Rikou opened her eyes, making sure her black kamas were secure around the outside of her trenchcoat before hopping up on the railing and jumping into the arena, surveying her opponent for her match.
It was the leader of the three Grass-nin, the one with the large spear, Tsuta Kuzu. This is just great, she thought as her opponent glared angrily at her, clenching his teeth. He was more than a head taller than her, and his body was well-muscled.
"Examiner..." he growled, turning to her brother. "Why do you two share the same family name? You're related!?"
Hayate coughed. "Yes... she's my sister."
"Isn't that unfair to the opponent!?" shouted someone from the raised balcony. Hayate turned.
"Umm... It is nessescary for her to have a family member to moniter her condition. And I will not favour either opponenets in this match."
"Why her!? Whyy does she get special treatment!?!?"
So that's why he's examiner, she thought sourly. I don't need this kind of constant care, Hayate.
"That's not important. The Hokage has already discussed this with the council, and they have already decided on it... Are you ready to begin?"
"I don't give a shit if your big brother is here to watch over you, I'm still gonna rip you apart! You caused us alot of trouble when you stole Akari's scroll!"
Rikou said nothing to this remark, instead unwrapping her black kamas from around her neck and arms, readying them nervously, she didn't like the anger she felt coming off of this Grass-nin.
Hayate looked between the two, before stepping back. "Begin!"
Hayate jumped fully back as Kuzu tore head-on towards her. She stepped forwards slightly, biting her lip as she lashed out with her left kama and dodged right in the same movement. But Kuzu was fast. He brought up his large spear and let the kama wind itself around before pulling, forcing Rikou to either come forwards or let go. She came forwards.
Kuzu used the other end of his spear to try to knock her back, but she ducked. He swung it again, this time ripping the other weapon forcefully from her right hand as she jumped to avoid being hit, lashing out with her foot and catching himin the jaw, sending him staggering back a few feet where he caught his breath, as did Rikou.
Kuzu untangled her weapon from his spear as she watched, placing one kama under his foot and holding onto the other one before snapping his hand up, breaking the chain with sheer force. Rikou swallowed hard.
"Quit dodging and fight properly," he growled, running at her again, his eyes glinting dangerously. He fell into a complicated dance using his spear to slash, cut and stab as she jumped back over and over, trying to avoid being hit, and actually completely avoiding a scratch, untill...
Rikou turned her head and had only a moment to react as she noticed a cement wall looming behind her. She skidded to a halt, looking back forwards before jumping quickly and clinging to the wall with her hands and feet with chakra. The large spear embedded itself inches into the concrete where she had been moments before, but by now she was twelve feet up the wall, in a crouch.
"Quit running and dodging! You can't possibly have any chance of winning unless you fight back, bitch!"
Rikou ground her teeth as she watched the Grass-nin fall back for a moment, into a different stance. He's switching styles... I need a plan.
Rikou moved her hand to her pocket, producing three smoke bombs, enough smoke to buy her enough time. She quickly threw them towards Kuzu, a moment later the entire arena being engulfed in thick, rolling waves of smoke. Rikou smiled, making a number of complicated seals in the smoke, as she heard the voices of the confused onlookers.
"What the hell!?" shouted Kuzu as the smoke began to clear.
Around him, stood five other Rikou's, all perfect shadow clones. The Gekkou clan heavily relied on shadow clones in many of their jutsus, and three out of the four dances, so in her training it had been one of the first jutsus she had learned.
The five Rikou's each pulled out eight kunai, four in each hand, sliding their fingers between the rings on the ends and charging forwards. Kuzu remained still as the clones fell upon him, but they were suddenly exploded backwards as he spun in a full circle, chakra crackling from the end of his spear and causing all of the Rikou's to disappear in puffs of smoke before they even hit the ground.
"Huh?" he said, stopping his spin. "Where's the real one?"
But as he turned back to the arena, he noticed one of the clones had not charged and was facing him. He charged at her, slashing with his crackling spear, but she managed to dodge every attack, this time avoiding being pushed back.
As he thrust out at her, she grapped the spear below the head and pulled it from his hands, casting it across the arena. But before she could return to the battle, a fist hit her hard in the stomach. She coughed as she was thrown back, hitting the ground hard.
Before she dissappeared in a puff of smoke.
Rikou watched the battle from her current position, upside-down on the ceiling of the arena, directly above Kuzu as he looked around, confused. She cut off her chakra flow through her feet and fell from the cieling, slowly flipping around in mid-air and landing a few feet behind him silently, picking up her two, individual kamas, the broken chains rattling and causing Kuzu to spin around faster than she had hoped, punching the real Rikou in the stomach and sending her flying to the other side of the arena, where she skidded to a halt on her left side, frozen in shock.
She hadn't been hit at all for a long time, and was not used to the rolling pain that burned through her body, her muscles contracting, her nerves burning, her head throbbing in the wave of pain that suddenly overtook her body, causing her to remember the torture.
"What's wrong?" laughed Kuzu, stepping forwards.
"Get up, Rikou! You can't freeze up like this evey time you get hurt!!" shouted Kirema from above.
"Can;t take pain!? Hahaha, this is nothing! You haven't felt true pain before, bitch!" shouted Kuzu, moving further forwards and grinning. "But I'll introduce you to it!"
Rikou closed her eyes, looking for a way to deal with the pain. Need... more time... She shifted slightly, opening her eyes and pulling out her last smoke bomb, tossing it into the middle of the arena, between her and Kuzu.
Kuzu stopped laughing as the smoke rolled across the arena again, and Rikou charged out at him, pinning him to the cement wall behind him. A small, sharp pair of silver kamas suddenly exploded from the smoke, spinning wildy and heading right for them as Rikou kept him pinned. The two kamas struck them in their hands, going through both of them as Rikou disappeared in another puff of smoke, leaving Kuzu pinned to the cement wall spread-eagle with the two silver blades though his hands and the chain taught in front of his neck.
Before he could break free, however, the two, individual black kamas also exploded from the cloud of smoke, cutting clean though his feet as they connected with the wall behind him, sending blood flting as one hit an artery. But Rikou wasn't finished.
His own weapon, the giant spear, also tore through the smoke, heading right towards him at an amazing speed and power. He winced further as it embedded itself a fott into the wall, an inch below his body, right between his legs. Rikou suddenly appeared, crouching on the spear shaft and looking him in the eye as he began to slip away.
"You know nothing of pain," she hissed, clutching her stomach with one hand, wincing. She raised her other hand, moving it behind his jaw, below his ear, right on the pressure point.
"Here's a taste," she muttered, suddenly jabbing two of her fingers as hard as she could into the pressure point. Harder, harder, deeper in, until the Grass-nin began to yell and scream, his eyes watering as she dug her fingers in deeper.
"Stop it!!!" he cried out as she crouched on his own weapon, inches from his face. "P-please!!! I..."
She dug her fingers in as hard as she possibly coud, her fingernails drawig a trace amount of blood as she twisted it cruelly, cutting him off as he yelled louder.
"I forfeit!!!!""
She released her hold on him, falling back to the ground and stumbling up, staggering back a bit and clutching her stomach with both hands and coughing lightly. Hayate dashed forwards with the medical team, unpinning the Grass-nin from the wall as they caught him and placed him on a stretcher and checking his vital signs. They lifted the stretcher as Hayate stepped forwards.
"Tsuta Kuzu has forfeit this match, making the winner Gekkou Rikou!"
Rikou swallowed hard, trying not to throw up. She hadn't been hit so hard for a very long time, and her body was in shock. Hayate stepped forwards. "Did that make you...?"
Rikou collapsed and started coughing violently, she had used too much chakra too quickly, and her body was also not used to that. In fact, she hadn't trained in a while, and her muscled were not as developed as they used to be. Hayate stood, motioning to one of the medical-nin on the other side of the arena.
"Umm... can you please bring out Doctor Terasu?" he called out. The medical-nin nodded, disappearing. Rikou managed to stifle her coughs, and speak up.
"I'm fine, Hayate-chan, it's not a full attack," she said, trying to avoid what she knew was coming.
"It doesn't matter, if it has enough time to develop, it could kill you. Remember what dad said. He told you that even the smallest attack can devestate your body. If you leave it untreated, and your heart rate and breathing slow too much, you'll die. And you're not supposed to die before me, 'kay?"
"But I don't want-"
Rikou was cut off as she heard the door to the arena slam open as three medical-nin stepped in, all of which she knew well. All Gekkou's knew these three. She bit her lip nervously as they made their way towards her.
The one in the middle, Doctor Terasu, was Rikou's personal medical-nin, a highly specialized shinobi with incredible abilities. She specialized in rare diseases and sicknesses, and near-fatal injuries, and was the only one who knew how to treat Rikou's sickness. Rikou had a slightly different illness than the other Gekkou's, one that was less visible on the outside, but was more devastating on the inside.
To her left, walked her personal assistant, Shijin, who was a very talented young medical-nin with a bloodline that allowed him to control other peoples chakra flow, which was useful in his career. On the other side of Doctor Terasu walked another young man, Doctor Tarasu's apprentice, who watched everything she did, which annoyed Rikou.
"Please move, Hayate," said Doctor Terasu quietly. Rikou felt vulnerable as her older brother moved out of the way, allowing the doctor a clear path towards her.
Doctor Terasu knelt down beside her and opened a small, blck case, revealing a number of needles, syringes, bottles, tweezers, clamps and measuring devices. She swallowed hard.
"Please make this easy for us this time, Rikou," said the doctor, looking her in the eye and not yet moving to pick up any of the intruments. There was a puff of smoke as team two and her sensei appeared beside her. She looked around her, there were seven people crowding around her, and she was starting to draw the onlooker's attention.
"I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me," she argued, her voice quiet. The doctor shook her head, removing a flask of water from beside her and opening a bottle of pills, pulling out three.
"Take these," she ordered. Rikou eyed her suspiciously before swallowing the three pills and handing the flask back to her.
"Can I go now?" she asked. But the doctor wasn't done.
"Now, Rikou..." she began, pulling out a small bottle of liquid.
"I just need to do two more things, so..." she removed a large syringe from a small case, holding it up in the light. But that was it, Rikou was out of there. She stood quickly, regaining her balance and dashing past her sensei. She suddenly ran into something solid, and it grabbed her arm tightly. Looking up, she saw the face of Doctor Terasu's assistant, Shijin. He grabbed her other arm and turning her around to face the rest of the crowd. She dropped her head in embarrassment as she saw Ken and Kirema staring at her in confusion. The doctor stepped forwards, squirting out a small amount of the pale green liquid to remaove any air before approaching her.
"Please..." she begged, her body going limp in Shijin's arms. "Don't..."
"You're afraid of a needle?" asked Kirema, cocking an eyebrow. But instead of having to answer the question herself, Doctor Terasu answered it for her.
"It's not the needle that she hates, it's what comes after," she said, moving over to her and rolling up the sleeve of her left arm. The needle hovered for a moment as she found a vein and injected the pale green liquid into her body. Ken, Kirema and Kanzu looked on in horror as each mark on her skin, every scar, began to burn black,, crawling up from her arm and spreading to the rest of her body.
Shijin let her go and she slumped forwards slightly.
"Please, Rikou. Just get it over with, it's coming no matter what you do," said the medical-nin, clipping the end of the needle and replacing it in a small container in the black box and closing the lid. Rikou sighed.
"Fine, I give up, you win. Again."
She slowly reached up and unbuttoned her dirtied trenchcoat, slipping it off her shoulders and revealing her scarred back and shoulders, now burning black. An odd pattern of black markings had formed where there were no scars visible, forming a small series of circles.
The doctor reached forwards, rolling up the sleeve of her black t-shirt and revealing a dark red tatoo of a crow, which she placed her hand over. Shijin placed his hand over the series of circles, and they began to run their chakra through her body.
Rikou felt pain erupt through her body, searing through her lungs and across her heart, speeding them back up to their normal pace. She wouldn't cry out, not in front of her team mates, so she instead bit her lip, grinding her teeth and closing her eyes as she felt her stomach churn uncomfortably. A moment later, it was finished.
"Done. That-"
"-'wasn't so hard was it?'" finished Rikou, as if she had hear it a thousand times before. "Well, it was."
The doctor stood, smiling slightly at Rikou's predictable reaction. She carefully checked her black box, lifting it as she stood and turned.
"Well, congrudulations on passing, Rikou. Good luck in the third exam, I'll be watching as well," she said pleasantly as she walked away, back towards the door. How embarrasing, thought Rikou, making a disgusted face as she rubbed her shoulder.
"Rikou, you will go back with your team, there is a two week waiting period until the next exam, so you should use it to train, alright? I'm going on a mission, so I'll see you in a week." Hayate coughed lightly as he also vanished, leaving her with her team again.
Rikou took a deep breath and lifted herself from the ground, her head throbbing painfully.
"Let's go, Rikou," said Kanzu, turning as well. Rikou walked over to the wall and lifted her silver kamas, replacing them inside her trenchcoat. She glanced down at her other pair, before walking away, leaving them behind. They were broken, she no longer had use for them.
"Are we leaving right away?" asked Ken, facing their sensei. A serious look crossed his face for a moment, before he answered.
"Yes, we should get going, we can make it there by nightfall."
He's still hiding something, thought Rikou as she fell into step beside Ken, heading towards the arena doors. Something is wrong around here...