"Good luck, Iwa nin," he says, voice taught with subdued politeness. The Iwa nin doesn't respond or return the gesture at all, and flash of rage steals across the Suna nin's face. A breath later it's gone, and he steps back between his teammates, expression carefully blank.
...
The two missing proctors return a couple minutes later, crouched up on the walls, and the Konoha proctor raises an arm. "Match seven, between Teams 13 of Iwa and 4 of Suna- begin!"
He retreats back to his spot on the wall, and the Suna team leaps into action.
The shinobi on the right and the left jump away, to either side of the arena, while the one in the middle slings a metal slab off his back and cracks it open. Another fan. He swings the hulking weapon and a gust of wind erupts from its edge, similar to when Temari used hers, except on a smaller scale. Still, it's stronger than anything I could throw out without any preparation. Maybe I should invest in a fan?
The wind burst tears through the short distance between him and Taro, and hits the Iwa nin full on. It tears at his loose clothing, pressing it flush against him and setting it to flapping behind him. But the shinobi himself doesn't budge an inch.
The two shinobi flanking him each pull out their weapons of choice, a katana for one and dual ono for the other, and then they charge. The one with a hatchet in each hand reaches Taro first, swinging at his neck and the soft spot just below his ribs with twin horizontal slashes. The second shinobi isn't far behind, stabbing down at his chest from the opposite side. A textbook pincer.
Taro uncrosses his arms and forms the serpent seal and, an instant before the blades can bite into him, stomps the floor with his foot.
Two pillars of earth burst from the ground beneath each of the Suna nin and hit them square in the chest, sending them flying away from him and into the walls. The one with the dual ono lands on shaky feet while the other stumbles and falls to one knee after hitting the ground. The fan-wielder snaps his fan open wider when he turns his sights back on him, swiping it with two hands and sending a burst of wind on par with Temari's roaring gale at Taro.
The Iwa nin slides one foot back, settling into a steady stance, and when the wind hits him the results are the same as the first burst. Once the jutsu passes he brings his hands up and runs through three seals, then takes off at a dead sprint towards the Suna nin. Said shinobi jumps back to the edge of the arena, swinging his fan again, and this time Taro runs straight through the gale that follows. He cocks his right arm back, and the Suna nin dives to the side.
His fist meets the wall and sinks into it like it's water, until his arm from the elbow down is lodged into the stone. Then he yanks it out in one smooth motion, bringing a stone gauntlet with it. He does the same for his other arm and turns around to meet the shinobi with the twin ono.
He brings both of his stone gauntlets up to block and the hatchets grind off them. He takes a step forward and plants his feet, pivoting in place to build momentum, and hits the Suna nin so hard in the chest that instead of flying back he's slammed directly into the ground. The Suna nin bounces up, back arching, and blood sprays out of his mouth.
He collapses back to the ground, making no move to get up, and Taro kicks him aside. The shinobi with the fan, halfway through helping his teammate up, grits his teeth at the sight. His teammate steps away from him, running over to retrieve his katana, and the Suna nin raises his fan again.
He cracks it open for a third time, to its widest point. Taro runs through the same three hand seals from before, and then the Suna nin cleaves through the air with his fan.
Something close to a Great Breakthrough roars from the edge of the rice paper fan. It hits Taro with all the fury of a raging Bijuu, tearing his shirt clean off and whipping at his pants and hair. But somehow, he remains rooted to the ground. After a few seconds the jutsu dies down, the dust it kicked up settles, and Taro's feet are unveiled.
Earth surrounds both appendages up to the ankles, running down the length of each foot and merging with the floor beneath his feet. He really was rooted to the ground, then. When the jutsu finally dies he jerks his left and then his right foot up, breaking them and his new stone boots free from the floor.
The Suna nin with the katana charges up from behind him before he can pursue the shinobi with the fan, giving his teammate time to catch his breath after that last jutsu. Taro spins around and catches the katana in one gauntlet, lashing out with the other. The Suna nin hops back, tearing his blade free with a sharp grating sound. He circles around the Iwa nin, wary, looking for an opening.
Taro forms the serpent seal and stomps the ground, and the Suna nin dives out of the way as another stone pillar bursts from the earth beneath his feet. He turns the dive into a roll and jumps up, stabbing his blade at the Iwa nin's heart.
Taro catches it again, and before the Suna nin can yank it free he lashes out with his other gauntlet at the base of the blade. With a loud snap, the sword breaks in two.
The Suna nin jumps back, running through hand seals and pulling a ring of kunai from his weapons pouch. "Wind Release: Knife Point!" He lets the wind-enhanced throwing knives fly, and they whistle as they cut through the air. Taro claps his gauntlets together in front of him, and the kunai sink into each of them with a series of dull thunks.
They don't pierce all the way through, though, and they clatter to the ground bloodless when he brushes them off. The Suna nin's expression tightens, and he starts running through a different set of hand seals.
Taro rushes forward before he's gotten through three, bearing down on him with a sudden burst of speed before he can even try to dodge. The Suna nin flinches back as a stone gauntlet flies at his face.
A gale of wind rams into both of them, not quite managing to move Taro, but throwing the Suna nin off his feet and out of range of the hit. Taro turns, just in time for the other shinobi to descend on him, massive metallic fan snapped shut and held high over his head like a club.
Taro raises both gauntlets up, and metal meets stone. His arms jerk beneath the force of the Suna nin's blow, but they don't fall. And while the other shinobi is off-balance from the jarring clash, Taro grabs hold of the fan with both hands and rips it out of his grip. Then he rears it back over his shoulder and clubs the Suna nin in the side of the chest.
A loud crack followed by a strangled gasp rings throughout the stadium, and the Suna nin staggers and falls to his knees. Taro cocks the fan back again, and this time he hits the other shinobi over the head with it. His face meets the floor with another loud crack, and he falls still.
"Shijo!" The last Suna nin left shouts, his silent, controlled façade finally breaking at the sight of his teammate being slammed to the floor. Anguish and fury clash in his eyes as he runs through hand seals. "Iwa bastard. Wind Release: Blade Edge." He pulls two kunai from his weapons pouch, gripping one in each hand, and charges at the Iwa shinobi.
Taro drops the fan and the two clash in a flurry of wind-enhanced kunai and stone-enhanced fists. The Suna nin ducks and dodges around the slower Iwa nin's punches, swiping and stabbing with his kunai at Taro's vitals. Every strike is blocked, but they leave gauges and holes in the gauntlets where hatchets and katana had glanced off.
The Suna nin starts to push him back, step by step, with his furious assault. He starts dealing out blows so fast that the Iwa nin doesn't have time to retaliate with attacks of his own, too busy blocking. He hacks and slashes at the stone gauntlets, focusing all his attention on them, and then he feints and stabs at the other shinobi's throat.
"Enough."
Taro whips his right arm around, slapping one of the Suna nin's kunai out of his hands with the back of his gauntlet. The other shinobi stumbles back, and he slaps his hands into the serpent seal for a third time. A pillar of stone shoots up and crashes up into the Suna nin's other arm, disarming him of his second kunai and shattering his arm in the process.
He cries out in pain, clutching his arm, and Taro closes the distance between them with two quick steps. He raises both arms above his head, stone gauntlets interlocking together, and brings them down on the Suna nin's head.
The Suna proctor appears between them in an explosion of chakra smoke and catches the blow with a kunai. The force of it shoves her back, almost into the genin behind her, and then she jerks her arm to the side and throws the gauntlets away from her. She straightens up, looking down at Taro coldly.
"The match is over. Return to the stands."
Taro meets her gaze without flinching, flicking both arms and dislodging the gauntlets. They fall to the floor with twin thuds and he turns and walks towards the nearest staircase, stone boots chipping away from his feet with each step. The rest of the proctors drop down, picking up the other two genin while the Suna proctor takes gentle hold of the last genin standing and Body Flickers him away.
The Konoha proctor coughs. "Winner of match seven, between Team 13 of Iwa and Team 4 of Suna- Team 13."
The Iwa genin in the stadium roar their approval, and I look over at Sasuke. "… Did that really just happen?"
"Every single jutsu," He mutters in turn, Sharingan fixed on the Iwa nin climbing the steps.
I shake my head. "I really, really hope I don't go up against that guy in the finals." Sakura nods in silent agreement, but Sasuke and Team 9 just watch the Iwa nin as he rejoins his sensei and is surrounded by his fellow shinobi, and it isn't fear shining in their eyes.
It takes a long while for the cheers for Iwa's underdog victory to die down, and by the time they do the proctors have all returned from the infirmary. When the noise has fallen to excited chattering and scattered shouts, the samurai raises his hand for silence. When it comes about a minute later, he pulls the slip for the next match.
"Match eight," he says. "Team 2 of Kusa, consisting of Yone Rosanjin and Hori Seitaro. Versus..." He pulls out the second slip, gaze flicking over it.
"Team 11 of Kumo, consisting of Omoi, Karui, and Samui."
...
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