Sheesh, so many fights! It's pretty easy to design a fight when there's some sort of story around it, but arena fights are really difficult. Especially Hisana vs. Sora was hard because they're both taijutsu types.
Upon request: At the end there'll be a who-is-who to remind you of all the OCs running around here.
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The beeping of a heart monitor is eerily familiar. For the first time in her new life Hisana comes to and knows immediately where she is and what happened. It may be that the Suna hospital smells like a completely different brand of antiseptics than the Konoha hospital, or that the air-conditioning makes it just a little too cold. Whatever it is, it propels her from unconsciousness to alertness in a split-second. Her throat is sore – déjà vu – and there's a tube stuck in her nose.
From the chair next to her Haru watches her with an unusually reproachful expression.
"Is this going to be become a regular thing? Visiting you in the hospital, because you don't know when to quit?"
His mouth is drawn into a severe downward quirk and his hands are twisting in her bed sheet. She wants to tell him not to be dramatic, but her voice won't cooperate.
"Hyuuga Naoki crushed your windpipe," he informs her solemnly. Hisana makes a face and touches her jugular gingerly. There's no scar, but it feels tender inside.
"Well, at least she has to shut up and listen now," Sora's voice quips from the other side of the room. When Hisana sits up she can see him occupying the only other bed in the room. His leg is in a cast and he's reading a magazine.
"Hospital buddies," he drawls, lifting his arm in a mock show of solidarity. Hisana lifts her own arm before flipping him off. What she wants to know right now is whether or not she won. But with Haru's disappointed eyes still fixed on her face and Sora – the hypocrite – radiating disapproval she feels it might be a tad tactless. Thankfully her teammates know her well enough by now.
"You won," Haru admits, but sounding almost unhappy about it. "Barely. You knocked out Hyuuga about ten seconds before fainting yourself."
The shaky breath of relief that escapes her chafes at Hisana's throat like sandpaper.
"Hyuuga's fine, by the way," Sora adds. "You dislocated his shoulder and broke his collar bone, but other than that you're worse off than him. Sensei came this close to pulling you out though. They didn't think they'd be able to fix you in time for round two and he didn't want you participating when you're not a 100 percent."
"Luckily for you," Kohaku-sensei's voice comes from the door, "I could locate a specialist. You will need to attend another healing session tonight, but you will be ready to participate tomorrow." Then he turns his attention towards Sora. "You will be fine as well."
"What about Akiba?" her loudest teammate asks in an uncharacteristically small voice. Kohaku-sensei only shakes his head minutely.
"I cannot help him. His jounin sensei will take him back to Iwa tomorrow; the rest is up to their medics."
That evening she spends an informative hour with one of Suna's best medics. It's a matronly woman who scolds her the entire 60 minutes, only pausing to ask "Does this hurt?" every once in a while. Apparently they managed to pop her windpipe back into place like a dented plastic bottle, so there was no actual tearing to mend. But it's still a delicate apparatus and so her voice will sound a little scratchy for a while. Hisana's biggest concern though is the scarf she is supposed to wear to keep her throat warm and protected. It sounds like something her mother used to nag her into and in Suna's hellish temperatures it's torture.
"Your throat is a medical miracle, girl," the healer lady tells her waspishly. "By all means, it should have given out by now. You better wear that scarf tomorrow or I'll personally come to drag you out of that arena."
The next morning she feels both wired and drained. The sun hasn't come up, but the nurses are already bustling up and down the hallways, so getting up isn't as difficult as it was last time. Hisana wraps the ugly grey scarf around her neck and knots it tightly while Sora is tugging on his pants on his bed.
They meet Haru and Kohaku-sensei for breakfast. Hisana would have expected the mood to be better than yesterday, but the atmosphere seems even tenser somehow. By entering the second round their chances for a promotion are better, but she knows her team thinks about winning. And today at least one of them will be out of the running.
Without Sora's good-natured babbling the entire team descends into absolute silence. Haru seems lost in his own thoughts, Kohaku-sensei appears reasonably pleased with the silence, and Hisana herself doesn't even know where to start. She doesn't manage to eat much; when Kohaku-sensei ushers them to the arena it's almost a relief.
Before Hisana can take the steps up into the spectator stands Haru's hand catches her arm.
"I'm staying down here," he says quietly. "I- I don't think I can make the track down the stairs again. It feels … like walking to your death." He takes a deep breath, shakes off the nerves. Instead he busies his hands by untying and retying Hisana's scarf. "I don't know if I'll get to see your match. Be careful. Don't let anyone at your throat again – one day you won't be so lucky anymore."
Hisana nods slowly. Then her teammate beckons for Sora to come back down to him. She and Sora pass each other on the stairs with wary, tired looks.
"Don't hold back against her," she hears Haru downstairs. "Don't be insulting …"
Haru's opponent for today is Hanada. The girl's long dark hair stands out starkly against the almost white, sand covered ground. From this far Hisana can't make out her face, but the way she stands seems different from yesterday. There's still arrogance in the overt straightness of her spine, but she looks like business. As if, under all that bustle, there's actually a capable ninja hidden away. She's wearing gloves this time, as well as knee and elbow protectors. Looks like Hanada had her very own dramatic watch-my-back moment while Hisana wasn't looking.
Hisana watches the girl run katas for a few short moments before her eyes are drawn back to Haru doing stretches. They're both about the same height and of similar build: Speedy and agile. Neither of them has a particular field of expertise but both are reasonably well-versed in taijutsu. It will probably all come down to how good Haru is with his blades. They're not a surprise anymore, but a weapon is a weapon.
The crowd is even more excited today. When the contestants step forward there are already whistles and cheers coming from the front rows; the examiner's own whistle is very nearly lost in the noise.
Haru's assessment of the situation seems similar to Hisana's. He pulls out his daggers without foreplay or fanfare. He wants to end this fast. The audience cries out when Hanada completely ignores them. She shoots towards him, catching both blades in gloved hands and drives her foot into his stomach. There's a strange metallic noise as metal hits leather.
"There is steel wiring in those gloves," Kohaku-sensei assesses. "Not enough to make them completely impenetrable, but enough to stop the cutting edge."
One of Haru's blades has clattered to the ground, but the other he's wedged out of Hanada's grip. He rams it into her foot, drives his knee into whatever soft part he can reach. The girl stumbles back with a yelp. She tries to put distance between them, but her foot is still pinned to the ground. Hisana has seen, participated, in close close combat, but those two are too far up in each other's business. It's not quite sloppy yet, but getting there, both trying to get away while refusing to let go.
Finally Haru manages to wedge his dagger from Hanada and they push away from each other. They both look shocked, as if the entire thing escalated far quicker than expected. Haru's eyes dart towards Hanada's bleeding foot, and for a second there's a small smile on his face. Then he calmly walks towards his wayward dagger, grabs it, and for the first time, turns towards his opponent with something bordering on eagerness. Temari scared him, Hisana realizes with some astonishment. The daughter of the Kazekage – of course she would. He doesn't know the things she knows.
But Hanada is a former classmate. She's never seen Haru seriously fight against someone he knows and considers an equal. That strange sense of familiarity and relief that Hyuuga Naoki gave her, he must be feeling something similar right now.
They collide with the screeching sound of grinding metal. Hanada is good; her footwork is exceptional despite her injury. Again and again she halts Haru's attack simply by stepping into him and forcing him onto the defensive. But what interests Hisana more is her teammate's knifework. "Look at that," Sora breathes, elated. They look at each other and then at their teacher.
"Sarutobi Asuma's work," Kohaku-sensei admits. "I have been … calling in favors."
But while the daggers might give him an edge in some ways, they are also a hindrance in another; there's no way to form seals and he is limited to crude blocks with his wrists. Hanada on the other hand keeps grabbing at him in any way she can reach. She's going for his wrists and with a start Hisana realizes that it's a similar to the way one would maybe handle the Juuken. He moves to block her hands once more and then suddenly the girl's foot shoots out to kick at his hands. Haru's arms fly up over his head with the force and Hanada's dark head moves in. For a moment it looks as if she's about to kiss him. But the second Haru's mouth opens in surprise, she breathes out a bright yellow mist.
The arena goes quiet in confusion and then Haru starts to cough.
It's so violent that he actually drops his daggers, hands flying to his chest. Hanada pointedly stands and watches, before drawing a kunai from her pouch and holding it over his head with it. That enough? her face says. The examiner hesitates but then whistles sharply to end the match.
They carry a still coughing Haru to the sideline. When she and Sora walk down to him, Hisana is relieved to see that, while he seems in pain, his lips haven't turned blue. They crowd around him worriedly, but the medic shoos them away. "No worries, no worries. An irritant, nothing more." The man unceremoniously shoves an inhaler into her teammate's mouth. "You two should worry about yourselves."
In a way her match with Sora is the one Hisana dreads the worst. Whether she wins or loses, it'll shift something in their dynamic that she would have rather left un-shifted. For the past year and a half team 11 has languished without any sort of hierarchy. There is an unspoken agreement between her and Sora to watch out a for Haru, who used to be a little feeble and still dislikes taking the lead, but other than that there was rarely ever a clear team leader. Today will establish who exactly is the stronger fighter.
It doesn't feel at all like any of their sparring matches. The look on her teammate's face is too intense for that. There's no teasing, no jokes. It's the same one he gave Akiba and it makes her nervous. Don't be insulting …, Haru's voice echoes in her head. Sora's eyes are fixed on her throat; she wonders what he will do. He might be too.
When the whistle sounds she doesn't give him enough time to decide. It's been a while since Hisana has used the Uchiha taijutsu style instead of the Burning Leaf bastardization she's come to favor. Or any other style really. Using taijutsu against Sora may even be a bad idea, but she can't help but try anyway. It's easy, comfortable, switching back and forth between two, then three, then four styles, trying to catch him off guard. Her Sharingan makes her a little faster than him, but Sora is notably stronger than her. Even his passive blocks are sure to leave marks on her arms. Right now she'd give anything to have her bokken back.
Using ninjutsu will be hard as well; water nature is weak against earth nature. So instead she slides away and behind him, unashamedly firing a Great Fireball at his back. It only singes his elbow, barely catching him as he sharply turns away, but the awful stink of burnt flesh catches her by surprise. Momentarily startled, she catches Sora's fist to her shoulder.
They exchange blows with such force it whirls up the sand around them. Hisana can feel her fingers crack ominously, but adrenaline keeps the pain away. They know each other far too well; whenever she tries to exploit a weakness, he has already found one of hers. Every trick he tries to pull on her she already knows, and Sora's refusal to look into her eyes makes catching him in a Sharingan genjutsu impossible. Frustrated, she plants a kick against his chest to push him away. "Suiton: Teppodama!"
It's the smallest Teppodama she's ever managed to produce, but the force behind it sends it towards her teammate like a bullet. They both stand in shock as it pierces his shoulder, slugging into the wall behind him. Now, she thinks, look at me. He doesn't. Instead his eyes involuntarily jerk towards his shoulder. Well, she decides, that's good too then. "Magen: Kyoten Chiten."
The feel of the genjutsu crawling over them both like something alive is still fairly new. The Sharingan assists her in spinning the illusion, adding details, adjusting it just so. And when Sora looks at his shoulder he will see a hole much bigger than the real one. He won't feel any pain, Hisana doesn't know how to do that, but it won't occur to him how odd that is. And when he looks up to see her run towards him, her expression will look like panic. He doesn't see the fist coming that strategically hits him in the temple and knocks him out.
Behind her the examiner blows his whistle and Hisana nearly jumps out of her skin.
The medic-nins are already closing in on them and Hisana takes a moment to breathe. The entirety of the stadium – the stands, the crowd, Kohaku-sensei's eyes on her – come rushing back. There's cheering and Hanada's restraint clapping carrying over from the sideline; she waits for the rush of victory to come, but it doesn't. Instead she feels vaguely ashamed with her teammate lying at her feet. This isn't right, she thinks vaguely. This is serious. People get hurt, don't you understand? It never really occurred to her before, but as she kneels down next to Sora it hits her like a brick. This isn't entertainment – people can actually die here, have died here.
The boy's eyes have already opened again. He still looks a little spacey while the medics ply him with smelling salts, but he reaches out and pats her elbow with a vaguely friendly looking grimace.
"With this the contestants for the final round tomorrow are decided," the Kazekage announces. "Hanada Mami and Uchiha Hisana."
Hisana lets the cheering of the crowd wash over her unacknowledged, eyes fixed on the ground, her hand firmly gripping Sora's shirt.
The most important non-canon people:
Sora: Hisana's youngest teammate. Taijutsu specialist and full-time dork.
Mitsuharu (Haru): Hisana's oldest teammate. Soft-spoken and awkward with an intimidating face.
Kohaku-sensei: Team 11's squad leader. Well-meaning but emotionally stunted.
Shizuha (Shizurin): Hisana's first friend in Konoha. An Aburame with a tact problem. Currently apprentice to T&I.
Shiki: 80% friend, 15 % playful annoyance … 5 % potential danger? Hisana's second friend with a motivational problem. Former genin team: Inomaru, Choumei and Inuzuka Dai. Currently Chuunin in Tactics.
Current non-canon people:
Hyuuga Naoki: Random Hyuuga boy who's giving Hisana trouble in her first match.
Saitou Gorou: One of Temari's bodyguards/teammates. Big but apparently not all that clever. Lost his match against Hanada.
Mami Hanada: Former classmate with a nasty attitude. Won her match against Saitou Gorou. Has an embarrassing crush on Sora.
Mori Akiba: Random Iwa-nin with a strange kekkei genkai. Lost his match against Sora.
Other non-canon people:
Shimura Hiroyuki (Hiro): Possible son of 'old man Shimura'. Broke Sakura's arm during the Academy matches and left Sasuke unsettled.
Hoga Chisato: Former classmate of Hisana. Died during a botched genin mission and awakened Hisana's sharingan.
Shikano: Shiki's long-suffering older brother.
Hyuuga Airi: Kohaku-sensei's naggy older twin sister.
Hirose Kaori, Fujimori Hisao and Inoue Tatsuya: Psycho team who defeated team 7 and had to be stopped by Mama Akimichi. Under the guidance of Elder Koharu?