Mission name: Exhibition Match!
Mission rank: B-Rank
Objective: Fight for the Crowds Amusemet!
Location: Kumogakure no Sato Arenas
Reward: 500 Ryo + 5 EP
Mission Description: Before the Semi Finals came to pass, villages were approached to put some of their best and finest up against those of another, be they former contenders or no. All for the joy of the crowd. These fights may take place in any of the three prior arenas, or the Semi finals arena.
Mission Details: Two / Three ninja (must be PC's) square off against one another in the ring in an exciting and thrilling free for all, they must be of equal rank or up to one rank lower or higher than one another in order to compete against each other. The standard 24 hour posting rule without notice applies.

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The Arena:

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Raphael stood alone in a small room as he waited for the arena to be cleared and ready, as he waited his mind raced with possible outcomes. The young Chuunin was to face his friend Ryo in an exhibition match at the Raikage's request, due to the fact that Kumogakure having no actual competitors in the competition. That being said the boy did find it funny that the Raikage would choose the two of them to showcase Kumogakure's skill, considering the fact that they both original came from Sunagakure. Raphael heard the roar of the crowd as the last part of the Semifinals drew to a close, with the winner announced and the anticipation of the Final battle of the exams there came a knock on the door. The boy felt as though his heart was about to burst from his chest, his breathing became shallow, his palms sweaty, it was easy to see that the young Chuunin was nervous. Taking a deep breath in he did his best to normalize his breathing, while he tried to wipe his sweaty hands on his pant legs before he opened the door. There in the doorway stood a jounin of the hidden cloud, "Alright the arena is clear and ready for your exhibition match while they get the final battle area ready. The crowd can be cruel, but if you put on a good show then they will love you. Follow me." The man took off down the hallway headed for the arena, Raphael quickly followed suit still trying his best to regain his composure. He could not understand why he was so anxious this was no different then a spar only they would not be holding back as much and Raphael had fought in more than a couple of spars over his years of training, however he had never done so with a crowd so large the whole world would be watching them. As he neared the exit of the hallway opening up to the arena Raphael stopped for a second, making sure he was composed before stepping out into the ring as he did not want the crowd and especially not Ryo to see him nervous. He needed to get himself pumped up and just imagine that it was just like any other fight he had been in, it worked, that is until he stepped out of the tunnel and heard his name boardcasted over the entire stadium and the crowd roared with cheers as well as a few boos. Raphael did his best to block the crowd from his mind, but he found it to be rather difficult considering the size of the crowd and how loud they were being.

Once he was inside the arena Raphael would continue to take slow deep breaths as he waited for Ryo to enter on the opposite side, once Ryo stepped into the arena and the proctors threw up the barricade to prevent the crowd from being hurt Raphael would turn to face his friend. "Ryo Knetegawa, I expect you to give me a good fight no holding back and I hope we can still be friends after I beat you." Raphael shouted across the arena, to be honest he had never faced a puppet user like Ryo or any for that matter, however he did know about the Knetegawa and their animal based puppets so he needed to be ready for whatever his friend threw at him. Raphael's statement to Ryo was more of a bluff then anything else, but if there was one thing Raphael knew is that he had to be confident in his abilities because if he second guessed himself against this opponent he would be met with defeat. Raphael enhaled a deep breath as he focused his wind chakra inwardly surrounding his core, if nothing else it would give him a better edge in the fight to come. He then dropped low spreading his feet apart so that his left foot was in front of him closest to his opponent, he would then place his right hand behind his back and pull out three of his Kaminari Shuriken from his pouch on his belt keeping them ready behind his back so that Ryo could not see them but he would have them if need be. Once it appeared to Raphael that his opponent was also ready, the boy would stick out his left hand in front of him and motion tauntedly for the boy to bring it.

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753

Chakra 210/220:

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Ryo smiled as he stood alone in his small room waiting for the arena to be cleared and for his exhibition match with Raphael. He wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but he was sure that no matter what happened it was going to be a very good fight. They were both chuunin now and that was going to present a problem, but Ryo was sure that it wouldn’t be terrible. He checked over his scroll harness making sure that the two scrolls which held both Shiro and Kuro. Now, there was nothing to stop him from making good on his plan to put up a great fight. At the entrance to the arena was a Jounin that was standing in his way and waiting for the arena to be cleared. Ryo waited prepping his Senbon, his kunai, and the rest of his assortment of tools as he did so. The Jounin nodded his head slowly “It seems that the arena is going to be finished here in a moment. Follow me and we can get going.” He turned and lead Ryo down the hallway. He didn’t want to let Raphael down, and he wasn’t about to show this friend anything but his best. Yes, this was a battle where they were going to be fighting, but it was a exhibition match, and that meant that Ryo had to be very careful. He didn’t want to hurt his friend, but he wouldn’t allow himself to be pushed around. He emerged onto the field shortly after the crowd was done getting worked up for Raphael, and they announced his name giving him a great a cheer as well. He smiled and gave a great bow before he turned to face Raphael nodding and bowing just as well.

Ryo looked at Raphael nodding his head as he quickly bit into the two fingers on his hands before he quickly summoned up his two babies. Shiro and Kuro were at his side and he quickly attached the best strings that he could manage. He chuckled softly nodding his head in approval again “Of course Raphael, I wouldn’t hold back in a fight with you. However, if you think you’ll beat me, then that’s a shame for you. Taijutsu might not be my specialty, but I have figured out how to deal with many Taijutsu opponents. You will not pose any kind of a problem to me.” He was ready now and as soon as the signal was given he nodded his head. He had seen that Raphael’s hand was moving, but what he didn’t know was what he was doing. So, he was going to assume it was something bad. He didn’t want Raphael to get close, he knew that was bad, and thankfully he had a plan to do just that. Snapping his hands forward along with his arms flicking his pinky fingers at the same time as he flicked the important fingers. He flicked his pinky fingers on each hand as well as the pointer finger on his right hand. Thankfully Raphael wouldn’t know that his hands and arms were forced to work together while he was using two puppets, he also didn’t know which fingers were connected to which weapons, or what they did. Kuro was ahead in the lead and he was aiming to slam into Raphael with both claws and fangs ready and waiting. Shiro on the other hand was slower and Ryo was using him mostly to intercept anything nasty that Raphael might throw his way.

WC:605

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Chakra 195/200:

Ryo summoned two wolves one black as the night itself, the second as white as the boy's hair. They both looked so much like a real wolf, that Raphael had to remind himself that they were puppets. Ryo boasted that he had figured out how to deal with Taijutsu users, this brought a smile to Raphael's face 'good I need the challenge' he thought to himself. Raphael had his own tactic for his opponent, however it was a bit unconventional for him to use and if he messed up could put him at a disadvantage. The two puppets sprang to life at the boys movements and the black one took the lead charging at him while the white one seemed to hang back a little, more than likely as a precaution. The black wolf began closing the approximately 20 meter gap between the two boys, Raphael waited until the wolf jumped at him with its teeth and claws posed to strike at him before making his move. Releasing a burst of chakra from his core he prepelled himself 5 meters to the right of where he had started, before shifting his weight pivoting on his left foot and using his momentum to launch the 3 shuriken that was in his right hand. He knew his Shuriken would do nothing to either of the puppets, and he doubted that he would be able to reach the boy without the puppets getting in the way. So his target was not the boy nor his wolves, but the threads that connected the boy to the black wolf. As he released the three shuriken from his right hand, his left grabbed three more from his pouch and by continuing his momentum of the spin he would launch those three backhanded towards the boy himself. Raphael hoped that the first three would detract the boy enough that his second three might find their mark, but he wasn't going to wait to find out. Once the second set of three were out of his hand, he took off in a sprint not using his full speed rather more at half speed covering 6 meters a second. Raphael was not running directly at the boy as he knew that would be foolish on his part, as it would put the black one in a position to flank him if his shuriken did not hit their mark. Instead Raphael would be running diagonally keeping some distance between them while still closing the gap slightly putting them roughly 10 meters away from each other. As he ran Raphael would pull a single Kunai from the pouch on his right leg, his eyes still kept the puppets in his peripheral vision not wanting to encounter any surprises as he moved.

If his attempt was successful and the boy did not move the puppets to intercept his path, then when he reached the point that he was 10 meters from the boy Raphael would be at the boys left side. At that point he would push off his right foot changing directions and running to move behind the boy hoping that he could close the gap further to a 5 meter distance. Raphael just hoped he moved faster than the boy could relay commands to his puppets.

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549/1302

OoC: neither one of us really put where we were at in the 60 meter radii ring so I just went with a 20 meter distance if you don't agree with that distance just let me know and I can change that.

Chakra 200/220:

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Ryo was smiling as he watched Kuro move so naturally, the gap was going to be a bit of a problem, but it gave Ryo plenty of time to react to whatever would come his way. He watched as the gap was closed and Kuro leapt at Raphael, but he was thwarted by some kind of ability that the youth used in order to get away from Kuro. It was a fairly impressive yet even as Raphael was moving away Kuro’s head turned and his mouth dropped open. From the back of his throat three Senbon shot out towards Raphael’s back. This was due to Ryo’s pinky and pointer finger twitching again, even though only one of the fingers actually did anything. Ryo was not very shocked to see the shuriken that came flying towards Kuro, or rather in the general direction of Kuro. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he was sure that he didn’t want to risk it. With a flick of his wrist a twitch of his pinky and his ring finger the sword tail that was part of Kuro shot out and wiggling those same two fingers, but this time in a circle and front to back. As he did so Kuro’s tail moved forward swinging wildly and with all the speed that he could manage. The shuriken glanced off the wildly thrashing blade and Ryo snatched his arm back shrinking Kuro’s strings in the process, it also created lots of slack in them as well thus allowing the shuriken to pass over the strings without a problem. Ryo moved his other hand quickly to send Shiro towards Raphael in order to intercept him.

Shiro moved just to block Raphael’s path, the white fur like a flash with the movement it was able to do. Ryo’s fingers twitched again, his ring, pointer, and pinky fingers all went at once. Two large scythe blades shot out from the sides of his torso and he came charging towards Raphael with all the speed that Ryo could make him have. He was going to close the distance, but he was not going to charge straight ahead, instead he was going to dash past Raphael so the scythe blade could cut into him. If he managed to dodge that then the scorpion tail would lash out and aim to slap him in the chest the flat of the tail. He wasn’t aiming to sting him, but the tail was over a meter long and it would be able to reach him in most of the directions. Ryo was not just going to allow his youngest son to attack alone, but instead he sent Kuro in behind Raphael with all speed that he would be able to make. If he was unable to truly intercept Raphael then he would quickly withdraw both of his children back to him as fast as he could dragging his arms and himself away keeping himself away from Raphael as best he could.

WC: 510 / 1,115

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Chakra 190/200:

Raphael winced as he felt three needles pierce his shoulder in the back, but that did not slow him down. The black wolf moved to pursue the young shinobi while the white wolf moved into Raphael's path with blades out to slash him, Raphael pivoted to the left to avoid the blades only to find the beast's tail coming at his chest. Raphael would lean backwards using the momentum of his running to just barely slide under the tail avoiding the strike. Raphael would then use another charge of chakra to burst 5 meters further to the left moving closer to the boy, putting himself between the puppets and their master. This was not ideally where the boy wanted to be as it put the puppets behind him where he could not see them, but he was not left with much choice. At the same time this gave him the opportunity to get close to his target, something he would need to capitalize on before his opponent could counter with his puppets. As Raphael drew closer to the boy, the boy moved back dragging his arms which Raphael could only assume meant he was pulling his puppets in closer to him. If Raphael was going to strike he would have to do it fast, quickly forming four hand seals Raphael extended his chakra out into the area around him grabbing the tile flooring that surrounded the arena, in one fluid motion 10 tile lifted off the ground, sharpened to points and then spun forward at Raphael's opponent. Raphael doubted that the boy would be able to get his puppets in front of the attack to protect him since Raphael was between them and him, but that did not mean his attack would hit nor did that mean the boy could not use the puppets to strike him in the back. Once the tile Shuriken were launched Raphael would send a burst of chakra into the air surrounding him causing a displacement in the air around him as he soon became shrouded in a dust cloud that spanned a 4 meter radius around him. Not only would this hide his position but also blocked his opponent's view of his own puppets, hopefully this would give Raphael the advantage he needed.

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383/1685

Chakra 170/220:

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Seeing that the Senbon had struck their target Ryo let himself relax slightly, but he didn’t stop his twin sons from rushing towards Raphael. Watching him dodge both the scythe blade, and the scorpion tail of Shiro he couldn’t help but tsk in his irritation. Still, he wasn’t going to allow Raphael to get the better of him if he could help it. He focused on his chakra threads and soon the chakra threads began to spark and crackle with his lightning chakra nature. As soon as the strings were sparking like this he would criss cross his arms a few times hoping to touch Raphael with the chakra strings. If Raphael came into any kind of contact with the chakra strings a surge of electrical power would shoot out of the strings and zap him good. When he summoned up the tiles as shuriken Ryo knew that he was in trouble. Snapping his arms back towards himself with all his might forcing his puppets to leap into the air in order to try and close the distance. The puppets were still very slow, but the tile shuriken were forced to hit some of the chakra strings which again would send out surges of lightning that would shatter the shuriken. Sadly, the chakra strings that were connected to Kuro couldn’t stand up to the pressure and they were sliced through by the shuriken. Kuro went flying towards Raphael as the last thing that he was able to do. No sooner had he done so than the debris and vortex obscured Raphael, so Ryo couldn’t see if his oldest son. He could see the chakra strings that were spreading to Shiro, and that was something. He would pull Shiro towards him and his scythe blades would be out ready to slice through whatever would get close. Ryo himself knelt down quickly and placed his now free right hand on the floor of the arena getting ready for his next jutsu. Thankfully, the tile shuriken mostly missed Ryo, but he hissed in pain as he felt two of them strike his shoulders.

WC: 355 / 1,470

Stats:

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Chakra 165/200:

From within the cover of his windstorm Raphael would send a pulse of chakra out around him, the downside to his windstorm was that it obscured his vision by using his chakra however he would be able to sense whatever came at him and it would cover the entirety of the arena. Raphael felt the puppet rush by him but it was not close enough to hit him, then it stopped and Raphael couls not sense it nor his opponent. 'Damn he stopped moving' Raphael thought to himself, he new the general area that the puppet was in though not exactly considering it was not moving and he could not feel Ryo moving either.  Remaining within his windstorm to keep himself from the boy's sight, Raphael began working on a plan, he had to be careful though he had been using a lot of jutsu and if he kept it up at this pace then he could end up running himself out of energy. Still he had to take the risk normally he would not have been using so much chakra in a spar, but with the simple fact that every time he tried to close the gap on his opponent he was thwarted it was hard not to have to use what little ranged attacks he had. Raphael thought back to when he had first met Ryo and Kisei back in Sunagakure, the spar between himself and Kisei, there was no doubt in the young boy's mind that Ryo studied his moves and made note of his weaknesses, something that Raphael had not been able to do to the boy unfortunately. A lot had changed in the months since then, Raphael had a few tricks up his sleeve that the boy had not seen yet, Raphael decided to take a shot in the dark anyway and blew a chakra infused breath into his hand shaping it until it was a spinning ball of his Futon element. Raphael aimed for the last known location of the boy's puppet, if the boy moved the puppet to avoid the strike then at least he would be able to sense it. And if his shot was lucky it may even cause the boy to move giving away his own position, launching the spinning ball from his hand, the ball would travel the distance at 15 m/s to the general area where Raphael had last sensed the boy's puppet before it stopped moving. The young shinobi could not be sure if his attack would hit or not, though it mattered little to him whether it did or not. The point of the attack was not to hit the puppet nor the boy, but to cause them to move and there by give away their position for Raphael's next strike.

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471/2156

Chakra 140/220:

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Ryo smiled as he maneuvered Shiro to stand several meters away and stop. He figured that the obscuring effect of the vortex also affected Raphael who was inside of it. Ryo had a jutsu that was very similar in the way it obscured visuals from him. He was working on a jutsu that would help him in that regard. With some experience involved then he was able to move Shiro around with a good guess that his movements weren’t very clear. Yet, he had to assume that Raphael had a jutsu that would allow him to either see, sense, or somehow determine how people were moving despite the obstruction to his vision. He had to make sure that he was careful otherwise he would give himself away in some manner or another. He kept moving Shiro to and fro with only his fingers, he made as little movement as was humanly possible. With his other hand he decided that he was going to use a ninjutsu. This ninjutsu, would be the best bet because he didn’t have to baby it. He only needed to give it a target and have it run along. He formed the hand sign and the jutsu was ready. A few feet away from him a spout of water shot up from the ground. Ryo concentrated and gave it the target which was Raphael. Ryo wasn’t sure how this worked, but it would track the man down around the arena. He wasn’t done with just this however, he again formed the hand seals that were needed with his one remaining hand and sent his chakra into the arena floor. All around him several tiles surged up to life and formed into Shuriken flying towards the vortex in a large group.

Under the cover of the shuriken, the rising slicing water, and Shiro’s movements Ryo was sure that he could move. He started to move but stopped dead as he felt Shiro’s body give a jerk on his chakra strings. He snapped his head towards his son and saw that a spiral of wind had slammed into his youngest child. His eyes went wide and unfocused as he watched Shiro’s body hit the floor. He was not happy to say the least and he slowly turned his eyes towards the obscuring vortex. He slowly flexed his fingers and felt hope as Shiro responded to him. Managing to get Shiro on his feet Ryo also got on his own two feet. He decided that he would move Shiro as fast as he could and he himself moved in a similar fashion and direction. While he did so he held up the one-handed tiger sign as he started to knead the chakra that he could summon up for his next jutsu. As he ran he turned his head to the vortex he was not sure how this Jutsu would work, but he was going to give it a try. He opened his mouth and shot out no less than six bullets made of water which all went flying towards the vortex around Raphael. The bullets would either break through or they wouldn’t, but the real point was to try and get Raphael to come out. While the bullets went flying towards Raphael if they hit him then it would be painful, but if they could break the jutsu it would be even better. Still, the overall goal was to expose Raphael to Shiro who was at present dancing around waiting for his perfect chance to strike. Tile Shuriken, a water spout that was slicing through the arena towards him, and now six water bullets. Ryo hoped that the vortex around him wouldn’t be able to hold up against all these jutsu, but if it could then Ryo would think of something else. If it couldn’t and Raphael was exposed, then he would send in Shiro as fast as he could; using his tail to strike in a scorpion like fashion aiming the stinger point at Raphael’s torso.

WC: 680 / 2,150

Stats:

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Chakra 100/200:

Raphael's last attack must had made the boy anger as he began unleashing a barrage of attacks at him, the first Raphael could not tell exactly what it was but it was felt like a pillar rushing towards him at an incredible speed. It seemed that the only way to dodge the attack was to ascend, quickly surging chakra inwardly Raphael would release a burst from his feet that would send him rocketing 5 meters into the air at the rate of 15 m/s. Unfortunately for him it was not quick enough to avoid the pillar completely, crying out in pain as it slashed his lower left leg during his ascent upwards. The launch upward also put the boy above the cover of his wind storm which meant that his position would no longer be hidden from the boy, which the boy quickly capitalized on launching a barrage of tile shuriken at Raphael. The young shinobi was able to use the Kunai in his hand to block some, however he still felt a couple that he could not reach slash him as they past. Landing on the ground Raphael asset the situation, he had a rather large cut on his leg which was causing pain as he tried to stand on it as well as several other small cuts on his arms and legs. Raphael was not granted anytime to rest nor address his wounds as he soon sensed yet another barrage of attacks coming his way, he had little choice despite not wanting to do so he quickly channeled chakra throughout his body then just as the bullets got within a 3 meter distance of him he would release the chakra in a quick burst sending a wave of chakra out around him which stopped the bullets from finding their mark. Unfortunately this burst would also disperse the air around Raphael cause the windstorm to dissipate and leave him out in the open, something Ryo seemed keen on exploiting as he quickly moved his white wolf puppet into striking directly into the boy. The boy only had one choice left, he could use his Hakaiken however the end result of that would most likely end in the puppets destruction which Raphael did not wish to do just to win a friendly match. As the wolf drew closer and its tail outstretched to strike Raphael would call out, "I Yield." Knowing that his opponent would stop the attack before it pierced his chest, with the match now over Raphael walked up to Ryo to congratulate him on a well fought fight. "You did not disappoint my friend, you did not disappoint. Though had this been a real fight I would not have held back and you might have been picking up the shattered pieces of your puppet. Still you have proven to be a excellent strategist and true to your word, I would very much like to spar with you again in the future so that I might further better myself." Raphael would end with a quick bow before leaving to have his wounds check out by the on field medic.

{Exit Thread}

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523/2679
B-Rank Mission Completed
179 words discarded

Ryo was determined that he would end the match as quickly as possible. He could feel the damage that had been done to Shiro, and he only worried that more damage was done to Kuro. His heart was racing, his blood boiling, and he couldn’t stomach any of it. He needed all of his jutsu to hit, or at least some of them. He wasn’t just fighting a simple sparing match any longer he was fighting a match to save his sons and their lives. He took complete advantage of the jump that caused Raphael to leave the safety of his vortex. What he didn’t know was the cause, but he could assume it. He had heard the sound of pain that came from his friend. There would be plenty of time to make amends later, but for now his sons and their lives came first. The moment that he had the shot his tile shuriken shot up towards the exposed Raphael. Some of them missed as they would of course do, but several of them did not miss which meant that it was a successful attack all things considered. The bullets that he sent towards Raphael he thought for sure would put a good end to everything they would cause some damage sure, but not very much, and it wouldn’t be anything that a few days R&R wouldn’t fix, but even so to see that with a single great pulse of chakra his jutsu was canceled his eyes went wide. He had no idea how this was even possible, and he shook his head in his own astonishment. Sending Shiro in as fast as he could with the stinger in the advancement. The moment he heard the sounds of ‘I yield’ however he pulled Shiro back with a violent vicious snap of his arm. Grunting with the effort he dragged Shiro back in front of him. With the battle over, he quickly scanned the arena and found Kuro. He ran to him as fast as his legs would carry him and hugged his puppet close “OH my darling baby boy. I am so sorry that I let you get separated from me. Oh, please forgive your papa. He is so very sorry, and he loves you very deeply.” He looked up in time to see Raphael talking to him and about the match. Yet, he heard about his children being broken he couldn’t deny this. He shook his head slowly “Yes, I am sure that is the case. Yet, my children shall grow, they are young yet, but will grow with time. Do not fear for them.” He rose to his feet and gave a deeper bow “I must admit you pressed me harder than I have been pressed before and I wish to thank you for not holding back on me. Had you been able to avoid even most of those attacks I would have yielded as I could not think of anything else to do. I would be honored to spar with you in the future when my children have grown up some more.” He watched as Raphael moved away. With several quick movements he managed to seal both Shiro and Kuro back home in their scrolls and he rushed after Raphael offering to help him to the medic so they could both get checked out.

[Exit Thread]
WC: 566/2,716
B rank mission complete 2,500/2,500
Extra Ryo 50 200/200 words
Words Discarded 16