Buhakim's hands erratically moved around, doing the youth's best to get the partially downed giant Bodhisattva back on its feet and ready for battle. Nanaba grinned with energy and vigor before spreading her feet wide and leaning her body down, preparing for a powerful leap. The intensity of the chakra flowing through her body scattered the remnants of dust scattered on the ground and the fallen snow, as well as creating a violent vortex that blasted away the continuously falling snow as well.
"Fire Style: Shooting Star!" Nanaba chanted out, weaving her hand seals before breathing out a turbulent jet of flames, the stream of blazes formed a man-sized fireball with sharp angles, somewhat resembling a cartoonish star shape.
"Puppetry Technique: Solitary Perfection!" Buhakim ordered his puppet, before it could fully recover with three hands being occupied with pushing the puppet off of the barrier it slammed into. Lazily the puppet shot forward its palm, driving it right into the star-shaped fireball and pushing it right back at Nanaba. The size of the puppet's arm was too great for Nanaba to dodge, given how she had dashed at the puppet right after blasting it with the fireball, aiming to attack it physically as well.
This time the jutsu actually appeared to hurt Nanaba as her heart-freezing scream echoed through the audience and her limp, partially blazing body fired out of the resulting explosion and slammed into the arena wall.
"Puppetry Technique: Solitary Awakened Perfection!" Buhakim once again commanded Bodhisattva to attack the weightlessly dangling, stuck in the hole in the wall she herself left Nanaba. The upper right arm of the puppet lit up with blue chakra flare as it slammed its palm right to where Nana was stuck in. An explosion of blue flame vortexes and smoke erupted taxing the protective barriers to once again work overtime in order to protect the awestruck audience.
A loud popping sound made Buhakim's eyes widen in shock. Ripples and cracks started splitting all across the arm that slammed the downed girl deeper into the wall as splinters and larger chunks of wood and metal began blasting off of the splitting appendage of the Bodhisattva. As the pulsing reactive force of Nanaba struggling against the Bodhisattva reached the colossal faces of the puppet, the entire structure got violently jerked and tossed backwards, falling on its bottom and opening up completely.
Kiyomi had expected to see Nanaba leap out from the rubble of the crushed wall and fire away at the puppet, continue the endless streak of brutal madness that these two have created but it appeared that the Jinchuuriki girl couldn't quite do that. Wiping the blood off of her busted lip and nose, trying to open up her swollen right eye, the vibrant blonde stumbled out of the rubble, rolling large chunks of it aside of her.
"She's fighting the puppet", Mana noted. Usually it would have been advisable to target the puppeteer, especially once the puppet was brushed aside, as it was twice already in the resulting brawl.
"She wants it to look good, she wants to destroy the puppet and see the audience's reaction to it. She wants to be seen and acknowledged", Kiyomi sighed.
"I can sort of relate to that, but that will cost her the promotion. Being acknowledged by the Council of professionals and being visually appealing to capture your audience are two different things. A true ninja is supposed to be the opposite of an entertainer", Mana shook her head.
"What do you know of her thoughts?" Stea sneered at Mana, it appeared that even the magician herself was surprised by the rather passive aggressive reaction from her opponent. "You have been an entertainer for the most of your life, from what I've heard. These people loved you since even before you stood on the stage, they spoke something about cardboard boxes and flowery dresses during your show. That feeling you have during your shows is the desire to selfishly indulge in that love you already captured, Nanaba wants to be acknowledged for the first time. She feels invisible and wants that to end. These two sensations are fundamentally different."
"What an idiot!" Vinda scoffed before leaning over the rail to observe the battle more clearly, seeing how Mana stepped off of it and moved back a bit. "She's the fucking Jinchuuriki, if she wants to be seen, just blow fucking shit up…"
"That wouldn't be her", Mana realized. "That would be the Tailed Beast inside of her. Nanaba wants to be acknowledged for what she is herself, not for what she has been made into".
After seeing Stea's more reserved nod, Kiyomi finally understood the tragic irony of Nanaba's life. The girl had no clan, no famous background or remarkable abilities. So far she barely showed anything but crafty mechanical arm engineering and Fire Release – literally the most common of the Chakra Nature types found in Konohagakure.
The girl must have accepted the Tailed Beast being sealed inside her because she wanted to be something more. Because she tried and failed to be acknowledged but all it did was cause the schism between her and everyone else to split even deeper. Her status as a Jinchuuriki was kept secret from the ordinary civilians so she could not truly show herself off to them, meanwhile those that did know of her special case were afraid of her because of what lurked inside of her. Some others yet were jealous of the power she held…
That was even if Nanaba had any choice on the matter of the Seven Tails being sealed inside her. Sometimes the Tailed Beasts were being sealed into actual babies so that the secret could be kept from them as well, with the possibility of it being revealed when it is most necessary and useful to the village. Even if the toddler did know the secret, by a freak accident or someone spilling the beans, they would still grow up without any biases. Biases which have formed around the Tailed Beasts and treat their power differently from those who have grown up without their Jinchuuriki status and accepted it later in their lives.
A crimson aura burst through from Nanaba's pores, creating an off-putting image of a wild girl who appeared to have been evaporating her own blood, when in fact it was merely some of the Tailed Beast's power letting loose. One's personality and dominant emotions had a feedback on one's chakra, how intense it was, sometimes its properties even. Seeing how most Tailed Beasts were forces of nature, their chakra always had a corrupting influence.
Releasing some of the inner demons always started out great. The first slip of the Tailed Beast's chakra only granted some extra chakra, enhanced one's physical strength, speed and empowered one's techniques. The more this exchange happened over the short period of time – the more the user would have been corrupted by the beast inside. Overseer Oke appeared to be watching Nanaba very carefully for overly corrupting influence, his face betrayed a clear distaste for the reliance on the Tailed Beast's chakra by the young lady contestant.
Nanaba charged at the massive puppet, jumping off of the ground like a human-arrow with a winded up flesh fist and six mechanical ones prepared to fire off behind her back.
"Puppetry Technique: Dual Awakened Perfections!" Buhakim huffed out, as his arms continued to dance gracefully, controlling the colossal puppet. Bodhisattva lifted up two of its top row arms before locking them up in a sledgehammer slam position, then driving them down as they fired up with blue chakra flares.
Nanaba's downfall was telegraphed by the lightning-fast blue pillar of chakra that started at the point of impact and ended resonating in pulsing shockwaves across the arena ground leaving nothing but the ravaged ground where she busted down into. The shockwave from this one slam caused the entire arena below to shatter and left only a messy pile of rocks and rubble from what was previously a stage of combat designed to incorporate multiple stages from all around the world.
It took a couple of moments before the bland blue glow that shocked and emanated from under the rubble stopped glowing. With her jumpsuit partially tattered and her skin covered with bruises and beatings, Nanaba leaped out from where she was crushed into. The swollen eye, cracked lip, and a busted nose were no longer bleeding – the regeneration that the Jinchuuriki granted its host when they allowed the beast's chakra to leak out was quite impressive.
But something was wrong – Nanaba's eyes were whited out completely and a layer of red, wispy chakra was completely enveloping and surrounding her. The civilians in the audience may have looked rather confused and thought that this was just some sort of odd technique they have never heard of but most ninja present and observing the match shifted in their seats uneasily.
Nanaba Aomyaku had entered the Initial Jinchuuriki Form, she had not yet surrendered her will or control of her body to the Tailed Beast but she was quite close to that point. Right now it was tough to say how much chakra that Nanaba leaked out from her body was hers and how much of it was the Seven Tails'.
"You're fairly skilled in lore and history of the Ninja World, what kind of personality does the Seven Tails have?" Kiyomi turned at Mana uneasily, wondering if these protective barriers could even withstand the power of something as wild and scary as a Tailed Beast. Given how worn out they already were, that was unlikely.
"Well, it's tough to say," Mana shook her head, "There are speculations and several historical recounts of Seven Tails having rather cheerful and go-lucky, fun-loving personality. Given Nanaba's own nature, these two would be compatible if that was the case which would make them more willing to work together and a more efficient weapon. That must have been why the village sealed the Beast into someone of an unimpressive background like Nanaba. It would make sense that it would be the most likely personality of the Beast."
"Hmph, you brainy types are always speculating and wondering. Never a clear-cut answer…" Vinda sneered at Mana mockingly, with a sadistic smile, without doubt imagining melting the girl's flesh off her bones.
"Personalities of someone as unstable as the Tailed Beasts differ. In our journey to the Wind Country we have met a worn out and starved to near death Nine Tails. There was no method or malice in its eyes, just its beastly nature and the desire to escape and destroy its shackles. Even Seven Tails could turn destructive if it is unhappy about being imprisoned or if it hates its host. They aren't math equations, they are beasts with personalities and feelings."
"It is said that the Tailed Beasts together comprise the 98 percent of the universe's chakra. All the people living now and the endless universe itself only share the remaining 2 percent. Given that knowledge, even a playful and happy Tailed Beast sounds absolutely terrifying", Stea smiled bitterly, it was a smile, which was meant to acknowledge the fragility of her own existence when the girl remembered the insane universe she lived in.
Kiyomi caught a glimpse of Mana's objecting face, she had something to say to Stea's quoted claim of the Tailed Beasts' properties but for whatever reason decided not to do so. Perhaps too many painful memories laid in the story that the magician wanted to tell with her objection... If anyone had a bitter memory to accompany every one of their experiences and stories, Mana would have been that person.
"Puppetry Technique: Vehicle of Three Awakened Perfections!" Buhakim roared out, throwing both of his arms forward. Following his command, the massive faceless icon of Uber-Spirituality winded up for a ruthless assault using three of its arms.
Answering her opponent's call for battle, Nanaba emitted her own fearsome battle cry and kicked off the ground, once again sending her body on a collision course with the massive Bodhisattva and preparing her mechanical arms for a vicious rampage she would unleash to tear down the puppet's body.
Just as the flaring with blue chakra flames three arms began pummeling at the aerial shape of the Jinchuuriki girl, Nanaba answered with her own assault. Her own awakened borrowed power matched, if not outdid a little, Bodhisattva's innovated offensive, compared to the limited pool that the Bodhisattva possessed in the semi-finals. As the fists of the massive puppet and Nanaba clashed, even more cracks began emanating through Bodhisattva's arms and even more spear-sized splinters and scrap shot out from its overstressed body.
"Fire Style: Spirited Shooting Star!" Nana shouted out with an inhuman, wild voice. Certain fearsome undertones were present in her voice, almost like an actual demon more ancient and terrible than the world everyone shared was speaking through her. The girl breathed out another large tongue of flames, still in mid-air, before shouting loudly behind her. The concussive force of her shout instantly lit up the protective barriers and propelled the girl forward in the moment of lost momentum.
Nanaba drove her arm forward to grab the star-shaped fireball she had fired at her opponent and to drive it into its face using her own hand. Before she could do that, the girl failed to notice the darkening skies and all-consuming shadows of the Bodhisattva's slapping palm before it was too late. Detonating the Shooting Star and smacking the girl back down under the rubble, the Bodhisattva quickly shut Nanaba's hearty streak of vicious attacks down.
"Puppetry Technique: Six Perfections!" Buhakim pressed his arms by his side and tensed his body up, preparing to a great physical strain that performing this technique would have required of him. The Bodhisattva extended its main set of arms, the ones that had a hieroglyph of a different virtue inscribed on their palms before slamming them all at the pile of rocks and rubble where Nanaba flew and got buried under after being slapped down.
Before the hands could crush and grind all the debris into dust with the intense pressure and force of impact, it appeared to meet an invisible force of resistance. That was before a fearsome sound emanated through the stage, forcing everyone to close their ears as it was both intimidating and heart-piercing by how loud it was. Not just loud: wild, uncontrollable, angry… It was not the Tailed Beast that was corrupting Nanaba, it was Nanaba's own desire to be acknowledged and witnessed and the frustration of failing to achieve the goals she had set for herself that corrupted the playful seven-tailed demon inside her.
The resulting shockwave threw the six virtuous arms of Bodhisattva aside from the sheer force of it. Once again the protective barriers dyed the lower central part of the arena bright purple. Buhakim stumbled back before gripping his pain-ridden chest with his right hand before extending his left forward, shifting his fingers and doing his best to work the Bodhisattva's control panel to command it to press onward.
"Puppetry Technique: Six Perfections!" Buhakim roared out, using its six remaining, undamaged and unaffected by Nanaba's shockwave generating and ground leveling battlecry arms to repeat the six-armed assault on the downed Jinchuuriki.
A fiery star-shaped fireball, supersized compared to the previous size of fireballs unleashed by Nanaba burst from underground with the glowing crimson and completely enveloped by a chakra cloak of red, boiling aura Jinchuuriki driving her hand into it and pushing it onwards. Numerous explosions rippled through the additional six arms of the Bodhisattva while the six arms that were used for the second Six Perfections exploded into shatters as the fireball ripped right through them. The Spirited Shooting Star then blasted the epic puppet straight into its central faceless orb, sending it crashing back until it slammed into the protective barrier where it would've normally crushed through an entire side of the arena killing thousands in the audience.
Kiyomi took a moment to look at the audience, even she – a trained and fairly hardened in battle ninja was leaning down and covering herself from each of the resulting shockwaves and in complete disbelief at all times of the awesome clashing powers in the arena. She could only imagine the horror in the eyes of a simple civilian who only gets to chance of experiencing such awesome clashes between what must seem to them as gods themselves during such events.
The audience was rustling alright, but those were no longer the screams of acknowledgment and entertainment. Even behind the protective barriers the audience was completely scared shitless for their own safety and screaming in discomfort and petrifying fear. Kiyomi's wavering eyes moved up to follow the events transpiring in the completely totaled arena. Seeing the amount of devastation and lack of control in the match made the Yamanaka wonder just how was continuing the event after this match possible.
Nanaba did not even look to be at all worn after that last attack, just as her shrouded in the crimson chakra cloak feet hit the first solid chunk of rubble, she kicked off, completely smashing it to bits in the process, and charged at Buhakim himself this time. Nanaba may have no longer been in control, it used to be her firm objective to total the Bodhisattva, the Seven Tails may have willed to end this battle quicker so that this madness finally stopped…
Buhakim shouted out in pain, at this point, it appeared, even merely moving his arms was beginning to burn up his fatigued muscles. He was suffering from extreme chakra shortage and it became clear almost immediately after his first response to the upcoming deadly attack. The Bodhisattva merely froze in place before beginning to collapse into small pieces of Solitary Awakening's and Vehicle of Disciple's wreckage that it was constructed from. Buhakim fell on his knees as he began sweating profusely on the remains of the totaled arena.
Before the Uber-Spiritual One could even accept or realize his incoming demise, however, a giant black tub, decorated with horned skulls and covered with rings full of spikes crashed on top of Nanaba, following a loud and authoritative voice of Overseer Oke.
"Ninja Style: Parliament of Obsidian!" he chanted out.
Loud bangs and roaring noises emanated from under the dark tub but not even in its worsened state could Nanaba budge the tub one bit. It appeared that light itself was bent as it traveled around the tub, distorting its view whenever one tried to lay their eyes on it. The pressure inside could've been unbearable, or it could've been completely normal and this jutsu was just a restraining mechanism, which would've made Oke perfect for overseeing a similar event.
Buhakim mumbled something unintelligibly before Overseer Oke gestured at his direction. "Examinee Buhakim is declared the victor. Examinee Nanaba is disqualified for breaking the rules. The Chuunin Exams will undergo a twenty-five-minute intermission so that the arena may be repaired and the protective barriers - examined".
"Disqualification? That doesn't make any goddamn sense!" Vinda flipped out, she appeared to be just about the only person around admiring the devastation that the clash between the two had created.
"It does not", Stea did not look happy to agree with her much more erratic and hotheaded peer. "The overseer did not see the necessity to interfere even when Gasco was about to kill his opponent. Killing is also supposedly allowed by the rules. It is painfully obvious that this had everything to do with Nanaba's Jinchuuriki abilities leaking out. The rich and powerful Konoha is protecting some skeletons in its closet, as usual".
"Did you hear what Buhakim said when he collapsed?" Mana mumbled to herself in a melancholic tone, seemingly ignoring Stea's demeaning remark aimed at her village and at the same time interrupting Kiyomi who was about to object to it as well. "He said he couldn't control chakra, he kept repeating it was unfair, that he still had chakra left…"
"You think he broke his network through reckless augmentation?" Kiyomi wondered, fully knowing Mana's own painful history with this mistake.
"Probably", the magician shrugged. "Most likely", she lowered her head sadly.
