[center][h1][color=Gold]Akio Tendou[/color][/h1][/center]

Aiko let out a noticeable curse as the goo clone tackled her, stopping her punches just short so as to keep her hands from getting trapped as well. And if that wasn't bad enough, Ao was quick to almost completely immobilize her so that she was left suspended in the air with one leg stuck to the ground and the other being pulled skyward by a goo bungee. This left her in a very uncomfortable, not to mention slightly embarrassing, position of doing the vertical splits. Aoi's little comment earned her an annoyed glare from the platinum blonde, the cold, slimy feeling of the goo all across her body doing little to enrich her mood.

[color=Gold]"I guess you could say that . . .,"[/color] Aiko replied stubbornly after a moment, trying to think of some way out of this mess. She had been able to keep one hand free through some miracle of positioning when the goo clone had tackled her, but it left a good part of her completely covered in the stuff. That also included the Senbon she had hidden in the hem of her tank-top when she had made her trap, so using that was out. She did have one in her mouth, however, but trying to hit the slippery little clown that way was going to be difficult. It was clear that the clown though she had the upper hand, but probably was still on guard enough that she'd be able to dodge such a poorly executed surprise. [color=Gold][i]But what if she was certain of her victory . . .[/i][/color]

A thought came to Akio that was rather dirty, sneaky, and considering her opponent, was very likely to achieve some level of success. Besides, as Shinobi, using under-handed methods was to be expected. With that in mind, Akio relaxed her body, hanging her head down with her hair shielding a good bot of her face from view. She looked rather defeated, and a tad bit upset as well, and it showed in her tone as she continued speaking.

[color=Gold]". . . Dammit, you've got me good, huh. Guess you get to keep your doctorate for butt-kicking for just a little bit longer. Mind coming over and getting me down from here?"[/color] Akio would look up at her friend with a smile, but a perceptive person wouldn notice that she had yet to say she had actually given up, despite all the evidence to the contrary. The Tendou girl was planning, if Aoi came close enough, to hit her with the Senbon in her mouth with a static string attached to it, sending a pulse through the string to temporarily lock her muscles together by hitting her in a nerve cluster somewhere in area between her neck and shoulder. This would give her enough time to use substitution to get out of the goo and disappear, hiding behind one of the goo covered trees. If Aoi simply had the stuff melt off her and remained at her current distance, Akio would smile before launching herself into the air, throwing a brace of senbon at the girl before making the handsigns to use substitution, replacing herself with one of the logs strewn around the training area for that very purpose. Either scenario, she'd hopefully end up hiding behind a tree some ways away from the harlequin girl, though it all hinge on her remaining naive and taking the bait.

If everything went according to plan, Akio would bring forth the Thunder Bow again and start drawing back for a charge shot, but would stay in her current position, ready to move and fire off shots at the clown girl if she discovered her before she was ready to fire off a shot. And while she didn't feel that anything was wrong with her actions, she did feel a little guilty about it. [color=Gold][i]I hope she doesn't take this personally, but that's just the way I fight, using every advantage available to me.[/i][/color] 

So she thought, but it did little to make her feel elss crappy about what she had done.

[@Savato]