If you remember being around when this fight was first written... No, you don't. You are a veteran.
It's changed!! Finally!
I'm wincing by the end of the tenth one-on-one battle – Rock Lee and Gaara.
The full fight itself had lasted just over fourty minutes, the longest of matches so far. The arena has almost completely been totaled, excluding the giant stone hands and the area where the Lord Hokage and the other Jōnin Sensei and Chūnin stand.
So far and ever since Makara-sensei revealed her true abilities in front of me, I'd only experienced more and more uniqueness to everyone around me. Every person I've met all have different Jutsu they all use, and it has been amazing. But between Lee, his lack of chakra, and his absolutely incredible Taijutsu techniques, and Gaara, his gourd of sand, and his terrifying strength, I realize I've had another reaction on reserve for the world of Shinobi.
I had to slap my hands over my mouth when the crack echoes. Lee lets out a wail, and suddenly, Guy-sensei, the man with the tortoise from the first day, has stepped in, stopping Gaara from quite obviously wanting to kill him. And even then, Lee... still tried to fight. Bloodied and battered, Lee is finally removed from the arena on a stretcher, and... there's word that his injuries may be severe enough that he won't be able to be a Shinobi anymore.
I've never prayed much before, but for Lee, I put my hands together and pray until he disappears from my sight.
Sasuke. Shino. Kankurō. Temari. Shikamaru. Iori. Naruto. Neji. And now, Gaara. These are who have won their rounds. With Sakura's fight with Ino ending in a draw, so far half of Team Seven has managed to pass on for the finals. And now, there's only four of us left. Chōji. Garasu. A man named Dosu from the Hidden Sound. And me.
For my sake and personal sanity, I hope that I get to battle Chōji. Heck, even this Dosu guy I'd happily win or lose against. But Garasu? She gives me such a cold, bitter feeling, just from hearing her speak that one time. That exchange with her the day she arrived hadn't even been all that terrible, so I'm thinking I just have some kind of hidden animosity toward anything reminding me of Makara-sensei, and since Garasu comes from the Land of Snow, well... She's one big reminder.
Before the next two names have a chance to appear on the screen, I check my inventory, even though I know barely anything had been touched. It serves as a piece of mind when in my peripheral vision, after a loud beep from overhead, I spot Garasu jumping over the gallery railing on the opposite side of the arena. I swallow, somehow unable to look up to see who her opponent is.
"Kari," I hear Sakura say. My sharp intake of air ends up being released as a groan – I can't help it. I really don't want to fight this woman. Finally, I relent, and trudge down the stairs, my nerves quickly beginning to eat at me the closer I get to where Garasu and Mister Gekko stand waiting.
This is so scary, I think, my pulse pounding away at my throat. Why is it so scary? I wasn't even this scared when we fought Haku. Is it because I watched Sasuke and Lee get taken off to the infirmary? Or is it really only because Garasu is associated with a place that has so much suffering attached to it?
I'm forced to bow to Garasu when I reach her. Her expression is complicit, nothing leading on about it, which frustrates me. When the proctor clears his throat, I rise, pressing my shoulders back in a warming stretch.
"The eleventh match between Garasu Fujikaze of the Snow and Kari Yamada of the Leaf will begin on "three"," Mister Gekko announces.
"Go get 'er, Kari!" Naruto shouts, and it echoes throughout the arena. I take a moment to look back at him to find him standing beside Sakura, who lets out a shrill "Woo!", and Kakashi-sensei, who'd likely just returned from accompanying Sasuke, and offers a thumbs'-up at me.
"One." I smile back at them, appreciative of their support. Their battles had inspired me – they really did amazing. Naruto fought well against Kiba, and Sakura and Ino truly were evenly matched.
"Two!" Garasu is unmoving, even as I get into a stance of my own, my leg drawn behind me, ready to be the first to strike. I can't help the face I make – she's full of openings? I'm not naïve enough to believe this isn't on purpose. And I have a bad feeling that it's because she's stronger than an average Genin like me.
"Three!"
I... don't move. I rise from my stance, staring hard at the woman before me. Ugh, what is it with this feeling she's giving me? I'm not cold, but I'm shivering. The more I watch her, the higher her smirk raises, before finally, she speaks.
"I heard a rumour," she says. "About you."
"... good rumours, I hope," I end up mumbling. She chuckles.
"You're a Snow brat, too, aren't you?" I don't bother answering. "I'll take your silence as a "yes". I'll be frank with you, Kari Yamada. I don't really care about becoming a Chūnin."
"Huh?" I end up blinking at her several times. "Then why are you even here?"
"I have points to prove to people. Whether I'm given the rank of Chūnin or not changes nothing."
"... why did you even bother telling me that?" I demand of her, mildly confused. "Can we just fight already?"
"She's right," Mister Gekko says from nearby. "You have a minute to start, or I'll be forced to end your fight as a draw."
"I told you that as a forewarning to what's about to happen to you." Garasu smirks again. "You're about to become my steppingstone, just like those other two Genin I worked with did."
"They... weren't your teammates?"
"Things don't work like that in the Land of Snow, and there's seldom any opportunities for a small nation like us to participate in such a big examination... We're all a bunch of misfits there."
"So... you're trying to showcase yourself, or something?"
"Exactly that."
"W-Wait, but don't you have a Jōnin Sensei?" I recall the man from six days prior. "You're his student, aren't you?" And Garasu laughs.
"Sure," she whispers, so that not even Mister Gekko can hear her. I frown. "Let's go with that."
I don't mean to, but it's instinctive – I'd bothered to look up to where the Jōnin, Chūnin, and the Lord Hokage stand and look for him. When our eyes meet, he seizes on the spot, looking paler than I'd remembered him being. I'm so confused by Garasu's words and her behaviour that I find myself more and more thrown off and out of focus, enough so that when I hear her moving toward me, it doesn't immediately register in my ears.
I whip my head back toward her, in time to cross my arms in front of me to block her punch and leap away. I'd winced at the contact, but... it's strange. It didn't physically hurt, but my arms sting. I shake them out on my way back to her, and in favouring my right leg to put all my weight onto, I shift it into my left in the form of a side kick, one that I'm pleased to say manages to reach her right shoulder. A sharp noise escapes her, and she stumbles slightly, her reaction curving into a chuckle.
She's laughing? I think, incredulous.
"You held back with that one, didn't you," she says, giving her arm a quick rub.
"Maybe a little," I admit. "I just want to see what I'm up against, aside from your attitude."
She laughs, loudly. "And maybe it's the same on my end, hm? You hear so much about the Yamada Princess where we're from and you can't help but to wonder if she'll live up to legend?"
"Y-Yamada Princess?" I repeat in an accidental shout – oh, I don't mean to, but – "W-What are you talking about? Wait, no, I—" I end up groaning in frustration, suddenly overwhelmed by just a few of her words. "I just want to finish this fight with you! You're so annoying with all of your talking and taunting! For someone who said they have something to prove, you're wasting your time!"
"Oh, but I've already started."
My jaw involuntarily sets. So annoying!!
This time, I charge her, hoping to get her off guard once more and hopefully knock her onto her a—
I feel it again, the second my knuckles connect with her upper shoulder, the sting. It isn't so bad that I can't carry the force I'd intended on serving her through, but it makes my body tingle in not such a nice way. I carry my momentum further and launch my dominant left hand into the same spot on her opposite side, stunning her.
If I can get away with this using just Taijutsu, it really would be ideal, I think when she reaches for me, her fingertips just barely skimming my neck when she'd made to grab my qipao. I'd knocked her hand away before she could, and into a position where I'm able to grab her shirt and her elbow and use her momentum against to toss her ahead of me and into the wall. But I know it won't be.
I jump back, several meters away from where Garasu's body had been leaning against the wall.
Garasu likes to aim at anything above her hips – my arms, my chest, my face. She uses her feet, legs, and knees for speed and balance, not bothering to utilise her entire body to attack or even fend, where doing so might've spared her a hit. Something that's been bothering me, though, which maybe sounds unrelated to what's happening, is just how much skin she has showing. I get that the Leaf is hot, but for a Shinobi from the Land of Snow to be wearing just a tank top and some shorts? I didn't stop wearing my winter clothing for about a week after I'd moved here.
So maybe it's something to do with her skin, I think, decidedly remaining a reasonable distance away. And she realizes this.
"Have I scared the little princess?" she calls, a hand cupped to her mouth as she stalks toward me.
"... nope." I take a moment to breathe.
"You see, it's not that I'm not strong," Garasu informs me, taking longer strides now. Instead of moving backwards, I decide to meet her halfway, hands raised to balance myself when I fall into a roundhouse that she narrowly avoids. I spin back toward her and in using my new momentum, my foot finally connects to her side. She jerks in place, moving by one step. "I'd just prefer to play this smart – the least amount of energy I have to use, the better."
"You keep letting me hit you, so I'm thinking you're really not smart, after all?" I say, now using my fists and shifting my balance into my hips and feet.
"I've noticed you looking at me the way you do – analyzing just why I'm not dressed to "code"," she says. "You're wondering whether this has something to do with my Jutsu."
So, it is a Jutsu. But what kind could she possibly be using that I can't see?
"Hit me again, little princess," she taunts, her smirk now lopsided. "Keep hitting me, and allow me to prove my point."
Somehow, my mind drifts to what she had said earlier, after calling me "Yamada Princess"... w-whatever that means. I have a legend? How? And... is this one of the points she means to prove?
She's just standing there again! I don't care if it's a taunt – even as Sakura shouts from above us that that's exactly what it is – because this whole thing has gotten me so frustrated, from being separated from the others, to being attacked by a spider, to having slept through the entire exam, to watching my teammates either win or lose their fights, and now, having to deal with this... this... woman with a frostbitten brain!
I indulge her, my sprint eventually turned into an outside crescent kick, connect with the side of her head—
"H-Huh?" I freeze before her, my neck craning to make eye contact when she rubs in the scuff to her cheekbone. I-It... barely affected her? I swear I... put everything I had into that. Why is she... still standing?
"It was almost too easily done," Garasu says with a sigh, immediately starting to chuckle again as she looks to the head of the room to her right. I manage to do the same, only to start frowning. Her "Sensei" looks panicked, but it's not the kind I'd expected. He's not panicked over what Garasu is doing, but what she's doing to me. "You were one of the points, Yamada."
I end up stumbling when I try to get away from her.
"Kari, what's wrong?!" I hear Naruto shout; I can't even bring myself to look his way. "Come on! You can beat her! She isn't even putting up a fight!"
So then... why does my body feel like it's losing?! I scream in my thoughts, and not even a moment later, I'm overcome by so much nausea that I trip over my own sandals and fall onto my backside.
"Kari!!"
"W... Wait," I pant. I swallow a second later, feeling a static burning beneath my tongue.
"Can't speak?" She hums at me. "Unfortunate. I won't explain to you what I've done – I do plan on winning the final exam, after all. Can't reveal all my tricks."
I can't stop myself once I feel it, the burning under my tongue. I'd felt more of it crawl up my throat from my gut until it fills my mouth and spills out onto the floor in front of me. Vomit. It's vomit. And I'd just vomited in front of everyone.
Garasu laughs down at me, but it sounds strange. Maybe it's only because it feels like I'm dying now, as I puke a second time, this round having a little touch of red to it. But she doesn't sound... happy. Like she's not happy with what's happened.
I don't hesitate after the third round (now mostly bile...). As fast and focused and steady as I possibly can, I weave a handful of signs together and rest my shaky hand around my mouth to aim.
"F-Fireball Jutsu!"
The heat escapes me, but I note its half power and internally curse how weak my body currently is when I collapse on my backside again.
"Oops." To make matters even worse, Garasu has stepped aside, quite easily avoiding the flames. "That was warm enough to make me break a sweat. Is that it, then? Is this as far as you're able to go, how you are now?"
"Kari, get up!" I hear Sakura shout. I... I'm trying!
"How unfortunate."
It takes three of Garasu's long strides to reach where I sit, and when she finally stops before me, she raises her knee into the air and rams her boot hard into my chest.
"Oofh!"
"Kari!!"
"Kari!"
I'm pinned, my shoulders digging hard into the floor beneath me. Garasu doesn't smile, she doesn't laugh, not even when she bends over, still keeping me beneath her heavy step, and grabs my face between the fingers of her one hand.
"I just want to finish this fight with you," she whispers, a repetition of my words to her from earlier. And then I hear it before I feel it, my cheekbones shattering beneath her fingertips.
I scream, then, unable to help it when the pain tears through my face, my neck, my entire body, blinded by it so terribly that I can no longer see her and her expressionless face standing over me. A pressure rises off my chest and her shadow disappears from my remaining sight, instead replaced by two new shadows of different heights and forms.
"Kari, talk to me," Kakashi-sensei says, his tone panicked, but I barely hear it over my team and even some of the other Genin who had been standing up in the gallery with them yelling down for me.
"—m-my face!" I sob, my trembling hands rising from the ground to cradle it, but even the slightest touch sends waves of white hot agony tearing through my body again and I'm gasping.
"Kari, breathe!"
"K-Kakashi-sensei!!"
Over my crying, the delirious pain I feel, I can hear our proctor announcing my loss, another voice, an older woman's voice, calling for medics, Naruto, who curses out Garasu and slings out insults as easily as he breathes, and Garasu, who bothers to yell back at him before Mister Gekko tells them off—
I'm trying so hard to listen to them, to choke back my tears, to suck it up, even as I'm shuffled onto some fabric sheet and lifted off the ground – any kind of distraction, so I'm not focusing on my injury. My body jerks when a fourth wave of nausea rips through my chest and stomach, but I only retch, my stomach already empty from before and from not eating for almost five days.
The lighting overhead changes, darkens a little, and I realize we've left the arena.
And it finally settles in... how easily I've just lost.
"K-Kakashi-sensei—""Don't talk, Kari," he interrupts my whimpering. "We're going to get you help."
I pull out my fastest thought, hoping for more distracting.
"Sasuke?" I manage, my voice about as cracked as my skull probably is.
"He'll be fine, too, just like you'll be," he tells me, and I feel a light hand touch my shoulder. "You're going to be just fine." He then sighs, but it sounds exhausted. I sigh, too, before I allow my eyes to shut.
P-Probably because he's had to do this twice, now.
Updated March 5th, 2022 | 3,011 words