A thundering thud broke Kiyomi from a tiresome tirade of dizziness. Meiko's quick reaction and tough body allowed her to recover in time and pull Kiyomi out of the harm's way. The powerful punch that was aimed right at Kiyomi's face went straight through and into the iron hard layers of rock located below in whatever cave system the two tumbled down into.

"It was an impressive trap, Kiyomi. You were always pretty smart, should've talked Lithia out of underestimating you", a low-pitched and slightly slurry voice echoed through the darkness of the underground ravine where the trio ended up in.

"That's right, Chominu. But that always was her problem, no one ever is worth a second thought unless they come in dark hair and an emo package", Kiyomi cheerfully raised her fist up trying to act like tumbling down into the ravine and separating the chubby teammate from his team was the idea the whole time.

"But you haven't done anything, it was the bug girl that softened the soil and messed up the dirt with her bugs", Meiko pointed out making what she thought smart faces looked like.

"Shut up, Meiko! You're not helping this at all, Meiko!" Kiyomi hissed turning back at her teammate. If Lithia ever came to hear about this streak of good luck, she'd never let Kiyomi get over it which would only piss the Yamanaka off more in the long term.

"Now you sound like that other Yamanaka girl, repeating things when you're angry"! Meiko cracked up laughing pointing her finger at Kiyomi mockingly, which only infuriated the Yamanaka heiress even more.

"So, I'm Lithia's target then? Fate's a cruel bitch, isn't it?" Kiyomi quickly changed her expression into a façade of a cool and composed face.

"Not really, Lithia doesn't really care about you. In fact, when I brought up Team Hokage to begin with, we had to remind her that you were in it and that the two of you shared history in the same class. Your teammate here is actually my target", the chubby Akimichi from a different class in Kiyomi's year pointed at Meiko who just pointed at her own inflated and swollen from laughter cheeks in confusion. A moment after the whole matter sunk in Meiko erupted into a more chaotic fit of laughter.

"Your… Academy rival… Doesn't even remember you, she doesn't even care about you and they're actually here… After me"! The redhead kept on breaking up and bending over in pain that the intense laughing caused to her abdomen. The blacksmith was one stage of laugh away from writhing on the ground.

"Shut up, Meiko…" Kiyomi closed her eyes and rubbed her temples furiously. "Fine, I take it that Lithia is coming down here eventually as well. It'll be a chance for me to remind her just who was actually the talented one in the Academy. As for now, these are very poor odds for you, Chominu".

"Lithia won't be coming down here. The climb is too much trouble for her, Kidenshi may come down here to even the odds, though", the Akimichi shook his head carelessly. It didn't appear to trouble him that he'd effectively be facing off against two people all by himself for a short while. "Knowing Kidenshi, however, he'll be arguing his pants off trying to convince Lithia to come down here as well. Those two tend to argue a lot, so if it's not too much trouble, I'd not mind waiting for them to come down here and finish you two off".

"Okay", Meiko nodded and dropped her large behind on a rough looking oval stone formation on the ground.

"Okay"? Kiyomi squinted in fury at her teammate. "They want to eliminate us from the competition, you're their goddamn target"!

"Not really, we only care about Meiko. If you wouldn't involve yourself at all, Kiyomi, that'd be just ideal", Chominu nodded his head with a cheerful grin, happy that Meiko had decided to sit and wait for Chominu's reinforcements, Team Walnut, to descend and eliminate her.

All of a sudden, Meiko jumped up and clapped her hands together, like she had just forgotten something. Curiously, Chominu looked the blacksmith down, wondering what it was exactly that changed the redhead's opinion.

"Wait, Mana is still up there with them. Unless we get up there we can't pick her up and bring her to the southern gate"! Meiko recalled.

"Exactly, that's why we need to kick this guy's ass, eliminate your hunter and then bring Mana to the gate", Kiyomi cheered on Meiko's decision for the sole purpose of wanting to return to the surface just so she could shove it down Lithia's face.

"That's right! That's what we're gonna do, sorry, Chominu", Meiko smacked her fist against her palm before taking a fighting stance, a decision which Kiyomi soon joined in on.

"I see, that's too bad", Chominu nodded to himself before launching his tall and round frame off the ground in a mad shoulder tackle charge aimed at both girls. It was quite brave to take both of them on alone.

Kiyomi graciously leapt aside from the tall-and-chubby's charge, Meiko, on the other hand, chose to intercept it and take the young man head-on. Right as the blacksmith's palms interrupted the powerful rush, Meiko quickly responded with a strong and precise right cross straight at the Akimichi's jaw which was left completely open. Despite a powerful shockwave rumbling the underground ravine and disturbing the quiet creeks and water sources it didn't look like it'd keep the Akimichi down for long as he jumped up with an uppercut of his own.

As Meiko's body lifted off the ground, Chominu's large hand tied around the girl's ankles and pulled her down and over his shoulder and slammed her weightless frame into the dirt shaking the ravine up once more. A wave of freezing water covered Kiyomi from behind, a testament of the great damage and disturbance that the fighting between the two was causing. Kiyomi looked up with a clever squint.

"Meiko, keep the fisticuffs up, the more we shake this place up, the tougher it'll be for little Ms. Cocky-pants to get down here with her fancy boots and her sensitive fingernails", the blonde alerted her teammate.

"Ms. Cocky-pants in this case being"? Meiko wondered as she picked herself off the ground and leaped aside from a powerful earth-shaking stomp coming from her opponent and wiped blood off of her cracked lip, "I'm sorry, it's just that this resurfaced Academy life of yours is a little confusing", she grumbled.

"Lithia"! Kiyomi yelled out as she leaped into the fray to join in and aid her teammate.

A wild swipe of Kiyomi's kunai went completely unseen in the darkness of the underground ravine, with a little of wet slippery rocks being mixed into the equation the swipe sent Chominu stumbling back and falling into a underground pond of freezing crystal clear water.

"Nice work"! Meiko commended Kiyomi for utilizing the battlefield just right. Despite the attack being a simple kunai swipe it was perfectly timed and placed, utilizing the natural darkness of the battlefield as well as the other natural conditions. It was also just quick enough to open a small and barely significant scratch, but also just strong enough for the painful shock of the cut sending Chominu tumbling over.

As the standing pool of water erupted in a mad blasting gazer, Chominu's massive frame, expanded by the signature Akimichi clan's Multi-Size Jutsu, leaped up into the air. The genin's arms and legs disappeared in the bodysuit of the young man forming a ball of human meat that got propelled by the chakra used to drive it forward and control it, applied by the user.

"Human Bullet Tank"! The Akimichi clansman yelled out sending himself down into the two girls in a mad rolling frenzy.

The gigantic human boulder slammed against the elevated rocky grounds where both girls originally stood crushing the entire structure and sending it underwater. Chominu may have only understood too late that he was only crushing small, dislocated stalactites placed in harm's way by both girls using the Substitution Jutsu simultaneously in great sync.

Kiyomi and Meiko stuck upside down to the wall where the stalactites they used to replace themselves originally were. Both of the girls were struggling to breathe properly so they had to take a breather before being able to talk right.

"That technique is pretty annoying", Meiko acknowledged.

"Yeah, but there are plenty of weaknesses to it", Kiyomi smiled as she couldn't help but feel inspired by how well they've executed the synchronized Substitution, as any team leader should.

"Really? Go ahead and exploit them in that case", Meiko cheerfully nodded before pointing her blunt and rotund chin at the rolling enemy human boulder that dived once more out of the water and used the walls and ceiling of the ravine now like some mad bowling ball in a rush to topple all the annoying pins, no matter where they were stuck.

"It's gaining acceleration with each passing second, soon we won't be able to stop it. Attack it, he won't be able to properly defend himself while rolling"! Kiyomi commanded as she placed her hands forward in the signature position for most Yamanaka hidden techniques, ready for Meiko to lure her enemy into an exposed position where she could've hit it with one.

"No problem"! Meiko grinned with a monkey-like full-toothed grin and placed her hands by her lower sides. Sealing glyphs lit up in bright red light before two curved blades got unsealed from Meiko's sides and the blacksmith leaped to work. It was a very sensitive moment, a clash between two techniques, especially ones based on physical prowess.

As Meiko's body dashed onwards, both blades in hand, Kiyomi began seeing the attack almost like it transpired in slow motion, despite any stage of the exchange being completely invisible to an untrained eye. Meiko must've aimed to slash with a wide X position slash, straight at the exposed and defenseless boulder. It was a bold move that could've resulted in an injured opponent and interrupted technique but she needed to play all the cards right. Chominu's speed and force of impact would be immense. That meant that Meiko needed to activate her chakra input for the dashing slash at the exactly right moment where it'd overpower her opponent's chakra input and broke his jutsu. Not to mention compensate for the growing acceleration and therefore force…

A powerful rumbling shockwave following a loud thundering crack shook Kiyomi wildly, almost strong enough to dislodge her off the ceiling and send tumbling down to the roaring and whirling, foamy waters below. Meiko messed up, she decided to clash with the opponent with brute force instead of a subtle and quick slice. She just rammed her blades bluntly right into the rolling boulder, slowing it down greatly as the boulder attempted to push Meiko away and knock her off her feet. Blinding, lightning bright sparks emanated from Meiko's blades.

For a moment Kiyomi wanted to interrupt her own carefully positioned into hand seal positions hands to assist Meiko but… Her trust in her friend paid off. With an inhuman, almost bestial roar Meiko overpowered her opponent sending him flying back and smashing through stalactites way back. With lightning fast backflips, still horizontally and upside to the ravine floor, Meiko backed up some before pushing at the tips of the blades she just used with her thumbs.

With a loud steel clanging sound the twin blades revealed themselves to be giant windmill shuriken as they transformed into shape. "Not done with you just yet"! Meiko yelled out as she launched both of the windmill shuriken at her opponent in an odd crisscrossing trajectory the specifics of which were relatively difficult to read. Chominu quickly braced for impact locking his hands around his knees into the shape of a human boulder before beginning to spin in place.

It appeared that Chominu's unorthodox defense had worked out somewhat, where normally the shuriken would've went right through the young man or cut him in two completely, the added chakra input and swift rotation caused the blades of the shuriken to just graze at the Akimichi's back opening up an X shaped crimson wound.

"How's that"? Meiko arrogantly laughed out after glancing back at Kiyomi.

"You threw him out of the range of my jutsu, you absolute monster", Kiyomi commended her teammate. While she was troubled by Meiko's excessive show of physical force and complete balls it took to engage the enemy that way, commending the redhead went a longer way, ultimately, than trying to tell her why she should've been more subtle with her approach.

Emerging from the clear freezing water Chominu stumbled onto the first rocky floor platform he could find before sitting up on his butt and feeling up his cut up back. The young man didn't like to admit being pushed put even he could see that taking on both of the fellow Konoha genin this way may have been a rushed and foolish decision.

"Our friend is lying unconscious up above", Meiko began explaining after her face turned serious for a moment, as matters often did with the blacksmith when the well-being of her friends was concerned. "You cannot win here taking us both all by yourself, all we want is to pick up her body and bring her to the gate."

"It's too late for that, I am not looking for victory, I am merely trying to buy time for Kidenshi to finish his silly argument and make Lithia follow him down here. Frankly, I'm sure by now they're at least done fighting and have left your friend by herself. Don't worry, the staff will take care of her for you." Chominu explained before pulling out a sweet smelling flask, flipping it over, and wiping a bunch of juice he let spray down his face in his voracity off.

"You bastard, I said let us pass"! Meiko grunted before launching herself off the stalactite-filled floor straight at the enemy.

"No! Meiko, don't rush"! Kiyomi pleaded aloud before biting her lip in the painful realization that her opponent was still too far for her to use any of her clan techniques optimally. In that range they would've certainly missed their mark and it didn't look like the enemy intended to move in any closer. For all the dissing that Chominu did – he was wary of Kiyomi and incorporated a careful range from her into his strategy.

The Akimichi clansman smacked his hands together before extending those outwards at Meiko and slamming his wide and long foot down.

"Earth Style: Stalactite Rain"! Chominu yelled out as all the rocky and sharp stalactites on the ravine ceiling rumbled and cracked off in a wild rain, aiming to derail and down Meiko. The blacksmith shifted her body's direction upwards to attempt and protect from the stalactites but it barely helped as the raining rocks overwhelmed and downed her nearby Chominu's position. The Akimichi rushed to weave more hand seals but Kiyomi's quick counter of shuriken and kunai forced him to leap back and stick onto a back wall avoiding Kiyomi's own barrage of ninja tools that interrupted his hand seals.

Gripping onto a string of steel wire she had attached onto one stray kunai that the blonde launched at the ceiling of the ravine, Kiyomi pulled on it with all of her strength zipping with a flying kick aimed right at her opponent. She needed to buy Meiko some time to recover. Luckily enough Kiyomi's kick hit Chominu straight in the side leaving a strong and wide dent in the rocky wall and sending the chubby tumbling and rolling aside. The Yamanaka didn't relent, however, she pressed her offensive on.

The Akimichi appeared to be a very solid hand-to-hand combatant, the chubby weaved to the side avoiding Kiyomi's push kick. Her multiple palm strikes were also gently redirected and even when she leaned forward to shift her weight into a roll, deceitfully pulling off a smack at the side of her opponent heel to twist his foot the opponent managed to avoid it. Kiyomi tried several more stomping kicks at the heavyweight's knees – what she took for his weak-spot but the leg-work of her opponent was on point. As Chominu collapsed on his bottom and began spinning, using his extended sideways legs for sweeping kicks, Kiyomi found herself in need of evasion and quickly retreated from the close range clash.

Without wait or warning Chominu turned at Meiko and began weaving hand seals. At that point Kiyomi wondered if her assault had made her opponent cocky as she, together with Meiko who was still a bit further below launched a combined storm of kunai and shuriken at the enemy to interrupt the hand seals. Surprisingly enough with a loud clang all of their ninja tools got deflected in mid-air and the hand seal string got completed. Chominu smacked his extended palms together and stomped his feet firmly onto the wall he stood on.

"Earth Style: Practice Brick Jutsu"! He yelled out raising a bunch of flimsy dirt walls all around Meiko.

Kiyomi rushed at the Akimichi, desperate to stop his attack, she was really reckless and failed to notice an opponent from above, or her right, respectively. A powerful right cross from her side sent the blonde crashing down into the freezing waters below. A fluffy ball of fur and teeth and cute doggy eyes stopped whizzing around the attacker's arm and settled down inside the boy's that attacked Kiyomi jacket as he confidently felt up his own bicep as a gesture of strength.

"Multi-Size Jutsu"! Chominu yelled out as calories in his body got converted into chakra at intense rates massively expanding his size into a round, boulder-like shape.

"Human-Pinball"! The Akimichi yelled out as his round boulder-like frame fired off the wall he stood on and flew straight at Meiko. The blacksmith covered her body up with a block as the massive body slam sent her flying back together with the human boulder technique and through several of the erected dirt walls. By the time that Meiko realized what Chominu had raised those walls previously for it may have been already too late as the human rolling boulder bounced off the dirt walls and rushed at Meiko repeatedly in rapid ceaseless succession.

At some point Meiko guard lowered down and she stopped blocking or trying to brace her body, trying to predict where the hits would come from. Finally, the expanded human boulder slammed her to the rocky platform busting it to pieces and toppling all of the dirt walls through the devastating impact shockwave it let out. For a moment the foamy crimson waters kept on whirling and waving, the glowing red eyes of a girl stuck to the ceiling wall continued to observe the water.

A good minute later Chominu surfaced, gasping for air erratically. "Took you guys a good while to get here"! The Akimichi complained out loud.

"Blame Ms. Stick-Up-Her-Ass, she couldn't even be bothered to come down here and help you", Inuzuka Kidenshi pointed his finger at his Lolita-style favoring, crimson-eyed teammate.

"Oh… I figured you two would be fighting over it", Chominu sighed before swimming up to the wall and finally crawling up it to catch a breath. "Oh well, at least I knocked Wakizashi Meiko out", he sighed easier.

"Actually, they both escaped", Lithia giggled mockingly at her own hand. "Kiyomi-chan salvaged her dizzy teammate and swam to the lower levels, catching a stream that carried them away, you were still floating about when it happened too", the pompous girl yawned into her hand. After her eyes closed for the yawn and opened again they no longer glowed red, having changed into a pitch dark shade of black.

"And you only tell us now?" Kidenshi got outraged, "Should've dived after them instead of standing around there!"

"And get wet? Are you mad?" Lithia crossed her hands onto her chest angrily squinting at her teammate with frustration, "It's not my fault they escaped in the first place".

"If you knew they were escaping, I'm pretty sure it was, you dumb bimbo"! Kidenshi growled at his teammate showing off his sharp fangs.


While the team of Meiko's hunters bickered, Kiyomi grasped firmly at the struggling and beaten up body of her teammate as the underground stream carried them to a falling stream that threw them even deeper underground.