Rikou dashed forwards along with Ken, both drawing their swords as they headed for eachother. They met in the middle, clashing hard and sending sparks flying, bouncing across the dirt, hitting small bits of rock and burning out. Rikou jumped back and took another slash at him, trying to think of a plan.
She didn't want to hurt her team mate, but she also didn't want to lose. She had told her sensei she would try her best to win the exam, and she was going to keep her word this time. They met again, each trying to force the other back, Ken managing to push her further and further back as their swords fought for control. But Ken was much better than her with swords.
He twisted in an odd position, causing her to fall forwards as he kneed her in the stomach before bringing his hand down on the back of her neck, her body slumping to the ground... and turning into a rock.
"Kawarimi!?" he hissed, jumping back.
Rikou jumped out from behind one of the trees, making a complicated series of one-handed seals and shouting "Seishuku no Mai!"
There was a puff of smoke and a clone appeared beside her, dashing forwards towards Ken. Rikou dashed into the trees again, hiding and watching as her clone fought for her. But her clone wasn't a normal clone, she had only recently mastered this dance, and Ken had not yet been up against it.
The clone clashed with Ken, their swords meeting again, but this dance was more complicated. Another blade suddenly shot from the clone's stomach, narrowly missing Ken as he jumped back and the sword melted back into the clone. Ken charged again, but this time the clone fell into a crouch, swords shooting from it's shoulders and elbows as it spun on the ground, catching his foot as he jumped in the air.
Ken isn't fighting seriously, thought Rikou, watching from behind the tree. Ken landed a few feet away and charged the clone again, this time throwing his sword and letting it fly past the five or so swords coming out of the clone's body, piercing it's stomach. There was a puff of smake as the clone disappeared and his katana fell to the ground where he picked it up.
Rikou was about to repeat the jutsu, but was stopped as a bug landed on her hand, biting it annoyingly.
"Huh?"
Another one landed on her hand, followed by another and another until her body was completely covered in the crawling insects, all biting her, even through her coat. She started to slap at them, to brush them off, but more and more came. What? This is... Genjutsu!?
She dropped her sword, bringing up her hands in a single seal and shouting "Kai!"
The bugs suddenly dissappeared as she picked up her sword, but something approached behind her and she spun around just in time to block a blow by Ken aimed for her shoulder. She stumbled back from the force, gasping in shock at the sudden attack.
A few seconds later, she found a blade through her right shoulder and she froze, looking up at Ken who had a similar look of shock on his face. It was odd, she couldn't feel any pain. Her shoulder was numb, her stomach was churning at the sight of her own blood, but she felt no pain.
"Rikou..."
But she wouldn't give up, not yet. She lashed out, throwing her ninja-to towards him and catching him in his thigh, staining his white trenchcoat red with blood. She pulled back, throwing her black coat off and into his face, delaying any attacks for a moment as she fell backwards onto the ground, gasping.
She grabbed her right shoulder, staunching the bloodflow as she struggled up. The crowd was oddly silent, and as she looked up, she noticed them staring at her. Oh, right, she thought, glancing at her heavily scarred body. Ken threw the black coat off of his body as he also struggled up, pulling out her ninja-to and casting it aside.
She gasped for breath, struggling against her instinct to run. Ken was also breathing heavily, but he recovered quickly, readying his sword.
"Please forfeit, Rikou. I don't want to hurt you," he said, cocking his katana and causing the sun to glint off it.
Rikou shook her head, causing pain to shoot up from her shoulder finally. "I'm not going to run..."
More pain suddenly erupted from her shoulder, burning up her neck and down her arms, her muscles suddenly giving out and causing her to collapse, still clutching her shoulder.
"Please, Rikou!"
She shook her head, and Ken finally charged again. He fell upon her, bringing his katana down over her head, but she reacted in a flash, and Ken found himself stopped in mid-swing.
It was an odd position to be in, Rikou was on her knees, bent over backwards, the chain of her kamas stretched taught and blood running freely over her skin. Ken was poised over her, a leg on either side of her body as he supported his own weight with his sword which was pressed into the silver chain. Rikou swallowed hard, the pain becoming almost intolerable.
Neither of them could move, if Rikou moved, Ken would fall onto her, and Ken just plain couldn't move, he was relying solely on the chain itself for support. Rikou coughed twice, swallowing again and momentarily closing her eyes before executing a difficult move.
She let the chain loosen slightly, causing Ken to slump forwards a few inches. She then slid her legs out from under her, catching his legs and tripping him as she kicked up into his stomach, hitting the ground hard as he flew back a few feet.
Ken staggered back up as she lay panting on the ground, lifting his sword again. Chakra suddenly erupted from his arms, travelling up the sword and taking it's shape, forming a sharp edge and a fine point.
"Rikou! Don't make me use it!"
Rikou pushed herself back up, biting her lip as the pain washed over her again, her head spinning and her stomach churning as adreneline pumped through her body. She swallowed hard, eying Ken's now glowing sword.
She suddenly froze, trapped in one of Ken's genjutsus again. But this time it was different. The world exploded in light, blinding her even as she closed her eyes, before plunging into complete, suffocating darkness and silence. She couldn't breath, she couldn't use any of her senses, she couldn't move at all. She couldn't even fell the pain of her shoulder.
She didn't know how long she was trapped like that, it felt like hours, but something snapped her out just in time as it dug it's black beak into her wound painfully, snapping her back to reality. The crow was perched on her shoulder and Ken was charging at her, but this time she was ready.
"Tsuki-kage no Mai!"
She suddenly melted into the tree's shadow, the crow taking flight again, as she exploded from the ground behind him, wrapping the chain around his neck and causing him to drop his sword. But he elbowed her in the stomach, sending her backwards as he spun around to face her.
"Rikou! Stop it! You're hurting yourself!"
Rikou was breathing heavily, but she managed to snap out a few words. "I don't care! I'm not going to forfeit!" If I use too much more chakra, I'll have an attack...
Ken seemed trapped between attacking his team mate, or helping her. He suddenly dropped his head, sighing as he raised his hand.
"Then, if you won't... I...I forfeit!"
Rikou looked up at her friend in amazement. "Why-?"
Ken lifted his head and grinned at her, picking up her coat and throwing it back to her. He picked up his sword, sheathing it as he held out a hand to help her up.
"Hikari Ken has forfeit this match, therefore the winner is Gekkou Rikou!"
Rikou tried to get up, but her legs wouldn't move. Pain suddenly washed over her again and she grabbed her shoulder, wincing as tears formed in her eyes. A team of medical-nin came out onto the field, carrying a white stretcher betweent them. They kneeled beside her and lifted her onto it, draping her trenchcoat over her before lifting the stretcher.
"Can you walk?" one of them asked Ken. He nodded, limping alongside the stretcher as they carried her into the treatment room. Ken walked in beside her, sitting on one of the bods as a medical-nin came to tend to him.
The two ninja carrying her lifted her onto the table, pulling the trenchcoat from her as one brought chakra to his hands. He gently used two fingers, his middle and pointer, and pressed them into the wound, sealing it and stopping the bloodflow. He then gave her a cloth to wipe up the blood.
She turned her head towards Ken, where he was chatting amiably with the medical-nin, asking him about his techniques. He looked so content just speaking with him, showing him his own techniques as the medical-nin corrected some things. She watched as his hand glowed green and he touched his own wound, sealing it himself and thanking the medical-nin as he left the room.
He's so good around other people... Why did he forfeit?
"Ken..."
He lifted his head, the green chakra fading from his hands. "Yeah?"
"Why did you forfeit? Don't you want to become a chuunin?"
He looked at her for a moment before his face broke into a smile. "Of course! But I didn't want to hurt you, and my friend's are more important than my future."
Rikou struggled into a sitting position, looking at him curiously. "But... don't you want to become a medical-nin? This is your second chuunin exam."
"Yeah," he said quietly, dropping his head again. But he raised it and grinned at her. "But I know you're having a hard time right now, and I didn't want to make things harder for you."
Rikou gazed at him for a moment longer, before she dropped her head again, lost in thought. A medical-nin came into the room, handing her her ninja-to before leaving again. She wiped it on her trenchcoat, holding it in her lap and looking it over. She felt the bed sag for a moment as Ken dropped down beside her, looking at it as well.
She ran her fingers across the cold, smooth blade, tracing a finger up it and towards the handle where her brother's name was engraved. Gekkou Hayate.
"It's your brother's?"
"Yeah," she said. "I don't have my own. When we trained together, he always gave me one of his, usually this one because it was the easiest for me to use."
Ken looked down at the sword for a moment, before drawing his own and holding it up in the same manner. "This handed down to me from my dad along with everything else when he died. My whole family were all trained in Ninpou, and they all fought in the Demon War with Kyuubi. Since I was only one year old, I obviously couldn't fight with them, so I'm stuck with my uncle, the only one who wasn't a ninja."
Rikou turned her head slightly to look at him, before her eyes dropped to his sword. It was incredibly beautiful. The blade was very light silver, almost white, and it shone brightly in the sun. The handle was white, bound with brown leather, and the end had a crystal orb attatched to it with a small hole running through it.
"What's that for?" she asked, pointing to the orb. Ken lifted the sword slightly so she could better see the handle.
"Umm... Well, this sword is passed down to the successors of my clan, and we specialize in sword-fighting and chakra techniques. This sword is really old, it was made around two hundred years ago. You've seen my techniques, right?"
"Yeah," she said, remembering ho his sword would glow blue.
"Well, this sword was specially made for my techniques, or for the clan's techniques. There are many holes in the handle that run all the way up through the blade and allow chakra to pass through it. I can control all of these litle tunnels, focus chakra to one point or to all points and make the sword a deadly weapon, see?"
He handed her the sword, and she examined it closely, squinting at the small pinholes that dotted the surface. He reached out and took it back from her.
"Watch."
He held the handle and his arms glowed blue for a moment. The chakra passed up the sword and he molded it to one side, then to the other, then to the tip, and then her made it engulf the entire sword before it faded away.
"That must take alot of practice..."
Ken sheathed the sword, sighing. "That's an understatement. I swear, training for any more than an hour wastes all of my chakra for around three days."
Rikou smiled faintly for the first time in days, sheathing her own swords. She grabbed her trenchcoat and slipped it back on, reattatching her sheath on top and grabbing her kamas from the bed.
There was suddenly a loud outburst of cheers from the crowd, and Ken stood, stretching his leg and wincing in pain, rubbing his thigh.
"Do you want to head back up to watch the last matches?"
Rikou nodded, slipping off the bed and stretching as well. She wrapped her kamas around her body inside her trenchcoat before walking with Ken back up to the stands.
"Hey, are you guys okay now?" asked Kirema, turning towards them. She noticed Kanzu standing behind him and waved to him.
"Yeah," said Ken, waving at Kanzu as well.
"Who's match?" asked Rikou, peering down at the two participants.
"Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara," said Kanzu, looking down as well. Rikou tore her eyes away from the battle and glanced at the crowd, still seeing the Anbu surrounding them unnoticed.
"Umm.. sensei?"
"Hmm?"
"Why are there Anbu here as well?"
Kanzu looked up at one of the Anbu, before turning to her. "For security."
Rikou narrowed her eyes slightly at the simple answer, thinking: he's still hiding something. She turned back to the battle, watching as the sand around Gaara slowly fell away. She noticed his shoulder was smeared with red.
"What!? That guy...? He wounded Gaara!?"
"What are you talking about, Rikou? So what?" asked Kirema.
"Gaara... He's never been hit before... never been wounded like that... He's never bled."
Rikou watched as the two shinobi faced eachother, Sasuke breathing heavily, but grinning. She suddenly felt a change in the atmosphere and looked up to see thousands of white feathers falling from the sky.
"...Sensei...? What is that?"
Kazu looked up as well, but Rikou suddenly tuned as Ken and Kirema fell to the ground. Genjutsu!?
She held up her hands in a seal, looking around and seeing many of the other jounin and Anbu doing the same.
"Kai!" The feathers around her suddenly disappeared, and she looked around. The entire crowd was asleep or unconcious, all slumped forwards except for a jounin every now and then who was standing and cancelling the genjutsu.
"What's going on, Kanzu-sensei!?" she asked, her voice rushed and pannicked as she looked around.
"I'm not sure..." he said.
She looked up to where the Hokage was sitting, and saw the Kazekage with a kunai to his throat. "Sensei! The Hokage-sama!"
Kanzu spun around, gasping at the sight. "A suprise attack!?"
"What!?"
"The Sand... The Sand and the Sound are attacking!"
Rikou's breaths sped up as she turned towards the two Sand gennin, Kankuro and Temari.
"Just... I don't want anything to happen to you... something is happening and I don't want you to get caught in it..."
She remembered Kankuro's words in the hospital as she looked at his face. She heard an explosion and turned back to the arena, ducking as a kunai flew over her head. Anbu were everywhere as Sand-nin washed over the crowd, engaging in battles as they went. Four Sound-nin jumped in front of her, but Kanzu was there in a flash, taking them out by slashing their throats open.
Rikou cringed as they fell on the ground in front of her, inches away. Kanzu stood protectively over her, watching out for any enemies.
"Sensei...?"
"This is war, Rikou. Wake up Ken and Kirema. Now."
Rikou moved quickly, she had never heard her sensei speak in this tone before. She made a seal and touched each of their chests. They twitched in their sleep, opening their eyes as a body flew past their heads and slammed into the wall, leaving a trail of blood as it slid down to the ground.
"What's going on!?" shouted Kirema, standing and casting around. Ken pulled him back to the ground as a number of kunai and shuriken whizzed past his head.
"Rikou? What happened!?" he hissed.
"I'm not sure... The Sound and the Sand are attacking Konoha... The Kazekage is trying to kill the Hokage-sama."
"What!?" they both hissed, looking at her in shock.
"This..." she looked to where Kanzu was fighting another Sound-nin. "This is a war."