"Was it worth it?" Stea breathed out, forcing air through her throat and nostrils before throwing her body forward at Mana. Swiping her palms in the manner of chopping motions, as if her palms were knives and Stea danced in a complicated martial arts style.

The magician put her hands up, she was not used to seeing such completely innovative fighting styles. It was by no means a deep style or a difficult one to master, or understand, yet it was one of Stea's own making nonetheless. Hits continued to slip past the magician's staunch, sluggish and generalized defenses, a result of still persisting dizziness of recently very crippling anxiety she felt so very recently. Whenever a chop hit her in the liver, her sides or her joints, exposed areas of the magician's neck, it was like being cut by a sword that inflicted all of the pain but none of the actual damage of a sword strike.

With every skipped blow, Mana's entire nervous system lit up like the sky in the Snow Country did during aurora borealis. It was like all of the magician's pain receptors went off at the same time, branching out in a system, a river of pain from the source of Stea's impact. There was no time to comprehend the manner of attack and focus on each individual strike when they sieged Mana's sloppy defenses by hundreds of thousands each second.

"Was it worth betting all of your chips on chakra sensory and losing everything? This battle, your future, your team!?" Stea kept on pushing on. Mana knew what the girl was doing – her opponent attempted to piss Mana off, try and make her fire up, bring about the second wind of the Konoha's Sorceress to make this battle appear like less of a one-sided beating.

Mana was not that kind of person. She was not a pent up bottle of emotion looking for a verbal or any other reason to lash out with all of her built up might. She was different. Words did not build her up, words did not inspire her to blaze hotter and strike harder, they tore her down because each word registered, each word passed through Mana's mind and each one of them was paid and given Mana's utmost attention.

Throwing up a mouthful of blood, Mana collapsed on her knees. Stea's martial art style was simple, it was one of the eight varieties of Land of Wind knife-fighting. It was basic, the foundations for this style could have been found in any library, leave alone Konoha's extensive Archive building. It was polished somewhat, the second arm laid entirely winded back for defense, that was clever. Many desert knife-fighters used it sloppily for balance or just left it dangling, some of them used it as a reserve attacking hand, always attacking with fifty percent efficiency. Stea also had her legs spread as widely as her long silken dress allowed her to spread them without tearing – a strong balance was also a weakness of Land of Wind knife-fighters.

"I had to", Mana responded, wiping off the remaining blood that leaked out from her damaged liver off her lips. "Tracking just your pressure was about as accurate as relying on dreams to tell your future. I am not playing cards, I needed more certainty and clarity."

Mana's eyes lingered sadly across the arena, the audience did not look excited. They looked appalled. Most civilians thought they were a bloodthirsty bunch. That was only because they have never seen a truly bloody battle. There must have been some mercy and decency hidden deep underneath even the most violent soul. That hopeful observation gave Mana the strength to get back on her feet. Her knees and elbows had gotten grazed quite nastily by a number of times she'd been forced down on them.

Stea dashed off again, using the same form, that was just careless. Mana easily danced around the same strikes leaving her opponent looking like a fool. Still, that would lead to little actual success. The magician could not effectively counterattack, disabling half of what her own taijutsu-style was supposed to achieve. Every counterattack would have only made her opponent stronger, both as far as her jutsu and her medical techniques were concerned.

A blindingly fast combat roll. Stea had changed the adapted and modified form of knife-fighting. That was clever, the prodigy must have had suspicions about Mana's highly defensive style as being more of an analytical nature so she did not approach the magician by any completely textbook simple styles, she invented her own. A lesser one and more basic, but comprised of very unpredictable forms and spots and a variety of elements that required experiencing them first to read them right.

An upwards thrust of Stea's palm split the air around it, aimed at Mana's throat, such a strike would have knocked the magician out cold, if not killed her by crushing her windpipe completely. Breathing would have been impossible until medical attention was received. An adapted thrust of Kirigakure style knife-fighting, using her palm instead of a knife… She was a reader, not a practician. Mana had enough perception and agility left in her to hop back, avoiding certain humiliating defeat.

"What's the matter? You're fighting sloppy, even now that you're back in your body, your mind is still solving problems far away from this battlefield." Stea closed her eyes, looking offended that Mana was not entirely in the here and now, it was true, her attention has been slipping in and out, moving away to face the sights she saw in the prison of her own mind before being forced back.

"I'm sorry," Mana placed her extended palm on her chest, as a gesture of apology. "It's just that the anxiety that overtook me made me confront things that tend to make me anxious in the first place. You hit hard, fast and with purpose but… I have no fears of dying here so it does not scare me nearly as much."

"So that's it then?" Stea grunted out before charging at Mana with an entirely different form, this time, both of her arms were stiff and extended wide, the young woman attacked using the sides of her palms, her elbows, both front and the back, and her shoulders like the most common forms of staff fighting would have allowed their user to do.

Mana's hands rose up, bent at the elbows as she carefully applied just the right amount of force and speed to redirect the wide swinging attacks of her opponent. Arms made a poor substitute for an actual staff for they lacked the middle part. That was such an obvious weakness that the magician wondered for a second if she was being lured into a trap before throwing a cautious palm strike that stopped right up and in front of Stea's shocked face. In surprise and intimidation, the Getsugakure kunoichi flipped back a pair of time to gain distance and use her gracefully moving feet to keep her opponent from pursuing her.

"What is your battle plan exactly?" Stea carefully moved around just to keep moving, there was another reason for it, the young woman attempted to hide her suspicions that Mana was up to something and her thighs were shaking a little. Her conscious mind kept on convincing the genin that there could have been nothing that Mana could have used but… Stea clearly gave Mana enough credit not to submit to such confidence.

"Right? We both know I won't cross the line and leave you with brain damage so using genjutsu is impossible for me. Any physical attacks I use will only empower your own abilities through the damage seals so I am effectively disabled here", Mana confidently extended her arms, the magician saw her opponent's surprise when Stea realized that Mana was acting and explaining her problems for the audience. Since Stea had seen Mana's show, she knew where Mana would turn the speech to next. It was time for the "But…" part.

"But there is one more, absolutely insane and reckless, suicidal even, option." Mana raised one finger up playfully teasing the audience, the Ninja Council, her opponent and, also challenging Stea to figure it out at the same time.

"You can't possibly mean..." Stea broke her stance out of the absolute bafflement of the crazy strategy she just realized Mana chose.

"That's right, it was absolutely integral for me to regain my chakra sensory just so I could even consider trying it", Mana bowed with a smile, dusting off the snow and dirt off her knees and her skirt before clenching a raised fist and extending one finger. "Now that I have regained a limited access to my chakra sensory, with limited range, I can tell that you have, so far, used one-third of your chakra. Even given your conscious efforts not to combat my illusions, just that lashing out at my clones cost you more stamina and chakra than it would have taken to dispel that illusion".

"You can't attempt to fight me directly, that will charge my seals up to where you'll be completely outmatched, remember your fight with Doma!" Stea objected. She wanted a cool fight, she wanted the fight to look flashy for the audience and the Council. Maybe she did not yet realize that if Mana was to make a calculated gamble that way, she'd make the singlehandedly most flashy and over the top battle this audience had seen that day.

"It's always the same with most ninja. All they are looking at are the new heights: more power, more speed, stronger jutsu, larger chakra signatures and denser bones. By reaching out to these new heights, very few ask the question if they are truly ready for them, just because they can reach them. That is why I made sure, in these past two and a half weeks, to perfect my current state, my old jutsu. I do not like gambling but… I will bet that I now have the ability to drain you out of chakra before you can beat me with that monstrous ability of yours." Mana boldly declared.

"Very well", Stea once again took the offensive stance of her chop-fighting martial art. "I will take you up on that bet".

Blood trickled down Mana's thumb as her teeth dug into it hard enough to draw some of it out. The magician's hands raced for hand seals, Stea did not even attempt to interrupt it, why would she? She was so absolutely sure that she could beat Mana before passing out due to a shortage of chakra.

"Summoning Jutsu!" the magician yelled out, pushing her hand down into her hat before forcefully yanking Usuzoku out of it. Given how large her partner was, Mana was lucky to be able to call her partner out through her father's seals in the first place.

"I didn't expect ta be out 'ere", the rabbit warrior voiced his disgruntlement almost immediately after Mana's version of the Summoning Jutsu concluded. He was right to not have expected to be called upon, Mana's original plans did not include the rabbit being called on.

"I'm doubling down on this. Just hit her as hard as you can, as often as you can. I'll be doing the same." Mana grinned at her partner, it was possibly the first time of them working together that she saw the rabbit do an almost dirty grin.

"Dat I can do!" he nodded before using his oversized feet to dash forward at Mana's opponent. The rabbit's large sword danced gracefully and with purpose, it was fast and successful.

Still, as Mana rushed to her wand that had slipped off and got lost nearby the little decorative forest erected in the arena, she noticed that Stea took some of the blows on purpose. She got tagged by almost each and every one of Zoku's attacks, just shallowly enough to graze her flesh but none of the attacks that would have cleaved her into pieces connected right. She was quite impressive to be able to control the amount of damage she received so tactfully.

The Getsugakure genin flew back and hit the wall, just above the entrance to the arena before flipping back elegantly and sticking to the wall with her feet and racing across the circular ring of blocks that surrounded the arena, while being relentlessly chased by seemingly gone rabid Usuzoku.

Finally, the magician's fingers tightly wrapped around the wand of Audra alloy before Mana could join in on the ceaseless offensive. Just as the magician rushed to close in on the perfect range, she noticed a pair of cleverly placed hits landing on Usuzoku as well. These two were dancing almost as equals… No, Zoku was slightly better, even if Stea wanted to get hit. Carefully, Mana took aim at Stea. It was tough pinning the two down when they were racing and jumping across the entire place.

"Magical Shock Jutsu!" Mana chanted out, extending her wand forward as she needed no more seals to perform a technique as familiar to her as one of her starting dozen. All she needed to weave this one properly was a conducting object like a well-crafted kunai or her Audra alloy wand.

A white-blue beam of lightning chakra fired off from the point of Mana's wand, darting off towards nothing, but where her opponent would soon end up at. Suffering to regain chakra sensory was the right call – it helped the magician aim more clearly as her eyes were not always capable of following the two.

Stea kicked off of the wall, turning and flipping around to avoid Mana's jutsu that only managed to hit the wall of where her opponent would have been, had she continued to engage in combat with Usuzoku.

"Not so fast!" the rabbit warrior grunted out, appearing right above the acrobatic Getsugakure kunoichi, with his sword raised high up and ready to strike down. Zoku's feet were so amazingly strong that he could perform incredibly fast dashes at breakneck speeds, tough to follow even for more experienced ninja, leaving the likes of Mana and Stea in the dust.

Instead of the petrifying fleshy sound of a young woman getting cleaved cleanly in half, a loud popping sound following a strong puff of smoke materializing out of nowhere followed. As the smoke cleared out, it became evident that Usuzoku had cleaved not Stea herself, but her previously discarded shroud she used to substitute with.

"That was great, Zoku-chan!" Mana commended her partner who perfectly followed off her whiffed move. Had Stea still been strained from having substituted earlier in the battle, she would have ended up getting filleted.

"Figured ye'd have not forced 'er ta waste 'er Substitution yet. May as well go fer de kill and let loose just fer a moment dere…" the rabbit grinned, his fluffy white fur curved very oddly around his highly spherical cheeks that turned in a very awkward manner due to him feeling somewhat uneasy about getting praised in such a cutesy manner.

Stea's arms lit up with lights of salad green as they moved past the multiple bloody cuts all over her body and the scratches across her face from her unsuccessful attempt to compete with Usuzoku at close distance using nothing but her martial arts.

"She's wastin' chakra ta heal?" Usuzoku gripped his sword tighter, feeling uneasy about his opponent using chakra for something considered a rather higher tier of ninjutsu techniques in terms of complexity and control.

"It will cost her chakra but less so long-term than maintaining chakra augmentations to prevent all of those wounds from bleeding too much. She's being very strategic about it, actually", Mana huffed in unease seeing her opponent managing chakra a bit better than she had normally expected Stea to do it.

Stea re-entered her fighting pose once the quick patch-up work was completed. She barely wasted any time or effort to completely heal herself back. She left little to no openings to exploit and the jutsu was of the lightning-quick, blink and you will miss it variety.

"Just like dat, she's back to a chipper state!" Usuzoku grunted with great irritation.

"Do not get discouraged my cute, winter-furred friend. We are not trying to beat her to a pulp, remember?" Mana smiled, normally she'd have been just as irritated as Zoku to see her opponent just flash green and completely regenerate all the damage she took in the course of the battle. However, with her chakra sensory in a working capacity, she sensed the toll it took on Stea's resources to accomplish this fresh regeneration.

While the Getsugakure genin used a very crude and weakened version of the Mystical Palm Jutsu, it was empowered by the damage stored in Stea's seals just enough to completely heal her up. Even if she had seen this ability before, Mana could not help but admire just how amazing her opponent was.

"Well, I'm goin' at it!" Zoku grumbled before dashing forward again.

"Godspeed…" Mana whispered to herself, seeing her partner darting off and assaulting her opponent, whizzing past her before changing direction and flashing past her again, then repeating the process. Slashing the Getsugakure genin with a sword strike with each passing dash like a samurai of the old tales.

"Go-Fish!" Usuzoku grunted, finishing his oddly named sword fighting technique with a mean hip-forward dash. A sizzling sound alerted the ninja animal. It was one sound, that was quite familiar to someone who had seen as much combat as Usuzok0u had throughout the years. The rabbit threw his sword up in a mad swing before the explosive tag cleverly placed on his blade detonated. It was quite impressive of Stea to avoid all of Usuzoku's attacks like that.

"Magic Spark Barrage!" Mana chanted out, having used Usuzoku's opening provided to her to move in behind her opponent before pointing forward with her wand and channeling more of her lightning chakra into a barrage of lightning spark projectiles, fist-sized spheres that buzzed and crackled with electricity in their journey at and all around the magician's opponent.

Using her palm, Stea swatted the spheres aside, Mana's eye managed to notice the Lightning Release chakra crackling around the genin's hand. It must have been at least halfway decent in mastery to manage to swat Mana's jutsu aside like that, the speed at which the genin deflected the attacks was similarly impressive. Then again, Mana has had enough chances to get impressed by the speed of Stea's smacks before, when they ran rampant all over her own body.

"On your toes, I see…" Mana smiled.

"Hmph, you've tricked me, I thought that this jutsu possessed a similar paralyzing effect to the previous one. It would have been pretty dangerous getting temporarily stunned with a sword-wielding rabbit right beside me…" Stea sighed uneasily. Encasing her palm in enough Lightning Release chakra of enough intensity to deflect Mana's jutsu must have costed even more chakra than the magician spent using the jutsu in the first place.

"It's in the name and the job description", Mana smiled, teasing her opponent. As the hand she used to wave her wand around and channel the chakra through it went a little weary, the magician realized that she should not underestimate the chakra she herself spent either. Hers was one of the highest signatures across the finalists, that being said, she used it much more often than most of them as well.

Mana needed to make sure that every bit of chakra she spent summoned equal or greater spending from the side of her opponent as well.