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|| [Hatake] : Fascination : [Kakashi] || [Part XXX] ||
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Oriko stood staring at the wooden mannequin hung from a tree, resisting even a smile of her amusement,
“That is my final training hurdle?” She turned to meet his gaze, which was solid and unreadable as ever,
“Yep…you’re going to keep the fire/wind cards small, the original size, and learn to aim it correctly at a human-sized target,” Oriko raised an eyebrow, that was a good point… Her aim with wind chakra was less than perfect and her target will be moving if she uses this for real…. She walked a little closer to it eyeing it up and down,
“Nice work on the henohenomoheji*,” She couldn’t resist a smile of amusement at just how random the seemingly slight grumpy scarecrow looked, as Kakashi rolled his eye, ignoring her playful sarcasm,
“You’ll need to be able to hit the target from at least a good ten meters,” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and stepped back pulling her in tow, to a distance he was happy with, “If you can get good strikes from this distance then it will be the most valuable to you; it will also give you a more accurate idea of the jutsu effects on a human-size target,” He explained, expertly hiding his own curiosity; Oriko nodded firmly and began to organize her chakra.
As she allowed the two types to mix and the flames flap at the edges of the card, she noticed how long it took to form the jutsu, at least a minute and a half until she was happy that the ‘card’ was stable.
If it really takes me this long then it will be useless in a battle…and it takes so much chakra that I probably wouldn’t be able to use a bunshin diversion for long enough without completely draining all my chakra…
She thought gloomily but nonetheless focused on throwing the card as hard and as fast as she could towards the dummy. The card flew well and straight, spinning as it went which helped with its accuracy; it hit its mark and sliced straight through the mannequin’s arm and shoulder, and burning through the points it connected with.
The jutsu however, didn’t immediately fizzle out after it had connected and it continued on its path, slicing through more trees and branches on its way before it eventually dissipated.
“Damn,” Oriko could feel the chakra drain and felt frustrated that it seemed only to be able to slice, would it be more useful to be able to detonate it as it connected with something? I wonder…would it be responsive to chakra alterations? Would I be able to detonate it from afar? Hmm…
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Oriko couldn’t resist feeling a little nervous as she took a slow walk around the village as was her usual morning routine; it was the morning of the final test in the Chuunin selection exams. Most of the villagers were busy milling around and there were many people arriving in the village, the feudal lords, guest, shinobi from other villages – the entirety of Konoha was a hive of activity.
Oriko, feeling a little disgruntled at all the commotion, diverted from her route to head out to the training grounds for the peace and quiet she searching for; the kuniochi kept her face passive and movements slow and predictable, conserving what energy she could.
“My! Aren’t you an island of calm in a turbulent and fast moving sea of chaos?” A sudden voice interrupted her peace, and turned to face the proud Azure Beast,
“Hmm? Oh, Gai, what are you doing here?” He returned with his signature gleeful grin,
“Just passing through on my way to the arena, Kakashi tells me you will be participating in the third round,”
“Yes, that’s right,” He came to a complete stop in front of her,
“Well…it would seem that there are some strong opponents this year; are you feeling confident?”
“…I’m looking forward to it, if that’s what you mean,”
“Hmm, I look forward to seeing how much your skills have improved since your fight with Lee…” Oriko couldn’t resist a small smile,
“I’ll try not to disappoint,” Gai nodded in understanding,
“Well, you need to be in the arena by the hour, don’t be late and good luck, Oriko!” Gai’s last words became disembodied as he vanished leaving only a small could of dust in his wake, Oriko remained stood for a moment, before checking the time.
Hmm…twenty minutes left…not much time as I feel I should be there ten minutes early…but ten minutes of walking. I know it’s a long time, but I’ll feel constantly worried about being late…damn…ugh Oriko argued with herself before deciding to wander slowly toward the arena whilst mentally preparing herself for the fight.
She strolled up to the arena, finding two shinobi at the door,
“Excuse me, are you a participant?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right,” The both nodded and directed her which way to go, “Thank you,” She continued wandering down the wide but dark and enclosed corridors, until she found another small set of steps which led her out onto a giant arena; it was mostly bare earth with a few craters present at one side, and one to two tufts of grass, but otherwise was well worn.
Oriko could see the eight participant Genin stood in the centre, along with another, taller figure; feeling worried she was late, Oriko hurried over to the centre and took her pace at the end,
“Hey! You’re late, are you trying to make a mockery of this?” The shinobi stood in the middle quickly whispered,
“S-sorry, I-”
“Never mind, you’re here to entertain the crowds, give them a good show,” Oriko looked up at the spectator stands and at countless faces, beginning to feel a little intimidated,
“Now, for the first match is Yamanaka Ino Vs. Fuuki Kobuujin; will the rest of you not immediately participating please move up to the upper level to observe,” He directed and all of the other Genin complied with the request although walking slowly, Oriko caught up to Sakura and Asano,
“How are you guys feeling? Looking forward to your fights?”
“Hell yes…and you’d better win yours Oriko; I’ll be looking forward to kicking your butt!”
“Heh, sure you will,” She grinned, “Sakura?” She turned to her pint haired friend as they walked up the steps, the younger kuniochi held a face of great determination, smiled lightly to Oriko,
“Just fine,”
As they leaned on the railings, Oriko had proper chance to see who the two initial contestants were, both female, huh? Well that means I’m definitely fighting a guy, as there are five women competing, two are starting and I’ve seen who the others are fighting…well then, I wonder what my ‘friend’ will specialize in? Either way, these will be interesting matches.
Oriko observed carefully as the two kuniochi began fighting, their styles completely different; Ino seemed to prefer general ninjutsu to begin with, whilst constantly moving around, where are the other girl seemed to favour taijutsu heavily and only used very basic ninjutsu.
Their fight was relatively silent, not too much screaming or shouting, but Oriko supposed that was rather expected from the generally more tempered spirits of girls. They exchanged a few punches and blows Ino’s movement was well executed but she didn’t hold much strength to each hit and her general individual skills were relatively low, as though she was so used to working in formation with other that she simply couldn’t put into effect the plans she could probably think of.
The fight didn’t last long and eventually Kobuujin won the match, although her own individual skills didn’t exactly outstrip Ino’s; more as though they were just enough above to defeat the rival, but not displaying average skills significantly above Genin.
“Winner: Fuuki Kobuujin. Next match participants, Ichinji Hikaru Vs. Oriko; please come down here,” Oriko couldn’t resist a grin of excitement as she momentarily looked over her shoulder at Sakura and Asano, also a familiar figure behind them.
Kakashi didn’t say anything as she put a foot to the railing ready to leap down to the ground; their eyes locked for a few moments, but she eventually tore her eyes from his and leapt down to the test area; noting that she hadn’t actually thought of him all morning.
She walked towards the centre as her opponent eventually found his way down; his forehead protector claimed he was from Kusa [grass]; Oriko stepped into an immediate fighting stance as she began to calculate her moves, eyeing her opponent. He was the blue haired guy she recognized, he wrote a lot for water jutsus – advanced stuff too but I should be careful, he could use another element as well…
“You two will fight until there is a clear winner; one of you may die as a result, but if a defeat is obvious I will step in and stop a match to prevent unnecessary deaths, understood?” They both nodded, “Very well, begin,” They immediately leapt back, staring at each other for a few moments both silently scoping their opponent.
Hikaru made the first move by throwing some shuriken in her direction, she dodged them easily as the returned with a kunai and kibakufuda attached, purposefully missing to allow it to detonate in the ground behind him, roughing over the dirt.
Oriko thought carefully, knowing what plan she wanted to put into action but it would be quite risky and so decided that she needed to test out her opponent’s strength first; she darted towards him and they engaged in some taijutsu initially.
He was exceptionally strong and got a few good punches off Oriko, forcing her backwards, thinking for a moment, she decided to employ some ninjutsu, just a simple Katon, but she hoped it would prove her theory that a cocky water type would use a Suuiton to blast away her Jutsu.
She quickly formed the hand seals, but Hikaru was able to read them and detect the sign of the tiger, denoting fire, and counter her Goukakkyuu no Jutsu with a Suuiton: Suuishu Gorugon [water element: strong current torrential rain] as a huge serpent of water reared its head and dived forward, with its mouth open wide – seeming to swallow and extinguish Oriko’s Goukakkyuu.
Oriko didn’t bother to hide her smile as her theory seemed to hold true; and even if he can use other element, my card looks as though it’s made predominantly of fire and I’ll bet he’d try to counter with another high-class water technique…let’s go!
She immediately sprinted off, running to the side while creating a kage bunshin which rushed in first and began to fight with Hikaru in Taijutsu form again as he had the upper hand through his strength and would nearly have taken the kage bunshin out if it hadn’t jumped at the right time and allowed it to flip over taking a misaimed punch from the Kusa shinobi in its stride.
Oriko’s bunshin having remembered the obvious moves he made from their first physical fight a few minutes before and used them to her advantage. It seemed to disappear but the real Oriko followed immediately up having had a chance to form her ‘card’ jutsu, not giving Hikaru time to focus, with her fire/wind chakra card combination, she wasn’t far from him, but Hikaru hadn’t made it to the third round on sheer luck.
He countered with a Suuiton: Daibaku Suishouha [Great exploding water collision waves] in a matter of seconds and a gigantic dome of water surrounded the both of them, it was about twenty feet across, but just a Suuiton wasn’t nearly enough to counter a wind and fire elements combined.
Her spinning card could still be clearly seen as it flew through the water and it impacted with the ground at the Kusa shinobi’s feet, exploding as it did so; the boy let a loud, ugly scream of pain to escape him.
As the dust cleared, the crowds could see the reason why Hikaru hadn’t moved, his arms were held back by chakra threads which were in turn held by Oriko’s kage bunshin which undid the henge, (which had made it look like churned earth).
The great water dome from his jutsu disappeared, replaced by a giant crater. Oriko ignored to ‘oh!’s from the crowd as she again pulled out a kunai, facing Hikaru who’s entire left side had been burnt, she immediately leapt forward and drove a kunai through his right shoulder.
She removing the use of his right arm and as her kage bunshin disappeared, she stood hovering for a second – Oriko ignoring her weighed fatigue and aimed the blade of her hand to the back of his head, knocking him out.
Oriko couldn’t move for the moment, she hadn’t used a kage bunshin for as long during training, as well as it using two different techniques really wore her out – not to mention the Goukakkyuu to begin with.
“Winner: Oriko,” The shinobi observing called out which brought her back to her senses, she looked up to the observer nin, who pointed up at the stands, “Thank them,”
“Huh?” She question momentarily before looking behind her at the crowds whom she could hear clapping and a few cheering; she forced a grin to her face, despite her fatigue and gave a small wave in thanks.
“Next match, Haruno Sakura Vs. Tsubani Takeshi,” Oriko turned to walk over to the small set of steps which would lead her back to the stalls, her feet seemed to get progressively heavier and heavier with each step. She eventually made it out of the burning sun to hear hurried foot steps ahead of her,
“Oriko!” It was Sakura’s voice, “Wow! That was an amazing win!” She called, paused for a few seconds, “I can’t believe you managed to combine a Fuuton and a Katon!” She calmed,
“Huh? How did you know that?” Sakura held an expression of indignation,
“Just a katon element wouldn’t be able to get through a water technique of that level!” she exclaimed, “But I gotta go; see you later, Oriko, well done!” She was gone in a matter of seconds, as Oriko felt somehow relieved, that if it was obvious to Sakura of her element combination, then it should be to the judges too, right?
“Heh,” she breathed her eyelids suddenly closing and her limbs feeling as though they had weights attached; before she could stop herself, she collapsed to the floor and sank into darkness.
..
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*Henohenomoheji is a little ‘face’ drawn by Japanese school children when first learning Hirigana characters, as the seven symbols can be arranged to form a face, this face occurs quite a lot in Naruto; it’s on the back of Pakkun’s little waistcoat for example.