"Alright, I'm off!" Meiko waved her hand over her head, turning back to see if her parents saw her relaying her farewells. The day and the time of her departure for the finals of the Chuunin Exams felt like one of the days when she could have really used a wish for good luck or two.
"The exams, right?" father appeared from the main area of the home reserved for the workshop. He wiped his sweaty and greased forehead with an even greasier glove making an even bigger mess of himself.
"Yep!" Meiko nodded, moving her arms behind her back and nodding forward so that father could wrap his arms around her and gesture pressing her to his dirty work clothes. "If it works out – I'll get a higher rank and start bringing in more money."
"As a ninja, not as a blacksmith. Don't look at it like you're doing it for us, daughter. I could use your help around the workshop just as much as the bonus money." Father shrugged and moved away, just the fact that he wasn't engaging his hands with something for fifteen whole seconds made him anxious, the giant began rubbing his hands against his apron.
"Plus, what good's all that extra money if we don't have our girl here?" mother appeared from one of the rooms positioned around the workshop and pressed her forehead against Meiko's. Mother must have been working with lunch already, her forehead was hotter than father's and the latter spent his time around molten steel all day. Boiling or cooking something in such an environment must have been a nightmare and both the master and his little apprentice ate like ware containers. "Could have made you some tea before the exams, you're not performing first anyway, are you?"
"Nope, but I'm late regardless, I've gotta see the others compete too. No time to waste." Meiko wrestled herself out of mother's clutches and waved again. It felt a bit sad abandoning her parents here, by the time they got around to trying to get the tickets to the exams to see their daughter give her best, they were all sold out. The economy was a weird thing, The Seventh Naruto tried to make the exams available to everyone, dirt-cheap but that made them sell out like hotcakes and, as a result, the tickets became pricier than a gold bar when one wanted to buy them off of somebody that bought a bulk.
"Daughter has her armor?" father raised his eyebrow.
"Yeah! I'm gonna get dressed after I get there, it would look weird if I ran across the town dressed for war." Meiko snickered and waved her father's worries away. "Plus, even if I forget it, I've got the whole arsenal sealed all over my body. That's what all those glyphs are for anyway."
"Should have ditched the rerebraces, easier to move around that way." Father shrugged before stroking and dirtying up Meiko's hair some more with his oily greaves.
"Don't worry, I've coated it with a layer of Ryuchi weave under the armor, it won't irritate or damage the skin anymore," Meiko blew out her cheeks, feeling like a child being scolded for sipping milk that was too hot. She was her father's aide, after all, she knew what she was doing.
She was going to be hopelessly late if she didn't hurry up. Meiko pushed the door open with a butt of her shoulder and ran off. It was not all too unusual to see people rushing about, it was considered rude though nobody had ever mistaken Meiko for somebody keeping up with her etiquette lessons. Sometimes she knew that she was brash and charged into things but that just felt so much easier and more convenient. She'd forget all about those wayward stares soon enough anyway…
The wires and rooftops were busy. Sure enough. There were loads of ninja present in the village, from Konoha as well from around the whole world, not just this world either, worlds from all across the universes that had sent their representatives to participate here. Meiko decided to rather stick it to the ground level and just move at an escalated civilian pace rather than dash across by the rooftops and just whizz to her desired destination while butting into someone. She needed to preserve as much stamina and toughness as she could before the match anyway.
The old Chuunin Exams arena had been modified. Additional floors and platforms of obsidian and marble added on top, making the entire structure a colossal sight that could have been made out from across the entire village. There were separate platforms with empty seats just floating up above the arena, like rotating satellites. Meiko wasn't yet sure if those were for fighting purposes or to host more spectators. The entire thing would be broadcasted and the foreigners from the other universes boosted the signals that their Konoha used with their future tech anyway. Just watching the thing at home should have been a decent treat in of itself.
Meiko had expected the locker room to be completely empty. She found every single one of the twenty competitors there, either preparing for their match, going through their strategy or finding and occupying the best seats around the screens showing the matches off from the locker room itself. Judging by the number of people staring at the monitors just mere moments before the matches had to start, they wouldn't be observing the matches live anymore. Whether that was a good thing or a bad one depended on how well the cameras could have kept up with all the action. As opposed to seeing it live, it was impossible to track superhuman speed on the camera unless the footage got slowed down.
"Wonder of wonders, you're late…" Kiyomi wrapped her arms over her chest. Meiko leaned in to examine her friend, something was off about her. It was as if she looked like she had come here as a high-class spectator rather than a legitimate competitor.
"Aren't you going to change?" Meiko pointed at Kiyomi. "It has to be a hassle to fight in that silk dress, isn't it? Also, tie your hair!"
"There's no need for that…" Kiyomi smiled. "Right now I'm much more bothered about representing the class and good image of my clan rather than brawling it out with Sasuke Uchiha. Don't worry though, I'll win for sure."
Something about that confidence… It didn't smell off at all and that was the most frightening. Kiyomi had that aura of strength around her that was almost arrogant in how it came off though it was not false arrogance. Despite the fact that she had just spoken to her friend and admired her strength, both in terms of combat and character, Meiko had an uneasy flare in her gut every time she moved around and stretched it. What if Kiyomi had skyrocketed in that last month and left her all behind? What if what Meiko considered vast improvement was all just a joke?
What if Meiko was useless again? What if she would get left behind again?
"You're that blacksmith gal, aren't you?" Relta Ginn from Hoshigakure pointed at Meiko. "I remember you from the last exams. You were Mana's teammate, the one that fought Stea. Jeez, what a match…"
"Huh? Oh, right… I'm sorry, I don't quite remember you, you're from Hoshigakure?" Meiko wondered, turning at the rather ordinary and casual-looking girl of short-brown hair.
"Yeah…" Relta nodded. "Didn't make it past Forest of Death last time… Don't you usually fight in your armor?"
"Oh, that's right!" Meiko jumped up and charged through the door to the girls' dressing room to suit up. Pulling out a handful of scrolls from her pouch and rolling them out, Meiko unsealed the separate pieces of her armor and, after slipping into a white and scaly bodysuit, slipped them onto it as well, securing them with the appropriate belts and straps and examining the glyphs drawn onto each separate armor piece.
"Some might accuse you of overcompensating for something with that…" Kiyomi batted just a single eye when Meiko emerged armored up from the dressing room into the common waiting area where the first match was just seconds away from starting. Karatachi Ume and Quill B had made their way onto the arena before Meiko even got to the building. By now the introduction speech and all the fluff must have already been out of the way – only the meat of the business remained.
"Frankly, I'm not sure what she has to compensate for…" Tsuru Itoi, a slender young girl from alternate Konohagakure with long, pulled back, dark hair offered Meiko just a single glance, doing a decent job of hiding her intimidation that seeing a behemoth such as Meiko all armored up invited deep down in her.
"Huh… They got Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon to commentate after all…" Meiko observed, pointing at the screen after a brief flash of the commentator section.
"Yeah, just not those Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon…" Boruto Uzumaki smirked, recalling the antics that they could hear from the Black Cube battlegrounds the whole time during the last stage of the exams. This version of the Konohamaru Commentator Squad was comprised of the adult versions of the twerps commenting over the matches last time. Might have been a good call too, there were significantly fewer inappropriate jokes, declarations of the intent to go potty, and inner banter that way.
Quill B had grown facial hair since the last time Team Hokage ran into him. The last time was when a member of Team Cirrus, Junipu-R was necessary for Mana to advance to the semi-finals of the last Chuunin Exams. The body build of this young man had improved significantly as well, he hadn't grown one inch though he had gained some bulk and covered his arms with scars. The core of his body must have been scarred too, though he wore a thick, armored vest to protect it as well as cover those scars up. Judging by the scarred body and face of such a young man, he had seen some of the warfare in recent times that Kumogakure found itself engaged in as the village of the mightiest military force.
Where Quill B looked cool and composed, both in his attitude and his appearance, his opponent was something else entirely – a flamboyant young lady of eye-carving watermelon-color hair as well as a magenta coat of plastic texture that made it reflect an alarming amount of sunlight and attract attention like nothing else. It was not that her appearance underneath that plastic overcoat was any less exuberant, underneath it she wore a blue, diamond-shaped bodysuit that approached bathing suit territory. Not unlike a few other Kirigakure ninja, Karatachi Ume also donned the long, cylinder hat strapped over her head.
"I am not sure how I feel about that choice of equipment. All she appeared to have on her is her flamboyant attire and a standard ninja pouch on her bare right thigh. If she was my student, I'd try to convince her to take fighting more seriously." Moegi voiced her thoughts on the commentary.
"True, it does appear that examinee Karatachi Ume is out to dazzle the audience more than fight, then again, so far, despite the match having ruled to be underway, not a single fist or foot has been thrown," Konohamaru observed, joining in.
"There might be a decent strategy to her ludicrous get-up though. Ume might be attempting to be memorable and catchy. That way the council that would rate her performance wouldn't let her get out of her head. In addition, this lavish get-up might serve as a way to attract enemy attention in battle on purpose." Udon observed, possessing his grand analytical abilities in any universe or timeline he was in.
"True, though the records show Karatachi Ume to be a medical ninja, it would be a rather odd choice to stand out and attract attention when one's role on the battlefield is of such paramount importance, don't you think?" Konohamaru observed.
"True, Lady Fifth would have disciplined this young lady if she was her subordinate and trainee for such flamboyance." Moegi agreed.
And there it went, without speaking one word to one another, both examinees went at it, though, from the get-go, it seemed that it was more Quill B that was sick of waiting and just jumped at the young lady standing in front of him, wielding two short swords in each of his hands with at least six more still stationary on his back. While Karatachi Ume from Kirigakure was evidently trained in the art of evasion, as suited for a fine medical ninja, it was only a matter of time before blood covered the dirt.
"Sheesh, he's fast…" Meiko observed.
"One of the better swordsmen I've seen." Kiyomi nodded. "Unlike most, that adopt a single swordsmanship form – Naked Blade, Iaido, Hawk Stance, this guy not only wields multiple swords but he also switches in between the swordsmanship forms flawlessly."
Meiko felt a bit glad that she wore a helmet over her head. She had an unhealthy flush of heat over her face just now, the fruit of embarrassment that her genjutsu and ninjutsu specialist of a teammate knew more about proper swordsmanship than she did. Meiko was a good swordswoman, she thought so at least, hadn't ever been humbled by anyone her skill level before, at least, though she lacked any decent swordsmanship training and mastery of any forms. She was mostly a self-taught talent.
Still, she may not have known all nine swordsmanship forms, how they looked or worked or their trademark moves but she knew just fine that this man out there was dangerous. He lacked armor on his limbs and face, except his eyes and the mask covering his lower face, though all the vital parts were well-covered by whatever weave he coated himself in. Flexible and swift, Quill B donned only whatever armor was vital for his survival and not a single strand of cloth more.
Quill B continued to dance, vault and roll around, two short swords in hand, slashing and switching in between his blades on the fly until he became blurry and sharp. A cannonball of swords rampaging across the battlefield with surprisingly wide coverage. A hedgehog of war, if hedgehogs could move faster than slowed down cameras could track.
A wet splash that resonated too well for it to be another splash of blood drowned out the stage. In her hands, Karatachi Ume held what appeared like a wand of sorts, not much larger than a drumstick though the exact appearance of it translated as muddled and rippled as a solid coating of water surrounded it. Whatever Ume's skills in chakra coating were, they were enough to block even the hi-speed slashes of Quill B if caught at the right time.
Karatachi pushed her wand forward, her medical ninjutsu prowess helped to gain a momentary boost in physical strength necessary to overpower her opponent. It was not only the fact that Ume had a way of overpowering her opponent, having identified the possibility of such a physical boost, Quill B retreated, abandoning the hopes of slashing his opponent in the midst of the clash in order to preserve his blade. Short swords were convenient for such quick-feet, acrobatic and swift fighting styles but they were brittle as one-time box cutters in combat.
There was a reason why Quill's swords didn't look all too fancy, just blades atop of simple leathery straps and steel handle. That reason was that he had changed hundreds of swords like these in his career as a ninja, Meiko didn't even doubt that. These swords were as expendable to him as kunai were to any other ninja.
Ume continued to whirl her wand around in her hands as if it was a bo staff of size far surpassing the size it actually was of. While the appropriate dance that the Kirigakure medical ninja performed seemed unsuitable for the tool in her hands in the beginning, it had soon used the water chakra coating to expand in length and form a staff-like appearance. This was a surprising prowess in weapon coating, not only she coated the weapon with chakra of the appropriate Water Release nature properties, she also was able to transform the weapon by making the coating add on to the weapon or expand its size which was not common amongst ninja except those that specialized in such method of combat.
It took Meiko years to master each one of the appropriate elements required to execute such a refined method of weapon coating. This girl without a doubt has worked on her weaponry skills as well as chakra coating in addition to her medical ninja skills. The problem was if Meiko could identify that, someone from Kumogakure, a country renowned for their swordsmen that had a profound skill in coating their weapons with Lightning Release coatings as well, would have identified it too.
The core issue of such identification being – there was only so many years a ninja of their age could have devoted to certain subjects. Medical ninjutsu required more than just a handful of years to acquire and excel at. Weapon coating and skill with a weapon in hand required a few years as well. Soon enough, there would be enough details revealed about Ume's specializations that her fighting style would no longer be a mystery whereas Quill B has revealed very little so far.
The expanded water-staff formed a two-sided short mace with the water coating focusing into two spheres at the tip of each end of Ume's wand, Ume swung her wand around in her graceful and elegant dance, sending one side of the watery blob at her opponent like a projectile while she splashed the other right at herself, straight in her own side. The injured side.
Quill B grunted in pain, he had been too tense and invested into the clash before to repurpose his movement into a swift evasive motion. The blob of water hit him square in the chest, he could only jump up a little to help navigate the blob to where his armor was the thickest, making the Kumogakure swordsman fall on his back though with enough concussive force to ride its coattails into performing a backward roll and returning on all fours, ready for the interception, if one was needed.
The splash of water that Ume soaked herself with washed away the blood tainting her cerulean bodysuit and made the wound on her side appear almost gelatinous in shape, drastically reducing to a wet cut that instead of bleeding just had a consistent, thread-thin line of shiny, cherry sorbet-like cover on it. Where before her wound splashed with blood whenever the young lady tensed her lower body, now it seemed to almost be a non-factor at all.
Karatachi Ume, the flamboyant kunoichi of Kirigakure who used Water Release chakra coat to both attack her opponent and imbue with her medical ninjutsu faced off against one of the finer swordsmen of his generation from Kumogakure in Quill B.