Ask to Join Naruto: One's Nindo

[=Nightshade=]

Karui nodded in understanding as her sister transformed into a pebble. She lightly tossed the small stone into the moat where it landed and sank with a soft thunk. A few moments later, a mist began to form and thicken around her. Muted explosions from a ways away gave Karui the signal to fly, and she darted over the moat, skimming low to the water and taking a sharp upwards turn to follow the natural plane of the wall. The mist obscured the slight golden glow of her chakra, and she slipped over the wall and landed lightly on the other side. She crouched in the wall’s shadow, slowing her breathing to become as unnoticeable as possible as she waited for her sister.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Finding the location of his next match was proving rather difficult for the fiery shinobi, still trying to recover from the renewed disorientation that the group that glared at him brought. Taiyo scanned every angle of the room he found himself in, one of these angles including what was directly behind him. Once he went to look behind him, he noticed a familiar blue dress in the background. Eyes widening in fear, the Leaf-nin began increasing the speed of his stride by a slight amount, hoping to lose the girl while remaining inconspicuous.

Oh shit...I really don't know what I did to piss her off this much, but I don't think I should wait and find out.

She's been sleeping this whole time to gather power...cultivating energy...

While walking, Taiyo periodically looked back at Furījia to make sure that she didn't suddenly make up the distance between them. Unfortunately, this habit came back to bite him when he walked into a wall during his attempted escape. This accident, although not particularly painful, was infuriating enough to rekindle the Leaf-nin's flame. Turning around with his back facing the wall, Taiyo decided to wait for the Hyūga to make her move.

You know what, I will wait and find out.

If she's gonna kill me, she'll have to work for it.

 

[kyuukestu]

Village Hidden in the Leaf, Chunin Exams (Sept 25, Day of the Exams)

Furījia​

As Furījia began catching up to Taiyo, he turned around. Their eyes met and his widened with wild panic. Then he was passive-aggressively speeding away. Furījia pursued.

Why are you running?

Their game of cat and mouse didn’t last long as after one too many panicked glances over his shoulder, Taiyo ran into a wall. Seeing her chance, Furījia advanced.

She recalled Natsu’s advice. Be bold and aggressive. Maneuver him into a corner and then dangle what he wanted in front of him. Be in control of the situation.

The heiress heard and executed. Her approach was swift, her expression steeled with resolve. Momentary apprehension creased her brow, but she brushed it away. She would be bold and aggressive.

He already had his back to the wall, so the cornering part was done for her. Now she just needed to box him in. She did so by positioning herself in front of him. Trapping him between herself and the wall.

Finally, she lifted her leg and kicked into the wall—cutting off his escape and simultaneously achieving her last objective—dangle what he wanted in front of him.

She looked him straight in the eye, he was a bit taller than she. “Did you want to touch…?” No, that wasn’t quite right. “My feet—I mean.” Err, maybe this was a mistake. “You were staring so…”

A mild blush had taken her features but determined to see this through Furījia pressed on. “W-well?”

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Holding her aching arm, Shiho shook her head as she fully regained her consciousness. "What happened? I remember blacking out after seeing Raiku throw his punch at me and now I'm here." Scratching her head, the young Hyuga's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the incoming combo projectiles launched by Raiku and his clone. Clapping her hands together, Shiho first winced due to the pain in her arm but quickly began weaving hand signs. "Oh well, let's save that for later."

Taking in a deep Breath, Shiho shot out a stream of water from her mouth. "Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"

 

[EnviousWorm]

Ugokasenai Keito, Iwa Genin
​

Only able to hang around watching his two teammates bash away at each other for so long, Keito turned heel, for a second listening to the sound of the conflict before he led himself forward leaning on the sheathed sakabatou for balance. He sped away as fast as he could, down the stairs again and back toward the main hub that connected the exam arenas to each other; maybe it was because he was a participant at all, or maybe it was because hundreds (thousands?) of people had seen him run through with an umbrella, but the security detail let him pass through with an immunity he'd likely never experience again in his life...Keito couldn't help but feel a warmness in Konoha; or maybe that was his stitched-up intestines.

Tap. Tap. Tap. His approach wasn't quiet in itself, though the roar of the crowd and other footsteps in the background could definitely drown him out to those not listening for him. Keito's wandering became almost aimless, half-exploring, half-getting used to being back on his feet. Despite the pain, he could feel a sort of strength returning to him. Still, he leaned on his sword like a cane, walking forward. Tap. Tap-

Right at the threshold of another doorway of what seemed to be a maze of intermittent rooms and long hallways, Keito stopped right as the flash of a fleeing form of flesh passed right by his line of vision — the sort of half-panicked, partial run one does when they're too busy looking over their shoulder to really get away. The second set of footsteps seemed more furious than the last; reflexively, Keito pressed his back up against one side of the entry-way, holding his sakabatou to his chest as if he'd have to draw it at any second.

This time, a girl passed by like a flash of lightning, on the prowl like some sort of ravenous lioness, packing her helpless prey in against a dead-end wall. What struck the wounded genin as odd was that the two seemed to be of the same village, until-

Her leg lifted up and planted itself into the wall by the boy's head — impressively flexible, Keito had to admit, albeit an odd display of...affection? Seduction? He had an idea of what the girl was attempting to achieve, of course, but he had to wonder if she'd...tried anything of the sort before.

“Did you want to touch…My feet—I mean," Keito heard the girl say from around the corner, which caused the teen to mouth the words what the fuck, doing all that he could not to say them out loud. “You were staring so…W-well?”

And of course, he'd found himself in an equally disadvantageous position to the poor boy acting as a crash-test dummy for hormonal seduction (for better or worse) — of course, he'd put himself in position now to be the one spying on quite an uncouth, public display. He shook his head, cursing his luck silently. After all that had happened in a very long day, it seemed to just get...odder with each passing moment.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

Hisato would eventually face his fears and reemerge in his hospital room where he would wait and eventually finish his recovery. With free roam, Hisato decided to walk around. He heard a conversation not far from his location. The first thing Hisato noticed was a girl talking about feet and the olive eyed boy she was talking to.

"I'm guessing you two also made it to the second round?" Hisato said.

Hisato paused, "Hmmm... I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Hisato paused himself for a moment of self-awareness.

 

[Godjacob]

Tomiko, even from her distance, seemed to take note that Mori was reaching for something as that jutsu seemed to be quite taxing. Not too much of a surprise given the destruction it had left, though as quickly as Mori popped into the open he had burrowed back down. Tomiko had little doubt he aimed to get to her on the wall, and her eyes closed as she placed a palm on the section of wall she stood on as she tried to feel out her friend. She focused on trying to feel those tremors that Mori had to make as he dug through the ground, trying to hone in on the source as the rumbles seemed to increase little by little. She felt the rumble move closer to her, closer....closer...

There!
​

Tomiko cartwheeled to the side as she began to form hand signs and had taken notice as her feet just missed being stuck in some tar that seemed to appear from nowhere. Tomiko used a free hand as she seemed to scoop some rock from the wall as if it had been clay and with chakra molded it into what seemed to be a spear as she eyed the source of the underground rumble.

"Earth Style: Rocky Spear Jutsu!"
​

Tomiko then punched the end of her spear as he flew with violent force, as it aimed to not just strike the ground but drive itself through the wall and aim to try and strike Mori before he'd change positions underground.

-----​

Azumi continued to watch as the crowd seemed in aww of the destructive display before them. Was expected, when two Earth-style users had been asked to battle, there was no reason to expect it wouldn't tear up the field a little. The battle shifted to the wall as Azumi looked on as she seemed to have a more analytical expression than anything else.

Both seem to have a bit of a creative energy to them. Will have to keep that in mind...

 

[DarkHydraT]

The spear caught Mori off guard, pinning him to the wall by his shirt. Thankfully, no vital organs were hit, but it still gave him quite the scare that forced him to catch his breath for a second. "Okay, I say we're even on the attempts at our lives. If you wanted me to take my shirt off, you could've just said so." Grabbing a kunai, the Iwa boy cut open his shirt which allowed him to escape, though it left him in the fishnet undershirt. "You worked on your reflexes, not bad." Weaving hand signs, the boy slammed his hand into the ground as the ground began to crack and split as three rock golems crawled from the ground.

"Earth Style: Rock Warrior Jutsu!"

The three stocky golems looked at Tomiko before starting their advance, ready to punch and slam into Tomiko with as much creativity as their limited intellect allowed for. Mori meanwhile retreated underground, leaving Tomiko to fend for herself as he tried a different angle.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Fire | Nekomata Fortress (Sept 25 5:30 pm, Day of the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

It wasn’t enough to distract the cats with a few explosions and mist. Although that had drawn their attention enough for Karui to slip over the wall, Sagisō had no such aerial mobility. So she planned a small bait and switch.

Suigisō emerged from the lake and flittered just on the edges of the cat-guard’s views. As their gazes were drawn once more, Sagisō emerged from the other side. When the guards stalked off in pursuit of Suigisō, Sagisō flipped over the wall in two bounds.

Soon afterward she met up with Karui.

“Can you scan the area, sense for Megami?”

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
Taiyo never had a plan to proceed within the confrontation, and his sense of disorientation only increased when, after finally catching up, the girl swiftly kicked the space next to him and kept it extended for an extended period of time. With beads of sweat coating his forehead, Taiyo slowly glanced at the spot that Furījia's leg was barricading, gulping out of fear.

She missed!

I'm alive! I'm safe!

Turning his attention back to the Hyūga heiress, he waited for her to deliver a clever remark before dealing the killing blow. Instead of that, the girl had proposed an offer, specifically, one to touch her feet. She rationalized that he had been staring at them so, in a misguided attempt at...generosity, the girl gave Taiyo permission to do as he pleased with her feet. Of course, there was only one rational response to the events that had transpired: "What?!"

In under a second, I went from celebrating life to wishing for death. From a third person perspective, it's almost impressive.

After making his confusion evident, Taiyo noticed that Furījia's face had been getting red. Surprisingly(or not depending on perspective), this was just as embarrassing for her as it was for the compromised fiery shinobi. Sympathy began to leak onto his face as he stared into her uncertain brown eyes. With renewed resolve, he decided to give the heiress a definitive answer.

"Uh, I appreciate the offer, but I'll have to decline," He began with sincerity, not wanting to actually enrage the successor to the Hyūga clan, "To be honest, I didn't even notice your feet until now, nice sandals by the way. I'm sorry for staring at you, I just remember seeing you sleeping before the exams and I was wondering if you were getting enough sleep." He cautiously side stepped away from Furījia's leg while maintaining eye contact with her. Although what he said was sufficient, Taiyo had every intention of forming some sense of dialogue between them.

"But, I think we might've gotten off on the wrong foot. My name's Taiyo Akugami, it's nice to meet you and your flexibility," Allowing a small but warm and inviting smile to appear on his face, the aforementioned shinobi extended his hand offering a handshake. It was only after making his offer that he noticed that the two had acquired something of an audience, but that was irrelevant to him for the moment.

 

[SageNeb]

The two attacks collided with one another, the Wild Water Wave and Oil Flame Bullet. However, the added oils to the flames worked as Raiku had predicted, easily countering and vaporizing the incoming defense water jutsu. The Raiku which was adding the flames kept the jutsu up, coming closer to Shiho as her water was being boiled. Meanwhile, the other Raiku had begun performing other hand seals, and placed his hand on the ground summoning a crow.

"Ramer, I need your wind to help me out with these flames..."

The summon nodded and flew into the air, sending out large chakra enhanced gusts to the flame bullet Shiho was fighting against. The winds spread the flames to completely encase the Hyuga between the wall and the incoming attack, while also adding strength to the fire.

"Shiho, I wouldn't like to see you be burnt to a crisp here! Can you please surrender?" Raiku yelled from the other side of the flames.

 

[sSoul]

Tsuki
As predicted, Yua ended up taking the hit and was even knocked off balance momentarily thanks to the trap that Tsuki had set up. Unfortunately for the icy kunoichi, her opponent's reaction speed prevented her from truly capitalizing on the advantage she had secured for herself. Tsuki watched the Suna kunoichi reach into her pouch and grab a trio of shuriken. In response, the Mist-nin ran to the puddle of sticky water that she had created and wove together a trio of hand-seals for yet another jutsu she had used in the past: the Water Whip! This time, Tsuki tapped her hand upon the syrupy pool of water once she had completed her jutsu. This allowed her to pull out a viciously viscous "vine", which coincided with the time that Yua had sent her shuriken in her direction. Aware of her technique's range, Tsuki waited until the group of shuriken were within ten(approx. 33 feet) meters of herself before flicking her wrists and causing the whip to travel in an arc that would allow it to catch every shuriken that Yua had thrown.

Although the icy kunoichi managed to neutralize the projectiles, she could not prevent herself from being jabbed by her opponent. However, this wasn't a complete loss. Mimicking her opponent for the second time, Tsuki used the momentum that the jab gave her to open distance between herself and her opponent. Once she regained a sturdy sense of balance, she began her counterattack by temporarily reducing the rope's stickiness, allowing Tsuki to redirect the poisoned shuriken towards their user. After reverting the rope to it's normal level of viscosity, she continued to make use of her weapon by attempting to lasso Yua's legs in tandem with the weapons flying to her face. If Tsuki were successful in entrapping the Suna kunoichi's leg, she would yank the whip with intent to not only cause Yua to fall backwards, but to also drag the poisonous combatant towards the Kiri-nin.

I'm dealing with a poised opponent here, I'm unsure how many more traps I can set up for her to fall into...

 

[jade421]

Yua managed to land the blow, of course because it was along some clothing and not bare skin, the poison wouldn't sheep into her but it had been part of a more gradual strategy. Wear down her foe, and maybe get some poison to build up if she could strike the same spots with repeated blows. Yua had to shift focus back on the defense as it seemed Tsuki had been full of surprises and managed to launch back her very poisoned kunai using what seemed to be some sort of enhanced water whip. Yua quickly advanced, as she twirled her staff and deflected the poison kunai shots which caused a few of them that had not been deflected to the ground to bounce in the air to which she caught in stride and shifted back into her pouch. Being this poison was a product of her, she had no fear of it touching her skin. What Yua had to be more concerned with was this whip, as her foe tossed it her way and tried to wrap around her leg for not doubt nefarious purposes. As such, before she could be wrapped up she would leap high into the air as she aimed to avoid being snagged like her kunai had earlier. Though Yua had to strike back, her opponent was crafty and so far she had to largely react to her traps and counters as she controlled the pace. So her hands began to form some signs as she prepared to give her foe a taste of what the Tameru Clan could do. "Tameru Art: Poison Stream Jutsu!"

From Yua's mouth a stream of a poison cloud shot out as she fired it towards Tsuki below her. The gas had been a stronger concentration of her clan's poison than she she had touched upon her kunai, and unlike her staff or weapons all her opponent needed to do here was get caught in the gas and breath it in and it would get into her system. If nothing else, the fog that fired down to Tsuki's position would also work as a nice cover to hide Yua as her body began to drift back down to the ground. This she hoped would be just the thing to allow her to take the driver's seat in this battle.

 

[kyuukestu]

Village Hidden in the Leaf, Chunin Exams (Sept 25, Day of the Exams)

Furījia​

His eyes glued themselves to her legs and he…gulped? To his credit, Taiyo controlled himself; and, if he hadn’t just tried to sell her on the most blatant lie she’d ever heard, and made a foot-pun, she might’ve believed him. As it were, her impression of him was very different.

Still, Furījia graciously didn’t call him out on it; she was there to win him over, not expose his fetishes. Her blush faded as she regained her composure, and after lowering her leg, Furījia pressed a few creases from her dress with her thumb.

For a moment she contemplated the offered hand, ultimately deciding to take it in a firm handshake.

“I know who you are, one of the finalists, right?”

Furījia had not been unaware of the people that had stopped to watch, or even more brazenly, walked up to talk to them. One of the more brazen bunch—she recognized.

“I would’ve been a finalist but…” Her eyes darted over to Hisato, narrowing slightly while she bunched her dress with clenched fists. “This fellow and a Mist buddy of his double-teamed me on day one—I took his scroll, but it was the wrong one, and after that, I was too injured to fight for another.”

Not making it to the finals had been no small source of disgruntlement for the girl, even now she knew there were whispers criticizing her for her failure.

After a final stink eye, she turned away from Hisato, deliberately ignoring his question.

“Anyway, I’m Furījia Hyūga.”

 

[ThAtGuY101]

Hisato watched Taiyo and Furijia continue their conversation. Hisato didn't have much input if any on whatever subjects they had spoken on so he silently listened.

"Huh?" Hisato said in confusion tilting his head, really having to think hard on who Furijia was talking about, when it dawned on him, she was the ninja that he helped Tsuki fight, "Oh yeah! Long time no see! You seem fine! Glad there aren't any hard feelings then! That was fun fight! Fun fights are the best fights" Hisato said.

"Hisato. Hisato Gato!" Hisato said.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

The stream of water collided with the combo fire, creating a large cloud of steam. Seeing how her attack was being overpowered, Shiho raised the power of her water wave in an attempt to at least slow down the inferno's advance. The young Hyuga aimed to keep the flames at bay while she tried to look for an opening to escape, however the addition of a sudden gust of wind messed up her hopes of that plan working out.

An anxious expression grew on the young Hyuga's face as the fire surrounded her. "Oh crap this is bad! What do I do?" From the other side of the flame, Shiho heard Raiku calling out to her, asking for her surrender. "Surrender? I don't want to lose this early on, there must be something I can do." As that rain of though ran through Shiho's head, the raging fire crackled in her face, causing her to break her jutsu and take a unbalanced step back. With that stride however, Shiho's eyes once again went blank, her body automatically beginning to weave another Wild Water Wave. Aiming at the ground, Shiho spat out a large quantity of water which quickly spread in a circle around her. The young girl quickly followed up by positioning one arm in front of her and the other behind her. "Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!"

Shiho spun into a rotation, expelling chakra from every tenketsu on her body. The water she had produced around her was also picked up by this rotation, dousing the flames as they were repelled by the ultimate Hyuga defense technique. A thick fog of steam formed all around as Shiho spread the former inferno away from her. Once the danger of burning alive was gone, Shiho slowly came to a stop. She stumbled around clumsily, the rotation having sent her head into a daze. "Whoa what was that? I think I blacked out again." Shiho spoke to herself with slightly slurred words. Hopefully the obstructing fog in the are will hide the fact that the young Hyuga is currently in a rather compromised state.

 

[Godjacob]

The spear had could a target and flushed Mori out, which was enough to make Tomiko grin before Mori revealed his simple though no less clever solution to this as he removed his shirt. With his sudden fishnet frame exposed, Tomiko had a slight blush cross her cheeks as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.

"Uh s-sorry Mori I was just trying to fish you out of the ground, d-didn't mean to ruin your top." Tomiko explained a bit awkwardly but instantly her focus shifted as Mori summoned what seemed to be three golems along the wall, and one had taken a swing at her which Tomiko blocked but it knocked her off the wall as she landed back on the stadium floor. Soon she was surrounded by the three golems, but rather than concern she seemed to grin in excitement at this.

"Now this is what I am talking about!" Tomiko yelled out, as she jumped in the air to avoid an anticipated punch by a golem and worked to punch its head off with her gauntlet covered fist. From there she'd aim to bounce off its shoulders as she jumped to another golem and aimed to cave its chest in with a hard blow.

Clearly the Iwa-Genin had enjoyed herself, though as she worked to bash over the final golem she knew Mori must've had something else planned...

 

[DarkHydraT]

The first golem's head got knocked clean off, causing the body to stumble towards it and reattaching it before continuing its assault onto the 'De-shirt-inator', ready to grab the girl by her neck and render her useless. The second golem wasn't as lucky, getting its chest blown apart by Tomiko's mighty fist. The golem fell down into rubble, only for it to reform into two smaller golems. A fail-safe, that Mori spent way longer on than he would ever want to admit. The smaller and faster, yet weaker golems joined their bigger brethren, stacking on top of each other to take the hit meant for the third golem, taking one of the smaller ones out of commission permanently as both the third golem and the small golem threw back a punch at Tomiko.

Mori meanwhile had made himself comfortable underground, already gathering chakra to spray tar behind the golems. Should Tomiko jump over the golems, she hopefully would land in the tar and make herself an easy target. He had to be careful with his chakra though, Tomiko had yet to use more than two jutsu and he already popped a Military Rations Pill. There would come a time where he'd have to get physical with her.

 

[Godjacob]

"Woah, this is such a cool technique!" Tomiko called out, as these golems seemed to pack more of a punch to them. They seemed to be able to reform from the blows she had given her, and in the case of one she had broken to pieces it seemed to cause them to split into smaller golems. As the first golem tried to grab her neck, Tomiko hopped over and landed on its back as she effectively aimed to use it as a shield; having the large golem absorb the blows of the other large and one smaller golem. Tomiko herself delivered a punch to its back as she aimed to send a section of it as a projectile to the other large golem to knock it back as she jumped back to gain distance.

Only to land right into some tar, as her right foot got caught which surprised the Iwa-Genin. Course, this opened up the small golem to land a free shot on her cheek as Tomiko groaned and spat a little blood from the blow, before she quickly responded with a punch of her own right through the chest of the smaller golem. But Tomiko remained stuck, as she worked to try and free herself before the big golem had a chance to rebuild itself.

 

[DarkHydraT]

Golem 1 tried to shake Tomiko off, but ended up eating the hits meant for her. She even punched a section off, how rude! Turning to face Tomiko with a hole in its chest, Golem 1 stomped towards her, but kept just enough distance to stay away from her reach. Instead, it used a chunk of rock on the floor to repair itself, to the best of its ability that is. The small Golem tapped against the foot of the first Golem, which picked the small one up and threw it at Tomiko whilst the third Golem, recovered from just how disrespectful this girl was after forcing its creator to take off his shirt and straight up punching a chunk out of one of its allies, charged at Tomiko, aiming to punch her in the stomach and push her further into the tar.

Like a crocodile lying in wait, Mori spurred into action as he felt Tomiko get stuck in his tar. Jumping out of the ground, Tomiko would've sensed his burrowing regardless of how silent he dug, the boy threw another molotov cocktail, attempting to ignite the tar and cook Tomiko like a well-done steak, just how he liked them.

 

[SageNeb]

Spoiler: ~~~~~During the Timeskip~~~~~

Raiku stood with his summon Ramer next to him as they were training and were in the middle of a break. “Man, don’t you wonder what it’s like to be a human Ramer? I mean, I know I can transform into a crow but… well you don’t have hands so you can’t really do much besides wind jutsu.”

“What? Why would I want to stop being a bird? We’re awesome, I can fly and you can’t.”

“Well… whatever. All I’m saying is, maybe we could work even better if you understood my point of view.”

“Yeah, well that’s never going to happen. It’s not as if I can transfer my mind to your body or something.” Raiku paused for a moment and then looked at his summon.

“Hold on… a mind transfer technique… That’s actually possible Ramer! In fact, one of the clans of the Leaf, the Yamanaka are renowned for being able to do just that. It’s their signature hidden.”

Ramer looked shocked, while an idea began forming in Raiku’s head. Sure, Ramer couldn’t do jutsu to perform a mind transfer technique, but just maybe… something else could be arranged.

Raiku unsummoned Ramer and began making his way towards the Yamanaka’s Flower Shop. He remembered that he had a classmate from there from when he was still in the Academy.

Maybe she could help me…

Raiku eventually reached the shop and entered it. He noticed a girl around his age behind the counter and waved at her with a smile.

“Hey, Ino. It’s me, Raiku Uchiha from the Academy. How are you?”

The young Yamanaka girl was watering some plants behind the counter when she heard the door to her family run flower shop open. She expected it to be another usual customer that came every day or so, but it was Raiku Uchiha instead! The girl was quite shocked at first as she never expected the antisocial Uchiha to make time to come this flower shop? The girl did her best to hide cover her anxiousness and quickly tidied her hair to make herself look presentable to the boy.

She could only wonder why Raiku had come today. Was he here to get flowers? Who were they for? Another girl? His girlfriend?! Ino shook her head quickly to clear herself of those thoughts before she heard Raiku call out her name. Calming herself, Ino found the black eyes of the Uchiha as she returned a greeting.

“Oh, hey Raiku. I’m doing well. Taking care of the family business stuff, you know? How about you? Here to get some flowers?”

“I’m doing good as well. I’d love to buy some of your beautiful flowers. Of course, they’re not as beautiful as you are. Say, Ino, would you like to talk privately about something? I’m fine with waiting for you to finish working though.”

The girl would’ve fainted if she didn’t have a job after hearing the words come out of Raiku’s mouth. He called her beautiful and then said he wanted to talk to her privately. Did he like her? Was he going to ask her out?! In an attempt to keep up her calm composure, Ino went back to watering her plants as she responded. “Um, yeah, sure. I finish in like an half hour anyways. You can tell me now if you want though, since it’s just and me in here right now.”

"Well, in that case... Simply put: I have a favor to ask of you. The final exams are nearing soon, and I'd like to be better prepared for whatever obstacles come my way. I'd really appreciate it if you could graciously help me with a matter of... your expertise."

Raiku stopped and realized that this sounded like a business deal. As if he was asking her to assassinate someone for him.

Hold on... maybe I need to be more casual.

"Well, only if you want to, haha. It'd be nice to spend some time with you, though."

The girl blinked as it took her a few seconds to understand what Raiku was talking about. Her expertise? Besides her expert taste in boys, she was also a Yamanaka and had the special capability to utilize her clan’s hiden. That must’ve been what the boy was after, since Raiku didn’t seem like the type to directly ask a girl like her out. Or maybe not.

“Yeah, we haven’t talked much since our Academy days. Well, we didn’t really talk much then either...” the girl said with a nervous chuckle. “It would be nice to catch up while doing whatever it is you want. Though, if this about my clan’s hiden, then I’m gonna need something more...” Ino said like she was making a special deal with him as she leaned forward on the counter between them. This was her clan’s speciality, so it wasn’t like she could just give it a way because a boy asked her nicely.

Raiku gave a small chuckle back at her comment about during the Academy, which was true. However, the girl made it clear she would not be so easy to get help from regarding her clan's hiden. The Uchiha suspected as much though, deciding already he had to at least try.

As Ino leaned forward on the counter between them, Raiku decided to be bold and do the same. The boy's dark Uchiha eyes looking deep into the girl's blue Yamanaka ones. He had noted that she didn't completely decline his request, asking for something more...

"To be honest, you got me. I am asking for help about that... though if you want to catch up or if you need something more, I'm fine with doing so. I'll buy some flowers for you, at least, to show I'm serious about needing your help and giving you what you need."

If I wanted too... I could just use my Sharingan and make her help me using Genjutsu. After all, we're making such direct eye contact... but I'd rather not have to do that to someone from my village.

Needless to say, Ino didn’t expect Raiku to also follow her action. He was so close to her and she found herself gazing into his deep black eyes. She mentally cursed the Uchiha and their naturally good looks. Even if they all seemed to be lacking social skills, their attractiveness made up for it. Like the boy in front of her, for example. Backing up so she wouldn’t do something she’d regret, Ino let out a sigh.

“Fine. Buying flowers helps the family store, so you’re basically paying the clan in return for some of our secrets. You have a deal, Raiku.” Ino said that last part playfully as she put her right hand out for a handshake as if they were going to confirm a deal.

Raiku backed up as well in unison and listened as she agreed to help him out. When she extended her hand out for a handshake, the Uchiha did as well and finished the handshake with a grin on his face.

"I'll get some lavender flowers. Thank you, Ino. You said you're going to finish working in around half an hour right? I'll wait until then."

With that, Raiku took out his wallet and paid for the flowers he was purchasing. Of course, he wouldn't keep them, they were for Ino anyways.

"By the way, I didn't see you during the exams. What happened to you?" Raiku asked while looking around the shop, enjoying the other flowers.

The girl didn’t expect Raiku to wait for her to finish, but appreciated his company. Lavender flowers weren’t a bad choice either. Smiling, the girl took his money and completed the transaction as they talked.

“Thank you for the flowers. But yeah, I made it to the forest of death but ended up getting beat by some other ninja. Mom and Dad were disappointed, but they didn’t let me get to down. I’ll just pass for sure next time!”

Raiku turned and looked at Ino with a smile. “I’m sure you will. Just keep on practicing and you’ll be good enough to pass. By the way, how are Choji and Shikamaru doing?”

…Thirty minutes passed along with some idle chatter between the two and Ino finally finished working. She notified Raiku of this who was starting to get excited for the training that was about to happen. First, Ino demonstrated her basic techniques when they arrived at the training grounds. Raiku quickly learnt the basics, but actually applying them would end up taking the Uchiha a couple of weeks. Most of his training during this time was specifically on learning the basic mind transfer jutsu. Fortunately, Raiku has the Sharingan, which helped to streamline the process. Once Raiku finally managed to get the mind transfer technique to work against minimal resistance, it was then that he asked Ino the question that would reveal his true motives for learning this technique, attempting to combine it with his own idea for Ramer.

“Is there anyway for me to connect my mind with my summon’s?”

Ino looked at him for a moment thinking. After a short discussion, they reached the conclusion that it was indeed possible. Before parting ways with the girl he’d spent the past few weeks training with, Raiku asked her to gather information on the other participants as well. Having no reason to deny her boyfriend, Ino agreed. Raiku then spent the remaining time before the exams attempting to utilize the mind transfer technique to bring the idea he had for Ramer to life. It was quite the tedious process, but Raiku remained determined to make his goal a reality before the exams...

~~~~~The Battle~~~~~
Raiku had been formulating a plan for if Shiho declined his request to her surrender and watched the Hyuga's next moves. He took notice of her beginning to perform another water technique and expected it to continue being overpowered by the flames. Instead, to the Uchiha's surprise, Shiho performed a version of the Eight Trigrams which provided a rotation mixed with the water that doused the incoming flame attacks.

Raiku quickly called Ramer back and used the Tiger hand seal. He used the Beast Human Clone technique to transform his summon into a clone of himself.

"Ramer, me, get close to Shiho. When she finishes her rotation restrain her so I can perform a technique."

The Uchiha expected his opponent to be shaken up by performing one of the Hyuga's more advanced techniques as she had done to him prior with the Mountain Crusher. He pointed towards Shiho so his allies would know who she was, which Raiku himself was able to figure out due to being used to seeing within fogs of steams to locate his enemies, something he often had to do with his boil release form of Hiding in the Mist.

The two swiftly reached Shiho as soon as she finished her technique and grabbed a hold of her to make her still and stop stumbling around. Raiku then moved his hands out and formed a circle, and casted the Mind Body Switch technique. He had expected his opponent to be fatigued after the recent chain of events and wanted to take advantage of this to say from Shiho's body that she was surrendering.

 

[Godjacob]

In the most literal sense Tomiko had been in a stick situation, her foot had been stuck in tar, various golems charged as one literally used another as ammo to fire upon her and to top it off Mori decided now was the best time to to strike as he seemed to emerge for a moment and tossed another one of those damned molotov cocktails. To put it blunt this had been a dangerous spot, but Tomiko had not panicked and quickly responded with hand signs.

"Earth Style: Seismic Strike Jutsu!"
​

Tomiko delivered the hardest punch she had in the match yet, right on the ground, and a sudden seismic shock blasted all around her. Rock and ground tore up as a shockwave blasted around her immediate area which aimed to blow the bottle, the golems and the tar away from her as the immediate radius around her rumbled with tremendous force.

----------
Much like Mori's earlier quake, the stadium again rocked at the force of Tomiko's enhanced punch but while others seemed in aww or even worried at the tremors Azumi had looked on with pure focus. Both seemed to be equally destructive, yet they seemed to have distinctly different styles. One favored her fists and even used her jutsu in combination with her brawling style, while the other seemed to favor making the Earth itself a weapon and avoid direct confrontation if possible.

Course, the fact these two seemed to know each other, likely meant these were somewhat modified strategies. But still what info she could get could only be a net positive. Azumi was determined to be the winner of these events, no matter who had won this battle she was determined to rise above them.

 

[sSoul]

Taiyo
A wave of relief washed over Taiyo as he watched the redness retreat from the girl's face and and her sense of calm regained. The fiery shinobi was thankful that she returned his handshake, but he was even more thankful that she recognized his achievements rather than his shortcomings. His gratitude took a backseat to sympathy once he heard Furījia's story about her failure, which proceeded her actual introduction. When pointed to the person responsible, Taiyo had to restrain himself from laughing at the irony of it all. That very person repeatedly tried to budge into their conversation, seemingly lacking any ability to read the room or let a conversation happen without him.

"That sucks, I wish I could've helped you out," Taiyo hung his head briefly, allowing himself to lament her situation, "Unfortunately I had a bit of a rough time in the exams myself. I set up some traps at first but then I noticed Raiku Uchiha and the Hyūga girl he's fighting right now running away from something. Wanting to help out, I joined them and realized that they had managed to piss off at least four people. I dunno how they did it but that didn't matter. I tried helping out from there but by the time I got involved, the fight was already wrapping up. Raiku turned tail when he saw things were getting bad and when the Hyūga girl realized that as well, instead of running away she ran towards the people that were outnumbering her before, all because she had to check something or whatever. Even though her opponents were retreating themselves, they seemed hellbent on killing her. I had to pull her back and carry her to safety against her will just so she didn't get killed." Finishing his story, Taiyo looked away sheepishly, feeling that he had talked too much. While allowing the silence to pervade, he noticed the small crowd growing in size and exchanging whispers with one another.

Maybe I can become a storyteller if I can manage retirement.

"But hey, there is good news to this. I still passed and that guy that double teamed you? He's my next opponent," Taiyo gestured toward the Mist shinobi that he had been ignoring up until now before turning back to Furījia with an offer, "If you want, I can get a couple of licks in for ya." When he made the suggestion, Taiyo added a bit of a growl to his voice while palming his fist and cracking both of his knuckles. He glared at the mist shinobi out the corner of his eye, and if Hisato was willing to look, he'd noticed that Taiyo was sporting a sinister smirk.

Let's see if this dumbass gets scared at all. Doubt it since he lives in his own little world, but if I can get into his head, then that'll make it easier to pound it into the ground.

And what happens if we end up intimidating Furījia instead?

Shoot I dunno.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Hisato Gato...~

Hisato thought it was odd being talked about, but not directly to? Hisato stood there mildly confused, watching the two talk back and forth.

"Yeah, that would have been cool. Two on two. Maybe another time!" Hisato said.

"Yes! Glad you have enthusiasm then. I too look forward to the match then! The last match was fun, and so will this one! Though I assume your fighting abilities are better than your hearing ability" Hisato said.

Taiyo's sinister goofy facial expression looked like something Kiro would make, which made Hisato nearly burst into laughter. The facial expression was unsettling to be sure, but a kind of forced.

 

[Cmeriwether]

Ayaka Ushikai was looking around at all the battle screens when she saw her teammate Kenji in battle with his dogs. She knew he was a jokester, but he gave his all when serious. She looked around to find her other teammate, Taji. She was looking around, with her equipment, she looked around for a dark skinned girl, since she had lost her teammate. She looked around and spotted a dark-skinned girl with a green sleeveless shirt, and black Cargo shorts. The Jinchuriki then walked up to her teammate and looked at the battle. She then looked around to see where the other battles are held, as she then looked at Kenji. She then looked briefly at the other fights to see everything that was going on then at Kenji's. She hoped that Kenji would win his fight, for the sake of the village, and possibly her teammates.

"Please, Kenji, fight your hardest, Taji may kill you if you do not." Ayaka whispered, "I hope your dogs are okay after this, I will see what I can do to help."

She then looked around, hearing whispers a lot of different events going on like two Leaf ninja and a Mist Ninja having an interesting conversation, while other ninja were doing their own thing. She had seen some other places, but had no idea how expansive Konoha was. She then returned to Kenji's match, catching small details as she could.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Fire | Nekomata Fortress (Sept 25 5:30 pm, Day of the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

Within a matter of minutes, the duo had closed in on Asahi’s location. They were keen to travel through the back alleys and aqueducts, using water and shadows to conceal their movements.

“So she’s inside this building?” Sagisō grimaced. “Of course…”

Leave it to Asahi to get captured and brought to the biggest, most obviously dangerous castle inside a ninja cat village.

“Let’s go in through that skylight, then find Asahi.”

The duo stole up the wall and through the skylight, not needing to look far since they dropped right into what appeared to be the main corridor. Just down one of the many pathways and a flight of stairs, they found Asahi and—

“What are you doing–No, what are you wearing?”

 

[Hecotoro]

"Riceball and Cupcake! Meow!" Asahi squirmed with joy at the sight of her sisters, "What am I wearing? I'm a cat now." She pointed to her ears, "Meow."

Kas rolled her eyes, seeing more people joining them and starting to wonder the quality of their security. "If you're expecting to meet with my boss, you're gonna need some." She pulled two more cat ears out, a cocky smirk on her face. "Of course these will cost ya, say about 500 Ryo? Of course you could always just go around walking like humans and getting captured like your friend here... What are you doing?"

Asahi was on the ground on her back rolling and making a loud purring sound. "I'm blending in, meow."

Kas sighed, clearly losing her hope in humanity before continuing her speech. "You want the ears or not?"

"We're gonna get permission from lord cat, meow, to keep Kas, meow. That way we can keep the cat, meow, just like you promised Full Moon, meow." She stopped for a bit of her rolling on the ground and looked up at her sisters, "It would be too weird if I bathed myself right?"

 

[DarkHydraT]

"Dang it!" Mori's whole strategy fell apart as Tomiko basically unleashed an earthquake from her fist, he knew he should've gone for a trap hole jutsu, but he wanted to conserve his chakra. This move was exactly why he tried to avoid direct contact, as Tomiko had way stronger moves for up close and he was a fragile meat sack with feelings. The shockwave broke the earth with the tar, the golems and the bottle, leaving two small golems on the field. Mori himself was buried under the rubble that Tomiko sent flying, with a hand sticking out of it. With no way to weave handsigns, all he could do was wait as his two little golems rushed to the aid of their master, beginning to dig him out. The question was if they could do it before he would get turned into strawberry paste underneath Tomiko's powerful punches.

--------------

"I am not killing Kenji for losing, don't be so dramatic." Taji said, having noticed Ayaka's chakra signature approaching her. "He'll do fine, I am sure of it. It's technically a 3v1 and Kenji's closely attuned to his wolves, there should be no cause for concern. I am going to berate him if he loses without putting up a fight, but death is too extreme. He won't learn anything if he is not alive to learn."

 

[Schrift]

During the fight


Mori laughed at the sound of two more smoke bombs going off. Iron sand and regular sand spilt from his sleeve as it began to pile up around him. Mori was preparing. This was going to be an annoying fight. He should definitely try to finish this quickly. Drawing it out would be tedious to him. As he walked around a bit more in the smoke, Mori heard that crackle of electricity. Mori sighed, this was going to be annoying. Though his eyes widened, out of awe or fear who knew, what was clear was that this had surprised Mori. Though to think he'd let this attack land was deeply mistaken. Mori slammed both his hands down onto the ground. "Magnet style: Iron sand wall!", he cried as the sand beneath him split into two piles. Both piles rose up into two thick walls. They looked solid, ready to take on the oncoming onslaught. Though as the Kenjis approached, Mori clapped his hands together before forming a few hand signs before finishing it off on monkey. That's when the real fun happened as the walls sprung towards when the Kenjis were close. "Magnet style: Iron maiden!". The walls were like a slime, lurching forward as it went to devour the Kenjis. Mori had changed the solid walls back into piles of sand, albeit the sand was definitely not going to be easy to get out of once even if only part of you had been encased. Though for some reason, Mori didn't create any spikes inside them. Was this a plan? Mori had his staff ready as whatever was left of the pile of Ironsand rose up the staff and back into his sleeves.

@Godjacob

 

[Godjacob]

However, as the twisters of spinning human-beast charged to the walls that Mori had created, he found this had been far from a straight forward attack. Moving at such speeds the two Kenjis inside had lacked any vision to see their surroundings, but this proved to be a non-factor as their sharp hearing and exceptional sense of smell meant they had not lost position of Mori of the sounds of what moves he had made. As the walls lunged and aimed to consume the two spirals, the sudden mad-made twisters of flesh and sharpened claws displayed surprising agility as they pivoted away from the walls in mid-air and circled around. They moved to circle and strike at Mori as they aimed to move faster than the moving walls and strike before he had time to readjust their position this time flanked from his front and back.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Claw Jutsu!"
​

Hidden within the smoke itself, the third Kenji who had remained at ground level also took the time to strike. Electricity charged from his behind and extended behind his already enhanced & sharpened claws; coating them with an electric extension as he aimed to quickly slash at the base of one of the iron walls. Kenji had known little of this technique, but he had paid enough attention to the elemental table to know that Earth techniques had a weakness to Lightning ones, and aimed to use that to bring the wall down.

----------
Tomiko panted in the crater she had created around herself. While the previous technique had been one of her more destructive, it also had been more taxing so she needed a moment or two to get her breath back. Once she wiped her forehead she surveyed the damage and it seemed that Mori himself had gotten caught in the destruction; buried under rock as two of his golems tried to dig him out.

Tomiko knew she had an opening to act, this might be her chance to seize victory. With her foot free she shook the sting out of the arm she just used to clobber the arena and charged at Mori. The goal seemed to be simple; get to them before they could free Mori as she'd try to smash the golems to bits to leave Mori defenseless.

-----​

Azumi seemed to note the effect the technique had on Tomiko, as most seemed to focus on the destructive path she created, but also sensed that this might be this Iwa Kunoichi's chance to get victory as she seemed to finally land a blow on Mori. Whether she'd be able to close in before he had been freed remained to be seen but she watched with a focused interest.

Is he finished? Or does he have one more trick up his sleeve...

 

[DarkHydraT]

The two golems tried their hardest to dig Mori out, casting aside rocks to free the boy trapped underneath. They were making good progress, freeing the boy up to his hips. His legs were still stuck and he certainly wasn't unscathed with the cuts and bruises caused by the rocks, but he was alive and, well, not exactly kicking. His legs were still stuck underneath large rocks and if the utter lack of feeling anything other than pain meant anything, there was probably something wrong with them. He didn't hear anything snap, but that was probably because it was being muffled by the attack cracking the earth. He'd have to finish this match fast, lest he would get even worse injuries. Still, there were more pressing matters at hand, like the fact that both of his golems were destroyed by Tomiko and he was still stuck.

"So, I see you didn't slack on your training. Glad to see that." Mori forced himself to grin, his mind screaming at him to find an escape before he would be at the bottom of a crater. He had a small plan, but it would be risky if it failed. He had to time it perfectly.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Fire | Nekomata Fortress (Sept 25 5:30 pm, Day of the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

Leave it to Asahi to get scammed by a cat selling fake cat ears. Sagisō wasn’t buying it, neither the overpriced cat ears nor the story the cat had concocted to fool Asahi. Speaking of Asahi…the girl was filthy after she had finished rolling around on the ground and Sagisō wouldn’t put it past her to start trying to lick herself clean.

“Please don’t.” Sagisō deadpanned, “I’ll give you a bath later.”

“So where is this boss cat? How do we find them?”

“I’d say you already have.”

Sagisō whipped around, coming face to face with a massive, behemoth of a cat. Even hunched over, it was twice or thrice her size and coated in luscious white fur except for jagged wound patterns across his body.

“My name is Nekomata,” the boss cat licked his lips, revealing fangs that put kunai to shame. “Welcome to my fortress.”

 

[Cmeriwether]

"Understood, I'm just worried about him, that's all." Ayaka fiddled with her bag as she looked on, "and what happens if he loses."

She looked on at how Kenji was fighting. She knew he could pull it off, but how was a different story, she wanted to show her support of her teammate.

"You can do this Kenji!" Ayaka would give off a exclamation, "Show him what you can do!"

The young Cloud Ninja kept as calm as possible. She kept her eye on the match, watching the movements between Kenji and his opponent.

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Shiho slowly regained her footing, slapping the sides of her head to restabilize herself. "Whoa, I'm still not sure what's been happening but it seems it gets me out of tricky situations." She thought to herself. Suddenly, Raiku and his clone went on the offensive, flanking her from two sides. Being unprepared, Shiho fell prey to the clone's grapple. "Darn. I left myself open."

Many thoughts quickly ran through her head as she tried to think of a way to get out of this situation. Shiho's eyes glowed bright when an idea came to her mind. "I got it! One Body Blow!" Focusing her chakra on her back tenketsu, Shiho shot out a burst of chakra behind her directly into the clone's chest. However, before the young Hyuga even got the chance to catch her beath, she herself losing the control of her own body. She felt herself no longer being able to move, the world faded to black but not in the same way as before. Shiho became prisoner in her body as Raiku hit her with a Mind Transfer justu. "Huh? What's going on?"

 

[sSoul]

Tsuki
In an impressive display of proficiency, Yua had managed to deflect the shuriken that Tsuki sent to her while returning them to her possession. Additionally, the Suna kunoichi had managed to avoid Tsuki's makeshift lasso while unleashing a unique technique that began to coat the battlefield in a deep fog. To defend against this, Tsuki quickly performed multiple back handsprings until she had enough space to weave together hand-seals and spit out a stream of water in an indiscriminate direction. At first glance, this made no sense, but the Yuki nin used the water she created around her to form a protective bubble.

I'm safe from breathing that stuff in, but I can't see through this water and the fog...

With the fight temporarily slowing down, Tsuki had time to think about what she needed to next. Fortunately, an option soon revealed itself to her. The Yuki-nin performed slowly backed up, wary that any faster movement would disrupt the bubble she had created for herself and grabbed a trio of kunai and a trio of explosive tags. She tied each of the tags to one of the daggers, imbued them with chakra so they would detonate upon contact with the a target, and threw each of them at a slightly downward angle with a moderate amount of force. This level of force would ideally allow the kunai to stab the ground before Yua had an opportunity to deflect it. She hoped not that Yua would be hit by these explosions, but rather that she would expose herself in an effort to dodge them.

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Fire | Nekomata Fortress (Sept 25 5:30 pm, Day of the Exams)

Titled Name: Yan Xia Roulan

True Name: Sagisō Ajisai​

Rank 36 — Heavenly Skillful Star | Yan Qing​

“So you’ve got your eye on one of my clansmen,” Nekomata eye’s swept over the trio of virago. “what greedy humans; you won’t go unpunished.”

Then he was a blur of motion. In spite of his size, the ninja-cat who named himself Nekomata was incredibly fast. Sagisō barely had enough time to blink before a massive paw was before her.

Boof~!

A single, powerful swipe had launched the skillful star, like a cannonball. She hit the wall, shattering it with a deafening impact.

“One down,” Nekomata heckled, ears pivoting to catch movements from Asahi or Karui. “Two to go.”

 

[Hecotoro]

"How dare you! Meow!" Asahi called out as she watched her sister get smashed against a wall. "You have to be the rudest cat I have ever met! Meow!"

Asahi placed her hands together, activating her Byakugan before taking her fighting stand, raising one knee waist high. "Buddha's Palm!" She then sent to concentrated blast of wind by punching the air and then one long air slash by doing a round house kick.

"Cupcake- er, Sato? Go check make sure Tsuki is fine, I'll take on the bad kitty."

 

[kyuukestu]

Land of Fire | Nekomata Fortress (Sept 25 5:35 pm, Day of the Exams)

“Trifling!”

Nekomata rose onto his hind legs, arms splayed wide and aglow with chakra. A sweeping blow collided with the concentrated blast of air, sweeping the room with a sound like rolling thunder. Quickly after, he followed up with a second strike, claws sheathed in chakra. His swipe cut right through Asahi’s air slash…and continued! As his claws reached the ground, three slashes tore through the ground straight at Asahi.

“You’ll have to do better than that, little girl.”

 

[=Nightshade=]

Karui rolled her eyes. Asahi couldn’t even remember the name she’d given her— but now wasn’t the time for exasperation, that could come later. Her antennae emerged, taking in all feedback possible, and when Nekomata seemed the most engaged with Asahi, her wings came out and she darted towards the fallen wall where Sagiso was. She took a moment to appraise her sister’s injuries, then put her hands on the worst ones, causing them to glow a soft gold as the skin stitched itself back together and bone healed itself. “Don’t be too reckless,” she warned calmly. “I’ll do my best to support you both, but chakra stores aren’t gonna last forever. Not a problem right now, but it will be.”

A disruption in air flow behind Karui caused her to dodge, and she hoped Sagiso had done the same as a loose statue torn loose by Nekomata’s lashing tail came crashing down where they’d been a moment before.

 

[Godjacob]

"Sorry to cut in boys but..." A voice sounded, as Tomiko had reached the area and delivered a hard punch to one of the small golems, as she aimed to bash it to small pieces. "...I'll take over from here~" Tomiko added with another punch as she aimed to destroy the last of the golems while she had stood over Mori who seemed to be banged up, but okay enough far as ninja go which Tomiko had some internal relief over.

"Hey Mori, seems like you've had better days. Don't suppose you want to call it here do you~?" Tomiko asked, though even as she had she likely knew the answer as Mori had too much pride to just give up. She was like that, and thus she'd rear a fist back as her goal was to deliver a swift knock out punch before Mori had a chance to fully escape. It would be quick, he'd be down for the count and there'd be no further risk of injuries. Everyone wins.