Naruto : Domination: Chapter 27
My preoccupations and disgust for being paraded in an arena faded into the background of my mind, I was focused, and acutely aware that mistakes of any kind could cost me my life.
Every sound that wasn't made by my opponent was erased from my awareness. Even Hana' shouts of faith in my skills.
...
The referee gave the start and jumped back.
The Iwa shinobi shot forward trying to engage me into a melee, but my hands already blurred through hand seals.
Tiger, Monkey, Dragon, Boar, Ram. I quickly and steadily shaped my yin chakra and slipped into the enemy' coils through his tenketsus. "Genjutsu: Anbaransu" I whispered.
And suddenly the Iwa nin ran into the ground face first. At that moment I knew that I wouldn't be breaking a sweat against him.
The genjutsu I had just used was a curious one. It was usually used by med nins to test the answer of the patient's cerebellum to a sudden shift in balance.
My yin chakra had slipped into the Iwa-nin's brain, affecting the part that handled the answering to the information provided by the internal ear.
Anbaransu meant 'Unbalance'. And it was a fucker.
The shinobi threw his arms around for a couple of seconds before his hands found each other. He formed a ram seal and disrupted his own chakra enough to slip through the genjutsu.
In the meantime I threw a kunai that embedded itself into the ground, less than a centimeter from the shinobi's head and I watched the referee with a bored expression.
He didn't say anything, and the Iwa shinobi was on his feet again and charged at me again with a wordless scream.
I molded my chakra with the ease fruit of years of practice and without hand seals, I kawarimed with the kunai I had embedded on the ground.
Kawarimi was another seriously underrated jutsu. It was most effective when you changed your position with a body most similar to yours. The thing you kawarimed with must not have chakra of its own, but besides that rule and distance related restrictions, there were no limitations.
That was why a lot of Konoha nin performed it with logs. Organic matter, roughly similar mass.
And it was simply a matter of yanking it from a tree's branch. The similarities between a human body and a piece of still alive wood (of similar mass) were enough to make the chakra cost of it negligible as well. Using a kunai for it was stupid unless you had exceptional reflexes and a chakra control worthy of a med nin.
Why the exceptional reflexes? Because mass mattered, and kawariming with a kunai meant having the rubber band flinging you into position instead of swapping. Kawariming with something a lot bigger than you was a chakra intensive shit nobody reasonably tried to do.
Kawarimi was almost like using a stretched rubber band to tie yourself to something before letting it do its job, effectively swapping your places.
Proving that he was not completely stupid the Iwa nin immediately turned on himself and came at me again, his hands moving through hand seals.
Again, I shaped my chakra, I jumped back performing a swiping high kick and kawarimed once again.
Recognizing my repeated technique the Iwa genin was already coming at me ready to spit something when the sole of my sandal slammed on his face, flattening his nose and hurling him back.
I took a deep breath while he was still flying and started changing my chakra. I shoot another bored look, only not at the referee, who was keeping quiet but at the honor balcony. I couldn't make out their facial expressions, but Sarutobi adjusted his hat. I had no idea if there was some hidden meaning in it.
I inhaled deeply, my hands slowly moving through hand seals: Boar, Horse, Tiger.
The chakra burned hot through the tenketsu at the base of my throat.
When my lungs were full, I whispered "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." and blew toward the Iwa nin, who had performed a handstand and just landed on his feet.
The fireball formed in front of me and shot forward.
I separated my hands and cut off the chakra flow into the technique, it was far from perfect, but it was still the size of a desk. I coughed discreetly. That jutsu always leaves my throat raw. It meant I still had some work to do on it.
I stood still, waiting for the other genin to clumsily dodge the fireball.
His nose was bleeding and he was covered in dirt. He was also snarling. But really, he was low. One could be the next Hashirama, but being slow meant dying. Period. Unless you were Tsunade, but she was the exception, and I wasn't sure she was slow or not.
The Iwa nin repeated his hand seals and slammed his palms on the ground, hissing something under his breath. I couldn't hear him, since I was fifteen meters away. At least someone thaught him that shouting your techniques doesn't make them any stronger.
Still, it was a doton jutsu, so when a spear of rock shot towards me from the ground I leaned on one side and dodged it, before ducking under a second and sidestepping the third.
The Iwa nin watched me with his mouth open. I tilted my head questioningly. Then I realized that he was simply baffled by my speed.
Eh, without weights I feel lighter than air.
His shoulders had slumped down, already accepting defeat, but his expression tightened in one of determination. He wanted to go down swinging.
I sighed, without leaving him out of my sight, I allowed my focus to dim a bit, taking in once again the shouts from the crowd. There was a lot of encouragement going on for my opponent. Good for him. I thought.
Then I ran forward as fast as I could and slammed my knee in his gut, and once he bent forward I hit the base of his neck with my elbow. He slumped on the ground, unconscious.
Before the referee could call the match I threw another kunai at his head, this time grazing his hear.
The referee was immediately at my side, this time with a reproachful look on his face.
"Daiki from Konoha wins the match."
I raised an eyebrow, his disapproval washed over me. I was unimpressed, I humiliated him, but he was very much alive and in working condition.
"Really? Katon?" was Hana's reaction. But she was smiling a second after and congratulated me. She caught on on my wish to keep my suiton secret for later.
We shared a green and watched the following match.
It was the weedy Kiri shinobi facing the rather forgettable Iwa kunoichi who was glaring daggers at me.
Probably the poor sod's teammate. I would have been angry too if someone had tossed around my teammates like a ragdoll.
She hopped down the balcony and reached the Kiri shinobi in the center of the arena.
I watched carefully, I would be facing the winner of this match in the semifinals after all.
When the referee gave the start, the Kiri shinobi feinted toward the Iwa kunoichi before flickering over tho the small water stream and performing a few handseals.
"He's fast," Hana commented.
"Indeed," I replied. And he was fast. Almost as fast as me. But I had no doubts that he was hiding his best tricks, just like I did.
The small stream rose from the ground while the Iwa kunoichi started pelting her adversary with an impressive dance made of shuriken and ninja wire.
"And she is the strongest of her team," Hana observed. The difference between her and the teammate I faced was as vast as it was obvious. Not only in the way she handled her weaponry, but in the way she chooses to test her enemy keeping her distance.
"She's at least less stupid." I snorted. It was a standard procedure.
The mist enveloped the couple, and the civilian part of the audience booed, they could no longer see teens killing each other. I scoffed, earning myself a confused look from Hana.
Then she followed my eyes and sighed. "They're civilians, you can hardly blame them if they want a show." She misunderstood me.
I looked the ninjas in the crowd, mostly watching attentively commenting among themselves about the techniques their enhanced senses could pick up.
I listened to the clashing of metal against metal, the occasional thud and let myself feel the flaring of their two very different chakras colliding. "She is much better than her teammate." I amended my previous statement.
Suddenly, the kunoichi's chakra vanished from my senses and I grimaced.
The mist fell apart and the Kiri shinobi was standing over his opponent's headless body.
I pushed apart my dislike for the situation and I frowned, focusing on what was important. Hana's expression mirrored mine. "How did he decapitate her without anything resembling a blade?" she asked me.
"A strange kind of garrote or the very skillful use of ninja wire." I supplied it immediately. "Maybe she's wind natured. Wind can do some strange shit." I added, recalling Asuma's demonstration in the manga.
The Kiri shinobi returned to our balcony, his face was blank, but he seemed quite... content, of the splattered blood all over him. I looked him over, searching for revealing bulges under his clothes, telling calluses, or hidden weapons. Nothing. He was somewhat... adequate.
The next ones in the arena were Yuguto and the other Iwa shinobi.
...
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