Kiyomi's tapped her foot uneasily as if a terrifying theme of a tense thriller was running. She wasn't sure why but she was worried about Mana more than she'd have liked the people around her to see. She put up a tough façade but every time Junipu-R's peculiar attacks landed on the magician opening up a new bruise the blonde noisily objected.
"She shouldn't be taking this much damage…" the Yamanaka expressed her worries. "She's better than this, she should be able to dodge those attacks!"
"Not really. I'd have trouble dodging them too. Mana hadn't yet fought an opponent who has little to no experience and training fighting hand to hand. She honed her skills in a martial arts grinding house arena seeing and being trained by the best of the best. She probably can't understand it herself but that lack of experience facing someone as bad as she used to be is hindering her…" Meiko shrugged after sinking her teeth into the dried up pack of noodles that were so dry that they cracked and crumbled like biscuits.
"Tsk… This makes no sense!" the blonde objected, truthfully she just refused to believe that the magician had taken much more hits than it was healthy for any combatant to take willingly before changing their strategy.
"Usually when a skilled ninja faces this problem they augment their body to withstand the skipped strikes until those lacking strikes are all mapped out. Mana must be saving her chakra for something else, she probably doesn't see the threat in those strikes." Meiko began analyzing the exchange of fists and feet more carefully.
"You're the best close range combatant out of us three. Is there any hope for Mana to win?" Kiyomi asked with a worried expression.
"If you asked me – she's already won. Junipu-R tossed everything she had – every odd looking combination and Mana's already beginning to see through them. Just look at it carefully. Unless her opponent launches something huge soon, something to knock Mana out with a single hit – R will lose." Meiko smiled confidently before asking Inaba to give her another pack of spices to enhance the taste of her bland unprepared snack.
"Please don't call Junipu just R, nicks are solely for friends to refer." Inaba calmly noted.
There was some truth to Meiko's words. Mana was beginning to see pathways around Junipu-R's odd dancing fighting style. She saw dozens of openings for swift counterattacks and yet she restrained herself from exploiting them – that's exactly what lead her to getting hit the last handful of times. Now Mana was just using the space advantage she was creating to see all the strings and wait until Junipu will begin repeating them. Bit by bit, Mana was seeing where the dancers' legs could stretch, how far her reach was and how much she favored each limb. Small details like that were beginning to draw a profile and soon, the magician felt, her opponent would no longer be able to as much as touch her.
"One thing that's bothering me though…" Meiko scratched her head. "Why doesn't Mana use her odd flower petal illusion thing? She could've avoided getting hit each and every time…"
"From what she told me before, I gather that that the strain of that technique increases drastically every time it is used. It then takes days of time for the cost to reset again." Kiyomi replied calmer, now having seen the bigger picture of what seemed like a losing battle before.
Junipu's long spinning overhead kick got blocked by Mana's daring dive in. Just as the second leg of the Kumogakure kunoichi snapped back hooking on the magician's neck and locking around it in a crushing stranglehold Mana's own push kick blasted off into the girl's chest throwing her like a ragdoll flying away and smashing into nearby trees.
Mana wiped the traces of blood on her mouth crawling out from a cracked lip and wondered deep inside if she could even outlast her opponent like previously expected. Slowly she was beginning to gain the advantage on close distance encounters and she had already revealed to her enemy that their ace technique was useless against Mana. Normally she'd have had this fight in the bag, that being said, as the magician's vision blurred and her right eye began to swell up she wondered if she could even outlast her opponent to that point of certain victory.
The opponent's king piece was already within sight. Her own pieces were about to launch an imminent and crushing siege on it in just four turns, still, the Konohagakure kunoichi wondered if she was to have any pieces left to enact that finishing maneuver in four turns.
Junipu must've been thinking the same thing. Her thigh was bleeding quite relentlessly and it was no small deal. Mana's combination of illusionary and ninjutsu attacks tricked her into skipping a real deal right through her leg which slowed her down greatly. It skipped Mana's victorious climb to success a couple of turns but it may not have been enough. All the little pawns she lost and sacrificed in the beginning of the game were beginning to really leave the feeling of choking on options.
The magician's hands raced through hand seals, the opponent tried to interrupt her but somewhere halfway through her mad dash to kick Mana in the face, struggling through the pain of a stabbed through and bleeding thigh, Junipu-R realized that Mana's hand seal speed was hopeless to match or interrupt. Not by anyone on the genin level. That area of expertise required the equivalent of space travel of hand seals to match.
There it was – Junipu-R got lazy and desperate. She had devoted so much effort and speed into this dash to interrupt Mana that she decided to finish it. The girl leaned forward thrusting her hands to the ground while her back leg bent over her back and her head in an odd looking upside kick aimed at Mana's face. The magician caught her opponent's hand with her glowing hand while she placed her other hand right up to Junipu-R's face.
"Many-Faced Jutsu!" Mana chanted with a smile, knowing that there was no way for her opponent to avoid the stimuli of bright light emanating from her hands at that distance. The illusion got initiated.
As countless copies of Mana appeared from a glowing hole in the ground the Kumogakure kunoichi did her best to deliver a head spin kick, a back handed elbow strike or any other improvised manner of strike to the illusionary clones that appeared. All of them dissolved right after being hit like mirages of bright flashing light. Having successfully faded from her opponent's view Mana prepared for her finishing attack.
Junipu-R used out so much chakra for augmenting her abilities before, for breaking her own physical and mental limits. Mana knew that with a pair of precise strikes in places where the girl didn't expect them with her guard all lowered she'd go to sleep. Carefully walking up from behind her opponent Mana opened up her fist to a palm and prepared for the strike at the side of Junipu's other leg. A pop to the backside of her knee will cripple her, then a quick strong spear kick to the back of her head will knock her out…
"What are you doing punching air? She's behind you so better beware!" Inaba yelled out shocking Mana that he'd interfere like that.
Something changed, Junipu's body lit up with flames, as the magician's eyes looked back at her opponent she noticed that R placed her hands in the Tiger hand seal position and her entire body felt like it was pulsing with immense chakra pressure. From this up close – there was no need of sensory to know what's coming up.
Using all of her ingenuity, all of her agility and all over her gathered information on Junipu's movements Mana carefully navigated around the girl's blazing foot as wherever the breakdancing ninja tossed her kicks a blazing projectile of Fire Release chakra scorched through.
"Crap!" Mana screamed out as her aching back made her botch a proper lean backwards and a blazing fireball grazed her chest slightly tearing off the bandages and singing them off – exposing the past wounds. The girl fell to the ground clutching at the wound, the heat wasn't intense enough to knock her out even after direct contact but it still was enough to cauterize the reopened wound almost instantly. The painful pulsing sensation in her body made it impossible to stand back up, like miniature hot glass pieces being driven all through her body.
"You inbred son of a special person!" Quill-B shouted smacking Inaba in the back of the head. "You interrupted in the fight!"
Only then did Junipu realize what happened, her face changed into shock as she ran up to Mana observing her wounds.
"I'm sorry. I… My body acted all by itself! I didn't realize what happened – right after hearing that information I just…" she began crying out excuses. The fact that she exploited her teammate's interruption must've greatly troubled her.
With a painful grunt Mana rolled back on her knees and stood back up, tying the remaining rags of her clothes together into something resembling a protection against colder breezes and parasitic insects.
"It's fine, let's continue this…" the magician coughed out as her chest still felt the crushing pressure against it and it felt like all the air in her lungs had been burnt out by the fireball that just narrowly missed her body.
"Hey! What kind of childish nonsense is this? Let Mana take a minute to rest or let her take a food pill. This hit was dirty." Kiyomi yelled out energetically, growling like a caged animal that wanted to let her fangs and claws out on the people attacking her pack.
Hearing such intense defense from a friend whom Mana thought she may have surely lost gave the magician some new life and confidence. A smile covered the beaten magician's face and somehow at that point she realized – it's all going to be alright. Kiyomi is still her older sister. No matter what Hokage-sensei said, no matter what quarrels made their friendship bitter, they're too close at this point for it all to end like that.
"I don't need rest. If we take a break Junipu-R will get some rest as well so it's not an equalizer. Let's just finish this now." Mana happily replied looking at Kiyomi with friendly and inspiringly warm eyes.
Kiyomi's own bright blue visual orbs lit up with trust for her friend's judgment before a firm nod.
Little by little the magician sent orders for her body to move her limbs one by one. She wanted to see just how potent and quick was response. As expected she was just too injured and thrown off balance by that last attack. While Mana's perception remained just as sharp, her body was far past its prime condition and to the enhanced ninja perception of time it looked like an entire eternity before her limbs responded. She could probably still weave hand seals, if only she prepared and raised her hands up first.
Mana wondered if she could properly avoid her opponent's attacks now. She had Junipu's style all mapped out and she could've easily just walked past her assault unharmed and counterattack harmlessly at some point. That being said, her mind and her body no longer worked in sync anymore. There was significant lag between what Mana thought to do and when she performed the action. Just as her plan went, Mana raised her hands up. Hand seals was the only thing that she could do better than her opponent at that moment.
"What's wrong? I told you to continue…" Mana taunted her opponent.
"That's right but… You kind of have me at an impasse." Junipu admitted with laughter.
"Oh? So that's it for your abilities then? No more hidden aces?" Mana then realized what her opponent meant.
"Right. If I perform my Transportation Seal you'll simply use your own jutsu as a counter and use it against me. If I attack you physically you'll once again interrupt my attack with an illusion which I'll be rushing head-on into. I'm sort of out of options." The Kumogakure genin admitted.
"Then surrender. I'll trust your word that you'll quit the exam." Mana replied.
"No. Not yet… That isn't how this exam is supposed to go. You must knock out your target and you can't really do that in your tired and bruised condition either, can you? You yourself are afraid to attack me too. Else you'd have long since pressed an offensive on me."
"No. My fighting style is completely defensive. Every technique, every move in my arsenal serves as a defensive measure. I'm waiting for your move." Mana shut down her opponent's theory. "I can assure you that I have profiled and understood your unique fighting style and am able to crush it."
"You're bluffing!" Junipu-R confidently declared before launching her body at Mana. Her knees shot forward and her entire body bent backwards at her lower back, throwing herself forward like being shot from a catapult at an impressive speed. While this was a new move, previously unseen in Junipu's arsenal, at this point the magician knew which strings it was supposed to lead into. She could predict what strikes and combinations would follow.
"She'll be rolling first. She prefers overhead ground attacks…" Mana thought to herself as she thrust her left leg to the side blocking her opponent's roll and with a hard push shoving her opponent back on her feet – back where she was out of her comfort zone. With a single movement Mana threw the entire dancing routine out of balance. Junipu-R threw a sloppy palm strike but the magician ordered the precise movements to counter it before even the rolling attempt to stick to the floor.
Mana's wrist grabbed Junipu's wrist firmly as her other hand slammed the palm right into the girl's nose, letting go of the wrist entrapment just temporarily to throw her off balance before reapplying the same entrapment and driving the same palm at the elbow snapping it upsides and throwing a palm hook upwards to knock the Kumogakure kunoichi on the floor. This time she was too dazed to perform her dance. It required sensitive balance and timing to perform all the flips, jumps, head spins and overhead attacks.
After Junipu's guard returned back to its place the panicking opponent jumped and vaulted back a couple of times to put distance between Mana and herself. The girl was shaking, stumbling and bleeding from her nose as well as clutching her backwards sticking arm.
"I told you, I'm ready to accept and trust your surrender. You yourself said there's nothing else you can do here. It's over." Mana pleaded, still standing still, wary of taking a simple step forward so that her opponent doesn't assume she's trying to take control and assume dominance of some kind. If Junipu-R was to do the reasonable thing she shouldn't have felt cornered.
"There's something I can do!" Junipu-R firmly declared after grabbing her busted arm with her healthy one and pulling intensely while an immense air pressure fired off from it. Mana had seen this and done so several times before herself not to recognize Junipu's last resort. She was using chakra augmentation as a mean for her busted arm to work.
"Don't do this." Mana calmly advised her opponent by raising her palm up and taking a calm step backwards. "I have fallen for this temptation before – thinking it's OK to do this just once. Prolong my life just by little bit to keep on fighting using chakra augmentation. It cost me everything I held dear, it cost me my own identity. It's not something genin should do at all. Please…"
Junipu's hands bent over and took a hand seal position. Knowing that she could weave a hand seal with her single extended hand Mana didn't antagonize her opponent by preparing to defend herself.
"You don't understand!" Junipu cried out. Her voice began to shake as her hands raced through hand seals. One after the other, one after the other in a combination that extended into the hundreds. Had an ordinary civilian watched this battle he'd have actually been able to perceive Junipu's movements as a blur which served as a testament of how many hand seals she placed in this last resort of hers. "I have my target." That single explanation was all she offered to help Mana understand.
So that was it. Junipu-R had already taken down her target which meant that if given the mercy of walking to the gate and surrendering she'd have tremendous difficulty and regret doing it. It was a very artificially planted reason, a foolish one to spit at one's own vitality and chakra network but she was young, about as old as Mana but evidently not as experienced. It must've been her first time fighting against such odds, being driven so far whereas to Mana it was an almost every other day occurrence.
"I trust you to be strong. To make the right choice. I trust you to be able to do it, to walk away from this all and return stronger." Mana shouted out like a mother scolding a child, except this time the child was about her age.
"She won't do it!" Quill-B interfered by raising his voice. "To a Kumogakure ninja, a kunoichi from a country so closely and deeply intertwined with the Iron Country samurai and the bushido code to walk away with their objective already completed would be unthinkable. If she is behaving as foolishly as you claim she is – finish her off before she crosses the line."
Tears ran down Junipu-R's face. "Don't make me do it. Don't make me choose between surrender and deceit."
Mana understood her opponent's dilemma. She was basically forced to either surrender and quit while she has already fulfilled her objective to hunt down her target or to lie to Mana's face. Usually to a ninja it'd be absolutely no problem to lie to someone's face but it visibly plagued Junipu to do so. Mana's trusting and warm attitude towards her made it more difficult to betray the magician's trust, in a way, the Kumogakure girl was already broken which made her desperate. Desperation made her dangerous.
"I could show her the Flower Petal Sanctuary, show her that I'm able to dodge anything she throws at me and that she'll be damaging her network for no reason… But if I do, I may not have enough chakra to pay the enlarged cost again – if I show it off and she decides to attack me anyways, I'll get taken out." Mana grit her teeth beginning to grind them angrily as she struggled to find the right words or options and judging from the expanding air pressure her opponent was done.
"Mass Transportation Seal Jutsu!" Junipu-R shouted out as she began throwing glyph after glyph Mana's way, creating a massive system of small transportation seal discs around the magician, this time she placed no seal right beside herself to avoid being countered. That meant she needed a precise hit on the right seal close to Mana.
"Stop!" Mana screamed out. "My nindo… The thing I tried to accomplish my entire life had to tackle the fact that people aren't tools. That they can't be useful or useless. That life by itself is valuable. For once just swallow your damned pride, your stupid code and stop crippling yourself!"
"Could you?" Junipu-R whimpered to herself as her body lit up with Fire Release chakra and she began dancing again, firing off dozens of fireballs Mana's way that upon missing got absorbed by the complicated transportation seal system and transferred right back at the magician from another angle. It was the absolute excess of all of Junipu's abilities. While Mana would've gotten absolutely incinerated and greatly injured had she remained standing, unable to avoid all of attacks from all the angles, this time the cleverly kept in her pocket Flower Petal Sanctuary pulled her out as her shape dissolved into flower petals and her real body disappeared from the view of anyone within the area of the genjutsu effect.
"She's right…" Mana cried out in her own thoughts. "I couldn't step over my own principles, my own nindo to protect my life. How am I supposed to save her if I myself am such a hypocrite? No words will make her stand down… No words would make me stand down and swallow my own nindo." She pondered as the magician calmly walked up to the exhausted girl in front of her.
The moment she'd tense up her muscles and chakra flow intensified for an attack she'd become visible again. Even so, if she could quickly take her opponent out before she could pull that crazy trick once again, this time tearing her body apart for sure… No. Violence won't be Mana's answer. It has been for far too long. The magician threw her first forward stopping it right by Junipu's face right before she became traceable by the others' perception again and the magician's illusion of flower petals faded.
"What are you doing!? I'll kill you from this close, I'll do it, I'll attack you again!" Junipu cried out.
"Go ahead, I'll just dissolve again revealing that this is all just another illusion and afterwards your network will surely be torn and your body broken and unable to manipulate chakra ever again." Mana falsely encouraged her opponent, acting like she could perform another use of her illusionary technique when in fact it'd surely push her to the point of exhaustion where she'd pass out for certain.
"My team needs me…" Junipu cried out. "My friends… My village."
"You'll be hurting all of them if you do this. They'll all be disappointed if you break your body apart, they're your friends after all. Being reckless and dying or crippling yourself is the easy part, facing your loved ones afterwards is what hurts the most. Trust me, I've been in your shoes before." Mana came up closer while lowering her hand. At this distance Junipu could've probably attacked the magician a different way but something told Mana she wouldn't.
"How did… How did you deal with it?" the Kumogakure kunoichi wondered.
"I've lost people. People I loved." Mana admitted while looking away. "I gave up my chakra control to save a life of a criminal and my lifelong friend died in my quest to restore it. I live in grief and debt everyday but what hurts the most is the feeling of inevitability, knowing that if given the chance to change something I'd likely do it all over again the same way. There's none of that in your case, you can still do the right thing."
Junipu raised her hand to remove the headband tied to her arm and let it gently slip through her fingers down by Mana's feet. After it fell the girl leaned over to pick it up and tie it back where it was.
And just like that R invoked the surrender clause.