if you guys want to learn how to cooperate, we don’t mind showing you a few tricks.”

While she off-handedly responded to Lin, Sagisō walked over to the frozen Gamaru. She wove a few hand seals and used her spider lily technique to hose the frog down with water until the ice slowly melted away.

When she finished, she turned back to the group.

“Consider it our good will.”

 

[=Nightshade=]

Karui was nearly blown away with the force of the clashing wind jutsu; it took her a full ten seconds of full-speed flight into the wind to even come close to maintaining her position. Even so, she was still blown back ten feet or so. She alighted on the ground and cautiously made her way towards her sisters, keeping the opposing ninja in her peripheral vision, just in case. She stifled a laugh as she saw Asahi claiming a horse as her own, knowing she’d always been an animal lover.

The girl blinked between the heated — on Lin’s part, anyway — exchange, and then to the prince and his son. Karui cleared her throat pointedly. “I’ve seen worse burns, but I can still guarantee the death of those two within the hour if they do not receive medical help,” she said darkly. She paused. “I do happen to be rather well-versed in medical ninjutsu,” she added flippantly as she walked towards Asahi, calm and casual.

“Megami!” she called ahead, slightly irritably. “Kindly stop baby-talking the horse and allow me to heal you!” Her usually formal manner of speaking when strangers were present slightly slipped into a more familiar tone, the result of which was quite odd. As she drew closer, she no longer needed to yell. “You’re bleeding from a dozen different places,” she grumbled, hands beginning to glow. “At least you stayed in one piece like I asked you to.”

 

[Hecotoro]

Hakabi, after the first rounds of the exams.

"I've seen enough." The former head of the Hyuga clan gave his sister one look, before standing up and turning his back to her. "These sort of things don't really interest me anymore and I am no longer the head of this clan. I have no need to keep coming to these events."

His two bodyguards gave each other a nervous look before looking at the Hyuga clan head, waiting for her approval before going after Hakabi. He had seen enough, watching young shinobi almost kill each other to try and prove they were worth something. He was tired of it. For some reason though, the girl that had been burned alive continued to linger in his mind. The hair color, the face, he couldn't help but notice the similarities. It was almost impossible though, his sober thoughts causing him problems again, which is why he decided to head to his favorite bar.

"Isn't it too early?" The bar tender smirked as he poured a nice cold beer for the Hyuga.

"Want to get a head start before people come walking in after the exams." Hakabi looked at the full glass in front of him, like a sick dog looking at his food.

"Did you see a ghost or something?"

Hakabi's blank eyes set on the old man's face. "Why do you ask?"

"I've been serving you drinks for years, I've seen you angry, sad, bored, but I've never seen you worried."

"I'm not worried."

"There's three people in the world you can't lie to, your mother, your wife and your bartender. We're alone, what's bothering you."

Hakabi took a long drink from his beer before finally giving up and replying. "I saw someone today that reminded me of some bad stuff, that's all."

"Sounds like a ghost alright. Seems to me it's something you didn't deal with when you should've, old war buddy?"

"Nah, Something else. You know what, I'm not in the mood today. See you tomorrow, okay?"

Hakabi paid his beer and stepped back out into the sunny day, a big contrast to the musky old bar he had just been in. His bodyguards were gone, probably went to get lunching thinking he would be inside the bar for hours. It was perfect, he wanted to be alone. He began walking down the streets, hearing people talking about the matches in the exams, some placing bets, some talking about the moves they saw and of course the shinobi that perished during her battle.

"Daddy!"

The words punched Hakabi's heart as he turned around and saw a little girl playing with her father. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts emerging inside of him, feelings he had long buried under endless alcohol. It wasn't possible, no way. First, he never knew if it was a girl, so that alone should quiet his thoughts down. But what if she was, what IF it was her. Why would it be her? It was just a coincidence. But what if it wasn't? What if, somehow they had survived and he just watched a tragedy? Even if it wasn't her, they were now in his mind. Why? He had managed to keep going with his life without them, why now? Life? He couldn't really say he was living. He had no purpose anymore, no reason to keep his aching heart beating. Life had become pointless.

"Boss!" Ryu, the black haired body guard called out as he reached Hakabi. "Sorry, we didn't see you leave the bar. Where are we going?"

"Where do you and Ken train?"

"Um, we have a small field outside of town, why?"

"Go get me a change of clothes, have Ken meet us over there."

"Really? Are you going to train us?"

"On the contrary, you two are going to put me back in shape. Maker sure Hina knows where we are and tell her I will be going back work soon."

"Oh, sure. Wow, never thought I'd see the day." He quickly corrected himself after realizing the words he said. "I mean! It's an honor, sir!"

Hakabi nodded and turned around, in time to see the little girl from before trip and scrape her knee. The father quickly scooped her up and hugged while the infant cried into his arms. "Get to it then, we have work to do."


Super Kami Guru Megami, Days after the exams.

Asahi stuck her tongue out at Karui. "You're jealous of my new friend. Besides you know I'm going to be okay eventually. Check on crazy hairs over there, she's probably suffering." She took one look at Karui and regretted her words. "Okay okay, make it quick, I need to feed Milk, she is probably still uneasy after the mess we made here." She continued to pet the mare, who seemed to not care about anything going on around it.

Kas grumbled under her breath. "Great, how am I supposed to compete with horses? They better not be ninjas too, otherwise I might consider quitting."

 

[DemonicHoneyBun]

Kaito ran over to Gamaru who was a shivering mess and kept stuttering as he began to speak.

"H-hey b-b-boss I think i-it's best i-if I go back n-now, p-po."

"Of course, go back and get some rest. I'll make sure not to call you for a while, Gamaru."

Once Gamaru disappears in a puff of smoke, Kaito begins to wonder how that girl he fought earlier countered his wind dragon. He made his way toward her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, how did you counter my wind dragon?"

 

[jade421]

Soon enough Yua came face to face from her opponent, the Mist ninja who had offered his care for Tsuki earlier. The odds of taking on two presumed teammates was interesting to say the least. Seemed he was least generous enough to offer the first move to her, which she guessed was because he wanted to get a sense of her style and moves to respond accordingly. But she had not been about to pass up chance at initiation as she cast a smile his way.
"How nice of you to offer, we'll see if I can make you regret that."

As she passed her comment, she placed her staff behind her back and formed the necessary hand signs as she took a deep breath and let the air mixed with the poison her body produced.
"Tameru Art: Poison Stream Jutsu!"

Yua released a wide-spreading poison cloud from her mouth as she fired it towards Kiro, masking her own presence behind it and also aiming to try and coat Kiro, as if she could get him to breath even some of it in she'd be taking the first step to have the poison erode his body from within. Course Yua quickly moved within the cloud with a hand to her weapon's pouch, already thinking her next strike as she tested this one's own senses.

 

[Godjacob]

Azumi had no answer for Tomiko, not one to be too chatter during a battle, as she observed the scuffle just as the clone raised her umbrella behind her back and used it to block Tomiko’s blow. Course, given the gauntlets and how hard Tomiko hit, the impact even with the umbrella’s cushion knocked her forward a step, but the clone used this to turn and toss back several kunai as the aim seemed simple.

Whether Tomiko avoided or deflected the kunai, the clone aimed to use the distraction to flank her as it aimed to slam its umbrella down right on one of her shoulders.

-----​

“Alright so not the talkative type. Noted.” Tomiko mused, as Azumi seemed more the strong silent type so there’d be a lack of banter compared to her previous round. But she had no time to dwell on that as kunai raced towards her and Tomiko’s gauntlets went to work.

Clang!

Clang!!

Clang!!!​

The kunai bounced off Tomiko’s gauntlets as they fell harmlessly to the ground, though the Iwa-kunoichi had kept her eyes on the clone as it tried to flank her as it swung down for her. Tomiko raised both hands and caught the umbrella before it landed; a struggle given that it had some deceptive weight behind the hard swing as Tomiko’s knees shook and she threatened to buckle, but remained strong as she pushed off the umbrella and aimed to knock the clone back.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

The rain of needles were swiftly dealt with, not a single one had managed to get pass the combined defense of the two escort squad shinobis. Just as Shura was about to work out their next action, the very sudden clash of Wind Style jutsus happened, sending a massive and violent impact across the entire battlefield. "Its one thing after another." The Hyuga vocalized, a tone of annoyance present in his voice.

Seeing the blast rapidly approaching them, Shura was quick to counteract. Weaving together a set of hand signs, Shura slammed his palm onto the ground. "Wind Style: Swift Wind Wall!" A swirling stream of wind poured forth, encasing Shura, the princes and by proxy Lin inside the rising vortex. The defensive wall would serve to block and disperse the incoming shockwave, keeping the ones inside out of harms way.

Once the winds outside had died down, Shura dropped his jutsu, letting out a deep breath as he did. The Swift Wind Wall was a rather taxing technique, while powerful it drained a noticeable chunk of chakra to upkeep longer than the initial casting. Regaining his footing, Shura prepared himself for a follow up from the opposition... only to find their leader throw their client a question. "Huh? What are they talking about?" Listening in on Sagiso's words, the Hyuga deduced that it apparently wasn't their mission to harm the princes and are instead asking to be taken to the Land of Moon, the intended destination of the escort squad's mission. "A waste of time huh, I couldn't have put it any better." Shura thought, hearing Sagiso's comment upon learning that the prince had no answers to her questions. "Did these people not even know what they were after?"

What followed can only be described as absurd, the group that they had been fighting against all seemed to have dropped all aggression and are instead making light conversation with the rest of his group. He too ignored Lin's outburst, deeming as just another annoyance. "Our mission was to protect our clients, the carts were more of a hinderance than anything else." He commented, seeing Sagiso's clear intention with her gestures. Next up was that Asahi girl, the outsider who inexplicably had their clan's closely guarded Dojutsu. It appeared that to her, using their number advantage to both keep the attackers back while also protecting their clients was cowardice. Sure, if she wanted to call it that. "Quite the naïve one we have over here." He internalized. What followed was the same girl going ahead and claiming of of the horses as her own without a care in the world. Shura looked back towards his client. "One of them is claiming one of your horses. Do what you will with that." He informed the prince, seeing that this wasn't something that really concerned him.

Lin's question was met with a quick answer. "It would of course be prudent to keep an eye on them, we were just enemies a moment ago and switching sides this quickly is definitely not something we can readily accept. However, if they are true to their words and won't cause us anymore trouble, then it would be the best outcome for now." He replied. "Its true that they don't appear to be lying with how they've been acting. Their bodies don't show signs of dishonesty either, but its never a bad idea to stay cautious." The young man thought after looking over the Hasa group with his Byakugan.

"I would much rather you take accountability for your actions, if you are going to be going on the same path as us then you should be expected to clean up after yourselves. You were part of the cause behind all of this happening after all." Hearing Sagiso's reply to Lin asking them to pull their weight, Shura could tell the girl was taking a jab at his group. She wouldn't be wrong, a band of misfits gathered from every great village haphazardly was not the best people to expect good cooperation out of. However, that was not the most important aspect of the current situation.

Lastly, the final Hasa shinobi stepped up. She told the princes that their burn wounds would kill them in a matter of hours if left untreated, a claim that Shura was skeptical of. Using his eyes to scan the burns, Shura was able to tell that, while the burn marks were there, none of it was life threatening thanks to how quickly they were recued from the burning carriage. "Don't listen to her, your lives aren't at risk from burns as small as the ones you have. However, its never a bad idea to get them treated as soon as possible." He spoke. His eyes glanced back towards Karui. "So they have a field medic with them too huh, I have to commend them for being well equipped." He complimented internally. "If you're offering to heal our employers, there is no reason for us to refuse."

 

[=Nightshade=]

Karui’s shrewd gaze met that of the Hyuga chunin as she finished healing the worst of Asahi’s injuries. “While perhaps not immediately life-threatening,” she amended unabashedly, “given time, infection would set in and likely result in the inevitable need for limb amputation. And possibly death,” she couldn’t help but add, part of her wanting to bare her teeth in jibe and see if he took the bait. She didn’t, keeping her face carefully neutral and her tone purely professional.

“Of course, their skin isn’t hanging off in blackened strips and their insides are not their outsides—though how long that will be for, no one could tell—so I suppose it wouldn’t be a problem to… help out.” She wasn’t sure what it was about the young man that irked her so much, and she tried to keep her annoyance in check as she moved towards the princes. Perhaps it was that she knew, in a one-on-one fight, she would have more than a little trouble.

The medical nin’s hands extended, one towards each prince, and began to glow softly gold. She skimmed the surface of the burns, healing the worst ones first. The sight of shiny red, puckered flesh atop already unsightly fat rolls revealed by patches of charred clothing was not the most appealing, but Karui had seen worse. She kept reminding herself of that as her hands moved deftly just over the surface of skin. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the princes were completely healed aside from a few bruises and scrapes that would heal on their own in a few days. Karui sat back on her heels and sighed.

“There,” she said. “Good as… essentially new.” Karui stood and dusted herself off, allowing her sleeves to fall back over her hands. “Mild internal injuries, several large second- and first- degree burns, healed. Minor fractures, fused. I did not cut into anything, as that would take too long and be unnecessarily painful, given the princes’ consciousness.” She blinked, then turned abruptly, realizing with mild embarrassment she had been giving her report to the air and anyone who happened to be listening. The girl began to head back to her sisters, walking stiffly but alert.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo, during the Chunin Exams
Taiyo rolled his eyes as he watched Hisato backflip for no reason other than he could. Perhaps the Leaf-nin's opponent was trying to flex his gymnastic skills for intimidation. If that was truly the white-haired shinobi's goal, then he had utterly failed. The fiery shinobi had a fiery gaze on his target, only focused on what was to come.

Clearly, this guy's all performance and no practice. I'll show him what he missed during his classroom antics...

Taiyo had performed three hand seals, causing doppelgangers of himself to appear beside him. The tenacious trio were united in mind and body: waiting for their target to land before rocketing towards him. The two clones had used the walls of the arena to their advantage by jumping off of them and aiming a punch at Hisato's head. Of course, the Mist-nin would be in no danger if they were to come into contact with him, they'd just turn into smoke. However, the real deal intended to use this, if the distraction of three separate targets barreling towards Hisato wasn't enough. Taiyo had launched himself by channeling chakra into the balls of his feet. His left shoulder covered part of his jaw to protect it, while his left hand weren't far from his face and his right parallel to his cheek, prepared to throw a punch. In essence, the leaf-shinobi intended to tackle his opponent's chest, which would likely send the two of them into the arena's walls.
Tsuki, during the Chunin Exams
Tsuki was touched by Kiro paying a visit to her in her hospital room. She was mildly amused by his question, though she knew that it came from a real place. With that in mind, the Yuki Princess had to give her comrade the real answer.

"Less the poison itself and more the exhaustion of the fight itself. I appreciate you coming to check on me, Kiro, I never took you for the caring type," Tsuki chuckled to herself as she watched the young man leave. Then, the icy kunoichi was treated to the words of Yua's perspective, echoing in her ear before she left as well.

"This was an exam, not a fight to the death. If I just let you die knowing I could've saved you, I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I have no regrets."

The words were in complete opposition with everything she grew up knowing. In her youth, she could count on one hand with fingers to spare the number of times her life wasn't implicitly threatened by someone else. The idea that a competition could end in anything but the loser's death was, at least, a little jarring. Still, the idea sounded...quaint. Maybe disconnected from the reality that Tsuki was familiar with, but still a heartwarming thought. In line with heartwarming thoughts and sights, the Yuki-nin was greeted to her fellow Mist shinobi declaring the fight to be in her honor. Tsuki smiled a bit, though she couldn't help but worry for his distracted nature, especially as he seemed to be facing an opponent that was anything but.

His heart may be pure but his mind is clouded...if I didn't know any better, I'd presume that would cause his downfall.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

“If I had your expectations and a pile of shit, I’d still just have a pile of shit.”

With almost too much glee, the Skillful star happily informed Shura that his expectations weren’t worth shit and naturally, she wouldn’t be helping clean up. She wasn’t sure what was up with these escorts, boning their employer and all, but since they’d openly declare open season on their employer’s goods, Sagisō didn’t mind robbing him blind.

Gesturing for her sisters to follow, Sagisō made her way to the rear carriages and promptly began to rifle through the Prince’s purchased goods claiming things she found useful.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Hearing Sagiso's retort, Shura let out a sigh and began scratching the side of his head. "Well it would appear we have a problem then. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you the aggressors in this scenario? All of this had happened because your group attacked us. From what I have gathered, you objective wasn't even found here, meaning this could be considered an unprovoked attack. You're no better than bandits in this case." He began. "Members of your group are even claiming other's property as your own without even asking for permission. I don't know where you're from but that's considered theft in most places. You sound so proud of yourself for refusing to take accountability for your actions, that doesn't sound very reasonable to me." He added. "Unless, you're going to reveal that you really are a group of common bandits, in which case I can at the very least understand your actions better." Shura's voice was almost monotone, not caring in the slightest what he was saying and how the ones he was referring to would react. "If you would truly prefer having a pile of shit over showing the most basic level of responsibility, then be my guest, have your shit."

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

Shura's words sounded like a blank cheque, and Sagisō responded with her actions. Over the last few days, she’d been studying her booklet on Script Formulae. Although she hadn’t managed to memorize the complicated text required for the encapsulating technique, tracing them wasn’t an issue.

She pilfered a few scrolls and some ink from one of the carriages and, imbuing the ink with her chakra, she carefully began to trace a few scrolls. She would not only have her shit, but she’d also take all the prince’s shit as well. However, keeping some awareness about her, she warned her sisters to watch out for any aggressive developments from their enemies.

“I’ll make some scrolls so we can store more but stick close and keep your wits about you. Kas, keep ticking.”

 

[Hecotoro]

Asahi's jaw dropped when she heard Sagiso talking. She was using bad words! Unbelievable, she was definitely going to tell when they got back to Hasa. However, she didn't like what the Hyuga was saying, specially because he also said a forbidden word and was hinting that Asahi was stealing Milk, also he was a Hyuga.

"Hey, if it hadn't been for me, your friend over here..." She signaled towards Kai. "Would've caused a lot more damage. Unless you eyes are just for show and they really can't see everything around you, then you're as blind as you look. I'm still keeping Milk." She finally turned towards Kaiton. "I really don't know, I sorta just copied you. Any tips? I would to be able to do that on my own, wasn't it super cool?"

"Aye aye boss." Kas grabbed her Kunai and hit Sagiso's hair once more, tok tok!

Asahi still had her Byakugan on, so she didn't see the need to be on guard like Sagiso said. "Hey Pumpkin." She turned to Karui. "Can you check Milk? Want to make sure she's okay."

She then couldn't help but get closer to Sagiso and warn her. "I'm telling you said shit."

 

[Godjacob]

As Azumi’s clone was knocked back, it wasted no momentum as it tossed a pair of shuriken from its pouch as it was knocked back as they had flung to Tomiko once more. Seemed the aim was to catch her before she’d get a block up or least keep her busy for a moment as the clone found its footing. Once it had, it would charge ahead as it tried to deliver a power thrust right to Tomiko’s chest!

The real Azumi had formed hand signs behind the clone, as it seemed the water inside her new canteens had begun to bubble a bit as they gained energy and momentum while the Ame kunoichi looked on with her intense gaze.

-----​

Tomiko’s eyes widened a bit at the shuriken but she had not panicked as her hands flew with quick blocks that just deflected the weapons away from her face. As the clone charged, she tossed rapid hand signs and she slammed a fist ground ahead of her.

“Earth Style: Pillar Strike Jutsu!”​

Tomiko’s punch shot out a thin pillar of sharpened rock that shot forward, right to the waist of the clone! Naturally Tomiko aimed to break through the clone, but even if that failed and it otherwise avoided it the real target had been Azumi herself. More specifically the belt Azumi had her water canteens around. If her pillar could slam into it and break the water Azumi carried around, that’d be one less set she’d have to work with.

Course if she had hit the real Azumi as well, she was not gonna be upset by that.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

"If it wasn't for you showing up in the first place he wouldn't have used that highly destructive technique at all, as dumb and unnecessary as it was." Shura replied bluntly, not willing to play any games with the idiot of the group.

The young man then turned his attention back to Sagiso. "I'll take your refusal to answer as your confirmation." He wasted no time walking over to her, putting his hand over the loot she was about to bag. "Therefore, if you're not willing to take responsibility for your actions then I will ask you to step away from the wagons and put back all that you've taken. I said you were free to have shit, but as far as I can see, none of the stuff you're trying to take in shit." He spoke. Words probably weren't enough to get these barbarians to back off, Shura can expect that much, but he would prefer not to resort to violence as a first option. "You don't look like a braindead bandit, I'm sure you don't want to resort to violence, right?" He asked, a hint of a threat in his voice, not that he expect it to matter.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

As Shura approached, Sagisō whispered in a low voice that only the cat in her hair, with its sensitive hearing, would be able to pick up on.

“Kas...get ready.”

She wasn’t afraid of a fight, considering what she’d seen from the group already it wouldn’t be hard to take them all out; but neither did she want to do more than what was necessary. Her hair puffed, threatening to entrap Shura who’d so recklessly approached her; but rather than attack the Hyūga she simply reiterated her own threat. Speaking loudly, she addressed the distance prince.

“So, what’ll it be, Prince? Trust them to protect your goods this time?”

 

[=Nightshade=]

“The horse?” Karui asked skeptically. She ran a hand over the soft pelt, probing for injuries. The horse snorted and shook its head as her fingers found a tender spot, and she parted the fur with glowing hands. When she finished, she stood with a sigh. With all the flying around like a bat out of hell and the medical ninjutsu, she was rather cranky. The girl overheard Sagiso’s exchange with Shura, glad that it wasn’t just her who was annoyed by the Hyuga’s superior attitude.

In response to Shura’s telling off of Sagiso for stealing, Karui patted the horse’s flank and strode over to a different, overturned carriage, pawing through its semi-charred remains in a passive-aggressive refusal to acknowledge. Slender fingers found a sooty drawstring bag nestled in a pile of once-lavish, now badly-burned clothing. When she picked it up, a handful of gold coins and several jewels slipped out of a hole burned in the bottom. She pocketed the bag’s contents, fingering a smooth amber with a wasp caught inside for a moment longer, then began searching through the pockets of the clothing, soft furs and velvets scorched black and bare to reveal shimmers of gold and precious gems. She could sell them for a good price at the next village.

Karui emerged from the carriage, brushing ash off her clothing and making no effort to conceal her pilfered goods. She glanced past Shura, ignoring the rapid-thickening tension, and turned to Sagiso. “Are you injured, Roulan?” she asked calmly, as though the others weren’t there. “I have plenty of chakra left— if your injuries are not too serious, a quick Stimulus jutsu should be enough.” It was a thinly veiled almost-threat of her own, a reminder that she had not fought at all in the previous bout, and that just two of her sisters had reduced the other ninjas’ coordination to shreds.

 

[SageNeb]

The Raiku clone simply blocked the attack with his wings but then dissipated into normal crows after the original Raiku realized that the fighting had stopped. He walked over to Shura and Sagiso to listen in to their conversation in case there was any sign of the fighting restarting but didn't feel like interrupting them. However, things seemed to become tense once more after Shura told the Hasa-nin to return what they had stolen. The Uchiha reacted by activating his Sharingan in case of any sudden aggression in the middle of the newfound peace.

---------

Chunin Exams

Spoiler: Ino Raiku Conversation (Long)

Raiku turned from the crowd and towards the medical ninja that were ready to treat him. He went along with them to his room in the hospital where he would be staying until his next fight. The doctors mainly treated him from the damage that Shiho inflicted upon him with her Mountain Crusher technique. Raiku meanwhile was watching the crowds and fights on a television while waiting for someone he was expecting.

After seeing Raiku win his fight against Shiho, Ino had to pause her cheering to actually go and find him. Unlike the others in the crowd, she would have the chance to congratulate him personally. Oh, and provide him with something else that the boy desired. After making her way to the medical wing, Ino was given the directions to Raiku’s room. She headed over to his room and when she opened his door, she saw the Uchiha sitting on his hospital bed watching the fights. With a cheerful smile, Ino made her presence known.

“Hi Raiku! Congrats on the win!”

Raiku turned to the door as it opened and smiled back at his friend.

"Hi Ino. Thanks for congratulating me. I hope you didn't mind me showing off what you taught me haha."

“Glad to see you’re doing well.”

Closing the door behind her, Ino then walked towards Raiku after they exchanged greetings. He seemed to be in a rather pleasant mood all things considered. Especially after beating that Hyūga girl he was rumored to have teamed up with the exams. Brushing one blond lock behind her hair, the girl said as she made it in front of him.

“I didn’t mind. You used it nicely. Anyways, I’m here to give you something else you wanted after you won your fight. You ready?”

Ino questioned the Uchiha as she gazed into his deep black eyes. Raiku had asked her to gather information on the other competitors during the exams. Being the generous girl she was, Ino did just that.

Raiku gave back a gaze into Ino's own pale, blue eyes and changed his facial expressions from one of cheerfulness to a state of focus befitting the new topic of the conversation.

"Yeah, I need to be ready for my future battles... Thanks a lot for doing this for me, Ino."

“No problem. So far, the ones who have moved on are Azumi, Taiyo, Kiro, Tomiko, Hisato, and you. Which one would you like to know about first?”

Ino questioned after listing out all the victors. She had been happy to see Taiyo, another fellow leaf ninja, had moved on. The boy named Kiro also interested her, but for other reasons. Besides his looks, there was something about him that reminded her of Raiku. Maybe her Uchiha friend knew more about him. Other than that, there were still two other fights going on, so unfortunately, while Ino was here, she wouldn’t be able to gather more intel for Raiku.

"Hmm... I'm interested in Kiro. I met him before in the Forest of Death but we didn't really fight all too much."

“Oh, you met him? If you fought him, then you should have some idea of his skill. I was interested in him too, but to be honest, I didn’t get to see much because there was a lot of fog in the way. But Kiro did seem good at shuriken jutsu and combining it with explosives. Considering how long he lasted with that girl and the number of jutsu he used, he probably has a good amount of chakra reserves too. Besides that, I saw him use fire and lightning release. That’s about all I got. I’m sorry about that, Raiku. Their fight was just really hard to actually see.”

“No worries, thanks a lot for the information. I’ll probably use Ramer a lot against him since he has lightning and I can counter his fire with my water as well. Good to know to keep an eye out for explosives and his large chakra reserves as well… What about Azumi next?”

In truth, Raiku already had some knowledge about the Rain-nin but wanted to know if she used anything else in her fight.

"Well, she uses water release and her umbrella actually seems to be her main weapon. She can launch senbon from it, for example. So I'd watch out for that."

Ino said before remembering one other thing about her battle. Near the end, something strange had occurred and besides being grossed out by the worms, the boy from Iwa did seem to have something else interesting up his sleeve.

"I think she was also placed in a genjutsu at the end of her fight. She was able to free herself of it, though. So be wary of that if you try to use genjutsu or mind transfer. They'll work, but she can break out of them.

Raiku knew her weapons but he found it good to learn her resistance to mind techniques.

“I guess I shouldn’t try to do what I did with Shiho against her… What about Tomiko?”

When Raiku mentioned the Iwa-Nin next, Ino had to take a moment to think of what to say.

“Hmm… Well, she uses Earth Release and is good at using her gauntlets. Besides that she fights boldly and… I guess she was a bit crafty?”

To be honest, Ino didn’t really know what else to say. She just continued to gaze at Raiku and figured her insight wouldn’t be anything too surprising to him.

That sounds like what I’d expect from a Stone ninja.

“Did Taiyo do anything special? I’ve already fought him before as well.”

Ino had to pause again when Taiyo was brought up next. She had watched, along with everyone else, the horrifying scene that had occurred. Her voice shook a bit as she tried to get the words relating to her former classmates out.

“It’s- Taiyo, he accidentally killed his opponent. The strange girl from Hasa. He burned Smiley alive…”

“…I see. Not to sound heartless or anything but that’s just a possible outcome when dealing with the dangers of fire release. It was out of his control for doing what he had to do to win the fight…

Maybe it’s best to move on about Taiyo and talk about someone else. Hisato is the last other person right? What jutsu does he have?”

Like the cold and cool Uchiha he was, Raiku wasn’t phased much by the news of Taiyo killing someone. She briefly wondered how many lives Raiku had taken himself, but brushed that thought away. He was right too. Fire release could be quite deadly no matter how it’s used, especially if the opponent couldn’t deal with it. Raiku did seem to sense that they should move on from Taiyo, though, and brought up the final competitor.

“Hmm, alright. Let’s see, well, I think Hisato was the one with the ability to use his bones to fight. He can pull out the bones in his body and use them to fight. It’s disgusting!”

Ino exclaimed, a brief shiver flowing through her. Seeing him casually use the bones from his body grossed her out. What frightened her the most were the events that had played out earlier with the other Mist ninja and their Kage.

“Oh, Raiku, I don’t know if you know about this, but after Kiro finished his fight, the Hyūga Head stepped into the arena. She seemed interested in both the girl from Hasa and Kiro for some reason. The Tsuchikage even had to step in, alongside someone else from that girl’s village and the Mizukage. I just thought I should let you know, since it was pretty crazy. I wonder what about those two could interest the Hyūga Head so much…”

Fighting with his own bones? That's weird, but could be dangerous to go up against...

Then Ino told him about all the important figures that stepped into the arena after Kiro's fight which surprised Raiku a lot.

Is there something special about him I don't know about? There has to be for that to have happened...

After the two exchanged some more words, the Uchiha finished watching the fights and took note of Yua's poison kekkei genkai and Kenji's combination of wolves and lightning release in fighting.

Raiku had finished talking with Ino about the combatants he'd be facing next, learning about what they had showcased in their fights while in the hospital room. He left the room and proceeded to make his way to the arena. He had summoned Ramer again in the hospital room since he knew his opponent would already have ninken around as soon as the fight started. The crow stood on Raiku's shoulder nervously at first but calmed down after his summoner fed him some chakra infused grain.

As he entered the light the crowds started roaring at the sight of the Uchiha who had previously defeated a Hyuga finally coming out for the second round. Despite this, Raiku ignored his surroundings and just focused on his opponent and the proctor in between them.

"Nice ninken, reminds me of our Inuzuka clan here," the Leaf ninja commented with a smile. After this comment, the proctor began reading the instructions and started the fight.

"Kenji Satoru of Kumogakure vs. Raiku Uchiha of Konohagakure, this is an official second round bout of the Chunin Exams Final. The rules are simple: You fight until one of you surrenders, is unable to continue fighting, die or I deem it necessary to call the match. Now that you have heard...

“Begin!”​

Raiku immediately began with a hand seal initiating the Hiding in the Steam jutsu and Body Flickered away to a different location so his opponent wouldn't know where he went. Of course, he could track him by other means besides sight but blocking away one sense was still an advantage from the Uchiha's point of view. He then sent out a stream of shuriken at Kenji which Ramer had enhanced with wind chakra. This was to maintain the wind pressure of the shuriken at the level of the steam it was hidden in to avoid it being detected.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

The sounds of steps could be hear landing on top of the carriage the current confrontation was taking place. Shiho, who had stayed back during the entire skirmish, has finally made her way back to the rest of her group after the fighting died down. "Hello there, I think we met a while ago during the Chunnin exams right?" She began speaking in a carefree manner. "I thought I saw your friend there with Byakugans and wanted to check to make sure but you tried really hard to stop me back then, now I can see I wasn't just seeing things." She continued, motioning towards Asahi and reminiscing about their confrontation back in the Forest of Death. "But anyways, that's in the past now. Its still interesting that I got to meet all of you again so soon though."

The young Hyuga then turned towards Karui. "You should put all the stuff you took back where you found it, its not yours you know." Shiho stated the obvious. "I think my brother is trying to reach a deal with your group's leader so I don't think anyone here should do anything hasty yet." She added.

 

[=Nightshade=]

Karui wanted to make a face. She wanted so badly to scrunch up her face, make little mouths with her hands, and say “nyeh, nyeh, nyeh” while Shiho was talking. But no, that would be childish. She kept her composure with increasing difficulty, altering her voice to a frosty tone while still addressing Sagiso. “I hear royal doctors get paid handsomely,” Karui said conversationally, loud enough for Shiho to easily hear. “I think it certainly is kind of the princes and their escorts to allow us some payment for the act of healing grievous wounds. Because I’m sure none of them would wish to extort labor from a doctor without payment, would they? No, that would be quite barbaric of them, yes indeed.” She kept her gaze carefully averted from any of the others, her tone offhanded as she continued a casual search for any injuries on Sagiso. It was unlikely she had any injuries of consequence, but better that the enemy thought there was a high possibility of her being wounded.

 

[Hecotoro]

"The fire boy is doing something with his eyes." Asahi said while walking over a beat up wagon and looking through it. "I can't find anymore apples and Milk is hungry." She whined, guiding the horse by the rope she had placed around its neck. "I'm going to check over here." She walked past Shura and peeked into the wagon behind him. "I found some!"

Kas meanwhile nodded, she put away her kunai and tapped Sagiso's hair with her claws. Clic, clic, clic. "I'll be ready soon." She snickered while preparing a new genjutsu.

"Here Milk, this one looks good." Asahi fed the apple to the horse while looking at the other escort members. "If we travel together, I have some cards and I can teach you to play go fish, I'm pretty good." She had a smug look on her face, confident in her go fish skills.

 

[Retro Master]

5 Days After The Exams
​

“Uhhh…”

The Prince, who had seemed completely zoned out, blinked a few times when the mysterious girl addressed him. All he knew was that she was the leader behind the assault on his caravan. However, they weren’t solely responsible for all that destruction. His own escorts had forsaken the rest of his circus in favor of the lives of him and his son. It was horrible. He glanced over to the still burning wagons nearby. The ninja didn’t seem to care, but there were still plenty of survivors doing their best to stay alive.

In one of the wagons he saw Yui, a long time member of his circus crew, crying as she tugged her unconscious eight-year old son out of one of the destroyed burning wagons. Yui had told him how excited her son was to come to this circus and even be a part of one of the performance. However, the result of that excitement was at least half of his body being bloodied and burned. The mother wailed and cursed at the ninja, who seemed to care less about the livelihood of civilians and more about the loot they could find. Not that he cared much about it, but there were murmurings across the ninja world that this was a growing issue. Those with power, such as ninja, seemed to turn a blind eye towards those who were less fortunate.

Looking further down the line, they were more bodies scattered about. Some crushed by parts of the wagons that had fallen apart. Others were burnt corpses. Those that were more fortunate to survive had to deal with the consequences of that luck. One of his men screamed as he pulled himself out of some burning rubble. A leg of his being missing. More screaming alerted him to those still trapped inside some of the burning wagons, begging for help, with other lying down nearby, slowly succumbing to their fatal injuries. They wouldn’t be heard as all those with the capability to help debated over other matters. His life, for example.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at those responsible for the pain his workers suffered. None of them were innocent. A traveling circus was his dream, and they all burned it to the ground. For what? Information on some group? The lives of him and his son, who was now traumatized by the cruel reality of the world they lived in. That when the Prince realized he had sobered up.

He could make out things he hadn’t iticed before, such as the girl with the attennas going on and on about she healed him, but seeming forget about the other people currently crying for assistance. Meanwhile, Leaf shinobi, Raiku, who had burnt nearly his entire caravan down was not even showing a care in the world. There was also a hyperactive girl trying to steal one of his best horses. Even naming it Milk of all things. Another escort with strange eyes was attempting to stop the bandits from ransacking whatever remained from the caravan. Lastly, the girl who likely decided to sacrifice his circus and innocent lives for a question he had no way of knowing had one last thing to ask. Pushing back his tears, the broken Prince finally gave his answer.

“All I want is a drink and someone to help any of my workers who needs it. I appreciate your healing, but it would be great if you can help some others as well. Maybe in return, I’ll let you take one or two things. If not, then leave and drop whatever you took. I’ll trust my escorts to enforce that, at least.”

 

[DemonicHoneyBun]

Kaito crossed his arms and began to think about what helped him when using wind based jutsu before an idea popped in his head.

"Well I don't know if this'll help in anyway but just imagine a bird or any animal that can fly, that's normally what works for me, besides using a dragon is pretty cool wouldn't you say?"

 

[Godjacob]

The clone had quickly spun away from the sudden pillar as she had to alter her forward momentum with a spin as it shot past her and raced to the real Azumi. However, the clone acted quicky on its spin rotating around as it raised and slammed the umbrella onto the pillar.

Crack!​

The force of the umbrella combined with its hardened base slammed into the pillar and broke it off before it had a chance to reach the real Azumi. As the clone reached in its pouch and raced around as it seemingly tried to flank Tomiko the real one jumped backwards with a backflip after she put her umbrella behind her back and had her hands together while in the air.

“Water Style: Bubble Barrage Jutsu!”​

Rapidly several blasts of small spheres of water shot from each of her canteens as if they had been bullets as they rained down towards Tomiko as the aim simply seemed to be to overwhelm her with this aerial assault.

Course, that was just part of it, while Tomiko would be busy with that the clone that had some item in her pouch and her umbrella extended aimed to flank the Iwa-Genin and once an opening was presented, she’d aim to try to press the tip of the weapon right at her back!

-----​

Tomiko frowned but had little time to dwell on her failed attack as Azumi went to work, shooting in the air and firing with a series of fast water shots her way, though as Azumi had raised her own hand sign so had she and once Tomiko had completed her sequence, she slammed her palms down just before the first of the bubbles reached her.

“Earth Style: Earth Wall Jutsu!”​

A wall of rock and dirt rose ahead of her and offered a shield to defend herself form the strikes of the Ame-ninja. Course, with her back exposed Tomiko made an easy target as the clone closed in for a shot, but Tomiko aimed to use this to her advantage. With the wall ahead of her Tomiko ran forward and used the wall as a springboard as she sailed with a backflip as she aimed to land behind the clone and strikes with a punch through its chest before it could respond!

----------
Soon enough Kenji had been greeted by the Uchiha, and if the cheers from the crowd had been any indication he clearly was the more popular of the two which had made sense. Raiku was from a elite local clan while Kenji had been a sub and ruined several betting lines just by being a participant this he expected. Raiku seemed to have his own companion with a crow and while Thundra seemed friendly enough Sky had sneered its way.

Still the match quickly began, and just as quickly Sky and Thundra moved on him as Kenji worked to quickly enter his man-beast mode and as smoke rose Sky and Thundra assumed man-beast clone forms. The smoke mixed well with the sudden steam jutsu which had caused Kenji to grin.

He may have lacked eyes, but with his other senses heightened they did not need to see.

The trio dashed into the steam, as they used their enhanced reflexes and physicals to avoid the wind-boosted shuriken as they picked their arrive up with their ears having picked up as they cut through the air. Their noses worked to track Raiku's scent. One Kenji, formed hand signs in the steam as an electric current had began to fuel through his body. Another charged from a flank position as its hand reached into a duplicate of Kenji's weapon's pouch, and another aimed to strike Raiku from behind as the trio tried to swarm Raiku with what seemed to be a planned offensive.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Hisato Gato...~

Hisato saw the dopplgangers and spun his whip with one hand and shot out carpel bullets in a spread shot style. Whether they hit the real Taiyo was irrelevant. Hisato's goal was to take out the two clones, so he could focus on the real one.

Hisato looked at Taiyo's incoming attack and would use Taiyo's momentum against him. Hisato's whip would swing his whip with Taiyo, and if successful, the strike would hit him across the back. Hisato wasn't sure what sort of jutsu he'd use against taiyo, but if he wanted to be chunin like the other ninjas, then he would need to be crafty.

~Lin Arasaka...~

The Hasa ninjas really did seem like basic bandits at this point. Lin rolled her eyes before having Dokyo return to her back. Though would be ready to have it out and about at a moment's notice.

"Are we gonna argue or are we gonna walk down the fucking road, and go to the moon village?" Lin said annoyed with the whole situation. Lin didn't care about the Hasa ninjas stealing, so long as they didn't mess with her own things.

Lin squinted her eyes as the crow fed Raiku. Almost made her think of a mama bird feeding their baby.

Lin used her puppet to tap its hand as she waited impatiently. Lin figured she might as well use her tools to remove the needles from her arms and legs. Lin casually worked on her arms and legs as she waited for the Hasa ninjas to finish taking things.

Lin heard the man screaming then grinned excitedly when she saw a leg missing. That was a leg to be replaced. This lame situation had become an opportunity. Though Lin's grin faded believing the man would likely perish before she could finish replacing his leg. A pity. Though if she managed to find him after this situation, perhaps she'd give him an experimental leg.

Lin glanced over at the prince, and continued to work on her legs and fixing them. "What I neeeeeed, is some more tools! Razzle frazzle!" Lin muttered, looking down at her leg as she added some finishing details for now.

"Be nice to have a drink out here..." Lin muttered again.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Hot Water | (Sept 30 , 5 Days after the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

After a moment’s consideration, Sagisō decided the prince’s bargain was acceptable.

“We’ll take per person healed.”

With a pointed look toward Shura, Sagisō promptly brushed him off and continued tracing the lines across her scroll.

The situation was not lost on her; the squad leader had claimed not to care about the caravan and then quickly changed his tune. If the caravan was a hindrance and he didn’t care about it before, why did he suddenly care about it now? The answer seemed quite clear to Sagisō, but she took a gauge of the reactions around them. Bitter expressions abounded.

It was one thing to be attacked by bandits, it was another for the escorts responsible for protecting you to openly declare they’d throw you under the bus at a moment’s notice.

A trace of pity clouded the Skillful Star’s expression, but it was eventually overcome with vigilance. “Keep going Kas.” She certainly wouldn’t put it past their foes to suddenly turn-tune once again and wouldn’t be caught flat-footed. With that prepared, she gave the go-ahead to Karui.

"Bring the injured to a clear area and we'll handle the rest."

 

[Grand Master Koop]

It appears the escort team's employers finally decided to speak up. Hearing his words, Shura couldn't help but feel rather dissatisfied. "The girls show up, cause a whole mess out of everything, and now they need to be compensated simply to fix the mess they're responsible for." He let out a sigh. "None of these girls care about anything other than themselves, they really are just common bandits. Its like trying to ask a brick wall to move." He added internally. "If its the decision of the prince, then I have no reason.. of willpower... to refuse further." He declared. The smug look coming from Sagiso only added to his mild frustration. "Also, tell your cat to drop that Genjutsu its preparing, we don't want you stirring up any more trouble than you already have." He added, having been observing Kas shape her chakra inside her cat body. "Its as if a child was whining about not getting candy and instead of properly disciplining them they simply got that piece of candy they were demanding. It doesn't feel right, but there's not much I can do here. They're using the mess they've caused as a leverage in their demands, its infuriating how little they care."

With that, Shura decided to move onto something more productive. There were still many injured trapped beneath the wreckage caused by the Hasa group's attack, the Hyuga aimed to get them out of further harms way before it was too late. "Shiho, help me get the people still stuck under the wreckage out of there. Then we can move them to a clear area like they said." He asked. His sister was quick to spring to her feet and run to help her brother.