Arena's Appearance:

(try to go for 800 words each post)

I woke up early in the morning, slipped on my training clothes and headed out for a short jog. The sun had just started peeking over the horizon so the desert heat hadn’t built up yet, and the coldness of the night was just starting to go away. This was the best time for running in Suna, where any other time could seriously weaken and dehydrate you down nearly to death if you weren’t careful. Quickly, I made my lap around the edge of the city, running along the great sand walls that surrounded and protected the village. Finishing my run, I stopped at my parent's house, enjoying a nice bath and breakfast with my family before heading off to work. Today, however, my work didn't include papaerwork until much later, although I hoped that it wouldn't happen at all. I headed for the Grand Colosseum and went over what I knew about my newly formed squad. The skills and talents of each would prove quite interesting to test and play with, and I couldn't wait to get started.

Stepping into the newly formed Colosseum, I admired the changes. Just a few years ago I had stepped in here as a Genin looking to test her abilities and become Chuunin. The arena had changed so much. Back then the Coloseeum was split into several arenas for different situations. There were still separate divisions, though the main arena was a new addition. The open roof allowed for the hot baking sun to already coat my skin in a small shine of sweat, just another side effect of living in Sunagakure no Sato. I casually walked down the steps and to the side of the arena, jumping clear over the divide and landing in the center. The sound of the waves of water lapping up against the arena’s foundations echoed up into the empty colosseum. I sat and waited for my squad to join me here. This would be my first squad as Kazekage, and after a short lesson that proved to go quite differently than I had intended with Akumi, I was sure to change things up and be prepared more to teach my new students as well as learn from them. Messenger-nins should have already reached them this morning informing them to meet me here and for them to be prepared for anything. Cracking my knuckles, I waited for them to enter through the main south entrance as had been instructed.

Training Fuuinjutsu B-->A 419/3000

Stadium:

Kami AKuma woke up this morning in order to train like he always does. Things were looking good and average for Kami since the time he woke up, up until the time he began jogging. It was after his morning jog that he received some important information. It was a message coming from the Kazekages messenger shinobi. Kami knew that this must have either been a mission, since she has been sending him to a lot of those lately, or for the very least, he knew it was something important. Kami got the message and said thank you to the shinobi before he suddenly dispersed and went on his way. As soon as Akuma opened the letter, he was more than excited to see that the Kazekage has set up a meeting with the whole of Team Zero. Team Zero is the very team being led by the Kazekage herself and it is a true honor to be a part of that group. Kami was the first out of the three shinobis to be assigned into the Kazekages team and thus he may know her just slightly more than the other shinobis in his team, but it does not matter since Kami knows that Kazekage is an easy going kunoich and also that he was going to let them know everything there is to know about training with a shinobi with such overwhelming power. Kami wanted to do this because even he was a little star struck when he met the Kazekage. He has never confronted such power before and he knows that not a lot of people get to witness such power either.

Kami ran as fast as he can which god as a witness knew that it was goddamn fast. Kami Akuma is a chunin with the speed of a Sannin shinobi and he is surely one of the Top 5 fastest people is Sunagakure at the moment. Which may seem hard to believe, until one meets the Akuma family and how the breed such speedsters. Kami knew that he was invited into a special arena, and it is an arena that he has never been in. Kami has never been in the chunin exams, being promoted simply out of merit. It isn’t something he regrets, but it would have been nice to fight alongside your village vs. those genin from other villages. Nevertheless, Kami Akuma has a better opportunity now, and especially now that he has the Kazekage as a sensai, he is surely going to learn a great deal from her. Kami wanted to focus on training a jutsu that is not unique to him for the first time. The technique he is seeking to learn is a supplementary type of jutsu. It dabbles with the Element of Fūton while ranging to a maximum of 10 meters. Obviously, the specialty one will need to utilize this technique is the Ninjutsu specialization. And the technique is called, the Wind Release: Stream. The wind release stream is a movement technique with no offensive application, designed to allow Kami Akuma to maneuver in the middle of the air. Kami AKuma will breathe in and exhale a powerful, concentrated stream of wind from his mouth. This stream has enough force to accelerate the Kami Akumas movement if he was in the middle of the air or allow him to rapidly change the direction he is going in. Beyond this, however, it has several unintended effects. When blown into the ground, it has a force that can help dislodge dirt and sand, creating a small smoke-screen effect. Naturally, this requires loose dirt or sand. The stream has enough force to knock projectiles aside, as well as to make someone hit by it stagger back a few feet, assuming the caster is 5 meters or less away from the person being hit.

Kami Akuma was ready for this training, and he was excited to meet his new found team. He has gotten no word on who it is going to be, so for whoever it is, good – luck to them since this is surely going to be a fun ride. Kami Akuma then felt like he just left his house after seeing the stadium in which he is supposed to rendezvous with his squadron. When entering the arena, Kami noticed the water around and the spacious opening on the ceiling. It was an elegant stadium and although a lot of people have found it a custom to fight in this spot, Kami felt weird just being within. Although, it did not matter how he felt now. He is here now and he is ready for training. So Kami Akuma jumped and used his new learned technique in order to maneuver himself in the middle of the air, so that he may drop in a specific area on the arena floor. Now that this jutsu is in order, only one jutsu was stuck in Kamis mind, the Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. It is a powerful and yet more than useful technique that Akuma couldn't wait to have in his arsenal. And as soon as he landed he said, "Miss me Miss Kazekage?" A play on words, and a joke that comes once to rare of times as Kami is too straight forward of a person to joke around.

Wind Release: Stream D
WC 600/600 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough C
WC 265/800 [Efficient Trait]

Ray woke up to the sun's rays hitting him squarely in the face. The birds were up, chirping away to glory. It was early morning, Ray could see, by the simple fact that the sun's rays were mellow, and were only offering a calm light. It was yet another morning for the Chuunin, who would wake up at various times just because he would remember his past. The nightmares still haunted him, and nothing, nothing could prevent him from seeing another nightmare. It'd been two years since his entire clan had been slaughtered. Two whole years since Ray Kato, the leader of the Kato clan, and been left as it's sole survivor. Two years since those nightmares kept recurring to this young man, and kept on disturbing his peace of mind. But no more. Ray opened up the windows, letting the cool morning air freshen him up before the air would turn arid, due to the sun. He had a bath, early in the morning, and put on his black robes, symbolic of the burden of death he was carrying. Tying his hair up in an unkempt ponytail, Ray wrapped black cloth around his hands to make makeshift gloves, leaving the fingers open. He'd been wearing the same style of outfit for quite some time now, but it's not as if anyone in the Suna cared anymore. His ruthless nature had prevented them from caring, and so they'd practically stayed away from him throughout these years. Uncaring of that, Ray stretched, and formed a horse hand-seal, feeling the chakra coursing through his body go a little bit faster, just so he could 'warm up', of sorts. Ray then jumped out of the window facing him, and decided to go for sets of sprints between two buildings, something to train his leg muscles with.

Ray ran for quite some time, and only gave up when he was filled with sweat, which is when he decided to return to his house. Upon climbing back into his own house, Ray noticed that he had a message from the Kazekage herself. Surprising. thought the kid, before tearing the paper envelope open to see what was inside. In a completely vague form of text, the current Kazekage had put form a new squad under her, and the known as Squad Zero, and Ray was part of it, along with a member from the Athletic ninja clan and someone else. There was a certain time given in, and in order to make it there, Ray had to rush. Finishing up a couple morsels of food, Ray started his walk towards the colloseum, the revamped fighting arena of Suna nin. There were a million thoughts running through his mind. One of the major ones out of those thoughts was related to his current predicament. If Ray had to fight the Kazekage, he was definitely killed. There was no way he'd be able to step up against the might of the Kazekage. However, if there was some form of diversion for Ray to use, it'd be much easier, as then Ray'd be able to flee in case the circumstances allowed him to. Ray started bounding towards it mid stride, reaching there only in a matter of time. He walked in, and attempted a small smile at the Kazekage and the other lad, who had already begun blowing winds, something which made Ray curse softly. Ray didn't like Fuuton users much. He waved to both. "Hello. I'm Ray Kato, and I'm here to train with both of you."

Training Raiton C--->B, 592/2000 words done.

I sat down patiently as my students arrived. There were supposed to be three but only two had arrived. Waiting excruciatingly long for the third student to arrive, hours went by.  The other students were growing restless as they, too, were forced to wait. The arena grew quiet and I knew I had made a mistake in holding up the test for so long.  The third student seemed to be a no show and here I had expected them all to come.  Had it been too much for me to think that no one would skip a training session with the Kazekage?  I slowly got up and flung my hair behind shoulders, addressing the only diligent students that had thought it necessary to come.

"Wake up, kids!" I yelled, the long time I had spent waiting for the third student that the other two had fallen asleep.  As I let them get back up and awake, I began again.  "First, I'm sorry to have made you wait so long to get this started.  I was too eager to have a full squad and so I let myself wait much too long for our missing member.  Seeing as he never arrived, we shall proceed.  You two will have my complete and undivided attention…"

I let my words linger for a moment, making sure that they were both awake and understanding of what weight I was putting into my words.

"However, you will need to earn this attention by proving your mettle…. against each other." I pointed my right forefinger at Ray Kato, and then to Akami.  "You, Ray, will take position on the red side of the arena, and you, Akami, will take the blue side of the arena.  Prepare for a fight, and don't hold anything back.  I want to see what both of you are completely made of.  Don't worry about each other or yourselves.  I'll step in when necessary before any serious damage can be done."

Leaping off the arena with a quick thrust from my legs, I turned and twisted in the air, flipping gracefully onto the referee's stand before yelling, "Begin!"


Training Fuuinjutsu B-->A 779/3000

The time spent was far longer than Akuma has expected. Of course, the Kazekage may not be fully to blame for it is the fault of the missing squad mate to have delayed our training. Nevertheless, no blame is truly given since Akuma himself didn’t mind the rest. Kami has had his mentality in the shinobi world for so long once entering the Academy, that having a “normal life” never seemed to be an option. Today, because Kami Akuma was in front of his sensai, and the Kazekage, he had no one else to prove himself in front of. And because she gave the okay to rest, it seemed like the right moment since Kami doesn’t seem like the type of shinobi to have such a free willed rest. Kami heard the Kazekage as she awoke the pair that were awaiting the training. Kami wasn’t fully sleeping but instead he was merely half awake, sitting in a meditative – like state. Kami stood up and seen as the other shinobi also began to pay attention. The Kazekage spoke and asked for forgiveness. It was an honor to already be training with such a powerful member of the village, so forgiveness is not something that she was going to have trouble earning. As soon as the sensai and Kazekage mentioned what the task is, which is combat, between the pair of students. Kami turned his head and looked right into the eyes of his opponent. Knowing that this was most likely going to be his teammate for life, today, he is an enemy. Akuma knows that he has to prove himself to his squad, and he doesn’t want to play the part of an arrogant boastful powerhouse shinobi, so Kami is going to have to try not to present that attitude. Kami really wants this team to be perfect, in that everyone will know their role. Because Kami out of all people knows, that because he has no special Kekkei genkai, his power cannot be fully compared to that of someone with a kekkei genkai, unless of course one strategically wins the match. And that is where Akuma wants his team to come in. Like a Wolf, Kami knows he can’t do it all alone, so having a team behind him will surely increase the odds.

As soon as the Kazekage said that Akuma will be on the blue side, the young shinobi used his overwhelmingly fast speed in order to disappear and appear back on the blue corner exactly where the Kazekages finger was pointing toward. Akuma had his hand in his pocket with the back of his right foots heel on the side of the center in the left foots soul. Kami stood erect, waiting for the opponent to also prepare for the fight. Akuma waited and almost like a comedic effect, his pet ferret looked ferociously furious. Extra mad which is what Kami wants to say, so when he seen his pet so ravaged with hate, Kami smiled and laughed a little as his stomped hard in order to get the ferrets attention and Akuma then said, “Calm down he’s a friendly. This is training; hell it’s not like you can do anything anyways.” The ferret then calmed itself down and got right next to Akuma. Standing right by his foot he then said. “So are you ready or what?” Knowing that the wind element is what Akuma is here to train, the wind element is what is going to be used the most in this fight. Maybe Kami doesn’t have to hold back, but this is still a training, and the training may in fact slow him down. Luckily enough though, wind is Kamis nature affinity so he won’t be missing out, or losing a lot by focusing on only using that element. Still, Akuma needed to focus. So while he awaited his opponent, Kami focused his wind natured chakra in order to begin the fight with such an attack. He then began to feel the wind natured chakra within his body swerving through the tenketsus. Kami was more than ready to fight.

Wind Release: Stream D
WC 600/600 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough C
WC 800/800 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Spiraling Wind Ball C
WC 150/800 [Efficient Trait]

"Wake up, kids!"

"First, I'm sorry to have made you wait so long to get this started. I was too eager to have a full squad and so I let myself wait much too long for our missing member. Seeing as he never arrived, we shall proceed. You two will have my complete and undivided attention…"

Ray woke up, rubbing his eyes as he sprang to his feet. Curses, he'd fallen asleep waiting for the third member to arrive. He looked around the arena, and then focused back on the Kage. He smiled, remembering the Uchiha kid he'd had a small spar with, who said he was gonna beat the Kage. He looked the kage up and down. She seemed to be extremely strong, even as a person, and her tone and posture determined that. Her compound muscles were toned and no imperfection could be noted, stating that yes, she was some sort of a melee user. Also, she was quite attractive, and had a youthful appearance. Interesting. Ray then focused on her words, listening to her emphasize on the "attention". Ray nodded, understanding completely. He wondered what was coming next, but in order to be ready for anything, he formed a tiger hand-seal, letting the chakra flow through him, his muscles getting energized. He continued looking at the kage, completely expressionless.

"However, you will need to earn this attention by proving your mettle…. against each other."
"You, Ray, will take position on the red side of the arena, and you, Akami, will take the blue side of the arena. Prepare for a fight, and don't hold anything back. I want to see what both of you are completely made of. Don't worry about each other or yourselves. I'll step in when necessary before any serious damage can be done."

Ray nodded once more, but his mind had already begun working on sizing the kid next to him. He seemed to be a brilliant hand-to-hand fighter, and the Akami clan were known to have exceptional speeds. In any case, regardless of how Ray did after this, he'd have to train under the Kage, so he wasn't going to go all out here. Not just to save energy, but to save all of his strengths from being shown to anyone. After all, he'd just been through a big treachery, another one wasn't needed at this time. He noted the Akami's speed while he practically flitted to the red side. The speed was akin to that of a Sannin's. Ray himself had his speed two ranks lesser than that, at the level of a Special Jonin, while his reflex speed was that of a Jonin's. So he was outclassed in terms of speed. And on top of that this Akuma was a Fuuton user, that made things worse when it came to using Ray's strongest jutsu. But he'd find a way, he always did.

Ray turned and flitted to the blue side, his speed visibly lower than that of the Akuma's. Ray looked at the Akuma, who still hadn't stated his name, and wondered about his fighting style. Ray assumed his own stance, and decided to begin the fight, forming three seals consecutively and placing a hand (which was forming a hole) to his mouth, and then exhaled, a massive ball of flame erupting from his mouth, heading towards the Akuma. The ball itself was about the size of a bus, and headed towards the Akuma at about 30 mph. The size of the arena was small enough for the sphere to reach the other Chuunin at a fast speed. Ray then, took his stance, watching whatever came into contact with the ball of flame to be burned.

[Raiton C--->B 1211/2000]

Spoiler:

I stood back and watched the fight unfold.  The two Chuunin seemed to be each of considerable strength.  From my last spar with Akami, I knew his speed would be a factor in this fight and I was even more interested to see how Ray would counter this.  Each were quite gifted in their quickness, it would take more cunning and resourcefulness to determine the victor in this match.  The two of them quickly took their positions on each side of the arena, showing off their speed.  I noticed Akami had a ferret with him now.  Was this a new pet?  I made a mental note in my head as the fight began with a giant fireball created by Ray.  Quite the show opener, that was for sure.

Although the fight was quite exciting to watch from my view.  I took this time by myself to recall some training on fuuinjutsu that I had recently learned while tucked away in my office.  The smell of burning ozone wafted through my office as I practiced one of my fuuinjutsu techniques, a lightning ball seal.  The room crackled and hissed as I channeled my chakra and ration energy, sending the seal to the floor with my seal delivery technique and watching the bolts fly around in a tight, one meter ball of great arcing blue-violet lightning bolts of electric fury.  A shinobi trained in the arts of fuuinjutsu stood beside me, supervising my exercise as the lightning became a center of a maelstrom.  A fierce wind blew around us, tearing at my hair and the folds of my clothes.  It rocked and shook the bookshelves, knocking files and reports to the floor and rifling their pages.  The air itself was charged with electricity, causing my skin to itch.  In the midst of it all, I could only laugh, raising my arms in triumph and launched another seal as the first one died out, this time putting the seal on a far wall to keep out of reach of the important documents that fluttered about the room.  Each time the lightning flared, the intensity of the flash burned the other shinobi's retina's, causing him to shield his eyes.  I, however, did not look away: my eyes wide and wild with the rush of power.  

The thunder was almost deafening, the ringing in my ears still not completely gone as I watched my two students spar with each other.  The storm of lightning in my office kept building, however, and if I wasn't careful enough the ball of seal would grow too intense for my little training ground and could even injure myself and the shinobi with me.  Sensing this the shinobi reached out and touched my arm.  I snapped my head around to face him, and the excitement in my eyes seemed to take him by surprise.  With a little hesitation, he smiled back at me.

"Very good, Lady Kazekage!" he shouted, trying to make his voice heard above the din.  "That's enough for today!"  The man held his breath in anticipation until I nodded and lowered my arms.  Instantly the feeling of the powerful storm began abating.  Within a few seconds it was gone; only the mess it had made remained.

"I've never felt anything like that before," I gasped, my face still showing my exhilaration.

The man nodded. "It's a remarkable sensation," he agreed.  "But you must be careful not to lose yourself in it.  You must maintain control, or you could find yourself swept up in the lightning along with your enemies."  His tone was calm yet slightly condescending.  He was trying to keep back that I had already surpassed him in this new talent, although the emotions in his eyes and face betrayed him.  Looking around at the toppled shelves, taking in the books and scrolls strewn about the room.  "We'd better clean this up before somebody sees it and wonders what happened in here."

I smiled as the memory faded, my mind focusing on the battle ensuing before me between my two pupils.  As I watched them fight, I couldn't help but think what kind of mess I'd be cleaning up after these two.

Training Fuuinjutsu B-->A 1485/3000

Kami Akuma seen how his teammate began the battle and although he doesn’t know the smallest of details about this shinobi at least now he has a good idea of his fire affinity, that can be quite problematic if he is a primary user of the style, since of course wind is Akumas primary elemental affinity. Now that the fight has begun, let the truth be told. That fireball was coming in at a mediocre speed but the battlefield was so small that dodging it can prove quite difficult. Except, the Kazekage never gave rules to this fight. Kami did nothing but simply jump backward and backflip down toward the water and off of the stadium, having more than enough time to do so. The fireball gracefully skinned his personal space so Kami was able to feel the heat that the ball produced. While Kami was in the air falling onto the water he had a quick thought. “The earth element is nonexistent in the surface, but maybe underwater.” Because of this, Kami didn’t use the water walking technique when dropping on the water and instead, he pencil dived right into it. Barely making a sound because of how straight he was positioned, Kami darted like a missile as far as he can underwater before turning and swimming the rest of the way. This has already taken a small amount of time and Kami thought that his opponent might not be just calmly waiting for him on the surface. So he turned while swimming in order to see if he was being followed, Akuma seen nothing in his view so he kept on his swim. When reaching the bottom of the ground, just like Akuma suspected, it was like a beach ground. It is sandy but nevertheless sand is earth in itself. So Akuma did what he came down for and grabbed two hands – full of dirt and shoved the sand into his pocket. Although the earth weighed him down, he knew it will come in handy sooner rather than later in this combat.

Akuma knew that he has no right to be under water. He has no affinity to the style nor does he have its weakness. And Kami doesn’t know if his opponent also has water as a second affinity. So Akuma without thinking twice about what he was going to do, squatted down as he gathered force in order to push himself and rocket up into the surface. Kami wanted to go fast so he used some of his wind elemental chakra to make himself more aero dynamic, to make him aqua dynamic. This caused no chakra and propelled the young shinobi out of the water. Like a dolphin Kami jumped up and out of the water, Kami would either land right where he stood before he jumped into the water [if his opponent didn’t move] or he will jump right onto the center of the battlefield if no one is there claiming the area. Still, no matter where it is Akuma lands, he will quickly take off his shirt, shoes and socks in order to wrap it around his fish net undershirt and throw it to the side of the battlefield. The clothes were wet so they were weighing Kami Akuma down tremendously. All of that wet clothing taken off, plus the earth element in his pocket equaled Kamis whole body weight so to run with it will be like running with himself on his back. Now Akuma was barefoot and shirtless with his abs cut and showing, only having some pants to his name with dirt in his pocket. Akuma was ready to run his fastest as he always kept an eye on his target. Ready to use his most basic and elementary techniques if he ever tried to strike at this point. Kami then pointed at his teammate and said, “No hard feeling in this match. I know that you have ninjutsu and fire in your arsenal, but what else are you hiding?”

Wind Release: Stream D
WC 600/600 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough C
WC 800/800 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Spiraling Wind Ball C
WC 800/800 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Gale Palm C
WC 19/800 [Efficient Trait]

Ray raised his eyebrows, looking at the silhouette of the Akami as he simply jumped backwards, and consecutively, downwards, into the water that surrounded the pillar on which the arena was placed. The fireball simply moved on in it's linear trajectory, and hit the wall, leaving burn marks on the area as it dissipated. The heat would be felt, as the wall had been heated, but at this distance, it was just slightly hot. Ray flitted to the Akami's end of the arena, and looked down at the water, trying to locate the ninja. However, due to the water being murky and slightly disturbed, nothing could be seen after 2 inches from the surface, which prompted Ray to believe that the ninja had begun swimming downwards, for some reason unbeknownst to Ray. Ray continued looking at the water, as if awaiting the moment at which the ninja would resurface for air. As he looked on, he noticed a minute black spot in the water that increased in size at a very fast rate, till it exploded out of the water, revealing the now-flying ninja who'd approached the surface at a high speed. The Akami flew over Ray's head and landed in the center of the arena.

As soon as the ninja had landed, he began stripping, prompting Ray to believe, as the ninja was a speedster, he'd chosen to do so because wet clothes would slow him down. He did, however, keep his pants on, much to the relief of Ray. However, the pant pockets seemed to be filled with some thing, and were dirty, as if they'd been near some form of sandy muck. Ray still showed no emotion on his face, which had to be slightly, if not completely, unsettling. He glanced at the Kage who seemed to be stuck in her own reverie, and then back at the Akami. The Akami then pointed at him, and began talking.

“No hard feeling in this match. I know that you have ninjutsu and fire in your arsenal, but what else are you hiding?”

"There is nothing else that requires to be hidden. Anything I have in my arsenal apart from these things will be noticed by you soon enough, if you manage to get me to use them. And yes, no hard feelings. After all, we're going to be a team soon enough.", stated Ray, his voice as cold and emotionless as ever. Shifting his body slightly, he performed a variation of hand-seals, and inhaled deeply, his chakra molding the air in his mouth into a gas with a noxious odor, which Ray breathed out in a radius of 10 meters, hiding himself in the middle of this gas cloud. Unless the opponent had a doujutsu, it would practically be impossible to see anything in this cloud. Ray remained completely still within this gas cloud, knowing full well that he was on the exact edge of the arena. Any spark or form of ignition would cause this cloud to turn into a fireball on the spot, and Ray planned to use that to his advantage.

[Raiton C---->B 1732/2000]

Spoiler:

I sat back and watched the match begin.  Akami had a delightful dramatic air about him, dipping off the arena to avoid the fireball jutsu and then popping back on to claim the center of the arena. The whole of his 'dodge', if you could call it that, was quite extensive.  He used more energy than necessary and was obviously trying to show off.  Despite this, Ray Kato seemed to be completely stone faced about the matter.  Even if Akami's leap had thrown him for a loop, he wasn't showing it.

Listening in on the small talk, I let a faint smile pierce my lips.  Akami was trying to keep things social, maybe using his words to try and get in the head of his opponent.  Smart.  Kato was quite aware, it seemed with his response.  Oh how marvelous the whole interaction was!  Seeing the events unfold was making me giddy with excitement.  Memories of when I had fought my way up the shinobi ranks came flooding back to me.  The whole of this was just too much!  I yearned for more action.  My hands gripped the railing as I leaned forward, the rest of my body tensed up in anticipation.  Maybe I should have had them fight me instead?  No, I needed to see their actions on brand new opponents and Akami had already seen a bit from me during an earlier training session.

I still needed to train myself, however. As much as I just wanted to observe my two students go at it, I needed to find a way to bring my training into the situation. Looking at what each opponent was doing, I decided to dream up what I would do in each of the two boys’ positions.

If I was in Akuma’s position, I would have used my clan’s body seal to take in the giant fireball and then rush the opponent. My knowledge of jutsu was wide enough to know that the fireball was quite the jutsu for a genin to produce, meaning that I had just taken his strongest jutsu. Rushing in, I would pull out my tonfas to get ready for some close combat.

My first move would be to dip slightly with my right leg, aiming to kick his legs out from under him. If that worked I would unleash some Katon chakra of my own to enhance my tonfas and bound away at his chest while he was done. If the kick didn’t connect, my follow up would be to swing out my tonfas, extending them farther than my arms and aim for his chest to hit him and push him further back. This would give me space to carry my momentum and regain my footing.

I’d keep my flow of movement, remembering that fighting is like dancing, and would then spin as I came closer to him, writing a seal in the air as I formed a small circular seal around the first. Then, as I spun back around to face Ray, I would unleash my Explosive Seal wrapped in my Seal Delivery Technique straight at him. My guess would be that he could dodge it. While he’s busy dodging my fuuinjutsu attack, I’d close in the gap with another jolt of speed and ram my tonfas into his chest and jaw.

The main goal here would be to push him back as the center of the arena was the most valuable and strategic piece in the fight. Whoever owned the center was indeed going to be winning. There was more room to maneuver while fighting someone in the center would be difficult to move around, as the space in the arena would be more limited and hinder my dancing style of fighting.

If I was in Ray Kato’s position, I probably wouldn’t have used one of my more lethal jutsus right at the start, instead using one of my lower level jutsu to get my opponent off his feet. I would take the road of wearing him out and keeping him at a distance. Maybe a few shots with some Raiton chakra from my tonfas would be enough to get the boy moving.

From there I would begin to press the attack and move in on the adversary. Leaving openings for the other to take advantage of is not only costly but also deadly. Again I would send a flurry of Raiton bolts at him, and if there was a counter I would quickly pull up my dome of fire to protect myself. If there was no counter, than I would jump in close to swing in my tonfas, do a twirl on his head with my tonfas. The multiple hits in rapid succession would be enough to keep him reeling backwards while I took the center of the arena.

If he did counter and I had to use my dome of fire, I would wait until it was extinguished. Using that time to write up my Explosive Seal on the ground, expecting a charge from him. Once the dome was extinguished, I would leap away and then trigger the little trap to hit and knock him off. Then I’d pounce back in there with another flurry of tonfa attacks while I pushed for ownership of the arena’s center.

Training Fuuinjutsu B-->A 2378/3000

Kami Akuma noticed quickly that the opponent was up to no good. As he was making his hand seals, he appeared to have heaved air into his mouth and when he began to pour out the gas Kami had no doubt in his head that he needed to back away from this technique, not knowing what it is truly capable of. The gas can be a genjutsu, ninjutsu or even poisonous, but Kami doesn’t have the type of dojutsu that can see through such techniques both figuratively and literally apparently as the shinobi hid behind his own smokescreen. Before the gas got to Kami, Akuma simply began to blow out an intense amount of wind out of his mouth. The Wind Release Stream is a technique powerful enough to create a smokescreen of its own ranging 10m, so countering it will dispel the smoke and push it to the back of the stadium wall. The technique was fairly easy to counter since it wasn’t targeted at Akuma specifically but instead it was a technique that is meant to alter the battlefield by means of strategy. Kami figured out that this wasn’t an attack this way, nevertheless, the smoke can’t be trusted so Kami isn’t stupid enough to just dive right into the cloud so he did the only thing he knew he could do. It wasn’t like he could see his target inside of the smokescreen anyways, and the Wind Release Stream uses no hand seals so its use was flawlessly on time. Kami was able to smell the odor that the smokescreen left behind and it wasn’t a joke. Kami Akuma noticed that he was still pretty close to his opponent in this match. Seeing as Kami is in the middle of the stadium and his target is in the blue end. Akuma has an extraordinarily savvy mechanical mind, his one-track mind may be a drawback in some circumstances but in a one on one bought an eidetic memory shows focus as it does its best in no time at all. Kami calculated his surroundings and already came up with the battlefield layout.

The battlefield can be thought of as a circle with a radius of 10 meters seeing as the Wind Release Sphere pushed the smoke screen just slightly off of the ring. Meaning that the whole ring can expand to a 20 meter range, meaning the medium range shinobi will do best in such a fight. Although close combat still has its time to prove itself worthy seeing as the smokescreen appeared to have been pushed back exactly the same distance it, itself can reach, so Akuma figured out that the smokescreen has an equal range to his wind stream but even more informative was how the smoke fit perfectly in midair. Touching the wall and scrapping the edge of the stadium. Kami knew then that the range between the ring and the wall that the Kazekage was standing on was merely 10 meters. So the stadium in itself is built to have technique max their range at 30. Kami then looked up and began to empty his pocket of all of the dirt. Of course the max range is only 30 when you are fighting 2 dimensionally. The roof seems to range a massive 50 meters from the ground Akuma was standing on. And adding together the range in which he fell, which seemed to him like 25 meters with another 25 meters added worth swimming when Akuma went all the way down to ground means that the bottom of the pool – floor in 100 meters away from the roof, leaving all the room in the world for a long range shinobi to combat, if he is combatting from a non – lateral point of view. All this thought took just mere secants since the mind is a non – stop motor, and Akumas one – track eidetic memory is just that much more active. But Kami snapped out of his short term trance, in which he was ready to defend himself if ever attacked as he did not need to look down to see that he finished emptying out his pocket of all of the dirt he had. Kami filled the center stage with the earth element, and he was preparing to use one of his most favorite of all of his techniques. Kami then set himself up looking right at his target while squatting in a frog like stands with his hands in the dirt. Kami Akuma looked at his teammate with determination in his eyes, as he was prepared to mold the earth element to his liking. “I will tell you this once my friend, be safe.”

Jutsu Used:

Arsenal:

Wind Release: Gale Palm C
WC 800/800 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Air Bullets C
WC 0/800 [Efficient Trait]

Ray merely half-smiled as the Akami blew his gas away, he'd quite been expecting that. After all, the Akami had been a Wind User, and doing so was his, forgive the pun, primary nature. Ray had been revealed, and then gas cloud was sent behind him, whereupon it lay, spreading it's noxious odor everywhere. Ray looked at the Akami, who'd entered some form of a trance-like state, something which allowed Ray to look at his surroundings and observe them a bit more carefully. He noticed that the enclosed space allowed them to use destructive spells to a much lesser extent, and thus made the fighters rely on placement and execution rather than just plain 'blast a jutsu after another'. This also allowed the quick fighters to execute their fastest techniques without fear of being blasted apart as within this enclosed space, such an attack would be akin to suicide. So it allowed the speedsters to get in close and powerful, and required the ranged ninjas to think twice as much as they normally would. Ray stole another glance at the Kage, who'd resumed gleeful overview of this battle. Ray sighed. The battle was turning out to be longer than he'd hoped, and now he really just wanted to end it once and for all. So Ray nodded towards the Akami and started to weave a lot of hand-signs, his speed impeccable when it came to those hand-signs. Once they were done, Ray breathed in, and then exhaled with all his force, sending a multitude of 20 basketball sized spheres of fire directly at the Akami. The fireballs were sure to overwhelm him, as all of them were quite fast and powerful, of course, at a lower rank than the jutsu itself. Ray smiled, and flitted sideways.

As soon as he'd flitted sideways, he started to weave handsigns again, seeing the earthening of the ground, and smiled, realizing that the Akami's second affinity was Earth. That would prove troublesome for his own second element, Lightning. But with regard to the current plan, it wouldn't really matter, as Ray wasn't planning to attack with lightning anyway. Ray jumped upwards, and raised his hands to his mouth, breathing out a copious amount of black ash, completely shrouding the area with it. Using the momentum from this jump, he went a little bit backwards, and smiled, knowing that he was directly over the water now. Making a gun like shape with his hand, he shot a concentrated spark of lightning directly at the ash cloud, which completely covered the battlefield in a radius of 30 meters, while falling down. He merely closed his eyes as the ash cloud ignited, releasing a massive amount of heat. The Akami would definitely have trouble getting out of this one, as even blowing it away would still get him caught in the radius. Ray felt the front of his body get seared by the heat, and merely smiled, knowing that it wasn't really burned though. He hit the water, and sunk a good 5 meters in it, opening his eyes and swimming to the surface once he was sure that the heat had reduced a little bit. After getting to the surface, he forced himself out and ran up to the Kage, reaching there in barely any time. Removing his sopping wet cloak, Ray looked at her, and raised his hands, showing that he was done with the fight.

Raiton C---->B 2035/2000

OOC: Sorry for the late post, it's the best I can do under the festive fever xD

Spoiler:

I watched with eager eyes as Akami blew out a strong stream of wind from his mouth, the movement creating blurs in the air.  Ah, so there was gas in the air, clever move Ray.  My eyes darted to Ray, he began to smile as his jutsu was blown away.  What was the boy driving at with that smile?  Was he just testing Akami?  Licking my lips in an attempt to taste the battle myself, I continued to look on.  Nothing yet was bad enough to step in as of yet.

Akami took a frog-like stance and seemed to be preparing for another attack from Ray.  His instincts proved to be right as Ray moved into another attack.  Stringing some hand signs together, he blew out twenty fireballs the size of basketballs at Akami.  The arena glowed from the orange and red flames as they coursed along the arena, heading to the other side.  He was on the move as soon as they all were launched, moving sideways at first and then jumped into the air.  While in the air, he billowed out dark black ash into the air, covering the arena.  Immediately after he finished his ash jutsu, a burst of lightning was shot out of one of his hands, igniting the large cloud of ash.

As the explosion burst, Ray disappeared over the edge of the arena.  I could hear a splash of water, but my attention was now on Akami.  My body set itself to be on the go, ready to spring into action if need be.  Things got heated rather quick, and I was going to have to call the match after what Ray just unleashed.

Knowing I might have to grab Akami and bring him out of there in case he got caught in the jutsu, I was reminded of what the referee had done in the Chuunin Exams.  My mind for some reason did a quick run through of my past.


Charging forward in great speed, ignoring the slight pains of my right side, I attacked him with flaming tonfas.

My right tonfa aimed at his right cheek in a quick twirl that extended my Fonda's long shaft to strike his cheek.  My left tonfa I kept tucked in and punched with its short end at his stomach.  Then spinning in a low crouch, my cape twirling with my body as I stretched my legs for a sidestep to the right and behind Sairento.  My left tonfa was next to strike again, this time I had twirled it in my hands to its extension, aiming for the back of his head.  My right tonfa then swung around low to hit his left leg, angled appropriately at the back of his knee to buckle the leg.  The whole time I went to attack I was ready for any attempt for him to counter or block.

Once these hits landed, my left tonfa continued it's sweep to the left of his head, stop, then reroute back in front of his head. Spinning the tonfa around in my head I pinned his neck with my left tonfa. While my left tonfa had his neck, my right tonfa was moving at the same time, this time tucked back, parallel with my arm, in a thrust on his back which I then pressed down as hard as I could so that I could throw his body to the ground while burning his neck and back with my tonfas. Then too finish things off, I slapped my feet down hard on each of his wrists. I put most of my weight on the right tonfa as I kept myself low in a slight crouch, my legs apart as I held him down and my tonfas pinning his head and torso. I wasn't sitting on him, but rather keeping myself slightly lifted, and again, resting my entire weight on the right tonfa pressed into his back.

It didn't take long after that, the referee then took charge. Sairento vanished from my grip in a puff of smoke. A few feet in-front of me, the referee stood, the young boy hanging off his shoulder, apparently unconscious. "Kōga, Suzume wins!" he called to the assembled masses, who gave me a thunderous round of applause as the referee carried off the young man to the medics.


Ray Kato appeared beside me, snapping my attention to the right.  His hands were up and he was done with the fighting for today.  I nodded and leapt, using my speed to make sure Akami was safe from harm.  "Good fight, both of you."  I said.  "We've learned a lot today.  Rest up and we'll see what tomorrow will bring."

Training Fuuinjutsu B-->A 3168/3000 COMPLETE

"Good fight, both of you."
"We've learned a lot today. Rest up and we'll see what tomorrow will bring."

Ray simply smiled, and nodded, taking a look at the arena which had turned completely black due to the ash and heat. He looked at the Akami, saved from practically dying due to the Kage's intervention. The Akami had still suffered quite a lot of damage, which made Ray feel bad about himself. He looked at the Kage, and stated simply, "Sorry, Kazekage. I didn't mean to unleash such a powerful jutsu so soon." He then bowed his head, and stepped back, picking up his cloak from the ground. Since the cloak was sopping wet, he didn't wear it, and so flitted towards the exit, semi-nude. Ray blinked as soon as he was out of the arena, taking in the bright rays of the sun. It was quite hot outside, and the white sands around them didn't help at all, reflecting the heat aridly. Ray sighed, and walked on.

He just hoped that the Akami hadn't gotten too hurt, and that the Kage would be unbiased towards Ray, as his tendency for disregard of the opponent's life might cause her to become biased towards him. He shook his head, and bounded towards his home. After all, it'd been a troublesome day.

[EXIT]

OOC: How do you skip me after 6 days after I let you play on after 5? It was vacation time brother. But alright.

Akami seen as the Blast began coming at him head on. The fire blasts were coming fast and in succession. Akuma dodged the techniques with the great speed that he retains through harsh training, jumping back and forth, to the left and to the right. Doing everything he can to dodge the chaotic flames. One fireball got to hit Kami in the chest, and as his body looked to have been blasted away by the shot, bis body was soon replaced with the body replacement technique when it hit the wall behind him. The body replacement was used in conjunction with the wet clothing that was in the edge of the battlefield. In that exact moment, Kami landed in the edge of the battlefield and he seen as his target began to blow ash out of his mouth and onto the battlefield. Because Kami was now in the edge, dodging this technique was more than easy. He simply jumped down into the water while having the ash embed the battlefield atop. Kami looked up when underwater and through the surface of the ground, seen that their was a big glow. When Kami swam up and seen what was going on he seen his opponent go up to the Kazekage with his hands raised looking as if he has won the battle. Kami cared less for the winner or looser to this match, but he felt somewhat ashamed that his teammate didnt notice that the wet clothing was an escape tactic in the case that Kami entered a dangerous situation. This made up for that and he only seen the body replacement as it hit the wall. Kami has a chance to keep the fight going, but istead he went on with his teammates small delusion, even though the Kazekage had no need to jump in. "You didn't "REALLY" win kid. But you did good?"

Spoiler:

Wind Release: Gale Palm C
WC 800/800 [Efficient Trait]

Wind Release: Air Bullets C
WC 314/800 [Efficient Trait]