Chapter 14 – Snow Falling, Phoenix Rising
Sutiibu-sensei stayed momentarily by my side as we waited for the girls below to make a move.
"I can't stay here; coaches aren't allowed to advise during the event, so I'll get in trouble if I stay. You watch this – you'll have to fight one of them later, more likely than not, so you need to be prepared."
"And Garuki?"
"I promise I'll let you know as soon as you are welcome in the hospital room downstairs. Until then, the best you can do for him is prepare yourself for the next fight, and win it."
"Yes, sir." I hadn't thought about it until just then, but I would be fighting Koori next. I would have the chance to avenge Garuki, and Katana for that matter. I was the last one left of our team that he hadn't yet defeated.
But if Garuki-kun and nee-san weren't able to beat him, how on earth could I?
Sutiibu-sensei gave me one last squeeze. "Be strong, Hotaru-chan." He disappeared, and below, the match began.
Sumi readied several of her over-long needles in both hands, not moving but looking Kimi-chan up and down, as if trying to decide which pressure point to attack first in order to inflict the most damage.
Just out of Sumi's range, Kimi shook her head and formed a series of seals. "I'm not even going to let you. Mind's Eye Separation!"
"What?" I wondered aloud, although none of my village-mates remained nearby to respond.
Nor did the matter clear up any in the next few minutes. The only thing I could think of was that Kimi had somehow effected Sumi's accuracy, for inexplicably, as Kimi began running in circles around Sumi, throwing kunai, all of Kimi's shots landed, while all of Sumi's missed. Sumi shifted to the defensive, doing nothing but following Kimi's movements and blocking her kunai out of the way.
Except she missed each one by a fraction of an inch, and they hit anyway.
It didn't seem like her at all, deadly accurate as she had always been; not only that, but the scowl on her face clearly indicated her frustration. Finally, she tore out the kunai still stuck in her shoulder, spat on the ground and charged toward Kimi, trying to get in close enough that accuracy didn't matter. Kimi avoided the charge easily, added to her distance by sprinting across the room, then turned and sent a storm of needles straight at the Sand girl. Sumi's hand swept across her body to block the attack, but again it was just a fraction of a second too late, and they all hit.
Stunned, Sumi fell to her knees. Her face contorted to shock, but only for a second; then, she was simply angry, glaring hard in Kimi's direction. Kimi stood confidently a way off.
"I told you – I won't even let you hit me. It doesn't matter how deadly you are if you can't hit your mark!"
"What's going on?" Konoha's Tenten, standing next to me, finally asked. "That Sand girl's accuracy rivals mine. Can your Snow ninja be using a wind attack or something?"
I shook my head. "Kimi doesn't use many ninjutsu. Mostly just a combination of needle attacks and…"
"I probably shouldn't be telling you this…but I have an awesome new genjutsu."
"…and genjutsu," I finished, eyes wide with understanding.
Seconds later my theory was confirmed, as Kimi took her eyes off Sumi for half a second, long enough to reach for something in her equipment bag. Sumi, not one to be easily shaken and most definitely easily angered, landed a long needle right in Kimi's right shoulder. Her main throwing shoulder.
Sumi's lips formed a malicious grin, and I suspected she had figured it out, too.
Kimi's genjutsu…it wasn't like genjutsu I had seen before. Though it wasn't performed on me, I could judge from Sumi's actions that it wasn't the type of genjutsu that fully engulfed the mind, transporting the effected person to a different dimension, making them mistake reality for something else.
This was a sneak genjutsu.
Kimi stared wide-eyed at Sumi, then pulled the needle out with a grimace. That seemed to waken her, and she shook her head, looking back to Sumi with a more stable, determined glare.
"So you got me once. I made the mistake of stopping; that was my fault. But as long as I keep moving, you'll never hit me!"
"Maybe not," Sumi responded, standing and reading one needle in each hand, in a blocking stance. "But you won't hit me anymore either!"
Kimi went on the attack once more, bobbing and weaving so that she was never in a single location long enough to attack. Waves of needles, multiplied with Bunshin no Jutsu, flew towards Sumi at top speed.
One needle hit, then two…and then Sumi blocked every single one.
"Took a minute to adjust," she said, sneering at the bewildered Kimi while blocking her continued attacks. ".45 seconds. That's the delay that your genjutsu causes between my eyes and my brain, right? Just small enough that I shouldn't even notice, but long enough that it causes me to miss. Subtle. Too bad I've never been one for dispelling gentjutsu."
"Ahh," was all Tenten said beside me, but I couldn't believe it. Not only had Sumi discovered the secret to Kimi's genjutsu like I had, she also calculated the exact time delay…probably by watching the needle and feeling the pain when it actually hit.
Incredible. If I had been fighting Kimi, I would have lost far before adjusting to the technique.
Kimi seemed just as shocked as me, at first, but recovered quickly and rushed in, dropping her trademark needles in favor of hand-to-hand combat. It was a smart move; at 10 or 20 meters away, Sumi would have time to adjust to the delay and react. In close, however, she wouldn't even see the attack coming until it had actually hit.
It only took a moment for Sumi to realize what happened, as Kimi's first few strikes landed on her kidney and sternum, knocking her back. Sumi swung her arms in a futile attempt to block, but she had no idea what was coming, and the next few blows also landed. The crowd roared, hardly believing their eyes.
Right as Kimi pulled back for a finishing blow to Sumi's head, Sumi closed her eyes and stood, perfectly calm, arms down. When Kimi's punch landed, Sumi's hands rushed up, grabbed both of Kimi's wrists, and held her while she swung her right foot in a flawless sweep, pushing Kimi down to the ground, never once letting go.
"I don't have to see what you're doing to beat you, girl," Sumi said maliciously, eyes harsh even when they were closed. Her hands began to glow red and Kimi's wrists fell limp. "I just needed to feel you."
"She let herself get hit!" I said to no one in particular.
"Now comes the part where I never let my opponents live," Sumi said below, shifting her hands to a spot above Kimi's heart.
A poof behind me indicated the return of my sensei.
"You can go see Garuki-kun now, if you'd like," Sutiibu said. His eyes shifted to the ring below. "And, it seems, the young Ginkaze."
Surely enough, in a scene that was becoming quite familiar, several Jounin held Sumi from any movement, and her opponent, Kimi, was being carted out of the ring. Members of the audience groaned in disappointment at Sumi's win, although the groans mixed with comments of awe at the strength of both Sand and Snow villages this year. I heard, too – they were also talking about me, Garuki, and Koori. And I heard them discussing my next match with eager anticipation.
But there was one more match before that.
"Really?" I directed at Sutiibu-sensei. "You mean I can go? I don't have to watch the next match 'in case I fight one of them in the finals' like you always warn us?"
"I…don't think that will be necessary," said Sutiibu in an odd voice. "Why don't you come with me?" He set a hand on my shoulder and moved me through the hall and down the stairs.
"Sensei, what's going on? Garuki's all right, isn't he?"
"He's…okay, Hotaru-chan. Why don't you see for yourself?" Sutiibu pushed me gently through the door to the infirmary, a small room for the small final rounds. He walked beside me as I made my way to a curtained-off bed in the back left-hand corner of the room. Behind the curtain was a female medic nin, closely monitoring my friend, who lay unmoving in bed.
"Garuki!" I cried, rushing toward his bed and grabbing hold of his left hand, the uninjured one. There was no response. He was covered nearly head to toe in bandages, many of them damp with blood.
I looked up at the nurse with pleading eyes.
There was no need to say anything; she understood completely. "Don't worry, dear, he'll be okay."
"Thank the gods…" I lay my forehead on his hand. "I was so worried…"
"It'll be a long recovery for him, though, I'm afraid," the nurse continued, pulling up a chair to allow me to sit next to Garuki's bed. She offered one to Sutiibu as well, but he declined. "Both bones are broken clean through below the knee on both legs, and his right wrist is broken too. They'll be put into casts as soon as the swelling comes down. As for the ice needle damage, luckily most of it was superficial and will heal up fine, although a few went pretty deep. He did lose a lot of blood…that's why he's still out. Good thing they stopped the match when they did, though; another round from that jutsu and it would have been bad news. We'll probably keep him asleep with drugs for a little while, until his body stabilizes from the shock."
I was crying as I held my friend's hand, but relieved to hear he would be okay, eventually at least.
The nurse turned to Sutiibu. "You're his Jounin, correct?" Sutiibu nodded. "Do you know if Mikata-san has any family here in town?"
"His grandmother, Titi-san, came in to watch the exams," Sutiibu said, much to my surprise. "I'm sure she's pounding on the door asking to be allowed into the backstage area right now."
"I'll go check," the nurse said, promptly walking off.
"See? I told you. Garuki-kun is strong, and he'll be just fine," sensei said to me, eyes turning to Garuki.
"Yeah…" I responded. My real thoughts were on the next match.
Koori. He tried to kill both my teammates, and with Garuki almost succeeded. He would certainly try the same with me.
I knew I should be scared. Terrified, even. My teammates were much stronger than me, and both had fallen to this opponent. Koori was probably the strongest Genin in Snow Village right now.
But I didn't care. I wasn't scared at all. Only one thought ran through my head.
I have to beat him. For Garuki, for nee-san, for myself…I have to beat him.
My eyes bored past the curtain to the bed on the other side of the room, where blood-spattered Koori was having his leg wounds tightly wrapped. He caught my glance, and returned it with equal intensity. I could feel his hatred; but I wondered, could he feel mine?
Koori turned his gaze to the door as a stretcher wheeled in from the emergent care room next-door, where Garuki had also initially been taken. It was Kimi. She, too, was out cold, although she was not nearly as pale as Nodin had been after falling prey to the same attack of Sumi's. I assumed she would also be just fine, given some time to recover. I saw Koori give a small sigh of relief, and remembered what it was that made him such an angry person in the first place.
He
must be a loyal teammate, I thought. The best kind of
teammate.
Too bad that loyalty doesn't extend to other fellow Snow Ninja…
Now was not the time for sympathy.
"Yoruhana Hotaru and Fuyuno Koori?" came the voice of a medical nin from the entrance door. "You should hurry upstairs. The match between Tenten-san and Oiwa-san just ended. On that note," he said, turning to waiting medical staff, "thank goodness for a match with no serious injuries for once, you can all stay here. Although Oiwa-san is a little worse for wear."
"Looks like Katana's suggestions helped after all," Sutiibu said jovially beside me. He turned to look at me, serious again. "Hotaru-chan…be careful. I don't like seeing members of my team down here."
"Yes, sir," I said, not a waver in my voice, which carried a darker note than usual.
"Are you prepared?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then you'd best hurry up there. I'll be watching, don't you worry."
I nodded, checked my weapons pouch, and made my way out of the infirmary with a last look over my shoulder at my sleeping, bandaged teammate. The stairs echoed strangely as I walked up them towards the main floor. Koori was a ways ahead of me, limping slightly.
Well, at least I have that much on my side, I though, already preparing mentally for what was about to happen.
We walked out into the open field to screams and applause from every angle of the stadium. The field hadn't changed much since I last saw it; the last few weapons that had clearly littered it moments before disappeared before my eyes as Tenten drew them back into the summon realm, rolled up her giant scroll, and walked off the field. A few mud puddles from Koori's fight with Garuki still remained, shining in the midday sun.
I placed my feet in a steady attack position, eyes on Koori and on the judge, Shouji-san, at the same time. In my gut I felt a pressure like never before, as if pure power were surging through my chakra circulatory system, just waiting to explode outward. My glare leveled at Koori, focusing all that unrecognized energy on him, and suddenly, there was nothing else in the world. The stadium, the fans, my brother and Nariko and Sutiibu and everyone watching, Shouji-san, past, future, all were silent, and there was only the battle.
"Begin," echoed a voice from somewhere distant, and so we began.
Was
it my mind, or did I see the slightest glint of concern in Koori's
eye as he stared me down? That doesn't make sense, I thought.
What does he have to fear from me?
I'm
an inside fighter. And he's weak inside with those injuries.
More
than that.
Fire. Fire melts ice.
I may not have been prepared to use my Bloodline, but Koori need not know that. As far as he was concerned, weak though I may be, I was the worst possible match for his normal attack style. This realization gave me added composure and I began to work out a strategy.
Koori must have been thinking the same way, because before I could get too far in formulating my plans, Koori pulled something out of his weapons pouch. Something I had never seen before.
It was a long, thin tube, almost like a flute except smaller. I couldn't for the life of me figure what it was for.
The air around me clammed up, sticking to my skin. Once again, he'd performed his family technique, drawing water out of the atmosphere, faster than the eye could see.
It's
time to move.
Let's see what that tool of his can do.
I sent three kunai, one after another, straight for Koori's face. To my shock, he performed his Ice Breath seal one handed, a feat I had never seen done by a Genin. By breathing into the small tube, ice was sent out in small but sturdy shards, which, one after another, knocked down my oncoming kunai. He sent one extra at me, but I saw it coming and dodged it easily. Out of the corner of my eye, I analyzed its length and thickness; it wouldn't do to be hit by one.
I
can handle that.
He can't run, and although it's rapid fire he can only block one kunai at a time with that tool. That means…
I was never able to pull it off in practice due to lack of chakra, but I knew it would work here – the move Nariko taught me.
I sent three more kunai in a straight line at Koori. With his injuries, there was no way he'd dodge if he could help it; and sure enough, he raised his ice dart blower to his mouth once more. I waited for him to block the first two, then activated the justu.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Blocked by the ice shard, the original kuani fell to the ground, but its five very real shadow clones each hit their target – two in Koori's right arm, two in his leg, and one above his navel, doing very real damage.
"Ugh! That…that's a Jounin-level technique!" Koori sputtered, pulling out the knives and glaring at me.
True…a Jounin could do that with his own body. Even today, with all this anger-fueled chakra, I could never do something that complicated.
But Koori didn't need to know that. I smiled and narrowed my eyes at him, then moved once more, setting up the same combo. The moment the clones appeared, Koori took a deep breath and blew a shield out of midair, the same move he had used against Katana so often in the Prelims.
I was ready.
One replacement jutsu later, I was behind him, and sent a third Kage Bunshin set of kunai straight at his unprotected backside. It wasn't his back I aimed for, though; this time all six kunai struck his legs.
My chakra supply may be higher than normal today, but the kage bunshin still drains me, I thought, panting. I had to end it soon.
Koori let out an angry yell and fell down to a kneel, grabbing his legs, where crimson fluid was again leaking through his already bloodstained white cargo pants.
There!
I saw the opening and rushed in to strike while he was unable to defend himself in close quarters. Koori looked up barely in enough time to see me coming. Right as I reached him, he cried out in a slightly panicked voice, and something crystal formed in his hands, close to his body.
"Ninpou: Ice Sword!"
For one frightening second, Koori and I were face to face, he clearly frightened at the close call and in a good deal of pain from my kunai, me wide-eyed and in shock, somehow unable to move. I looked down.
He hadn't had much time to form it; my guess was it was supposed to be much longer, in theory. But the solid blade of ice was lodged at least several inches into my belly.
I was lucky. A fully formed sword would have run me straight through.
My fingers, acting separately from my brain, reached down to touch the blood seeping out around the ice.
Koori, either still alarmed at how close my last attack had come to hitting him, or surprised at his own retaliation, pulled the half formed sword out and threw it on the ground. "Get away from me!!" he shouted, pushing solidly with both arms so that I went flying several feet backwards, landing on my rear. He scrambled a good distance away, farther than I could throw.
I'm…bleeding. Losing my concentration, I could vaguely hear the commentary of the crowd now, though I could make out nothing specific. It was all kind of fuzzy…like there was a buzzing in my ears, or something like that…
Seeing me unmoving and dazed must have re-awoken Koori from his state of shock. He tied off a quick bandage over his right leg, which was bleeding the worst of the two, and stood, examining me, eyes narrowed. "You thought you had me. Nice try. But I have the past on my side. I'm in the right! Your teammate caused the death of mine, and now I'll give her a taste of her own medicine. Finally! Look at you, you can't even move…"
That's
right. We're not done yet.
Think, Hotaru. You're losing blood. You've got to stop the blood.
I fumbled in my tool pouch for something Jomei had given me in training; a pill that numbed whatever area you directed it to with your chakra. It could make pain invisible for a short time. I crunched it between my teeth and swallowed the powder, then activated Kokugan. It was difficult, the dizzier I got, but with the ability to see the chakra I eventually moved the medication to the stab wound, and felt immediate relief.
I was able to think a bit clearer.
Still bleeding. Need to stop the blood.
"Examiner?" Koori called. "I don't know what you're waiting for. This match is over and she'll die if you leave her."
What stops bleeding?
"If you leave her, I will kill her. It's up to you."
Cauterizing.
Shouji-san looked at me, examined my face, and hesitated.
Fire.
With no time left to hesitate, I called up the scorching red chakra from my center, and lit the chakra on my right palm on fire.
Koori stopped. Everyone looked at me.
Oblivious to the pain thanks to Jomei's medicine but still queasy at the thought, I pressed my palm to the hole in my stomach. The moment I felt the burn spread, I let the chakra go and smothered the flame with my sleeve.
Koori was staring open-mouthed at my center.
I felt myself steady as the bleeding stopped, but I could still barely stand. From here, there were very few plans of attack. I couldn't move, and Koori didn't want to. It seemed foolish to do the same thing twice, but I could think of nothing else in my state. I pulled a few shuriken from my leg holster and stumbled a few steps closer, hoping that their slightly different attack approach would work to my advantage.
"I don't think so!" Koori shouted. I expected him to pull his tool out once more and try to deflect all three in time, but he didn't even bother; he spun, with difficulty on his legs but a full spin nonetheless, just enough to create a round barrier of ice from the ground up over his head. It was an egg, and my shuriken clacked uselessly against its shell.
"I told you if you didn't end it, I'd kill her," Koori said, voice muffled but audible through the ice. Then, to me, "Now, let me finish this. For my teammate – and for yours!"
What can he do from in there?
I heard a tiny scratching noise from within the ice fortress, and a tiny hole appeared in the front.
None of his ninjutsu attacks can function without Ice Breath…
"Prepare to die."
I didn't hear him call the name of the attack that almost killed Garuki, but I felt the presence of the clouds forming above me.
Garuki-kun.
The blowing tool appeared through the hole, and suddenly I understood what he was going to do. There was no way to know for sure, but I had a feeling that tool didn't only blow small bursts of air. My bet was that it amplified it too. No time to find out.
He
injured Katana, almost killed Garuki, and now he's going to kill
me. I'm going to die.
No, I thought.
"Not after what you did to my team!!"
A huge surge of chakra flamed through my center, radiating out through my body in anger, causing the fear to evaporate along with any doubt.
For a week I had been training my Bloodline Limit alone, after training with Nariko, to no avail. I had made no progress at all. I had little control over Hibana's flames, less the farther they got from my body or the larger they became. Neji's notes gave several clan techniques, but all of them were far more advanced than I could imagine. Even when I knew I was forming the seals and mixing the chakra correctly, I could never quite manage. There just wasn't enough in me, and I didn't have the control. I gave up on them.
But I needed one now.
It was time to gamble. I had no other choice.
The formation of seals was eleven seals long, the chakra mixing complex. My eyes closed as I tried to focus. I blocked out Koori's words and motions within his ice protection; the only way to beat him now was to move faster; I couldn't prevent his attack.
Boar,
rat, dragon…
…chakra turns counterclockwise.
My eyes shot open in a deadly focus straight forward through Koori's ice shell.
Done.
"Kekkei Genkai: Ninpou, Spirit Flame!"
"Ice Breath!!"
I felt every last ounce of chakra drain instantly from my body as Koori's breath crossed the field stronger and faster than I'd ever seen. The tool was indeed what I had thought. Right as the rain began to pour onto my head and form into ice crystals above me, two giant wings of flame erupted from my fingertips. A shield over my head, they turned the ice back to harmless water and evaporated it above me as they twisted together in the form of a phoenix.
I couldn't see Koori's look of terror, but I could feel it.
Not leaving my kneeling position, I swept my arms forward and pressed my chakra as hard as I could in Koori's direction. The phoenix form swept forward as if of its own accord and crashed into Koori's ice shell, melting it in an instant. I began to shake from the strain and in no time the phoenix's form had disappeared, leaving behind the burning form of Koori, as if he had been the one I had summoned from my Bloodline's flame.
I vaguely heard Shouji-san calling the match and demanding water-jutsu assistance over the roars of the crowd before I collapsed into a small heap onto the ground, feeling oddly empty and extremely exhausted.