mission briefing:

An exhibition match was always something interesting for the populace of any village, but what was even more exciting was a fight between a known shinobi and someone completely unknown. It made the spectators desire for blood run high, their expectance for violence and cruelty reach its peak. After all, there weren't many shinobi who wouldn't want to show their dominance in the cruel and cold world they inhabited.

A day prior to the match, a duo of shinobi dressed in black and bearing only the crest of a silver colored coiled dragon or serpent arrived at the lodges where most of Kirigakure's security detail and the Mizukage's entourage would be staying. The two willingly surrendered their weapons simply to provide the members of the entourage with an opportunity to have an exhibition match during the next day.

They explained that the person they worked for; a woman going by the name Shirohebi wished to see what the Kirigakure forces stood for, what their pride and their strength had brought them and to this regard, the two also explained that their benefactor only wished to face someone of Jounin or higher level, preferably someone with great aptitude and talent as a shinobi. They relayed this message and the subsequent information on paper to any willing to take up this test, providing the additional information that the stage for this match would be the most dangerous of all the arenas: the Bridge arena.

As promised, the one who called herself Shirohebi would be awaiting her chosen opponent at the agreed venue, standing at the center of the bridge that had seen many matches so far, casually leaning against one of the beams which supported the central pagode.

The mysterious woman's entire head was covered by a black lacquered helmet, with it's dark and ominous appearance only hightened by the golden, smooth rebreather in the form of an enlarged snake's lower jaw attached to it. Her armor was black and shiny, with three silver chains running from her left shoulder to her straight up collar, a large silver crest similar to that of the two shinobi who had visited the kirigakure entourage the day prior embroided upon her back. The outfit was completed with two scalpels shethed on both sides of a the mysterious woman's waist, a black catsuit underneath the armor and black, high heeled knee-high boots with easily a dozen silver buckles on each.

The spectators cheered when the announcer showed himself upon the tribune above the bridge, her cheery voice booming through the multitude of speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, after some battles between genin of all sorts and all walks of life, we thought it to be most interesting to show you something more exciting," The kumo-nin raised her hands in the air and the crowd cheered and applauded loudly in response. "For this one time only, we'll see not genin, but the likes of jounin face off against each other in something you'd normally only see on the battlefield!!"

513/5000

As one of the foremost talents in terms of combat that Kirigakure had in attendance at the Chuunin Exams, it was only natural that Shirohebi's request would be met by Nozomi herself. She wasn't one to turn down a proper challenge, as she was always interested in fighting those who would be a potential challenge. She approached the bridge that was to be their battle stage, already having formulated a plan in her head, as she'd seen a few of the matches here and knew the gimmick of the bridge. The main problem was that she knew nothing about this Shirohebi person, and her skills as a fighter, but those would be revealed in time.

The blonde Jounin was wearing an altered version of Kirigakure's uniform, choosing not to reveal that she was a Hunter-nin by using her usual outfit. Her outfit consisted of a bound chest that was unable to be seen as it was the lowest level of clothing Nozomi had on. The next layer was the Camelio armor that she had taken from Syn. Over top that, she had on her ANBU armor, as it was quite a deal more compact than the armor of Kirigakure, and having it hidden under her clothes gave her an extra layer of defense that might lead her to victory. Over top the ANBU armor, Nozomi wore the black top of Kirigakure's jumpsuit, which was always longer on her than it needed to be. She had forgone the pants, leaving her legs exposed, only hidden by the bottom half of the Camelio suit, mainly because she didn't have any leg armor but didn't like to wear pants, and her feet were covered by simple boots. She had additional pouches strapped to her legs, belt line, and arms. Over top the jumpsuit, she wore her A rank Kirigakure Vest. To finish her outfit, she also had on her Kirigakure headband around her neck.

Her armaments were quite a bit more substantial, and although she was missing some of it due to them being stored in scrolls, she didn't rely on those weapons, and always had plenty on her to begin with. In two separate holsters on either side of Nozomi's hips were two basic Kunai that had Explosive tags wrapped around the handle. Her best Tanto was strapped behind her shoulder, also exposed and fully uncovered for quick draw time. It was a work of art, for certain. In her right hand, she held her best weapon, the Serpent's Tongue, one of the seven legendary blades of Kirigakure, a mark of her station. The weapon she'd chosen upon her becoming a Hunter-nin Captain, a beautiful work of Kirigakuran black smithery, was securely fastened to her left side. The Katana was one of the best weapons she had, and was a marvel of Kirigakure technology. Her Tanto was of similar make, but this was made so beautifully it almost seemed to cut through the air quicker than other weapons of similar style.

In addition to that, Nozomi has another A rank Katana strapped on to the same hip as her Kiri Katana. She is also carrying three scrolls on her, each containing a separate weapon: Her Windmill Shuriken, her A rank Kirigakure Yari, and her A rank Scythe Demon's Fang. She had all of her 51 E rank Senbon scattered throughout separate pouches and hidden pockets on her clothes. One of her pouches was exclusively filled with 20 Makabishi, conveniently on a rip away pouch so she could throw out the tiny weapons with little issue. Another pouch contained her 3 smoke canisters and her 10 Metsubishi. The rest of her shuriken and half of her kunai also were spread throughout the multiple pouches on her.

Viewing her opponent, Nozomi took her in, a frown on her face as she couldn't tell much by viewing her. The face was hidden by a helmet, reminiscent of a snake, which made sense, given the name of this Shirohebi. White Serpent. The white was interesting, given the black laquered helmet, but Nozomi wasn't one to judge. The name was a pseudonym of sorts, but that was neither here nor there. The woman liked a snake motif, and Nozomi would find out any related skills as their fight progressed, hopefully. Raising the weapon she had in her hand, one of the Seven Swords of the Mist, Serpent's Tongue, Nozomi held it in a readied stance, as the weapon soaked up some of her life force to renew their connection. Drawing her Superior Kirigakure Katana, she held the weapon in her left hand, the shorter Serpent's Tongue in blade mode in her right, and waited for the battle to start. "Good luck." was all she offered her opponent.

WC: 811/5000

Chakra: 290/290

Stats:

Spoiler:

Items used:

Spoiler:

Was it excitement, was it that drive that had seemingly been lost to her for so long? Lamya didn't exactly know, but just looking at her opponent being so decked out with weapons and armor that it just didn't seem feasible that she'd even be able to move properly, she still felt that hint of excitement and glee she had not felt in a long time, the very idea of facing someone strong being all she needed to finally get rid of the boredom which had befallen her for a long time.

She had been looking for something like this for a long time now, yet nothing had granted her the pleasure of truly letting go, not even the attack on Sunagakure was worth it, neither was her assault on the feudal palace of the Land of Wind. There was no challenge to be found, no feeling could compare to the idea of facing someone who at the very least would dare to struggle to the very end if need be. Yes, this was what she had been looking for for so long, the idea of finding something worth shedding blood for, something that might even force her to shed blood in the first place. "Good luck, hmm...no formal greeting, no introduction...how sad," The one called Shirohebi chuckled, the sound of her voice deepened and distorted by her rebreather and helmet, though nonetheless the hint of excitement could be heard in her voice. "Very well, miss Porcupine, let's make this something worth our time, shall we?"

Slowly, Lamya's hands rose upwards, revealing the fact that on the back of her fore-arms, there were a multitude of hooked spikes on top of a leather cover, which had been kept hidden as her arms had been held close to her body while leaning to one of the supportbeams of the pagode at the center of the bridge. Instantly, the woman made a single step forward, the heel of her right boot digging into the stones of the bridge like a knife would cut through butter, resulting in cracks forming in the ground.

Her restraints were now gone and as a show of appreciation towards this brave and unflinching jounin before her, Lamya decided to at the very least show the valiant opponent she was up against to have a taste of what she was truly up against, making this the second time she'd shown her true force in Kumogakure, which no doubt would probably get her some attention at some point, though for now she didn't care, simply willing to allow her opponent to know that the one called Shirohebi was NOT just a shinobi. A burst or air coarsed over the bridge when Lamya's chakra became visible and seemed to be almost palpable, the pressure and feeling of it being enough to suffocate most ordinary people and force them to their knees just by experiencing it, but she was certain that this jounin would merely acknowledge it, but not be entranced by it, since that would make this fight rather pointless.

When she finally allowed her enormous chakra to calm down and took on a more accessible stance, Lamya made a sign of challenge with one hand, accepting her current opponent as such. "I reckon in a situation such as this, you should be allowed to have the first strike," The woman laughed rather mockingly towards the Kirigakure Jounin. "After all, we both know I'm the superior one in this little exhibition match."

594/1107/5000

stats:

notes:

She had to admit, she hadn't expected a level of power quite like this from Shirohebi. Her display of raw chakra was, without a doubt, impressive. It was greater than what Nozomi could display, and her own chakra reserves weren't anything to laugh at. Lowering Serpent's Tongue slightly, a smile formed on the girl's face as she realized this would be a greater challenge than she had thought it would be.

The real interesting thing was this was an exhibition match, designed to entertain an audience, and not a match where either of them were particularly supposed to be at their peak performance, but nor were they supposed to go easy on each other. It would be a weird experience, having to fight without being lethal, but still performing well enough that the audience understood that Jounin were on a completely different level than the genin they had been watching throughout the exams. She could only hope that her opponent understood the same things.

"I underestimated you. Thank you for allowing me the chance to re-evaluate my place in this match." Nozomi conceded that she had misjudged the level of difficulty, acknowledging that Shirohebi was her superior in terms of reserves, but that didn't matter. She'd fought people on that level before, and she wasn't totally outclassed to the point of futility. With enough preparation and her on her top performance, she could still pull out a victory. This match operated on the same rules as the Chuunin Exams, meaning falling off the bridge would result in a loss, and the bridge would be collapsing more and more as the fight progressed. Her best chance in this match would be to force Shirohebi to fall off the bridge, rather than winning a straight up contest of power.

That said, it wasn't like she wasn't going to try. Launching forward towards Shirohebi, closing the gap between them in what most would consider an instant, Nozomi's Katana sang through the air, opening the match up with a diagonal slash that aimed to cleave Shirohebi from her right shoulder to her left hip. Serpent's Tongue meanwhile, was thrust forward towards her right leg. It was a basic maneuver, but one that would serve to start off their match well, and allow both of them to feel out the relative speed and strength of the other.

Her eyes were trained on her opponent, merely waiting to see how she'd react, so that they could exchange a little bit of back and forth. In most circumstances, if she was trying to actually kill an opponent, she was an unrelenting barrage of attacks, as she liked to overwhelm her opponent, but most of the time she wasn't trying to impress anyone. She didn't usually drag out fights for very long, but in this circumstance, she was actually forced to, otherwise the audience wouldn't be all that thrilled. It was annoying, but it let her pace herself a lot better than she was used to, which meant she'd enjoy the match more. Unless, of course, Shirohebi stepped up the pace and forced her to fight with greater intent to end the match.

WC: 545 / 1356 / 5000

Chakra: 290/290

Stats:
Strength : A-3 -> A-2 [Himitsu Clan Drawback]
Speed : A-3 -> S-1 [Taijutsu Buff]
Endurance : A-3
Perception : A-3 -> S Rank [Ace Eye]
Reaction Time : A-3 -> S Rank [Reflexes] -> S-1 [Superior Kirigakure Katana Strike]

It wasn't that Lamya's power when it came to pure, raw chakra was completely unheard of. There were still a few around her level, with some notable people being Osada Sero; the monster of Kirigakure, Sarutobi Mitsuo; the Sword Saint and perhaps a few others. However, having an equal amount of raw chakra did not make them all equal in actual prowess though and though the missing nin had seen at least one of those two aforementioned powerhouses in action, she was actually pretty sure that despite of her lack of actual offensive capbilities, she was not to be triffled with when taken into comparison. "Re-evaluate as much as you desire," The distorted voice resonated through the helmet, followed by a soft chuckle. "I'd say facing a member of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure is more than enough for me to know where I stand."

She could've shown herself already, but thought it was just more amusing to keep her true identity hidden for just a while longer, given there was no doubt that this jounin from Kirigakure; with its deeprooted connection to Konoha, must've at least seen or heard from the one standing before her. However for now, she was most content with keeping up the façade of being a more simple ronin or wanderer rather than revealing the wanted criminal behind the mask and what was more, her connection to probably one of the most powerful shinobi of the current age. Even Lamya knew that this so-called godlike Raikage had yet to face those who had long threaded over the treshold and had abandoned their humanity.

Keeping a close eye on the blades that were kept with the pointy end towards her, Lamya noticed the sudden shift in the young woman's weight and stance, betraying what would come next, as the jounin nearly seemed to teleport herself straight into the rogue shinobi's personal space. If this wasn't a fight she was participating in herself, Lamya would have applauded for such a display of raw speed, but now there was no time for applause or reverie, only an instant of time, a moment of reflection in which the powerhouse could formulate a proper response to the sudden change in pace.

A shock, a tremor of chakra went through her entire body when the mysterious shinobi used her own near perfect and practically automatic defense. Her arms, legs, torso and chest seemed to bulk up a bit in but a single flash, rendering the stabbing motion of the legendary blade from Kirigakure pointless, while the katana already had issues with the deceptively strong armor Lamya wore, the scales that had now formed underneath the armor simply made it sound as if the blade was scratching over a steel surface.

Even if her catsuit had been damaged a bit at her right leg, exposing, white scaly skin, Lamya remained unfazed and unmoved in her starting position, simply letting out a chuckle. "Now than, have we re-evaluated our position, or not yet?" Though she knew her raw speed was now suffering under the full weight of this combination of jutsu she was using, her reaction time and thus her actual battle speed had far from subsided and with the shinobi so close by, there was no way she'd give up on the opportunity to use one of her favorite old techniques a bit. "Let's try this, shall we?"

No handsigns were made, no warning was given, when all of a sudden; Lamya's hand rose upwards at an incredible pace, intending to touch Nozomi against her chest and send off a shockwave of violent wind chakra towards the younger jounin. It was indeed just an exhibition match, so in a way, there were much crueler and much more fun ways to explore now when it came to beating down an opponent.

653/1760/5000

Used Jutsu:
Hardening Snake Scales 1/3 posts
Snake Scale Armor 1/X posts
Surprise Shockwave

Chakra: 290/370

Stats:
Strength: S-3 -> SS-3 [Hardening Snake Scales]
Speed: S-3 -> SS [Agile] -> S-0 [Hardening snake scales, Snake Scale Armor]
Endurance: S-3 -> S-2 [Frail] -> S-3 [Snake Scale Armor]
Perception: S-3
Reaction Time: S-3 -> SS [Reflexes]

In a rather surprising move, her opponent had decided to forgo dodging her strikes, and instead took them head on. The armor was tough, as she had expected, but both weapons made it through to her lower layers. Unfortunately, thats where their progress stopped, the skin underneath proving to be quite a deal tougher than the overlaying armor. Her face would have formed into a frown if she hadn't expected that due to her opponent's lack of movement. Most of the time someone stood still, they either didn't see an attack coming, or were confident that they could withstand or mitigate any on coming damage without moving, and it looked like Shirohebi was the latter.

Her counter attack, if it could be called that, was swift, simply a hand placed on her chest, but Nozomi found herself launched backwards all the same. The attack hadn't hurt, really, but it did succeed in displacing her partway back on the bridge. As she landed, Nozomi tucked into a roll, ending up back on her feet nearly as soon as she landed. As she did so, the bridge started to crumble away on both of their sides, now only 10 meters wide in total, while Nozomi was left to wonder how she'd been launched back. Obviously that was some sort of jutsu, but she was surprised at the lack of impact it actually had behind it. Normally, she would have been injured substantially by something strong enough to launch her, but she understood why Shirohebi had done it. She was toying with her. That fact alone was enough to get on her nerves.

Nozomi was a Seven Swordswoman of the Mist. She was a high level jounin, stronger than most of Kirigakure's military individually. She was the left hand of the Mizukage, one of the strongest people in the world. A Hunter-nin Captain, prided in her ability as a combatant, able to take out Jounin without a sweat. She'd done so against Syn, a Jounin from Kumogakure, and she had been a deal weaker then than she was now. And this Shirohebi was arrogant enough to toy with her. It was almost enough to make her laugh. She was definitely being underestimated. Shirohebi was too proud of herself. Too sure of herself.

Nozomi sheathed her katana, realizing it was useless for the moment, unable to actually penetrate through her opponent's scales. If any of her weapons was going to do it, it was going to be Serpent's Tongue. None of her other weapons was actually strong enough to do so, as none of them had any abilities on their own. "Alright, I guess I can up the ante a bit." Nozomi said, the blade in her hand extending out into the whip form, as Nozomi twirled it in her hand, making it spin like a fan above her. Launching forward 4 meters, Nozomi let the whip extend out its full 3 meter length, and as it stretched to its fullest length, she activated the special ability of the whip.

The 20 segments disengaged and blasted forward towards Shirohebi's gut at a blazing speed of 60 meters per second. While the blade was still extending, but before it had launched the blades, Nozomi pulled the kunai from her left hip holster, sneakily priming it for launch, and launched the kunai at the same time as she launched the Serpent's Tongue segments, timed to reach Shirohebi at the same time as the blade segments would, although the kunai was aimed towards Shirohebi's left eye. Her skin may be harder to pierce, but the eyes usually weren't, and if she was distracted with the Serpent's Tongue, perhaps Nozomi could hit her eye through subversion. She didn't expect it to work though, most people on their level would just twitch their head out of the way. It would be a nice display for the crowd though, which was what she really cared about.

WC: 675/ 2031 / 5000

-25 Chakra for Serpent's Tongue ability ( also -1 debuff to your RT for the whip blade movement, not that it matters)
265/290

Stats:
Strength : A-3 -> A-2 [Himitsu Clan Drawback]
Speed : A-3 -> S-1 [Taijutsu Buff]
Endurance : A-3
Perception : A-3 -> S Rank [Ace Eye]
Reaction Time : A-3 -> S Rank [Reflexes] -> S-1 [Superior Kirigakure Katana Strike]

Just a push, that's all it was. A bit of pressurized air, a simple touch and the jounin was seen flying away for a few meters, it was at the very least a very lovely sight to watch. However, Lamya was still particularily wary about the weapons the woman was carrying, with most notably that only blade she seemed to be holding when putting away her katana. It seemed so familiar, as if she had read about it somewhere in the past or had seen something on it, but sadly, due to the large quantities of vast knowledge stored in the rogue shinobi's mind, it wasn't always as easy to access all of her memories so easily and thus she could only keep an eye on it and be mindfull of what it might or might not do.

"I see...I see, one of those seven swords, no?" Even if she could yet not remember the ability of it, she finally remembered the name and its status. Serpent's Tongue; she liked that name, but was still unaware of what ability it possessed, but the fact that it was here, in front of her, made her realize she wasn't dealing with an ordinary jounin. No, she was dealing with an artist, a bukijutsu user of the highest caliber and a high ranking member of kirigakure's society. However, did that really matter, did it matter how high one was ranked, if their presence was incomparable to Lamya's own, they were but vermin, insects waiting to be crushed beneath the full weight of her power. "Very well, I will comply...to your...hmm?" Behind the helmet's cover, the rogue shinobi's eyes widened when all of a sudden, the jounin used the blade she was holding almost as if it were a whip and to Lamya's amazement and amusement, that very blade broke up into a multitude of segments launched towards her at great speed. It was at the very least a most incredible sight to behold, even for someone who had already experienced quite a lot during the span of her own career as a shinobi, an ANBU and a rogue later on.

A single snap of her fingers resonated loudly at the very moment she saw the blade act as a whip, her other free hand raising towards the side of her helmet when the multitude of segments collided with a shimmering purple, see-through wall of chakra right in front of her, which vanished right after it had managed to stop the incoming segments in their track. Lamya let out a rather mocking chuckle, wagging her finger as a sign that that was not enough to make her buckle just yet.
"Now that we've established who you are...shall I grant you the courtesy of seeing my face?"

With a push of her finger upon the side of her helmet, the black upper part seemed to come loose a bit and slumped backwards, while the golden rebreather dropped down to her neck, revealing finally the face behind the Shirohebi Pseudonym.

Thin lips, pale white skin, long and silky smooth, jet black hair and two rather curious, boney protrusions on the revealed head marked the unveiling of the criminal usually known under a more well known pseudonym of Lamya. However, those were not her most distinctive feature, as that honor was bestowed upon the pair golden, snakelike eyes that completed her somewhat otherworldly looking visage. Yet despite their color, despite their strangeness, they had one thing that would make them almost unique... if it weren't for that One other person who had that same trait: her eyes were like a void, entrancing people and yet also giving them the chills. "Now than, shall we continue?"

With that being said, Lamya suddenly burst towards Nozomi, though currently perhaps not as fast as her opponent, it was still an incredible display of speed to cover the distance between them. As she rushed towards the jounin, her left hand grabbed for her Koketsu scalpel and lunged with it towards the hand holding the Serpent's Tongue. "Perhaps a more up and close approach would suit you better, don't you think?"

708/2468/5000

Used Jutsu:
Hardening Snake Scales 2/3 posts
Snake Scale Armor 2/X posts
ANBU Technique - Severing Void

Cooldowns:
Surprise Shockwave 1/3
ANBU Custom - Severing Void 0/3

Chakra: 260/370

Stats:
Strength: S-3 -> SS-3 [Hardening Snake Scales]
Speed: S-3 -> SS [Agile] -> S-0 [Hardening snake scales, Snake Scale Armor]
Endurance: S-3 -> S-2 [Frail] -> S-3 [Snake Scale Armor]
Perception: S-3
Reaction Time: S-3 -> SS [Reflexes]

Shirohebi was very astute, able to tell that Nozomi was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. That seemed to imply a certain sense of familiarity with their weapons. Not that it really mattered, knowing the sword didn't mean you knew the abilities it held. That did mean that she was someone with tie to Kirigakure. Perhaps a Konoha ninja. Nozomi wasn't sure who exactly she could be, though she seemed rather powerful, so that limited the amount of people it could be by a wide margin.

She summoned up a shield that was strong enough to stop the shards of the sword, and the kunai as well, although one was more consequential than the other. As fast as the shield appeared, it disappeared, the sword pieces having returned to Serpent's Tongue. The kunai clattered to the ground on the bridge in front of where the shield was, while Nozomi was left to curiosity. The shield was much the same as the ANBU barrier, although it was faster, stronger. This Shirohebi was an ANBU. That explained the mask, she wanted to hide her identity.

The mystery would solve itself though. Shirohebi showed her face, and Nozomi recognized the familiarity. The eyes, just like Enaka's. This wasn't an ANBU. It was a missing-nin, much like Enaka. This was Orochi Risu, the former ANBU known as Lamya. What was she doing here? It didn't matter, she didn't have a lot of time to really wonder about it, as Lamya sprung Nozomi's trap.

Even as Lamya moved forward, the kunai would explode, 3 seconds having passed since the kunai collided with the barrier, due to Lamya's small show of faith. She was fast, but the explosion would still catch her in the back. Coinciding with the bridge's collapse down to 5 meters, the kunai blew a hole into the middle of the bridge, one meter wide. Each of the remaining sides of that portion only 2 meters long.

The explosion would rock Lamya upwards, and towards Nozomi, interruptting the drawing of Koketsu, although the damage from the explosion might have been mitigated by her armor and snake scale jutsu. Even though the explosion was directly under her legs, point blank, it wouldn't blow off her legs, but she would sustain quite a bit of burns. Having already expected her to fall for the trap the moment that the shield came down, Nozomi released her grip on Serpent's Tongue, flipping through the seals for the Water Dragon Bullet as she stepped to the side a bit, aiming for Lamya who was still in the air.

From this distance, the dragon was sure to hit, it was large and moved fast, 35 meters per second, and they were at a distance of about 1 and a half due to the explosion. Nozomi wasn't aiming to deal a lot of damage, just to launch Lamya away from the bridge before she had a chance to regain composure from stepping on the explosion directly. Even mounting a defense would prove difficult, as the dragon would just push whatever defense she could manage as well, if it was airborne. The dragon would continue to knock her back 10 meters if it hit, well off the remainder of the bridge, which would constitute a win for Nozomi by exhibition rules.

Nozomi's plan had succeeded. Of course the most imminent threat had been her Serpent's Tongue ability, and so often was it that the most dangerous threat was the one focused on, that people didn't even stop to consider the other one. Nozomi had drawn one of her kunai from her hip holster, and she kept her explosive tags around the hilts of those ones. Since it had flown at eye level, the explosive tag had been hidden from her view, and was thus after ignored in favor of watching the seperating blades from the Serpent's Tongue.

WC: 648/ 2679/ 5000

B Rank: Water Dragon Bullet
Chakra: 245/290

Stats:
Strength : A-3 -> A-2 [Himitsu Clan Drawback]
Speed : A-3 -> S-1 [Taijutsu Buff]
Endurance : A-3
Perception : A-3 -> S Rank [Ace Eye]
Reaction Time : A-3 -> S Rank [Reflexes]

She rushed forward, her feet making barely two steps when the grin vanished from her face, a glint in the corner of her left eye. There was a spark, before she could say or do anything, Lamya suddenly became engulfed by an explosion which send her flying upwards, almost as if she had leapt into the air, yet she had no control over it and to make things worse, parts of her catsuit and boots were destroyed, burned away by the intense heat. Even so, her own physiology and the powerful state her body was currently in made it so she got off with minor second and first degree burns, hurting, distracting, but not fatal at the very least. She had been caught off guard by a mere jounin, a mere member of the seven swordsmen, that of all things was the worst part of it.

But the jounin had underestimated her, that much was certain. It was apparent that the child had not fought opponents stronger than herself yet, but Lamya had. Lamya had faced off against Senju Chisaki, she had faced off against Yuzu Ren and in a flash, she was instantly reminded about that one man that had managed to best her and humiliate her in such a fashion that it took her months and the help of a budding medical expert from the guanyin clan just to get back to her feet. The very thought of that made her grit her teeth and right as she noticed the handseals of the jounin, There was no time for a proper defense, but there WAS time for escape and escape was all she had to do for now.

Without a single handseal, without any warning or provocation, the rogue shinobi's body seemed to slim down a bit, her hands stretching out towards the edges of the bridge, as she swiftly pulled herself down with great effort, forcing her out of her original trajectory and landing somewhat brutish upon the already damaged bridge. Though even if she had managed to avoid the Water dragon bullet that now roared into the air, her legs had been damaged and her chakra was being depleted rather quickly. Her eyes showed a fury, an anger and a hatred she had for the shinobi of this world. This girl was trying to kill her, that much was certain, turning this from an exhibition match into a downright fight to the death, well at least that was what Lamya thought, as she wasn't sure if there were any proctors around to keep people from plunging to their deaths in this stage anyway. "You clever girl," Though furious, she had to compliment the woman's tactics, which almost seemed designed to handle someone like herself. "It's as if you already fought someone like me... such a strange occurance."

For now, Lamya decided that perhaps remaining on the defensive would be best, if it came to it, she'd easily win a war of attrition anyway, so perhaps that was exactly what she had to do: force her opponent into a situation where they HAD to use more and more chakra than her. Alas, making sure she was in perfect condition, was also important. So with a few handseals of heaven, ram and snake, the rogue shinobi's body suddenly seemed to be covered by a thin film of chakra charged water, allowing herself to get rid of the burns, but more importantly the pain of those burns. "Allright, what's next?"

588/3056/5000

Jutsu Used:
Hardening Snake Scales 3/3 ENDED
Snake Scale Armor 3/X
Soft Physique Manipulation
Mystic Water Veil 1/3

Cooldowns:
Surprise Shockwave 2/3
ANBU Custom - Severing Void 1/3
Hardening Snake Scales 0/8
Soft Physique manipulation 0/6

Chakra:210/370

Stats:
Strength: S-3
Speed: S-3 -> SS [Agile] -> S-2 [Snake Scale Armor]
Endurance: S-3 -> S-2 [Frail] -> S-3 [Snake Scale Armor]
Perception: S-3
Reaction Time: S-3 -> SS [Reflexes]

As the water dragon launched from her, Nozomi crouched down momentarily to pick up the Serpent's Tongue, which she locked back into sword mode. Her eyes focused on Lamya, who had managed to avoid the jutsu in the knick of time, but in doing so had smashed herself into the bridge rather unceremoniously. A small grin appeared on her face, as she realized that she had the missing-nin on the defensive. Sheathing the legendary blade in the sheathe on her back, Nozomi cracked her neck as she watched Lamya's next move, which was to surround herself in some sort of healing water. It reminded Nozomi of her Salamander Technique a little bit, although hers had a different purpose altogether.

Her statement brought back memories of her fight though, against Orochi Enaka. He was the most difficult solo fight she'd ever had, but even she had managed to surprise him, to injure him. Sure, he surpassed her ability, but she'd done a deal of damage on her own, and had she had back up, then perhaps they would have apprehended him. "You'll find, Risu, that so far, you're weaker than your uncle, Orochi Enaka. He was much more of a challenge for me, but I still damaged him and if I'd waited a little longer for reinforcements to be along, we would have apprehended him. That said, you have similar styles. But he was arrogant and full of himself, just like you, and you, just like him have proven that you can be hurt. You can be made to bleed, and that means you can be beaten."

Now that she knew who her opponent really was, she could use that to her advantage. The strange thing was, Nozomi had a nagging suspicion in the back of her head, that something wasn't quite right. Risu was a missing-nin of Konoha, but had actually challenged a Kirigakure specifically. She wasn't really fighting all that hard, it seemed more like she was feeling her out, gaining intelligence. She had questions, but those could wait until after the match. Nozomi was here to fight for amusement, not to bring the rogue ninja in. Not yet anyhow, she could do that later.

The bridge started to shake again as more of it fell away, and Nozomi shifted over to the center of the remaining chunk of bridge. almost 5 more meters sheered away, now down to nothing more than a 1/2 meter wide, with a meter long hole bisecting the two halves of the bridge, from where the explosive tag had exploded. It was plenty of space for her, smaller frame and all, and she knew Risu would be comfortable on that space as well. Or did she prefer to be called Lamya? Nozomi didn't know, and it didn't really matter for the moment.

Weaving through hand signs, Nozomi spat out raiton dragon from her mouth, which rolled into a ball, and started spinning towards Lamya. Even as it had finished, Nozomi jumped up and weaved the signs for another raiton dragon, although this one was a straight forward dragon, much like the water dragon. She aimed it a little up and past Lamya's current position, as in doing so, she could potentially land both jutsu. There wasn't going to be any dodging, and unless she used an A rank defensive, her dragon wheel would be able to deal with any defensive technique, and her Raiton dragon bullet could hit her if she jumped to avoid it, or if she backed up. Since the bridge was small enough, there was no side to side movement, and that meant that her opponent's options were limited. She followed up the Raiton dragon with a kunai launched 10 meters farther back from the dragon on the bridge, her other explosive tag kunai, primed with chakra as it left her hand.

If Lamya didn't move and defended the wheel, her Raiton Dragon would smash the bridge behind her, dropping the section she was standing on. Even if the dragon didn't do it, her explosive tag kunai would, dropping another section of the bridge as well. Regardless, Nozomi would move forward towards the edge of her section of the bridge, only moving a meter, as she landed, so that she was closer to Lamya to see what she'd do.

WC: 741/ 3420/ 5000

Jutsu Used:
Lightning Release: Dragon Wheel, Lightning Release: Dragon Missile
Chakra: 205/290

Stat: Same as before.

Anger, hatred, pain, suffering...

The jounin mocked her, a member of the seven swordsmen seemed to gleefully compare her to her own uncle. To make matters worse, she mentioned having fought the man himself, having survived him and having hurt him, something Lamya herself had not been able to do, a feat even Senju Sousetsu had not been able to do. However, the snakelike rogue's scowl swiftly turned into a grin when she thought about it. Her uncle never did anything without a reason and perhaps she was seeing it now as well, the jounin certainly had potential, but it seemed she also had an arrogance that was quite astonishing. "How cute, mentioning my uncle just to try and put me off, just to try and get underneath my skin and pry for possible weaknesses," The woman once known as Orochi Risu; the White Snake's second coming simply laughed out loud. "You say you survived Him...but the question is, did he truly use all the power at his disposal? And in that same direction, do you really think I am?"

With the final and possibly largest part of the bridge now collapsing and dropping into the depths below, Lamya carefully treaded backwards tapping her feet on the stone surface just to find where there was the least resistance in the bridge and to mark those places as the bridge's support columns, yet it wasn't like she had much time to do so, not with the woman in front of her readying another barrage of attacks which quite frankly were a perfect match on the terrain they were at; with a dragon made out of lightning turning into a thundering wheel rolling towards the rogue shinobi and a massive electrical dragon similar to the known Dragon bullet technique coarsing through the air towards her. However, unlike before, the rogue shinobi did pay attention to the minute details, noticing the kunai being thrown yet again. "Tsk, I've had enough of this rubbish," Inhaling deeply, Lamya suddenly made the Yin sign, exhaling calmly, only to have the air she expelled become a violent torrent of wind rushing towards the two jutsu that came her way. If this swordswomen thought she'd be able to beat the snakelike rogue with some mere parlor tricks, this was the time to wake her up from her rather arrogant dream. "I've had it with this,
time to end this farçe."

Jumping backwards, the Rogue shinobi made another single handseal, with a perfect clone of herself just 'poofing' into existence. "You know what to do, clone!!" The real one yelled, when having made a few quick jumps backwards and having made the yin, rat, tiger and snake handseals. By slamming her hands together, a shimmering globe of chakra appeared, which seemed to be layered with luminous, see-through scales. "Let's see how you deal with this."

The clone in the meantime smiled and slammed her hands together as well, instantly turning her hair into what looked like a slithering pack of silver snakes, just like her eyes seemed to turn silver as well and with a grin on her face, the clone's hair grew instantly, envelopping the entire body and growing even more. As the clone vanished into what seemed to be a mass of flesh, the bridge for the most part started to strain and buckle under it's immense weight and when the strange jutsu it used finally revealed itself in its true glory, a massive tail wrapped itself around the support pillar below, while a section of the bridge crumbled and fell to the depths below.

With a loud hiss, the now gigantic beast announced its terrifying presence, making it obvious that this was not a joke, but it also seemed to evoke screams of fear and despair from within the croud, more importantly among the refugees hailing from Sunagakure...

"It's the beast, it's the serpent that razed the administration building!!" was one of the loudest screams among the populace in the tribunes.

With a menacing hiss, one of the heads suddenly lashed out towards Nozomi with the intent to maul her with its massive fangs and immense power...

706/3762/5000

Jutsu used Real One:
Snake Scale Armor 4/X ENDED
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
White Snake Technique-Divine Serpent's Protection X/X
Wind release- Kamaitachi no jutsu

Jutsu used by clone:
Sage mode ENDED
Yamata no orochi

Cooldowns:
Surprise Shockwave 3/3 complete
ANBU Custom - Severing Void 2/3
Hardening Snake Scales 1/8
Soft Physique manipulation 1/6
Kamaitachi no Jutsu: 0/5

Chakra Real One:
58/370

Chakra Clone:
37/87

Stats:
Strength: S-3
Speed: S-3 -> SS [Agile]
Endurance: S-3 -> S-2 [Frail]
Perception: S-3
Reaction Time: S-3 -> SS [Reflexes]

Stats Clone:
S-3 across the board (also in Yamata form)

Of course, Nozomi hadn't fooled herself to thinking that Enaka had used all of his power against her, but she had still damaged him, which was a feat in and of itself. Still, she didn't really have time to respond, as the match was about to resume. Lamya had a response for her attack combination, something that Nozomi had expected, but she did have to admit that she was annoyed that she'd just wasted the chakra on her techniques, as well as her final explosive tag. She made a note that she'd need to pick up more explosive tags, and start carrying a larger number of them on her. They were a good way to keep up on high levels of chakra, instead of burning out using a large amount of techniques.

Still, that was a good show of Lamya's abilities. At the very least, she had Fuuton, as she had used a high level technique to counter her raiton dragons. She'd more than likely need to stick to using her elementalless techniques, so that she wouldn't have poor matchups in power. It wasn't that big of a deal, she didn't have many ranged attacks that were above B rank that were also some element.

She followed up with making a clone, but the clone didn't stay around for very long, as it started to transform. Instantly, Nozomi was put on guard again as the clone started to grow. Lamya herself stepped back to let Nozomi deal with this new threat, surrounding herself with some form of powerful barrier that would keep her protected against any form of damage for the time being. Nozomi's first thought was to fight Lamya herself, as damaging her enough would cause the clone to dissipate, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to break through the defensive barrier without great strain.

Besides, the creature kept growing. And as it kept growing, Nozomi wasn't even sure she'd be able to attack around it. She launched herself backwards as it was growing, so she wasn't smashed as it grew. As it stopped, she had a full view of the creature, and it was massive. "Jeez, you're just like Ayakashi and Bao. I need one of these transformations for myself." she muttered under her breath.

Now the real question was to figure out how the heck to deal with this sort of enemy. She wasn't sure that hitting it with a powerful jutsu would deal with it very well. However, she had an idea, similar to the way she had been choosing to deal with Lamya. If she couldn't kill the creature, she'd take out the bridge and drop it. They were very high up, and the fall alone would be enough to take out the creature, at least from the match as it stands. She'd done her job, their fight was quite the exhibition. People would be talking about it. Now she needed to prove Kiri's superiority.

Holding her hands up, Nozomi launched a wave of petals from her hands as one of the serpent's heads came lancing down towards her. She had to try and take out the creature, of course, and she was completely fine with using lethal force against this one, considering it wasn't just an opponent anymore. This creature could kill her. Lamya had stepped up the danger of the match. She'd also been ousted as the one who attacked the administration building in Sunagakure. And since she was also a criminal known to the world, Nozomi's job was to take her down in any way she could.

The head would lash into the petal wave, obliterating itself into a sea of blood, splashing back towards her, showering her with blood as the petals ate through it, and her wave continued onwards towards the rest of the creature, really one of the only offensive things she had to combat the Yamata no Orochi.

WC: 680/ 4100/ 5000


-30 Petal Storm of the Mist (S rank)
Chakra:175/290

Stats: Same as before

Born ill: 5/8

"It's the beast, it's the serpent that razed the administration building!!"

Hastur would lean forward in his chair, eyes widening as the cry from the crowd member would attract the attention of himself, the other Kage and the entire stadium which would erupt in an uproar. The Mizukage would have almost leaped out of her seat ready to draw her blade as well as her men, but she would have instantly alerted the ire of Hastur who would stare directly into her soul with eyes like daggers of the sharpest of edges.

"Lady Mizukage, one would think you don't trust your ninja to win. It's getting exciting... anyone who interrupts will face my ire. If you must, consider this the snakes trial, done by combat. Either way, it is protected by my divine law."

Hastur would smile devilishly, as a spark in his wide-open eyes would continue to look down on the brutal event from the VIP grandstands. The battle nearing its climax!

---

• OOC: This battle, in light of revelations, is now considered an S rank Major plot mission, and will instead award 10 EP as well as the normal Ryo count for an S rank mission. Feel free to play this out beyond the ending of the physical fight, there will be implications for the victor. Enjoy
  

Pure chaos, that was what this match had devolved into, with the crowd either crying out in fear and rushing to either get away as quickly as possible in the case of the Suna refugees or trying to get a better look at the whole match by clambering more and more to the front. The very sight of such an awe inspiring beast was enough to not only turn the tide of this exhibition match, but also to evoke something from the people that which even the presence of so many kage seemed to lack: dread. It was a display of force, determination, resilience and also anger. Despite the fact that the real Lamya had retreated behind the safety of her barrier and had let go of all her frustration simply by breathing calmly and sitting down atop the thin surface of the bridge's remaining width, the massive, eight headed beast had seemingly taken all her hatred, all her frustration and anger upon itself, letting out an intimidating hiss in the process.

Yet it seemed that even the enormous snake was not yet enough to deter the jounin hailing from Kirigakure, in fact the appearance of the very beast only seemed to entice the woman even more. Rather than cowering in fear and relinquishing the fight, she only seemed more willing to finally show what true power she possessed and in all honesty, the rogue shinobi was quite impressed. It wasn't something she witnessed every day from the comfort of her meditational position: the sight of one of her Yamata no Orochi's heads bursting into shreds and a wave of blood washing over the bridge. If Lamya was even but a bit less attuned to her own senses, she'd have missed it, not to mention the fact that the massive snake more or less blocked most of the view didn't help either. Yet she was still certain, certain of this turning into a victory for herself, for even if the kiri-nin would do the near impossible and would defeat her transformed clone, she'd still have to deal with Lamya's near-impregnable barrier and within that... the White Snake herself.

"Hmm...so much noise," The snakelike woman sighed and opened her eyes for a moment, seemed like everything was still fine, just some ruckus at the stands, but Lamya kind of expected something like that, it was a most unfortunate thing to have herself exposed so soon, but not something to really worry about. "All in due time, all in due time."

When one of its heads and consequently half of the neck of one of the huge snake exploded in a rain of blood and shreds of flesh, it let out a loud, intimidating hiss, swaying it's heads a bit backwards and spreading out the seven remaining heads a bit. No matter how massive and powerful it was, it realized that the shinobi in front of it meant business and was not going to be an easy prey. Calmly, the creature assessed the situation, letting out a multitude of deep rumbling sounds coming from within its massive belly, flaring its many nostrils and flicking its many tongues.

Then, all of a sudden, without warning or hesitation, two heads moved towards Nozomi, one trying to strike from the left, the other from the right, opening their maws and ready to bite down upon the shinobi. However at the same time, one of the remaining heads seemed to decide that going from below was the best option, clamping down its maw towards the thin bridge and ofcourse the kiri-nin standing on top of it.

612/4374/5000

Active Jutsu Real One:
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
White Snake Technique-Divine Serpent's Protection X/X
Meditation (+20/turn)

Active Jutsu Clone:
Yamata No Orochi X/X

Chakra RO: 78/370
Chakra Clone: 37/87

Cooldown:

ANBU Custom - Severing Void 3/3 complete
Hardening Snake Scales 2/8
Soft Physique manipulation 2/6
Kamaitachi no Jutsu: 1/5

Stats RO:
Same as Before

Stats Clone:
S-3 all stats

The match seemed to be heating up even further, with Hastur's proclamation, although Nozomi was so engrossed by her fight that she wasn't even paying any attention to the stands. She didn't really need to, and she had a cursory amount of her focus towards them, but that was more so she didn't leave herself open to any sort of sneak attack, rather than any vested interest in what was going on over there.

No, her focus was directly on the menace in front of her, but in the restricted narrow passage that was the bridge, there was nowhere for the snake to avoid her barrage of petals, the wave washing over the serpent's upper half as it made no move to avoid them. Even though it had moved its heads partially apart, none of them had really moved out of the path of the wave of petals, at least not before the petals already started their work.

First, though, they wasted precious time hissing and snorting, only moving minimally backwards, spreading out slightly, and then continued to make rumbling sounds from its belly, flaring their nostrils, and flicking their tongues. The mistake had already been made, and there was not much more it could do from there. The petal wave was massive, expanding out from Nozomi's hand, almost filling up the entirety of its radius, a 25 meter. Even though the heads could move out of the range of her petals by about 5 meters, the one thing that couldn't escape their endless onslaught was the neck stalks. Due to the precious time wasted due to the surprise of the head being consumed by the thousands of blades, Nozomi's blades ate through the neck stalks, detaching them from the main body of the Serpent, which would start to fall off the bridge, dead before it could prove to be any form of a challenge, Nozomi not one to let a creature like that show off its true potential. There was having fun with a match and testing yourself in a fight, and then there was suicide, and Nozomi was not suicidal.

Nozomi hadn't wasted any of her time, having begun dashing forward along the bridge, her petals proceeding her, racing towards the barrier, and slamming into it with incredibly violent force, although they exhausted themselves, shaving themselves into oblivion against the powerful defense, which, even more incredibly still stood for the moment. However, unless Lamya could sense her from behind the barrier, and could sense through her ANBU armor, she'd have no clue that Nozomi while dashing forward had activated her Salamander Technique, her body coated with suiton chakra, and as she charged towards the nigh impenetrable barrier, brought forward one of her hands towards a crack she'd made in the barrier with her Petal Storm Technique. The other hand once again held Serpent Tongue, having drawn it through her charge forward.

As soon as her hand made contact, she channeled Raiton chakra through it, utilizing her Lightning Execution Technique on the barrier, which was boosted by her Salamander technique to a power that rivaled the power of even some of the most powerful techniques. In short, she created a hole in the barrier, which started to splinter from that area, shattering as Nozomi's momentum brought her charging through the weakness, the shatter pattern spiderwebbing through the entirety of the structure.

In a final show of her power, Nozomi thrust Serpent Tongue forward once again, launching the segments of the blade towards Lamya, assuming she was within range of the segments, which if Lamya hadn't moved, she would be within 10 meters of Nozomi's makeshift door. The 20 segments of the blade would form themselves in a path along the bridge in such a manner that dodging them while staying on the bridge would prove to be impossible. Her only option would be to exit the bridge, or to waste chakra blocking them again. Or, she'd be impaled upon the fast moving blades. "You lose."

WC: 681/ 4781/ 5000

-10 Maintenance, Petal Storm of the Mist
-25 Activation, Salamander Technique
-25 Activation, Lightning Execution
-25 Activation, Serpent's Tongue ability

Chakra: 90/290

Stats: Same as before

Born-ill: 6/8

It almost seemed as if there was no opposition for the mighty beast, yet at the very moment it had decided to attack, the jounin in front of it suddenly managed to not only shred through the three attacking heads again, but even reach the rest of the heads and necks of the beast, rendering it headless and thus inactive while showering the arena in a pool of blood and scales. However, as the jounin passed, these scales and blood evaporated, just like how the seeming corpse of the beast slid away into the depths below, Lamya's clone had emerged from the body in a tired and slightly dazed state with all it could think about in its anger being to retaliate for the pain she'd caused her in her Yamata no Orochi form.

As Nozomi made her way to the barrier surrounding the real Lamya, the clone checked its position from the support pylon and felt it couldn't hold on much longer, holding on to whatever remains were left of the top of the bridge just with sheer willpower and her still impressive physical strength. In a last ditch attempt, the clone suddenly latched off of her holding and made some swift handseals as she started to drop, throwing half a dozen of sharp, sickle formed projectiles towards Nozomi's last position with the intent to either cut up the bridge from underneath her or simply get rid of the jounin alltogether. After that, the clone simply closed its eyes and vanished into the depths, where a 'poof' sound, marked its end.

Lamya herself in the meantime had managed to stand up again when she noticed the crack in her barrier, feeling both a hint of surprise that someone would actually try and perhaps even succeed at breaking through it, whil also feeling the same anger she felt before, frustrated greatly by the kiri-nin's incessant persistence. "You really don't know when to quit, do you?" Keeping her arms in front of her when her barrier broke down into pieces, vanishing into nothingness, the rogue shinobi could instantly notice that the jounin had yet again been wielding that blade again and though she was fairly certain those segments were not what broke down her barrier, after having seen the blade in action once, she wasn't going to just ignore it when it was in sight.

And it appeared she was right to be wary of the blade, as in an instant, the kiri nin yet again utilized the blade's powerful ability, launching off all those segments towards Lamya and thus endangering her with a multitude of projectiles again. Yet, Lamya simply grinned when noticing the clone that dropped down from the support pylon and with just a flick another of those purple colored barriers appeared in front of her, forcing the rogue shinobi to grin when her barrier yet again stopped the Serpent's tongue's segments in its tracks and in doing so, her free hand when behind her back, reaching for a few kunai, which she threw towards Nozomi's exposed legs while the barrier vanished again. "You're a bit to arrogant to call this a win already."

539/4913/5000

Used/Active Jutsu Lamya:
ANBU custom - Severing Void

Used/Active jutsu clone:
Water release- Slash technique A rank (no boost)

Chakra Lamya: 58/370
Chakra clone, prior to fall: 12/87

Items used:
Kunai x 3

Stats:
unchanged

Nozomi's attention snapped back towards the clone, as she heard a brief struggle to hold onto the bridge, before she released herself. It was perhaps a good thing that her training had attuned her senses to their degree, because otherwise she might have been unable to respond to her counter attack. She didn't really have much time to plan how to dodge, she was still fast approaching the barrier, about to smash into it, so she did the first thing that popped into her head. She had to waste more chakra to block it, which was sure to count as a win to Lamya, who would know she was running low at this point.

Shoving back her free hand, more petals issued out behind her, forming a petal barrier behind her back. The sickles smashed into the petals, and the two techniques clashed, Nozomi's petals mimmicking the sickle-like water slices. Nozomi had already moved forward though, continuing her previous actions, parts of the bridge behind her having fallen away with the damage her clone's jutsu had done. There was no turning back now, and only Lamya would meet her ahead. It's time for their match to actually come to an end now, for one of them to win.

Nozomi frowned as another barrier popped up and blocked her Serpent's Tongue's blade again. The blades returned to her sword, and it locked back into sword mode. "Arrogant, maybe, but I don't lose fights often for a reason. My arrogance is well earned." Sheathing the blade once more, Nozomi shifted into one of her family's Taijutsu stances, this one of which was fairly close to that of the Hyuuga Clan's Gentle Fist.

Nozomi's mouth grimaced again as the kunai hit her legs while she was sheathing her sword, but it hadn't actually been all that difficult to ignore, the kunai hadn't hit anything vital on her, and they weren't very difficult to ignore. She could deal with a little bit of damage, the fight wasn't going to last that much longer, and she'd heal up soon enough. No, whatever happened here, she was going to be running out of steam soon, she could feel her chakra illness creeping up. She wouldn't be able to fight for long while it was bothering her. It hadn't been an issue for a long time, but she'd been pushing herself very far this fight.

She only really had enough in her for a few more jutsu in her. She only had about one more real attack left in her, and so she released one last burst of chakra from her back, launching her forward, while at the same time having pushed herself off from the ground, launching her partially up into the air, slightly above Lamya, displaced to the side slightly.

Her palm moved towards the side of Lamya's head, helping her to sell the ruse that she was going to try and punch her off the bridge, but as she would level with Lamya, a 15 meter wide barrier would form from her, keyed in to only Nozomi's chakra signature. It would expand out at an incredibly fast rate, which, on the bridge at melee range would be almost unavoidable. It wouldn't do any damage, but it would launch Lamya off the bridge if it hit, only stopping expanding 7 and a half meters out.

WC: 586/ 5367/ 5000

-20 Cascading Defense: Petal Reflection
-15 Petal Propulsion
-25 Ward of Dawn
Chakra: 30/290

Stats: Unchanged

Born-ill: 7/8

"Well, let me tell you that you've at the very least showed you had more potential than I had given you credit for," Lamya's tone of voice was calm and actually surprisingly gentle when she replied to Nozomi's comment, even going so far as to show a genuine smile at the younger, but certainly not inexperienced jounin hailing from Kirigakure. "I can see now why you survived my uncle...even if it might not have been him utilizing his full power, you no doubt had the same effect on him as you do have on me."

As Lamya's eyes followed the jounin's movements, she remained calm, collected and more importantly: extremely observant of the situation. She couldn't risk much now, not after boldly revealing herself as one of the main drives behind sunagakure's downfall and also in a more pressing matter: simply because she already felt exhaustion and fatigue creeping up. Her chakra reserves were running low, something she had not felt in quite a while, which made her actually feel more alive than she had felt in quite a while despite the fact that she was almost at the end of her rope here.

Seeing as the younger jounin suddenly took a rather familiar stance, the rogue shinobi braced herself. The younger woman had already shown that she was quite handy with weapons and her movements of before had already betrayed an aptitude for either medical ninjutsu or even taijutsu. Lamya just could not risk any fights or struggles that could disrupt her or even overpower her, so rather than taking whatever the jounin would throw at her head on, she decided to do otherwise.

When Nozomi made her move, launching herself into the air, the missing nin wasted no time and started weaving the two handseals of heaven and tiger, already feeling the wind around her form and the airpressure drop when the opposing jounin neared her, yet when Nozomi seemingly threw her hand towards her and something formed, Lamya's reaction was probably at the same speed as Nozomi's own creation, forcing herself to dart backwards over the thin bridge at a practically impossible to comprehend speed.

Despite the fact that the bridge was now no wider than half a meter, the rogue shinobi's inctinct and acute senses would make sure she'd remain on her backwards path, which was aided greatly by the speedboost she'd gotten by her own propulsion-like jutsu, which envelopped her like a gale of wind and lowered the air pressure around her, allowing her greater feats of speed than normal. Within the blink of an eye, she'd have easily traversed to the very edge of the bridge and thus the arena, where she nearly dropped to on knee and looked at the opponent with great interest. "So the plan was to knock me off of the bridge with a barrier? Inventive, that I'd have to admit."

497/5410/5000

Used/Active Jutsu Lamya:
Wind Style-High Velocity

Cooldown:
Water release- Slash technique A rank (no boost)
ANBU custom - Severing Void 1/3

Chakra Lamya: 33/370


Items used:
-

Stats:
unchanged

Extra Notes: Actual speed of Lamya during dodge: 56-68m/s

Nozomi swore under her breathe as Lamya managed to outspeed her jutsu by the tiniest bit, continuing on backwards until she was at the very edge of the bridge. She had been sure that she was going to get her that time, but the criminal had once again managed to narrowly avoid losing. Nozomi herself cancelled the barrier as soon as she realized it wouldn't reach her, no point in wasting the chakra to maintain it. After all, she was running dangerously low, she probably couldn't even use one of her A rank techniques anymore. Even a B rank would deplete her to utter exhaustion. Interestingly enough though, Lamya seemed to be running on empty just the same.

Landing heavily down on the bridge, Nozomi stabilized herself as she stumbled slightly, barely caught on the edge of it. Her forward momentum was enough to keep her on the bridge. She had one more idea that she could think of, but she was starting to feel the effects of her illness, something that really only bothered her during times of intense strain. This obviously counted as one of those times, she'd been fighting longer than she usually did, most of her fights had ended by this point, nor did they usually push her quite so far. She had to admit, Lamya was certainly strong. It was no wonder she was an S rank missing-nin. She was dangerous.

But Nozomi was still concious, still in the fight, and still had chakra and stamina left to spare. She watched as Lamya stood at a distance, barely stopping from collapsing to a knee. Nozomi's breathing was hard, but she bounded forward, grabbing two handfuls of shuriken in her first step, and launched them towards Lamya after she'd closed more than half the distance, nowhere for Lamya to retreat without exitting the arena and forfeiting the match. She wouldn't stop her onslaught towards the Jounin either, continuing to grab handfuls of whatever items she had to do so. 4 Shuriken in each hand per launch, as fast as she could muster. She didn't need to worry about Lamya dodging too much on this bridge, it was hard to do so. She had nowhere left to run. She was low on chakra.

Within 6 handfuls launched, Nozomi had mostly depleted her shuriken supply, but she continued onwards with the 30 kunai she had left, grabbing them by the handful, launching them at a rate of 3 per handful, 10 staggered launches towards Lamya. A steady advance forward as Nozomi moved, edging closer to Lamya, ready for whatever she tried to do next. She would have, of course, stopped her onslaught if it looked like Lamya was about to do something else, prepared for her one last attempt to win, but otherwise would have continued to launch the weapons at Lamya, moving on to her senbon, which she could grab more of than any of the rest, each handful consisting of 5 needles each, 10 more launching towards her. Throughout it all, Nozomi had launched her weapons towards weak points in Lamya's armor, anything uncovered, the gashes she'd made in it with her explosive kunai, or her earlier katana strike and Serpent's Tongue strike giving her more targets.

Even still, she closed the distance further, at a slower and steadier pace, giving herself more time to catch her breath. Her arms felt heavy, her body wanted to crumple to the floor, but she was still in fight mode, and could still push on. She wasn't going to lose. There was no way she would let it happen.

While she walked forwards, she spoke, addressing Lamya, still throwing her shuriken at this point. "I survive by being inventive. I survive by perseverance. I survive by sheer will to push myself forward. Again, I'll say it. You lose. Give up." she said, at this point having thrown her last senbon. Her thoughts shifted to Sero and Ayakashi, both powerful shinobi who would have ended the match quite a bit ago. Ayakashi was overwhelmingly powerful, and Sero was optimized to take down people like Lamya. Nozomi could do it, but her skills were a bit lower than Sero's at the moment as well, and having to maintain a distance due to her physical inferiority had limited her usual fighting ability. Sero was a distance fighter, Nozomi was a melee fighter, but she'd had to deal with this match so far away in order to not lose outright. She couldn't help but feel that they would have been proud of her for this match.

She hadn't been able to do quite as much on showcasing her talents during the fight with Bao, but Nozomi was a duelist, and couldn't fight as well with backup as she could when she had to worry about partners.

WC: 824/ 6191/ 5000

Chakra: 30/290

Born Ill: 8/8

Stats:

Strength : A-3-> A-2 [Himitsu Drawback] -> A-1 [Born Ill]
Speed : A-3 -> S-1 [Taijutsu] -> S-0 [Born Ill]
Endurance : A-3
Perception : A-3 -> S-0 [Ace Eye]
Reaction Time : A-3 -> S-0 [Reflexes]

OOC: As Lamya stated in a message to me after her post, we both have jutsu that lower our chakra pools by 10, although I have accounted for mine alread (hence, 290 chakra instead of 300)
However, this means she actually has 360 instead of 370, which gives her a total of 23 chakra remaining. Just in case we forget again.

"Give up...hmm?" The snakelike missing nin felt she had nothing to do anymore, she'd expended so much of her chakra that the best course of action at this point, was to at the very least make sure she'd get out of Kumogakure as soon as possible and as inconspicuous as possible. It wouldn't be hard, given the hidden village was so crowded with the chuunin exams having come to a close and everyone now partying and enjoying the festivals that signified the end of a succesful event. However, for now...the worry for Lamya, was how she'd do it, how she'd get out of that place without making too much of a fuss. "Well, I have to admit that I underestimated you."

Raising her helmet and covering her face again, the rogue shinobi unsheathed one scalpel; the Junketsu, which was a strange black blade which emanated with a certain dark and terrifying gloom that one could easily mistake it for being a cursed object. In her other hand, she held a few senbon and when Nozomi started to throw an entire arsenal's worth of projectiles towards Lamya, the rogue shinobi simply used the senbon to displace a few of the incoming shurikens, while doing her best to try and deflect those that would hit more vital areas with her scalpel.

With her chest, torso, her shoulders, neck, head and forearms protected by decent and superior armor, her worries were mostly her legs and feet, forcing her to crouch down to at the very least make herself a smaller target and thus grant her thighs more protection. Yet keeping low didn't shield her entirely and after she'd gone through all her senbon, she had to unsheath her Koketsu to try and deflect as many senbon and kunai coming her way to at the very least not be hurt too hard.

Shurikens scratched and racked at her helmet, snugged her armor and started to rip anything to shreds that wasn't armored. She could feel kunai nicking her flesh and two or three actually managed to get stuck in her upper arms, making it very uncomfotable to just raise them, but due to her near perfect physique, acute senses and impressive level of endurance, she ended up looking mostly like someone who'd had been in the vicinity of a needle trap in or kunai trap in Konoha's forest of death. With her shins bloodied, her upper arms having a few kunai sticking out of them and her breath shallow and ragged, it was obvious she was at the end of her wits.

She had seriously made some mistakes, lacking a certain degree of finesse in her arsenal of jutsu and picking a fight with someone who was superior on offense and agility wasn't exactly smart with the area she had picked. Cursing herself, lamya stood up again and remained silent for a while, pulling the kunai out of her arms and tossing them into the depths beneath the bridge, except for two of them. Putting her scalpels back where they belonged, she reached for the basic scalpel that was left in her pouch and held that one alongside the two kunai in her left hand. "If this was any other terrain, you wouldn't have stood a chance, but I must admit that you are dangerous, much to dangerous to be left alive...alas, you and I know that we're both at the end of our rope and that killing one another would be something for another place and another time," Throwing the kunai towards Nozomi, followed by the scalpel, Lamya laughed and made a single handsign. "I hope you will be the one to hunt me down, it was fun and I'd hate to see you waste your talents on lesser foes." With that being said, the rogue shinobi jumped off of the bridge, suddenly vanishing in a shimmer.

662/6072/5000 completed mission

Jutsu used:

Body Flicker

Chakra: 13/360

Ayakashi as she watched the match as it came to an end would be watching both it, and Hastur for any signs of its end, as soon as Lamya gave in, she would look to him for approval to apprehend her, as she activated her body flicker ability to flee the scene, though even with such an escape, she was weak, wounded and almost out of chakra... tracking her, for the most part, would be easy... Catching up with her would be difficult. Hastur would give the nod, there was no doubt, and Ayakashi would order from her entourage, two hunter squads, including the lethal Alpha squad, Ayakashi's personal retinue, after the rogue ninja. The battle had been epic in scope, Aya, however, would not move to give chase, instead, she would run to Nozomi's side, landing in a flicker as she would place a hand on her shoulder. Speaking in a light voice she would offer aid, calling over the medical ninja who had been waiting on standby to check her out and escort her to the med-bay

"Well done Nozomi, you were amazing, now, let's get you looked at... shall we?"

And with that, without much of a choice in the matter, Ayakashi would move to lead her prized ninja out from the battlefield as cheers would erupt from the Sunagakure crowd...

[exit.]

Hastur applauded the battle openly, it seemed that the Kirigakure ninja had an advantage in this match that the grandiose Lamya was not able to keep up with... as the Mizukage's eyes begged Hastur to allow for the pursuit of the serpentine witch, Hastur would agree, sending some of the seized Sunagakure Red Sands after her in toe dressed in the golden raiments of his nation. The crowd would cheer as the ninja would vanish, activating their own Body Flickers in chase of her, hoping to catch up at some point in the near future. the Raikage could not help but feel a little disappointed from the woman who was said to have aided in the destruction of the Sand nation, though perhaps... there was something he was missing about her... there was a power there, Hastur's golden eyes shimmered with the strength of an unknown Sensory skill as the light within them dimmed to normal. Potential lay in the woman, to a dangerous level... should the scales have tilted in the other direction, she would have received sanctuary with his other asset that he had procured.


As ninja were sent out to capture her, he would give those in communication with them a simple order. 'I want her brought to me...' He would speak in proud open tones as he would swivel off his throne and strode out of the arena moving for where the finals were to be held. It was an entertaining day in Kumogakure, Hastur could only hope that this was but the first of great things to come...

---

Well played you two! Lamya has officially lost her trial by combat, and is now being actively hunted in Kumogakure, a ninja on the run, publicly known by many from all nations in attendance! Public enemy no.1. With Mitsuo Sarutobi forgiven and within the ranks of Kumogakure, the crime of the destruction of Sunagakure has largely fallen on Lamyas' head, creating a 10k ryo bounty to the person who can bring her in alive for trial to a Kage; be it Hastur, Ayakashi or Rippa! Additionally, the threads in which she is successfully captured and brought in for trial will be considered another 'major' S rank plot thread!

~Enjoy your EP and Ryo!

Nozomi's arms moved up in a small little windmill blur of speed as the scalpel and kunai came soaring at her, and she struck them from the side, knocking them away from her off the sides of the bridge. She grabbed the hilt of her tanto, which was still over her shoulder, waiting for the final round of this bout, but it wasn't going to come. Lamya was retreating. It took Nozomi a moment to realize what that meant, and that it wasn't just a trick.

As Lamya retreated from the bridge, Nozomi stood around for a moment, before she started to sway, the exhaustion catching up to her. She would have tried to chase her down, but Nozomi knew that there was no way she had enough chakra left to keep up in a chase against her. No, when she came to take down Lamya, it would be when they had both rested up again. The next rematch they had would be much more difficult, Lamya wasn't going to underestimate her again, and Nozomi was looking forward to that time, assuming she was able to get away from the search parties trying to take her in.

In the back of her mind she recognized the feeling of a hand on her shoulder and Ayakashi speaking to her, but she was hardly present to hear any of it, just noting there was praise. She let Ayakashi direct her away from the bridge, mostly dead on her feet. That had been a hard fought battle, and most of it was her running on adrenaline and her quickest reactions. For now though, she needed some rest. There would be time to discuss things later.

WC: 286/  6477/  5000

Training Katon: B->A [1477/5000]
EXIT