Yushijin charged at his opponent, sword sheathed behind his back, hands clenched by his side and ready to shoot off into a barrage of straight punches. Roh-D extended his hands once more, aiming to derail his opponent's charge by firing a pair of weak and compressed sound wave blasts in his direction but the resonating airwaves only hit thin air.
This time, however, Roh-D was not about to get caught unprepared. He moved differently, placing generalized defensive moves and swatting his pesky opponent away before he should have been able to even see him move. Roh-D was getting into Yushijin's head by predicting where it would be most alluring to attack him from. Kiyomi took a brief moment to glance at Mana. The Yamanaka could recall hearing about Mana receiving some amazing martial arts training during her trip to Wind Country, just how much more would she have been able to read from these moves if she could have seen them?
An impressive dance of Yushijin's fists bouncing off of the tough and surgically altered body of his opponent continued on. After getting a few of nasty smacks across the face, packing enough wallop to throw him to another country had he not properly defended against them, Yushijin appeared to alter his tactics. Make more fake-outs before finding a softer spot in Roh-D's back and giving it a good, slow and packed with all the force he could gather, cross.
That was Yushijin's chance, the long-haired swordsman gripped the handle of his blade, drawing it lightning fast before smacking right at the top of his opponent's head, likely to stun him shortly so that he could prolong the opening that he had created and cut his opponent a pair more times, than he would have normally been able to.
A loud poof echoed throughout the arena with the modified limestone carrying the haunting sound all the way to the end of the audience rows and up to the VIP skyboxes. Roh-D chose to substitute himself with a stone piece that had been dislodged from the wall when he hit it earlier, after being smacked by Yushijin's blunt side of his sword. By the time Yushijin noticed the substitution taking place, he was already invested into the slash that would've split his opponent in two, his sword cut through the stone piece cleanly before the genin sheathed it back as lightning-fast as he had drawn it from its sheath before.
"So Roh-D used his Substitution first", Kiyomi whistled in surprise, the noise that escaped her pressed lips got completely drowned out in the applause of the audience that found its place in between two series of engagements between the genin. It was a serious statement in a battle – Substitution caused focus, stamina and could not have been used for a while after being once used due to the strain it caused. Meanwhile, the option still remained for Yushijin.
"That was pretty good", Vinda chuckled, "The Kumogakure bastard almost got cut into pieces. He pretty much had to use that Substitution".
"Yeah, Roh-D's plan was pretty impressive – he purposefully left clean openings, knowing that Yushijin would exploit them after toying with his time perception. That way Roh-D always knew where he'd be attacked and, given him scoping Yushijin's timer earlier, when", Erumo grinned, "Of course, it didn't matter once Yushijin read what Roh-D was doing and stopped letting his opponent dictate the pace of the battle".
Kiyomi looked at the girls who appeared to be impressed by the battle transpiring beneath them in the arena. Only Mana was curiously glancing at the VIP skybox for some reason, completely ignoring the battle below or refraining herself from making any comments.
"Something wrong? Did they suppress their chakra?" Kiyomi wondered.
"No. I don't think they intend to… That places me and Gasco at a disadvantage", Mana replied, brushing the question aside like it wasn't important or anywhere close the reason why she was staring at that point blankly.
"Actually, it won't trouble Gasco one bit. He's a much more seasoned sensor, the only way to beat his sensory would be to suppress one's signature to make it disappear, not let it blaze freely", Stea corrected Mana, validating her worst fears – that she still had plenty of improvement to do in terms of her chakra sensory. Chakra signatures as large of those of jounin, or abnormal ones, still made her freak out and caused massive anxiety, just like they did when she first awakened the ability.
"I think I just about know what you're capable of, I'll be picking up the pace, try to keep up", Yushijin taunted his opponent. Getting into the head of one's enemy was just as important as finding openings in their stances or defenses, often one directly lead to the other.
"Genjutsu: Last Resort!" The genin grunted out, pressing his hands together into a position of a hand seal and clearly chanting out the name of his technique – a sign of maximum effort being placed into casting the illusion. If Mana's guess was correct, that meant that the effects would have been at their maximum as well.
Yushijin dashed right up to the soundwave blasting genin and unsheathed his sword, letting it dance freely all over his opponent's body while Roh-D just stood there blanked out and stared at a blind point in space and time, stuck in the moment where time perception was halted completely in his mind. It may have only been for a handful of heartbeats but a ninja capable of cutting through a bolt of lightning would've accomplished a great many strokes or cuts in that excessive frame of time.
"It's horrible", Kiyomi blankly stated, as Roh-D's time perception appeared to return to normal and the large brute collapsed on his knees, bursting with blood spraying injuries all over his chest, shoulders, sides, upper arm, forearm and his thighs. It appeared that an entire masterpiece was drawn over the Kumogakure genin's body with a sword instead of a brush.
"He made a mistake of assuming that the limit of the illusion he was shown earlier was the limit of Yushijin's ability. That's why no ninja worth their rank uses all of their most powerful jutsu to the peak of their ability right from the get-go – there is a time and a place for one's ace techniques", Erumo nodded with great pride in her teammate's abilities.
Kiyomi noticed the eyes of the Konoha's New Great Trapster wander off at Mana's direction, without a doubt awaiting praises from the magician and her complete capitulation as the most skilled genjutsu user in her generation. To the great shock of the trapster, Mana was still looking at the VIP skybox blankly, her eyes may have been blindfolded but the girl's ears were twitching, like those of a rabbit listening in for a stalking hunter would have.
"Hey! You're missing Yushijin's fight, he respects you a great deal, you know! You'd be wise to respect him enough and observe his battle, oh, wait, you can't…" Erumo tried to bite Mana but even Vinda, who appeared to be the craziest and sadistic person on that platform glared at the trapster with strict eyes that betrayed that even the Getsugakure sadist thought that was too much.
"How are the VIPs reacting to the fight?" Mana asked boldly, completely ignoring Erumo's attempts to poke fun at her.
Kiyomi looked at the skybox and looked at the Hokage smiling and applauding Yushijin's flawless attacks together with the audience. "Ummm, they're pretty impressed, I'd say", the Yamanaka replied.
"I see, do you guys feel Yushijin's genjutsu effects?" the magician kept asking.
"No, it kind of looks boring, honestly, Roh-D just freezes in place and stops moving", Kiyomi shrugged.
"Hmm… So, it is fair to assume that he is capable of including select targets into his illusion, as far away as that skybox over there. He does conserve chakra by excluding targets he doesn't care about impressing but showing off to the Ninja Council is important so he specifically included them, as well as his opponent", Mana scratched her chin before tilting her blindfold and rubbing her watery and itchy eyes with her knuckles, then reapplying the blindfold.
"Very perceptive of you", Stea smiled. "Do you think this young man would beat you with this ability? Because if he would… I'd be disappointed".
"What!?" Erumo flipped out after one of her peers appeared to ignore the impressive display of her teammate while another one claimed that it was nothing too impressive or worth her time.
"No, it's a relatively simple ability to beat. And, given by how masterfully Yushijin wields it – it's the only capable jutsu he has. Given his age, he would not have had enough time to master another jutsu after mastering this one to this extent, given how astronomical the concept is to grasp for a genin in the first place", Mana shook her head, "The illusion has a natural weakness, after breaking it using it, Yushijin would run out of tricks to show".
"So he's like Zahafbit? A one trick pony?" Kiyomi wondered, feeling proud of her teammate's implied skill and ability to piss off Erumo, whose sung praises for her teammate were beginning to get on the Yamanaka's nerves as well.
"Not completely, Yushijin's trick is a very versatile one and a much more impressive one but… Essentially, in a manner of speech, yes. This jutsu comprises most of what he can do, besides, I'd assume, impressive swordplay", Mana shrugged.
Overseer Oka approached the fallen genin and examined his wounds. Before the official could make a hasty decision, Roh-D grunted loudly as his mind and body got jump started back into action. Granted, the action was severely limited as due to the ravaging numerous injuries he could only get back on one knee.
Roh-D lifted his large arm up while pressing the other one to his chest, while blood still dripped from his extended hand, forced outwards by the tremendous effort it took for Roh-D to fight so soon after being struck down with such ferocity and efficiency.
"Sonic Khorumi!" Roh wheezed out as the surgically implanted air pipes began absorbing the passing airwaves inside the youth's muscles where they Roh-D infused them with chakra and channeled further through the central pipe right at the center of Roh-D's palm. The infused with chakra soundwaves fired off in a shape of a powerful beam of a blueish, base chakra hue.
Yushijin swiped his hand back and closer to his ninja pouch before placing his other one to his chest in a hand seal position. It appeared odd to Kiyomi, who was keeping close attention to the exchange that after whiffing with a similar attack fired even less openly Roh-D would attempt to blast his opponent with something like this. It appeared that the most likely outcome of this manner of an attack had transpired when Yushijin carefully dashed aside before preparing a powerful dash with a sword strike that would have put his opponent down more convincingly.
Right as Yushijin's powerful frame moved close enough for a rough slash of his sword, enhanced by the momentum and power of it leaving its sheath and its massive size, Roh-D's arm moved in position again, aiming right at Yushijin's face.
"Sonic Khorumi!" The Kumogakure genin grunted, easier this time, as a tenfold stronger and wider covering concentrated soundwave left the genin's arm, overwhelming Yushijin's body with tremendous sonic force and blasting him backward with grievous injuries. That was before the lifeless body poofed away, replaced by a chunk of fallen wood that the weaker beam before had downed.
Yushijin exclaimed something unintelligible in pain and frustration after he stood back on his feet and in a flashy manner repositioned his sword to a more defensive stance. Without a doubt, the Konoha genin had already considered his opponent eliminated, now it appeared that, somehow, he had managed to bypass his Last Resort and managed to attack during a time that he should have considered frozen.
Given how Yushijin required a brief break to put his body back into fighting shape after a strenuous and impromptu Substitution Jutsu, and Roh-D required a moment to get back up and keep struggling on in this immensely important fight, both combatants just glared at each other with respect and adoration for each other's resolve and abilities.
"How could he have beaten Yushijin's ability?" Erumo flipped out before her expression changed from anger into a rather cruel and broken acceptance. Acceptance that her teammate who she had idolized as almost invincible for so long was just like everybody else – a young man with weaknesses and the ability to be outsmarted and outplayed.
"However he did it, it was wasteful to fire off two same ninjutsu shots of such power", Kiyomi noted, she would've never wasted so much chakra as to fake-out her opponent with one costly ninjutsu, only to blast him again with the same technique.
"That was the same jutsu, really?" Mana asked for clarification. To her both blasts must have sounded differently, given their great difference in power and intensity.
"Yes, he appeared to refer to it by the same name", Stea nodded.
"That's incredible, that means that he doesn't forget the ability to use his ninjutsu in its earliest stages. Without a doubt this first weak blast was meant to displace his opponent and lull Yushijin into a false sense of security, the second one was the real one", Mana commended the Kumogakure genin.
"Isn't it wasteful to use the same jutsu twice just to hit it once?" Kiyomi wondered.
"Maybe it would be, that's why Roh-D's prowess and control are impressive, he used his ninjutsu in two different stages of his life. The first one must have been the version from when he was still learning the ropes of his ability, the second one was the real one – the chakra he spent on those techniques also would differ wildly", Mana explained with awe and strange bitterness. Almost like a more healthy expression of jealousy. Kiyomi used a similar tone in the Academy when she was describing a problem halfway to the teacher and realized she had solved it wrong but still needed to finish reading it.
"But how did he break Yushijin's ability?" Erumo pressed her lips together as her eyes longingly looked ahead at the two combatants, one appeared relatively chipper yet too wounded to fight at full power, the other one had barely received a scratch up to now but used out plenty of chakra and lacked in stamina what he had in great physical condition.
"A simple Dispel", Mana mumbled. "That's all it would take to break out. Obviously Dispel has its own weaknesses and it may take some time to learn how to dispel a time perception manipulation technique but, in theory, it would break it".
"That's a pretty weak-sauce jutsu then", Vinda shrugged before moving up to the rails and leaning over to observe the fight more closely. "If it can just be dispelled like that, why didn't Roh-D do it from the get-go?"
"He probably tried, to dispel a genjutsu you must first understand and convince your entire body in spirit and mind that you are under it. Very few bother to train their bodies to use that simple technique with enough efficiency to successfully pull it off the first time they try. Often enough, you need to take in and survive an illusion to learn how to quickly dispel it and adapt to it. Yushijin's ability is so amazing that it took that many tries before Roh-D could even dispel it", Mana explained.
"Running out of juice yet?" Roh-D taunted his opponent, noticing that Yushijin must have already crossed the halfway point of his chakra that he could use. From the start, he was using that illusion of his left and right, aiding him in most clashes and exchanges, worried that he would not survive a battle that got as brutal as the bout between Roh-D and Oto-B in the semi-finals.
"You better hurry up and do what you have to do. You're literally losing your own juices every passing moment", Yushijin calmly replied before switching his defensive sword-fighting stance to a higher placed, thrust oriented response.
"Point taken", Roh-D shouted out as he lifted his hands up into the air, the tubes on his arms began soaking in the air and preparing for another technique. Yushijin appeared to have chosen to not use his ability, wait and scope his opponent out. Now that he was figured out and his genjutsu was broken for the first time in this exam, he had to use it more sparingly and more cleverly.
"Sonic Barynya!" Roh-D shouted out as he drove his extended palms into the ground, a loud shrieking pulse echoed through the arena, followed by a powerful shockwave that forced even the barriers placed around the arena into action.
"It's that combo he used against Oto-B!" Kiyomi loudly exclaimed.
The peculiar underground usage of sound waves forced the entire arena to rumble and shake. That kept Yushijin firmly stuck to the ground, as he couldn't muster up the force to jump up and away from the unstable ground. The nauseating quake forced the genin to just flop and stumble around, tumbling over his knees and struggling to regain his standing stature.
After locking his opponent down and in place, Roh-D extended his monstrously inflated from overflowing sound waves arm and began drawing in even more air from the surroundings. Whatever he intended to use against his opponent was huge enough to be reasonably assumed to be his most powerful soundwave jutsu. Kiyomi had seen this particular combination against Oto-B, after it was used successfully was when the battle turned particularly bloody and uncontrollable, with both competitors just throwing jutsu at each other wildly, without concerns for their own safety. There was a chance this battle could end up the same…
"Sonic Butoh!" Roh-D roared out as the flesh on his strained and inflated muscles began tearing, pouring down even more blood all over the lacerations acquired in the duration of the entire battle. The soundwave that left Roh-D's palm was a massive beam that dwarfed his previous Khorumi technique entirely. Creating a large tunneling crater and rising a good three or four meters in radius with a shrieking calamity of devastation the very noise of which triggered the barriers around the arena to light up like mid-winter streamers and neon lights in late evenings.