The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

A Wall Too High!!

'Finally... My turn...' Kankurō thought with a smirk as he took his place standing across from his opponent. He had this in the bag.

'Kankurō... You're not taking this seriously...' his jōnin thought, frowning with disapproval.

'... Idiot,' Gaara thought.

"!" Naruto furrowed his and leaned closer to get a better look. 'It's him,' he thought, recognizing him as the punk who picked on Konohamaru.

'This is good... We'll finally get to see how he uses that thing in battle,' April thought, keeping her eyes on the bundle on his back. During the first test, he seemed to have been using some sort of puppet or doll to gather answers somehow, but she wondered about its capabilities in combat. She had never seen this kind of fighting style before.

"We will now begin the fourth match," Hayate announced. He doubted anything could surprise him after what happened in the last one.

"Unlike Yoroi, even against little punks, I show no mercy," Misumi told the younger sand ninja. "I'll say it now, if I put my techniques on you, it's over. Give up immediately." He narrowed his eyes at him. "I'm going to end this quickly."

"Then, I also... will end this quickly," Kankurō said confidently, removing the bundle from his back to set it standing upright on the floor, keeping one hand on it to hold it steady.

Misumi glared at him in annoyance and lunged forth to attack. "I won't give you the chance to do anything!!" he declared, swinging his arm at his opponent.

Kankurō blocked the attack, but was taken aback by the smug smirk on his enemy's face. "!" He gasped when the guy's arm bent unnaturally and began snaking its way up his own. "What?" he exclaimed, startled when he was quickly engulfed in the rest of his enemy's wriggling appendages, trapped as they constricted around him like a nest of large boa constrictors.

"!!" April said, frowning as she was reminded of the way Orochimaru's body had moved similarly to climb a tree when he attacked them. 'No... it couldn't be...' she thought, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face. She wanted to dismiss her suspicions, since this guy was from Konoha, but... then she remembered the way Kabuto kept looking at the sound jōnin before he left. She glanced over in the sound ninja's direction. Their jōnin had disappeared shortly after Kakashi took Sasuke away, but he had yet to return.

Misumi smirked, squeezing tighter until Kankurō was forced to drop his bundle. "In order to gather information, my body has been altered... to be able to fit into any space," he boasted. "So I can keep squeezing until I break your bones. If you don't give up, I'll keep squeezing harder..."

"Gu..." Kankurō grimaced when he tightened his grip around his neck to emphasize his point. He had begun to sweat from the effort of trying to strain against the vice-like grip his enemy had him in.

"I don't know what kind of ninja tools you use... but you can't do anything like this. If you try something funny, I won't wait until you give up. I'll break your neck immediately. Hurry up and give up."

"Heh," Kankurō smirked, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. "No way."

"!" April said as she looked back at him, furrowing her brow slightly. 'He... doesn't look nervous or upset at all...' she thought, remembering how emotional he got over Sasuke hitting his hand with a pebble. Did that mean he still had something up his sleeve?

"Do you want to die?" Misumi scoffed, squeezing him tighter.

"Guu... You're the one who's gonna die," Kankurō retorted raspily, wincing from the pain.

A large vein throbbed on Misumi's temple. He saw red.

"..." Hayate's eyes widened, and he frowned when Misumi's muscles suddenly clenched far harder than they should have.