"I'm ready..!" Eri excitedly sputtered, interrupting her rhythm of consistently bouncing from her heels to her toes, all the while shrugging her shoulders loosely. She and her friends were standing back behind the last row of seats in the stadium's lower level, her fingers gripping the seat of one person seated in the back row. It was just someone that she loosely knew, so there was no trouble.
Regardless, in her fit of ambitious excitement, she found herself dropping back to the flat of her feet, "I changed my mind, I'm not ready. I'm terrified. I'm going to fail."
A sudden risen hand delivered a chop to the top of her head, immediately stunting her thought process.
"Ack!" She raised her hands to cover her head, and swiftly, she rose her large brown orbs to the male in question: Tatsuo.
The lime-like eyes of her teammate peered down at her. Despite the usual sass and sarcasm that she could read even with no words attached, there was a notable softness clouding the usually-offensive stare, "you're having a moment."
"I am having a moment," she retorted, clasping her hands together affront her chest, "I was confident once!"
"About 4 seconds ago."
"But then the pressure hit me!"
Momo folded her arms inquisitively, cocking her head to the side and furrowing her brows to her anxious teammate, "the pressure hit you… oh, but when I say I'm losing confidence-"
Eri's attitude switched up abruptly and almost comically so, her hands reaching out to lightly grab onto her shoulders and offer a feather-light pat of support, "oh, Momo, don't say things like that. You'll do absolutely wonderful, and even if you don't win, you'll be a winner in our hearts."
"YOU HYPOCRITE!"
The brown haired girl released her friend's shoulders and instead sank her fingers into her own hair, knotting and twisting them up into the long locks as she fret, "I just got the chance to think about it, I think. I'm facing the girl from the Rain Village, right? They're like. Assassin-trained, right? Tatsuo lost his preliminary match against one from that squad, right?"
Tatsuo's eyes glazed with a dead-fish-eyed stare filming over his orbs, "thank you for bringing that up."
"That was a month ago," Momo supplemented, crossing her arms, "besides, even you gave him props for it."
"He was a good fighter," Tatsuo agreed in contemplation, "their basics are fine-tuned to a science, and it's hard to find any openings based on common human error. Really, it just came down to things like duration, chakra reserves, stamina, and 'how many times can I hit you when you hit me?'."
"It was a really good fight," Eri agreed again, "it was kind of unfair that it was preliminary, you know? You both could have gone really far in the finals."
"It's just one of those scenarios," Tatsuo shrugged lightly, "but the fact remains that I don't entirely believe he's just an outlier in that case. All three of his teammates looked well-trained and adept in the preliminaries."
Eri upturned her palms after loosing them from her hair, "that's what I'm saying! So I know she's really good, and you're really good, but you lost against her teammate. I don't even have Shikamaru going first to lower everyone's expectations!"
"Well, Naruto went before you," Tatsuo offered, "that was quite the upset."
"Naruto won handily," Eri defended without missing a beat.
"Hardly," Momo chimed in, "he did really well since he was kinda the match underdog and everything, but even I have to say it was a pretty… lucky..? Fight?"
"Don't say that," Eri wrapped her arms around herself, as if nerves had returned and had speedily reclaimed her, "that match looked a lot like my preliminaries match, okay? So I'm going to say he won very cleanly, and very professionally."
"There's our delusional girl," Tatsuo's voice felt like a sickly sweet sting to the pride, but like a veteran in dealing with him, Eri let it roll off her back as if she had never even heard him.
"What're you all doing crowded up here?" A sudden voice came through their pause in conversation.
The squad peered up, and from the aisle, headed their way, they spotted their sensei crossing the crowd to reach them. He flashed an intrigued smile to the three of them, light and subtle before settling a firm hand on Eri's shoulder, "you're going to go out and win soon, right? You should be making your way down."
"Echk-" A full-body shiver jolted through Eri, forcing her spine to stiffen and her eyes to widen with the overwhelming sensation of reinforced anxiety, "K-Kou-sensei…"
"Way to go…" Momo dragged dryly, "all of our progress…"
"Hm?" Almost clueless, the man looked to Momo, bypassing Eri's current state of dysfunction and instead likewise shifting a just-as-curious glance to Tatsuo.
The male of the team with a simple, carefree sense of hospitality spoke without chastising, "Eri has cold feet."
"Really?" he appeared interested, and he lowered his steel-colored eyes finally to Eri's fretting. Contrary to what most of them were expecting, rather than apologetic or uncertain, word of the development brought a smile to their sensei's lips. Was he just being sadistic? It did seem that a side of him came out like that at times – even if it was mostly made up by his students when he seemed too happy to wring them out over training. "That's good to hear."
"...I'm sorry?" Eri posed her question from a head tilted so far to the side that it couldn't go any further, her eyes shrinking to stumped pin-holes.
The pale-blue haired man lifted his hand to settle it lightly upon the top of Eri's head, ever-so-slightly ruffling her hair in a manner that felt warm and parental, "but look on the bright side. The worst thing that could happen is that you shame all of your affiliates."
"KOU-SENSEI!?" Eri parroted his name in a high pitched squeak that strangled through her teeth. Her words strung out in a jumbled and incoherent mess, "is this supposed to be encouraging me..?!"
Momo breathed out through a pocket in her lips, "what a sadist…"
"I was joking…" he lightly offered despite their mix of panic and disapproval, and likewise had the strong audacity to maintain the small smile he had worn since the beginning. "The reason I say this is good…" he began again, -though with no hope remaining of changing the judgmental disappointment lithe in Momo's dark eyes -, "… is because it seemed like for some time now, it was nearly impossible to spark that sense of excitement in you. I was worried that you were tired of caring, but to see you this nervous, you have to care about the outcome quite a lot, don't you?"
The smallest spark of light gleamed in Eri's eyes to the tune of his words. She lowered her head, and peered down to her own fingers that locked together at the knuckle, tightening and loosening in rhythm. She hadn't given that much thought, and with even less contemplation, the quiet words left her lips, "of course I care…"
Kiba, Ino, and her team had put so much effort into helping her prepare. Members of her clan were sitting in the crowds, waiting to see her match. Several of her friends from the academy would be spectating her today. On top of that, as per norm, she would be representing the Leaf in this selection today. Without any doubt in her mind, she cared about the outcome. She cared about the fight that she would participate in, and how all of their combined hopes and effort would reflect in the outcome.
She cared about not letting them down.
What left a lingering concern in the back of her mind was never that.
It was the question or whether or not she cared about this for her.
Was this worthwhile to her?
When she thought about where she stood on this path, did the prospect of winning or becoming a chunin feel exciting to her?
Of course it did, because that was the aim. Yet at the same time, would she feel that excitement more for a teammate that earned the rank if she didn't? Without a doubt.
She didn't want to participate in the exams so soon. She joined for the sake of her friends. Now, she stood in the finals and sank in so much effort for the sake of everyone else involved. It was a difficult situation to find one's self in, but maybe she couldn't deny that underneath it all, there was still a little pile of cinders flickering to the tune of her own desires for this.
She summoned a deep breath, steeling her frayed nerves and just as carefully exhaling.
"Thank you, Kou-sensei," she spoke with an air of stability and calm before the beginnings of a far more composed smile came to her face, "I think I'm ready."
"Good luck!" Momo offered strongly.
"We'll be cheering," Tatsuo added with his normal brand of seemingly-uncharacteristic cheer.
The three watched her turn to the stairwell, and descend while appearing much less frazzled. It was a welcome sight – kind of the air that she carried when devising strategies for them on a mission. It seemed all was well.
"I have no idea how that worked," Momo shot, arms folded as she passed a skeptical expression to their sensei, "you just pulled that out at the last second."
"Especially after such a tasteless joke," Tatsuo chirpily supplemented, both of them so carelessly shaming their sensei.
The man in question smiled sheepishly, his hand running around the back of his neck, "really? Is that what it seemed like? Is that what you two have come to think of me as..?"
Momo's head tipped, her brows furrowing questioningly, "… 'Come to'..?"
"Ahh! Momo, that's so cruel..!" the poor sensei floundered notably.
Meanwhile, while descending the stairwell, Eri could feel her mind begin to process as her nervousness revisited her under the new form of adrenaline. "Don't think about everyone watching," she repeated to herself again, "you've been planning for this for weeks." Her room back at the compound looked a mess. There were books and diagrams strewn all over the place from her making guesses, and writing up ideas, from her jotting down numbers to apply to amounts for the coins that she came armed with. She lied awake several nights, making connections and searching for new realizations.
For several weeks, this fight had been almost all she could think of, even when she was talking with someone else or worrying about other things; it just lingered in her subconscious and reminded her of its presence every now and then.
Her hand eased into her pocket, thumbing lightly over the smooth edge of the thick coins that were stored there.
She could do this.
As she stepped from the last stretch of the tunnel into the arena, and the brilliant light hit her once more, she could hear the sound of crowds chattering and loud voices around her from every angle of the stadium. She would have supposed her match would have been a high priority watch. Someone from her clan often participated in the exams each year, and they were always a show-out.
She summoned another breath, this time somewhat shaky in the inhale. She wasn't sure she could measure up to that expectation, but she had no intention of giving up before beginning either.
From the other side of the arena, her opponent stood. She was a kunoichi from the Rain village that Eri had seen several times throughout the exam, even remembering her face from the seat next to her during the written test.
She had dark, dusky blue hair, and even darker, near-colorless blue eyes. Despite the way her hands hang confidently by her sides, it was clear in her face that she was just as nervous. Her feet were practically pigeon-toeing in together, and with a close enough inspection, one could see the way her face was growing more flushed by the passing moment.
Peering down, as she analyzed the girl before her, Eri could feel the squeezing in her chest begin to halt. She lowered her head respectfully, uttering a sentiment loud enough for just them to hear, "I hope to give you a good match."
The girl's shoulders slackened slightly, and most-unpredictably, she snatched her hands up into her own person, bowing with such abrupt steepness that she could have nearly tipped over, "Please accept my gratitude! I want this to be fulfilling for both of us!"
Eri's eyes shrank to dots, and her head fell cocked to the side, "o-of course…"
"The match between Eri Yoshida and Kako Miura," the proctor announced over the chattering crowds, effectively bringing their words to silence, "Begin!"
Eri had remembered this girl's previous match. She operated under a defend-and-counter strategy. Similar to how Eri functioned as well. That meant that in the beginning here, there would be somewhat of a stalemate; they would be waiting to see who would brave the center to strike first.
The cat-like girl lowered her body to the ground, placing her palm down then flat over a tuft of grass while sinking low enough to take a frog like position. It seemed like it was for the effect of preparing to be agile.
Still, Momo couldn't help but finding her head tilt uncertainly to the side, "I've never seen her take a stance like that before… it's kind of weird, isn't it..?"
Kako had leaned her weight on her rear foot, her hand gripping something covertly in the pouch attached to her leg. It appeared she had firmed her position in not being the first to strike, and she wouldn't be budging from that position. Her stubbornness would grant her the ability to stall out until forcing her opponent to take the initiative. She just had to exercise patience.
It seemed, however, that Eri had no intention of making her wait long.
She rocked back onto her back leg, the forward onto her front, pushing off suddenly and making a forward rush that left everyone in the crowd that knew Eri's fighting style noticeably confused.
She wasn't a rusher.
She didn't carelessly charge an opponent, and she hated direct confrontation. She always played distance and worked evasion until she could find an opening.
'There is no opening,' Eri found herself thinking in the moment, 'no matter how long I wait, she won't let there be one.' She recalled what Tatsuo had mentioned just a few moments ago regarding his battle in the preliminaries against her teammate. There was no room for common human error. Their basics are fine tuned. So if this girl, Kako, was skilled at defending and countering, there would never be a time that she would let her defense lapse without pressure. 'I have to create one.'
Kako, despite her somewhat distressed expression, carried body-language that was unimaginably calm. Despite Eri rushing in, she didn't falter from her spot, only rose her hand, and snatched the other from her tools pouch, brandishing a kunai with such swiftness that moving away from it on the spot would be difficult at a forward rush.
Thankfully, however, Eri's intent was never to meet her in full-frontal combat. From the moment she had mounted a charge, she was intending to hit a slow at the last moment, similarly to how she had disoriented Kiba during their training. Unexpectedly, however, despite her coming to an abrupt halt, Kako was able to shift her initial slash, rotating the kunai in her hand to reverse the swipe back and into a forward-stabbing motion.
Eri's eyes widened, and her foot twisted into the ground below, marking her off course for the right and throwing her out of Kako's defensive zone.
'The idea was just to gauge her speed and reaction time,' she thought in her head, feeling a bead of sweat dripping down her cheek from the close call. She lowered back down into the strange, frog like stance, watching carefully and regrouping; 'I didn't think it'd be THAT fast, though. She changed objective and direction so quickly that if I were just a bit slower, there's no doubt that would have hit.' She could still feel the phantom blade that brushed a hair too close to her collar.
At this rate, she would have to operate under the assumption that Kako was faster than her. It was the only way she could make this work.
She planted her hand on the ground, preparing herself again.
Right now, Kako was exerting minimal energy by striking from a fixed position. On top of that, unless Eri could come up with a way to force her on offense, the match would continue to play out like this: with skewed energy costs. Right now, the Rain kunoichi had no reason to attack, and no reason to beef up her offensive plays to something more costly.
'Let's try this again…' Eri thought. There was a plan in the works. It just had to be seen through.
She shifted her foot, pressing off and this time attacking Kako from the right, - though Kako had turned to face Eri -, all while guarding with her kunai up.
While moving in close, Eri raised her hands, beginning to weave hand signs so suddenly.
"Wait!" Momo spoke up suddenly from the crowds, not to anyone in particular, but only in surprise outburst, "that's not right at all!"
They were more than aware that Eri didn't use Ninjutsu, especially at point blank range. Eri's chakra control was flimsy at best. Her reserves were heavy, and so her chakra consumption was quite heavy-handed as well. She always exerted too much chakra when utilizing jutsus. That's why her coins were made in the first place. Nature Transformation was sealed inside of the coin to produce the same effect as elemental ninjutsu without having to sacrifice too much chakra for forming a jutsu. That way she could just summon the 'ninjutsu' stored in the coins instead of sacrificing her own reserves more than necessary. Not only was it strange for her to default to ninjuutsu, but also to use it so close up? Eri, who hesitated to even throw a punch, loosing a jutsu practically in the face of her opponent? It made no sense.
"She's bluffing," Tatsuo then spoke up. He knew just as well that his teammate would never lose a jutsu that way, but judging from the first rush being a test run, and Kako not having the same reservoir of information that they -as Eri's team - did, bluffing to get a stockpile of information on Kako's response patterns to work from sounded far more like something Eri would do.
Kako's head shot up, and the kunai was swiftly discarded in favor of hand signs. This match was too quick-paced, trying to hold onto the kunai or put it away properly would have left too much of an opening. She began hand signs as well, and immediately from the first few linked together, it was clear that she was partial to the use of water-based ninjutsu. Maybe that should have been a no-brainer, but the fact remained that it was an unknown until now that it was proven.
Stopping short of the handsigns Eri faked, she twisted her hand back, reaching into her pouch for something.
Kako wasn't sure what that something was; but it was too risky to allow it to come out when she would potentially be mid-jutsu. She cocked her foot back, and shifting on her heel, she twisted her body with such rough momentum, slamming her foot into Eri's side and sending the girl hurling more quickly towards the left side.
Eri shifted her body, seizing her hand from her pouch to use it in catching her balance. She forced her palm on the ground to keep herself from flying too far, and soon her body followed, but not without the throbbing sting in her side now, which her non-grounded hand settled on. 'Sheesh, that hurt!' She thought frantically.
Kako's mind was racing, gears turning and pieces fitting together. She had gathered that the first charge was likely a test, and that the second was a bluff. Rather than seeing the second use of jutsu as a likewise test, however, she saw it more as an attempt to invade her defensive space. 'She's trying to close in,' she thought with mild worry, 'I have to keep her back.' Despite being able to make strong strikes and smart melee choices, Kako was not a taijutsu fighter. She had never seen Eri use Taijutsu in the preliminaries, so it was hard to know if she was the same, or if she was simply playing her cards close to the chest.
She had purposely decided on a kick to defend instead, that way she could keep Eri from utilizing a potential weapon or projectile, while also not being forced to cancel her sign usage. The battle was more dangerous for her as it dragged on, that much she had surmised. So she decided on completing the required hand signs and loosing the jutsu instead.
Eri had come to that conclusion. The kick hurt, sure, but it wasn't on par with how hard Tatsuo and Kiba hit. In fact, comparing it to feminine frames and sizes, it didn't even really hurt as much as Ino's kicks. It was a minor setback, but what that told her was that if she could take the fight close, she could clinch it, but only if she had a plan to avoid Taijutsu, herself. She was aware now that Kako knew that, and she was just as aware that the girl had made no effort to release her hand signs – the jutsu would continue.
'Crap, that's bad,' Eri thought ruefully, 'that's seriously bad!'
If she wasn't careful, her plan would be set back.
She moved ahead of the spot she had landed, looking as if to try rushing Kako again, but this time abruptly shifting direction to behind the kunoichi.
"Water Style," Kako spoke lightly, quietly and barely audible, "Surging Geyser."
If chakra were visible, it would be seen cascading from Kako's person, pouring into the ground and causing the top layer of earth to crack and shudder. Water spurt from the cracks, surging up in powerful sprays that tore underfoot and emerged with ridiculous amounts of pressure.
'This isn't going to be very pleasant!' Eri thought whilst bracing trying to move backwards or away before the ground crumbled beneath her and gave way to a torrent of uprising water. She lost her footing almost instantly, and her body was sent surging up, battered by the heavy surge. She wished she could have dodged it; she had the chance to, but if she couldn't take this hit to redirect its initial aim, this battle would be that much harder. She had no room to be wasteful.
Kako dared not stop there, she fished needles from her pouch, each needle able to fit snugly between the spaces in her fingers, "So sorry!" She spoke genuinely while hurling the projectiles.
Eri's hand sifted the geyser as it began to lose power, and she could feel her heart thunder in her chest. It came down to her next move.
'Please let this work. Don't let all this planning be for nothing..!'
She twirled the coin in her hand. Although she couldn't find her footing, she would be fine if this could work out. As the senbon encroached on her position, she made a quick hand seal.
"Summoning…" Tatsuo spoke in hush, "she's using a coin…"
The green coin in her hand burst with wind-style nature transformation, the extreme burst and pressure reacting to the surface of the water in the same way simultaneous chakra natures coexisted in Ice Release. It wasn't as smooth. It didn't solely produce ice, but the excess wind also provided enough push to deflect the kunai and begin solidifying the weakening geyser.
Eri's hands reclaimed their previous hand sign, causing Kako to rear back.
If the cat-like girl would be utilizing that coin in place of a jutsu, she would have no choice but to put more distance between them. The freezing gesyer was already growing brittle, and if she used wind again from that coin to break it, the debris would be troublesome enough in itself. If she was able to make a rushing recovery, she would undoubtedly be able to shift the fight to melee. Neither of those options sounded favorable for Kako.
Despite how adamantly she had stayed in place and focused on counter, this development created the first forced retreat.
"One more time!" Eri foot shifted briskly, snapping the brittle ice from her leg to allow her the chance to free herself and mount a charge. She utilized the sign and scenario, and to this, now, water erupted from the left side of the field, earth erupted from the right, and lighting erupted from straight ahead, blocking off all but the center-most part of the arena, and creating a smaller area for them to fight in between the blockade of elements.
'How did…' Kako thought, being forced to stop and turn to face Eri to prepare for the next potential attack. All of those nature transformations seemed to be coming from the coin. That was no surprise; she had seen this utilized in the preliminaries, however, -if she wasn't falsely informed -, the coins could only contain one element. Not only that, but the nature transformation was sealed inside and released like a summoning jutsu. Should that have been the case, Eri would have had to place coins in all three of these locations, right?
A gasp tumbled from the rain kunoichi's lips, realization crashing into her.
'The stance in the start…' The strange one that looked frog-like. Where she sank down and steadied herself with her hand on the ground. 'The second time,' when she bluffed a jutsu and charged her, 'and even the third time,' when she caught herself from skidding far away.
'Each time…' Eri had placed her hand on the ground. Only the third time was it clear to Kako that Eri had been reaching for something. She suspected it was a kunai or some other form of weapon or tool, and she thought that when she had kicked her that way, that Eri had opted to going empty-handed to catch herself.
That wasn't true at all!
Every time Eri's hand had touched the ground, she was covertly placing a coin on either side of Kako's defensive range.
'Was this to trap me in? To force a Taijutsu fight?' she was fretting, her hands keeping by her waist to reach for a weapon if necessary.
"WOO!" Ino cheered from the crowd, cupping her hands over her mouth to shout her praise, "Atta Girl! Show her what you've got! Kick her ass!"
"Eh?" Sakura rose her head to the platinum blonde she was seated next to. Her brows furrowed and genuine confusion crossed her expression for a moment, "you're… cheering for her?" Last she checked, Ino and Eri weren't even on 'looking in each others' directions' terms, let alone speaking terms.
"Duh," Ino shot haphazardly, peering back over her shoulder while momentarily halting her loud and very present cheering, "if I don't, all my work helping her prepare is shot!" She hollered once more, "YOU BETTER WIN!"
A softened, yet concerned expression took root in Sakura's face, her eyes deepening slightly and turning to look at nothing in particular. What she felt was somewhat indescribable, but she didn't sink too much time into killing her mood by thinking on it for too long.
The spurts of water began to die out, and unlike the geysers from earlier that began to lose pressure, and return to the holes that they had carved out, the displaced water needed a place to go. It curved over like a tide, crashing down upon the field in their small space.
Kako moved backwards, though came to an abrupt halt, realizing that only a few feet behind her lied the wall of crackling lightning release. She considered rushing up, or maybe using her chakra control to run atop the waves, but at the rate it was crashing, and its direction, both results would have ended in her being swept into the wall of earth on the opposite side. In the same way, if she just stayed put on the ground, she would be swept into the lightning. Her options were slim, and choosing the lesser of two evils, she gathered chakra into her soles and prepared to scale the earth wall.
Water poured in, and pressed back against her, crashing into her body as she tried to stay grounded, but washed into the tide as it sank against the earth.
'If I can.. just get my footing again..' She thought desperately with her feet twisted up into the dying surge, 'If I can..!'
"And the last one…" Eri thought, holding her green coin that now seemed far more pale, as if half of its color had been drained and a metal-luster was showing instead. Rearing her hand back with a strong wind-up, she threw the coin, then immediately formed her hand sign from before.
The wind it output skimmed the surface of the water like a skipping stone and formed the surface crust of ice to lock the Rain kunoichi's waist in place and keep her feet from finding footing. As the water sank down and splattered flat across the ground, the kunoichi found herself crashing against the ground along with it, the coin falling down and dinging the earth next to her while spurting out the last bit of air to freeze the last bits of water on her person.
Eri winced from the sudden crash, feeling herself inwardly apologizing for not catching her, though the un-level ice likely helped break her fall, even if it was probably terribly uncomfortable impact for her sides.
There was a quiet, the lightning beginning to fizzle out during the pause, and the sound of the last bit of water trying to spurt from the other coin in a pitiful display.
Eri breathed out a heavy sigh, looking to the proctor who approached to get a look at the situation as the obstacles began to clear.
He examined Kako who seemed exhausted, damaged, and not in a position to stand, then Eri who likewise was still holding her side and already appearing to develop the signs of buumps and bruises from Kako's geysers.
After agonizing seconds that dragged on for some time, the proctor lifted his hand, "Kako Miura appears unable to continue. The winner of the match is Eri Yoshida."
The exact moment the match was called, the brown haired girl briskly rushed to the girl's side, reaching her hand out whilst jittering uncontrollably, "I am so sorry! Really I am! Please can I help you up?" The damage caused was way more than she had anticipated, and even if it had been assumed to a degree, she didn't want to cause any more harm than necessary.
When no reach immediately came, Eri could feel the unwanted discomfort creeping in and beginning to sully her victory. She feared that maybe she had hurt her; maybe she had gone a bit too far, or… Just as it was beginning to take root, she felt the frigid hand grip her own, and her eyes lowered to the dark-eyed girl that was still fighting to get up from the ground.
With little effort than initially anticipated, Eri hoisted the girl up carefully from the ground.
"S-s-sorry..!" the girl sputtered and shivered repeatedly, trying to bow her head despite her stiffness, "t-thank you for the g-g-good match..!"
Eri felt her expression go soft. The girl was cold as ice still, and her lips seemed a pale shade of purple. Still, she seemed intent on thanking her for the match..? She had to at least admit, had she have held back as much as she normally did… she would have felt guilty for accepting that thanks. Even now, while still abstaining from Taijutsu because of her fear, she still felt a twinge of guilt. "Ah… I should be the one thanking you. You really made me think hard…"
Kako's eyes drifted down, and the smallest, most obscure smile took to her lips, "t-thank you…"
"No! Really, thank you!" Eri sputtered in reply, as she went to step forward, helping the girl to the medics, she felt her knee buckle under her own weight, the tightness coming only as the adrenaline began to wane.
"A-ah you're injured..! P-please let me help you..!"
"You could hardly get up..! I'll help you!"
"What is this…" Momo trailed quietly, stunned by the sheer ridiculousness of what was occurring. Were they having a kindness fight? The crowd was pleased, sure, and this was probably a good example of the 'friendliness' the union of the Chunin Exams tried to foster, but in the same right, they looked ridiculous acting like that.
- and it seemed in their attempts to support each other, they both toppled to the ground just before reaching the incoming medics.
"Somewhat embarrassing," Tatsuo chimed in his true fashion, replying to Momo's question.
A/N: This made me kind of happy. ;v; I had been really busy with finals this month and after them I needed a lot of time to recover and rest up. I enjoyed coming back to writing this. I've been writing a lot of unrelated content and trying to get more free with my writing, so writing this gave me some inspiration.
Writing fights haven't really been my forte for some years, so I really hope this was coherent and you could read this! It's very difficult to plan fights after not doing it for so long!
Also! YAYYY! Chunin exam match done! The sadness is coming really quickly and I can't just cling onto the happy ridiculousness anymore. ;w; I hope you guys are ready for the feels to begin. Maybe as early as next chapter.