(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Sixteenth Chapter everyone is forced to compete in a 1v1 preliminary match before being allowed to take the Third part of the exam. In the First match Jando of the Leaf defeated Mari of the Grass. The Chunin Exams continue! What will be the outcome? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
Now that the first preliminary match has concluded all the remaining competitors begin analyzing what they observed during the match and coming up with strategies to defeat Jando if they have to face him later on.
"Wow, that Taijutsu was pretty good from the kid with the weird eyes," comments No.
"It's called the Byakugan, you idiot," says his older sister, "It is a special Jutsu of the Leaf Village."
"Wow! So what did you think of the match? Did you see how he won?" asks No.
"Why would I care about which piece of trash won in a match between losers?" scoffs Rino.
Meanwhile Hara and Kuro have come down and are assisting Mari to the upper deck. "I'm sorry I lost, guys," she apologizes.
"Don't worry about it," says Kuro, "Me and Hara will make sure to win."
Mari gives an appreciative smile, but on the inside she is still filled with disappointment. "I can't believe I let them down," she thinks, "I knew I wasn't good enough to be on a team with these two. I'm always going to hold them back."
"All right, spin that machine up again, we need our next two competitors," orders Tatsuki.
The two large panels shuffle through names until they end up on two more random opponents. "Hoshi Ishimaru and Yui Yamanaka please come down so we can start the next match," says Tatsuki.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" asks Ichimaru, still concerned about his blonde teammate's injury.
"I said I want to do it. If I don't fight I can't become a Chunin, you are not the only one who wants to move up," replies Yui.
"She needs to do this for herself," interjects Yoshikuni, "Just let her do it."
"Thanks, Sensei," says Yui before going off.
"Are you sure about that? She seems like she is injured," comments Kayo.
"Sometimes you just have to let them experience things on their own, even if they are going to fail," explains Yoshikuni.
"Look, it is that girl we beat up in the forest," says Ino, "Is she actually planning to fight? There is no way she can win with a broken leg."
"Look closely, Ino, someone has healed her leg. They must have gotten help from someone, because none of them were medical-type ninja," says Rino.
"I wonder who it was," comments No.
"Whoever it was did a crappy job of it," says Ino, "She is walking all funny. This match is going to be more boring than the last one. Her opponent looks even worse than her."
"She looks pretty young, she probably got scared in the forest. She looks almost haunted," comments No.
"Hoshi of the Rock Village reporting," says the Tsuchikage's daughter in a low voice.
"Yui Yamanaka from the Hidden Leaf," says Yui.
"Right, then now we can get preliminary match #2 started," says the spunky proctor, "Ready, Fight!"
Tatsuki observes as the two fighters size each other up and thinks, "Both of them look like they are about to fall over. This is going to be another boring battle, but I am the proctor so I just have to deal with it. I hope there are some more exciting matches later on."
Yui's sky blue eyes focus on her opponent as she shifts into a defensive stance. In her mind she assesses the situation, "She is so young, and she looks like she is in worse shape than I am. However she wouldn't have got here if she wasn't any good, so I can't underestimate her. I just need to end this as soon as possible. I have to keep my distance because of my leg, but my Jutsu is a mid-range attack. I'll have to try and draw her in closer."
Yui starts out by whipping three shuriken at the Rock Genin. Hoshi immediately reaches for her own kunai to counter, but finds that her pouch is empty. She dives to the right, barely evading the attack.
She rolls and lands on all fours thinking, "I forgot I used them all earlier in the forest. I guess I will have to depend on my Jutsu then." Another 3 shuriken fly at her, and she dives to the left. When she comes out of her roll she immediately performs a combination of three hand signs. Then she slams her fist into the stone floor, creating a bunch of debris.
"Is she using an earthquake Jutsu?" wonders Rame Tsu.
"No, there wasn't enough power in that," says Naoko, "It must be for some other purpose."
Yui halts her attack to wait and see what her opponent has planned. Hoshi reaches down and pours her chakra over the debris. "Stone Shuriken Jutsu!" says Hoshi as she picks up the pieces of debris and throws them at Yui. By using her chakra Hoshi was able to shape the various pieces into deadly weapons.
Yui slips out of the way of the first few projectiles and then begins running in a circle around Hoshi. Hoshi continues to whip the stone shuriken at her enemy until she finds that she no longer has any debris left to throw.
"Now is my chance!" thinks Yui as she slips a kunai into her left hand and charges in.
"Bad move!" laughs Naga from high above as he slicks back his hair, "Hoshi's specialty is close combat. This girl has no chance!"
When Hoshi sees her enemy charging she immediately back flips into the air. While rotating she performs another series of hand signs. She lands on her feet and immediately slams her arms into the ground all the way up to her elbows. As she extracts her arms from the earth there are now sharp blades of stone armor over them.
"The Stone Arm Blades of the Ishimaru clan," thinks Chiasa as she watches her favorite student in action, "The unique ability that allows the clan to gather stone around their bodies and form it into weapons and armor. This makes them one of the deadliest close combat ninja clans in the world. And Hoshi just happens to be a prodigy. That Leaf Genin has no idea what she is in for."
Hoshi fluidly positions herself into a fighting form with her left arm angled to the ground and her right arm lifted towards the ceiling. As soon as Yui sees the new weapons her enemy has she skids to a halt.
"What in the world is that?" she thinks.
"Good decision, Yui, I don't think you want to get anywhere near those things," comments Ichimaru.
"So that is the Tsuchikage's daughter?" mentions his Sensei, "Pretty impressive." Masato Ishimaru looks on from another balcony as his daughter fights, not showing any sign of emotion. "The question is, what is your Genin going to do now?" says Kayo.
"I guess I'll only have one shot at this," thinks Yui, "I hope I can do it in time." She flings the kunai in her hand. As Hoshi deflects it with her left hand, Yui attempts a Jutsu.
After making her hand signs as fast as possible she connects her hands into an oval sign and lines up her target, "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" Her spirit flies out of her body and right at Hoshi. However Yui's spirit is unable to enter the body of the enemy and she is bounced back into her own.
"What happened? Why didn't it work?" wonders Yui. She glimpses something to her side, but before she can react she loses consciousness.
"The winner of the match is Hoshi!" announces Tatsuki with her right hand raised up.
Two medical ninja rush onto the field with a stretcher and carry Yui off for treatment.
"Wait a minute, what happened?" asks Sakura, "Why didn't Yui's Jutsu work?"
"Her technique doesn't work on clones," explains Ichimaru, "It was smart of that girl to make a clone to take the attack for her."
"Basic strategy," comments Kuroda, "If you don't know what the enemy's Jutsu can do, make sure it doesn't hit you."
Naoko leans over to whisper into her best friend's ear, "I didn't even see when she made that clone."
"We'll have to watch out for that girl in the next round," replies Rame Tsu.
"Great job!" congratulates Naga when Hoshi makes her way up the step and rejoins her team.
"Don't you think you gave away too many of your techniques?" comments Yamashita.
"Who cares? Hoshi creamed that girl, and she will cream anybody else she fights!" says Naga.
"It doesn't matter," replies Hoshi, "I still have other Jutsu I can use."
"He is right, Hoshi," says Chiasa, "You need to plan out your strategy better. I know you are tired, but pay attention to the rest of the matches."
"Yes, Sensei," responds Hoshi.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? The Preliminaries have officially started and the Tsuchikage's daughter was victorious in her match! Who will fight next? How will everyone else fair? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)