(IC) The Life of a Shinobi (Chapter 2: The Chunin Exams Preliminary Round)

A disgusted look came over Inomi's face, although she didn't say anything. Suddenly, she remembered a technique that her mother taught her. She had never used it in a real fight before, so she wasn't sure if it would work outside of training. But it may be her best option for victory. Inomi pulled a hand full of flower petals out of both of her pockets and began to spin around quickly while releasing the flower petals. Using her wind style chakra, Inomi had basically created a small twister and the petals continued to spin around her even once she stopped spinning. Inomi made a hand sign and suddenly, there weren't just a few flower petals, but hundreds. The hundreds of petals spun around in the twister around Inomi, hiding her from view.

Both Renjis stood their ground, getting ready. What's this girl up to?

"What's going on? What's she doing," asked Hizana. "I dunno, but I bet it's nothing good," Kazuma replied. "Sanmaru-sensei, what do you think it is?" Sanmaru stood silently before finally saying, "It looks to me she's setting up a strategic plan of attack.."

"This is starting to get interesting already," Renji smirked. "Although I highly doubt we can get through that whirlwind, no point in attacking head-on now." "Hey!" the clone piped in, "maybe we can cancel it out with our OWN wind!" "I like the way you think," Renji tells his clone, which then disappears. He then puts his hands together to concentrate his chakra. As he spreads his arms apart, he declares "Fūton: Reppūshō!! (Wind Style: Gale Palm!!)" and slaps his hands back togather. The air around him becomes a compressed wind and transforms into a powerful gale-storm that rocketed straight to the twister surrounding Inomi.

The wind blast canceled the twister and dispersed the petals. The hundreds of petals blanketed the arena floor. "Darn," she thought. At first she thought her one chance at victory had been dashed, but she suddenly noticed another opportunity. She took a defensive stance with her kunai and smiled. "I hear you're good with weapons. Why don't we see who's better in a knife fight?"

“What's with the change in tactics”,asked Mugen “some Yamanaka trick you ain't tell me about, Kaori.”

"Nothing I can think of," replied Kaori, "But she is the daughter of the Yamanaka clan head, so she's bound to have some special skills."

Renji ponders for a brief moment, then pulls out a kunai for each hand. "Well, how can I refuse a little steel-on-steel action?" he replies. He gets into a fighting stance, then darts towards Inomi.


"I smell something fishy going on," Hizana mumbles. "Yamanaka is planning something, that's for sure," Kazuma agreed. Sanmaru slowly states, "Let's just hope he stays sharp, just like how I trained all of you." YOUR idea of training might as well have been like Master Rock Lee's, Hizana thought. She would've taken the Forest of Death over Sanmaru's daily strict mental training. My brain was just as sore as my body... Hizana's train of thought was interrupted by Kazuma exclaiming "Did you forget, sensei, that we're talking about Zashimaru? The guy who can't focus around a girl? Not to mention that as a Yamanaka, she's bound to have a plethora of tricks; especially at close range. "Well," Sanmaru replied, "We'll just have to wait and see."

As Zashimaru darts towards Inomi, she quickly reaches down and touches one of the flower petals on the ground.  Suddenly, having run across the flower petals, Zashimaru finds himself stuck and unable to move his legs.  "Got him!" she thought.  

"Well it looks like she did it," said Shikaru to Mugen, "She used that Chakra Trap technique successfully in a one on one fight."

OOC: The Chakra Trap Technique was first (and I think only) used by Ino Yamanaka during the Chunin exams fight against Sakura.  Although she used her hair as the medium in the anime, a variation of the technique appeared in a game (Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2) where flower petals were used.

Renji suddenly finds himself stopping dead in his tracks. "W-what the hell?!?" he exclaimed with shock. "I... I can't move my legs! She must be using a chakra trap!"

Kazuma balls up his fist and bangs it into the guard rail. "That idiot! I KNEW he would get too reckless!" Hizana put a hand on her mouth, eyes widened with surprise while their teacher simply looked on with intrigue.

No good, thought Renji, if this lasts any longer I have a feeling of what comes next. I've only got one shot at this, I need to either break her concentration or disrupt the flow of chakra. Remembering his kunai, he instictively threw both simultaneously at Inomi. He quickly forms a handsign, transforming the two weapons into clones, both wielding ninjatos in their hand. While in mid-air, they make a spinning movement towards Inomi and slash at her with their blades.

The attack caught Inomi off gaurd. She attempted to dodge both clones but only managed to avoid a lethal blow. One of the clones cut her cheek and the other sliced her side, right under her rib cage. Both wounds, especially the one on her abdomen, started to bleed. The attack caused Inomi to fall on the ground. With her concentration completely lost, Zashimaru was freed from the chakra trap. "Darn it," she thought as she touched her abdomen and looked at Zashimaru.

With a smirk on his face, Renji is glad to be in control of his legs again. "Alright then, this has been fun, but it's time I wrapped it up." The clones suddenly then grabs hold of Inomi, restraining her. "Like I said, I'll make this as painless as possible." Renji makes two handsigns (snake-->rat), and with a evil-looking smile he slowly says, "Get ready to show me your deepest, darkest fears... Magen: Narakumi no Justu!!" (Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage!)

Shocked, Hizana exclaimed; "Hey, Kazuma! Isn't that..!!" "Y-yeah," Kazuma said completely stunned. Chuckling, Sanmaru couldn't help but feel a wave of pride. "Wasn't expecting him to use THAT."

The Death Mirage Justu, Kazuma thought to himself, a genjustu that reveals a person's fears. It's a technique that brings that image to life and makes the target mistake that image for reality. The illusion begins after imaginary leaves circle around the target, by then the user would've moved somewhere else; not to mention the more gruesome the mental image, the greater the trauma.

The genjutsu caused Inomi to first see Zashimaru as he was. But eventually he transformed into a giant tarantula. The spider eventually consumed Inomi and caused her to fall into an abyss. The images in the illussion caused Inomi to scream loudly, and she eventually fainted in the arms of the clones. Rento Aya noticed that she had stopped squirming and screaming. "The battle is finished!," he said, "Zashimaru Renji is the winner!"

"Never would have thought that moron would learn anything like that," says Mugen as he watched the chuunin take Inomi off the arena. "You should never underestimate a shinobi," Akira says to Mugen, "He trained under Sanmaru Nara so it's no surprise that he would pick up a few new tricks."

*sigh* "Well at least it wasn't a terrible loss like I feared," said Shikaru, "She put up a good fight."

OOC: For the sake of me not RPing against myself, I will skip all battles that do not involve Mugen or a member of team Sanmaru. The following battles took place:

Amaru Gachi vs Gorick (Gorick was victorious)
Nao Vakima vs Eren Kyokotsu (Nao was victorious)
Kaori Yamanaka vs Lien Sogyo (Lien was victorious)
Ayano vs Kia Shirayuki (Ayano was victorious)
Doske Getsuga vs Hayate (Doske was victorious)
Shikaru Nara vs Nani Aburame (Shikaru was victorious)
These battles did not happen in this exact order, but these are the battles that will be skipped.

The screens quickly started to cycle again, and eventually landed on the next two combatants.  "Next up," said Rento," Mugen Kakusu-Ken vs Zantu Yoshamaru."

"So I guess it's my turn isn't it," Mugen says lazily as he picks up his sword and bowie knife. "Stay focused out there," Akira said while Kaito cheered. "I know I know," Mugen says sarcastically, "I handle this like I did on that Class-B mission." He leaped into arena as casual as someone would have done walking down stairs. He closely examined his opponent as he placed his sword the back of his hips with the handle on his left side then fastening his knife to his right leg. He then tied his dreads back and used his headband as a bandana. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he says in a calm more focused tone, "ready when ever you sensei."

Watching Mugen make his way, Kazuma was shooting knives at him with his eyes; if looks could kill, Mugen would've been to the afterlife and back ten times over.Sometimes it pisses me off to no end how that guy tries to be like me, Kazuma thought to himself. He recalls Mugen always acting tough and trying to copy his "passive coolness", yet he barely stood his ground against even Renji during school.

Renji.... "Oh, right. Almost forgot."

He turned to see an ego-induced smile on said ninja's face. "HA HAA! Booyah, baby I ROCK!!" he declares with a thumbs-up. "Congratulations, you were great," grinned Hizana. Sanmaru nods in agreement, adding "Had us all surprised. I'm proud of you-"

"Pfft, yeah whatever, you did all right I guess," Kazuma blurts out flatly. Renji then pretends to shiver from being cold. "BRR! Wow, The Fire Dragon of the Leaf just gave me a cold shoulder. What a twist!" "The only thing I'M gonna twist is your NECK," Kazuma says in a low growl, his fiery red eyes practically piercing anyone's soul who stares into them. Ignoring the looks on his team's faces, he turns his attention back to the action at-hand. He has to study Kakusu-Ken's progress.

Noticing Kazuma looks toward her brother, Akira walks up to him and says, "You seem to have a problem with my little brother, don't you."

"I bet that isn't the first time you said that," Kazuma replies with snark dripping from his words. He has to be a little careful, considering that Akira can be a bit of an overprotective Amazon going on full berserk.With a yawn, he leans back against the wall and says "I'm taking a nap. Wake me when it's over, 'kay?"

"You'd be better off watching the fight," she says, "Mugen's changed a lot since the academy." Back in the area Mugen took a fighting stance focusing his electric chakra into his gauntlets. "y'know something, I kind of hate the ninja uses Taijutsu I mean only so many styles," Mugen says, "back at the Hyuuga dojo I fought people from all over the world and yet the only thing had to bring was my taijutsu. I want to change that! I'm gonna break some walls in the ninja's way of hand to hand combat and make my own style."

Zantu glared at his opponent. He could tell that Mugen was not an ordinary leaf ninja.  In fact, the look and apparent chakra nature of Mugen and his sister suggested that they were from of the Land of Lightning.  However, they wore leaf headbands and, considering their apparent history with the others, had grown up in the leaf.  A quizzical expression came over Zantu's face as he examined the shinobi and went over the facts in his head.

"Okay are you two ready?" asked Rento.

"Hold on," replied Zantu.  He looked at Mugen.  "Answer this question for me.  In what country were your parents born?"

"The Land of Lightning, why I do you ask," said a confused Mugen.

"Well pardon me for finding it strange to see a cloud shinobi fighting as a leaf shinobi. Why did your family come here?"

"I don't know why mom and dad came here for, you should ask my sister that one," Mugen said, "but me...I was born here man."

"I see," replied Zantu.  He looked back at Rento, "You may proceed."

"Alright then," said Rento, "You may begin!"

Zantu instantly jumped back, creating plenty of space between him and Mugen.  He wasn't sure what Mugen had planned, but he wasn't taking any chances.  "Let's see what you do with this.  Suiton: Suijinheki(Water Style: Water Wall!)

Mugen was hit by the huge wall of water but he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Ah man, you got my shadow clone," he said standing behind Zantu. He then grab Zantu and spun him around to face him then hit him two jabs and a hard right punch. He then hit outer side of his knee with a leg kick and finishing with a round-house kick with the other leg hitting him in the head sending him flying. "To start off my new style is the basics of basics: FORM!!" he said now a new stance.

Pfft; "changed" she says, Kazuma thought, still seems like the show-offy mop-headed motormouth I know and don't care for. Kazuma scoffs at the sayings of Mugen, for he really could care less about him and his preachings about form and his passion for "changing the world of taijustu" or whatever. When it comes down to it, it's all about perseverance, determination and instinct; about whether or not if you want it just as bad as the other guy..