Battle on the Bridge:

It was quite unexpected for Ilya to end up in the actual battle stage of the chuunin exams. So far those people from Kumogakure had proven to be rather cruel and uncompromising with their trials and despite the fact that the bridge arena she had been asigned to, looked no different from any other bridge, the trickery and cunnin nature of the trials made the Uzumaki girl wary of any unseen dangers.

This entire chuunin exam had already gotten her in so many pinches and shown her just how weak she truly was, that the uzumaki girl actually doubted she would even manage to get any further, yet here she was, having passed the three difficult and quite frankly, extremely dangerous trials. Slapping her cheeks with the palms of her hands, the girl forced herself to be focused, to be vigilant and above all, to not bring shame to herself, her family and her village.

She had heard that her opponent was to be someone going by the name Yasubei and given that this person as well had passed the first trials, there was no doubt that he was formidable and probably not someone she could handle with ease. "Better be extra carefull I guess," Ilya let out a sigh as she walked onto her end of the briddge, calmly walking towards the center where there was a small pagoda standing. Carefully maintaining her breathing and checking out her left arm which had only recently been healed after her rather disastrous third trial, Ilya kept a close eye on who this Yasubei person would be, knowing that just seeing her opponent's appearance would at the very least give her some thought of what she'd be facing. "I'd better get ready as well."

With her hands resting on the hilts of each of her rapiers, the young woman's fingers began tapping the pommels of the two swords she was carrying. It was hard to decide on what her course of action would be, would she go with a single rapier to initiate the battle or go all out with both at once?

It was a tough choice to make, but in the end she simply decided on neither of the choices, simply reaching for the small pouch hanging at the back of the belt which also held her two sheathed rapiers in place and pulled a single kunai out of it, letting it twirl with its ring around her left index finger before gripping it tightly. There was no hurry to start this battle just yet, for now all she had to do was figure out her opponent's strengths and weaknesses and go from there, after all...she was but a meek beginner thrown into a den of lions and snakes.

Chakra: 150/150

What I imagine the pagoda like.:

Though his form was illusory, as it approached the bridge, thin strands of blue string came off of the tips of Yasubei's dancing fingers as Ogre moved in tandem about 10 m ahead of him. Ogre stood tall on the stone bridge reaching about eight feet tall with a large sword shaped slab of stone on his back. Despite their height differences both figures wore nearly identical clothes. They both had tight one piece, cloth suits that clung tight to their bodies from the shinobi masks that covered the lower half of their faces to their ankles. Over that they both wore long dark cloaks that mostly obscured their forms.

If there was the normal grandiose introduction Yasu missed it as he and Ogre moved forward arriving at the center at a pace that matched Ilya's pace having only started moving a few seconds after she herself had. His focus lied elsewhere as he looked his opponent up and down. He had hoped to have a bit more of an easier looking opponent. He noticed the swords at her side, a sure sign that she was at least as fast as him, if not faster. Close combat was a nerve wracking thing for puppet users especially ones like him. Yasu pulsed chakra through Ogre just in case things got a little more hairy than he'd expected. These exams had been full of nasty surprises so far, He wouldn't be surprised at one more.


Once Ogre made it underneath the bridge covering and was within a few meters of Ilya, Ogre held up the seal of confrontation waiting no more than a second for his opponent to do the same before he reached back pulling the large, stone sword off of his back. He swung it down at Ilya with his right hand from two meters away as his opener, delivering a staggering blow to Ilya if he hit, and crack the kunai with his own brute strength if she decided to block. Not letting up on the offensive, Ogre would move in closer to Ilya and spin on his right foot around his torso's axis, ideally translating the momentum of the sword into a powerful straight kick to Ilya's ribs. The movement was as fluid as if a taijutsu user of the same rank had used it, and any hit was meant to knock Ilya further back away from Yasu himself in the direction she came from.

As Ogre began his assault on Ilya, Yasubei's shadow-less form stayed 10 meters behind him making sure that he would never be out range of the technique he'd implemented as part of his strategy. Though Ogre was slower than himself, any hit done by the giant man would certainly cause leagues more pain than Yasu was capable of on his own. Yasu was ready for Ilya to try and get past Ogre, but it was his hope that nothing like that would happen.

Chakra = 125/140:

Bonuses:

Items used:

It was kind of strange to see something so large appear on the bridge...in fact, that very something looked so odd, if anything, Ilya might've almost called the strangely cloaked and well hidden form of the giant thing human. It almost came to the point that the girl wondered who was Yasubei and, well...who wasn't. Luckily for her, the fact that one of them stayed at the back and the big fellow went up front, made it painfully obvious she was dealing with a puppet user here and those were...a pain in the ass to deal with.

She had almost decided to refuse making the sign of confrontation when both herself and the puppet had gotten to the center of the bridge, simply because of that fact that it was the puppet, not the puppeteer who made the sign. It was almost as if that Yasubei fellow had already decided that she'd most likely never get past his dreadfully large beast of a puppet. Alas, she had not much of a choice in the matter, as making the seal of confrontation was the most basic principle of honoring the codes of battle and more importantly at this moment: the chuunin exams. So even though she hated it, Ilya as well made the seal of confrontation and accepted the match as having started.

It didn't take long for the massive brute of a man...puppet...thing to start taking action, by revealing something which was without a doubt no more than a large piece of smooth rock, instantly swinging it towards the Uzumaki child and at the same time displaying the strength this monstrosity had. Even as she thought to defend herself from this brutal swing by using her kunai, she could feel the force of the blow coarsing through her entire body, being thrown backwards for at least a few meters only to skid and slide atop the bridge's surface for a few meters more. "The hell?" She was surprised, blown away by this Thing's strength and curious wether or not her first assumption was wrong. Maybe this guy was the puppeteer after all and that lanky guy at the back could've been the puppet. It was all too confusing for a child such as herself. "Serious, what's up with that brute strength?"

She wasn't given any time to think, as the brutish thing already rushed at her again. Throwing away her obviously shattered kunai, Ilya's only option was to draw instantly unsheath her best rapier and make a downward slash with her blade while jumping backwards to avoid getting hit by that huge leg. This wasn't exactly looking like an easy fight, certainly not with the brutal strength being displayed by the huge man-like thing.

There was also the fact that just as she had managed to jump back, the bridge's outer parts on both sides suddenly collapsed, narrowing the playing field considerably. "Oh for crying out loud, really!?!"

It seemed she wasn't going to get past this big man without any kind of strategy and quite frankly, since she knew so little about this Yasubei, shee could only observe the opponent for now, figure out this Thing's strengths and weaknesses and more importantly, she had to figure out how she could get back to the pagode, towards that smaller person... or puppet (she still wasn't sure on who was what here) standing at the back.

Thinking was her strong suite in most occassions, but now she was truly in a pickle. She wouldn't get past this big guy without any proper opening or any good strategy, but perhaps she could at the very least try to confirm who of the two was the one in control and to that end, she got into a stance and with her right arm holding her rapier cocked back, she rushed towards the Ogre, her left arm reaching at her back and grabbing her two shuriken out of her pouch. When close enough to the beastly figure, she'd aim a stab forward with her rapier towards the Ogre's chest, while a mere instant after making said thrust, throwing the shuriken from the side towards the person at the back. "Let's see who's the pupper here, shall we?"

Chakra: 150/150

Items Used:

"Oh for crying out loud, really!?!"

The child before him exclaimed as the parts of the bridge fell apart on the sides, judging from how much was left they had to finish the fight fast or risk both of them being disqualified. His patrons really didn't fool around. Almost in perfect synchronization the crumbling bridge Ilya jumped back to avoid Ogre's two kick further increasing the distance between the Ilya and Yasubei. Yasu smiled. With the new and unexpected addition of the time limit, Yasu grew excited. He could feel his chakra surge as his joy grew, but, with a quick reminder to himself, he regained his composure. Regaining his footing and centering himself in a wide stance on the bridge as the child backed away.

In a pleasant twist for Yasu, Ilya dashed right back towards Yasu, this time drawing her actual weapon. Yasu had taken the effort to go all out, and frankly would've been a little upset if the girl before him wouldn't have at least pretended to take him seriously. As Ilya dashed in for an attack that he felt he'd barely be able to dodge, he acknowledged that Ogre was distinctly slower than he was. Ogre braced to take the attack while simultaneously grabbing Ilya's bicep on the arm that she stabbed at him with as her rapier failed to, on its own, significantly damage Ogre's body. Sinking slightly into his fake flesh. Turning his head as the shuriken she threw flew past him before returning her attention to the girl in his grasp. Lifting her off of her feet, assuming she had no techniques that would allow her to escape.

"Let's see who's the puppet here, shall we?"

Yasu as the two shuriken flew at him dropped low to the ground, ending in a widened stance. With one arm supporting the weight of his torso that was just above the ground and the other continuing to point the fake blue strings at Ogre. He stayed low for a little longer in case more shuriken came, but in the case that a second passed without such a thing he would stand back up. He would look her in her eyes, noting how they lacked Kahou's conviction. The clone would speak:

"Forfeit now, and maybe the judges will see that you have the wisdom to become chuunin. Or, you can resist, hope that this beautifully crafted stage will defeat me, and still lose unaesthetically."

Yasu would raise an open hand, the same hand that the blue strings were coming out of, before violently closing it. Though Ogre wasn't using an insignificant amount of force, his grip would begin sustaining the maximum amount of force it could muster, causing deep bruising on her bicep while holding her at arms length of the ground. Yasu would wait for her answer while pulling out a scroll with his free hand.

Chakra = 120/140:

Bonuses:

Items used:

Ilya's shuriken had misse their target and it seemed that her action to try and determine who'd be the real puppet of the two only lead to her being stuck in a rather unexpected predicament. Despite the fact she would've had ample time to react or get out of that situation, her rapier seemed to be stuck for some odd reason, despite not having penetrated that deeply into the beast's flesh... apparently not even deep enough to make it bleed, which in a way was already odd on its own, as she had never encountered a person who wouldn't bleed after having their chest penetrated by at least three centimeters of steel.

"Strange..." The only word to escape her lips when she got grabbed by the arm, forcing the Uzumaki girl to let out a soft yelp and wonder how she could've been so foolish to get in this mess. She wondered how the puppet had managed to be faster than her and how she had not seen the massive hand coming towards her. It was strange, impossible and plainly staggering how she got grabbed so easily. However, she simply remained calm and had her mind work overtime, all the while listening to the shady person at the back yammer at her about forfeiting, beauty and easthetics. This whole thing about beauty nearly made her chuckle, given she could've easily argued that the puppet currently being used could hardly be called eathetically pleasing, unless if you were some sort of muscle-fetishist. It also proved the girl's hypothesis that the brute was indeed the puppet, thus explaining why he...or rather IT did not bleed. "This really is a bummer..."

A scream escaped her lips when the puppet's hand squeezed even harder upon her arm, at which point she could feel her muscles become seriously strained under the pressure, not to mention the sheer amount of pain she was experiencing. "You want me to forfeit, but rather than allowing me to do so, you dare to ruin my sleeve and hurt my arm... seems like you lack both easthetics and the honor to be a proper shinobi...hiding like a coward." Those last words should've made it clear that Ilya had seen through the ruse. After all, when the clone at which she had thrown her shuriken had bent over to dodge them, there was no shadow on the ground. This only meant the puppet user had never shown himself from the start and was either hiding from the very beginning somewhere on the bridge or inside the puppet itself.

To test this theory, she simply hoped to surprise her opponent by using her own rare skill; one handed seals. Letting go of her rapier with her right hand, she quickly made the necessary handseals with the now free hand and tapped the rapier's hilt with it, forcing raiton chakra to course through it, after which she grabbed the rapier with her left hand and pulled it out of the puppet's chest."I only surrender to those who are honorable enough to show their true face."

With that being said, she lunged with the raiton charged rapier towards the exposed shoulders of the puppet and the throat, hoping that at the very least she might damage the joints a bit to get herself free from her current predicament.

Chakra: 135/150

Technique used:

OOC: going to ignore the godmodding in this post and the rather confusing fact that you never described using clones in the first post (you did, but not properly, lol)... simply because this is fun xD

"You want me to forfeit, but rather than allowing me to do so, you dare to ruin my sleeve and hurt my arm... seems like you lack both aesthetics and the honor to be a proper shinobi...hiding like a coward."


'Unaesthetic," Yasu thought to himself. "You have no idea what your talking about." Ilya began going though hand seals while Ogre was holding her, and for a brief moment Yasu was surprised. Inside of the puppet Yasu's eyes flared open, from inside the cramped space he slammed his hands together in a series of hand seals as fast as he could. He had to get the technique off before the child used her own technique. Finishing just short of her, Yasu's chakra surged through himself and Ogre in a reddish-orange aura before the lightning enriched strikes hit.

"Tonjutsu: Utsusemi Kō no Jutsu!"

This was the first time he himself had actually spoken out of his own mouth in this fight. Ogre wasn't quick enough to dodge the three strikes by leagues, so if the child followed through one by one they dipped into the fleshy parts of his form until they met the puppet part underneath, searing the flesh on his shoulders and throat as they cut into him. Yasu burst out of Ogre's back at a speed of 25 m/s into the space that the doppelganger had had been in mere moments before, causing it to disappear in a puff of smoke. Using the smoke as cover Yasu reached into the shirt beneath his cloak and opened the compartment that allowed puppet strings to come out. When the smoke cleared, he was in the same place as the clone. The ever so slightly reddish-orange hue on his skin, showing the extra chakra he used for the Tonjutsu, with the blue strings coming out of the right side of his chest turning the reddish-orange color.

"I only surrender to those who are honorable enough to show their true face."

Though Ogre stood for a moment after the attack, after that moment was over his grip released small child, and fell to the ground, playing possum. In tandem, the sides of the bridge fell off again, further decreasing the amount of room they had to fight. Yasu stood apparent, no longer obscured by the giant of a man -if he was actually obscuring Yasu before- Yasu stood eye's focused on Ilya, his glorious mane of yaoi-anime-worthy hair picked up by the wind that blew the smoke around him away.

"If you think that your odds against me are better than your odds against my Sand Stalker, then you are gravely mistaken." As he spoke, Yasu pulled out two kunai spinning them in his hands from the spot he landed in, ten meters away from Ogre's fallen, lifeless, smoking body.

Chakra = 95/140:

Bonuses:

Items used:

Finally the other contestant showed their real self. Just as the puppet fell down and seemed to be discarded by its user, the bridge's surface became narrower yet again, only making it all the more dangerous to continue fighting. Ilya looked at the person who had emerged from the puppet and remembered she did say that the only reason she did not forfeit was because he hid away like a coward, so when this strange looking person practically warned her that she best not underestimate him even without his massive puppet, Ilya simply smiled and sheathed her rapier, rubbing her heavily bruised arm and feeling a sting course through it when she did. "Well, I don't believe continuing this fight is in my best interest anyway... there's no point in ending this battle with someone half dead and the other one half alive," Making a proper bow, she turned around and raised her hand to the proctors looking from the sidelines. "I forfeit this match!!"

[exit]

Yasu was satisfied with the turn of events. Though he found himself wondering why the strabge girl decided to ask him to show her face, he didn’t ponder on it too long. He would slowly make his way towards Ogre being cautios of any shenanigans that Ilya may have had planned for him. With a small leap he jumped over her to Ogre, who stood up mostly unharmed. He hopped back into the cramped space in its back before sealing the storage unit and making his way off the stage.

[Exit]

Uzumaki Ilya - PAID~ 1500 ryo, 5 EP