Part 1

Chapter 12

Sayomi's POV

We walked in Arena A with about an hour until sunset. That fact didn't matter to anyone else but me since I knew that just before sunset is the perfect time to trick my enemies with my Shadow jutsu. It was impossible to track one shadow in particular with other shadows all around the place.

We were waiting for the Ishiagakure team to arrive in the arena and so far they kept us waiting. I was scanning the arena, remembering the layout, even though there was nothing particular to remember about a plain oval fighting area. Akatsuchi was dozing off while standing and Deidara was slowly becoming more and more pissed off about us being kept waiting. His hands were crossed and he kept tapping his foot on the ground. It didn't surprise me that he was annoyed though. We were rushed in here as soon as we learned we'll have to fight the Ishiagakure ninja right away. They didn't postpone it even for a second so a medic ninja could inspect my leg and everyone seemingly ignored that we spent the entire day in the mine fighting for our place in this exam. Frankly, if it weren't for Akatsuchi taking energy bars with him despite our protests, we would be in even worse state. So making us wait for them was just provoking us further.

I glanced at the spectator area but only Onoki-sensei and the Ishikage were seated there. I thought more jonin would join in as spectators but I guess they were still waiting for the rest of the teams to exit the mine. Hell, not even the village elders were present. Though maybe it was bedtime for them.

"If they don't come in a matter of minute I'll-" Deidara was cut off by: "Deidara-nii, Sayomi-nee, Akatsuchi!" We turned to the spectator area only to see Kurotsuchi waving at us, grin on her face.

"Oh great, un." Deidara rolled his eyes.

"Good luck!"

"Why is she up there?" I asked, seeing her team being the only one up there besides Onoki-sensei and the Ishikage.

Before anyone could answer me, the enemy team appeared. One girl and two guys, dressed in beige ninja gear with Ishiagakure headbands around their necks.

"Are you for real? Those are the guys that took down Tsukiko and Natsuki?" The guy with a bandana said while the two of his teammates laughed.

"You three look just as pathetic as those two were, un!" Deidara yelled back and they glared at him. Now I was the one who laughed.

"You will be easy opponents." The redheaded guy said, cracking his knuckles.

"Oh yeah, that's what Tsukiko and Natsuki said before we beat them to a pulp." I said and Deidara snickered. This whole taunting thing was actually fun.

"Tch, we'll show you what Ishiagakure shinobi are capable of!" The girl yelled and a jonin came closer, clearing his throat.

"And I'll show you art you've never seen before!" That confused them and they stopped talking so the jonin finally got a chance to speak.

"This is second part of your Chuunin exams. It is an official fight so please keep that in mind. The fight ends if the enemy team is incapacitated and I will interfere only if I judge the situation has become life threatening. Understood?" The enemy team smirked so we narrowed our eyes at them. Oh it was on.

The jonin then moved to the spectator area before blowing his whistle and announcing the start of the fight. In a fraction of a second the guy with red hair knelt down and put his hands on the ground.

"Doton: Mudslide!"

Ground beneath me changed into a mud pool and my legs sank halfway up to my shins. The mud was so thick that I resorted to pulling my leg up with my hands, ignoring the sting of my wound. I didn't get very far with that because the girl then yelled "Fuuton: South Wind Trumpet!", sending gusts of wind towards us.

Well, not at us, but at the mud in which we were standing in. The air was warm and the mud solidified, becoming hard as a rock. Now I was even more stuck than before.

This was bad.

I looked at Akatsuchi and Deidara who were both struggling just like me, equally pissed off at our situation. I glanced at the enemy trio and saw that the guy who did the mudslide still hasn't stood up, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. Right, doing such a devastating long range jutsu must have taken a lot out of him. The girl was taking deep breaths, circling around us and occasionally blowing more wind towards the mud.

Deidara then turned to me, "Where's the third one?" He was observing them as well as I and right as he said that my eyes widened. I saw him a second ago, where did he-

He appeared on the side of the arena wall, opening up a scroll and sending a wave of shuriken and kunai straight at the three of us trapped in the mud, unable to move or evade his attack. Akatsuchi brought his hands closer in order to form a seal, Deidara went for his clay pouch while I did the first thing that popped in my mind.

"Ninja art: Shadow wall!" I yelled, my hands in a seal and my shadow, now connected with other shadows in the area, surrounded the three of us before extending into a strip of dark that swallowed the weapons. I kept the so-called wall up, making it taller in order to prevent the enemy from finding out we were still alive and well.

"Good thing I was your test subject for that one, un." I tried not to smile at Deidara's remark but I couldn't help myself.

"What do we do about the mud?" I asked and Deidara threw three spiders between the two of us, since we were the closest, making them explode. The mud cracked and he moved for maybe a step until another gust of wind cemented him in place once again.

"So she has to keep doing it." He turned to Akatsuchi. "Oi, Akatsuchi, can't you punch it to pieces?" Akatsuchi was already doing that, his fist coated in earth. "It's not working. Once it cracks the wind repairs it."

"That doesn't make any sense." I muttered, my brows furrowed. "Whatever, I'll blow it up. That'll show them, un." He opened his pouch and his face lost all colour.

"What? What is it?" I asked and he gritted his teeth. "It's all because the Old Geezer didn't-"

"You're out of clay, aren't you?"

"Yes I'm out of clay!" Oh he really was pissed. He took a kunai out of his pouch and I mentally patted myself on the back.

"I have clay." He looked at me as if I'm crazy.

"What?"

"I have clay." I repeated. "I took extra just in case." I got embarrassed. He smirked.

"I can't give it to you without undoing the seal though."

"I'll take care of that, un. Which pouch is it?"

"On my waist, the left one." He put kunai in his mouth, leaning closer to me as his hands went around me in order to untie the pouch from my belt. I could feel his breath on my face but I ignored him and concentrated on the shadow wall. "Got it." He said, strapping my pouch to himself and putting the kunai away.

"Deidara, I have an idea." Akatsuchi said and we looked at him. "You should charge your fist like Gari does and smash the mud. Then I'll deepen the crack with my Doton."

"Or I could just throw explosives at it."

"They only make the surface crack. We need to crack the whole layer in order to reach the normal earth underneath it." For once Akatsuchi was talking sense. I've never seen him so knowledgeable.

Now Deidara hesitated. "They did only crack the surface layer, un. Then the girl easily repaired it with her Fuuton." He put the clay away, looking dissatisfied but proceeding with the plan.

"I don't think the area behind the guy who did this has turned into mud so we should head there. Akatsuchi you take care of him so he doesn't do it again." Akatsuchi nodded. "We should avoid ground altogether and stick to the walls of the arena." I added.

Deidara looked at me. "I don't have much clay so my explosives have to meet their mark, un." I knew what he meant. The two of us will take care of the Fuuton girl and the bandana guy.

"On the count of three...One, two-" Deidara raised his fist and Akatsuchi followed. "Three!"

The explosion shattered the mud to pieces, sending them flying all around. Akatsuchi finished the whole ordeal with his punch and as soon as I could wiggle my legs I dropped the shadow wall, jumping to the right side of the arena. Deidara was already fusing his clay and I saw the trio looking shocked, both because we weren't wounded at all from the weapons they were sending at us and because we managed to get away from their jutsu. Akatsuchi was running on the left side of the arena, beneath the spectator area. Deidara and myself were on the right part and I threw a couple of kunai down the wall just in case I need to hook up my shadow anytime soon.

The girl came to her senses first and went to the weapons guy who was still looking distraught. "All my weapons have completely disappeared!" I heard him say but she shut him up. Akatsuchi was now engaged in taijutsu with the redhaired guy and I tried to come up with a strategy while I had the chance. Deidara was still concentrated on fusing.

"I need a more stable footing in order to catch them in my shadow." I said. "Yeah, just give me a moment, un."

The guy took another scroll from his pouch and pulled from it a giant shuriken. He threw it towards us and the girl blew her Fuuton at it, increasing its speed. I once again did a seal and used my shadow to swallow the shuriken even though we felt the wind coming through.

"I think she's using her shadow." Girl commented while the guy grew even more pissed off about me easily rendering his weapons useless. I decided that trying to trap them in my shadow would leave us open to their weapons so I kept it close to me instead.

"Doton: Earth clone!" They both yelled and soon their clones ran down the edge of the wall and towards us. I engaged with them, trying to give Deidara more time but the girl clone deliberately charged at Deidara. He stopped with fusing and took her on. I had a feeling the clones were just a decoy and soon proved my suspicions. More weapons came at us from the other side of the arena and while making sure I'm blocking my attacker's hits with my legs, used my hands to form a seal and put up a shadow wall yet again. Just as I did that, the girl who was fighting with Deidara turned around and swept my legs. I lost my balance and had to undo the seal in order to make my palms meet with the wall and stop myself from falling. I used that to push myself out of the harms way and behind Deidara. The moment I landed behind him I put the wall back in place, right as he threw explosives at the girl. My shadow wall swallowed his bombs and my eyes widened as I retracted it and saw that indeed, the clay figurines Deidara threw a moment ago had completely disappeared.

Deidara looked at me, his face between anger and shock but I couldn't explain myself to him because I was so baffled by the whole thing. My shadow wall couldn't swallow things fueled by chakra, we already checked that. I had scars to prove it. Why the hell did it swallow Deidara's bombs when they were fueled with his chakra just the same?

The girl clone now shifted her attention towards me and I stood my ground against her just fine, even though I was still trying to wrap my head around the situation, and probably because of that had I failed to notice that the real girl came up behind me. I was concentrated on delivering punches to her clone when her fist closed around my braid and used it to throw me off the wall.

Again! Someone pulled me on my braid again.

I became so enraged that instead of focusing on safely landing I made a seal and my shadow moved behind the two girls. I wanted to sweep them off the wall but instead saw a bunch of white balls escaping my shadow.

My eyes widened as I recognized Deidara's clay spiders.

"Deidara!" I yelled and he kicked his own guy clone in the face before turning around and noticing the explosives. He wasted no time on putting his hands in a seal, making figurines explode right behind them, explosion sending the girl and her clone off the wall. I hooked up my shadow around Deidara's arm and stopped myself from meeting the ground. I ran up the wall and kicked the second guy down to the ground while Deidara dropped explosives after them. They both protected themselves with their Doton clones that were now in shambles and we retreated closer to where Akatsuchi was. He left half of the arena ground completely cracked and now joined us on the wall, his breathing heavy and his forehead bleeding. The redheaded guy he was fighting with had his leg trapped in one of the holes but made area around himself mud again, and Akatsuchi couldn't come closer to finish him off because of it.

Even though we were taking a breather I put my hands in a seal and tried to capture the girl with my shadow. She noticed it and jumped up, throwing kunai at me and I retracted my shadow in order to shield us. Now that I stopped moving I could feel my wounded leg hurting like hell but I decided to ignore it for the time being.

"Doton: Mudslide!" The red-haired guy now coated the whole arena ground in his pool of mud. The ground was now a giant trap, but in order to do so he trapped himself too.

"What a fool. Took himself out with chakra exhaustion, un." Deidara was right, the guy looked completely beaten up from the whole thing.

The bandana guy pulled out two more scrolls and sent a wave of shuriken at us. I frowned at him because the whole thing was utterly pointless against my Shadow jutsu. One would think he already figured that out. Then the girl came on our side and said "Fuuton: South Wind Gust!" Her wind was way stronger now and it paired up nicely with explosive tags hidden on a couple of kunai that came at us.

We got away, blinking smoke from our eyes. Then I heard Deidara mutter: "We can do better than that."

I looked at him and he raised his eyebrow in a challenging manner. I pursed my lips, trying not to laugh, placing my hands in a seal. He threw a couple of his explosives in my shadow and I felt excited because we finally formed a solid plan.

"Akatsuchi, find something to throw at them!" I yelled and he nodded, going the other way. Deidara and I ran towards the girl who for a second looked afraid because of us charging straight at her despite the wind. The bandana guy appeared and tried to punch me but I avoided him, taking the girl straight on and leaving him to Deidara. Of course, us engaging in taijutsu with them was just a decoy. We dragged that on, slowly taking our positions in circle of the two, my back to Deidara's back. They thought they had us surrounded but it was actually the opposite. Once we took our position I made my shadow wrap around the two of us, imagining Deidara's explosives exiting through the shadow strip. I couldn't see whether it worked but Deidara put his hands in a seal regardless.

The explosives got them at point blank and while they tried to shield themselves from it, in vain, we came up behind them, sending them towards the red-haired guy in the ground with out kicks.

"Akatsuchi!" Deidara yelled and Akatsuchi, who managed to dislodge a giant piece of the wall and was now holding it in his rock fist as if it weighed nothing, threw the rock at the three of them now stuck in mud. Deidara followed with his explosives, detonating them just as the whistle went off.

We won.

I looked at the spectator area and to my surprise found it completely full. A lot of jonins were sitting and watching the fight with Kitsuchi standing behind Onoki-sensei who was smirking, his hands crossed.

"Woohoo! Good work Akatsuchi! That was awesome Deidara-nii, Sayomi-nee!" Kurotsuchi yelled, jumping up and down. I burst out laughing, feeling myself so tired. I glanced at Deidara who was smirking and Akatsuchi came closer, extending his rock fist for a group fist-bump.

Some of the jonins clapped and others cheered because of us defending Iwagakure pride. Ishikage and his group of jonin said nothing but left the spectator area so we went there, sitting down. Well, I laid on the floor because I was so beat.

"Congratulations you three. It was a good fight." Kitsuchi said.

"You three have good teamwork." I recognized it was Rin who said that but Kitsuchi laughed. "Yeah, two of them really do." I smiled, my eyes closed.

"Well people, let's go back to the mine. We'll soon have to start recovering the missing teams." He said and left with the rest of the jonin. Onoki-sensei then came to us.

"As expected of my students. Ishikage pulled out the 'they were too tired to fight properly' card, but he was always a sore loser." Deidara glanced at me. "Your leg is bleeding again, un." I waved my hand. "Thought so. I had no time to worry about that."

"You got better in handling pain."

"No, it still hurts like hell." I chuckled. "I'm too full of adrenaline to notice it."

"Or too tired, un." He laid on the empty chairs, following me and Akatsuchi.

"Oh come on, stop whining!" Kurotsuchi circled around us. "I wanna fight too grandpa! When's our fight?"

"Other teams fight tomorrow, Kurotsuchi. Your next exam will be announced after that but will probably be postponed until the next week." Onoki-sensei said.

"Do we have to be here tomorrow then?" I asked.

"No, you're free."

"Yes!" We cheered.

"But you should watch the fights just in case. You never know who your next opponent might be." Kurotsuchi added.

"Despite all of you training on your own you have good coordination. As for overall communication, one channel dominates." He looked at me and Deidara in particular. "But I guess nothing can be done about that." He sighed, going towards the exit.

"You won't praise us some more, Old Geezer?"

"I'll praise you when you become Chuunin. Anything more than this and it will get to your head and you'll fail your third exam. Get some rest but don't neglect your training." He said, leaving the area.

"Typical grandpa." Kurotsuchi crossed her hands. "But I thought the whole thing was really cool! A couple of jonins were surprised by your explosives, Deidara-nii. They asked grandpa whether you are in the Explosion Unit and if you were, why aren't you fighting like Gari and the rest do." Deidara smirked. "Did he tell them it's because my art is better than that, un?"

"I don't think he said anything." She muttered. "You use Shadow jutsu, don't you Sayomi-nee?"

"That's right."

"I'll have to remember that. Akatsuchi, why didn't you use your gol - Akatsuchi?" She poked Akatsuchi in the shoulder. "I think he's sleeping." I burst out laughing.

"I wish I was."

"Why did you take extra clay?" Deidara turned to me. "I thought we would be in the mine longer. You also enjoy detonating them so-" I shrugged.

"Also, since when is your shadow able to swallow my explosives, un?"

"I have no idea. It shouldn't be possible to swallow anything fueled with chakra."

"We even proved that with my Bakuton specifically." I nodded. "I can't make any sense of it."

"Overall, your fight was really cool. But if you went against us, you wouldn't stand a chance!" Kurotsuchi gave up trying to wake Akatsuchi.

"Did the Old Geezer tell you what's the third exam?" She nodded. "It's one on one fight. Whoever wins it becomes chuunin."

"So we'll have to win the fight no matter what." I muttered.

"I guess fighting in teams again would be too easy, un." I smiled, closing my eyes.

"We already proved there's no one who stands a chance against us."

Writing fights is hard but I think I nailed it. (I think so...)

Thank you for reading and if you'd review it that'd be swell. See ya next week.