Chapter 15 is out! Yay! Hope you all like it! As usual: REVIEW
"You ready to kick some ass, Kiba?"
"Hell yeah, they don't stand a chance." He replied confidently, then adding: "Are you clear on the plan? I'll attack them head-on, then you can injure or finish them off from behind. Remember, we need to separate them. If you can't take them out we attack together. But I do need you to continue attacking our target with kunai and shuriken. Halt when I give the word, then throw these-" He handed me some smoke bombs. "At them. I work better when my target cannot see. Though - depending on who we're up against, we might have some trouble getting them into the smoke. Our only hope is if we can get Alexis and Sasuke's team. Naruto, Shino, and Hinata know my techniques well."
I nodded in agreement, mentally going over the plan.
My heart raced terribly and my mind was thrown into a panic as I thought about what we had to do. This would be my first fight as well. At least, against - and with - shinobi outside of our team. Oh god. This would not be good.
'No, no panicking. Look, Lexi isn't panicking, you have no reason to panic. OK? We'll be fine… OK, we'll be fine. I mean, c'mon, you've got one cute and strong dog boy on your team and we're a genius! What could go wrong?' I told myself, then smirking. There was no chance we'd lose. Lexi didn't even know Sasuke, but she already hated him. She wouldn't give him a chance. Hinata looked too faint to even hear Naruto. And Sakura and Shino? They worked well together, but Sakura - though smart and with a thorough understanding of most techniques - was the weakest here. I was born for this. Yes, I was. I reassured myself, boosting my already full to the brim ego.
"Lynx, you said you're good with chakra control, right?" Kiba asked, I nodded. "Can you use chakra to kill, yet? Without taijutsu? Just plain chakra?"
"I didn't even know you could do that. So no, sorry Kibz." I replied, grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh, OK, Kibz?" He looked dead serious now.
"What? It's cute." I blushed - fake blushed, but still blushed.
He growled, while Akamaru yipped loudly in what sounded suspiciously like laughter. I had to cover my face to stifle my laughter. Kiba blushed and turned away.
"Aww, I'm sowwy Kiba." I used the deadly baby voice, matching it with the even deadlier puppy eyes as I turned him around to look at me.
"Even Akamaru's laughing at me. I trusted you, boy. I've got no one left any more! Why me?" He wailed jokingly.
"Hehe, aww. I'm still here." I offered.
"Why meeeeeeeee?" He wailed even louder.
We laughed loudly, drawing the other's attention.
"Ahem, hehe-- ahem, hehe." I tried to regain my composure by clearing my throat, though that merely resulted in another painful laughing fit. Kiba was practically guffawing by that point!
"Hehe- Ni-hehe-ce, Lyyyyyynnnnxxxxx!" He managed to get out before succumbing to another fit.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lexi fighting back laughter. I let out a screech of laughter and she burst.
"Hehehehehe-- HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She screamed, Naruto and Sakura joined in with her, Sasuke, Shino, and Hinata were the only three not laughing by this time - even Kurenai and Kakashi were letting out appreciative chuckles! Slowly Hinata began to giggle abashedly, but the other two remained stoic. Their "stoicness" caused me to laugh even more.
Slowly our laughter died down - with some prompting from our teachers, though.
"Ahem - alright. Is everyone ready to begin?" Kurenai inquired, not even waiting for a reply as she continued. "You will all be fighting at the same time. If you attack another team - other than your opponents - you shall immediately be forced to forfit. We will be playing for first blood - once you have drawn blood you are out of the game. Your team can continue without you, though once both on the team have drawn blood you are finished."
Kakashi then continued: "The first games shall be between Team Lynx and Team Sasuke. The winners of this match will go against the winner of Team Sakura and Team Naruto's battle. Both team members will be back in the game during the second game. The losing teams shall face off to find out who shall be in last place and who in third. Understood?" With a collective murmuring of consent, "Take your positions and we will call when you are to begin."
Kiba grabbed my arm, I then moved my hand up to his and entwined our fingers - it was far more comfortable than having him pinch into my biceps. We ran towards the edge of the clearing. Planning to go back into the clearing - against Sasuke we would be at a disadvantage in the thickets of the forest.
"Kiba, when this is all over, do you promise to cut your finger nails? They're killing my poor palm." I whined to him.
"Whatever." He replied with a roll of his eyes, though he loosened his grip on my hand.
"Thanks."
"Hn."
"Don't become another Sasuke, please? I think one gay, chicken-haired, emo ass is plenty for me. I don't want another one." I told him, trust me, a girl can only take so many 'hn's' before wanting to rip out a guy's tongue.
"Haha, I promise!" Joked he.
"Phew, that's good to hear!"
"C'mon, we need to be prepared. This is not going to be a fun battle. Damn Kurenai and Kakashi. Too lazy to even prepare another place to battle, though I have a feeling the other two teams will want to be in the forest."
We positioned ourself in a thin bush. The bush did not provide much protection, simply enough to let our teachers believe that we were ready - and so that the two of us could talk and our voices would be smothered and muffled.
The 'flag up' sounded through the forest and clearing like a very agitated bird's mating call. I had to stifle giggles - gawd, I was so immature! Kiba and I began to dig furiously underground covering the entrance with leaves and twigs from surrounding shrubbery. We dug into the middle of the clearing. Waiting for the Uchiha to find us with his sharingan. Kiba smelt his nearing presence and dug a while for our tunnel to branch off so that he could attack the Uchiha straight up - A.K.A. from right in front of him.
Lexi knelt behind a bush, as Kiba had told me. I 'appeared' from out of the ground behind her, silently. She didn't even notice - she was absorbed in the boy's battle.
"Sorry, Lexi." I whispered, pulling out a kunai.
"Lynx! How did you- ow fuck!" She said, her voice hushed.
I had used the kunai to slice down her biceps. It was a very small cut, just deep enough to draw blood, but it ran down from her shoulder to her elbow. It just seemed more, I don't know, effective? No, truth be told I couldn't make it too small because it made me feel proud, the blood did.
Kakashi 'poofed' in behind us and pulled Lexi up, before 'poofing' away with her. I inwardly congratulated myself on my first 'kill'.
The next step was to corner Sasuke. Though I would have to do this silently, and invisibly. It sounds nearly impossible, but I could just dig another hole. I marked Sasuke's place in my mind and began to dig towards it.
The ground piled beside my new hole. Sasuke had not yet seen me. Quickly, before he noticed, I made three clones of myself, sending one to help Kiba fight him immediately. The other two were placed 'strategically' (yeah, right) around the clearing, making sure to be hidden. I myself stayed in the hole. Hidden by a shadow.
My first clone attacked Sasuke from behind. He looked startled and could only dodge. My clone began to throw kunais and shurikens furiously, Sasuke dodged most, only receiving one shuriken in his left arm. His bad arm as it was - he was a righty.
I popped out of the hole and began making handsigns, sure I was improvising a bit, but once you understand the theory then you can have a little fun with it, right? My genjutsu merely made Sasuke less aware of his surroundings, or the original would have. My 'pimped out' version created a different illusion - an illusion that led him into my mind.
At the moment Sasuke would be seeing Kiba fall over, cut. My clone 'poofed' away and his team victorious. Though in the real world Kiba was advancing on him.
The sharingan, though, would not be fooled into believing a beginner's illusion and he snapped out of it as Kiba was five feet away. My clone took the signal from Kiba and threw the smoke bombs. Sasuke May be able to see through it, but it gave Kiba a slight advantage. From here I could surround the smoky area with my three clones and myself and be ready to attack him once Sasuke escapes. I began to throw kunais, all of them had my scent on them so that Kiba could dodge them in the mist. A muffled scream and Kiba was thrown out of the smoke. What? There was no kunai in him, but a long, bloody gash had been made along his arm. He was, like Lexi, poofed away. I was now left alone against Sasuke.
'Oh god.' I was scared, far more than my pride would allow me to show. But I was.
We drew closer to each other, I noticed a wet patch on his arm. It was darker than usual. But it was blood. Should I call it? 'No.' Was my answer, I wanted to fight him. He was strong, and I needed a goal to set myself to.
I readied myself, taking stance. Without giving him any chance to prepare I began vigorously throwing chakra enhanced kunai and shuriken - I didn't know how I was doing this, but something in me transferred the chakra into the weapons without thinking. He simply dodged them, I ran. He would try to catch me off guard. I dropped into one of our burrows, quickly switching with a new clone. My chakra reserves did not falter all through this for I reclaimed the chakra in my weapons with a tug of my hand.
My clone suddenly stopped all movement, tugging back the rest of the chakra enhanced weapons in the process.
Sure enough, Sasuke appeared behind it. He hit it nonchalantly, and I popped out from behind him. As my clone 'poofed' away, I struck him with chakra. Somehow - as luck would have it - I hit a vein, not a chakra point, but a vein. I swelled with pride as he began to fall, though he poofed in the process and my ego deflated as suddenly as it had inflated.
"Oh." I said, oh so intelligently, before grinning stupidly and scratching the back of my neck.
I felt a presence behind me and did not even turn before stabbing my kunai backwards. It hit. My eyes widened in shock, and I turned around. It hadn't drawn blood, but the side had thumped him.
Kakashi appeared and broke us apart.
"Blood, on your arm, Sasuke. Kiba already took you out." He told us, I simply stared.
I had wanted to beat him! 'That's not fair!' I thought, pouting grumpily and folding my arms in a huff. Why didn't they stop him before? SO NOT FAIR!!
Kiba ran up to me and hugged me tightly.
"WE WON! WE WON! FINALS FOR US!" He shouted happily, a grin evident on his face.
"I KNOW! WOOT WOOT!" I screamed in reply, hugging him back. His happiness was contagious.
Kurenai appeared suddenly next to Kakashi.
"Team Shino win. Who of your battle was victorious?" She informed.
"Team Lynx." He flashed his eyes in my direction, his eyes glinting in something I liked to believe was pride.
"The two will face off in a minute then, this should be interesting." Remarked she pleasantly.