The party of girls in the observatory area slowly proceeded outside and through a staircase that eventually lead them to bump into all of the audience members who, similarly to the girls, have decided to leave their seats and roam around. There were plenty of vendors offering their goods and services just outside the arena and they were about to have an unexpected field day.

One thing that almost instantly captivated Kiyomi's attention, besides Mana's continuous attempt to remove her blindfold, which resulted only in painful grunts and more tears before her tightening it back, was the head of Gasco towering above the rustling crowd. That meant that the boys had also chosen to leave their observatory on the opposite side and walk off their slightly sore from standing around feet as well as refresh their heads.

Kiyomi was surprised by how quickly, and rather rudely, Erumo shoveled the other girls away to run up to her teammate and congratulate him on his victory. Frankly, the Yamanaka had forgotten that the trapster was with them in the observatory to begin with, given how silent she's been throughout the whole last match. The blonde just sighed in frustration before looking around for more familiar faces. She expected to see Meiko shrieking about how crazy the battles were or at least complaining about how she fell asleep halfway through overseer Oke's hype talks.

Mana also shared Kiyomi's healthy curiosity about where this crazy shuffling of the crowd would take them. She was clearly looking uncomfortable by all the noise and stuffy air that must have troubled even her dead nose, untainted oxygen must have been a universal need. Gently moving his teammate aside, Yushijin approached Mana and Kiyomi, something that greatly confused the two, even if Kiyomi would have appreciated Yushijin's symmetrical and angled in all the right ways facial features any day for as long as she would need to.

"So, how did I do?" He sighed, looking both at Mana and Kiyomi.

"You're asking us?" Kiyomi coughed out.

"Well, I do recall you being somewhat competent in genjutsu in the Academy, meanwhile Mana is a little short of a prodigy in the field currently", Yushijin shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I've been ditching my focus on the illusionary arts for a while. It's kind of hard to stand out in the team when Mana spends so much time and effort on it", the Yamanaka shrugged, looking at Mana, the girl still looked uneasy around the two and looked like she'd rather drill right underground like some drill-wielding mole to avoid talking to them. Although, it could have just been the crowded and uncomfortable space causing this behavior in the magician.

"You were nothing less than amazing", Mana nodded, for a moment Erumo's eyes glittered like two little proud diamonds before shifting back to their spiteful initial state.

"That's not what you told everyone while watching the match, two-face!" The trapster scoffed at the magician. "Then again, why am I getting surprised by that kind of behavior, from you of all people…"

Yushijin lifted two fingers, just an inch short from pressing them against Erumo's lips in an attempt to silence his friend. He must have seen Mana's lingering thoughts, which she chose not to express initially. Now that she was "cornered", the magician realized that she kind of had to.

"To be entirely honest, I don't think you'll get promoted. Your skill was so intricate and your work and focus on a pair of jutsu instead of an entire arsenal of techniques was so fruitful that it is quite likely there were only one or two members of the Council that successfully read your movements, even if you did your best to include the Council into your illusionary arts". Mana mumbled it all out. Kiyomi felt bad for her friend having to get cornered by people who didn't quite like her and must have just tried to validate their twisted and skewed views of her.

"I see…" Yushijin closed his eyes with a bitter smile. It may have been full of foul tasting feelings but it was genuine and did not look malicious or like any of his distaste was directed at Mana. Quite the opposite, it felt more like the context of his bitterness was entirely pointing at mental self-immolation.

The four gently worked their way outside the arena, moving through a loud and a rather obnoxious crowd of civilians who expressed opinions of the spectrum so broad and in such numbers that it was difficult to even the trained ninja to filter specific ones out. It would have been much more reliable to read audience's reactions in the arena instead of listening to this cacophony of masses.

"You did not give a team from another village intel on our team's location out of spite or malice, did you?" Yushijin asked out of the blue, surprising everyone but Mana. Truthfully, it was tough to say just what the magician was thinking or how exactly she reacted to the youth's question seeing how she covered up her eyes.

"No. I did so out of a conflict of ideology with a certain lost friend. I made a choice, fully knowing the consequences of each of the possible choices I could have made at that moment. If you feel like I deserve your spite forever, I have accepted that outcome as what I had to gain from that choice outweighed that", Mana answered as the first cold breezes of fresh winter air met the nostrils of the ninja.

"You predicted that Kouta might react the way he did?" Yushijin raised an eyebrow.

"I knew he'd be really mad and that he'd have problems trusting me, the way things turned out was always a possible outcome of those results", Mana lowered her head making her face sink under the long and greasy mess of raven dark hair.

Yushijin snickered for a second before restraining his emotions and shifting back to his cold face again. In that moment, Kiyomi realized how much this youth reminded her of an Uchiha, it would be very difficult to enjoy the aesthetically pleasing sight of this young athletic man after this link was once made and will forever stay in her mind…

"That is not at all how I would have imagined you think. No offense, but from how Kouta used to be in love with you, imagining you mirroring those feelings completely… It's tough for someone to just cut it all loose for their Ninja Way. Sure, everyone says they are ready to do it, never give up, become the Hokage, greatest in something… Whatever their objective in life is… Everyone always stands by their word when it's easy, few do so when it's like it usually is", Yushijin observed.

Mana remained silent. It was not usually something that befits her. The Mana that Kiyomi knew would have probably talked her way into something stupid and then solved that stupid situation with the most stupid decision she just made up, ignoring those that are available to her. The silence extended for so long that Kiyomi and Erumo even shared uncomfortable glances at each other as if encouraging the other to kill it.

"Hey! There you two are!"

Meiko's cheerful as always voice did the deed for any of the two. Yushijin quickly extended his hand for a shake and after Mana accepted it just as quickly, Team Fir just walked off to their own ways. The redhead ran up to her friends, maneuvering around the numerous people in ways that would have made one question the fact that her legs were just bloody stumps just a bit over a month ago.

"How crazy was that last fight!?" The redhead yelled out, loud enough to embarrass Kiyomi in front of the passing by civilians and discomfort Mana.

Just a step away from the two, Meiko froze on her feet and freaked out, jumping back and tumbling over a bunch of people. All of whom decided to express their grievances with the blacksmith girl but upon gazing their eyes on her physical shape decided it against their best interests even in a village of such medical excellence where Meiko could now freely walk and successfully dropkick people.

Mana and paled out in her freakout Meiko shared a long and uncomfortable staredown, even if Meiko was staring at and Mana was staring through a dirty blindfold.

"Oh… It's just Mana, I kind of forgot she looked like a crazy swamp witch lady now", Meiko snickered innocently while shamefully stroking the back of her head and bowing it in front of the magician as if she could see the blacksmith doing it.

"I looked even worse when we met, you know", Mana looked away, crossing her hands on her chest, visibly a little bit flustered over being taken for an undead malevolent spirit from a swamp. The magician may have been slightly butthurt, but she was right – her skin and swellings significantly improved over the duration of the three matches.

"Seeing Nana flip out like that kinda reminded me of the time we met the Nine Tails, remember?" Meiko laughed out cheerfully, walking alongside the two teammates all relaxed-like.

"We all almost died, several times even before we even got to the beast's lair. Hard to forget", Mana replied.

"If that Daidao guy went as far as Nanaba did, maybe Meiko would be in the finals now", Kiyomi pressed her lips together in an almost cute pout.

"We all lucked out with the opponents we got", Mana bluntly exclaimed with a hint of fear behind her voice. "Those Jinchuuriki folk are in a completely different league to us or anyone in the Exams. I've never seen something quite like Nanaba's fight, she just got hit and bounced right back, freely letting the Seven Tails corrupt her just so she could fight longer. Her chakra and stamina appeared almost infinite, they are opponents that do not seem to tire, care much for injuries or ever run into chakra shortage problems. We should be glad that Daidao showed as much restraint as he did".

"You didn't see Nanaba's fight", Meiko flicked Mana's forehead before slowly removing the magician's blindfold and dangling it in front of her face, "This thing obstructed your view".

The ends of Mana's lips twisted upward and her cheekbones shot out, the magician grabbed the blindfold with almost pitch-point precision before wrapping it around her closed eyes. After her eyes were safely protected from even the most limited winter sunlight of this gloomy gray day the magician burst into laughter.


About twenty-five minutes later, just as scheduled, the matches were ready to continue with the arena being completely restored to its initial state. The snowfall was still getting in the way and ceaselessly covering the field with thin layers of white but it was not something that the officials could or wanted to do something about. They have seen Gasco utilize this element in a clever way already and wanted to see what the other competitors may think up of with this unusual for the matches condition in play.

The large screens hanging at the top of each corridor entrance displayed the names of the next contestants: Nara Sugemi and Vinda Calkem. This matchup explained why the sadistic young lady hadn't joined the other girls in the observatory area after the break.

Even if it took the matches twenty-five minutes to resume, the finals were actually halted for a bit longer than that as the flow of people returning to their seats took longer than expected to clear up. It was not until at least ten minutes extra that everyone returned to their seats and the arena was filled enough to where the officials chose to continue the match by having overseer Oke strut out and declare the next match.

"For the next match, we have Vinda Calkem – an impressive young kunoichi that blew us all away in the semi-finals with the advanced ability of Water Release, managing to eliminate both a competent Sunagakure competitor and a prime physical condition Guren clansman all by herself!" Oke pointed at Vinda who was entering the arena from the right before arrogantly crossing her arms on her chest and sneering at the opposite side of the arena and a corridor sunken in total darkness.

"She will be facing Nara Sugemi, a provider of a supremely brutal and impressively physical match where he showed off all of his taijutsu prowess and a unique spin on Nara clan techniques!" The crowd turned left to witness the other competitor enter. Sugemi had changed a lot since the semi-finals. His hair was a lot longer and still completely unrestrained, something that most Nara used to bother with. His physical condition also appeared to have improved as the young man had easily gained large amounts of weight through sheer physical training. Not to mention his raggedy vagabond-like clothing.

Almost immediately after overseer Oke finished talking Kiyomi could hear the audience below mumbling to each other dismissively about Sugemi's introduction. Even mere civilians seemingly have heard of the profound intelligence of the Nara clansmen and their proficiency at amazingly entertaining and efficient strategies. Hearing that Sugemi was a physical combatant above all else made them speak of him in a dismissive tone, almost like he was a reject or a failure already.

"People in Konoha are deeply bound by tradition and very unwelcoming of change, it seems", Mana muttered, given her sensory training she must have also overheard more than she would have like from the civilians below. Kiyomi had almost forgotten that Sugemi was once Mana's teammate and still a good friend. In fact, even if Sugemi suggested that there was once a falling out between her old team, he still quite obviously cared for her. He was the one to gather Team Hawthorn and Team Hokage together to rescue the magician after all…

Just as the match was declared having begun, the Nara charged at his opponent almost instantly. The speed at which he closed the distance between the two was remarkable and easily dwarfing the speed at which he was fighting Meiko in his base, unmodified by the Gates, state during the semi-finals. In fact, he may have matched his previous First Gate speed just the way he was now.

A strong barrage of kicks overwhelmed Vinda, stiff and painfully sounding, they bombarded everywhere from the girl's head to her chest and abdomen, then - her knees. A loud poof, not unlike that which the Substitution Jutsu leaves emanated through the arena but this was no Substitution even if Vinda evaporated in a cloud of white smoke, similar to how a Substitution unveiled itself. It was an advanced clone jutsu that Vinda had used. One that left a corporeal clone.

That was not it, one small detail caught Sugemi's eye – a seemingly harmless paper figurine floating right in the middle of the white cloud. The youth's eyes twitched in shock when it realized that this sphere was no cloned ninja tool but instead an origami water bomb. The lantern-like shape burst in mid-air, splashing its contents all over Sugemi who grunted in pain before stumbling back. Loud and skin crawling sizzling noises could have been audible coming from the young man but with a single flare of chakra the harmful effects of the acidic contents of the water bomb were disabled from causing too much harm.

"Not bad, huh?" A voice echoed from somewhere inside the arena. "I let my Shadow Clone enter the arena instead of me and you fell right for it… Did your little heart shutter when you realized you may melt away? Did you feel the chills crawling down your body when my special Water Release acid covered you, waiting for the pain to kick in and stressing to counter its effects?"

Sugemi smiled from under his long helm of sweaty hair. The smile transcended into a composed snicker and then into a full out laughter. It looked like the entertainment of her opponent shut Vinda up for good.

"You mean to tell me you were so stupid as to split your chakra in half before the match even started? Just to coat me in your stupid acid once? I barely broke a sweat neutralizing it, it'll take more than this for me to register this as even a try", Sugemi verbally assaulted his opponent.

His verbal attack revealed itself to be quite effective as sizzling shuriken shapes made of acidic liquid flew straight at Sugemi from an unclear point behind the trees standing at the south-western part of the arena.

"Water Style: Acid Shuriken!" Vinda yelled out after Sugemi covered himself up and allowed the shuriken constructs to hit him in the back, sizzling his dogi away into nothingness and revealing the scarred and iron-thick back of the Nara.

After a twitch, Sugemi's body flared up in blue chakra flames to counter the corrosive effects of Vinda's acid before the Nara turned his head sideways just at the location where the shuriken came at him from. Sugemi's blood-freezing eyes would have been enough to make anyone freak out and switch locations.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu!" Sugemi yelled out pressing his hands together into the position of the signature Nara hand seal, which all of their clan hijutsu required, and sitting down on one knee as a long tendril extended from his shadow, reaching up all the way into the dark embrace of the artificial patch of snowy forests where Vinda was hiding.

Without offering as much as a word, Sugemi leaped straight at the little patch of snowy forest forcing the kunoichi caught in his jutsu to mimic his movements and leap straight at him. Sugemi did not release his technique until it would have been too late for his opponent, in mid-air jumping punch position, to alter too much of her movement and the two ended up trading punches.

Vinda's lifeless body got violently yanked back at the trees, downing the whole row of them at once as while Sugemi got decked in the cheek as well, the difference between the strength of the two was simply too great.


"Something's different about Sugemi", Mana noted. "The Sugemi I used to know would have never considered that the entire forest is sunken in shade in this lousy winter weather, which molds with the shadow of anyone hiding in there, meaning he only had to touch the shadow of the forest to connect with his Shadow Possession".

"Look at those burns on his back", Kiyomi uttered in disbelief how recklessly Sugemi was fighting. "He let himself get hit twice just to land that one blow…"