Chapter 9.1- One Thousand Hands

While I had been consumed with my own progress, Toshiro had gone and become a real threat to be feared, I thought to myself with a smile as he ran at Cee with speed that anyone from our graduating class would have been shocked to see come from him. He moved under her blade and lashed out with a fist towards her head. His attack came from the left, and she weaved right into its path like she was dodging an attack from the right. Moving right into the attack amplified its force and she was sent flying from the blow. Sealless genjutsu! I thought with an appreciative gasp.

She took the hit much better than I would have expected from her frame and she stood before Toshiro could press the advantage. Nay, I corrected myself. He allowed her stand and chose not to press his advantage. How chivalrous. She weaved a familiar set of seals, and I smiled to see Toshiro react to the jutsu before she’d even gotten the chance to complete it. I’d used it on him in a training session before, after all. Her electromagnetic murder tore through the ground that separated them but only managed to hit a log that erupted in smoke. Smoke that spread across the field much too quickly to be natural. Smoke bombs spread across the field, I deduced. But when?

“There’s a rock clone under Meisagakure no jutsu doing his bidding in the field” Uzume said by my side. I nodded at her. So that was how he’d spread the smoke bombs. Probably set them all to trigger at precisely the right moment. There was a buzzing sound from the smoke covered field and I noted a single steady flash of light coming from the smoke. Cee was clearly wielding her blade now. Enhancing it with Lightning release chakra flow was probably aimed at using it in figuring out his approach.

I turned to the screen and noted that the view had become black and white as the receptors used a different means to peg down the movement of each party. We could clearly see Toshiro moving slowly across the mist. Creeping, really. While Cee turned here and there, waving her sword to ward off attacks that just weren’t coming. A paranoia inducing genjutsu, I suspected, as I noted her walk right out of her previouly holdable position and into Toshiro’s path.

Toshiro leaned backwards to avoid the first swipe of her blade. She turned to the left to stab at thin air while Toshiro came in from the right and grabbed a hold of her sword arm before harshly pulling it towards him and snapping it in the same movement. She dropped her blade with a scream we could hear from up here. He wasted no time in following through with the attack and lashed out with a headbutt. Her headband’s placement around her neck was a mistake she wouldn’t be making enough as she staggered backwards, dazed. She tried to lash out with a lick that he just dodged around before unloading into her midsection with two heavy punches.

Backwards she went again, and he weaved one last set of seals. “Water Release: Water bullet” He spat out a compressed ball of water that send his opponent into unconsciousness.

Seconds later, Orochimaru weaved a single seal and breathed out a gust of wind that dispersed the smoke in one go. He stared at the Kumo genin’s form for a second before pointing right at Toshiro. The entire stadium erupted in applause. I was right there with them, clapping and screaming his praises. I guess it was clear that he hadn’t needed my warnings. He’d had things well in hand.

The screen flashed through the list of names once more before it settled for two names: Hyuga Hinori and Aburame Shiba. “But they’re on the same time” I heard Omoikane speak out with dread in his voice. I understood where he was coming from, even if I could not understand the surprise in his voice. Fighting one’s teammates must have been a much scarier prospects for teams that had real unity between the members, but surely he should have foreseen the chances of this happening in a random draw.

Both my cousin and her teammate left the tunnel together. It was an impressive display of unity as they then stood opposite each other and made the seal of confrontation without being prompted. The second they finished, Shiba returned his fingers to their usual position in the deep pockets of his overcoat. I’d been very critical of the clothing choice, especially in the Land of Fire’s notoriously hot summers, until Shiba has brought me a jacket made of the same material for my birthday last year. It was so breathable and airy, that it felt like magic. It was also incredibly light, so I’d figured that the overcoat must have been a non-consideration for them.

Orochimaru dropped his hand to start off the fight, and Hinori was forced to jump backwards as a swarm of bugs slammed into the area of the ground she’d been standing on. She weaved two seals and Shiba bent at the waist to avoid a blade of cutting blade that she breathed out and directed in his direction. It had no effect beyond slowing him down, and that was all the time my cousin needed to cover the distance beteween the both of them and stab her fingers in his direction.

After two palms, the body collapsed in a swarm of Kikaichu, and Hinori had the honour of being surrounded by the chakra draining insects. She reacted quickly, activating her Kaiten and sending the bugs flying.

When she left the jutsu, it was to bugs ripping themselves out of the ground and rushing at her. They tore through her body in a gruesome display of flesh and blood that I allowed myself experience for a second before I tore through the genjutsu with ease. It was a rock clone in her place. Shiba himself had not been fooled by the genjutsu and they stood across from one another in another stand off.