"I'll move, you follow", Mana exclaimed so that Usuzoku who was right beside her could hear. The rabbit only nodded with excitement.

With an azure colored blur of the wand, Mana's next effortless hand motion was revealed. Lightning Release chakra surged from the elbow part of her arm before channeling through the wand and firing off in multiple directions in the shape of long and thin lightning noodles.

Stea did not budge one bit. That was the correct reaction to Mana's "Magic Skewer Jutsu". The lightning surges formed rod shapes before thrusting at Stea's direction, aiming to shock the young woman as they skewered the ground she stood on before getting grounded by it. The body of the Getsugakure genin jerked violently as the mastered low-ranking Lightning Release jutsu surged through her body, the pain of the shock forcing her to lower her guard forcefully but not yet drop down.

Luckily, a dropped guard was all that Usuzoku wanted, leaving only a spiraling horizontally vortex of snowflakes and dirt, the rabbit dashed at his opponent with his sword in hand.

"Block Breaker!" he yelled out swinging his massive sword at an upward-diagonal direction from the bottom down, leaving a wide furrow where the sword's tip dragged across the arena floor.

The white and puffy, cotton fur of Usuzoku was dyed blood-red, the body of the young woman lifted off the ground from the force of the slash flying in an arc upwards before landing further onwards, right next to the entrance to the arena. The crowd observed this in such graveyard-like silence that everyone could hear the tatters of Stea's dress blowing about on her way slamming down.

Usuzoku took a strong leap back, quickly moving into Mana's guard as the magician was clutching at her pain-ridden ribs, jaw, and liver.

"She took it all…" Mana mumbled out.

"Was it wrong, with dis kind 'a opponent ya can't tell, ey?" Usuzoku winked at Mana.

"She could have coated her palms in whatever she used before. She's shown her Lightning Release ability off before. She was fast enough to dash back and minimize the damage from your blade…" Mana shook her head, observing her opponent in a certain glare of respect and intimidation as the young woman stood up, covering up the giant, bloody gash extending all the way from her right thigh to her left shoulder in a failing manner with just one hand.

"So is hitting 'er good or is it bad? Who is ta be hit 'ere?" Usuzoku pouted with irritation. Mana had to resist the temptation to focus on that cute pouting in anger face and let her attention waver from her opponent's side for even a moment.

"It is good, she's just doubling down on my bet. She chooses to get hit so that she could store more damage." Mana nodded in approval. The magician knew that if she was to blatantly praise her partner she'd make him lose attention to his childish flutters and blushes.

"Is this how you feel now? You poor thing…" Stea taunted Mana. The magician raised an eyebrow, what was her opponent implying? That the level of their suffered damage was anywhere near the same? She was right to some extent, Mana was not someone who could take plenty of punishment and she has taken more of it than she'd like. "I imagine you wish you could do this…" Stea blinked with a tease at Mana's direction before her hands lit up bright green again.

"Ye ain't doin' dat again!" Usuzoku forced the words out before leaping with all of his tremendous speed straight at the Getsugakure kunoichi, without waiting for Mana's follow-up or distraction. That was foolish but the magician could do little but scold her silly, hot-headed partner by trying to reach out to him. She was too slow for that…

A ground-shaking slam forced blood out through Mana's ears as the entire ground beneath her feet shifted, a massive pulse emanating from the epicenter of that impact fired off like a hellish cone that reached out as high up as the protective barriers allowed it. The sheer violence of the impact sent the layers of dirt and snow peeling back like the skin of a carved orange, throwing Mana rolling on her bottom backwards as a result.

The heat was intense, matching that of the rabbit caves easily, if not surpassing it, the force should have totaled the entire arena. Mana felt worried about the well-being of her partner and the audience as she genuinely doubted that anyone in the Barrier Corps had any idea just how powerful of a force her opponent could expel. What if no one was ready for this kind of impact? What if it broke through?

Mana wanted to raise her head up and open her eyes. The sky had turned gloomy and dark a short while before with the early sunset of the winter but it was still uncharacteristically dark. Something burrowed inside her nose as the magician girl drew breath, was it… Dirt? Anxiety kicked back into Mana's heart as she began burying herself up from under layers upon layers of dirt and shifting rock before the cold winter air finally greeted her nose and allowed her to cough the dirt in her nose out properly.

Stea still breathed heavily with her fist firmly placed onto the massive crater she had left of the arena. All of the water from the little creeks, all of the wood that was raised by the Senju clansmen in a commendable terra-forming effort… All of it gone. Just a dirt and sand covered hole remained.

"Zoku-chan…" Mana expressed her worry with a whimper, expecting to hear an energetic response but… Her partner must have sustained too much damage and got forcefully de-summoned back to the Rabbit Caves. For Stea to incapacitate a B-Rank summon with just one punch like that… She must have gathered a considerable amount of damage in those seals of hers.

"Still think you can take me out before anything of this nature happens to you?" Stea raised her world-breaking fist in a demonstrative gesture, placing it right up to her face and forcing a smile to color her sweaty and bloody face.

"It was clever to trick Usuzoku into thinking you were about to heal yourself, when in fact you used the medical ninjutsu of another side of the spectrum entirely." Mana wheezed out, she had to admit to herself, as dire as the implication was, even she did not notice Stea's chakra glow changing from salad green to bright blue, the signature color of the Chakra Enhanced Strength technique used by the medical ninja.

"I figured he was hot-headed during our clash, tricking him was a piece of cake." Stea entered her fighting pose again.

This was bad! Mana had never seen a damage seal user storing this much damage in their seals. Now, knowing just what kind of wallop Stea could pack with each one of her smacks, Mana was legitimately a bit afraid of her opponent's quick-chop style.

With a bright blue glow of her hand, Stea dashed right back at Mana, waves of dirt and ground moved from her way, revealing a glowing protective barrier on the underneath as well. Now, with her mind completely focused and all external worries rooted out like weeds in a well-maintained garden. Mana danced around her opponent, utilizing all of the observations she had previously learned about Stea's style.

That was right. All of the anxiety-inducing thoughts about Kouta and his decision, all of the regrets and grief of Shimo's death, all of the fears of her life and career as a ninja in the Team Hokage being over after this exam, no, this fight… Root out all of it! Tear them out, no matter how much it all hurt or how much it will bleed on the inside, if Mana did not – she'd die on the spot.

Nausea pulsed creeping up the girl's stomach as she moved far too fast for what her injuries allowed. Keep it down. Push the pain back, persevere! Just keep moving around, keep dodging, keep weaving like it was a fancy knife-fighter that Mana was facing, like she was back at Sun Disc, fighting for her life again with the old man watching her every move!

"Spear Kick!" Mana roared out, letting her pain, her anxiety fuel that kick as she leaped up and kicked right at Stea's widely extended leg, right in the middle of it, at the side of the knee. Transitioning from a kick into a leg-driving stomp and forcing it as far as it went! Transforming all of the built up chakra augmentations in that kick into additions to her mass and just driving it down!

Stea screamed out in pain as her right leg snapped, the spray of blood was too overpowering to let the sticking out bone show. Suddenly, the girl's hand moved down to her knee, while the other one grabbed at the large gash covering all of her body that she failed to heal while she was focusing on tricking Usuzoku.

The green glow of bursting and overflowing chakra from Stea's Mystical Palm jutsu was blinding. It even forced Mana to take a few steps back, before retreating further for good, in fear of her opponent transitioning from healing back to smashing as fast as she did before. Even with her vastly empowered healing ninjutsu, Stea failed to heal all of her damage – bruises and little, relentlessly bleeding scratches covered all over her body. Still, the massive open fracture of her knee and the giant sword gash were both gone completely, replaced with insignificant, vastly reduced versions of their former selves.

"Still around one-third of your chakra left? It's gonna get a whole lot worse before any rays of light shine through, huh?" the magician thought to herself, observing Stea's heavy breathing and profuse sweating. Mana had no doubt that she was wearing her opponent out but… Could she really weather this cosmic scale storm before Stea passes out?

"If I let her keep on attacking like this, I won't be able to take in all of the pain, I'll slip up and I'll have to reveal that jutsu. If that happens – the whole fight will turn murky for me. I won't be able to read her moves anymore, not as clearly. I need to read her, one slip up will be all it will take", Mana closed her eyes, concentrating on her surrounding, hearing every pebble roll down the wreckage of stone and limestone around. Hearing the wind scattering dust around in messy clouds and gusts.

"That means I cannot let her attack again. I need to take initiative and pressure her into spending some more chakra. I need her to heal, to make healing a must, anything less she will shrug off. She's conserving chakra more than I gave her credit for." Mana realized opening her eyes and glancing all over the wreckage of the arena. A detail of a dusty, torn up magician's hat laying about further away made the girl smile. It's been a while since she used that combo, at least since the Forest of Death.

"I'll have to break a couple of my own rules, I guess, but it cannot be helped." Mana realized as she slowly raised her hand up. Stea was hesitant to respond, she was tired, that was good. Both of the girls were worn out and injured, Stea was not used to fighting injured and decently worn out as she was always showing off how quickly she could heal herself back up. Mana may not have been the most enduring combatant but she was used to taking a bit of punishment, knowing how quickly it all accumulated. She was used to fighting at the very end of the line because she always pushed herself to that point where most gave up.

This was her turn to attack. Anything else will mean her certain loss!

"Substitution Jutsu!" Mana yelled out as a pair of shades appeared from her bruised and dirty sleeve, the pair that she had effectively made disappear in the beginning of the battle. With a loud puff of smoke and a powerful popping sound, Mana replaced the pair of shades in the girl's hand with her tattered hat.

The Konohagakure kunoichi rubbed the tip of her Audra alloy wand across the edges of the hat before placing the wand back into the seals and pulling out a box of steel-tipped cards. With lively energy, Mana flung the box right at Stea, the Getsugakure kunoichi leaned aside, letting the box whizz right by her. Mana saw it – Stea noticed the seals and almost sprained something performing a valiant combat roll to avoid an explosion of steel-tipped shrapnel cards right in her face.

Much to Stea's surprise, as she gathered herself up off the ground, nothing of the sort transpired. Mana continued to pull out steel-tipped card boxes of different colors, mosaic variations, and weight out of her hat before flinging it rapidly at her opponent, like some unique sort of shurikenjutsu. Stea leaped aside from each projectile with bountiful ease and interest in this curious manner of attack. Had these boxes hit her in the face, they'd probably just leave the Getsugakure ninja with certain discomfort, not actually injure her.

The more rapidly Mana began throwing her boxes at Stea, the less accurate she became. At some point, her opponent just stood there and let the inaccurate projectiles just whizz past her, scattering all over the battlefield. Stea's eyes were growing a bit gleeful. She thought she was resting whereas Mana was desperately wasting her stamina and her chakra, she was not entirely wrong, finishing this combination would require a decent chunk of Mana's remaining chakra but… It was key for her planned victory.

Instead of pulling out another box of cards, Mana pulled her Audra alloy wand back out, letting Lightning Release chakra surge down her elbow, her hand and through the wand before the orb at the tip lit up with a charging surge of it.

"Magic Spark Jutsu!" Mana yelled out as the wand fired off a mostly annoying rather than powerful barrage of lightning sparks at her opponent. The reach and range was quite wide, vastly improved over the time Mana spent honing her old childhood techniques instead of focusing on new ones. Certainly outside the realm of dodging possibility for both of the injured kunoichi duking it out.

Stea covered her face and shifted her blocks all over her body, protecting from the painful and irritating, if nothing else, lightning sparks that made her stumble back, just to avoid the buzzing flock of sparks that kept intensifying as the technique went on. Using her free from wand-wielding and chakra channeling hand, Mana pointed her extended palm at all the scattered card boxes detonating them to set all of their seals off.

With that signal, all hell broke loose. Some of the cards unleashed spouts of water, some of them fired off jolts of electricity, some of them launched small fireballs where the others simply blew up whereas others did the same but emitting confetti and streamers instead of an actual explosion. With all of this havoc joined together, the combination concluded with a massive, stage rumbling blast.

The audience jumped up on their feet, responding to Mana's newly discovered and highly aggressive attacking style. So far she has only avoided the attacks of her opponent and responded to them, leaving the attacking to her summon or just resorting to quick jabs if only to keep her opponent on guard.

Smoke and quite a lot of heat emanated from Stea's seemingly lifeless body. The Getsugakure kunoichi laid sprawled out, covered in burns and flesh wounds, at places her flesh was torn out of her body resulting in rather gruesome looking injuries. Her impressive and complicated dress comprised of jewelry and fancy embroidering was now just a rag of cloth that did its best to cover up the girl's body in places where the outfit was not singed or blown off. Stea's eyes were closed and her mouth laid open as if she was dead but Mana knew that, after healing herself with that much damage stored in her seals empowering the medical ninjutsu, Stea would not get knocked out or killed by even Mana's most powerful shots. Still, as the awkward pause of staring at her downed opponent went on, even the magician's confident heart began trembling uneasy.

Then, with a pain-ridden cough and intense wheezing, trying to force the blood rushing into her lungs from her caved chest Stea calmed Mana down by sitting back up.

There it was… Stea's hand lighting up so brightly with the signature emerald shimmer of the Mystical Palm jutsu that Mana had to close her eyes for a moment as her opponent patched herself back up. Attacking Stea through this intense flash of light would have been close to impossible. Not with any hopes for accuracy, at least. After just a single flash of light, as quick as a ray of sun that traveled showering Mother Earth with its warm embrace, it was done – Stea had completely refreshed herself, save from a couple of grazes of her skin and cheeks at places.

The difficulty breathing, the rings around the girl's eyes were unmistakable. Mana knew these symptoms all too well, Stea was slowly creeping up to the very edge of her limits, as conservative as she was through this battle: saving chakra on dispelling illusions, only healing when absolutely necessary and only using low ranking healing ninjutsu… The damage seals were inherently meant for more experienced and powerful ninja, they were not an earned ability, she had clearly obtained them by some supernatural means.

"It's impressive, outright. I can't believe it that you managed to push me to the very end, just like you promised." Stea chuckled with a smile. "There are so many details about my damage seals that I have managed to keep secret, just because nobody ever pushed me to where I needed to reveal them."

Mana's eyes peeled open, the end of that thought could have flipped the tables completely on her.

"For example, I'm not sure if you know it but…" Stea started.

"There is another jutsu that you have in your arsenal, one that you kept secret this whole time." Mana finished her opponent's sentence, it may as well have been a mercy – Stea was struggling to speak as it was.

"So you knew…"

"Ever since your match in the semi-finals, your arsenal seemed… Incomplete. Planning around it was truly tricky as I could only imagine what it could be. I thought it was a highly offensive ability as your arsenal of techniques missed something of that sort." Mana admitted.

"That is correct. Although, honestly, I don't want to use that ability right now. You see, the damage I store in the seals is present in another sealing dimension. You will have no way of avoiding that jutsu and, given how much damage I have stored…" Stea tried to explain. "You may actually die".

Mana grinned confidently before spreading her hands out. "We both know what will happen once you use it. You were not the only one avoiding a certain jutsu – I avoided the use of a certain illusion of my own just to trick your mind into forgetting about it."

Stea gasped in surprise before bursting into a reserved chuckle. The Getsugakure genin placed her hands together in a strange and exotic looking hand seal position. "Damage Seal: Release!" she chanted out in confidence and a sort of bitter acceptance of what was to follow.

Mana's body twitched as blades of invisible force, as numerous as the stars that began appearing in the winter sky shredded her body into tiniest chunks of flesh, all of whom transformed into rose petals upon the technique's conclusion. Carried by a gentle yet cold winter breeze, the shower of petals gathered behind Stea and reshaped into Mana.

"Flower Petal Sanctuary", Mana muttered to herself upon taking her old shape.

Having run out of chakra to a rather dangerous extent, Stea fell down on her knees, her eyes closed peacefully as the girl finished her faint whereas Mana just fell down on her knees, clutching at her pain-ridden sides and abdomen but very much conscious.

"Examinee Stea Tesprea has lost consciousness! The winner of this match is Konohagakure's own – Nakotsumi Mana. Ladies and Gentlemen, the honored members of the Ninja Council, this concludes the finals of the Chuunin Exams!" Overseer Oke declared, from high up, still sticking onto the round walls of the arena as he addressed the audience.