"Kinuta Dosu, Nara Shikamaru, you're up," said Hayate as the display lit up with those two names. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shikamaru leapt down into the arena, and a moment later, a sound-nin joined him. This one was the oddest of the bunch, his body hunched over like he had some kind of growth on his back, while most of what one could see under his large trench coat was covered with bandages, only his left eye exposed to the open air, and looking towards the other body with a smirk.
"So, you want to explain your powers like your friend did, or?" asked Shikamaru as he got into position for the match. Rather than answer though, Dosu attacked, his fist suddenly flying out, and forcing the young Nara heir to start dodging immediately, going on a fast and furious offensive.
Of course, the attacks themselves were slow, with his heavy coat and hunched over frame, allowing Shikamaru to weave through them, and then punch out with his fist, his face grimacing as he hit the right forearm block, which clanged against the strike. Leaping back, Shikamaru began to rub at the hand, which appeared to have been badly bruised. Dosu, rather than press the attack, retreated himself, smirking beneath his bandages as he seemed to find something very amusing about the whole thing.
"Ow, that really hurt. You're using that coat to hide armor or something?" asked Shikamaru, and as if in answer, Dosu pulled up his sleeve, revealing a metal armguard that that holes similar to those his partner had had in his arm.
"Oh no, this isn't armor, this is my Resonating Echo Speaker. I use it in my style as both weapon and defense. Like that idiot's arm, it focuses sound. Unlike his talent though, this one isn't about generating huge blasts, no, it has a much different skill," and as if in demonstration, he banged his hand against the metal thing, which dinged like a bell. The sound passed over almost everyone else without comment, but Shikamaru seemed to be in pain as the echoing tone washed over him, driving him to his knees with a cry.
"Yes, it's the power to strike my opponent anywhere, once I learn their harmonic frequency. A bit of pressure, and I can make the world spin, a sharp rap on it, and I can make you feel like your ears are bleeding. Add a bit of chakra, and I can even make you die," as he spoke, the sound-nin walked casually towards Shikamaru's body, and then with a sharp kick, sent him sprawling onto the floor.
"This is so disappointing. All those rumors one hears about the Thirteen, how strong and powerful they are, how skilled at combat, and here you are, rolling around on the floor," with that he banged on his armguard again, this time causing Shikamaru to scream, and one could actually see a few drops of blood flow through his fingers as he held them against his ears. Hayate, looking down, wanted to call the match, as that seemed to be it, but as Shikamaru never passed out, he let it continue.
"Yes, I suppose I'll just have to deal with this sort of disappointment. Now, which leg do you think I should take first?" he asked, chuckling as he reached down, but just before he could, Shikamaru withdrew his hands from his head and struck out, sending a handful of blood into Dosu's eye, causing him to cry out in pain himself as he leapt away, already trying to rub the stuff out. While he was backed away, Shikamaru drew a small line on his wrist, and then made a single sign with this hands, before pounding them into the ground.
"Summoning Technique!" he cried, and with a bamf of air, chakra smoke filled the room. Grunting, Dosu banged his hand on his speaker again, and then again when he failed to hear the desired cries from out of the smoke, which slowly cleared to show Shikamaru, now astride a great deer, a huge specimen, a four point buck. The thing stood there, towering over Dosu at almost ten feet tall. The sound-nin cursed as he leapt back again, while Shikamaru sat on the things back, glowing with obvious chakra.
"Heh, didn't think I'd have to pull this one out so soon, but there you go. Kinuta Desu, meet the Healer of King Aspen's Court, the Great Prince," he said, patting the back of the beast he sat astride, smirking down at the other ninja as he began to bang furiously on his Speaker. Each impact caused Shikamaru to wince, but it seemed like the brown deer beneath him was able to keep pace with the injuries, healing the leaf-nin as he kept smirking down at his foe, who suddenly pulled a kunai out of some hidden pocket and grasping it in his free arm.
"Just what I needed!" with that declaration, Shikamaru shot to his feet, and then made an odd handsign. Instantly, his shadow stretched out in a technique familiar to any ninja of Konoha. The dark tendril, moving at the speed of darkness itself, grasped for Desu's shadow. Joining the two together as they touched, and causing the sound-nin to jerk violently to a halt, his grip on the weapon going white. With that done, Shikamaru somehow produced his own kunai from somewhere, letting the thing gleam wickedly in the arena's light as he held it up.
"Heh, wish I knew the advanced forms, since then I could do this without having a kunai of my own, but whatever," as he spoke, Shikamaru moved his arm, holding his free hand. Desu, despite obviously struggling, mimed the motion perfectly, holding up the arm with the Speaker on it, and slowly rotating it over, so the straps that held the metal thing to his arm were shown. With a quick stabbing motion, the tip of his kunai and Shikamaru's buried themselves in their arms, and then slowly worked their way up, cutting deep into flesh, and in Desu's case, straps, the Speaker clattering to the floor with a racket.
"I suppose I could make you smash the thing, but I figure that's gonna take more time than you have before you bleed out. Surrender now, and I'll have the Prince heal you," offered the Nara boy astride his summon, and below him, the sound-nin looked like he wanted to say something, but nothing that Shikamaru wanted to hear. Sighing now, murmuring troublesome to himself, the leaf-nin held up his free hand again, Desu's arm rising to show it was covered with a thick trail of blood, even as Shikamaru's own wound was healing.
"I really hate to do this to you, but I'm not gonna back down now," and with that, he stabbed his own palm, the kunai in his hand easily tearing through flesh and sinew to emerge on the other side. Desu's hand, despite all his efforts, soon did likewise, and the sound-nin's voice howled in pain. Still, after the initial cry, he made no other sounds, and looking cold, Shikamaru began to literally twist the knife, slowly carving a circle into his own palm, that he pushed the kunai completely past. Desu, breathing and sweating, copied the motion, a huge puddle of blood forming on the ground around him, before finally, mercifully, he collapsed, his eyes shutting even as he hit the floor.
"Nara Shikamaru wins," said the proctor for the exam, and Shikamaru, nodding, leapt from his steed, his hand already healing before their eyes. The summon, without prompting from its summoner, went over and licked the injured man on the ground, the spit and saliva vanishing into his skin, sealing the cuts on his arm.
"Heh, easier than I thought," said the leaf-nin, as he rubbed at his hand, the hole closing up, as the medic-nin rushed to the floor. One of them insisted on looking at Shikamaru's injury, before the pair placed the still unconscious Desu on a stretcher, and carried him from the room. With that done, Shikamaru sent the Prince back to Aspen's Court, and then lazily walked up the stairs back to the balcony around the arena, and then quickly collapsed. Even with his chakra reserves, summoning was not an easy technique.
"Not bad you lazy bum," commented Ino, smiling at him, as he opened one eye and smirked back. Hayate, with another kick on the display, caused it to spin once again, soon displaying the next two fighters.
"Tsuchi Kin, Akimichi Choji, fight time," he said between a cough, and the last of the sound-nin, looking rather dour, leapt from her spot onto the arena floor. Meanwhile, Choji shoved the last of the bag of chips he'd been eating into his mouth, and then placed the crumpled up bag in a pouch at his waist, before he walked towards the stairs, soon joining her on the arena floor.
"So, you're another one of the Thirteen then?" Asked the last of sound-nin as she began to stretch, considering her opponent.
"I am, and if you were smart, you'd surrender now. I'm one of the strongest, and I don't want to have to hurt you to prove it," said the rotund boy as he just stood there, impassive as a boulder, his green combat suit wrapping tightly about his waist.
"Heh, you really think that intimidates me? Those idiots on my team were not even close to me in terms of skill. Besides, what can a fat ninja like yourself really hope to do against someone with my kind of speed," she said, and then whipped out an arm. Several small, almost invisible senbons filled the space between the pair. Choji, either uncaring or just not fast enough, let the needles come, and a few buried themselves in his flesh, as his arm shot up to protect his face, the green on his suit soon having patches of red to go along with it, as he lowered his arm.
"Not bad, you are really fast," he said as he looked at his skin, and then began to withdraw the needles slowly, deliberately one by one, letting them ting to the floor. Kin, staring at him, let him do it, wondering just what kind of trick he was playing at, even as she got another barrage ready, this time including the ones with bells, figuring a few showers like that could end this in short order.
"Still, now I think I want to hurt you. No one, calls an Akimichi fat," he said this in the same level tone as before, and then he moved. It wasn't fast, it wasn't sudden, but it was focused and powerful, as his right arm pulled back like he was going to punch the air, and then it shot forward. Kin only had a moment to realize her mistake, before she leapt upwards, sending another shower of needles towards the arm, which had grown large enough that his fist was taller that she was.
The appendage was thick skinned, and the combat suit had grown with it, the sleeve now thick enough that every needle, and even a kunai she'd mixed in, just bounced off the protection, even as the fist itself slammed hard into the wall behind where she'd been. It shook everything, and those watching the fight had to grab the railings or risk falling to their knees as the quake passed over them. When it was done, and the kunoichi was once more on the ground, she was stunned into silence as she looked to find cracks covering the wall, and a slowly dissipating cloud of dust as the arm drew back.
"That...that would have killed me," she whispered breathlessly as she looked on, her expression shocked, as if she hadn't realized before that the ninja life was dangerous. She was shaking, looking vulnerable, and Choji, looking at her as he dusted off his knuckles, felt a twinge of sympathy for her. He was about to ask her again if she wanted to back out, but just before the words left his mouth, another shower of senbons, this one faster came at him. His reactions weren't the fastest amongst the Thirteen, and even as he tried to raise his hands, he could feel the sting of one of the needles burying itself in his cheek, only missing his eye thanks to him turning.
"Heh, don't underestimate me because I'm a girl!" She screamed, rushing the male shinobi with senbons seeming to materialize in the air in front of her. Choji flailing, was able to force her to hop backwards, extending his arms and making them grow so they were like morning stars as they smashed into the ground. Then she made a mistake, she leapt into the air to avoid one of the strikes, limiting her options, even as he suddenly moved far faster, his hands growing out, and his palms coming together on her, smashing her like an insect.
Everyone stood there, as Choji held his hands together in the air in front of him. The boy, with his arms and hands so huge as to dwarf the rest of him, would have looked comical, if one didn't know that there was a person caught in his grip. After a moment had passed, Choji opened his hands, and Kin, unconscious, fell to the floor with a sharp wrap that seemed to echo over the silent arena. Above, Hayate looked at Kin, feeling her through the arena to gauge her abilities, and shook his head.
"Akimichi Choji wins," he said, coughing. The cough, as before, seemed to be a sign, and the arena repaired itself as the medic-nin rushed in, shaking their heads at yet another injured genin, before carting off the kunoichi. Choji, returning to his position up above, pulled a bag of chips from seemingly nowhere, and he watched as Hayate kicked the display beneath him, the names of the remaining genin flashing over it, selecting the next pair to do battle.