Damn, I'm good (and modest :D). With a huge, author's block in the middle of the chapter that suddenly hunted me somewhere during the weekend, I never expected to finish this chapter before Easter. And yet, here I am, submitting the newest (the keyboard's still hot after my typing) chapter of N:NG!
As usual I wanna thank everyone, who reviewed the previous chapter. And once more I have a special proposition for you guys (maybe it's the spirit of the coming holidays, but then Christmas was always my favorite, so…): considering I've managed to write this one faster then usual and that I'll have six days free of collage (I'll still have to write some work for it, but), I was thinking that I might be able to pull another double update next Friday. Naturally, if you guys want me to do that, I wanna ask you something back: that you'll review this chapter and both next week.
And just before moving onto the story, I'd like to encourage all of you to give my other, next generation fic, "Those Who Inherit the Will of Fire" a shoot. You might enjoy it, considering it's been written in a similar spirit to this story (naturally, if you do, it'd mean a lot if you reviewed).
With all that announced and asked, the only thing left to do is to get on with the show:
Chapter #74: Cold as Ice
Title Page: out front stands Hitomi, bandaging her hands, and in the background Neji with the 'cursed seal' on his forehead revealed
"So, not only Fuma, but even Bakarrrrrra and Rrrrrraina got defeated" concluded Tategamaru as he glanced at Saiken, who was kneeling before him. The mysterious man looked at the Hokage Monument in the distance as a small smirk appeared on his face. "It's rrrregrrrretable, but can't be helped. Actually, it doesn't matterrrrr all that much… even if Kyuu werrrrre to lose, it makes no differrrrrence to us… rrrrrrrememberrrrrrr Saiken, when we'll be forrrrrced to take action, I'll be counting on you to do yourrrrr sharrrrre…"
"Of course, Tategamaru-sensei" the headgear boy replied, still not rising his head to look at the man. Although he was found of the fact that he was capable of blocking any type of emotion, this time around he felt something that could've been compared to curiosity. The events that were soon to come, in a strange way, made him excited for the first time in a very long while.
---Back to the eliminations---
"Nineteenth match: Hyuuga Hitomi from Konoha against Nadare Aisu from Yuki!" Lee announced loudly, throwing quick looks at the two girls. "Ready and… LET YOUR SPIRITS OF YOUTH EXPLODE!" he yelled getting out of the way, however both kunoichi, along with most people gathered in the room, only glanced at him confused.
The Leaf's Green Beast only sweat dropped quickly, before responding: "That means you may begin…" and in a flash both fighters began acting. Hitomi immediately activated her bloodline limit, making veins appear around her peril eyes, while Aisu finished a quick chain of hand seals.
"Hyouton: Retsu Kuiki!" the snow-nin called out and in a flash the temperature in the room dropped, making Mikka shiver at the sudden cold, while Rei only mumbled something about some idiot that turned the heat of, without even waking up. Hitomi felt the change as well and narrowed her eyes as her Byakugan spotted chakra floating in the air all around the arena.
"Goodbye" was the only thing Aisu said before performing a single seal and instantly the air around the white-eyed girl froze, forming an ice ring full of spikes. As the ring circled around her, Hitomi made a quick attempt to get out of it, but it was then that the spikes shoot at her in the form of icicles.
Horohoro merely narrowed his eyes at this, while his teammate simply pushed the two, first icicles to the ground by hitting them from above with her finger tips and using that moment to jump into the air, somersaulting in the process and thus making some of the spikes smash into pieces against the floor in the spot she stood a second ago.
Once she was in mid-air, Hitomi landed with her feet on the two, nearest icicles and instantly bounced off them again, grabbing another with her hand, avoid few more spikes thanks to that maneuver and throwing the one she grabbed at another that was coming right at her, smashing both into pieces as they collide.
The moment she landed back on the ground, she crawled down while spinning and threw her leg to the sky, kicking up the icicle that was coming at her back, making it change course and smash another spike that was getting near her.
As her body came to a stop, Hitomi instantly bended over her left shoulder, thus making some of the spikes that shoot out from the ring behind her flew before her eyes, and smashed the tips of her fingers into the ring, making it shatter like glass immediately and fall to the floor in pieces.
"What the hell?" Aisu asked herself as she observed her opponent. "Does she have eyes on her back or something?" Meanwhile, in the platform, Kai was even more shocked then the snow-nin: "Wha… wh… wha…" and at this point Takaru smacked him in the back of his head: "What just happened?" the blonde finished.
"What?" Funbo responded with a tiny smirk on his face. "Hitomi just avoided all of those icicles. Nothing to impressed about… yet" and as he said so, Ibuki widen her eyes before settling them back at the young Hyuuga, who was once again standing in her fight stance, ready to continue the match with no sign of fatigue on her body. "There's… more?"
"You're really troublesome" stated Aisu calmly as a smirk appeared on her face as well. "Usually that trick was enough to finish any of my opponents, but I suppose this is even better. It's been a long while since I had a good fight. How about we take this to another level?" and with waiting for the answer, she performed another set of hand seals.
In a flash a huge, ice spike shoot from bellow the ground in the attempt to pierce through Hitomi, yet the white-eyed girl manage to avoid the hit by immediately jumping into the air and as the spike went under her feet, he used it to bounce of it and fly straight at her opponent. But the instant she did so, more spikes began coming up, each aimed to cut her.
Seeing this, the young Hyuuga flipped and placed her hand on the nearest spike. Upon grabbing it, she went into a spin, concluded with her landing her feet on the spike and bouncing off it as well. In the same instant another spike shoot before her, Hitomi somersaulted and this time used her hand to bounce off it and higher into the sky.
Aisu merely performed another hand seal and to the leaf-nin's surprise, the next spike that shoot from the ground rose much higher then the previous, reaching the white-eyed girl, but at that time Hitomi rested her right palm on the spike and pushed herself up on it, making the spike go barely inches behind her back. With her hand still on the spike, the young Hyuuga bended to her right and spinning parallel to the spike, she finally came to a sliding stop on the icicle, using the chakra in her feet to keep her from slipping.
In a flash Aisu performed another hand seal and once more icicles formed themselves, this time from thin air, and flew straight at Hitomi. The leaf-nin instantly rested her left hand on the spike while spinning, thus dodging the first, incoming attack. In a blink of an eye she picked out a scroll with her right hand and tossed it in a way it'd circle around her while she bite her thumb and immediately wrote a symbol on it with her blood.
A sudden blast of smoke covered the scroll from everyone's view as Hitomi kept on spinning and kicked the nearest icicles from the side, making it break into pieces, while she kept of spinning. In the next instant the white-eyed girl bounced off the spike, making some of the icicles hit it in the place she was a second go.
As she flew into the air somersaulting, more icicles formed and came at her again. But it was then that the white smoke that was still covering Hitomi's right hand cleared, revealing that she held a spear with a large blades on both ends. And as the ice spikes flew closer, she began spinning, managing to block them all using only her weapon.
Gracefully she landed on the floor, placing her spear away from her body and glancing over at Aisu with her peril eyes. For some reason that made the snow-nin take a single step back: "Who the hell is she? I can't make a single attack connect!"
"It's pointless" Taki said to no-one in particular. "As long as Hitomi has her Byakugan activated, there's just no way to land a blow on her. During training, even Funbo-kun couldn't make a single weapon of his reach her. For her, those icicles might as well be standing still…"
"You gotta be kidding me!" yelled Kumiko as she glanced over at the older kunoichi. Galu only narrowed his eyes as he settled them on Hitomi: "She's that good, huh?" he asked calmly, making Kokoro give him a worried look. Senkou on the other hand merely smirked behind his mask: "She may be fun to fight in the finals…"
Aisu narrowed her eyes in irritation and performed another hand seal. In a flash Hitomi felt her weapon getting heavier and in an instant one of its ends landed on the floor with a loud 'thud'. The white-eyed simply let it go as one of her spear ends was covered by a thick mass of ice.
"What the hell?" asked Kusari, completely confused. "Why in the world did that spear all of the sudden frozen?" and with that he looked around. The one to answer his question, was Akira: "It's chakra… you probably realized that awhile ago the temperature in the entire room dropped. It's became that Snow girl filled the air with her chakra which somehow collected the warmth…"
"So that's why she can create those icicles out of nothing" concluded Takaru, narrowing his eyes. "With the temperature already low, all she has to do is use her chakra that's in the air to lower it more in the desired place and form ice from the water in the atmosphere…"
"That would seem about right" Kitsune cut in. "However, if that's the case, there's one thing that is disturbing, don't you think?" and after Kai asked what he meant, Shikamaru's subordinate simply replied: "If that Snow girl can freeze anything within the field of the low temperature, why didn't she just froze that white-eyed girl?"
"That's actually a very good question" admitted Naruto and then glanced over at Shino, who merely adjusted his glasses. Hearing this Horohoro only sighed: "It's the body temperature. Human body emits great among of warm. I'm guessing that even with lowering the air temperature all around, that girl's body temperature still didn't drop enough for her to surround her with ice…"
"But even so, with the cold air around, it's only a matter of time until her body temperature will drop" stated Temari simply, making Hinata narrow her eyes: "So that is her real plan! That Snow girl is buying herself time!"
"Enough child's play" Aisu decided as she reached for her hostel. "Time to finish this!" and with that thought she tossed several shuriken and kunai at Hitomi, performing a quick hand seal and thus forming more icicles that flew at her opponent as well, cutting off possible way of retreat.
The leaf-nin merely narrowed her eyes and as the blades came closer, she threw her hands out front, grabbing one of the shuriken between her fingers in mid-flight, while stopping a kunai by putting her finger through the ring on its end.
Without wasting a second, the kunoichi tossed the weapons she grabbed at the other, incoming blades while aiming to catch more of the weapons. To Aisu's surprise, the ones Hitomi tossed back, collided with others she launched herself and threw them off course. However what shocked her even more was the fact that using the ricochet, the same weapons collided with other blades, throwing them off their route as well.
By grabbing the incoming weapons and tossing them back while spinning, Hitomi managed to deflect all the incoming blades, without allow a single one to scratch her. Ibuki only widen her eyes at the sight, while Hanamaru choked on his chips. Tsume's grip on the rail tightened at the very same moment as sweat began appearing on her face: "That's inhuman!"
"Without a doubt that's Neji's and Tenten-chan's daughter" Lee thought to himself with a smile as he set his eyes on Hitomi. A confident smile crossed the kunoichi's face as well, as she gazed at her opponent again: "Had enough?" she asked simply.
"Not just yet" was Aisu's only reply as he once more performed a quick hand seal and to everyone's surprise, ice wrapped itself around Hitomi's wrists, making it impossible for her to even touch it with her hands. In an instant ice embraced the young Hyuuga's legs as well and before the white-eyed girl knew it, she got completely immobilized.
"It'd appear that I finally got you" announced Aisu with a smirk. "I gotta admit its been a long while since someone lasted long enough in my cold field so that I could freeze his body. However with that, this match is over. You can't move your hands… but just to make sure" and with that she performed another hand seal, making ice spikes shoot from the ground again, heading straight at the defenseless Hitomi.
--will Hitomi get knocked out cold?---
And so this chapter is concluded! Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave me a review with your opinion. Also, the last two times I blew it (for many reasons) and promised to do the jutsu encyclopedia of the techniques used in the latest chapters. I always do my best to keep my word and so here are the descriptions of all the techniques used in chapters 72, 73 and 74:
Katon: Arashi no Kasai (Fire Element: Firestorm) – technique used by Nobu. It's usage is basically similar to Uchiha clan's Grand Fireball Skill, but there are two, major differences: first is that in stead of a fireball, the flame in released in the form of a fire breath (something like a flame whip) that goes a little above the ground. The second difference is that the among of chakra required to perform it is way smaller the in the Uchiha technique's case.
Katon: Hiryuu Bakuha (Fire Element: Flying Dragon Blast) – jutsu used by Nobu, which basically is similar to Zabuza's Water Dragon Blast. The only difference is that in stead of water, the dragon is formed of flames and the technique requires more chakra to perform.
Hyouton: Tsurara Hitoame (Ice Element: Icicle Shower) – technique used by Yari. One might say it's a compilation of Takaru's Insei Tooriame and Kuri's skill: with the chakra released to the atmosphere, the user first freezes the water in the air to form icicles and then sends them at his opponent, using wind currents.
Ninpou: Hanabi Bakuha (Ninja Art: Fireworks Blast) – skill used by Tetsu. The usage is actually much more simple then it may look. With gunpowder in the pipes, all the user has to do is to send his chakra into the pipes and then make it heat up, thus initializing the blast.
Hyouton: Retsu Kuiki (Ice Element: Cold Zone) – technique used by Aisu. In order to perform it, the user must first release a great among of chakra into the air and the use it to absorb the heat, thus lowering the temperature in the selected area. That way the one who performed the jutsu is capable of forming ice by using the water in the atmosphere in an instant, as long as the ice is formed in the sphere.
And just before the end, the updated list of gennin still in the game:
Konoha #7: Murasakki Kumiko, Tanken Ibuki, Gekido Takaru, Hagane Kusari, Haisha Kai
Konoha #3: Konpaku Rei, Rikoteki Kogane, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune, Gusoku Hanamaru
Konoha #4: Igaku Mikka, Inuzuka Tsume, Benda Kokoro, Hatake Senkou, Kobushi Galu
Konoha: Hamano Taki, Hyuuga Hitomi (in progress), 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, Kihako Tasuki
Hane:Ono Reiji, Sentou
Yuki: Nadare Aisu (in progress)
Kumori: Kyuu
And this really ends this chapter. Now, before I go, I want to wish you all again a HAPPY EASTER! Hope your holidays will the eggstraordinary!
Until next time!