Yoshi looked at the boy in the mirror. The calm bright brown eyes and black hair that framed his otherwise angular face felt foreign to him these days. He tilted his head, hoping that a trick of the light was merely playing with him. The bags under his eyes were noticeable. He hadn't been sleeping well. The short time he had been given in-between matches hadn't been that helpful in resting or recuperating ahead of his next duel. He had been studying, training, and doing just about anything he could to be prepared for the coming fight. Somehow, all that felt shallow and empty to him, like he knew the commands and hand seals in his head clearly but couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting or otherwise missing something. He turned on the faucet and splashed some cold water onto his face, he was thinking too much, it was a trap he fell into often. He couldn't help it though, not when so much had been happening so quickly. He had won his first fight, but many of his friend's hadn't, and what's more, one of them had lost their life.
Xiao may have only been a recent friend that Yoshi had made, but he was one whom he had come to care for greatly. Truth be told, he had always been rather poor at working his way into friend circles. Both as an orphan and also as a student at the ninja academy. He had certainly grown into a strong and quick thinking Genin, and yet, despite all that, he had felt alone. Maybe that was why he felt so apathetic to the roaring crowds of the Chunin Exams, of their chants for himself and the other competitors vying to be promoted. They all felt so very far away to Yoshi, like he was a single dot in a constantly moving crowd. There was some comfort in the feeling, like knowing he wasn't alone, but beyond that surface reaction, he felt more isolated and lonely than he had before. He looked up from the sink back into the mirror to look himself in the eyes, he knew that he was his own worst enemy, and a part of him wished to strangle that other side of himself and to kill it outright. Yoshi raised his hands up to wrap around his neck, squeezing his throat with moderate force before letting go to exhale and inhale heavily.
No, he couldn't fight himself now. He'd leave that for due time. Right now, he had to prepare himself for his next match. Yoshi was determined to avenge his fallen friend, to bring him peace. He had already confronted Ryo on the streets of Konohagakure in the night prior to this fight. After all that had happened in the short span between his initial victory and now, he felt like a different person. He wanted tow in of course, to be promoted to Chunin, but after seeing the recording of Xiao's defeat, a primal rage was flowing through his blood, he wanted nothing more than to win this fight and face his true rival in the match following this one. Once the Finals came about following these rounds of fights, there'd be no special arena or gimmick that would keep him from Yoshi- just the two of them on a closed off arena, ready to let loose in perhaps what could be the most anticipated match of the tournament if it occured. When Yoshi looked at himself in the mirror, he thought he saw his eyes seem just a little darker and more cruel. He pondered how that might mean he had become a man and left his boyish ways behind. He couldn't say for sure, only that he was more ready and eager for this fight than he ever thought he would be.
A loud knocking reverberated through the door to the bathroom,
"Hey Joe, it's time" one of the officials said. There was no more putting any of this off. With a heavy sigh, Yoshi stepped away from the mirror and walked throught he door into the hallway of the arena building. Already through the tunnel of the bleachers and seats surrounding the arena he could hear chants picking up. It seemed that following the last showing between himself and his current opponent, their fight had been hyped up a great deal by the guests. Chants of, 'Yo Joe! Yo Joe!' or 'JoJo' echoed through the hallway as the Genin in question walked towards the bright daylight at the end of the tunnel. He didn't know what kind of arena he'd be fighting in, only that it certainly wouldn't be those docks again like before. As Yoshi stepped out into the edge of the arena, the crowd sitting above the field erupted into cheers. Apparently this was a money fight. What the betting odds were meant to be or who was favored, well, Yoshi couldn't say.
The giant caged dome that sat in the middle of the arena would be their battleground. As he walked towards his side of the cage, one of the officials told him the details of the arena's gimmick. It was going to quickly become smaller and smaller until it provided only space for basic melee combat between them both. It wasn't the worst thing in the world for Yoshi, but that being said, he had no idea what kind of abilities his opponent would be bringing with him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you Yoshihiro Joe vs Yokari Senju" the announcer boomed, introducing the two fighters as they both stepped into their opposite ends of the arena.
A Senju eh? That he could work with. He had grown up around plenty of them in the past, and having an honorary younger brother who was one certainly gave him a head start in figuring out how this one would fight. He had never heard of this Yokari before, only that he had brutally defeated his previous opponent, a fate that Yoshi would seek to avoid replicating. As the announcer would prepare the match, Yoshi would loosen the large shawl wrapped around his shoulder and waist, secretly imbuing it with a trace of his chakra and to allow it to fall off of him at a moments notice. He'd have to make his own substitutions for an arena like this. At last, all eyes turned to the duo as they stood there on opposite ends of the dome.
"3...2...1... Begin!" the proctor yelled. With that, the fight was on! The cage began to grind inwards, on cue.
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Name: Substitution Technique (変わり身の術 ~ Kawarimi no Jutsu)
Canon/Custom: Canon.
Rank: E.
Type: Supplementary.
Element: None.
Range: One prepared item in the user's clear line of sight.
Speciality: Ninjutsu.
Duration: 1 post preparation. Infinite postponement, Instant activation.
Cooldown: 6 posts after activation.
Description: The Substitution Technique is an age-old skill which enables the user to evade the effects of an attack by switching with an item in the area. (The item---or substantial clone---used for a Substitute must be as large as the user's torso, and must be prepared at least 1 post in advance by infusing it with 5 chakra.) Activating this jutsu for another 5 chakra, the ninja moves at untraceable speed for just a moment, and the item does so as well to take the user's place; the ninja leaves behind a flickering after-image for a second, which, if damaged, releases the chakra which holds it in place in a small smoke cloud, revealing the nature of the technique and the item they have switched with. Higher-rank ninjas' afterimages are able to show some of the signs of natural impact as if it were an actual human, if only for a very short period, before 'poofing'. The user coming out of the technique creates a similar audio and visual cue with a small cloud of translucent smoke and a 'poofing' sound on appearance in the location of the item they Substituted with. This technique causes the user to move at speeds untraceable to human perception, and therefore even the user cannot coordinate attacks during the Kawarimi, or activate any other jutsu. They, however, can maneuver near someone and then attack them after the fast-movement is finished.