Actually, I was hesitant about updating this, coz the number of reviews wasn't as pleasing as I'd wish it to be, but just this once I've decided to let it go. However the statement that I WON'T UPDATE UNLESS I GET REVIEWS stays, so you know what to do once you're done reading.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hope you'll keep on putting me in a good mood. Also, any drawer that wants to help me out is still welcome, so just let me know if you're one of them.
I must admit this one actually gave me a bit of a headache, as I sorta got stuck on it several times. The battle itself ended up being different then what I first planned it to be, but in the end I'm more happy with how I finished it.
I honestly have no more ideas as to what to write, so I'll just encourage you to read & review my other fics and possibly my original stories and get on to the story:
Chapter #68: Tom and Jerry?! (I know, but I couldn't think of anything better)
Title Page: out front Kumiko dressed as a cat with a wide smile, showing the 'v' sign and a little in the back Ibuki in a mouse outfit with her arms crossed, slightly pissed
"Lets move on to another, elimination fight!" announced Lee, making all the gennin turn towards the screen once again, where the next, two names already got chosen: TORA MIAKA versus KANRAKU NEZUMI.
A second later the girl from Bakufu team jumped down with her white tiger following her, and walked confidentially to the center of the arena. Meanwhile Nezumi simply looked up to the top of her head, where her rat stick out its head from her hair, and with an encouraging smile on her face, he announced: "Looks like it's our turn, Hamaru…"
"Do your best, Nezumi-chan!" Tobane suddenly burst out, almost giving Taka, who stood beside her, a heart attack. As the masked boy grabbed his chest, breathing slightly faster then usual, the rat girl prepared herself to jump down, only to be stopped by Kogane, who grabbed her hand. As the Grass kunoichi glanced at the blonde, the leaf-nin only said: "Hanamaru would probably wish you luck, but since he isn't here, I guess I'll have to do it… so, good luck…"
"Thanks" Nezumi responded after a short moment of shock and then jumped down to face her opponent. Toku only gazed at his teammate with a raised eyebrow and then, upon returning to observe the match, he announced: "Out of all the people gathered here, you're the last one I'd expect to wish her luck…"
"Shut up" was the blonde's only replied as she crossed her arms annoyed. Ibuki only narrowed her eyes: "Cats and rats… I wonder what the outcome will be…" she thought to herself as the two kunoichi now stood in the center of the arena, allowing Lee to start the match, which he did an instant later.
Immediately Torabaku (A/N: that's the name of Miaka's tiger, in case you don't recall) lunged forward, aiming to cut the Kusa kunoichi with his claws, yet Nezumi managed to avoid the assault by simply bending over, making the tiger fly right above her. As the predator came to a sliding stop few meters behind her back, the grass-nin reached to her hostels and picked out several kunai and shuriken.
In an instant she unleashed the shinobi stars at her opponent, making the waterfall-nin dodge to her left. Seeing a opening, Nezumi went for an attack with her kunai ready, but before she managed to reach her target, Torabaku appeared between her and its master, slashing his claws as the Kusa shinobi. Acting on instinct, the kunoichi stopped and jumped back, avoiding certain death, yet still got her torso cut shallowly.
As she flew back, the tiger jumped after her, once more preparing to attack with its claws. Nezumi used the knives in her hands to block the beasts assault and as her feet rested on the floor, she placed her body mass on them. The two struggled against one another for a short while, before Hizoku's teammate tried a desperate move by bending her body to her left, with Torabaku's claws still pushing hard against her kunai.
By placing the knives in the right way, the grass-nin managed to carry the tiger by its front paws with her body and thus threw it over her left side, but the beast quickly came to a sliding stop, using its claws, and once again dashed at the rat girl, slashing her back.
Nezumi jumped forward, flipping in mid-air, in order to get away from the beast, yet the tiger kept on charging at her, not giving her any time to rest. It slashed again, this time cutting her left side shallowly. The grass-nin clenched her teeth and narrowed her left eye in pain, but kept on retreating none the less, throwing her knives at the tiger, thus making it slow down a bit.
"Gotcha!" she suddenly heard a voice coming from behind and acting on instinct, she jumped away again as she felt her body being slashed by another pair of claws. As she looked in the direction the attack came from, she saw Miaka standing there with a wide smirk on her face, wearing gloves with long claws on them, out of which one was soaked in blood. Her blood.
"So that kitty cat's job is to occupied the enemy to allow its master to go for the kill" Kumiko concluded in her mind as she observed the fight bellow. "That way that Waterfall girl stays on the safe side by keeping away from danger and is still capable of winning… at this point, it'd seem that Grass girl is gonna lose…"
"Miaka seems to have the upper hand" noticed Shita as he glanced at his teammate, that was still carrying him on his shoulder. Tetsu only narrowed his eyes at that statement, but said nothing. Kawa just shut her eyes, propping against the wall: "In actuality, you seem to make the same mistake Miaka just did, Shita…" was all she said, making the masked boy gaze at her confused.
"Come on, Nezumi-chan, kick her butt!" Kusari yelled, throwing his fist to the sky. Takaru only sweat dropped as he glanced at his teammate and with his arms still crossed, he asked calmly, not wanting to make eye contact: "What ever happened to your devotion to Kumiko?" and the instant he said so, the chain master realized what he just done. He looked over his shoulder, where the young genius stood and notice she was already cracking her knuckles.
And as Kumiko was beating the hell out of Kusari, Kai turned towards Hizoku with a little confused face: "I suppose it's none of my business, but that teammate of yours is always carrying that weird rat around… I kinda figured she teamed up with it during the fight, so why don't she use it?"
"Actually" the redhead replied with a tiny smirk appearing on his face. "Hamaru has already taken action…" and as the grass-nin said so, the blonde turned towards the arena once more, even more confused then he was a second earlier.
Meanwhile Miaka leaned forward, making her resemble more a predator ready to jump forward at its prey then human. Torabaku slowly walked towards her and passed behind her back with its eyes stopped at Nezumi, who was now breathing heavily as she looked through sweat at her two opponents.
"I say it's high time to finish this" announced Miaka with a smirk, yet to her surprise, Nezumi smiled under her nose as well and setting her eyes on the waterfall-nin, she replied: "Actually… I couldn't agree more" and at the same instant something blew up on the left side of Torabaku's neck, knocking the tiger out and covering the cat girl's view with smoke.
"Explosive tag?" was Miaka's first thought as she jumped back in order to stay clear from the smoke, but that resulted in falling straight into Nezumi's trap as the grass-nin suddenly appeared behind her and struck several senbon into her back. "What the…?"
"Those senbon were sunk in a very special poison" announced the rat girl calm as the waterfall-nin collapsed to her knees, feeling her legs got paralyzed while her back started burning. "It instantly attacks the targets nerves system, paralyzing the body from the legs up. In few minutes you won't be able to move at all. However it also has another effect: it increases the temperature inside the body. Once the body gets completely paralyzed, the temperature rises so high, even the blood starts to boil. After that it's not long for the organs to give in to the stress and you'd die from internal effusion… so I suggest surrendering while you still have the time to…"
Miaka clenched her teeth from anger and hesitated for a moment, but as her hands got numb and she started sweating uncontrollably, she only lowered her head and with a weak 'I give up' she collapsed to the floor. Instantly the medics appeared on the arena and took her for treatment with Nezumi giving them a strange, small bottle of green liquid, saying that it was the cure.
"Winner: Kanraku Nezumi!" Lee announced loudly as the grass-nin kneeled down and allowed her rat to run up her hand back to the top of her head: "Nice going, Hamaru" she announced with a smile before jumping back to the platform to reunite with her teammates.
"Okay, I may turn out to be an idiot, but…" began Horohoro as he still stood with his arms crossed before his chest. "What just happened?" and with that he turned towards his companions. The one to answer him was Hitomi:
"That time, when that Grass girl stopped the tiger with her kunai, her stinking rat used the sleeve of her shirt to get on the tiger without being spotted. It was also carrying a small, explosive tag in its mouth. Once it got onto the cat, it hid in its fur, just like it does with the girl's hair. After that, all that Kusa girl had to do is wait for the tag to go off…"
"So this is what happened?" asked Kai amazed as he glanced at the white-eyed girl, who merely gazed back, basically ignoring the blonde. Funbo only smirked under his nose: "That poison just now… it'd seem I have to find a way to neutralize it before I'll be forced to go against that Grass wench…"
"Well, that's three" concluded Tokame, making Hizoku glance over at him. "Taka and me are the only ones left in the eliminations" and the moment he said so, Taka narrowed his eyes as he looked over to his red-haired teammate, yet his masked covered that from his companions.
"Well then, lets see who the next pair of participants will be" Lee purposed, once more drawing everyone's attention to the screen. After a short moment, the names stopped changing, announcing who'll go next: BENDA KOKORO versus URUFU KATO. "May the next, two participants, please come down!"
"Took them long enough" complained the huge snow-nin as he jumped down to the arena, followed by his huge bulldog. Yari only glanced after him and then gazed at Aisu worried, but she only smirked, showing that she couldn't care less about the next match. Kokoro on the other hand only shut his eyes for a split second and then slowly walked down the stairs to meet his opponent.
"Good luck, Kokoro-kun…" Mikka called quietly after him, not even sure the blonde managed to hear it, but he still turn around and gave the young medic-nin an approving nod. Senkou only smirked behind his mask and turned towards the shy girl: "You're saying it like he'd need luck to win this. You know, just as well as I do, that there's no way he can lose…"
"That doesn't mean you can't show your teammate support" Galu cut in with his arms crossed. The masked boy's eye twitched at that, but after a short moment, he decided to let it go and glanced down at the arena: "Whatever" he replied calmly. "No matter what we say… that Snow guy just can't win…"
"Fifteenth elimination match: Benda Kokoro from Konoha against Urufu Kato from Yuki!" announced Lee as the two fighters stood before each other. The blonde didn't show any expression on his face, yet the snow-nin just kept on smiling. The tension build up between the two and then, finally, they heard the command: "BEGIN!"
---everything calms down as the two stands in front of each other---
And another chapter ends. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave me a review once you're done. It'll keep this fic rolling. Especially since the next chappie has few surprises in stored for you guys… and that's all I'm saying it that matter.
No techniques this time around, so I'll just wrap this up with the list of elimination participants (as usual):
Konoha #7: Murasakki Kumiko, Tanken Ibuki, Gekido Takaru, Hagane Kusari, Haisha Kai
Konoha #3: Konpaku Rei, Rikoteki Kogane, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune
Konoha #4: Igaku Mikka, Inuzuka Tsume, Benda Kokoro, Hatake Senkou, Kobushi Galu
Konoha: Hamano Taki, Hyuuga Hitomi, Manako Akira, Tanken Funbo, Horohoro
Suna #1: Aoru, Torune, Honemaru, Tarakudo, Takai
Suna #2: Sabaku no Sabure, Hari, Dekai, Horamaru, Karame
Kusa: Hokku Tobane, Kanraku Nezumi, Kuchibashi Taka, Kyohaku Tokame, Wanabi Hizoku
Ame: Kasano Youji, Eshaku Ryo, Furikuzu Tsuino, Hebereke Nazaa
Bakufu: Azarashi Kawa, Abura Tetsu, Makko Shita
Tsuki: Junsei Teela, Tenka, Chishio Nobu, Kihako Tasuki
Hane: Ono Reiji, Sentou
Yuki: Nadare Aisu, Sarumaru Yari, Urufu Kato
Kumori: Kyuu
And so this chapter truly ends. Hope you enjoyed it and please, leave me a review once you're done. Until next time!