The second trial began the following day after a night's sleep in the infirmary. This step was a race to the finish line, that line being the top of the stadium. However, the only valid way to the roof was scaling a rock wall with standing platforms built into the sides every other meter.
The task would have been easy, except for the five Chunin proctors stationed on separate platforms on the way up. Their task was to keep you from reaching the top in any way possible. As each team took their place at the foot of the wall, a timer counted down.
Once it reached zero, it was every member for him-or-herself as many immediately jumped to the first location. Hasuka and Emoda however, along with some from other teams, waited until the first round of people had gone up. It was a race, yes, but they wanted to be sure that the wall was actually climbable before losing too quickly.
After the first few Genin had reached the first Chunin, Hasuka climbed to the first outcropping and began her assent. Getting up to the safe spots wasn't that difficult, but staying on the spots, and getting past the Chunin on the rocks was the hard part.
If there was a lot of people situated in one group, Hasuka removed two kunai and threw them up to a better spot to swing or climb over to. Once she was a fair distance up, she paused to assess where everyone was. It was hard to find specific people but the general population was spread out around the entirety of the wall.
As she sat down to take a breather, Hasuka stumbled back as a large fireball whizzed by her body. Adrenaline immediately rushed through her system and she shot up, already planning where to go next. For the next several meters above her, there wasn't a standing location so she would either have to use her kunai or try a different tactic.
Throwing them up, she began to scale the wall when another ball of flame shot above her head. She cut off the energy in a panic and dropped harshly onto the edifice below her, a little too close to the ledge for her liking. Double checking that the only injuries that she sustained were a handful of cuts, Hasuka tried another tactic.
As long as you had enough accuracy and balance, the wall could be climbed with small one foot wide cuts into the wall. It was dangerous because if you missed the mark, there was nothing holding you up, and back down to the ground you would go. If she was desperate enough, those were an option, and with the amount of people crossing the finish line each couple of minutes, she almost was.
"Come on Hasuka," Emoda called from another such rock. "You have to fight fire with fire!" With that, he shouted, "Exploding Flame Shot Jutsu!" and threw a handful of his own fireballs at the Chunin. From there, the only place to go was up to one of the last platforms, which he promptly ascended to.
Hasuka laughed despite the situation, glad that he at least was still friendly to her. It became a game then, to the two of them, to see who could reach the top first. Emoda would block incoming obstacles with his Ninjutsu whereas Hasuka would use the distraction to get further ahead than he.
Surprisingly enough, Emoda reached the top first because Hasuka had a small skirmish with another Genin. He was waiting on the last outcropping to try to send people back down where they had come from. If it wasn't for her quick thinking, Hasuka would have been kicked down like the many before her. Instead, she hastily wrapped a string around Emoda's foot and used it as a spring to send her upwards.
Landing behind the opposing Genin, she hit a pressure point on his neck and calmly pushed him off, letting him fall until he hit an edifice. Having done what she wanted, Hasuka leapt to the finish line, falling in beside a miffed-looking Emoda. "Was that really necessary?"
"Well I mean if I didn't I probably would have lost so..." she replied with a shrug.
"Whatever, I'm just worried about Asoka right now."
Hasuka too was worried, but unless the next challenge was team-based, he wasn't particularly necessary to continue. A booming voice called out once more a timer, "Sixty, Fifty-Nine, Fifty-Eight."
Once he hit zero, she surmised, the trial would be over. As time ticked away, more people came over the ledge in a rush, but not one of them was Asoka. Emoda became visibly more and more agitated as time went on, to the point of grabbing onto Hasuka's arm and squeezing it to release his pent-up anxiety.
With ten seconds left on the clock, Asoka finally made it over, a severe cut that was streaming blood on his upper arm. The two hastily rushed over and pulled farther away from the edge before Hasuka began cleaning the wound with the rest of the bandages in her pouch.
Seeing how deep the wound was, she commanded Emoda to hide what she was about to do from view. Even it wasn't very good cover, people would be suspicious if they didn't see green chakra healing the wound. Instead she fed him two pills to get his circulation going and grasped onto his arm, eight fingers on the underside with the thumbs on top,
Focusing, Hasuka checked her body to make sure she had enough energy to heal him, and affirming that, drew some out of her back muscles in order to speed up the reproduction of his skin cells. Blood, she determined, could be dealt with internally or with a professional tonight. Her job right now was just to make sure that he didn't get infected.
With no other clean bandages, Hasuka unwrapped the ones on her right wrist and quickly hid the wound. Standing up, she nodded, letting Emoda know that he was off the hook for now. They helped Asoka to the line, making sure he leaned on them as they stood waiting to be released.
Instead of being allowed to go to the infirmity however, the next directions swept panic through every Genin assembled. "Congratulations on your victory in the Second Chunin Trial! Will everyone please make room in the center for the final Challenge!"
The line of people divided and formed a large ring around each other as the wall shook, lowering them to ground level with a horrifyingly loud noise. "Now, would Hasuka Iryou and Aite Tatakai please step into the center."
Doing as they were told, the two females met in the center of the ring. This time the earth rose upward several meters to provide a space for their battle.
"Here we go," Rin mutters from her seated spot between Kakashi and Obito. From the focused Kakashi she receives a nod, whereas Obito groans, bored out of his mind. "How much longer?" He asks for what seemed like the 1000th time.
"After we see who becomes a Chunin we can leave and head back to the Leaf." Kakashi replies off-handedly, studying the pair who had just risen in height.
"Ughhh..."
"Shh, you're distracting me idiot."
"Kaka-"
"Both of you please be quite and focus at the task at hand!" Rin interjects.
The two boys immediately shut up and face the ring again.
The opposing female withdrew a large shuriken from her back in preparation before the announcer shouted, "Fight until one gives up or is unable to continue fighting. Begin!" At those words, Aite snapped the shuriken open and quickly threw it at Hasuka. Instead of leaping up this time, she ducked downward, preparing herself to move quickly after the initial danger had passed.
As she made to her up however, Aite ran over and put a kunai to her neck, maneuvering them into a position that was not favorable for Hasuka, who was practically lying on the ground. "Do you concede, or shall I slit your throat?" Aite asked, almost bored.
Hasuka slowly leaned backwards, Aite following along and overextending herself. "Neither!" She cheerfully replies, swiping her left hand along Aite's right arm to grasp the hand with the kunai. Instead of standing up Hasuka twisted Aite's wrist and pulled her down onto the ground, slipping the dropped kunai into her forehead protector at her waist for safe-keeping.
Crawling the distance to her opponent, Hasuka very literally lied her body weight on top of her waist to keep her from escaping. Focusing energy into her hand and putting it to the older girl's neck like she had just done to her, she proclaimed, "So do you concede? Or shall I slit your throat?"
Enraged, Aite shoved Hasuka's hand away and flipped them over so she was on top. Taking her chance, Aite hastily stood up and backed away so they were back to where they had started. Hasuka, this time, instead of a stance prepared to evade, drew from her original training, and sunk lower into her hips to ground herself better.
Noticing the strange posture for a girl, Aite called out, somewhat hesitantly, "Well, are you just going to stand there all day?" Responding only with a shake of the head, Hasuka moved foreword one step at a time, always returning to the low stance with outstretched hands.
A little put off, it wasn't until too late that Aite fortified her defense against Hasuka. With another incoming step, she opened her palms and faced them outward towards her attacker. Now within striking range, she first drew back her hands close to her body, collecting energy, before striking them at her opponent, hitting just above the hip and to next to the shoulder.
Now that she effectively off-balance, Hasuka decided to have a little fun. As Aite tripped backwards, Komura reached out, grabbing ahold of her high-ponytail and spinning her around. If she won that easily, would she even be qualified to be a Chunin? The people gathered were here to see a show, so they had better be watching her opening act.
On the fly, she splayed fingers of her left hand over the spine in Aite's back and thought up a name for a little flair. "Taming Technique: Energy Extraction." The idea was simple, but in order to make it look more exciting than it was, Hasuka dramatized her movements.
Still keeping a hold of Aite, she slowly pressed a total of five power points along the spine, making her opponent's body twitch spastically. Drawing her energy through the invisible holes, Hasuka focused a small amount of her own energy into her eyes to be able to see what she was doing better.
Once the energy began to slow in it's draw, she released Aite to crumple to the ground, unconscious. As the rock slowly began it's decent, Hasuka felt the quantity of power held within her palm and added a small amount more, feeling it heat up drastically.
Helping with joy, a flame burst to life, held above her palm by only a few centimeters. Despite the heat, she gazed into the flame, bribing her other hand to meet it and separate it into two. Once the rock met the floor once more, she made a graceful bow, before snuffing out the flame.
Watching from a distance, Kakashi scoffed. There was no need for theatrics, this was a competition. With all the flourishes it would have been easy to turn the tide of the battle and lose. He would keep a note though, of how she moved. By her stances, she seemed more like an Earth Affinity, yet the Fire at the end suggested otherwise.
"For winning against Aite Tatakai, Hasuka Iryou rises to the rank of an official Chunin of Sunagakure!"
Contrary still was the symbol on her belt. If she was truly a medic-nin, and her skill with chakra would suggest that, then Earth and Fire would be ridiculous notions. She was confusing, that was for sure. With no more thought to the previous battle, Kakashi studied the other fights.