Zahafbit put his hands together, preparing to execute the third strike of his Speyeder illusion. His face was sweating, similarly to Kiyomi's. His hands were slow and heavy, compared to how they moved before. It was not tough to see that the strain of using both the Summoning Jutsu to call for such a giant creature as well as repeatedly bashing his head against the wall with a B-Rank illusion was weighing on him as well, not to the same extent as it was on the spider itself, however.
"Genjutsu: Speyeder"! Zahafbit shouted out, slower, in a more husky and tired tone and with an odd expression on his face. The expression that a rat had when wandering into a maze, knowing that it'd likely result in its death or it getting lost but still wanting that cheese and counting on that slim chance of the fact that maybe the unfortunate will not be happening.
Kiyomi made three quick hand seals with her hands once the illusion of her opponent was concluded and Zahafbit was locked down in just standing still and controlling the stream of chakra that was transformed into light and transmitted through the target's body.
"Transformation Jutsu"! Kiyomi chanted casually, wasting a minuscule speck of chakra on a technique taught to Academy Students.
After a poof of smoke covered the girl, before quickly dissipating, Zahafbit opened his jaw wide. He may have expected Kiyomi on once again counting on overcoming his illusion through dispelling it, something that'd have cost her tremendous effort and even more of her already sliced in half and depleted even further chakra pool.
He may have suspected an attempt by Kiyomi to launch ninja tools at him or the spider, to attempt one of her Yamanaka hijutsu and try to hit it this time. One thing he did not expect was for his opponent to transform into a large anchor and just nonchalantly wait out the emerald glow of the illusion, due to her anchor'y nature being unable to see the emerald light, therefore - harmless to the light-based illusion. Kiyomi waited, while still transformed, for a couple of moments before returning to her original form.
Zahafbit's hands weighed down, swinging weightlessly. His head sunk to the bottom of where his muscular neck allowed it to go. As the youth's handy giant spider dissipated into smoke, leaving large marks and grazes over where it had scratched into the walls and the arena floor to stand upright, he felt completely defeated.
"It's just a matter of time", Kiyomi grinned confidently. "You look like you're beginning to hit the wall there", the blonde teased her opponent with his own words again.
"Transformation Jutsu", Zahafbit chuckled bitterly to himself, "Transformation Jutsu"! He shouted out before he lashed out, rushing at Kiyomi with impending physical attacks. He was smarter than to throw the fight away.
This fighting mode defied and eliminated surrender as a viable option. It may have been reasonable to surrender in a one on one match when there was no hope of beating one's opponent and it was apparent. In this match, one had to maximize the strain that their fight placed on their opponent, surrendering would have wasted potential battle damage and exhaustion that fighting placed on someone. Too much depended on one's refusal to surrender in such a match…
Kiyomi gracefully stepped aside from a powerful downwards cross intended to punch the breath out of her body so that Zahafbit could properly work on her face. The blonde responded with a pair of quick chops and palm strikes where she found the most offensively gaping openings. It did not hit hard, but it annoyed her opponent more and an enraged opponent was easier to read.
Kiyomi kicked her opponent straight in the gut, bending him over and letting her flip over her front and lock her legs around Zahafbit's throat in a reverse choke hold. As she hung downward, tightly wrapping her thighs around her opponent's face, she could freely overwhelm the tired brute with strikes.
That was what she did. Kiyomi just continued to punch, after one hand fired off into a punch, the next one was cocked back and ready to strike again. A barrage of blindingly fast chain punches, unaugmented, just pure physical strength and the fruit of Kiyomi's training with her uncle's assistants. This was the scenario she was preparing herself for – her hijutsu were too slow or predictable, all she had to rely on was her taijutsu.
Zahafbit roared out loudly, gripping hold of Kiyomi in a lightning fast bear hug and forcing her to scream out in pain as her legs got painfully caught out of place and diagonally locked in the bear hug. The genin gained momentum and speed, rushing forward and diving outside of the barrier – heading straight for the ring out. Kiyomi kept on pummeling her opponent's body but Zahafbit was approaching dangerously close to that final diving leap outside. He was too close even for Kiyomi's hijutsu to connect. She only had time for a pair of hand seals now!
"I'll eliminate us both!" Zahafbit huffed out loud, taking a strong tackling leap outside the arena and landing in a body slam that almost dislocated and broke Kiyomi's legs straight outside the arena.
"Contestant Zahafbit, ring out", the overseer ruled.
"What the fuck? I tackled her outside of the ring"! Zahafbit objected after pulling his hands off of Kiyomi and then looking at her again. Blood was seeping from the kunoichi's thighs, hands and her cheek as steel wire was cutting into her body.
"Stwing Weeling Jutfu" she wheezed, still biting into the steel wire. Much to his shock, Zahafbit realized that Kiyomi wasn't really touching the floor outside the ring but hanging by a literal bunch of threads, like a puppet, on steel wire attached to his own tag scroll that was floating immobile through an unclear ninjutsu technique used by the exam staff.
"String Reeling Jutsu! You dare mock me with Academy Techniques again"!? Zahafbit snorted in pure rage before throwing a powerful downwards hook and smashing Kiyomi into the ground, tearing all of the steel strings apart.
"Contestant Zahafbit's team is disqualified for attacking an examinee after elimination. The winning team – Jekleifer Kaguya from Team Corundum, Iwagakure and Yamanaka Kiyomi from Team Hokage, Konohagakure", the overseer ruled.
"W-Wait"! Zahafbit tried to argue but a whole mess came up as he did. Kiyomi rolled on the ground, writhing in pain as her gums and several loose teeth bled profusely and made her spit up blood from time to time. She would not have minded a little bit of help, truthfully, and it felt like a whole eternity until that help came.
"Doma will be really pissed that he got eliminated due to his teammate losing his shit", Gasco Patura of Team Phobos thundered out with his husky voice as staff members helped Kiyomi get up and get to the infirmary and the party passed Team Phobos by.
"True, but it's a little funny, don't you think. The second most powerful genin in the building getting eliminated this way", Stea chuckled to herself before answering Kiyomi's worried glare with a calming and cheerful glance of her own.
Mana sighed, looking through the hospital window. The day was turning into the night outside as corrupting gloom claimed more and more of the daily light in the sky. By now, the semi-finals of the Chuunin Exams must have been already over and yet she had not heard anything that transpired there. Obviously, the finals would be made into a big deal, with the big breakthrough of television as of late, and movie theatres it would be broadcasted pretty wide. Much more would gather to see it live…
How did Kiyomi do, just what is Meiko's current condition… So many questions plagued the magician and yet… There were other troubles, ones of the more emotional kind plaguing her internally. Kouta did not come. Sure, he was not allowed to be present in the hall during the semi-finals as he was not an examinee anymore but he was allowed in the hospital. Several other Konoha genin present in the hospital received a lot of attention, not from their team but from their past classmates in the Academy and other people who held them dear.
In a way, Mana felt like a foreigner in her own village. Sure, as Konoha's Sorceress, a stage magician, she could gather full halls of people and entertain them pretty well but… As a ninja, she seemed to be either completely unseen or outright disliked due to her Ninja Way or just the way she did things.
Maybe this was a sign, a sign that it was enough. A sign that she wasn't quite ninja material and should've devoted her life just to entertain people on stage? Then again, she did win her match. If she could have advanced onwards, lead her own squads of ninja into missions and even eventually become jounin and saved lives while doing it… Wasn't it her responsibility to walk that cold and gloomy road to its very end?
"Yo"! A familiar rugged face, speaking with an oddly familiar Kumogakure dialect entered the ward. Eiju had changed plenty, his hair had been groomed to be tidier and was combed backward. He had a butter colored stubble and was dressed more formally, which in ninja terms was to say more casually, compared to the more militaristic outfits of most medical ninja who were ready to be called on into extreme impromptu missions at any time.
"Hey, Eiju", Mana smiled softly, "You feeling OK? You look… Tired".
"Well, you're the one in the literal hospital bed with a pretty wicked scar on your chest, love, I know a losing battle of "compare the scars" when I see one", Eiju played it off, as he was known to do, before popping some pills out of his front white jacket pocket.
"Since you're visiting this late, it must mean Kiyomi was sent here too. That means her battle went awry. Is she OK"? Mana sat up worryingly.
"Wow, I forgot when talking to you became… Just standing in the doorway and letting you read me. I could've taken this long because it's been a pretty pissy day what with all those teens almost killing themselves in handfuls"! Eiju sighed before dropping onto shoddy hospital chair and handling it to better fit his confident and cool sitting pose.
Mana kept on staring at a figure from her past awkwardly, with almost scolding eyes that she herself used to get as a child when her mother scolded her.
"Yeah, she's been here. Apart from some missing teeth and several of tears and lacerations on her hands and feet from steel wire – she is just peachy, won the match by herself by having the other bloke break the rules or something. Taking her away from that redhead's ward was a hassle though…" Eiju looked through the window, Mana imagined that her friend must have been glad that the ward was dark and that the magician could not see him look embarrassed after being figured out.
"Meiko's ward? What's the matter? Is everything alright with her"? Mana jumped up and tried to get back up on her feet. It was not a difficult feat since she had gone through plenty of Mystical Palm sessions that day and drank way too many pain numbing herbs teas.
"Wait, you didn't know? Well… That's gonna be a doozy to explain. The redhead's fine, won't be walking for a week or four but... Kiyomi...", Eiju smacked himself in the forehead before stroking his hand up his rich hairline and messing it all up. Not that the young man appeared to care as his workday was pretty much over already. "You see, when a girl loves another girl very very much… Ugh… No, wait…"
"Wait… Kiyomi is in…" Mana blinked a couple of times rapidly. "How does that even…"
Eiju whinnied his erratic laughter out. He was eating Mana's inexperience and childish naivete up. "You know, for an advocate of love for life and an opponent to violence, you sure beat a lot of people up and are quick to judge love", he coughed out, still laughing.
"No, no" Mana shook her palms wildly, with a face as surprised as it was confused, now it was her who felt glad that only the starry sky and the third quarter moon lit up her ward as the lights in the outside corridors were slowly going out, one by one. "I mean… It's fine, I just… Didn't think about it that way… Kiyomi and Meiko, that is".
"Well, what do you know, traveled around the world and still hasn't seen shit. Weren't you visiting Otogakure that one time? That place is the queer capital of the world, well, they don't call it that… I mean… I do, everyone gets pretty pissed when I do so... Then again, people do get pissed when you tell the truth, whatever, I'm just mumbling at this point", Eiju mocked Mana's lack of experience again, something that was becoming a habit of their interactions as, for some reason, whenever they met, they'd always have a short talk of those matters.
"Fair warning though, love, don't call her out on it, or anything. She'll clock you in the face. Learned that one the painful, personal way", Eiju rubbed his right cheek. "Anyways, I recall us talking about some bloke that time, how's that going? Surprised he isn't kneeling by your bed, singing praises like it's your deathbed, which it isn't"! It looked that Eiju felt really obligated to affirm that last part after Mana's blank and pale face after he mentioned it.
"Oh, uh… He broke it apart. I hurt him too much", Mana mumbled under her own nose, just loud enough for her friend to hear, it may have still been a wound spraying fountains of blood but the magician didn't want to repeat those words again so she had to force it out in a way that she'd be properly heard the first time.
"Oh, wow, people usually don't use those personal blame taking mannerisms in those kinds of things. They say "it didn't work out" or shite like that, even if it's all their fault entirely", Eiju rubbed his nose awkwardly, realizing he hit a sensitive nail in the head.
"Speaking from personal experience"? Kiyomi mumbled in the doorway, sounding quite scornful at the blond doctor who jumped back on his feet, fixed his tie and quickly rushed out of the ward, after offering quick farewells to both girls.
"Oh… I thought you'd have left home", Mana mumbled out.
"Yeah, but I have a feeling that sensei of ours hadn't come to visit you today", Kiyomi sighed before entering Mana's ward and sitting down where Eiju was sitting recently.
"I don't think if you noticed but she doesn't like me all that much. Call me paranoid, but I think it has something to do with me risking the life of her favorite student in that forced wedding situation in the Land of Waves", Mana sighed remembering another painful wound still bleeding in her heart after all this time.
"That's not what I meant. She was supposed to brief you about how the semi-finals went and about the finals five weeks from now", Kiyomi replied with irritation, initially Mana felt like her friend was just in a foul mood but it appeared that her ire was not aimed at the magician but rather at the neglectful sensei of theirs.
"Oh… So how did your fight go"? Mana tried to make this situation a bit less of a formal briefing and more like two friends talking on a cold season evening.
"Not as brutal as that punching contest of your crazy partner's but… We won", Kiyomi waved her hand at it.
"I'm pretty sure, when things go like Eiju described them going, the scientific term is "you won"", Mana smiled. "I heard something about Roh-D's battle being a bit wild, was it really that brutal"?
"Girl, you've no goddamn idea! Both Oto-B and Roh-D spent their substitutions early on and had to play safe, right? Except they didn't, they just leaped at each other and started doing their thing, without bothering to defend themselves. Roh-D kept punching, hammering and blasting that chubby bastard but somehow the fatso persevered and after just lobbing scythe combination after scythe combination came out on top. It was beyond brutal"! Kiyomi shook her head as her mind sank back into the awe she was observing those two just standing in front of each other and throwing wild punches and scythe slashes at their opponent.
"OK, so what about the Chuunin Exams, how did the semi finals go, what about the finals"? Mana finally let her friend proceed with what she wanted to tell her in the first place.
"Oh, so after you left, I was partnered with Jekleifer Kaguya, you won't know him, I beat this Zahafbit guy, one sided battle, absolutely no chance for him, trounced him completely. It was so sick that the overseer disqualified his whole team so then your home girl eliminated Doma Nacasa from Team Phobos without even confronting him", Kiyomi grinned with great confidence while giving Mana a thumb up.
"Uh-huh… I am feeling like you're slightly overselling your epic achievements but… For the sake of getting this done, please proceed, eliminating Doma is impressive though, even if it's the first time I hear about you facing Doma", Mana nodded before realizing the weight of the secret that Kiyomi withheld from her. The magician could put it together that it was "for her own sake" and so that Mana would not worry, still, she would've loved to know that Kiyomi would be fighting Doma Nacasa of Team Phobos in her next match back then…
"Okay, so then… Let's see… Tanko Shigin from the Ninja Academy days teamed up with Nanaba from Sugemi's team. Nanaba still hadn't fixed her arms but Shigin completely crushed both Quill B and Ripper Inaba teamed up together with his complete invincibility to actual damage ability. Inaba eliminated Shigin with a genjutsu which he cast using his stupid rhymes as a sound channel but Nana managed to finish the match by that point", Kiyomi recounted.
"Ummm… Okay, I don't remember Shigin being so strong, I think he was always kind of bullied and made fun of in the Academy", Mana scratched her chin before realizing that she may just end up facing him in the finals, "We may need to figure out how that ability of his works, it does sound powerful".
"So, then, in the final match, Yushijin – Kouta's hot as shit teammate teamed up with this Vinda bitch who used some sort of acidic water and burnt both Tolkre Guren, the guy who encased you in crystal back in the Forest of Death, and this Salnisa girl from Sunagakure who threw knives at people using her fan to create wind currents for them to fly through. They were both really badly burnt but I think they're OK now, chakra based acid is very easily removed and its wounds are much more manageable than chakra based fire", Kiyomi sighed after finishing to sum up the matches that Mana had missed.
"Okay, that's some pretty powerful examinees that proceeded to the finals. What are the match-ups"? Mana asked, feeling her heart pumping and breaking out of her chest, in moments like that she almost did not want to know.
"Oh… Ummm… Well…" Kiyomi was clearly quite uncomfortable to tell Mana the exact match up.
"I mean… You came here to tell me, right. If I don't know, it'll just be worse off for…" Mana tried to reason with her hesitant friend before Kiyomi just clenched her fists and shouted out, completely shutting Mana up for good.
"Stea Tesprea from Team Phobos, that's who you'll be facing in five weeks"!
