The Story of Mikugi
Chapter 2: Psyche.
"YES!!"
"Good, you got determination. Your enemies are each other, battle until the other two are incapacitated."
He clapped his hands and shouted
"GO!!"
He then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The three genin immediately leaped back from one another, they stood facing each other in a rough triangle, trying to size each other up. The three of them didn't really know each other. In an Academy where one was taught to be a ninja, a cold-blooded killer and member of the military, you didn't have time to make friends, especially when spending most your days practicing Jutsu. Therefore what they knew of each other was only through observation during years of watching each other practice jutsu.
Kegira Denjo was very observant, and what primarily stood out now was that she observed that Mikugi had never been good at taijutsu.
She quickly formed a handseal and whispered "Flame Armor Jutsu!"
With that, her chakra converted itself into a veil of fire surrounding her entire body, a technique not only to deal more damage with taijutsu, but prevent other taijutsu users from damaging her. Punching at fire was after all, not a smart option.
She ran forward then leaped, lunging at Mikugi to punch the serene bastard right in his face, She hit home, getting him in the right nose. Kegira smiled, she had wanted to do that for so long.
Then there was a puff of smoke, and sure enough it turns out he had used a Replacement Jutsu with a log.
She cursed under her breath, but then again the move wasn't unexpected.
She turned around while drawing a kunai to block Mikugi's ice kunai.
Mikugi attacking her from behind with a kunai made of ice wasn't much so either.
"How clever." Kegira said sarcastically.
"It normally works." Said Mikugi peacefully.
"This does to." And with other hand she curled it into a flaming fist and punched Mikugi in the face, again.
This time Mikugi fell backwards from the punch landing prone on the ground.
"Not so peaceful now are ya, Mik?" she snarled.
"Actually I find I am very tranquil at this, seeing as you are punching at nothing."
Startled, she turned her head to see a second Mikugi standing opposite from his original position.
"What the-? How?" she stuttered.
Then the first Mikugi faded away, it had been a genjutsu.
"Ah I see" said Kegira "You put a genjutsu on me to lure in the opposite direction so that you can attack me with your ranged ninjutsu while I was fighting your illusion."
Mikugi had always been good at genjutsu.
"No, I did nothing, you just started attacking at nothing over there while Shenmaru started to sneak up on you, in fact she is right behind you right now."
OH FUCK! Kegira thought.
She whirled around to see Shenmaru coming at her with a kunai, Kegira acted quickly and dodged, Kegira then thrust her kunai back at Shenmaru who blocked it with her own.
Kegira smiled and pressed the advantage, she knew Shenmaru had no way to get around her Flame Armor and she just had to keep track of the kunai so she could dodge or block it, Shenmaru's genjutsu couldn't help her when her hands were busy with defending herself from her flame-covered attacker.
Kegira was forcing Shenmaru back, keeping up the offensive and trying to find an opening. Their kunai met and they held for a few moments, sparks coming off from them.
They then jumped back from each other, skidding to halt.
"You know you can't defend yourself from me forever, Shen." Kegira grinned.
"Taijutsu will never work on me with my Flame Armor up. Just give up now and I'll punch Mikugi for giving you away."
"No. This is a contest of skill and strength. I must win." Shenmaru answered with the same dull tone.
"Suit yourself- more fun for me!" Kegira charged forward seeking to press her advantage once more. Then suddenly…
"Water Jet Jutsu!"
…a jet of water suddenly came from the side and hit Kegira square in the chest and spraying all over her.
Kegira's Flame Armor had been put out, smoke was rising all around her.
Mikugi was calm with a formed hand seal, he had blasted the water at Kegira.
"Please, continue." He admonished, smiling.
Shenmaru quickly tossed her kunai into the air, formed a handseal and whispered.
"Fake Hands Jutsu."
She then caught her kunai and drew out a second, charging towards Kegira.
She started stabbing thrusting her kunai at Kegira, the Fake Hands genjutsu making it seem there were more hands and kunai than there actually were, making it hard for Kegira to tell which hands were real and which where fake. Now Shenmaru pressed the advantage, driving Kegira back in a daring offensive combining genjutsu and taijutsu.
Mikugi watched Shenmaru attack Kegira, smiling to himself. With the Flame Armor down, Kegira had no defense to protect her from taijutsu and so Shenmaru now had the advantage, being able to attack at will, and will keep up her attack, lest Kegira have time to form another handseal and reactivate her Flame Armor.
Mikugi watched cuts form on Kegira's cheek, arm and leg. It was quite fascinating that removing one tactical factor from the equation changed everything, how some water completely turned the tide, pardon the pun.
Amazing what one could do with a D-rank Jutsu used to water plants.
Mikugi watched, as the two kunoichi did his work for him.
Kegira dodged, blocked, get cut and backed away in desperation, damn that Mikugi! He probably thought this was amusing or something, turning the tables like this. She wasn't laughing. Worse, she didn't even know if she was fighting the real Shenmaru, or just a genjutsu- whether it was Mikugi's genjutsu or Shenmaru's was a moot point. Not even knowing if you were fighting a real person in the ninja was normal; the art of deception was tricky like that. Then she saw an opening in Shenamru's defenses, taking it she punched Shenmaru right in the chest. Solid hit, this was the real deal. Taking advantage of this, Kegira then kicked Shenmaru in the stomach, then punched her in the face, sending her sprawling then she fell to the ground apparently defeated.
Kegira turned to Mikugi and used her Flame Armor Jutsu, the flames once again covering her body.
"Alright, now to get rid of you, I've had it with your tranquility, your smiles and your stupid noble family heritage. I'm gonna beat you!"
He merely smiled and chided "Now, now don't be rude sweetie." patiently as if she was a child, but such an assessment of her character is not far from the mark.
She charged at him, her fire flaring up from anger at the remark, her kunai held right in front of her, he used Water Jet Jutsu again but she was ready for it this time and jumped to the side, charging again.
This time he threw a bunch of shuriken at her, he hit some of them way with her kunai, then he threw a kunai with a piece of paper attached to it, she dodged again, it was probably just an explosive tag.
After that, it was a straight charge, Mikugi wasn't doing anything, he was just standing there, serene and calm as always. Thinking he had run out of tricks she aimed a punch at him.
"Take this, you-"
Her flaming fist stopped inches from his face.
"What the-!?" Kegira exclaimed.
She was in the grip of a bunch of tentacles made out of water, restraining her and putting out her Flame Armor, and she was being dragged back wards- back to the kunai Mikugi had thrown with the tag on it.
"What have you done, you serene bastard!?" she shouted in anger.
He smiled an explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Oh, all I did was inscribe my Aqua Tentacles Jutsu on some of my tag supply last night, in preparation for today's foe, which turned out to be the two of you. I then simply threw a kunai with the prepared Jutsu on it and waited for it to activate and restrain you."
He chuckled a little.
"To be honest, I was a little nervous a moment ago, I thought the tag wouldn't activate soon enough, but I guess I timed it just good enough."
Kegira had now been dragged to the ground by the water tentacles.
"Now you are incapacitated and out of the fight." Mikugi said matter-of-factly. "However Shenmaru….if you think you are fooling anyone with playing possum, you are sorely mistaken."
With that Shenmaru jumped up, formed a handseal- then faded into invisibility
"Wait, I didn't take her down?" Kegira asked indignantly.
"No you didn't, Shenmaru also practices taijutsu, do you think she would be so easily taken down? She deceived you- twice as you fell for that genjutsu of me when you started the fight."
He returned his attention to Shenmaru, who could be anywhere right now.
"Hiding are you Shenmaru?" Mikugi said. "You better come out because…" he took out a kunai and pressed it to Kegira's throat. "If you don't, I might slit this girls throat, you wouldn't her death on her hands would you?" He had instantly slipped into a cold, sadistic persona, he was radiating killer intent and there was a sinister smile on his face.
" After all, it is the duty of all shinobi to protect their comrades is it not? Come out! Or she dies…"
Shenmaru spoke
"You are bluffing, you would never do that."
The kunai that was at Kegira's throat suddenly whizzed through the air to the right of Mikugi. It suddenly stopped in midair, and Shenmaru faded in, holding the caught kunai between her two hands.
That was stupid of me, Mr. Tenagaru knew that he had no way of revealing me, so he did something completely unexpected to trick me into revealing my location, he really WAS bluffing- and he used that bluff well.
Mikugi then formed a hand seal, whispering "Ice Shuriken Jutsu."
Shuriken made out of ice flew through the air, Shenmaru dived over to the side and rolled into a landing where she saw Mikugi forming another hand seal.
"Water Dragon Jutsu!"
A big water dragon suddenly seemed to grow from thin air, a monstrous, powerful ninjutsu of a controlled monster, representing the pure power of the sea itself. The water dragon roared and surged down towards Shenmaru. At the display of this mighty Jutsu even Shenmaru's stoicism cracked, completely freaking out she ran in the opposite direction of the mighty thing.
But even as she ran, rationality was working on the problem.
That's….impossible, the Water Dragon is like a B or A class rank Jutsu! No genin no matter how smart they are shouldn't be able to perform this kind of Jutsu. Hmm….I wonder…
She turned around, formed the Genjutsu Release hand seal and said "Kai!"
The image of the awesome mighty fury of the water dragon was replaced by the more modest Aqua Tentacles lunging to grab at her, so the dragon really was a genjutsu.
She jumped off to the side from the tentacles.
Mr. Tenagaru was trying to use the genjutsu to mask his real jutsu with one far more terrifying to dispel rationality so that I would be easily incapacitated, well played but not good enough.
She created turned invisible- then three Shenmaru's appeared visible and rushed straight towards Mikugi in attack formation.
He threw ice shuriken at them, all three disappeared in a puff of smoke. Shadow clones. Which mean the real Shenmaru was-
He took out a kunai, whirled around and blocked her attack from behind
- right behind him, trying to sneak attack again. However he didn't see coming that she had a kunai in her other hand, which she took advantage of his surprise and stabbed him right in the heart.
For moment, he looked shocked, looking down at the killing blow.
Then he smiled and said "Psyche, I'm a trap." With that 'Mikugi' deformed into water- this Mikugi had been a water clone- then formed into Aqua Tentacles, Shenmaru was taken by surprise and restrained like Kegira, being dragged to the ground by the tentacles.
Both Kegira and Shenmaru were incapacitated.
A figure strode in from the trees with green hair. It was the real Mikugi.
"Did you like playing with my water clone? I made sure he was fun as possible."
"You mean…" Kegira snarled.
"…That the two of us, just fought a water clone this whole time while you waited a few feet away being safe and cozy so that we tired ourselves out fighting the clone and you could have stepped in at any time, to do things yourself!?"
"Yea, pretty much." Mikugi smirked
"Ok, why in the world did you hide in the trees and send out a water clone in the first place?" Kegira demanded, still angry.
Mikugi explained.
"That is simple: because there was no good reason to go into this clearing today myself.
Dojikan said that we would be facing an opponent, but did not specify that opponent. Therefore he could have almost anyone chosen to be our opponents, that someone might have been more experienced than us, or an opponent we never had any knowledge of. Best case scenario is that we would be facing other genin who are at equal skill level to us- and all the other scenarios would have us facing off against even more skilled opponents. Meaning even in the best case scenario, I would be facing someone I would have no guarantee of winning against and in the worst case scenario, an opponent I would have no chance of winning against at all. Either way, there was no reason to enter the clearing as I would be vulnerable to said opponent. I was simply doing what was the most rational course of action, given my lack of information."
Dojikan appeared in a puff of smoke.
"Well, well well." The Iron Ninja mused.
"It seems that Mikugi has won, a user of genjutsu and ninjutsu, over a taijutsu and ninjutsu user" he glanced at Kegira. "and a genjutsu and taijutsu user." He looked at Shenmaru. " Do not worry, you have convinced me that all of you have strength. Everyone has a different strength, and that strength gives them power, and that power
is going to be used FOR THE GLORIOUS LAND OF THE HILLS! We have enemies everywhere, they all conspire to bring the Village Hidden in the Night down. You're strength is needed, do not fail. Oh and Mikugi, you can release them from your Aqua Tentacles now."
Meanwhile a ninja sat in the shadows, watching the whole thing play out.
"Yes..." breathed Rakaru. "He is ready."
Dun dun dun DUUUUNN!!!
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