Mana blinked a pair of times in rapid succession, failing to comprehend what had just happened right in front of her own eyes. The body of a young man, not that much different from her, no ninja clan, no special background or advanced bloodline, had just fallen apart.
The magician's eyes started to water, she wriggled in Hanasaku's gentle but unreleasing hold before the woman pulled Mana back and started calming her down. It looked like the medical ninja in the arena were a little bit baffled by failing to prevent this death as well. While no one's life was guaranteed in such an event, such a guarantee was simply impossible, a village that managed to host peaceful and simple Chuunin Exams would have had plenty of bragging rights and the aura of control about them.
"When you gamble with your own life, this sometimes happens. He knew the odds and the risks and he chose every element of this outcome", Hanasaku softly mumbled to Mana, trying to prevent her from doing something that'd disturb the confusion that the higher ranking ninja buzzing in the ring raised. Needless to say, Gorm's body was quickly removed. Even as the medical staff carried it away, it continued to fall apart as the youth's flesh itself appeared to be as cohesive as a lump of jelly.
"So can we continue the match? Unless someone has the world-changing resurrection jutsu hidden away, death means elimination, right"? Kres-T managed to overpower his struggle to breathe and exhaustion and his distressed face quickly changed to that of a triumphant sadist as the young man grinned at the overseer of the exam.
"Well… Let's see what his teammate has to say", the overseer rubbed his sweaty forehead before using his remote sealing technique to unseal Jean-D from the scroll. Upon the girl's shape materializing, the young woman looked around before her eyes lit up by the cruel realization, her own image of the transpiring events based solely on Gorm's disappearance and multiple massive blood pools around the arena.
"Examinee, your teammate has unfortunately passed in the middle of the match. Sadly, we can't offer you anything else but to either surrender or resume the match, treating his death as elimination", the overseer quickly ran the situation down by the girl.
"Hmph, why are you even bothering to ask, of course, I'll keep going. It's just my luck to lose the draw and get a fragile teammate", Jean-D angrily distressed before pulling her knives out and preparing to continue the match.
"What the hell"!? A loud objection echoed from the western side of the audience surrounding the arena. Gentib, the only advancing member of Gorm's team stepped forward aggressively. "You're Gorm's partner for the match. Can't you at least be bothered to acknowledge his sacrifice? He knew that he needed to eliminate his opponent to win and he did everything he could, placing his life on the line to get you both to the next stage"! The boy growled through his teeth.
"Of course he knew it, I told him that. He claimed he had a way around his opponent's bombs and that he was the safer bet for fighting him and I trusted him. If he died here, he'd have never become a Chuunin. A Chuunin understands the meaning of the words "shortens your lifespan" and knows their own limits", Jean-D calmly replied without even offering as much as an apologetic look at the grieving teammate.
"That's the spirit…" Kres-T coughed up, "They don't get it, but we do"!
"Don't get me wrong, Gentib, or whatever persona you're wearing now is called, your teammate was quite useful, he appears to have weakened his opponent enough for me to have what it takes to tip him over. And yet he still refuses to tag out, interesting", the knife fighter smiled in excitement.
"Will they at least declare Mysterious Peacock Method a kinjutsu now"? Mana muttered sadly, "Will Gorm's death at least save lives of the people who'd have used this technique in the future"?
"I'd like to tell you so but… I'm afraid you know Hoshigakure's political situation better than I do", Hanasaku honestly smiled at her sad student.
Mana did not know all that much about Hoshigakure's political situation, to be entirely honest. She was not quite sure if the village even had a singular leader, in a way that Konoha had the Hokage and the other villages had their leaders. Its rough location on a map was all that Mana knew about the place, it was too small to even be mentioned on most maps, with Hoshigakure being only marked on the most precise ones. The village was as small as a crater of a centuries old meteor that leveled a large area of the forest.
Jean-D blitzed at her opponent, aiming to press on whatever pressure Gorm's beatdown allowed her team of, currently, one get. She was not direct enough though, the girl still was wary of her opponent's considerable physical strength and explosive tools so she danced around him. In Mana's opinion, she would have been much more successful had she pressed her opponent directly and just relentlessly kept on attacking with everything she had. Then again, it was entirely possible that Jean-D was merely thinking of the other battle she still had ahead…
Kres-T grunted sadistically as he drove an orange bomb sphere into the ground, enveloping the area in flames. Covering himself head to toe in the blazing wall but also both blasting and slightly singing his opponent up as Jean-D got tossed aside by the shrieking shockwave emanated from the explosion and then took a couple of moments to remove all remnants of flames on her.
That proved to be a mistake as Kres-T simply dove out of the flames and clotheslined the young woman to the ground, before turning around and trying to crush her beneath his feet. It appeared that he actually wanted to be covered in flames that appeared to turn his skin boiling red but his chakra augmentations held quite well. It was clearly something he had done before, an alternative fighting style.
"He must be short of his bombs by now", Kiyomi noted, "That's why he's employing this new strategy".
Mana wanted to commend her teammate on figuring something like that out but she just didn't find the resolve in her to even breathe in deep enough to gather the amount of oxygen needed to do so. It was like seeing Gorm's death right in front of her was just another blow right to her gut that kept the magician from getting up from all the previous ones she had. As the equal scuffle continued in the arena, the magician's eyes wandered off onto a particularly angry young Kumogakure swordsman, Quill-B.
Even if he did not plan to do anything before, even if Mana wanted to believe in the best in people, she would have been lying to herself if she had told herself that she did not see it. Seeing the man who killed his friend, probably in an extremely sadistic and brutal way, given his fighting style, claim another life, albeit indirectly, must have been unbearable to him as the young swordsman was brimming with rage. There was no doubt – he's about to try something.
"Sensei", Mana turned away from the battle and spoke directly to her team's mentor, "There's something I need to warn you about".
"Warn"? Hanasaku raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, that young man over there, the one with the dark Kumogakure complexion, orange hair and four short swords on his back. He's admitted to us that he has a grievance with Kres-T. Given what had just happened and the extent of Kres-T's injuries…" Mana explained what has been troubling her for a while.
"You're afraid that he'll be trying something"? Hanasaku concluded. "Don't worry, this place is well staffed to handle infiltration or outright assault. Still, if it'll calm you down and make you focus on your own upcoming match, I'll alert some people to be extra careful".
Mana thankfully nodded. It genuinely felt like a rock off her chest. She may have felt a strange connection to the matter and a desire to keep standing watch around where Kres-T would be lead to rest but the people working here were outranking Mana by a long margin and had infinitely more experience than she did. There was nothing that the magician could do that these people couldn't do better.
"I can't believe you'd worry over a scumbag like him. I'd feel really tempted to kill him myself if our paths crossed in the field", Kiyomi coldly raised her nose up as she continued to carefully observe the clash of genin transpiring in the arena.
"Frankly, I'm a bit proud of Mana. She's grown a lot from the kid who just followed her bloodthirsty teammate into a prison with hopes of extracting him herself", Hanasaku commended Mana with a pleasant smile. It was something that Mana didn't actually expect, given the recent bad history between her and her mentor. Actually being acknowledged for something was almost equally as satisfying as disappointing one's mentor was crushing.
A loud, masculine roar distracted Mana and forced her to stick her eyes onto the battle transpiring in the arena. Blood trickled from multiple stabbing wounds all over Kres-T's body, it was clear that by now Kres-T had slowed down, lost his axe bracelets and gathered an impressive array of inner and outer injuries. At any moment, the Kumogakure's explosive powerhouse looked a one powerful jutsu away from utter defeat.
Soon Mana figured out the secret to Jean's impressive progress in the fight – she fundamentally changed her fighting style while still using the same Dimensional Blade technique. Instead of using it purely offensively, trying to catch her opponent unprepared and confuse him, she observed his own movements and countered using her Dimensional Blade. It was a genius strategy, using his flaming, showy and destructive fighting style put Kres-T into a time limit, that meant he had to be aggressive which was for Jean-D to capitalize on. The fight was on her terms.
"Why doesn't he switch? He's about to lose", Mana wondered loudly.
"It's all in his eyes. Can't you see? In the beginning, he contemplated switching out multiple times, his gaze wandered to his scroll but he shut himself down every time. Now they're fixed on Jean-D, imagining thousands of ways he could tear her apart and brutalize her, they're madman's eyes and he no longer thinks like we do. It's disgusting to even try to get into his head", Kiyomi sighed. She appeared to very much agree with Mana's conclusion.
"I don't know, I think I sort of get it", Mana muttered. "He's weighing tagging out against something he likes, something he lost himself in. It's the same as me weighing backing from a fight where lives are at risk or you backing from a fight where a nasty criminal is involved. He views the bloody gamble the same way, he may know somewhere deep in his mind that the odds of his bloody desires coming to life are slim but… He just can't help it".
"Only you could empathize with a psycho killer like that", Kiyomi noted before sinking in her own thoughts. She may have realized that with the way Mana put it, she herself may have understood Kres' motivations a bit better, still, her eyes betrayed Kiyomi to still be the same, unwavering in her strict beliefs.
"Dimensional Blade: Flower of Daggers"! Jean-D chanted out as she threw her knife backward, making it disappear halfway into thin air. Kres-T bent his body backward as if a sharp pain had crippled him completely before the tip of the knife thrown away appeared from multiple angles and places of the young man's body simultaneously.
The overseer rushed into the arena, interfering with the match to check on the young man's condition. Just as he entered, the high-ranking ninja unraveled a scroll from the chest pocket of his chuunin vest that unsealed a large mass of water, which put out the flames enveloping Kres-T's body and beginning to actually burn him, now that his consciousness had faded away. The overseer appeared somewhat relieved after a brief inspection, the flames that enveloped Kris' body must've completely cauterized his wounds so it wasn't a completely self-destructive and reckless instinct as many have initially believed, but a clever strategy to use against a knife fighter. Shallow burns were after all very much treatable.
"Get him to the infirmary", the overseer ruled as the several present staff ninja rushed to the young man and carried him away.
"Contestant Kres-T is unable to continue the match", the overseer ruled before unsealing Buhakim from Team Pahlavi out of his scroll. The golden haired youth appeared somewhat confused about what it had taken so long for him to get to come out of the scroll. Strangely enough, he did not appear to be at all concerned or stricken by the elimination of his partner as he followed the staff ninja carrying his partner away with his eyes.
Mana's eyes almost instinctively glared at Quill B, who first just followed Kres-T being carried away with his eyes, then he muttered something to Ripper Inaba – his other not yet eliminated teammate, and his mentor before running off. Mana wanted to look at Chestnut Hanasaku questioningly but it appeared that the woman had personally taken it upon herself to see this to the end, she no longer was standing nearby the two kunoichi.
"Huh? When did she slip away, that's pretty impressive, actually"! Kiyomi praised her mentor's ability to slip away undetected. "Anyways, didn't you see this Buhakim guy in action once? You think he can take Jean-D down"?
"It depends. I think it might depend on what Jean-D still has up her sleeves. We've seen genin possess multiple fighting styles and countless techniques in their arsenal whereas Jean only relies on this one. She'll need something more to win this one", Mana gave her best shot at predicting the outcome.
"I'm not sure about that. Have you noticed that Jean-D did not need to speak the name of her technique or weave any hand seals to use it? That means she has intimate knowledge of the jutsu she uses, the kind of knowledge and mastery that only a lifetime of training can bring. It's unlikely that she has anything else under her belt", the Yamanaka heiress voiced her thoughts.
That insight was a very sharp one. Mana had herself invented a good dozen of weak and barely useful ninjutsu techniques just to graduate from the Academy under special conditions. Even if she used some of those ninjutsu techniques to this day, she had not mastered a single one to the degree needed to use them without needing to speak their names or weave any hand seals. Jean-D must have spent all of her time polishing her skills with knives and that one jutsu, otherwise, such mastery over this fighting style would have been impossible.
"You appear to be wounded and a little bit worn out at this point. Yet the amount of blood and hair present in the arena doesn't match your injuries or those of my partner", Buhakim unexpectedly spoke up in a calm and reserved manner, "It wouldn't be very uber-spiritual of me to not offer you a peaceful resolution. It is quite evident that your partner has been eliminated and you're left alone. Ring yourself out and spare yourself the…"
Before the sentence could be finished, Jean-D threw her knife at the opponent. Buhakim leaned aside before the young woman launched her other knife at him as well. By the time that Buhakim noticed the other knife disappearing in thin air it was too late as the second knife buzzed through his cheek and his thigh, opening up small cuts on them. Jean-D then rushed forward at her opponent with a sharp elbow strike, while using her free limbs to collect her knives from up close to where they landed.
Buhakim gently deflected his opponent's ruthless strikes with his palm, all the way while keeping his second palm extended in a praying position before shoving it forward at her crotch area while falling to his knees. After his opponent leaned forward to writhe in pain, Buhakim kneed the young woman in the face, sending her sliding back with her knives still in hands.
"Spiritual my ass…" Jean-D writhed in pain before slowly trying to regain her composure, "That was a cheap shot"!
"I am no monk", Buhakim spoke up, slightly opening his squinted eyes, "I am a ninja, therefore my uber-spirituality is not a path to restrict myself for spiritual experience. It is to make others think that I am behaving spiritually, when, in fact, I am not. It is the only spirituality that matters"!
"He really made it sound like it's a very noble thing, but he just hit a girl in the crotch", Kiyomi squinted at the Sunagakure puppeteer.
"What's with those scrolls on your back, anyway"? Jean-D grunted out after finally managing to get back on her feet and somewhat resume her fighting stance.
Without replying, Buhakim reached behind his back and removed a pin that held the scrolls together before tossing them up in the air. At this point Jean-D knew better than to blindly charge at her opponent, she took this moment of her opponent setting his figures up to play for a moment she could use to catch her breath and regain as much stamina as she could. The scrolls opened up in mid-air before Buhakim slapped his palms together into a praying position.
"Ninja Style: Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna", Buhakim chanted out in a prayer-like tone as seemingly complete junk scattered from the scrolls where they were sealed in. The long fingers of the praying false-monk extended as the strings of a puppetry user lit up brightly with chakra that was being channeled through them. Upon receiving chakra signals the seemingly useless hunk of junk began shaping together into somewhat more cohesive shapes.
"Śrāvakayāna", the puppet-using youth chanted out as one of the puppets took the shape of a grotesque molding of bodies and limbs with over twenty arms and legs sticking out all over the puppet and way too many heads for comfortable looking. Several of its mouths shut firmly to keep the ragged red cloth that covered some of its parts up in place. "The Vehicle of Disciples", the youth mumbled to himself.
"Pratyekabuddhayāna", Buhakim continued to pray as the second puppet stuck itself together, taking the shape of a ship's wheel with arms for handles and an obsidian eye at the center. The remarkable feature of this puppet was that it apparently only took one string to control. "The Solitary Awakening", the youth concluded his prayer.
Something dense in the air suggested that this match was about to be concluded. It only made watching it from aside that much more difficult…
