Ch. 16: The Sixth and Seventh Matches

"Yawn…" I woke up, trying to stay still for as long as I could. I listened to the sound of metal clashing on metal, and decided I wanted to watch the match. I was about to open my eyes when I realized a few things.

I fell asleep with my head tilted on the left. I was now leaning to the right.

The shoulder my head was resting on was considerably bonier and higher up (taller) than Yumi's, and

The flashing lights coming through my eyelids—cameras.

I cracked one eye open, and sure enough—there was Washi, snapping away and cackling at the blackmail opportunities. I soon solved that with a thrown kunai slicing through the camera along with all of the printed photos in his hands. He looked up in the direction that the kunai came from, about to give the offender a piece of his mind. Staring straight at me, his jaw dropped.

"Oh shit," he mouthed, then he ran off. Yeah, you better run! I straightened out, stretching my stiff limbs and back. I turned my head to my right.

"So, Kazu, care to explain why when I woke up, you were replacing Yumi?"

"Huh?" He opened his eyes, blinking away sleep. "Wait, where am—oh, right. She had to go about 15 minutes ago."

"Why?" I was soon answered by the proctor's announcement.

"Nanami Mayumi vs. Tokomi Kohei."

From about eight yards away from us, Kohei hopped down to the arena level. Yumi was nowhere to be found. As a matter of fact, Yumi, Washi, and Deki were missing. Kaida was still in the infirmary, so Kazu and I were the only ones from our group that were present. Suddenly, Washi rushed in, panting, then yelled to the proctor, "Don't start the match yet! She's on her way!"

Sure enough, Yumi soon appeared. But, this time she had a large clay jug on her back. She jumped down to ground level. "Ready," she said, assuming a familiar battle position. The proctor called the match to a start.

The battle started simply enough. They circled, watching the other closely and mirroring each other's movements. Then, Yumi uncorked the jug. I understood where they had been and why she was carrying it. The jug was filled with water, deadly water that was frothing fiercely because of the chakra it was infused with.

"So, I hear you've been perfecting your ice jutsu," Kohei broke the silence.

"Yeah, did you know it's a mixture of water and wind elements?" Yumi asked him.

"Of course! After all, I'm a fellow ice user." Kohei pulled up some water from under the ground, then froze it into a crystal sheet in midair.

"Pitiful," Yumi sneered. "I mean, you've lived in the Water Country AND the Wind Country, yet you can't even use ice jutsus properly?" I slightly winced inwardly. Even though I'd known her for at least eight years, she usually used a voice that was two or three tones higher than her real voice. Consequently, I often forgot how mean and cruel she could be, and how NOT innocent she really was.

"You even have one parent from each village," Yumi continued, "And that's the best you can do? Now take a look at me! I don't even have any connections to either of the villages!"

It was true. I was one of the few people who actually knew her story. Her father was a missing-nin, and because of guilt by association, she and her mother got dragged into the muddle. Her mother had fled to a number of different villages for differing amounts of time, some longer than others. The Mist Village was one that wasn't one of the longer stays, but Yumi had grown so attached to the people and the friends she had made there, that when the whole business was cleared up a few months later, her mother had come right back to the Mist, bringing Yumi with her. Even as her best friend, I still didn't know where either of her parents were from. I only knew that she didn't wish anyone to know, and I was fine with that.

"Oh yeah? I bet I could easily beat you on terms of skills," Kohei countered.

"Then let's see it," Yumi challenged.

Kohei made a few handsigns. Out of nowhere, a large mass of water appeared. "I've been working on this one for the longest time. Got it by combining one of my mom's water jutsus with my dad's wind jutsus." He used the wind element to blow the water over to where Yumi was, effectively chilling and freezing the water as soon as it reached its spot in the glass-like dome he was forming around and over her. "Now how are ya gonna get outta that?" Kohei asked haughtily.

"Like this." Yumi smirked while rapidly making handsigns. She finished, formed a ring with her index finger and thumb, brought it up to her lips, inhaled deeply, then blew out. Flames quickly melted the ice into water.

"As a matter of fact, I'll just get rid of all the water I brought with me. I won't need a single drop of it to beat you." Controlling the water, she pulled it out of the jug and launched it in an arc across the arena. She repeated the rapid handsigns and inhaled even deeper before exhaling forcefully, driving out a humongous ball of flame through her finger ring. All of the water she had tossed into the air disappeared, evaporated in the atmosphere.

"Now let me show you an ice jutsu that you'll have never heard of, seen, or will never hear of or see ever again. I formed it in the year I turned six, and have been perfecting and adding to it ever since. No, I haven't based it off of anything like some incompetents," BOY, was she nasty, "but it's a completely original jutsu I developed myself." She smirked again before performing the most complex sequence of handsigns I had ever seen, and so rapidly that I had a hard time keeping up, even with the Sharingan Disk. She even used some handsigns that I had never seen before, ones that I was sure didn't exist before she created them.

A gigantic, and I mean GIGANTIC whirlpool made of tons and tons of water swirled dangerously above her head, forming a cone shape filling her angled, up-stretched hands. Then to my surprise, she lowered it, bringing it lower and lower until the fiercely spinning water drove into her body. A second later, it had all suddenly disappeared, soaked into Yumi's body. She studied her nails, grinning wickedly. "That water was made from pure chakra. And as chakra, even though it was in liquid form, my system soaks it up just as easily."

"Shit," Washi muttered from where he had 'appeared' next to me. He was leaning on the railing, same as Kazu and I were, and Deki was on his other side. "With that much chakra in her network, she highly unstable. She's either gonna have to do something drastic to get rid of it all, or she's gonna need a major draining when this battle is over." It was very likely to be the second option, although Yumi had never been one to go for small, inconspicuous things. Deki just looked confused.

"I'll explain later!" I talked around Washi.

Back on the battle floor, Yumi was showcasing her jutsu's abilities. She could siphon out water through her hands, freeze it solid with a clench of a fist, then melt it back and soak it right up with a simple snap of her fingers. While she showed off, she talked to Kohei, then raised her voice loudly so the whole arena and its occupants could hear. "It's not just short range. It works long distance as well."

She lifted her left hand in the air and made a swiping motion. 15 yards away, water appeared, surrounding Kohei and capturing him tightly in a left-handed fist-shaped mass of water. With a snap of her right hand, it froze solid, trapping Kohei. She was now the sadistic cat, playing with the mouse that had no chance of escape.

"For my next trick," she projected, with added flair for her audience, "some archery—with a twist," she added with an evil grin. She took her right hand and swiped downwards in a slightly curved line. She snapped her fingers, then quickly closed her fingers around a slender bow. She brought up her left hand, and using a finger, touched one end, dropped it downwards to the other end, and tapped her foot against the ground, creating a delicate string made of ice and given flexibility with her chakra. She switched hands, holding the bow with her left hand and leaving her right hand free.

"Now, what is the companion of a bow?" She held her palm towards the sky, in front of her as if she was about to offer a gift to the heavens. From the feathers up, a slim, crystal clear arrow filled itself up like a mold would with water. Another finger snap, only for show, as I knew by now, and the sharp rod of ice fell into her waiting hand. She positioned the arrow, aimed the bow, pulled back her right arm, then released her fingers. The tension stored up in the chakra-reinforced string propelled the arrow forward. At the last second, a section of Kohei's icy bonds turned back to water to allow the arrow to embed itself in Kohei's thigh, turning the water to a tainted, impure, clouded reddish tinge before it froze again. I tried not to gag.

Kohei cried out in pain.

"Give up!" Yumi suggested nonchalantly, studying her nails again.

"No!" Kohei refused.

Yumi turned the bow into liquid and reabsorbed it. She clawed the air in front of her with her left hand, looking just like a cat batting at an enemy. From next to Kohei, a water dragon with icy fangs appeared, swaying like a majestic snake before it bites, following the motions of Yumi's arm. Just as before, the ice encasing Kohei melted just to let the dragon's head through so the dragon could sink its teeth into the flesh of his right side. By now, I could also tell that Yumi's arms could be strapped to her body and she'd still be able to control her creations by manipulating the chakra running from different spots on her body out to the thing.

"Surrender!" Yumi commanded, idly forming, melting, and reforming a katana with her left hand.

"I will not!" Kohei struggled. Yumi walked over to him, turning the katana solid in her left hand and passing it to her right. Unlike before, an area of ice didn't liquidize. Instead, Yumi just stabbed the blade right through the ice, into Kohei's left shoulder, above his thigh wound. The katana came right through the other side.

"Admit defeat," Yumi said darkly while Kohei bit back another cry in pain. It was no longer a suggestion or a command. He no longer had a choice.

"Never," Kohei said as defiantly as he could.

Yumi took a fist, jerked it around the right to the side of Kohei's head, and stabbed a senbon, a manufactured metal one, into his neck, right into a certain pressure point, with extreme accuracy. Kohei's head lolled to the side. He was unconscious and unable to continue the match. The proctor declared Yumi's victory. Yumi melted up every last bit of ice, leaving two empty wounds and numerous puncture marks, but leaving the senbon for the medics to remove. All of the chakra-generated water went back into Yumi's body, leaving Kohei's body to fall limply into the ready arms of a med-nin. Yumi rejoined the four of us.

"We explain now," she said, still using her real voice's lower tone. The three boys looked at her confusedly, while I nodded. "Deki, Washi—"

"Next match: Washi Warami vs. Takasashi Botan."

"Damn!" Yumi swore. "Why the hell do we keep on getting interrupted?"

I shrugged. "At least we know that he and Deki aren't battling each other."

"Yeah, I guess," Yumi sighed. Then she snickered.

"What?" I asked.

"His name, Botan, means peony!" she giggled, her attitude a complete turnaround from before.

"You mean like the flower?"

"Yeah!"

I laughed along with her.

Still wearing a bewildered expression, Washi took his place on the ground as his opponent celebrated his turn finally arriving.

"Yes!" Washi's opponent exclaimed. "I finally get to do my one-on-one battle! And it isn't some weak girl either!"

"Not yet!" I heard Deki yell. Washi immediately turned red, glared, and flipped Deki off, but Deki was too busy laughing to notice. I turned to Yumi and smiled teasingly.

"By the way, was the short dress really necessary?" I asked quietly. She giggled in the high-pitched tone usually associated with her perverted side. Oh heck, alright, her normal side. "Do I even want to know?"

She shook her head and I took her word for it.

The proctor started the match, and the flower kid started attacking immediately. Washi easily blocked the attacks, barely even trying. The boy stopped to pant.

"Wow, you must be tough for none of those hits to get you!" he commented.

Washi responded by blasting out a gigantic fireball. Botan yelped and jumped out of the way just in time.

"Hey, how come you Mist kids don't yell out the names of your attacks?" Botan asked accusingly.

"First of all, don't call me a kid. I bet I'm older than you. Second, why would I tell you?"

It's for stealth and surprise attacks, my mind supplied.

"Aw, no fair!" Botan whined. The kid was starting to remind me of his curly-haired opponent.

"Wow, you're annoying," Washi commented. Look who's talking… "Well, I might as well have a little fun with this. I'll even say the technique's name—it's no secret…" He trailed off. He made the simple handsigns. "Transformation Jutsu!" And there was the skinny brunette with the short red dress.

"Pff," Botan seemed unimpressed. "What's that supposed to do? Make me laugh? Let me show you the real deal. Scary Jutsu!" And there was a cute little kitten.

"Meow." Poof. "Wait-wait-WAIT! NO! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A TIGER!" he cried, pouting.

"Transformation Jutsu!" Washi retaliated, snickering. When the smoke disappeared, the girl he was disguised as was the same, except with her hair up. He, er, she, was holding three shot glasses, the true receivers of the jutsu. In truth, they were vials of different substances. Washi had just tied her, heheh, hair under the cover of the cloud.

"You taught him that?" Yumi nodded in the affirmative.

"Would you like one?" Washi asked, using a higher, sweeter, more innocent and—I spluttered as soon as I thought this—seductive tone. "It'll make this battle more fun!"

"Cool, refreshments!" Botan stopped sulking and received the vial all too willingly. He gulped it down, and, as expected, fell to the ground unconscious. Washi turned himself back and retrieved the glass container from Konohamaru's hand.

"Match goes to Washi Warami!"

"Well, that was weird," Yumi commented.

"Agreed," I answered.