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[COLOR=eecc30][sup][b]Iwagakure | CC-B | Critical Defense Kunoichi[/b][/sup][/COLOR][/center][hr][INDENT][sup][COLOR=eecc30][b]TIME:[/b] [i]Present Day - Morning[/i] | [b]LOCATION:[/b] [i]Forest of Death[/i] | [b]INTERACTION:[/b] [@yoshua171][/COLOR][/sup][/INDENT]

Āito arrived in the absolute middle of the pack. She found herself in the center-right of the crowd and watched intently as a man strode out to the center. His presence commanded attention, but not in the way of an angry parent. Rather in a familiar form, those belonging to the ICDO or perhaps the ANBU black ops would know a figure that commanded presence through purely being there. Standing there she felt as though she could feel power seeping from him. It caught the girl off guard. Her ears tuned into the other students around her bickering over their differently unimportant minutiae before the man began to speak up.

He laid the rules out fairly clearly and it was between two major options. She could either participate in some team-based combat, or she had the option of fighting a one on one match, but in that latter route she had to win her fight in order to continue on to the next round. 

It was often times that an age-old saying in Iwagakure that when two options are given to you by a neutral party the one associated with risk is often done in such a manner as to dissuade you from taking the best option.

Āito would not make that mistake. She stood perfectly still, clutching her scroll in one hand while most of the others around her began to write their answers onto it. When it came time to hand them in she was escorted to an area to meet with a proctor who went on to explain the essential rules to the fight. She was under no circumstances supposed to stop fighting until commanded, upon that command being issued she was to stop [i]immediately[/i]. Failure to do so would result in immediate failure. The rules were simple enough. 

Āito took her place while she waited for the other two fights to take place. By the time it was her turn she spotted a few traces of blood and obvious signs of a struggle. It was a good way to understand what to expect. But not for the opponent that had been selected for her. A young man with dark glasses walked out towards her, from the opposite side of the arena. 

[url=https://youtu.be/bmlg1HkjUjA?t=58][b][i]“This fight will be between Hokusai Āito of the Hidden Stone, and Kenki Aburame of the Hidden Leaf!”[/i][/b][/url] The proctor shouted.

He seemed fairly diminutive, which would lead the fight towards her favor as she saw it. Her skill in hand-hand combat was passible, but a more physically dominant opponent could pressure her to the point of no return. She was not all that well aware of the clans in Konohagakure, which made him a threat immediately out of the gate.

If he pulled something that could be used to end the fight immediately she would have to leave it up to her reaction speed. Genjutsu was her primary concern. The proctor’s hand raised and the entire arena quieted. His eyes glanced between the two of us before he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. She didn’t dare mirror the action as her eyes didn’t leave his stomach area, gazing between that and his legs. She looked long and hard before her peripheral vision watched as his arm dropped. 

Immediately she formed the seal of confrontation and waited. But the young man did not move, save for his hand reaching out towards Āito, palm facing her head. The crowd was completely silent as they rested in that pose for a full minute. Both unmoving until suddenly, a small buzzing sound reached her ears and out flew hundred if not thousands of insects barreling towards the woman.

[color=eecc30]“Fūinjutsu: Bijutsukan.”[/color] Āito said, still completely unwavering as her sleeve rolled off of her right shoulder and a beautiful ink dragon reared its head roaring magnificently. His size increasing tenfold from being able to fit on her shoulder to being large enough to for Āito to ride on. He was beautiful water colours primarily greens and blues, with a pair of stag’s horns on his head and piercing red eyes. The bugs grew increasingly closer as she murmured to the illustrious beast. [color=eecc30]“Suiton: Mizurappa.”[/color] And it followed suit.

As the bugs grew ever closer the dragon made a noise not at all based in earthly sounds before expelling a massive stream of water, immediately stopping the insects in their path. It quickly obeyed Āito’s consciousness forcing the stream in the direction of Kenki, water hitting the tiled floor shooting off into every direction, soaking the audience members. While Kenki prepared to react to the beast Āito immediately pulled a scroll from her side and got to work, sitting down cross legged with the scroll in front of her. 

Surely the young man would prepare a counter attack quickly. But she had a small window to make quick work. Bugs appeared to be his primary source of offense, she would need something to counteract that. Viscous liquids would work, but perhaps something stronger and something she had more reasonable access too.

But as the water reached Kenki he formed the clone seal and in a puff of smoke, vanished. From the smoke a demon wind shuriken was launched outwards towards Āito’s dragon, striking it and reflecting off and to the right of the great beast. Only a few feet away from the dragon the shuriken turned into Kenki, but was it a clone or the original?

Āito couldn’t immediately tell which caused her to treat it as a threat in and of itself. The dragon roared in agony as ink began to pour out of the beast, just as the Kenki that was airborne sent a stream of insects down through the beast eliciting a sullen screech as it dispersed back into ink. The dragon that had been immediately above Āito, collapsed from the wound soaking the attacking insects and Āito herself in dazzling ink. Appearing as though it had rained ink from the sky Āito closed her eyes as a shower of bugs with wings that couldn’t flap scattered the ground alongside drops of ink. Her eyes opened as she felt the shower quickly begin to lessen, the ground was painted a beautiful mosaic of colour and the smoke from the clone Jutsu had all but dissipated, the Kenki in the air was the original. The seal of confrontation formed through her fingers almost instantly while a second barrage of insects flew from two sides. The chakra channeled once more just fast enough to protect Āito as a massive Albatross sprung up from the scrolls.

The coos of enamored onlookers filled Āito’s ears but she flushed them out innately. She focused alone on the buzzing of her opponent. As the bugs began to land on her they found themselves stuck. The ink that had fallen on her coating her outfit and skin in the viscous liquid. They couldn’t get through it without consuming the ink first. But before he could issue a mental command to his insects, Āito unsheathed her Tanto and simultaneously the albatross flapped its wings once with a powerful gust of wind. Most of the ink on her sides were ejected and it took the insects stuck on it as well. The albatross began to take flight it flapped once more, powerfully ejecting the bugs and ink from Āito’s form before she jumped backwards towards it, keeping her eyes on Kenki who was about to reach the ground.

The bird acted merely as a bridge as it let itself dive towards his landing position and Āito leapt from it, snagging Kenki’s collar and flipping over the boy, bringing him with her. As soon as she made contact with his collar she felt insects begin to crawl out from his body onto her skin. The Aburame seemed to be a vile, if not effective people. 

But it was no matter as the boy’s back collided with the ground and a buzzing sound increased within him she activated the seal around the hilt of her Tanto bringing three ink spears to his throat before the sound she had been waiting to hear erupted from the mouth of the proctor.

[b][i][b]“HALT!”[/b][/i][/b] He shouted.

As commanded Āito immediately withdrew the spears and sheathed her Tanto, the insects that had crawled up her arm and began to eat away at her Chakra took flight off of the girl and the Albatross dissipated into ink that quickly fell to the ground.

[i][b]“Advancing in this exam will be Hokusai, Āito!”[/b][/i] He said, eliciting uproarious applause from the audience. 

She offered the young man a hand in rising to his feet and bowed to him before exiting the arena. She struggled for a moment between replacing the dragon she had lost during the fight as it took time and chakra to prepare or repairing her body. But with the dull ache in her wrist she knew what she had to do.  She decided to visit the healer as she knew being the third and final fight in the singles rounds meant that things would be wrapping up shortly. 

Her healer explained what she was healing, primarily her wrist, she was informed that she had dislocated it during her extravagant flip over her opponent towards the end of the match. Āito was then handed a scroll and told to hang on to it. She felt ready to go. 

Lucky that too. Because she was immediately teleported away and into a forest, the forest actually. The Forest of Death.

She found herself near what she could only identify as the likely exit before a voice was heard by all participants.

[color=E54515]“SENTOU KAISHI; LET THE BATTLES COMMENCE!”[/color]

She immediately sat down and began to sketch. It took only four seconds for her to draw twenty mice. The goal of the mission was clear. She had a scroll, and presumably so did the rest of the participants. Let the battles commence. 

With the seal of confrontation formed the mice immediately scurried off into the corners of the forest. She was looking for an opening, perhaps an open conflict. 

But before she found anything she was found, perhaps by mistake. 

She remembered the feeling of being tossed into a wall and blinked away the pain from the memory. Glistening purple eyes and short black hair caught the girl’s gaze as she saw herself in the reflection of her friend’s headband.

[color=eecc30]“Aya.”[/color]