After instructing Mana to deal with her injury Usuzoku simply dashed off at Jon-D without saying anything more or sparing anything else than a single blink of an eye to worry about her. As Usuzoku danced around Jon-D's feeble attempts to predict the rabbit's location before kicking and headbutting the young man off his feet with each missed shot, Mana realized that this was not quite the rabbit she had come to know.
Usuzoku did not need any convincing, despite claiming that Mana would never reach the level needed to summon and fight alongside him, whenever the magician called for the Ninja Rabbits, he always came out to her aid. Just one sighting of his summoner having difficulties staying on her feet and bleeding out sent the rabbit into a cold outrage as he continued to toy with his opponent, kicking him around with his larger than half his entire body combined feet or slamming his sword handle at the back of Jon-D's head.
Mana slipped out of the blazer that was part of her uniform and pulled a sharp steel tipped card out of her sleeve before slicing the cloth apart into strands she'd use for tourniquet later on, after placing the card back into the pouch on her thigh. Mana pulled out another card with a rooster mosaic drawn on it before channeling a minuscule bit of her chakra through it and placing it on her gaping wound. Wild tongues of super heated flames erupted from the card, not the type of card to be used offensively, except for showy entertainment – flashy sparks, nothing more. The magician screamed out loud in pain as the flames enveloped her wound and her clothes, momentarily crawling over her entire body, her hair and aiming to cover her whole but dying out before the heat even properly registered in the girl's brain. By the time the fiery coat covered Mana, the flame was already snuffed out.
"Holy shit, yer one crazy gal, Hatchling, 'ere I am tryin' hard for ya an' yer settin' yerself aflame"! Usuzoku chuckled madly after backing out of holding off and toying with his lesser ranked opponent.
"It's gonna look nasty and need treatment, even with it, it'll stay with me for life but… Scar tissue like that doesn't bleed", Mana grinned through a pale face that would've reminded one of a ghastly apparition more than a healthy human girl.
"If it did, my father would've already been dead", Mana sadly looked down, thinking to herself.
Jon-D drew out a kunai and dashed at Usuzoku. A normal mass-produced kunai knife was made of too shoddy of materials to have chakra channeled through it, it snapped quite easily from the slightest chakra-based resistance due to the chakra over matter principle so Usuzoku was right to not feel overly threatened and move in to intercept his opponent. Right before Usuzoku's claymore would have stopped Jon-D's puny knife and snapped it easily, Jon-D gently flicked the knife to his other hand before swiping at Usuzoku's right eye and leaving a shallow cut across the rabbit's face while his free hand gripped Zoku's wrist and stopped the incoming blade that way.
"Zoku-chan"! Mana shouted out in worry over her partner's well-being.
"Shut up, damn ya, I don' need no worryin' from some stupid Hatchling"! Usuzoku grunted, "I hate yer guts and I'd rather we'd find someone else so ya could just die"!
Mana's hands went through a bunch of hand seals, much slower than she used to be able to do before the large blood loss but still remarkably fast for her rank.
"Lightning Style: Magic Skewer" Mana chanted out as Lightning Release chakra poured out from her palms before forming six rod-like shapes in the air surrounding the two clashing weaponry-users and driving themselves into the ground around Jon-D. The swift swordsman leaped aside, gracefully dancing around each and every rod before releasing the kunai as a projectile incoming at a very dangerous trajectory. Mana leaned aside but her vision was getting a bit murky, the kunai scratched her in the cheek much more deeply than she would have liked it to.
Usuzoku launched himself in pursuit after the young man, he found himself in trouble navigating around the large holes all over the arena. Seeing how he was not technically Mana, he couldn't get ringed out, either way, those holes were still troublesome enough to trip him over, if he wasn't careful.
"Multi-Shuriken Technique"! Jon-D yelled out after stopping his back dashing to empty his ninja pouch supply of shuriken at Usuzoku so that he could halt the rabbit's pursuit and injure him. Despite getting some brief close calls, the dark pink rabbit easily deflected the blurry and whizzing stream of shuriken using his sword.
"It's not true, though, is it"? Mana smiled at the rabbit who sheathed his sword and leaned to the ground, preparing his awesomely powerful feet to propel his body at breakneck speed, even by ninja standards, at his opponent.
"Rabbit Art: Double-Draw"! Usuzoku shouted out before letting his feet kick his body off as he dashed past Jon-D's quivering shape. After the rabbit landed firmly on his feet, his sword in hand, he confidently sheathed his sword before his opponent's body erupted into an X-shaped stream of blood showers. That turned out to be just for show, however, as what previously looked to be Jon-D was revealed to be just a substituted upper piece of his large, kitchen knife shaped sword.
"What do ye mean"? Usuzoku straightened his back before glaring at Mana as Jon-D rolled aside before weaving a handful of hand seals.
"Multi-Kunai Technique"! The Kumogakure youth shouted out, emptying the kunai supply at Usuzoku as well, it looked like something of great weight troubled the rabbit as Usuzoku failed to deflect a couple of whizzing by ninja tools that cut him shallowly. Mana better settled this relationship between the two once and for all before denying it dragged Usuzoku down and lead to him getting injured.
"You told me that when I called, someone else would answer. You told me that I'm way below the rank where you'd consider me a worthy partner and yet… Every time I call – you answer. I think that there are plenty of other Ninja Rabbits capable of fighting alongside me, ones weaker and slower than you, more fitting my rank. I think that you actually do like me, I think that you actually do trust me and consider me more than just a nuisance or temporary holder of the contract"! Mana declared boldly.
Usuzoku's gaze widened in surprise before squinting in anger and turning away. He glared away to process something for a while before turning back at the magician.
"So yer gonna help me or what"? He casually asked her, "If yer gonna be my partner, ye better drag yer own weight behind me, at least two leaps behind"!
Mana nodded, smiling. The tone in Usuzoku's voice was crystal clear - he no longer had to lie to Mana, lie to himself, keep thinking about how to trick everyone and himself about his true relationship with the magician and the fact that the Ninja Rabbits needed her as much as she needed them. The fact that after the stunt Mana pulled saving the Rabbit Contract scroll he respected her enough to lend his sword to her aid and pull her out of the mess she constantly made of things. Usuzoku's mind was now clear and free to make him into the rabbit rogue he always was before he met Mana.
After releasing a powerful battle cry, Jon-D dashed straight at Mana, winding his broken sword behind his back and channeling chakra through whatever remained of his broken blade.
"Dimensional Slash"! The Kumogakure genin shouted out before cutting at Mana his blade didn't meet the soft resistance of human flesh, however, it met a firm resistance of an opposing claymore blade in a thunderous clash before Mana, rather clumsily, leaped over Usuzoku, and still feeling dizzy from the blood loss, kicked at Jon-D's teeth.
"Spear Kick"! She yelled out, feeling confident and proud of the combination and the newly defined bond between her and Usuzoku.
However, before her sandal could even fullu connect to the boy's jaw and transfer the force of the impact and grind him to the arena ground, the broken blade of the Kumogakure swordsman cried out in pain, unable to properly channel and contain the chakra channeled through it, instead of unleashing a tremendously sharp cutting projectile, it merely blew Mana and Usuzoku away.
Mana struggled to get up. Her head kept screaming and buzzing, the dizziness in her head and the constant shaking feeling, feeling almost like she was on a ship sailing through the stormy seas, made her nauseous. The only thought that the more she writhed in pain and injury, the more chances she gave her opponent to stab through her exposed back.
"Rabbit Art: Block Breaker"! Usuzoku's voice echoed in Mana's ears as she lifted her head up and bothered to move the messy and sticky hair out of her way to see her partner do his best to buy her time.
Jon-D screamed out in pain, dropping his sword and grabbing his broken dominant hand before Usuzoku sheathed his sword and began kicking the genin about lightly, before finishing the attack with a powerful jump kick to the jaw.
"My… Hand"! Jon-D writhed on the ground, about as pitifully as Mana did moments earlier, however his condition was not due to previously sustained injuries, dizziness or blood loss. It was because of shattered pride as a swordsman. "You filthy animal, using a man-made tool"!
"Tsk, if I'm just a filthy animal, what does that make ye? An arsehole dat went ahead and got himself beat by one"! Usuzoku taunted his whining opponent before jumping up in the air and dropkicking his opponent flying towards a possible ring out before Usuzoku quickly leaped back to his feet and casually began hopping towards Mana, aiming to help her back up.
"Contestant Jon-D – ring out"! The overseer ruled making Usuzoku confidently grin to himself and how his smug refusal to see his opponent fall out the ring paid off and earned him some cool points with the audience.
"So, what's yer plan fer dat last basterd"! Usuzoku grunted after, with his slight aid, Mana got back on her feet.
"I'm going to talk to him", Mana smiled.
The overseer placed his palm in the general direction of Oto-B's tag scroll as his hand lit up with a slightly visible bland blue glow of base chakra color. Using his Remote Sealing technique, the higher ranking ninja unsealed Jon-D's partner, still in his pitiful bleeding and hunched over condition with his odd scythe contraptions still dangling bent up and busted up on his back. He looked like an insect, squished but not enough to kill it, with its long limbs crooked and broken.
"Well, dis guy 'ere has seen bedder days", Usuzoku tilted his snout up confidently.
Mana concentrated and reached out to her opponent's chakra signature just to confirm her thoughts a second time before she attempted this plan of hers. As expected, the genin had a visible lack of chakra, what little remained got spent up just keeping him upright. He did not have much time to lick his wounds in an active battlefield either.
"A Summon? Of all the lousy, miserable…" the battered genin started grumbling before Mana gently stepped up in front of Usuzoku.
"Give up, it's over. I can sense your chakra signature, you have one good technique left in you. You've already seen the capability of my illusions, the question remains, will your one technique be able to beat me or will I just disperse into flower petals and finish you off"? Mana boldly asked, temporarily she allowed small bits and pieces of her remaining chakra pool to accelerate its flow, augmenting the stance and perception of her body, moving past the blurry vision, the dizziness and the unconquerable pull of the gravity that allured her to succumb flat right on her face.
"Why would I ever surrender, you lousy tart"? Oto-B grumbled again, his scythes rose up as Mana admired the intricate mechanisms making those blades move, extend and retract. He was like a blobby arrogant insect where instead of legs there were steel rods, interconnected with wire, tipped with large scythe blades at the end.
"Save yerself de beating while Hatchlin's feelin' merciful"! Usuzoku grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out halfway threateningly.
"The thing is, you pathetic hussy, that I can see you looking a bit bruised and broken yourself. Almost half of your chest looks like a molten stump and your raggedy clothes are soaked with blood, that's an impalement wound you've molded up, right? Just how much does it hurt? I bet it hurts a whole lot", Oto-B shouted out after placing his hands in a hand seal position commanding his intricate scythe contraptions to overflow with chakra channeled through them and shoot right for where Mana was standing.
Slowly, the magician started walking forward, leaning aside and gently yet precisely avoiding the attacks that could not have come at her in a more predictable straight trajectory. They probably would have missed her even if they were allowed to come some further – such was the extent of Mana's injury. Oto-B took a pair of scared and trembling steps backward when Mana walked up right to his face, he continued to try and stab her on his rushing scythe blades but he kept on missing.
"W-what are you doing, you poon? H-How are you doing this"? Oto-B freaked out, continuing to stumble backward. Mana slapped him with an open hand, she didn't augment her slap, not because she wanted a more effective mocking tool but because she was afraid to overexert herself, using ninjutsu carried no similar drawbacks to augmentation, which the magician already had a bad history with using. She was not really doing anything to avoid those strikes, the blood rushing into Oto-B's eyes was simply obstructing the view, not to mention the beating he must have taken in the back-and-forth with Roh-D making his head all dizzy and spinning. He had far too little chakra left to risk augmentation.
"Didn't you see my face on all those posters? I'm the Konoha's Sorceress, I do stage magic for fun, I escape death traps for a living and fool eyes for entertainment", Mana bluffed. It was about time she picked one or two things out from late Tanshu-sensei's book and learned to look as piss-pants intimidating when she spoke as he used to. Obviously, she could not be Red Dog Tanshu, still, if her cuteness and young age got in the way of outright intimidation, she could've added them in and made something new out of it.
Oto-B jumped back on his feet, he thrust his blades at where Mana was standing aiming to skewer the ground. Mana jumped back but felt a sharp impulse burning up on her shoulder. She could not even feel blood trickling down her shoulder, her entire right part of the body felt numb from the wound cauterizing trick she used earlier.
"You're just a poony witch. I am Oto-B from Team Alto and in Team Alto we don't throw fights away meaninglessly. If you lose and get killed off, you weren't worthy of survival in the first place. My Team's honor hinges on my victory"! Oto-B kept shouting madly as he swung his blades around in a blinding barrage of strikes that didn't even look very accurate or having much aim put behind them, that was what made them rather dangerous as they were completely unpredictable.
"Hatchlin' what the feck are ya doin', defend yerself"! Usuzoku's desperate voice made Mana snap out from the fearful delirium of the dancing blades before she noticed his point – her entire body was covered with cuts and lacerations as she must have been tagged at least a good dozen of times with various depths of cut. The rushing adrenaline and her numbed nerve endings made her completely oblivious to hits that came to that area of her body and Oto-B exploited it.
"Pathetic"! Oto-B huffed before erupting into a battle cry. "A loser like you stands no chance of finishing off Team Alto"!
"I see…" Mana looked down in disappointment. She then gave Usuzoku a narrow look surprising the rabbit.
"So yer gonna use dat jutsu then"? He mumbled to himself in a barely audible fashion.
"Shut up"! Oto-B screamed out, pain and anger were making him blind, pride and arrogance were making him oblivious of his chances of winning this match and just what the extents of his injuries and remaining chakra were. His conscious decision to keep on fighting was a danger to his own life. Mana had to take him down.
"You said I still had enough chakra for one "good technique", right? Take it then"! Oto-B shouted wildly as his scythes cut into the arena floor, descending underground. The entire arena began to shake as the already ruined and damaged floor was beginning to crumble and shift. That must have been what caused those holes in the first place – Oto-B's scythes burrowing and attacking from underground.
Mana let her hands work on hand seals freely, completely unwavering by the rushing incoming attacks that brought only death and dismemberment. Oto-B seemed completely unworried by the magician's calmness as he commanded the first wave of his scythe assaults to emerge from underground and begin slowly cutting her apart. After Mana's body was shredded to at least six pieces Oto-B must've realized that this was going way too easy, it was then that Mana's flesh turned into a streaming jet of flower petals that floated away before fading like the illusionary images that they were.
"Where are you, quim"! Oto-B croaked as he began swinging all eight of his emerging scythe tendrils around the arena.
"Stop running yer mouth, ye dick, I'm yer opponent now"! Usuzoku roared as he drew his long sword and charged at Oto-B forcing the genin to re-shift the positioning of his scythes to block the rabbit's charge. With powerful swings, Usuzoku cut through two tendrils, leaving the third one ruined and beyond use but still technically intact, in the strictest manner of speech. Oto-B's fleeting enhanced perception barely registered Usuzoku's face blur right up in his face but instead of a sword piercing his body in its whole, the rabbit poofed away in smoke, using the Substitution Jutsu and replacing himself with Mana, a willing participant, who appeared in the rabbit's place and put her hand onto Oto-B's forehead. Something was different about the magician however, lightning sparks were crackling and running up her down her body, almost like she was leaking massive amounts of Lightning Release chakra and emanating lightning shocks around her.
"Lighting Style: Magician's Touch"! Mana chanted as brief sparks of Lightning Release chakra crackling around her body intensified and the charge rushed right into Oto-B's head, where Mana's body came into contact with his. With his eyes whited out and rolled back and his mouth foamy from the shock of Lightning Release jutsu he was hit by, Oto-B collapsed on the ground and started convulsing.
Mana nodded with a smile at Usuzoku. This rabbit had seen the magician fail again and again to perfect this B-Rank jutsu she had first thought up during her time chasing the Box of Ultimate Bliss and used in its imperfect stages in both the Forest of Death and her short trip to the Naruto and Sasuke's universe. Magician's Touch – a taser-like concept, a taijutsu countering Lightning Release ninjutsu that lets a short surge of Lightning Release chakra to run through her body that was strong enough to temporarily boost her own resistance to Nature Transformation techniques and shock anyone touching her.
"Hmph, contestant Oto-B is clearly unable to continue. This match is over"! The overseer's final ruling made all the fear and all the petrifying sensations in Mana's heart all crumble and burn up at the same time as the magician collapsed on her butt and started just breathing heavily, unable to believe what had just happened.
She won!