Author's Note: One More Week Left!


Atsuko bent down and picked up a brown package that had been left for her inside of the waiting area for the Konoha and put it down on the bench beside her. Opening it Atsuko noticed that it had a cheap tea set with several packets of tea and honey. Along with a note from Miyako: 'feel better soon.'

"You want any help with that?" Masunu asked eyeing the tea set with suspicion.

"I got it."

First Atsuko used water style to fill the tea pot with water and used the fire style to bring it to a boil. Next Atsuko inserted one of the tea packs inside and awaited for the two to mix together. While that was happening the randomizer let out a Ding Ding announcing the latest results.

"Shikai Nara and Xuelan!" Atsuko nearly dropped the tea pot from the shear shock.

"No not another one!" Atsuko stated in a weak voice.

"Atsuko." Shikai took the tea pot and used it to pore a glass for Atsuko. "I know that if I make a promise to come back safely like what has been done with those before me that would just upset you even further. Rather, I will only promise that I will do my best and not be defeated easily." Shikai stated while she brought the glass to Atsuko's lips. "So drink and feel better soon Atsuko. For you have much left to endure." Shikai stated waiting until Atsuko downed the contents of the glass.

Shikai walked out to the arena and was greeted by Xuelan and the judge.

"It is a honor to meet you 'Puppeteer of the Shadows.'" Xuelan stated while she bowed respectfully.

"I don't recall anyone ever calling me that. As such I believe I reserve the right to give you a nickname as well: 'Storm Princess'." Shikai stated noting the sinister smirk on Xuelan's features.

"If memory serves Xuelan is the third member of the 'Flying Monkey Tribe' of Iwagakure, after Kong who has already been eliminated and Laxus who didn't make it to the third round. And Shikai is the third member of the 'Ino-Shika-Cho' group of Konoha alongside Inoue who has also been eliminated and Choza who was also eliminated before he could enter the third round. Mei what is your opinion on this one?" Masaharu asked while he looked at his co-host.

"One uses the power of the 'Light' through the Storm Release and one uses the power of the 'Darkness' through the Shadow Release. So which one is stronger? Well, one way to find out." Mei stated while she smiled at the arena.

"The ground rules shall we? No attacking the judge which is me directly or indirectly. No Sage mode or Fake Tails nonsense. You may surrender if you feel that you can no longer participate, or I may end the match in favor of a victor if I determine that either of you can no longer participate. But especially no destroying the stadium!" The judge stated indicating a newly repaired wall. "Are we all clear on the rules?"

"Indeed, I am ready when she is!" Xuelan stated while she lifted herself up from her bow and hid her smirk behind her sleeve.

"I'm ready, lets do this thing." Shikai stated narrowing her glare down at Xuelan.

"Ready Fight!"

Right when the judge moved out of the way Shikai made the first move. From her feet a length of shadows slithered towards Xuelan. Xuelan countered by creating a light spear in her hands and slashing down on the ground in front of her cutting off the shadow's advance. Xuelan did a short little dance as her light spear slashed away at the shadows coming at her from all directions, her weapon giving off a quiet hum as she swung it around. Eventually Xuelan just stabbed the weapon into the ground. From every inch of her body Xuelan emitted a massive burst of light that nearly blinded Shikai and which banished her shadows. Suddenly Shikai found herself slammed against the back wall of the arena, realizing that her hands had been pinned to the wall by knives of light.

"Have you ever noticed that shadows only appear when light is shined on a object? Why do you think that is?" Xuelan had readied another light spear to throw through Shikai. "Is it because the shadows are made when light is cast upon a object? Or are shadows the form that Darkness takes on to hide from the light? Truthfully. I don't really care."

Xuelan threw the light spear at Shikai. Shikai slammed one of her bloodied fingers into the wall behind her creating a huge puff of smoke, when the smoke was cleared away Shikai, along with whatever she summoned, was gone.

"Tricky. Tricky." Xuelan mused to herself while tapping another light spear on her shoulder.


Shikai was in a very small and cramped space illuminated by a small flashlight bandaging her hands. This Gambit wouldn't buy her long, but maybe just long enough to get out of this fight alive. On cue one of Xuelan's light spears pierced through the ceiling of the space nearly skewering Shikai in the process before being removed.

"I see you~!" Xuelan stated in a sickeningly sweet sing song voice, looking at Shikai through the hole she made.

Immediately the space shifting as Shikai ordered her puppet to move, however the constant hum of Xuelan's light spears told her that she wasn't moving fast enough. Ordering her puppet to surface Shikai leaped out of her mole puppet the moment that it surfaced.

"You're done for!" Armed with a pair of shadow spewing knuckle blades Shikai unleashed a relentless assault on Xuelan. Xuelan countered through the use of her light blades, smirking as she realized that Shikai was operating her puppet legs using her shadows.

"Clever. Very Clever. But fighting light with darkness is taboo you know? Isn't that the trope burned into everyone's brains?" Xuelan asked while she mockingly waved her finger at Shikai.

"Who said I was fighting you with shadows?" Suddenly the ground started to rumble as something burst out from underneath the Earth, a giant mole puppet. "Distracting you would be more accurate."

Before she had the chance to dodge Xuelan was scooped up by the mole puppet and left trapped inside. Following this Takishi summoned a puppet that resembled a giant tarantula, which she used her chakra strings to promptly dismantle revealing switch blades hidden inside the limbs and the head and had them surround the Mole puppet. Before the blades could stab the trapped target several light spears skewered out of the holes meant for the blades deflecting them in the process.

"Damnit!" Shikai cursed while she drew blood from her lip.

Suddenly the puppet that had captured Xuelan exploded, and out came Xuelan who was riding on top of a yellow colored storm cloud into the air while she was carrying a light spear.

"You will have to try harder than that dear!" Xuelan informed in a mocking tone of voice.

At once Shikai summoned another puppet, this one taking on the form of a giant metalic bird.

"Challenge accepted!" Shikai took off on the bird puppet into the air.

Both Shikai and Xuelan clashed several times, Shikai making use of her shadowy blades while Xuelan used the power of her light. Shikai shot shadow enhanced blades with explosive tags at Xuelan who in turn would counter with light knives shot from her cloud mount.

"IT'S NECK AND NECK! IT'S NOSE TO NOSE! CAN ANYTHING END THIS DEAD LOCK!?" Masaharu asked while yanking on his hair with excitement.

After many tries Xuelan succeeded in landing a hit on the bird puppet quickly shattering it to pieces. Shikai scattered the blades that were the feathers of the puppet she was riding on and used them as various stepping stones to make her way over to Xuelan over the mid air gap. Shikai attached the blades of the bird to the heels of her ankles, using them in a kicking combination against Xuelan as the two continued their mid air duel on Shikai's blades and Xuelan's clouds.

"Fortune favors the bold as they say!" Suddenly Shikai summoned the Bashosen from one of her scrolls. "So prepare to eat boldness!"

Shikai used the fan to create a wind style technique to blow away all of Xuelan's latest volley of attacks turning them into a high pressure stream of water that easily knocked Xuelan off of her cloud.

"Ah what just happened?" A confused Masaharu asked while looking around the arena dumbfounded.

"Allow me to explain. Xuelan's Storm release works by conducting static electricity through water particles in the air or produced from her body using water release at a hyper accelerated speed. The end result closely resembles a laser blast. But the wind release can negate the lightning and redirect the flow of the water by super charging it into another direction." Mei explained waving her finger like a lecturer.

"What about the Bashosen!? That was clearly Takishi's weapon of choice wasn't it?!" Masaharu asked still very much confused about the entire thing that was going on.

"Simply put, I believe that she borrowed it from Takishi. After all there's no rule in place against competitors borrowing ninja tools from one another." Mei explained shrugging of the surprising development.

"With that logic everyone in Konoha could use that legendary fan for all of their matches!" Masaharu stated in a shocked voice.

"If that were the case they would have done it by now." Mei pointed out looking knowingly at the arena.

With that the Mid air battle between Xuelan and Shikai turned into a free fall. Shikai dodging every one of Xuelan's light blades using her puppets as shields and stepping stones to move out of the way while using the Bashosen to blow away Xuelan's clouds every time she tried to form one to break her fall. Finally both combatant's hit the ground. Shikai landed on her feet, her wooden legs taking the brunt of the damage, unfortunately that last volley of Bashosen strikes was quite exhausting. Xuelan on the other hand hit the ground quite hard, the sound of breaking bones testified to that fact.

"Oh ow!" Xuelan stated as she tried to get back up. "Well that hurt!"

In terms of options, Xuelan was limited with plenty of chakra reserves but a broken body, but it would seem that Shikai was out of Chakra but comparatively intact.

"In light of this new development, I declare the first combatant to get up and stand will be the winner." The Judge stated shocking the members of the audience.

"Well, with no Chakra standing isn't an option." Shikai looked over to Xueland and saw her already in the process of picking herself up with her storm clouds. More importantly than that however, Shikai saw a insect that resembled a dragonfly fly into the stadium and land right next to her. "That's fine, I fought while giving my opponent a hard time without going down easy. So I kept my promise to Atsuko. Besides, even without me we have Atsuko and Masunu left, we aren't going to lose anymore people." Shikai thought while she closed her eyes.

While Shikai was having thoughts like that Xuelan had picked herself up and put herself back on her feet using her storm clouds to support her weight.

"I declare Xuelan to be the winner!" The Judge stated holding Xuelan's arm in the air.

On that note Various paramedics rushed into the arena to take Shikai away. What they got instead, as witnessed by the Dojutsu pair Atsuko and Masunu, was a Ink clone of roughly the same size and shape and a Genkaichu to complete the disguise. The real Shikai had been picked up by someone roughly the same size as her and was now being carried out of the arena.


When Shikai and her kidnapper were out of the arena the two went to a abandoned apartment complex and was greeted by three familiar people and one guy in a gas mask.

"So then, Inoue, Tarou, Takishi and I assume that weirdo is Shiro?" Shikai asked listing off the names of all of those present.

"I needed something a little less conspicuous than my bee keeper's suit." Shiro stated as he indicated his face.

"You have a strange idea of the term conspicuous Shiro." Shikai stated as she picked up a jar of Honey and began eating it, Shiro's unique blend restoring her chakra. "So the question becomes, what are we doing here?"

"I found something dangerous and have been investigating it independently. I realized that I need help but in order to investigate clandestinely I needed the aid of people who everyone would think was incapacitated, including myself." Shiro explained while he pored his drink through the opened breathing tube of his mask.

"So you threw the fight. But how did you sneak out without anyone noticing?" Shikai asked glaring knowingly at Shiro.


"Misdirection and illusion." Shiro launched a wave of insects at Suzume at the same time that she launched one at him. With the distraction done Shiro took out a scroll and summoned a ink clone of himself, completing the illusion with a Genkaichu. "Fortunately Inoue was kind enough to provide me with a ink clone."


"So. You knew about this all along you little butt pain didn't you?" Shikai asked glaring at Inoue whom just nodded his head in confirmation. "So what about The rest of you?" Shikai asked glaring at Tarou, Takishi and Inoue.

"He got me in the middle of that big smoke screen during the end of the fight." Tarou stated while he raised his hand.

"Tarou snatched me up right before Jidanda blew up." Takishi stated raising her hand.

"And Inoue sneaked out of the arena while it was covered in ink. Between his clones and my Genkaichu sneaking them out and their ink doubles in was child's play." Shiro stated while he got a bag ready.

"Cute. Does Choza, Kenta, Atsuko and Masunu know about this?" Shikai asked while her mind process the contents gosling around Shiro's bag.

"More than likely Atsuko and Masunu know, with their Dojutsu they would be hard to fool." Takishi stated in a realistic tone of voice.

"Do they know why you're doing this? Or for that matter can you tell me?" Shikai asked growing increasingly irritated.

"To answer your first question. No we haven't told them. To answer your other question." Shiro dumped the contents of the bag in front of Shikai. "This is why."

"Oh..." Shikai replied staring in shocked surprise.


Review Section:

Guest: Wish Granted.

Man with a Plan: I thought it was, of course the main idea was to add to the powder keg of Atsuko's worries.