I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Pokémon.
Mei
Not long after sunrise, they met another team.
Iwa this time, and from its missing third member and how their unfortunate guest practically sprinted to them and threw himself onto one of the team members, it was highly likely that was Daichi's team.
While Daichi had run off to his team, Mei stayed a few steps behind, not entirely sure if it was a good idea to greet a potentially hostile team on which they had close to no information whatsoever on. It was a bad idea, that was for sure, and she was glad that Mangetsu and Kisame had enough self-restraint to not directly engage with them.
(She pretended to not notice the subtle glances her two teammates were trading with each other excitedly.)
The first of Daichi's teammate, the one listening to Daichi's chattering confusedly, had an androgynous build and a small, jagged scar running down the length of the left side of the face. Around Kisame's height and pale messy lavender hair pulled in a short ponytail. Could be male, but Mei could be wrong.
The other one was watching them passively with half-lidded eyes, though she felt that the genin was possibly staring at someone in particular. Loose dark hair all flipped to one side, and Mei had to wonder how it was possible for him to fight without getting a mouthful of hair.
Ah yes, the struggles of having long hair. She had had firsthand experience in walking out during a windy day without tying her hair up. Maybe she could make it a side goal? Being able to fight to her fullest while having her hair down?
A possibility, but not exactly her priority right now.
Mei eyed the Iwa trio thoughtfully. Neither of the two parties was openly hostile to each other—wary, yes, but not hostile—so she still had a shot at diplomacy.
Not that she minded a good brawl, but she wanted to see if she was able to come out of this peacefully. Also, time limit was still a thing, and she knew very well what could happen if they try to push their luck too far.
She took a step forward.
The reaction was almost instantaneous; Scruffy Lavender pulled out a pair or tekko kagi, Darky pulled back and reached into a side pouch, and Daichi went for the hilt of his sword. Similarly, the two boys had already drawn their own weapons and she could practically feel the anticipation radiating off them.
Mei knew she could easily spring the imminent battle with a single gesture.
Too bad for them, she had (currently) no interest in any physical altercation.
Mei held both her hands up as a sign that she had no intention on starting a fight, a message that would hopefully reach them.
"I have an offer to propose." She lowered her arms just as the Iwa team did with their weapons, and with a peek behind her shoulders, so did Mangetsu and Kisame, albeit a bit begrudgingly.
"And what might it be?" Darky raised an eyebrow, arms crossing over his chest. "As far as we know, you have nothing to offer that could be in our interest."
Kisame's sword could help to track down pins more easily, but…
"Protection," she proposed instead, "amongst other things. Maybe even a temporary alliance? That might save both of us some time. Bigger search team, better the chances of finding something useful."
It wasn't much and frankly speaking, if someone offered that to her, Mei would have most probably rejected it in favour of taking what they wanted by force. Especially if the opposing party had little advantage over them in terms of manpower and skill.
Scruffy looked ready to protest, but Darky cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Save it for later. These ones look to be slightly more skilled than I had anticipated." He took a step forward, ignoring the way the boys tensed behind her. "Your offer is worth considering, but we would like our pin back to complete the blue set."
Mei smiled, maybe a tad too sharply, at the outstretched hand presented to her. "Only if you have something else in exchange, dear. If not, well…"
Darky retracted his hand, a faint frown pulling his mouth. "I see," he muttered. "We have two yellow and an orange, all three useless to us."
"So you took up the proctor's offer and were stuck with blue," concluded Mei. "But back to the actual subject. We have one orange pin and two greys," she said, taking named pins out, "so here's the proposal. We continue together towards the checkpoint, and if we can't find a yellow or orange pin by then, we fight."
Darky tilted his head slightly to the side, much like a curious bird, pensive for a moment. Finally, he let out a breath and propped a hand to his hip.
"Sounds good enough to me," agreed Darky evenly. "But we're keeping the orange and yellow pins until then."
"And we keep the blue one," responded Mei in kind. "If it's set, then it's best if we don't waste time here. Lingering here only means less time to search."
She turned on her heel and stalked off, feeling the flaps of her clothing with the movement, and waved Kisame and Mangetsu to follow.
Oh, how Mei loved dramatic exits.
"The checkpoint is the other way, if I may point out."
Drat.
Ditto
Apparently, sword-Ditto was starting to become the center of attention of the other party.
(Having a brightly coloured scarf wound up around a sheath can do that. — I guess out of everything, that might be the most eye-catching detail…)
"Can I see your sword? Please?"
"No," denied Kisame once again. "And don't bank on me changing decisions."
Should he start referring to this form as a Honedge? Since Ditto was using it as the base.
Hm. Maybe he shouldn't. After all, it wasn't exactly Honedge. Just… Honedge inspired, for lack of better wording.
(Plus, sword-Ditto has a way better ring than Honedge-Ditto, no? — And it'll be less confusing if you decide one day to go as an actual Honedge.)
With no sight available anymore, sword-Ditto was able to quickly compensate the loss with his… radar? (Still have no idea what to name it.) Unsurprisingly enough, even though hearing was still conserved, sword-Ditto rarely relied on it to perceive anything, usually preferring his sensing to it to locate objects and beings.
He wondered, how was Chip faring? It had been little over a month already.
Ditto restrained himself from releasing a sigh (not that this body could, really). He really shouldn't worry that much about the ball of stress. Chip could manage himself fine, and it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it anyways, in his current situation.
One of the three unfamiliar ripples approached Big Blue, and Ditto could feel the silky, almost fragile texture of it that just rubbed him wrong.
"May I take a look at your sword?"
His grip on the scabbard tightened minutely as he heard the gravel crunch softly beside them.
"No," responded Kisame, yet again shooting down another attempt, terse tone betraying his previous nonchalant attitude about the subject. "You know I'll keep refusing, so why do continue?"
The one who asked simply hummed and fell into step with Big Blue. "Simply human curiosity."
Ditto blocked out whatever had ensued, focusing on spotting any anomaly in the environment. His current range stretched out to around forty meters give or take a few, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't proud of that.
The next few hours were mostly spent in relative boredom with nothing out of the ordinary popping out. With no new humans turning up and picking up no manmade chakra-emitting objects on his radar, sword-Ditto stuck with cataloguing different ripples from either the scarce vegetation or the few small animals roaming around.
If sword-Ditto had heard right, that would mean there would be a battle soon if they didn't make any progress, right? While he wasn't against the idea of it, he still wanted more time, just to see how far he could actually reach with his energy pulses, and for how long he could continuously send them out. As light as the energy cost for them, there must be a limit somewhere.
But time wasn't on their side, and…
Suddenly, a faint ripple pinged on his sense.
Curious, sword-Ditto compared the ripple to the other impressions he had felt and was feeling.
{Big Blue,} sword-Ditto announced through the link, {I think we've finally found a match! In front, to the left of Mangetsu. Something's lodged in between the two stone slabs.}
While his partner went to rely the finding, Ditto tried to find the correct match for the possible pin, if there was any at all.
He couldn't accurately confirm it, but the closest match would be one the other party was holding.
"Orange," sighed Mangetsu, "and to say that I was really excited about the battle. But lucky you, you three get to have your butts unkicked for today."
Once again, time. If Ditto wasn't wrong, even if they didn't drag out the battle, they would come extremely close to the time limit and even maybe return late to the goal. Not to mention that none of them knew the exact location to return to the building Big Blue had commented that looked like a deformed almond.
"As per our deal," declared Mei, taking out a pin, "here's yours, and we don't have to fight for the set."
"Thank you." In return, the person who made Ditto feel uncomfortable handed her another pin, thus completing the orange set. "If it wouldn't be too much to ask, would you be willing to travel with us to the checkpoint since we both are heading the same way?"
There was a moment of silence (aside from Mangetsu's grumbling and Big Blue quietly consoling him) before Mei hesitantly agreed.
Much to Ditto's surprise and his partner and Mangetsu's chagrin, no one had jumped in nor did anything unexpected happen.
The two teams weren't the first to return to the checkpoint, nor were they the last. They separated shortly after, Daichi's squad going to join another Iwa team while Mei decided to wait near one of the exits.
Gathered from the nearby chatter, there was still around two hours left before the deadline.
"How many teams passed?" asked Big Blue.
{Around… maybe two fifth of the initial count 'til now?} responded Ditto when no one else of the squad did.
In the end, little over half of the teams passed, and thus concluded the first stage of the exam.
Mangetsu
Bromodic. Insipid. Completely and utterly boring.
Mangetsu had expected the first stage to be much more interesting. The only 'interesting' part was just crushing a rock clone. There had apparently been a small battle with a Suna team during the night, though he had been unfortunately away scouring then. After that, Mei opted for diplomacy and Kisame and company took care of the search-and-find part.
And now the proctor said that the next stage wouldn't start until tomorrow noon! How…!
After ridding himself of his training gear, Mangetsu let himself crash face first on one of the beds of their temporary room, provided for the time until the second stage would start. He burrowed his face into the pillow, releasing a gusty sigh.
He just wanted a bit of action after the long trip from Kiri to Iwa.
There were no training grounds available to them, and he couldn't even spar with Mei or Kisame! Because as the proctor had stated, "no physical altercations of any sorts is allowed on examination grounds in between stages unless stated," and infringing that would mean disqualification.
Mangetsu screamed into the pillow, the fabric muffling the sound.
All this inactivity was just making the itch for a good battle more irritating than ever.
The only other person in the room turned to face him, puzzled.
"Is something wrong?" Mei paused in her sorting of the various tools she had brought. Her movements were not unlike that of a needle, Mangetsu thought. Precise, efficient and elegant. Even with a mundane task such as organizing. "And please don't destroy the pillows. We would probably have to refund them if we do."
He rolled over, nearly falling off the bed, and clutched the pillow harder. "But I'm so boooooored," he whined, kicking up the covers of the adjacent bed in the process. "And I can't even ask Kisa-san about his weird sword anymore because he disappeared to nowhere!" He paused. "Actually, where did he go?"
Mei turned to fully face him, some wire in her hands. "He said he went to, quote-unquote, 'explore the place a bit'. Never thought he would be the type to do that, really."
Mangetsu perked up at that. "Really? He went to walk around town? What for?"
She gave a shrug, rolled up the wire, and stored it in a small pouch. "He said it was because he was getting bored, but it felt like there was something else. Or maybe it's just because Kisame tried something new."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." She nodded absentmindedly, fiddling with something that was caught in her clothing. "He used a plural pronoun instead of singular. He said 'we wanted to go explore' and not 'I wanted to go explore'. It's been bugging me for a bit, and I only realized it after he left, and he's probably too far to find him now."
Interesting, though Mangetsu had half an idea of why. Hard to not link that back to that peculiar conversation he had overheard during the voyage to cross the sea.
"Maybe Kisa-san was also including his spooky sentient sword when he said that," speculated Mangetsu, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "He did say that they could communicate with each other, yeah? Maybe the sword was the one who suggested it."
"Maybe," she hummed. "I'll ask him when he comes back from his small excursion around Iwa. Not sure what there is interesting about a glorified pile of rocks, though."
Glorified pile of rocks, indeed. How had they managed to create the buildings, exactly? While some were constructed out of stone blocks piled neatly on top of each other, others looked to have been directly carved out of the earth. Shinobi or not, someone did not just simply manage that. They definitely weren't natural geological formations, either.
"Maybe Kisa-san was curious about how the village was built? Some of the buildings and houses look like they were molded or sculpted straight from the earth, and not added on top of it."
"It does, doesn't it?" agreed Mei. "And now I wonder, can sentient-slash-enchanted-slash-cursed swords express feelings or emotions? Can they feel curious? Are they able to learn, just like humans and other living beings do? Really, I have so many questions…"
Shiroitsuchi
A little before noon, Shiroitsuchi and his team found themselves back at the examination place/courtyard/empty garden/whatever. And in his humble opinion, the second stage could have started earlier and his parents could have chosen a more original name for him.
"Hiya there!" shouted Shiroitsuchi, spotting his favorite stick in the mud and sauntered towards him. "I heard you guys ran into the rookie Kiri team!"
Yasu merely twitched in response, much to his disappointment.
"…I might have underestimated them slightly," replied the sensor after a moment. "I thought you had said that they were relatively new to the shinobi world."
Had he really said that?
…He hadn't. Well, not in those exact words. Maybe just insinuated it.
Although the words had been said in a neutral tone and had no heat, Shiroitsuchi still raised his hands. "They are!" he defended. "Just… unpredictable. Just a bit. And also maybe have a sensor."
"And an odd sword whose owner refuses to let us see too," added Yasu with a huff. "The sensor is most probably the taller blue-skinned one. Kisame, was it?"
"You got it right, pal! At least, I think so. Shark guy would always be the one to react first to anything. Not to mention that…"
Shiroitsuchi paused when Yasu raised a hand up. He followed his line of sight, and…
"Well, speaking of the devil!" Shiroitsuchi gave a good clap on his fellow Iwa nin's shoulder before darting off and shouting a quick "Later gator!" without bothering to look back.
Now to sneak up on the recently named Kisame and company without being noticed. He would say 'easier said than done' and then snort because he would be talking to himself, but sneaking up on any Kiri shinobi in training was already risky as it was.
Never mind the fact that the most intimidating one (who incidentally was shorter than Shiroitsuchi, and wasn't that funny? All sharp teeth, funny eyes and a predatory grin, but still shorter than him. Hah!) was also a sensor.
Shiroitsuchi ghosted past the few teams standing between them, noting idly from which village every one of them hailed from, and made note to remember their faces.
There were visibly less teams present, and if the sight wasn't enough, the noticeable drop in volume compared to the previous day indicated it.
Skirting around the field of view of the three guppies, the Iwa nin blended into what small crowd had gathered around his target team. Because for all that their sensor was good at, it seemed as though he couldn't pick up a specific signature in the midst of a crowd.
Even then, tucking in his chakra and repressing it as much as he could wouldn't do much harm.
Mindful to stay inconspicuous, he moved along with the mass until he was at two arm's length away.
Shiroitsuchi swiftly stepped forward and offered a cheery wave. "Heyo buddy-o—!"
He stopped the elbow from hitting his face at the last second and forcibly lowered it.
From what he had gathered from Yasu, that would be Mei, and the white-haired one who was glaring daggers at him (despite his glaringly short size, which made it all the funnier) would be Mangetsu.
"Oh," drawled Mei, "it's just you."
"That wasn't really nice, you know?" He grinned and let go of the offending appendage. "I don't think elbowing someone in the face is a proper greeting, pal."
She shot him a strange look. "I'm really not sure if it's just a strange speech quirk of yours, but I don't think we're friends."
Shiroitsuchi put on a wounded expression. "So cold!" he exclaimed. "And we might not be friends, not yet, but I do recall our villages are allies, no? So we might see each other again when we get promoted and sent on a recon mission together." He shrugged. "Or just any other mission requiring a team from both our villages."
Just as he was about to add on how convenient that would be, a loud honk blared from the center of the room.
Nearly every head in the room swiveled to see the source of the sound in an eerie synchronicity.
(Shiroitsuchi wished he would never had to see something of the sort again, because the action was just plain creepy. Especially from a gaggle of (mostly) prepubescent kids learning how to make flashy murders while attracting the least attention possible.)
There stood a jounin (a relative to Yusaku-sensei, if the clan markings were anything to go by) with a strange device in hand. A metallic canister with a horn of some sort attached to it.
"Pipe down and listen up!" When some located farther in the room hadn't heard and continued whispering amongst themselves, the instrument blared once again, effectively silencing the whole room this time. "I'm the proctor for the second stage."
The newly proclaimed proctor took out two large strips of cloth, one red, one brown.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Kiri team's attention was currently on the jounin, Shiroitsuchi slowly slunk away to rejoin his group. He'll go bother them some other time.
At least, that was what he had in mind until a hand shot out and latched onto his sleeve.
On the other end of the arm stood Mei, and if Shiroitsuchi didn't know better, he would have said she was smiling placidly, eyes closed and lips curved slightly upwards. As it stood, he could understand the silent 'don't move or else' from her look.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, the Iwa nin had once heard an old dude say. He wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but it sounded cool and probably said that a woman—or a girl, in this situation—can have quite the temper.
Being the sensible person he was, he wisely chose to stay put.
Not that he had any other choices, really, given that Mei still had an iron grip on his forearm. He could technically just shrug off his clothing and be gone with it, but he wasn't sure if anyone would appreciate him running around half naked.
"—in summary, you only need to collect four points, and while it isn't necessary, you are not forbidden from taking extras. Kenta by the booth will call each team one by one for the sashes. Good luck."
The proctor gave a lazy salute and puffed out of the room.
…How much did Shiroitsuchi miss out on?
As he was about to go back and ask his teammates, the pull on his sleeve kept him where he was.
Ah, darn it. He almost forgot about that.
"Any reason why you continually seek us out?"
He gave Mei a discreet once over. Not angry, not annoyed—maybe just a bit, actually. Just genuine curiosity.
No harm telling them, he supposed.
He offered a grin, sharp and perhaps a bit sardonic. "You three are part of the rookie teams. Part of the ones who entered during their first half year of their genin career." He waved his free hand around. "Not to be nasty or anything, but they usually tend to not last that long, considered being easy picking and whatnot."
Coming from someone who knew what he was talking about, and had firsthand experience of it. And who then witnessed it for the following exams.
The blue giant (giant for someone his age, but Shiroitsuchi could still loom easily over him, hehe) shifted, the way too long tassel of his sword swaying with the movement.
(Because as if his skin colouring wasn't weird enough, his sword's colouring was as equally strange. With the… unique colour choice for it, Shiroitsuchi wouldn't be surprised if the blade also had an unusual colour.)
"But why did you approach us on the first day then?" asked Kisame.
While he was about to formulate some half-excuse about people watching, Kenta from the booth called out "Squad Four from Kirigakure!"
Mei's eyes slid from Shiroitsuchi to the booth. "Well, this is our cue to go." The grip on his forearm loosened, and he quickly retracted his arm. "Until we meet again, Shiroi."
He blinked. "Shiroi? Not using my full name?"
"It's too much of a mouthful to pronounce."
Well, it was a start at a tentative friendship.
…And now he had to find his teammates to explain him what was the second stage.
Kisame
Kenta handed them three orange sashes, neatly folded and looking like they had been washed a few hours prior.
Kisame could smell the odour of the soap emanating from them, even with the smell of rust and sweat permeating the tent.
"And remember," repeated the man for the fourth time, "tie it to the waist so that at least half an arm length of cloth is still loose, alright?"
"Thank you, and yes, we got it," responded Mei, taking the fabric and handing one to each squad member.
After exiting the booth, Squad Four headed to their usual spot beside the exit. Not only was it close to one of the way out, but few people frequented the area, for some reason.
Mangetsu raised his hand. "Could we have a small recap, Terumi-chan? Just in case I missed anything."
Mei rolled her eyes and huffed, but complied nonetheless. "Every participant has a coloured sash tied on them. One sash equals one point. The goal is to accumulate four points in total in order to pass this stage."
She brandished her own piece of tissue in front of Mangetsu's face. "The only catch is that one with the same colour as your own has a value of two points. That means that taking in the fact that just about every team here has three members, one could easily pass the stage by stealing the ones from their teammates."
"Which we won't do, since it's an obvious bait," reasoned Kisame. "To what end, though?"
"Maybe for something for the next stage?"
"Probably," agreed Mei, giving a nod. "We'll need to find twelve sashes then. Four teams total."
Hadn't Shiroitsuchi said that they weren't the youngest ones in the exams?
{I think Shiroi mentioned, er, 'the trio of tree huggers' were the youngest ones, so they might be your best shot for the first three points. But despite this, I still have the feeling you'll go for whoever is the closest.}
Konoha then. While Kisame wouldn't necessarily go for the closest team, Mangetsu might if Mei didn't say anything about it.
Now that he thought about it, Mangetsu was like a puppy, following Mei around and pestering her for time together. One that might go rabid at any moment and could suffocate enemies with his mass-turned-body fluid, but the similarities were still there.
"The easiest target would probably be the Konoha team Shiroitsuchi brought up last time." Kisame gestured to the general area where most said teams gathered. "Meaning one of those groups."
"So… ambush the Konoha team if possible and hit for whoever is closest after, then?" proposed Mangetsu, eyes shining.
Mei made a sound of agreement, and Kisame went with it.
Mangetsu grinned, rocking back and forth on his feet, and looking generally restless. Anxious? Impatient? Eager? Probably eager.
He wasn't the only one eager, that was for sure. The two other teammates simply had the decency to hide it better.
Soon after, all the participating genin teams were called to assemble to a nearby training ground. It was a wide expanse of rocky terrain with stones and spike-like pillars of various sizes jutting out of the ground here and there. A single pond of clear water rested at the far west end, in the shade of a hunched over tree.
The assigned proctor suddenly shot out from a lone patch of soil at the center of the field, startling a few teams that stood too close.
"The stage will be starting shortly," he announced, legs sinking midway back into the earth, "so gather to your assigned area—designed by your given number." The insufferably loud cylindrical instrument was taken out. "It'll start once I ring this. Once all four points gathered, simply exit the training ground by any means."
Kisame hummed and set a hand on the hilt of his sword. "Assigned area?"
"Kenta from the booth had whispered it to me when handing me the sashes. It's where we start the stage at," she explained breezily, walking towards the sole pond. "And lucky for us, we start under the shade of the leaves."
Kisame and Mangetsu followed suite, watching the other teams do the same.
As they reached the foot of the tree, Ditto made a sound of confusion at the back of his mind.
{Somehow, there are certain places imbued with more chakra? Like if they were landmarks or something… Like the tree you're just standing against. Or the square of dirt in the middle of the area. Or even just that one giant monolith in the distance that looks more like the remnant of a snapped toothpick!}
Kisame squinted into the distance, and confirmed to himself that there was indeed a stone protrusion looking like a snapped toothpick far away. The patch of soil on which the proctor had been standing on had a team on it, and similarly with the giant stone toothpick, there was also a team standing beside it.
He spotted a cracked boulder with a Konoha team nearby.
"Hey, Ditto," he whispered, not minding too much the fact that his teammates could hear him, "do you sense something from the boulder a few paces to our right? It has a crack in the middle."
There was a moment before they replied.
{Yeah. Pretty strong too, actually.} They snickered. {Stronger than the three humans by it, actually. You know anything about it?}
Maybe each of these 'landmarks' signified an assigned area.
"The tree is emitting a considerable amount of chakra," he pointed out, gesturing to said tree behind them. "And it looks like every 'assigned area' has something emitting more chakra than it should be able to."
Whatever Mei was about to say died on her lips, the obnoxious blare sounding out through the training ground announcing the beginning of the second stage.
{I'm about 90% sure that's an air horn there. Beautiful pneumatic device used for signaling.}
In an instant, Kisame shot towards the Konoha team by the boulder, sword unsheathed and feet barely hitting the ground with every step.
Mangetsu promptly flanked by his side while Mei followed between them, a few steps behind.
One of the Konoha genin turned just in time to deflect the swing of Kisame's blade with a senbon, causing a resounding shing.
He sprung to the left, narrowly avoiding getting his ear pierced by another senbon needle.
The sound of fighting broke out all around them, contrasting to the silence shared between the two teams, taking a brief moment to assess each other.
A navy bandanna with a matching trench coat, and… chewing on a senbon? That can't be healthy for his teeth… Possibly a midrange to long-range fighter. Not the best matchup for Kisame, but as long as he can close the distance between them, he should be fine.
The one facing Mei wore dark round shades and overalls, topping the all with a cap-like hitai-ate. Nothing about him stood out, save for the strange outfit.
Finally, Mangetsu's opponent was… well.
"Looks like you got yourself a strange green beast," chuckled Kisame, eyeing the remarkably thick eyebrows.
In response, all Mangetsu did was to offer an uneasy grin, eyes still trained on the shining teeth of the flamboyant green creature who struck a pose.
(…Were his teeth actually that reflective, or was it a genjutsu?)
Clad in a green sleeveless one-piece outfit and sporting a tidy bowl cut, the young genin was the last of the odd outfit trio.
{The one Mangetsu's facing feels… kinda weird. Maybe something to look into later?}
Feeling the familiar rush of heat gathering behind him, Kisame reflexively dropped down low, letting the stream of fire soar above him and into the opposing team.
They managed to avoid it mostly, though much to Kisame's amusement, the one in the trench coat dropped the senbon that was hanging from his mouth in shock, and nearly impaled his foot with it.
Kisame followed through with a quick upward slash, aiming to sever the brown cloth tied around his waist.
To a great amount of surprise and annoyance, that too was deviated by a flick of a senbon, sending the blade to the side and grazing his trench coat instead.
Kisame resisted the urge to cluck his tongue. This was but the beginning, he shouldn't get riled up that fast.
Instead, he let an eager grin bloom on his face. It had been a while since he had anything challenging. Team spars didn't count, they knew each other's arsenal too well to actually land any good hits.
(And it wasn't like dishing out heavy attacks that might injure a teammate before any missions was a wise decision.)
Kisame nimbly sidestepped the small volley of senbon thrown his way, hearing them get into crossfire and the familiar sound of something being scorched.
He narrowed his eyes. Where does one even store that many senbon on himself? Some kind of storage seal painted on his body? Konoha had a tendency to spit out fuinjutsu users every few generations, some more competent than others, according to the few history books he had bothered to read.
Storage seals… he had promised to explain them to Ditto, hadn't he?
Kisame blinked, lazily swatting away the needle headed towards his face with the flat of the blade.
{Hey, something feels weird about—}
He abruptly raised his free arm in front of his face, narrowly avoiding the fate of a punctured eye. Rather than striking the organ, the senbon lodged itself under his wrist.
Kisame raised an eyebrow, grin still remaining in place. "Hm?" He tilted his head slightly, catching sight of the senbon he had deflected a moment ago that was now wedged between pebbles on the ground. "I'm curious, how did it duplicate? I was certain you only threw one senbon."
"Sorry, but a magician never reveals his secrets," returned the trench coat genin with a smile of his own, twirling yet another senbon between his fingers.
Kisame huffed in amusement. Probably genjutsu to hide it. Shadow clones was also a possibility, but it was unlikely the Konoha genin had enough control to be able to duplicate the senbon in midair.
"Well then…" Kisame yanked out the senbon—smaller and thinner than the ones they usually have from Kiri, he noted—of his arm with a slight wince. A small amount of blood welled up from the puncture wound, but he paid no mind to it.
He rolled his injured wrist experimentally, keeping an eye on his opponent. Trench coat genin didn't take any offensive moves either, simply watching him carefully.
Seeing that his opponent decided to go on defense, Kisame allowed himself to take a quick look around the field.
Mei was in a stalemate, two continuous streams of fire clashing against each other, battling for dominance. A battle of chakra control and chakra reserve, it seemed. He could go help by giving a quick distraction, but Kisame doubted Mei would appreciate that.
Mangetsu… could have been in a better situation. While he was invulnerable to taijutsu with that clan technique of his, he still needed physical hands to be able to grasp for any weapons or form hand signs in order to mould chakra.
Which was rather hard for him at the moment, given the fact that the vibrant beast was much more agile and faster than him, and noticed that always striking the hands would deny Mangetsu the possibility to go on offense.
A barrage of senbon was launched at Kisame's feet, forcing him to jump backwards.
"You should keep your eyes on your opponent, big boy," rebuked the trench coat genin, wagging his finger at him and tsked disapprovingly.
Kisame's lips twitched upwards.
"Then you better keep your eyes on my strikes, needle brat."
Genma
Genma chewed on a senbon thoughtfully. He had often been told that it would one day damage his teeth, but it wasn't like he took the advice to heart. Chakra exist for a reason, folks. Reinforcing teeth with chakra is more useful than one could think.
He observed the Kiri nin attentively.
Looked like a kid version of a shark counterpart to the creepy snake sannin. Blatant animalistic features, kenjutsu user, weird sword, creepy smile and eyes, unproportional arm strength (he was already straining by simply parrying a few sword strikes), and if the similarities continued, probably proficient in ninjutsu to some point too.
All he knew was that letting him come into striking range spelled bad idea.
But he also needed the orange sash dangling tauntingly from the shark kid (who was most probably older than Genma) very badly.
On one hand, getting close meant he could possibly be cut to ribbons. Or drowned, if the Kiri nin knew any water jutsu. On the other hand, he needed to pass this second stage, and he would look bad if he was the only one who hadn't manage to retrieve a sash.
Oh, the moral dilemma.
Genma rolled the senbon between his teeth, carefully observing his opponent's movements.
But it seemed that the choice had been taken out of his hands when the shark boy charged forwards, probably with the intent to chop off his head or something.
Genma retaliated with three chakra enhanced senbon, two of which were covered by a minor genjutsu. Two to the shoulders and one to the knee.
He had his doubts that his opponent hadn't picked up on the genjutsu, but managing to dispel and deflect it before the needles struck was another thing for someone of their caliber.
But apparently it was hard to fool a shark twice, seeing the two genjutsu-hidden senbon being batted away with a scabbard and the third one nimbly avoided with a small shift of the body.
"Your throws are fast," remarked the blue-skinned teen, "would've gotten me if I didn't see it coming." He then snickered to himself. Inside joke, probably. "They said they leave a bright trail, like the tail of a meteor." A pause. "Whatever that means."
A… trail? Meteor? And who would 'they' refer to?
Genma nearly yelped in surprise as the blade nearly cleaved him in half, having barely enough time to drop down in a roll.
While he could technically duplicate a whole bunch of senbon in midair, Genma only possessed an average chakra pool. He wasn't sure if spending a good portion of it to create the shadow clones would be a wise decision.
Unlike those cheating Uchiha and Uzumaki, Genma's chakra reserves were limited.
He had prepared an alternative for occasions like these, but…
He let out another barrage of senbon, a small satisfied smirk working its way when more than just a few needles struck the intended target.
(There was also the fact that most of them were also evaded, but better look at the positive side, right?)
Genma deflected a swipe aiming for the cloth tied around his waist and deftly executed a perfect back handspring that even Gai would be proud of in order to avoid getting impaled through the gut.
"Hey!" he yelped, adroitly landing on his feet. "I actually want"—he dropped low to avoid a clean shave—"to keep my intestinal tracks intact, thank you very much!"
Shark boy snorted, delivering another swing. "And I want a promotion. Not everybody gets what they want, trench coat."
"It's Genma," he grumbled, shooting a senbon to deviate the blade in return.
"Is that so?" The Kiri nin raised an eyebrow. "Name's Kisame. Pleasure meeting you, shooting star."
And accompanied by that was a beaming smile with teeth too sharp to be natural.
What a guy.
Genma parried another swing, this time skidding backwards from the force of the blow.
He was losing ground.
Bad. That was bad.
There was a stone wall behind him, and most likely than not, his opponent had every intention of herding him towards that very direction.
Well… in this case, it can't be helped.
Genma reached into his inner breast pocket and pulled out a few senbon coated in a transparent fluid, and covered half of them with a minor genjutsu.
He had originally planned to keep those in reserve for emergencies and for the final stage of the exam, but he didn't really have a choice here anymore.
"OI!" suddenly called out a voice, "KISA-SAN! SWITCH?"
Kisame looked in the direction from which the voice came from, and back at Genma.
"Looks like I'll have to cut our meeting short, so it seems." He offered a not-so apologetic smile before hollering back, "SURE!"
The Kiri nin had lowered his sword, as well as its scabbard.
There. Opening.
Four poison-coated and one regular senbon launched from his hand. Regular one aiming for the carotid artery, serving as distraction. Closely following behind were two poisoned ones, aiming for between the shoulders to disarm, and the final two shot for the kneecaps to incapacitate.
Strangely, the shark boy made no move to intercept any of them.
Just as the needle was about to pierce his jugular, Kisame smiled smugly and—
Instead of being met with flesh, the senbon shot through a plume of smoke, the Kiri nin with animalistic features nowhere in sight.
Substitution.
And in his place was the white-haired boy from earlier, sporting an all-too similar grin, with all the knife-like teeth and mouth that stretched too wide. Not to mention purple eyes.
Urg. Who even has purple eyes?
"I hope you're ready to get your assed kicked," said the boy cheerily.
Just as Genma was about to retort with a snarky comment, his opponent's body unexpectedly liquefied and made a beeline towards his position.
He quickly shook himself out of his stupor and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the two hands that shot out of the slime-like puddle. Just about at the same time, a strange fog rolled onto the field, hiding further grounds from view.
"Looks like I mist," snickered shark boy v2.0, his head poking out of the dubious puddle somewhere further away, "but don't worry, we still have some time on hand."
Genma groaned, and wondered if there was any way he could evaporate the boy.
Ebisu
The fires raged on, and Ebisu was slowly losing his breath. His chakra was also steadily depleting, which surely didn't bode well for the outcome of this battle.
He had trained himself to be able to hold his breath for a long period of time, but two minutes was nearing his maximum.
His lungs started to burn, and before he could choke himself to death, he ceased spewing flames, and in half an instant, the opposing tongues of fire rushed towards him like the gaping maw of a striking serpent.
Ebisu rolled to the side hands flying through a series of hand signs, and—
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
He slammed his hands on the ground and a rudimentary wall of dirt and stone shot up, just in time to stop the incoming flames from scorching him to a crisp.
The bespectacled watched in awe as the continuous stream of fire raged on around the protection of his wall, his surroundings illuminated by the orange glow. It was like watching a sunset up close, a globe of golden hue forming around him.
It was only after a few moments that the inferno died down, and Ebisu gingerly peeked out from his hiding spot, now faintly smelling like burnt earth.
There stood the fiery-headed girl, hands in a tiger seal and taking a big gulp of air.
That couldn't be good.
"Wait up!" shouted Ebisu, maybe just a tad desperately. He had other things to do aside from turning into human charcoal. "Could I ask you something first?"
Much to Ebisu's surprise, the girl did halt the technique and let her hands fall back to her side, confident that she would win no matter what. And Ebisu couldn't really blame her; after that stunt, he too would be more assured of his victory, not to mention his earth wall wouldn't be able to take another hit.
She propped up a hand onto her hip and raised an eyebrow.
"Well? We don't have all day."
Still hiding behind the meager safety his wall provided, Ebisu carefully asked, "Where do you keep all that air?"
When his opponent didn't seem to understand his question, Ebisu went to figure out another way to formulate his inquiry.
"How do you…" He waved his hands around, as if it would help him explain, "not run out of breath with a continuous fireball jutsu?"
The girl's eyes lighted up, finally understanding the goal of his question. Then she shot him a dubious look, as though saying 'are you stupid?'
"…Circular breathing?" She was enunciating her words slowly, as if talking to a young child. "Did you never learn it?"
Ebisu stared at her blankly. He knew the meaning of the words separately, but together, the term had little to no meaning to him.
"Circular… breathing?"
A look of shock and horror spread across her face at his dull response.
"Dear heavens above," she breathed out, "you really have no idea what I'm talking about."
She took a few steps towards him and seemed to be ready to break out in a sprint, but quickly aborted the motion.
Instead, she raised a hand to rest upon the back of her neck and slightly relaxed her posture.
"Say, I'll give you a proposition." When the girl was sure she had Ebisu's—who was still hiding behind his mud wall—attention, she continued. "I'll teach you circular breathing, because as a fellow fire jutsu user, it just pains me to see you like this. In exchange…"
The redhead tapped a finger to her cheek with a look of contemplation.
"You will just have to give me your sash."
However, before Ebisu had the chance to say whatsoever of it, the girl immediately followed through, seeing his conflicted expression.
"Of course, after we finish that, you could always try to take it back by any means."
She extended her hand expectantly, awaiting his response.
Ebisu silently mulled over it.
The Kiri nin was willing to teach him this 'circular breathing' in exchange for his sash. He had a small idea of what it could be, and it wasn't like he couldn't ask Chouza-sensei for advice.
On the other hand, as it stood, Ebisu had to chance of beating her in his current condition. His opponent could effortlessly outlast him in battle and his chakra would start running dangerously low if they continued as they did just a moment ago.
He half-heartedly glared at the outstretched palm from behind his tinted lenses and reluctantly stepped out of the cracked earth wall.
Least Ebisu could do was stall for time, and get help from his teammates after they finished their respective fights.
From the mischievous smile she wore, he already knew asking her help wouldn't be a good idea.
He took the hand anyways.
(Fun fact: Genma's name comes from the constellation Gemma)
While cleaning out my closet for possible wormholes, I found a red button and clicked it by accident, causing a giant windstorm to come down upon me and suck me out of this dimension. (I had a shitty February, and a busy and even shittier March.)
"Yeah, I could write a small fight scene," I say as I attempt to write one, and fail spectacularly.
I have no idea where this second stage is going, I don't know how to write Ebisu, someone please help me
Also, probably no chapter next month because we have a school field trip overseas, and I'm not sure if I'll have the time to work on this story.
Reviews and suggestions are always appreciated!
P.-S.: Poll's closed, and it looks like I'll be keeping my slow-ass updating schedule.
P.-P.-S.: Story is now one year old! Woo!