A/N: Well with that arc wrapped up we have an intermediate chapter or two. I'll see how it turns out. But regardless, let's get it on.
"Hey." Aika called to Yukio as he sat around the fire. "How're they working for you?"
"Well…" Yukio held up a gloved hand. On the palm was a white circle marking with an cross through it. Channeling his chakra, the small emblem on the pal began glowing blue and spinning, enlarging quickly in a flash of light until Yukio was holding a spiked wheel. Much like the emblem on the glove, it was a circle with a cross through it but at each end of the cross was an even smaller circle, bisected by the main circle. At the end of each small circle was a spiked tip, and four more between them, creating a quite deadly compass. To top it all off, it was coloured blue. Yukio grinned and spun the weapon once before he shrunk it back down into the glove, which regained the small white emblem. "I think they'll work."
"That's good." Aika sat down at the fire across from Yukio, with Arine to her right, and Denji to her left. Denji was checking his various heavy weapons, looking up with his one useful eye when Aika sat down. He smiled lightly before going back to checking, the silver sash across his eye glinting in the firelight. Arine paid no attention to Aika, polishing her spear, the red metal glinting menacingly Aika eyed the girl, who looked up before going back to polishing. She'd become more distant these past years.
"So did you find another job for us?" Yukio asked, summoning and resealing his chakrams. Aika sighed with frustration.
"Sorry to say I haven't found anything in regards to another job. Our funds from the Kurata case are beginning to dry up." Aika revealed, clenching a fist. It was irritating, the lack of jobs.
"Maybe people are deciding to turn new leaves and go straight?" Denji asked jokingly, rolling up his scrolls and shoving them in his various coat pockets.
"Maybe they're just getting better at not getting found out." Yukio put out there. Arine didn't comment, working on polishing her spear still. Aika was getting worried about Arine's interest in the weapon. She'd been getting frustrated recently with not figuring out the weapon's secret, and had been taking it out on straw dummies. She tore them to shreds. Aika was tempted to take the weapon from her but she wanted it so bad, Aika let her keep it.
"Who knows?" Denji shrugged, uncaring of the state of bounties at present. "I'm curious, though, you got any more stories from your youth?" he leaned back onto his hands. "I wanna hear more about what you did in the village curriculum."
"I'm interested too." Yukio admitted.
"Well, I didn't participate in the curriculum much." Aika admitted. "I had a war going on."
"War?" Arine asked in a grunt. Aika raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. The Third Great Ninja War. Though I managed to do the Chunin exams."
"You ready?" Senji asked her. Aika looked up to her friend, who stood cross armed over her. She stood, having grown quite a bit in the last couple years, nearly matching Senji in height. However, her friend still had a few inches on her.
"As ready as I'll ever be. Where's Rei?" she asked, checking to make sure her tanto was on the small of her back. She wore a simple black jacket over a purple shirt and navy blue pants.
"She's busy talking with Akio." Senji revealed with a shrug. "She should be here soon."
"Of course I am." They heard, making the both of them jump. Senji turned suddenly and Rei was standing right behind him, a sardonic grin on her face. "I'm always punctual with my students." She said, her purple lips shining.
"Holy…" Senji panted heavily. "Don't scare me like that, sensei."
"What?" Rei raised an eyebrow. "I would've thought you'd be used to it by now."
"You manage to catch us off guard a lot." Aika explained. "It's a bit disheartening, personally."
"Oh, why's that?" Rei raised an eyebrow, expecting an interesting answer.
"We're supposed to be constantly on guard." Aika said simply. Rei chuckled heartily at that.
"That's a good answer, and the reason I like to scare you all so much." Rei held a hand out to Aika. When Aika looked between the hand and her teacher's face, Rei sighed through her nose. "Not everything's a test, Aika." She said, firmly. Aika waited another second, questioning her teacher's reasoning before she reached a hand out and shook it. Rei nodded with the shake. "For luck." She grabbed Senji by the arm and started leading him away. "We'll find good seats!" she called back as they left. Aika let out a large sigh before turning and heading towards the entrance to the arena. It was the finals of the Chunin exams and Aika had gone through two other fights to get here, and she wasn't about to lose this one. She heard the cheers before she even got out to the arena. He must be out there already. Still, it was blinding once Aika reached the light and the cheering began hitting her ears once more. When her eyes adjusted, she saw the arena as it was, battle scarred with a few small trees ringing the arena. On the other side was Aika's friend and long-time thorn in her side.
"Aika!" Akio saw her and grinned, his green eyes glinting in the sunlight. He grinned as she stood in the light.
"Akio." She greeted him, walking towards the middle, joining him and the referee shinobi.
"Okay, are you two ready?" he asked, dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days, if not weeks. Aika wanted to ask him about that but she had bigger things to worry about, namely her friend and comrade standing across from her.
"Yes." Aika answered.
"Oh yeah." Akio answered, his spiked red hair pushed back. Plenty of girls enjoyed his, as they called it, "original" hairstyle. But Akio, for some reason, ignored most of these. Maybe because the last girl that liked his hair tried setting it on fire. Something Aika teased him about incessantly.
"All right." The referee said, his voice hoarse. "Begin." He announced and stepped back, letting the two combatants go at it. Aika stepped back, readying herself for what Akio had up his sleeves, literally. A flick of the wrists and Akio had two sharp daggers in his hands, specially made that could extend and shorten and do a great many other things involving fire. Aika had been practicing with a self-made counter to Akio's various tricks, but it was in prototype phases and therefore took up too much chakra and took too long to really get going. And seconds matter when you were a shinobi.
"You know, Aika." Akio started off, lowering into a crouching stance, his daggers wielded backhand. "He's up there watching." The boy grinned as Aika felt her face heat up.
"Shut up!" she hissed, pulling a kunai and throwing it in one deft motion, ignoring the obvious white spot up above in the stands. She ran forward at Akio as he deflected the kunai with ease. It was enough of a distraction that allowed Aika to get a high kick in, forcing Akio back as Aika rotated on her heel, bringing her raised foot down and pulling a knife with her hand in one motion. As she landed her raised foot, she swung the knife around as hard as she could, which was blocked by Akio quickly raising one of his daggers up.
"Someone's angry…" he grinned. Aika bared her teeth at him and tried to get a low kick in at his shins, but Akio simply did some well executed quicksteps to avoid them, their weapons still clashed.
"I'll be angry if I lose." Aika growled at him. Akio chuckled at her now.
"It's not about winning, it's about the qualities of a Chunin." He said, repeating what the Hokage had said to them all beforehand. "But I'd like another win under my belt." Akio grinned as he channeled his chakra, extending the blade that wasn't against Aika's knife, pointing it right at her abdomen. Aika quickly back stepped and did a backwards somersault to avoid the blade that rushed out at her. When she was on a knee, Aika saw Akio now held a three foot long short sword. He twirled it expertly in his left hand, keeping the right dagger short. It was at times like this that Aika wished she had Akio's ambidexterity. The boy had an affinity for wielding two weapons at once with ease. "Come on, Aika!" he taunted, twirling his blades. Aika reached back, a hand on her tanto in case she felt like she should be using it. Perhaps, it was time to whip out a jutsu, get some flare going.
"Fire Style" Aika made the hand signs quickly, putting her hand to her mouth "Fireball Jutsu!" she inhaled and blew, sending out a massive ball of fire at Akio, who yelled something that wasn't heard above the fireball being launched. It detonated three quarters of the way across the arena, creating a decent sized smoking crater in the ground, and a stunned Akio.
"That's not very nice." He muttered, taking the offensive and charging Aika, extending his other blade out to full. Aika reacted just as quickly, pulling her tanto and meeting Akio in the centre of the arena, their blades clashing together with a small show of sparks. Akio kept his left blade clashing with Aika's tanto as he struck with his right one. However, Aika quickly countered with a spare kunai, blocking Akio's strike and pressing his blade back. The two of them were locked in a struggle of pure strength, and whomever won would draw first blood. Aika gritted her teeth as she pushed Akio back, her friend barely able to resist. Ambidextrous he was, and quick witted. However he never cared to bulk up much, which resulted in Akio being very light footed and going for the chinks in the armour. This worked better with bulkier enemies and Aika was far from a mere bulky enemy. So Aika found herself pushing Akio back with relative ease. She could see the sweat on his brow.
"You know something, Akio?" Aika asked as she pushed him back.
"Uh, what would that be?" he asked innocently enough as he channeled his chakra into his right dagger. Aika wouldn't be able to sense this, he knew, now channeling chakra into both weapons.
"I don't appreciate it when you start bringing up my personal feelings about things in combat." Aika said, making a final push, which was when Akio struck. Once Aika pushed, putting her full force into it, Aika changed his swords. Within the blades was a flexible piece of metal and, when his chakra was channeled, the swords could segment, essentially turning the weapon into a sword whip. Once he did so, Aika was suddenly thrust forward, allowing Akio to kick her back several feet, and hard. She landed on her back, rolling to a crouch as Akio raised one hand, readying his whip, the curved fibre shining with the many metallic segments of Akio's blades as he got ready to strike. Aika rolled to the side as he slashed down, the whips carving a gash into the dirt where Aika was just a second before.
"Whether or not you appreciate something, Aika, is none of my concern. I just like the laughs." Akio responded, whipping at her again. Aika rolled back and got into a standing position. With Akio's sword whips, he was a hard guy to get in close with. In fact, Aika had seen him fend off several attackers by merely keeping a decent eye on them and backing himself into a corner. By the time Rei and them had arrived, they defeated a severely cut up and wounded force. It was only now that Aika remembered she shouldn't have under estimated her friend. He was far stronger than she gave him credit for. He'd even been smarmy and irritating to throw off her balance, to get her to underestimate him.
"Well then, time to break out some moves." Aika muttered, breaking into a run for the nearest wall. Akio ran after her, following at her heels, whipping his swords at her, making gashes where her feet were just milliseconds before.
I've got to time this right. Aika thought as she channeled chakra into her feet and leapt, hitting the wall running, making the hand signs as she went. Akio didn't bother to follow her up the wall, now keeping to the ground, his sword whips flashing in the sunlight. Aika focused her fire chakra into her feet and into her jutsu. If she did this right, she could pull off not only an excellent move, but something Akio hadn't seen before. Akio's issue was that he liked playing his cards early to get the smug satisfaction of beating the opponent before they can lay theirs down. Aika knew this strategy and knew that Akio had one or two more moves up his sleeves before he was done. Aika was about to bring out a whole new card, and still had a few left over. The chakra in her feet was expanding, she could feel it as she ran. The hand signs were made and the chakra was ready… Aika just needed Akio right under her. Aika slowed down and lowered herself stumblingly, feigning a mistake. Akio saw this and she saw him rush up. Really, these mistakes were the most calculated part of the plan. If she messed up for real, she would've fallen. But now…
"Let's go." She muttered, the chakra at its limit. She unleashed it, propelling herself straight off the wall and over Akio, who looked stunned as Aika curved, falling upside down as she unleashed a Phoenix Flower jutsu, shooting off blast after blast of fire missiles at her comrade. Akio, too stunned to move, barely dodged out of the way but still suffered the blazing heat that Aika fired upon him. Akio, surprised and now angry he hadn't known about that, pulled one of his last tricks, something that threw other fire users for a complete loop. He threw his sword-whips out into the middle of a couple of Aika's missiles so that the blades were engulfed in the flames. Then, using his chakra to contain the fire, threw his whips back before bringing them forward, slamming them down into the ground, sending two lines of searing fire towards Aika. She rolled out of the way before they could even touch her. Aika predicted this, and had three shuriken in her hand before she even stopped rolling and threw them at Akio, who whipped them out of the air with a frustrated grunt. Aika was already running up to him, her tanto out. Akio slashed the ground in front of him, warding Aika off to the side. She pulled another shuriken and threw it, but Akio blocked it easily, even at such close range. He was quite skilled with those whips, she had to admit.
Akio suddenly charged her, lashing out with one of his whips. Aika barely blocked it with her tanto, surprised at Akio's sudden aggressiveness when he lashed out with the second, which Aika couldn't block. It cut into her side and Aika let out a grunt of pain, pulling away as fast as she could, ignoring what Akio did to her side. She felt blood, however. Aika sheathed her tanto and made some hand signs and readied another Phoenix Flower jutsu. She fired it as Akio got in close, but he simply stepped out of the way of Aika's awkward aim. He stood there a second before letting out a sigh and regaining his trademark grin, soot blackening parts of his face.
"Y'know, Aika." He chuckled "You had me angry there for a second. But you're good at that." Akio flicked his left arm up and turned the whip back into a sword. "Now let's do some fighting for real." He began stalking towards Aika.
All right, Akio. Aika thought bitterly, standing up despite the burning in her sides. You want a real fight? Then let's fight. Aika made some more hand signs, wanting to keep Akio at bay. With an injury at her side, she was handicapped severely. Aika fired a Phoenix Flower jutsu at the ground in front of her, heating it up to intense levels.
"I knew your aim was off, but come on." Akio taunted, slowly making his way to her. Aika fired a few more into the ground, turning the dirt into bits of molten slag.
Not enough. She thought, firing again. Her chakra was beginning to hit its last dregs but all Aika needed was a quick minute to rest and Akio distracted and possibly hurt before se could pull off her trump card. She fired again and more slag was appearing at her feet, the waves of it wavering off into her face, making her breaths shallow. However she needed this slag. A bit more… Aika looked up and saw Akio was now circling around. She threw a kunai in his direction, which stopped him long enough for Aika to fire another Phoenix Flower into the ground. The slag was now bubbling. Perfect. Aika circled around the mound of slag, putting it between her and Akio. She made some more hand signs, these more complicated and ornate than the last. Keeping the slag between her and Akio, she crouched and put her hands to the ground, channelling her chakra, the slag before her came under her control. Now the hard part began.
"What is this now?" Akio asked as Aika readied the jutsu. He was in front of her and Aika closed her eyes, concentrating. He was right there. She focused her mind and chakra intro controlling the slag. If she could…
Come on! She yelled internally and opened her eyes, when a part of the slag short forward through the earth at him.
"What the!?" Akio jumped far back as Aika prepared another shot. She had two more.
Fire! She thought and another bunch of slag at Akio, who dodged the superheated slag as it shot past him. One more… Aika thought, exhausted. She felt the sweat running along her face and dropping into the slag and sizzling into steam. One more. Aika looked up and saw Akio slowly strafing to the side, not wanting to get hit by her slag shots. He didn't know she had only one more, but she must've looked terribly exhausted. She felt exhausted and had only one shot. She had to make it count. Akio suddenly charged at her and she adjusted her aim. Wait, wait… she panted hard, the control over this slag was taking it out of her. He was closer. Wait… he got closer. Now! Aika fired the last shot of slag right at Akio, forcing him back as molten slag suddenly appeared at his feet. He narrowly avoided it but he stumbled and fell back, now surrounded by streams of steaming, solidifying slag. Aika backed up quickly, crawling away and taking deep breaths. Deep breaths. She needed only a bit more chakra to pull her trump card out.
"Clever!" Akio called, walking through the smoking ground. Aika crawled back. She needed more. She concentrated on restoring what chakra she could before he appeared before her. Aika slowly stood, pulling her tanto. She had enough. Or rather, what she had would have to do. She channeled the last bits of her chakra into her hand as Akio appeared. Using her index and middle fingers along with her thumb, she ran them along her short blade, engulfing it in fire. She channeled as much fire onto the blade as she could, shaping the fire into a larger blade than the one in her hand. "Neat trick!" Akio called as he unleashed his second whip once more. Aika cocked her arm back, putting as much chakra as she dared into charging the fire blade as Akio came closer. She had to time this perfectly or else it would blow up in her face, literally. Well, either way it was going to blow up. Akio charged forward and Aika thrust her tanto forward, sending out all of that fire energy at Akio. He tried skidding to a stop but it was too late. The fire along the tanto exploded out, the shockwave sending Akio flying back and the fire scorching the ground and sucking the air from the immediate area. Aika felt the air being pulled from her lungs once the explosion was used. However, while her timing was perfect, her control wasn't as perfect as she had hoped. Aika was hit by the shockwave as well, and she could feel her body being scorched as she was thrown back onto the ground. The explosion ended as quickly as it had been used, and left the two teammates on the ground, coughing desperately for air that wasn't arid and hot. Aika managed to get on her elbows and used her legs to stand, albeit shakily. Akio was on his hands and knees, hacking into the ground as he attempted to get up. His jacket was off to the side, smoldering and smoking. Aika saw her tanto stuck in the dirt between them and began making her way toward it.
It was here that she realised she was more damaged than she realised. Her legs shook uncontrollably and it hurt to move them. Her arms were hanging at her sides almost uselessly though she had small range of motion. She saved it for grabbing the tanto and then Akio. It was a few arduous steps before she reached the tanto. She lowered herself and managed to pick up the tanto, gripping it in her hand as tight as she could as she walked towards Akio, who was struggling to stand up, but he was stumbling. Aika stalked towards him and just as he got on two feet, she grabbed him by the shirt collar with her free left hand and held the tanto high, in the stabbing position. Akio looked between the knife and Aika's face and grinned.
"Well?" he asked. "Do it." He taunted. He waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Aika hadn't moved from this position. The knife hadn't moved, neither had the arm holding him by the shirt collar. She stood there, frozen in that position, ready to stab him through. Akio frowned and looked at Aika's face, which was strained with agony. Something was wrong, really wrong. Either her conscience was preventing her from stabbing a friend, or something else was wrong.
In fact, Aika's arms stopped working, locking into place holding Akio and the tanto. She had hoped he would surrender but he taunted her as usual. She was simply going to knock him out but now her arms stopped working. She was locked into this position, holding Akio by the collar, about to hit him and she couldn't move. Sweat rolled down her face as she came to terms with what just happened. She wasn't going to win this one. How could she win lest Akio surrender? She couldn't, and that wouldn't be honourable.
Come on! Aika thought exhaustively. Move! She forced her hands to open, and they did. Slowly. Slowly, her left hand opened, letting Akio fall to the ground in a rumpled mess. Soon after, the tanto fell from her hand, now held open in the air. Swallowing, Aika opened her mouth and spoke hoarsely, her throat dry of any saliva to help her speak.
"I forfeit." She said, as loudly as she could. She only caught a glimpse of Akio's surprised face before she fell to her knees, and then to the ground, blacking out as she hit the dirt.
Aika woke up later in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm and several bandages on her body. She moved her head up to see a small machine watching her heartbeat. Beside that was a grinning Rei with a concerned looking Senji at her side.
"Well, it's about time you woke up." Rei said with a smile. Senji gave a sort of concerned smile and shrug.
"How long was I out?" Aika asked, sitting up and rubbing her hurting head. She looked to Rei for an answer, her sensei sighed.
"You've been out for a week and a half." Rei sighed melodramatically. Senji looked to her suddenly and Aika felt her heart skip a beat. A weak and a half!?
"A week and a half!?" she asked suddenly, sitting upright fast, causing some severe pain in her abdomen. She cringed and held her sides as Rei chuckled and Senji frowned at her, causing Aika to become severely confused as to what was going on. Senji sighed and looked to Aika, revealing the truth.
"You've only been out for three days, not a week and a half." He glared at Rei who looked smug and satisfied with her little joke.
"Only three days?" Aika asked, raising an eyebrow. Senji nodded.
"Akio went on to lose his next match pretty damn quick." Senji revealed. "He was still pretty beat up from what you gave him. Most of which, by the way, you never cared to share."
"Yeah, well, I didn't want Akio to learn." Aika revealed "I only had a month and they're rudimentary at best."
"Dangerous as well." Rei spoke up. "Those were very consuming techniques you used, especially using molten slag and covering your weapon in fire. Very advance and risky for your current skill level." Rei put on a serious face for once. "I should hope not to see those techniques in battle unless you practice them extensively under my supervision." Rei put a hand on Aika's hospital bed. "The last thing I want is for one of my students to die from over exerting themselves." Rei looked into Aika's eyes and made sure she understood. Aika nodded that she did understand.
"So where's Akio." She asked finally. Rei smiled and backed up.
"Ask him yourself." She said, stepping to the side to show Akio sitting up, drinking something, in his bed. He looked to Aika, nodded at her with a raised eyebrow before taking another drink
"What…?" Aika asked without speaking in complete sentences.
"Ah, guy after you beat me into the ground easily. It was especially since you gave me a severe run for my number. It was more or less…" Akio thought a second "he hit me and then I kind of just fell over."
"I see. Sorry." Aika admitted for the first time ever.
"Nah, it's fine." Akio shrugged. "I guess you had to do something to win, right? Besides, I think by that point either of us would've lost the next match regardless."
"I guess." Aika sighed, looking to Rei. "So what now?"
"Well now that the exams are done, we simply wait for the Hokage to make his decision on who becomes Chunin and who doesn't." Rei answered simply.
"How long will that take?" Aika asked, Rei shrugged.
"Don't know. But don't be disappointed if you don't get it." Rei smiled kindly. "You both fought quite well."
"Well I did." Akio called from his bed.
"Shut up." Aika glared at him, grinning. Akio simply shrugged it off. She hoped they both made it.
Aika finished talking and her students looked at her over the fire.
"That's it?" Denji asked, eyebrow raised. However since his wrapping covered his left eye, only his right eyebrow rose, making him looked incredibly surprised.
"Shorter story." Yukio acknowledged. Arine grunted in response. Aika simply sat there, looking at her students.
"Listen, the rest wasn't important. My first few matches were cakewalks, nothing interesting happened in them. Really the only highlight was my fight against Akio." Aika shrugged. "At least I thought so."
"So what happened? Did you get Chunin?" Yukio asked.
"Sadly not that time, but a bit later under different circumstances." Aika explained. "I'll tell you about it later since it's getting late."
"Now wait." Yukio stopped her. She looked to him, his golden eyes reflecting flames off of them. "We have tomorrow off and you've got a story to tell." He grinned. "Might as well make the most of the time we have tonight. Plus campfires are good places for story-telling." Yukio raised an eyebrow at her. "So let's hear it."
Aika looked around at her students, noting that even Arine as interested in another take from her past.
"All right, then." Aika took a swig of water. "You all asked for it."
A/N: Shorter chapter partly because of bad planning and I'm lazy. Oh well, another one that's way longer out soon. Hope you all enjoyed!