It's been a month since I last updated, and I am very sorry for that. I've basically been on silent until I got my creative juices flowing again.
This chapter was way harder to write than I thought it was going to be. But, on the bright side, this story might just help to boost my skills in the realm of writing fight scenes. I swear to all that is holy, unholy, and otherwise supernatural that I really do suck at writing fight scenes quickly. Especially if I'm writing them from scratch. So, I've been filling it all in bit by bit as the words come to me, painstakingly slowly.
Of course, it doesn't help that I've had horrid writer's block, and it's felt like I've had people looking over my shoulder as I write. I hate it when people do that, it's terribly uninspiring.
So, as there has been no indication of an order preference, I'll just get things started with a bang, or ten. Also, I'll be putting in some Naruto P.O.V this chapter. And it's about time, I've been waiting to do P.O.V. for him for a while now. (And keep in mind that he's not nearly as stupid as the other characters seem to think, and things really do sound a lot better in your head rather than out loud most of the time.)
Ciara's P.O.V.
The first two names appear on the screen, announcing the combatants of the first match. Which means that everyone else is going to get to sit back and watch. The first is a name that I don't recognize. The other is mine.
Shit. Well, to be fair, it's not like things tend to go my way anyway. Somehow, something always gets screwed up, though thankfully it's usually something minor. I suppose this just means that the others will have a chance to rest up while I'm on the floor, kicking someone else out of the exams.
The proctor coughs. "The first combatants are Koichi Takamura of the Hidden Waterfall, and Ciara Shiryugu of the Hidden Leaf. Any objections?" I shake my head slightly. It's not what I wanted, but I've got no reason to object now, at least, not one that would convince them to roll the names again. They've probably got a whole bunch of rules about objecting to opponent selection. For now, I just need to get past this round and on to the real fights.
Hiro claps me on the back. "Looks like you're up first." He's trying to be supportive, but unless he's as dumb as a brick, he can probably already tell that I'm not thrilled about this match-up. And I know him better than to assume that his intelligence is equal to that of a brick.
"Yeah…" My mouth goes a little dry. Frankly, I was hoping to fight someone…well, someone that I could actually have fun fighting. I mean, I don't even know this Takamura guy. There's no real motivation to fight him. I would even prefer to fight one of those Sound ninja, since I owe them a little payback for the stunt they pulled last week. But it's too late to do anything about that now.
"If the other candidates would please relocate to the upper level, we'll start the first match." Hayate looks up to the two balconies that ring the room. There are stairs leading up to them for easy access.
The other teams start making their way up to the viewing decks with their sensei, but before Akito and Hiro leave me, Takamura frowns at me. "Seriously? I get the tiny girl?" He looks me up and down. "Your teammates had to carry you here, didn't they? There's no way you would have survived in that forest."
That does it. On the inside, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm growling a little for that remark. I reach around to my back and unhook my medical kit from my belts. "Akito, hold onto this for me, I'm not going to need it for this fight."
"You sure?" Akito holds my kit gingerly. "Are you going to be okay like this?"
"Oh, I'll be fine." I stare irritably at Takamura. "But…I hope you two don't mind if I go ahead and do things at my pace. It might take a few minutes, but I'm feeling a little restless."
I hate feeling restless, since it makes me feel like a bird in a cage. I'm not sure if it's me or Suzaku feeling this way. Sometimes, I wonder if it's not just our minds and our chakra that can touch, but our emotions as well. Either way, it's not pleasant feeling.
"Alright…" Akito glances at me worriedly. "Just be careful." He pats me on the shoulder, before following Hiro up to the viewing deck.
I let my eyes find their way to the ceiling. Forty feet high… They wander back down and around the room. Seventy feet long…and forty feet across. It should be more than enough room for me to fight. Although, depending on how this goes, they might need to effect some repairs later.
Walking towards the middle of the room, my muscles start tensing a little, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. However, attacking me seems to be the last thing on Takamura's mind, judging by the relaxed posture of his body. He scrutinizes me, distinctly lacking any worry in his face. "Let me give you a piece of advice. Forfeit now, and you won't get hurt." He sounds almost bored.
Knowing that he doesn't even consider me to be a worthwhile opponent makes me mad, but as I open my mouth to retort a hand comes down firmly on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "I wouldn't be underestimating my student if I were you." I look up and over my shoulder to see Yuki-Sensei with a cheeky smile on her face. "My students are quite exceptional little talents."
A hot blush rises to my face at her praise. Then, the heat fades from my cheeks as my eyes drop back down to the face of the boy in front of me. "Don't worry, Sensei, I'll try not to do any permanent damage." But there's no promises made that I won't hurt him a little.
She ruffles up my hair a little, before joining Akito and Hiro in going up the stairs. Hayate coughs slightly with the departure f the last of the spectators. "If the two of you are ready, you may begin the match." He steps back, getting well out of the way so that the match can begin.
Takamura continues to watch me, an irritated smirk on his face. "Are you sure that you don't want to give up? It'll be less humiliating for you if you just give up now."
This guy's constant urging for me to give up is really getting on my nerves. I know full well that sometimes, it's a good idea to run, to not engage the enemy when you are highly disadvantaged. But this is not one of those times, and I can see that clearly. "Not a chance. So stop trying to convince me, because you're wasting your breath." I am not at a disadvantage. Because I highly doubt that this guy is anything like me. And I doubt he's seen anything like me before.
And now, I've got my motivation.
His brow furrows a little, and he reaches back to the weapons pouch he carries. "Fine, then I'll end this quickly. Just remember that I warned you. Assuming you survive this."
He springs at me, his fingers flicking a kunai out of the pouch and firmly into his grip. He twirls the kunai around in his hand, lunging for me with the sharp blade. All I can really say for him is that he's fast, and he's got good aim. Other than that, I can't really see where all of that damn cockiness is coming from.
That is, until he gets within five feet of me, and suddenly, his two kunai turn into eight. Oops. He slashes at me with them, letting them act like claws instead of knives.
Fortunately, my speed is not something to be underestimated. Not only am I light and fast, but I've got plenty of experience running away from enraged chunin, whenever Naruto gets the brilliant idea to drag me along when he gets in trouble. Outrunning and dodging these claws aren't really as hard as outrunning Iruka-Sensei.
Using my inferior height and superior speed, I duck down and race underneath the arc of his kunai. And by the time he turns around to hurl the eight kunai at me, I'm already picking up speed. And luckily for me, I'm starting to get a sense for the rhythms of his attacks, the speed, angle, and even the timing. Which is good, considering that I'm not too sure how long I'd last if I were forced into hand to hand combat. Speed doesn't help much if there's no force behind it.
A whisper in the air tips me off to his next attack. Meanwhile, my left hand twitches, and a flash of silver enters my field of vision as a round of shuriken come flying at me, explaining the sound I heard. Now, I've practiced plenty with shuriken and kunai, but not very much with short-swords, and certainly not with the tanto strapped to my back. But Chi-Chi must have known that blades of this length would suit me, because it feels quite natural to slip Shi-Shi's blade from its sheath and whip it past my face, sending the shuriken flying away like ping-pong balls.
With my legs moving faster than my brain, I leave it to my instincts to take me out of Takamura's reach as quickly as possible. And rather than hitting the ground, running, I hit the wall with both feet, defying any and all attempts of gravity to rein me back in. Something that I've become rather good at over the years, and that drove Iruka up the wall, and myself onto the ceiling.
The whistling in the air tells me that there are more shuriken headed my way. But with a blade in my hand, I simply spin around, still attached to the wall, and swat them away. The resounding clang echoes through the room, along with the thuds of the shuriken that sink into the floor. Moments later, the blade slices through the air in front of me, and another set of shuriken, as well as a couple of kunai go flying into the opposite wall.
As I dance through the onslaught of a seemingly endless assault, I feel as though I'm acting more on instinct than anything else. I've never really trained with weapons like this, so it's the only explanation I have. Sure, I did perfectly fine during class when it came to throwing shuriken and using kunai, but for my first time actually wielding Shisui's tanto in a fight, I'm doing much better than I thought I would be. Though compared to what I saw him do when I was a child, I'm a hopeless amateur.
I run along the walls, continuing to dodge the rain of shuriken. And this guy must really have a magical never-ending supply of them, because it seems like no matter how many I dodge, he's always got more to throw. No one can possibly carry this many shuriken without being impossibly obvious abut it. There has to be at least sixty of them embedded in the floor and walls.
Then, kunai shoot past me burying themselves into the wall in front of me. It takes me a second to process them and see that these ones are different, that they have exploding tags tied to the ends of each of them. Oh…shit. In an instant, his plan becomes clear, and I'm about to get a face full of fire. I quickly hold my hands in front of my face to hold the coming attack at bay.
Moments later, as everything in sight starts exploding, I take my chance. Bearing the shallow pain caused by the heat and shockwave, I let chakra flow to my feet, gathering it there quickly, and I jump. I shoot straight up through the smoke, landing on the ceiling without a sound, my chakra attaching me to the smooth surface.
Naruto's P.O.V.
As the dust begins to settle, Takamura is down there, grinning from ear to ear. And as for my best friend, she's nowhere in sight. And I've got no clue why.
"Well, it looks like I win, doesn't it?" Takamura smirks down on the floor. "Must have been weaker than I thought, if there's nothing left of her. Guess all that confidence of hers was just for show. Running away was all she was good for."
Alright, sure, that explosion was strong, but there's no way it could have beaten her. There's just no way. And it doesn't explain why there's no trace of her down there. If she were really beaten, then she would at least be down there unconscious, instead she's just…gone. I mean, I know that she's really good at disappearing and reappearing when she wants to, but this isn't the time to play hide and go seek.
"D-do you think he…" Sakura swallows nervously. "Do you think she's been…vaporised?"
I turn to look at Sakura. Vaporised!? I can't believe she could think something like that. "No way!" There's no way in hell that Ciara would ever let herself get vaporised. She's way tougher than that.
"I don't know…that explosion was pretty strong…" Kakashi is so not helping right now. "Or she could just be hiding. After all, looks can be deceiving."
Sasuke's eyes narrow at the floor below. "What's she playing at?" He's as cryptic as ever. Bastard…
But…that's a good question… I turn my eyes back to the floor. Ciara likes to have fun, even in a fight. Like back in the Land of Waves, on the bridge. It's like she turned that fight into a dance. So she's probably planning the last thing anyone expects. Iruka found that out whenever he had to yell at her to get her off the-
No way…
My eyes snap straight up and I look at the ceiling. "You…have got to be kidding me!" Well…I guess I really am an idiot. And I call myself her best friend? How did I not see that coming!? Ugh! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
"Huh?" Sakura looks at me, then follows my gaze to the ceiling. "What!?"
Kneeling as though paying respect to a superior, though upside down and attached to the ceiling, is Ciara. Now that we've spotted her, it doesn't take long for everyone else in the room to look up as well. And it looks like she's taking a deep breath for some reason. What's she trying to do!?
One of her teammates, Akito, I think, puts his hand on my head in a panic. "Everyone, get down!" And mimicking him, their other teammate, Hiro, grabs Sasuke and Sakura, pushing them down and away from the railing.
They must know something that the rest of us don't, because as I hold my arms up to protect myself, there's a huge flash of light, and it gets really hot, really fast as a wave of fire fills the room.
Ciara's P.O.V.
*Flashback*
I look up at Shisui, shifting a little in his lap. "Please, Shi-Shi! Teach me how to breathe fire!"
His warm arms shift a little as he drops his chin on top of my head. "Maybe when you're a bit bigger, okay? You still don't know how to control chakra yet."
His resistance to my request makes me pout. "But I wanna learn! I wanna breathe fire like a dragon!"
"Like a dragon, huh?" Soft laughter makes his chest rumble. "But you're still too little to breathe fire. I could show you, but you won't be able to do it yet." He tilts his head slightly. "Why do you want to learn now, anyway? You're only four."
"But Shi-shi…"
*Flashback End*
Well, I've certainly learned how to breathe fire now. And done entirely without my uncle's help. The flames from my mouth bathe the space in front of me in fire. Thanks to Akito, all of the candidates on the viewing deck have at least gotten some warning. Takamura, on the other hand, has gotten none.
A smile curls my lips as the flames pouring from my mouth begin to die down. I've covered the whole floor in flames, which is what I consider to be payback for Takamura's earlier attempt to blow me to kingdom come. Not that he would have succeeded. I may be small, but that doesn't mean that I'll let myself keel over from one little explosion. Though I'm not too pleased about the ends of my hair getting singed.
As the flames dissipate, I stay attached to the ceiling. Better to be safe than sorry, so I'll wait until I see Takamura on the floor. Luckily for him, I'm not fond of the idea of killing, so those flames were hardly hot enough to burn him to a crisp. They were showy, sure, but those red-orange flames are fairly cool, compared to what my father could make them.
Finally, I catch sight of him stumbling through the flames. There you are… I drop from the ceiling, pulling out the tanto strapped to my back, they slide out of their sheaths with a soft metallic tone. The fire burns itself out around us until there's barely anything left. And while Takamura coughs into his sleeve, I take the chance to go on the offensive.
I can't afford to give him a chance to draw me into close combat. At least…not with weapons or hand to hand fighting involved. So, that leaves me with one good option that I can use from any distance. So right now, I'm closing in on him. And I plan to end this right now.
Weaving the signs in an instant, I let my chakra shoot to my hand and close in to point blank range. My hand slashes upward, a blunt blade of wind erupting from the tips of my fingers. The bright, nearly silver wind blade slams into Takamura's chest and hurls him away from me, straight into the opposite wall.
The cloud of dust kicked up by the impact spreads outward from Takamura's location. And in the wall behind him is the evidence of the force of the impact. Cracks spread out in all directions, resembling something along the lines of a spider's web.
And not even a sound comes from him. Damn, I must have hit him harder than I thought. I was just trying to subdue him, not knock him out cold. But knock him out cold, I did, and a moment later, his body loses strength and falls away from the shallow crater in the wall.
As Takamura collapses to the floor in a nearly immobile heap, I look up to all of the spectators, and see more than a few looks of awe, shock, and confusion. As well as a few people who are blinking hard or rubbing their eyes. It's actually rather satisfying to see such a diverse collection of reactions. I'm sure that very few people were expecting a match like this to kick off the preliminaries.
Looking at my teammates, the two of them are just grinning knowingly. They're the ones who saw this coming a mile away. And I'm pretty sure I heard the two of them yelling at some point while I was breathing fire. Hopefully my little display didn't end up hurting anybody.
On the other hand, the Sand team is reacting rather humorously. Temari and Kankuro are staring at me with wide eyes, while Gaara's sharp eyes look like they're trying to see right through me. I guess I must have proven myself to be more than they expected. And I'm planning on doing much more than that in the next round.
The looks that I don't like are coming from the Sound team, most notably, their sensei. He's looking at me with wide eyes, but there's only a little shock and surprise in them. In fact, he's smiling, almost eagerly, hungrily. It's like he's looking at a delicious dinner laid out before him, but can't touch it, though he would give almost anything just for a taste. It's a look that threatens to send shivers down my spine. And my instincts are screaming at me that this man is dangerous. Like greed and malice have been made tangible.
I turn away from the creepy sensei and look up at Naruto, who has a bright, wide grin on his face. And behind me, the proctor coughs. "Winner of the first match, Ciara Shiryugu."
At first, there's silence. Then, Naruto's voice rings out loudly across the room. "Yeah! You did it! That was awesome!"
A smile blooms on my face and I stare up into his sparkling blue eyes. "Was there ever any doubt?" I already know the answer to that question. No matter what others may have thought of my chances, Naruto definitely had faith in me the entire time.
My words quickly have Akito and Hiro laughing loudly, and even cold, stoic Sasuke is smirking down at me. Sakura's wide eyes and surprised smile make way for an even brighter smile. "Yeah! You did it!"
Looks like I've got a cheering section. Though I get the feeling that our two teams are mostly going to collectively be a single cheering section. That's fine, though. I'm rather fond of the idea of everyone on our two teams moving on to the next round. So if that means cheering each other on, then that's perfectly alright with me.
But now, there are other important things to attend to. I turn my gaze back onto Takamura. Ignoring the proctor, I walk over to my downed opponent and kneel down next to him. He's got to have taken some serious damage from that… I look him over carefully. Suzaku, do you think that you could help me a little?
A warmth blossoms inside me, familiar and comforting. Of course, chick. Your kindness does you credit. Even in a mock battle, you care for the well-being of your opponent… That is certainly something to admire.
Yeah… I let the warmth flow through me, and even into my eyes. And not entirely at my command, my eyes sweep over the boy in front of me, searching for the problem. Maybe…a concussion? I did throw him pretty hard.
That would be my guess as well. Treat him quickly, the next match needs to start soon.
Okay. I move my hand over his head, and it glows softly as chakra pours out of me and into his body. I must have some kind of soft spot for injured people. I remember even feeling bad about the way Haku and Zabuza looked after our battles with them.
Beneath my hand, Takamura quickly begins to stir. He groans and his eyes flutter open. "What…what happened?"
"I knocked you out when I slammed you into the wall, that's what." I roll my eyes slightly. "I'm just making sure that you don't have a serious concussion or anything."
A frown appears on his face as his eyes find mine. Then, they widen, and not in surprise, but in fear. "Demon…you're one of those…things!"
It's almost like an electric shock runs though my hand as I jerk it away from him. "What?"
He rolls over and eyes me angrily. "Stay away from me, monster!"
It's a phrase I've heard before, though never directed at me. The heat fades from my body, leaving me feeling rather cold, even alone. I know this feeling, but it's the first time I've ever felt it myself.
It's the first time I've been called a monster, just like Naruto. All this time, it's been me standing up for him, me comforting him, me telling him that he's not a monster. And even though I'm so much like him, I was always, mercifully, still outside much of the scorn.
But now, I'm no different. Now, I'm a monster like him.
