"They'll be targeting Meiko, she's the chubby one's target", Kiyomi muttered. She felt confident that her teammates could've been spoken too in a more quiet tone, avoiding the revelation of her mental communication ability to the possible future enemy. While the Yamanaka was gleeful to team up with this Gear-Man fanatic now, she kept it well in mind that he may become an enemy soon enough.
"They will have to go through me first"! Masen-Z energetically declared as all the possible lighting under the heavy armored shell lit up building up an image of a powerful and fired up gadget-using ally.
"So do we run at them"? Meiko grinned excitedly, somewhere under her bruised and busted face there was that very same vibrant redhead. Kiyomi was glad to see her ally mostly ready for combat after a brief period of tranquility.
"No. We scope out their abilities, we see what Masen-Z can do and put a proper strategy together", Kiyomi denied her ally's enthusiasm for attacking the enemy.
Chominu's hands flashed through a collection of hand seals, Kiyomi could identify that specific set even if she could just see them briefly with the entire package of poor lighting and blurry speed being in play. The chubby was preparing for his signature combination of techniques but her gut told the blonde that there was something different, something more she didn't incorporate.
"Earth Style: Practice Brick Jutsu"! Chominu slurred out slamming his palms at the ground while bending and widening his feet and taking a more headstrong fighting stance.
As the ground beneath their feet rumbled Kiyomi noticed the shoddy dirt and rock walls rising significantly farther behind them. Was it an attempt to trap them off from the remaining members of Team Cumulus? Did Team Walnut take Team Cumulus as Team Hokage's allies after seeing Gear-Man aiding them out? No, there was something different in play.
"Let's go, Pomumaru"! Kidenshi, the third member of Team Walnut encouraged his little pom-pom like looking canine fellow. Almost immediately, the little ball of fur dove out from its safe hiding spot inside his partner's jacket and began running erratically in circles all around his master's body.
"Intercept that attack"! Kiyomi ordered after remembering the damage that this particular combination of ninjutsu dealt before and just the amount of force that this combination carried. The blunt force from the impact she could vaguely recall was nothing short from astounding, it was like the little critter built up force and momentum while running in circles around his partner before joining into his punches, kicks or tackles.
"Too late, Pom-Fang"! Kidenshi shouted out as he planted his fist firmly into Meiko's chest making the redhead blank out for a moment and throwing her body rolling backwards like a ragdoll. Just as Kiyomi theorized, the little critter he took for a dog ran around his master frantically, building up momentum and further boosting the increase in force using chakra in a combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu. The two worked in a perfect close range synchrony.
Luckily enough, Meiko had ample time to prepare a response for the attack. Shortly after it appeared that her body would've gotten flung backwards and into the surrounding of the dirt wall structure her injured body poofed away in a cloud of smoke. What remained in its place was a ball of cotton that held all those incapacitated Snapper-Ants that made their nest here before Team Cumulus found this hideout.
"Substitution Jutsu? Such crude and basic techniques", Lithia Uchiha taunted Kiyomi and Meiko standing behind both of her male teammates and playing with her knee long black flowing locks. It was odd for the Uchiha to wish to see more complex and powerful techniques but perhaps that was just her arrogant personality speaking over the girl's reason.
"Wow, heard that, Kiyomi? An Uchiha clansperson thought my jutsu were basic and crude! You're so cool, Lithia"! Meiko got a serious case of starry eyes over the famed young lady of the Konoha Ninja Academy. The blacksmith never had the opportunity to see Lithia Uchiha in action but there was a certain flare of idolizing of most older students, being a member of the elite Uchiha clan, Lithia naturally hogged all of the starry eyes meant for her entire class.
"Seriously, Meiko! I'm gonna punch you right now"! Kiyomi grunted in anger.
"Calm yourself, fair maiden, please, remember the true enemy. If you eliminate the one of great thick belly they will lose interest in your team"! Gear-Man reminded Kiyomi as an attempt to get her head fully in the game. The blonde grabbed her head with both hands and growled like a wild dog.
This was just so unfair. The one chance when Kiyomi finally got a chance to show up Lithia Uchiha, the one girl who tormented her all Ninja Academy years by getting all the praise and all the worship and all the popularity despite doing literally nothing but being a snobby ass-hat, she had to focus on someone else entirely.
"What's wrong, Kiyomi-chan? Finally realized that you just can't cut it to fight on the chuunin level? Oh, wait, why am I even trying to comprehend your problems, they're so beneath me anyways", Lithia smiled confidently before lazily erupting into a controlled and very composed laugh that lingered on the edge of appearing faked.
That remark made something snap inside the Yamanaka's mind. Her hand fired up and darted off from tearing into her rich blond hair and into her tool pouch grabbing a large handful of explosive tags before launching all of them into the air wildly as she emitted her strongest and deepest battle cry to vent out her rage and frustration.
"Are you insane, fair maiden, you'll blow all of us up! You're supposed to use those tags on the enemy"! Gear-Man tried to calm Kiyomi down before seeing her hands work a bunch of hand seals.
"Earth Style: Traveling Rock Pillar"! Kiyomi muttered out as all of the air in her chest had long been drawn out by her battle cry and the burning anger for the smug Uchiha that she always failed to expose for who she truly was. A great formation of rock burst out from underground grabbing the floating explosive tags and allowing all of them to stick onto them before beginning to move towards from underground, appearing like a fin of a rocky shark, right at Team Walnut.
"No, Kiyomi, you're wasting your time, Lithia will just see through your attack and dodge it, you can't up-show the Sharingan"! Meiko scolded her team leader before looking at the trajectory of Kiyomi's technique and how it drastically bended at the last second to reach Chominu instead of Lithia.
The chubby yelled something unintelligible out while the rest of his team dashed away at incredible speed, managing to outrun the explosion after it was set off but before it reached them in just a narrow speck of time. Kiyomi looked content with her fake-out. Yeah, she wanted to hand Lithia her ass more than anyone else in the village, still, sabotaging this fight and risking her friend's well-being was the wrong way to do it. A much superior way was eliminating that self-righteous snob from the competition.
"Kiyomi…" Meiko uttered in amazement at how good at acting and faking out Kiyomi was.
"We're going to eliminate two members, Meiko, you hear me? Two members. It doesn't matter who they are", Kiyomi breathed out heavily as she may have spent a bit too much stamina and breath with her acting effort.
"Ouch"! Chominu's slurry voice interrupted the conversation as the cloud of smoke parted and cleared enough to reveal the young ninja having used the Multi-Size Jutsu right before Kiyomi's attack hit him. He may have realized that he would've failed to escape the explosion when it was going off right at his face, luckily he didn't need that much movement and effort to set off a simple signature jutsu of his clan.
"That doesn't make any sense", Meiko grumped out, annoyed that her hunter wasn't eliminated which would've normally been a strong possibility. "He used the expansion technique, how did it help him, exactly?"
"He expanded his body size, increasing the area of effect to which the force of the explosion was applied to which reduced the overall force his body was hit by", Kiyomi sighed in disappointment that her fake-out trick failed.
"Now is our chance to strike, however"! Gear-Man realized before reaching to the compartments by his thighs and pulling out a pair of Z-shaped boomerangs before striking a heroic pose and launching them at the expanded yet slightly injured opponent.
"Z-Rangs of Complete Justice's Optimal Bringing"! Masen-Z chanted out as the elaborately named technique, which consisted of two simple actions, him removing his boomerangs from the compartments and him tossing them at the opponent was set off successfully.
"Pom-Tunneling Fang"! Kidenshi yelled out as he kicked off of the ground and positioned himself above the two boomerangs as they flew in the air before striking twice while his little Pomeranian companion built up momentum and force almost instantly, sending all of it out in a mighty wave of air pressure that deflected Gear-Man's Z-rangs.
"Thank you", Chominu thanked his Inuzuka clansman ally before his body returned to normal size and he collapsed on his knees clutching to his aching body. "That being said, the feeling that you did not have to do it just can't completely fade from the mind. I mean those boomerangs were shaped like the letter "Z", that can't be a very practical shape for a projectile weapon…"
Kiyomi had settled a while ago on the idea that she'd need to resort to her clan techniques in this battle. That being said, she still had to single out an optimal target for her disruption tactics. She saw Chominu clashing fists and limbs with seemingly considerable powerhouses like Meiko and Masen-Z, on the other hand, Kidenshi was a quick and strong disruption factor himself. Still, if Kiyomi switched into his body she'd be unlikely to properly setoff any of his hidden techniques as it involved cooperating with his little critter.
Before Kiyomi could single out a target for her mind displacement techniques, Meiko took initiative in attacking the opponent. She reached in to her lower left waist area where a sealing glyph symbol lit up allowing the blacksmith to unseal another one of her hidden weapons. The drawn tool was a large round bamboo ball with bark strips wrapped around it. One of the most stand-out features of the weapon was the large number of kunai blades sticking out from it and the crystal clear seen explosive note stuck on its left and right central areas.
Grabbing the spiky explosive sphere by one of its dulled blades, Meiko winded up. The redhead used her entire body, making it work together in order to be accurate and powerful at the same time. She was like a baseball player preparing to make some mad plays. She needed to pitch the sphere strong enough for it to gain too much speed for it to be intercepted, yet she had to reserve enough strength not to damage it or mess up her aim mid-way.
The sphere disappeared from clear sight the millisecond it left contact with Meiko's hand. It flew seemingly instantly to its location being aimed right at the chubby hunter of hers. Before Masen-Z, Meiko or Kiyomi could celebrate however an obstacle stood in their way, with her flaring red Sharingan eyes Lithia leaped in and grabbed the exact same blunted grip and lobbed the sphere up the exact same way Meiko did to the most exact twitch of her muscles.
"I didn't notice her activating the Sharingan", Kiyomi grumbled as the blast splattered a bunch of knocked out Snapper-Ants around and sent rubble of rocks and scattered kunai blades scattering all around the area.
"I wouldn't expect you would…" Lithia cockily taunted the Yamanaka with a snobbish smile, not even bothering to observe the rubble falling from above and the dislodged massive layers of rock and splattered body parts of Snapper-Ants raining down. She had successfully calculated and read the trajectory of every smallest pebble of that debris almost instantly using her Sharingan eye and already knew there was no need to trouble her elite little head about it.
Both teams covered up from the resonating blast shockwave and from the chain rumbling of the massive debris raining all across the large cave room. Lithia was the only one completely unfazed by any of the surrounding events shifting the very battlefield that the squabble for further competition in the Chuunin Exams took place.
The very moment that the final rock landed the newly improvised Kiyomi's squad scattered across, hiding behind whatever cover they could find as such a messy battlefield was more akin to the ones they were taught to fight in. Chominu and Kidenshi also dashed for the rocky or hardened chitin cover with the female Uchiha following her teammates shortly without uttering a single word.
Meiko felt Kiyomi's mind reaching out for her and she relaxed her head to allow her friend entry into her mind. It was tough to say for certain, at least until the gear giant didn't speak mentally, but Meiko was guessing that Masen-Z was excluded from the mental link.
"Did you see how many tomoe symbols Lithia had?" Kiyomi wondered.
"Does it matter"?
"I guess not, if she could copy your movements so perfectly, she could copy my own Yamanaka techniques as well"! Kiyomi raged.
"Wait! So that's why you don't like Lithia that much, because she can just copy your clan's hidden techniques by just observing them. In front of her, you're not special",
"There are plenty of reasons to dislike Lithia but… I've gone through many difficulties to learn and master everything that makes me special. Lithia, meanwhile, can just look at what I do and repeat it, all the hidden jutsu of my clan. That perfectly reflects everything that's wrong with her. She just gets everything, praise, being called "elite" and "special" for the sole reason of the clan she was born in. That's simply not fair, I've tried to prove her and another Uchiha clansman in my team that their fancy eyes don't compensate hard work but… They're too busy to listen to anyone else." Kiyomi vented out.
A strong roaring engine sound alerted the two kunoichi and made them peek from the relative safety of their covers and observe Masen-Z appear from his cover. It was probably smart for him to attack first, this makeshift cover barely did conceal him anyways and his own large size robbed him of subtle and restrained movements while in cover. Every slightest movement would have betrayed his position whether it was visually or audibly.
"Flying Strong Fist of Get-Closer Justice!" Masen-Z yelled out as his mechanical puppet armor shot its lower arm piece extending it through a long piece of wrapped together hardened strings of steel wire. Oddly enough the fist wasn't meant to demolish cover as it was shot in an odd trajectory, it flew over the cover and then bent over the top to slam into whoever was behind it. Despite Masen-Z's strongest guess he only picked up a bunch of crushed rocks in his grip when the mechanical extending fist returned.
"Multi-Size Jutsu"! Chominu yelled out after jumping in the air and over his cover, revealing his true position. Meiko and Kiyomi must've realized Lithia's clever plan all along, the Uchiha didn't just lob off Meiko's weapon to the upper ceiling of the cave for the show – she created a perfect rocky battlefield for her teammate's innovative style of Akimichi clan technique use.
"Human-Pinball"! The chubby shinobi shouted as he launched his expanded and rotund frame rolling like a human boulder at the large exposed robot.
Masen-Z's palms extended as if he was intending to stop the hurling massive human boulder with his armored hands but before he could even try such a silly thing the palms opened up firing off searing jets of flames at his opponent.
"Super Hotheaded Justice Shine of Fiery Passion V2!" Masen-Z declared the hilariously too long named technique right after the flames covered the ball of rolling human flesh.
"It won't work", Kiyomi worried, with good reason. She saw that technique hit her ally not too long ago and had seen Meiko struggle to overpower its weaker version before. A simple jet of flames may singe the Akimichi a little bit but it won't even come close to stopping the jutsu or its momentum.
"No, it's not just flames, it's a contained explosion that he lets out. Those gauntlets must have a bunch of explosive tags that all detonate at once and he merely directs the built up force and heat through the channel in his gauntlets", Meiko smiled seeing the fiery blaze blast Chominu aside completely and crash him into and through a large debris boulder that had fallen from the ceiling earlier.
At this point, Chominu's endurance had to be admired. He had taken some damage, even if it was greatly reduced, before from Kiyomi's combination of clever ninja tool use in sync with her Earth Release ninjutsu. His clothes were tattered and he had burns and bruises all over, his headpiece with the Konoha headband protector got all torn up by the blast and constantly was in the danger of falling off and getting lost somewhere. And yet the Akimichi still stood, he may have been the second most durable and gutsy Akimichi member Meiko had ever seen.
It didn't appear that the impressive technique left without taking its toll on Masen, however. The gauntlets were bent awkwardly from the inside with a large hole sticking out from the left one, as if part of the force had exploded right out from the gauntlet from the inside and it appeared like the Gear-Man was beginning to fall apart from the awesome might of his own techniques.
"I'm moving out to cover him, you with me"? Meiko wondered without waiting for Kiyomi's reply to dash out into the aid of her newly met friend. Meiko's defensive formation advances were not vain as Kidenshi had revealed himself almost at the same time to engage with the two.
"No, but it's OK, neither will Lithia reveal herself. She tries to make it seem like this is all beneath her but she's waiting for what I'm trying to avoid – she's waiting for me to show her a Yamanaka clan jutsu. We're deadlocked into standing still and waiting for the other to make a mistake", Kiyomi revealed her version of why Lithia was so inactive as well as her own reason for reserving the use of the Yamanaka hidden techniques.
"Hasn't she seen your jutsu in the Academy before"? Meiko wondered as she clashed in a taijutsu exchange with Kidenshi who was just as desperate to take the blacksmith out as he wouldn't have refused to completely trash the Gear-Man suit.
"She has, that being said, the Uchiha can only record techniques for a set period of time. I'm not sure what that period is, but it's something that my uncle taught me when I was a kid, training my ass off to kick Lithia's ass. Unless the Sharingan is at a very mature perfected stage, she can only copy bits and pieces of movements or whole techniques she's seen recently", Kiyomi replied.
"Alright, stay put and wait for Lithia to make a mistake then. I've got this handled"! Meiko yelled out as she kept on dodging and dishing out punishment of her own. The blacksmith was blocking and dodging rather successfully for the longest time whereas her fists constantly found their target. Once after she opened up a bit too much and got a bit too greedy in pummeling her opponent she got a nasty cross to her ribs to drive the air out. It was a desperation move, Kidenshi clearly wanted to retreat so Meiko decided to exploit it.
The blacksmith shot down at the same time as she was breathing in and swept at the Inuzuka's legs before dropping at his gut with an elbow drop and flipping back up before dashing to a safer distance. She could've kept on punching but the redhead decided to back up, just in case one of the other Team Walnut members decided to remove her off of their fallen member while she was too busy punching him while leaving herself completely open.