Sugemi threw himself at Meiko in a wild dash, it appeared that he had noticed Meiko's lack of affinity for planning ahead. The blacksmith was purely a running at the enemy type ninja and the Nara clearly loved that. Lack of distinct planning from Meiko's part allowed Sugemi to just stop overthinking and cut loose. See just how far everything he had acquired up to now guided by pure instinct could carry him.
The Nara threw quick three jabs at Meiko, the blacksmith leaned back, answering with swift blocks before pressing her own advantage with her blade. The flurry of fists and knee strikes, shield shoves, sword thrusts and slashes was impressive, their speed would've been troublesome even for someone extremely defensive and evasive, like Mana, to deal with and they never invested enough force into any of their strikes for an opponent to find any openings, always perfectly returning to guard. Sugemi slid out of the brief clash with a bleeding cheek and an aching side, a result of a pair of skipped handle blows and swipes.
The blacksmith pressed her offensive on, rushing at her fleeing, on the defensive opponent and trying to exploit her opportunity and his stumble. The blacksmith threw a chain of weak sword thrusts at Sugemi's face, the Nara had to brace himself and weave around the attacks. As a taijutsu user himself, he knew that jabs, whether thrown with a sword, or using fists, were usually a setup for something greater. That was why he managed to entrap Meiko's turned sideways, extended leg, when the redhead tried kicking her opponent down, and throw her in the air.
"These two are going at it like crazy"! Kiyomi's cheeks shined in excitement before the blonde energetically cheered for her teammate. The Yamanaka's eyes were oddly fired up following Meiko, a combination of a very quaint sort of worry and the blazing desire for one's favorite to come out of the trouble on top.
"Yeah", Mana admitted wondering if the two had some sort of training she wasn't aware of together as it may have been the first time she noticed such a fond stare in Kiyomi's eyes.
"Atta girl, Meiko! She's holding her own, no, she's on top"! Kiyomi shouted out once Meiko successfully brushed aside a flurry of Sugemi's strikes and the two began exchanging fists and swipes at breakneck speed and enough brute force to deafen the audience with every blow in the tirade of sonic booms they have emitted. That barrier was paying off big time…
"She pretty much has to be. If she can't pressure Sugemi like this, she'll never survive his Gates", Mana looked away from the battle worryingly, she had seen just how powerful the Eight Gates can make Sugemi. It was a desperation technique but it could rarely, if ever, be matched, only survived.
"Shadow Spin-Top"! Sugemi shouted out as he weaved hand seals with his free hand, using the shadows coming from the shades of his own uniform to reach for the ground and provide support, whereas the Nara himself used that support beam of solid shadows to flip overhead and spin using one hand, delivering a crushing barrage of kicks aimed at Meiko. The buckler in Meiko's hands shattered to pieces, blown away by the force, the girl managed to control her fall down, landing on her feet and her hands.
"Dammit, it's busted again…" Meiko cursed looking a bit crushed over the falling splinter sized chunks of solid steel that used to be her trusty blocking and redirection tool.
"That's right, get angry over that old thing, come at me seriously", Sugemi taunted his opponent who lifted her scorching gaze at the Nara before looking back at Kiyomi and Mana and smiling. Slowly she turned around and began walking towards the scroll, likely intending to tag out.
"Don't think I'll let you"! Sugemi shouted out desperately, charging at the blacksmith with a divekick, butting in between the redhead and the scroll, before throwing a wild barrage of jabs her way that seriously threw Meiko off her guard and sent her tumbling and flying back, heading right at the edge of the arena.
"No"! Kiyomi screamed out when Meiko disappeared over the edge, from that angle only the officials and the Hokage himself would've seen the fate of the redhead, much to the blonde's relief, however, huffing and whining like a wounded dog, Meiko crawled back onto the arena, having hung on by the last tip of her fingers. Mana breathed out as the pressure from skipping a pair of breaths over her friend's troubles made her blush and her vision begin to feel a bit hazy.
"It's been a while since I fought someone like you, someone mindless and just looking to punch things. I'm gonna see this brawl to the end"! Sugemi claimed raising his fist up to his face in a threatening manner. "I won't let the momentum of my life's manga slow down because of a strategizing fool clashing with… Whatever show Gentib has decided to put for us".
Wiping the blood off of her cracked lip Meiko threw her one-handed short sword around in her sword hand before rushing out at the opponent. This must've been what Sugemi had wanted but to Mana such an approach seemed awfully odd. She's just been kicked around after lowering her guard, what use could there have been to just drop her plans of a tag and continue brawling? Why foster the thoughts of tagging at all, in that case?
"My God…" Mana sighed, "Meiko's planning something, she's thinking in the middle of a battle".
Kiyomi looked at the magician in confusion, "Meiko's planning? Now there's something to fear", she cheeked.
Just as Mana had predicted, the blacksmith was not just about to throw blind strikes at her opponent. Right when Sugemi prepared himself to defend against Meiko's attacks, she gently shoved the handle of her sword with her sword hand, switching her sword hand and throwing a blinding barrage of thrusts at the enemy using the shield hand.
"That was a clever ploy, fighting with one hand this whole time, then switching her sword hand, revealing matching if not greater mastery of the blade with the other hand. I can see such a trick fooling that dumb nukenin broad", Kiyomi cheerfully met Meiko's successful pressure on Sugemi.
But even that ploy didn't appear to be all, Meiko's previously used sword hand was used to focus into a shoulder charge while her sword holding arm thrust the sword into the arena ground, freeing the hand for hand seals. What remained was a contest of speed, if Meiko had practiced her hand seals enough to manage to push her jutsu through before Sugemi intercepted her endless misdirections with an actual counterattack.
It appeared that she was not, before Meiko's hand seals were concluded, Sugemi's fist dug deep into the softer parts of the blacksmith's abdomen, making her white out and fly backward from the combined force of the impact.
"This isn't fighting like you, that's why you're failing. You're still trying to be someone else, someone you're not. You're not trying to move me by force, you're trying to think strategically, conserve chakra and stamina, something that'll never work because you're not built for it", Sugemi scolded the blacksmith before winding back his fist and weaving hand seals using his free arm.
"Shadow Tendril Jutsu"! he shouted out throwing his fist out and ordering his shadow to form a tendril-shaped form before whipping at Meiko's direction, while she was still stunned and struggling to breathe from having all air and guts almost completely beaten out of her.
Meiko kept on forming her hand seals, resetting the combination instead of grabbing the sword sticking from the ground right beside her and running at the enemy. Mana closed her eyes and gasped from the loud thud of Sugemi's ninjutsu whipping the blacksmith straight in the gut, where the armor was still just a thick layer of leather under the blacksmith's tracksuit and where the redhead was already badly hurt.
"Weapon Transformation Jutsu"! Meiko shouted out, forcing herself through the pain. The sword in her hand, grabbed after she was already struck and concluded her combination of hand seals poofed in smoke, greatly surprising Sugemi, who took a pair of stumbling steps back before getting tied up with thick, glowing with chakra steel chain, which the sword transformed into using Meiko's new jutsu.
"So that's what she was trying to do, that's her new jutsu she spoke of", Kiyomi muttered, still a bit shocked by Meiko's tenacity and guts to take a free hit just to complete her hand seals and tie her opponent down. "But if she needed a chain, why not just unseal it"? The Yamanaka wondered.
"Because Meiko doesn't have the chain sealed in her armor", Mana realized, "It's a "Weapon Transformation" technique, meaning that as long as she has one of her weapons, she has all of them. That'd be the only explanation why she'd choose the longer to perform and much more advanced ninjutsu over simply unsealing her weapon".
Meiko charged at her opponent, throwing a crushing headbutt straight to his forehead with such ferocity and intensity that the foreheads of both competitors split open and erupted with rapid bleeding, dyeing their faces red in moments and mixing in with the sweat of their energetic scuffle. Sugemi appeared to have lost consciousness for just a moment as he got violently knocked down, still enveloped in chains. Meiko clutched her bleeding forehead as she yelled out in pain and stumbled to the tag scroll.
"To answer your question from before, there are three things I've learned when you rejected my request to train with you. First, being to think on my feet in battle, as well as a bunch of tricks I've used during my training. Second, the Weapon Transformation Jutsu and third – basic weapon imbuement with chakra skills, which is why you won't break out from these chains easily", Meiko declared triumphantly before pulling on the scroll.
In a maroon glowing flash, both Meiko and Daidao leaped at Sugemi with their most powerful and open power strikes. It wouldn't have taken much to knock Sugemi out cold in his current state.
"He already used Substitution, no way he can use it again so soon"! Kiyomi cheered on for Meiko as the blacksmith's victory over the Nara appeared to have come a bit prematurely.
"Shadow Tendril Jutsu"! Sugemi shouted out desperately, using just his one hand to weave hand seals and force the shadow tendrils to yank him violently off the ground and towards his own tag scroll.
The Nara's teeth caught onto the edges of the scroll, opening it up completely, something that stopped Sugemi's rapid momentum that'd have lead him to fly out of the arena completely had the Nara timed it wrong. The maroon colored flash of light signaled the unsealing of the wild and unpredictable Takemito. The duo didn't have to wait too long, as the wild and groovy one rushed right at them at untraceable speeds before grabbing their faces and shoving them down as he passed through them.
"Yo, this is gonna be a total gas"! Takemito shouted out, all fired up as still writhing in pain Meiko got sealed into the scroll with still tied up Sugemi following not too much later.
"You have not the slightest idea how ironically right you are", Daidao jumped back on his feet, raising his fist up and letting jets of steam fire out from little pipes and pumps around it.
"Hmmm… I wonder why Meiko would change her entire plan and tag out before taking care of Sugemi", Kiyomi sighed in both relief and slight disappointment as she was just promised more worries in the future. "Wasn't that their entire fight plan"?
"It was, yet oddly Daidao looked fairly content with Meiko tagging into him", Mana scratched her chin.
"Either way, I'm sure Meiko will be tagged out again once again after Gent… I mean Takemito tags out", Kiyomi shrugged.
It wasn't only Meiko's uncharacteristically scheming behavior that troubled the magician. Sugemi's plan was equally as odd, he had a strange reluctance to use his First Gate, the least straining of his desperation techniques. Perhaps there was a causality between the two – Meiko noticed Sugemi's changed attitude and the newly gained ability to pace himself. That made her reevaluate her presence fighting him – she was her teams out to his Gates, if she used her stamina out fighting gateless Sugemi it would all be over for the duo…
Takemito hopped on the tips of his toes before cartwheeling straight at his geared opponent. The boy's movements were immensely odd and unlike the grotesquely brutal and offensive fiery dance of Tankobaji that Mana saw in the Forest of Death, yet she could recognize the face as being mostly the same. Just the facial mimics were different, less brutal and more confident, even to the point of arrogance.
Daidao extended his arms forward, letting heated steam blast from his armor straight at the opponent. Now Mana noticed why Daidao didn't want to face Sugemi, it certainly wasn't because Daidao was necessarily outmatched, it was because the fighting style was simply incompatible against the sort of opponent Sugemi was. The eyes of the magician followed the swift and acrobatic Takemito as he leaped around, cartwheeling and rolling, narrowly avoiding the jets of steam that failed to keep up with him. It may have looked like Daidao pressured Takemito, as a long range ninja, however nothing could have been further from the truth – Takemito was completely safe.
The bouncing groove machine finally moved in close enough for a cartwheeling kick that sent Daidao kneeling to the ground, clutching the top of his head where he was hit. Swift as lightning, Takemito jumped up and stomped on the back of the head of his kneeling opponent, stamping and grinding his face into the ground. As Daidao quickly rolled aside, avoiding another stomp from connecting, Mana saw the cracks in his helmet and mask, even his red tinted goggles.
"Who knew you'd be all show and no go, daddy-o, come on, tag me the badass skirt from before, she looked like she could swing", Takemito taunted his opponent with a hand gesture that demanded his opponent to come at him.
Pulling on a handle on his shoulder, Daidao made certain pieces of his steam armor crank. A single hand seal set off a burst of heated steam from his lower legs, throwing the gearhead forward with a right hand cross. To add even more force to it, the steam vents around Daidao's fists were revealed to have been the pieces that turned around, now blasting steam right behind the young man and accelerating his punch.
"Erupting Propulsion Fist"! Daidao shouted out, his cybernetically enhanced voice strained from the tension of holding his body together in the massive internal pressure of the overflowing with boiling steam armor.
Takemito darted off downwards with an elastic and fast ducking motion, throwing a sweeping kick, his movements were so dance-like and filled with rhythm of an non-existent, melodic tune that they were flowing like water, yet with enough skill, Mana was sure she'd be able to read them eventually. The rhythmic nature of the taijutsu fighting style made it immensely easy to predict past the first couple of overwhelming and surprising bursts of speed and strength. Daidao tumbled over and fell flat on his face, his armor cracked and shrieked some more as the steel plates loosened and began dragging against itself.
"Idol: Ray Burst Guillotine" Takemito yelled out as his chest inflated at the same time as he jumped up and extended his right leg forward. As the young man breathed out, a whirlwind of Wind Release chakra surrounded his foot before being driven down on his opponent's neck.
An ear bursting metallic thud emanated through the arena making most of the bystanders cover their ears. It was foolish to doubt the fact that Daidao's armor was fairly effective at preventing the young man's body to break and his bones to be grinded to dust from similar inhumanly powerful hits but his armor was beginning to fall apart, plate by plate.
Daidao slowly picked himself up, tearing his neckpiece off as it was bent and crushed his windpipe, slowly strangling him by just trying to fulfil its function. It was safe to say that the Jinchuuriki was in a pinch. It made Mana wonder just how much tapping into the Tailed Beast's chakra was he permitted before he entered the exam. Given that multiple Jinchuuriki were taking part in the exam, the magician was fair to assume that there were multiple people in this arena capable of suppressing an overly ambitious and youthful Jinchuuriki tapping into too much power and losing control. Still, to her it seemed like a natural out to the immense mismatch of fighting styles.
"Is he holding back"? Kiyomi wondered, "What's going on, he's gonna drag our girl down"! she expressed frustration by shaking her fist at the battered and slowed down Jinchuuriki.
"It's tough to say just how much he's holding himself back. I'm afraid to even look at his chakra signature, I'd probably lose my mind doing that, even chakra of chuunin are sometimes hard to wrap my head around and they make my chest pound really fast and get adrenaline pumping by how vast they are", Mana looked down, feeling a bit sad about her own inadequacy and limitations at chakra sensory that few more advanced sensors had.
"Huh, so you could have a heart attack just by sniffing someone really strong? That's insane", Kiyomi settled down somewhat, watching Daidao straighten himself out and prepare for his own answer to Takemito's unusual fighting style.
"Burn some rubber, candyass, I'm getting a five finger discount on this here battle", Takemito jumped around on his feet just to warm himself up some more. Mana would've called showing off his moves any more than he already has risky – at this point she'd be reading the young man's jumpy moves like a book and she'd be able to nail his joints and pop them with her eyes closed. All it'd have taken for Daidao was a single instance of a lucky shot with his boiling steam or enhanced taijutsu power strikes.
"I won't even try making out what that means, but it appears to me you are disappointed…" Daidao wiped the dripping blood that squeezed out through the tears and chinks in his steampunk looking armor. The young man looked to the side at his mentor and his fellow Jinchuuriki who were watching him with a bit of worry and irritation, Mana let her eyes follow the elder and scarred mentor who just closed his eyes submissively and nodded.
"Well then, I guess I'll just have to lose a little bit of control", Daidao extended his hands to the side as they inflated from an outburst of steam before the excess got fired out through the cracks and tears in his armor. The young man bent forward on all fours yet it did not look like the Jinchuuriki had borrowed this quadrupedal position – it looked strangely natural and his own. Red chakra began leaking through the holes in his armor and evaporating in the air, just like his steam did previously. His red tinted goggles burst revealing ferocious and primal glowing green eyes of something more massive, more powerful lurking inside the boy.
"Yeah, I know, you don't like this one little bit, Kok… I mean… Fiver, it's a good thing you owe me a favor for those poachers I've killed for you", the man started rambling to himself like a madman. Even if this sharing of control and explosion of chakra and physical force meant that Meiko was more likely to win, Mana didn't like this one little bit. She had bad memories having met a way different in both power and malice Tailed Beast herself, bad experiences were tough to shake off…
