Covered with a specialized glass dome that allows spectators to watch without allowing light to enter the arena, contestants will find themselves in a black room, unable to see at all without the aid of techniques or items which provide vision in pitch black. However, the arena contains five torches, one in the center, and four at points 20m away to the left and right of where each contestant enters. These torches provide 10m radius light sources by which shinobi can navigate and detect one another. Curiously, though each of these light sources and all within their radius can be seen from anywhere in the arena, their light does not spill past the zone prescribed to them.

Yoshito Yuki | Joker of the Mist

---

Memory faded from his mind as he thought back to his match with Ting, his stomach still felt a little uneasy. Yoshito’s right hand made contact with his stomach where his liver would be as he came into the corridor that would eventually spill into the arena where his next battle would be. Why even have another battle? I lost my last one. The single thought flew past his mind as he lightly tapped the wall next to him with a clenched fist in frustration. He couldn’t believe that he lost against that girl from the Leaf village. It was so close and he had the upper hand almost the entirety of the match until she suddenly destroyed the boy’s match ending attack. With gritted teeth Yoshi followed the signs until he made it to the edge of the arena. Standing before closed doors the young boy would lower his head looking at the floor in suspense. He was ready to redeem himself for his village, big cousin Verdandi could be watching. Even though she didn’t stress about losing his Round Two match, he still would like the opportunity to surprise her with a victory on his Round Three match.

The doors swung open and he could hear the crowd’s murmuring become silent when he made his first step onto the seemingly stable ground. He could only assume this stage would follow the same kind of trickery as the other two had, first was a swamp of sorts, second was a collapsing floor making hand to hand almost necessary and now here Yoshito couldn’t see his own hand if he should raise it in front of his face. “Okay this is interesting.” The Yuki boy would look around taking note of all he could to use as an advantage should the time come. His eyes laid across the scene and taking into account the pitch black arena other than five separate torches lighting very small parts of the area. He thought he might just have an advantage here, he had a technique that would sense anyone and anything that would come within a twenty meter radius of him and so he would activate that as he walked forward, a mere five meters from his entrance. Of course, he would take his time as he was duped by tricky stadiums before. The torch in the middle of the arena would lead Yoshito to believe that his opponent was somewhere on the other side, approximately the same distance as he. He couldn’t feel anything within his twenty meter field of vision and so he took this time to weave a long string of hand signs to create two clones with a little extra spice.

The clones would be created looking exactly like the user and appear three meters on either side of his body. Without words, the clones would scout the area on either side of the middle torch as the three walked forward keeping out of the light the torch would emit. Yoshito grabbed his kusarigama that laid dormant on his back thus far and chucked it in the light, landing just on the outer limits of the light barely seen visibly, marked with his substitution technique. Under his feet would become ice as he walked, trailing behind and just underneath his feet increasing his speed slightly should his opponent take the darkness as their own advantage and throw attacks of his own. His clones circled the torch and would be on the opponent’s side of the arena attempting to reach the one who faces Yoshito.

⎾ Word Count: [605] ⏌

Chakra: 205/260

Techniques Used:

Substitution:

Supernatural Evasion Practice:

Water Prison Clone x2:

Eyes of the Water God:

Chakra= 200/250:

Stats:

Current Puppet Body:

Items:

Yoshito Yuki | Joker of the Mist

---

Everything was quiet. A clank or two would be heard sounding something like wooden ninja weaponry meshing together as they separated. This is a sound that Yoshito was unfamiliar with, one he had not come into contact with yet. The unfamiliar sound put him on edge and ready to battle more than ever. The boy’s adrenaline coursed through his veins, then a second came where something entered his field of sensory from just ahead of him. There! It felt like a straight stream of something but he couldn’t see it visually through the darkness. It had to be some sort of ninjutsu that isn’t flashy, earth element maybe, air or water would be the most probable given the speed at which it was traveling. It wouldn’t take much more than a ducking onto the knees. And so Yoshito and his clones would do so to dodge the speedy attack. In doing so, Yoshito would lunge backward a little bit and grab his weapon that was still charged with his substitution technique, reaching for it with his right hand as his body laid flat on the floor. Just as he grabbed his weapon the torch that lit the area he was at went out, doused by the water ninjutsu his opponent had just used taking out the light where he was. This could be a good or a bad thing for Yoshito, he could only assume that his opponent could see within the darkness or that he used their bodies being in front of the light to see. One good, or one bad option. Two things entered his vision once more moving fast, but no faster than he could deal with.

One of the objects moving toward each clone created by Yoshito. The boy waited for a moment waiting to see what these objects would do against his clones, standing up in an upright position dragging the Kusarigama alongside him making almost no noise holding the kama stretched so far apart that the chain wouldn’t clank together. He would take his opportunity to use the darkness and allow the clones to take care of these objects. Two beings in the darkness, he could feel something of multiple strings attached to these humanoid things still unsure exactly of what they were. The clone on his left would meet with the object and collide with it. The thing took a big bite of the clone as its body erupted in a ball of compressed water rendering it incapable of further movement unless it was extremely strong. But being made of wood, Yoshito assumed he could shrug it off for now. The other being went for the other clone  and the same thing would happen, now both of these beings would be taken out of commission for the time being. Their strength would have to be immense for ones of their rank to be able to escape from these waterry clutches.

Yoshito looked at both of the clones where they would now be nothing but balls of water swirling about enslaving the things caught in the middle. Yoshito raised the torch to eye level just to the right of his face to look at what had happened only to notice that these things were monstrosities. One of scales and snake like features, the other a real woman standing even taller than Yoshito. The boy shuttered quickly and looked forward to the abysmal blackness in front of him trying to feel for anything within his range ready at a moment’s notice to react just in case this was some sort of a ruse. Neither thing had reacted as a normal person would being trapped within water and so it made the boy a little anxious. Yoshi placed his Kusarigama’s chains within his left pocket with his left hand, the blades dangled just next to the upper part of his left thigh. This happened just before his arms would feel cold, emitting a frozen feeling should anything come close enough. Using this, the boy would keep the torch next to his person as he made his way to each water prison and touched them with his freezing chakra causing them to freeze. Should they have been controlled by anything chakra related they might have been destroyed by the freezing chakra making the water prisons turn to ice.

“If anyone’s still there. Please show yourself. I’m Yoshito Yuki of Kirigakure. . .” He allowed a moment before speaking. No crowd reaction as they couldn’t see anything either. “... And you are?”

⎾ Word Count: [763 | 1,368] ⏌

Chakra: 190/260

Maintained
Substitution Technique [-0]
Ice Release: Supernatural Evasion Practice [-5]
Eyes of the Water God [-5]

Activated

Glacial Fist:

Chakra 195/250

Maintained Techs
Puppet Technique [-5]

Cooldowns
Floral Butterfly Piercing [1/2]

Cicada Possession
Duration [1/3]

Yoshito Yuki | Joker of the Mist

---

The sound of cracking ice would erupt breaking free of the chains of silence. Yoshito’s head jerked at the first sign of movement in the direction of such and turned the torch to see what was happening. As the snake moved to his location the first thing he noticed was the tons and tons of holes throughout its body. Yoshi winced at the thought of such pain for only a moment. What is this thing a summoning? Thoughts rushed through his mind faster than he could truly comprehend.  With every move Yoshi could feel the disturbances within the molecules that were around him and it provided him with more than enough time to react to this basic movement. Yoshi’s hand brought forth the torch defensively into the snake’s eyes before it could snag the boy into it’s mouth, jumping over top the snake and plunging the lit flame into the the snake eyes putting the snake between him and the other thing moving. That must be the real one. Another incorrect though. In the grand scheme of things these were puppets being controlled from afar by a master of Kugutsu, although, this knowledge wouldn’t be within Yoshito’s grasp just yet and possibly won’t the entire fight. The wind bullets came through the other thing’s weaponry very fast from the feel of it. Yoshito used the snake’s eyes being engulfed in flames to his advantage for a split second, holding the thing’s body still in front of him to take the brunt of the bullets shot forth. The snake was pushed back and Yoshi could feel his calf muscles tense as he was keeping his stance behind the snake. Undoubtedly, it couldn’t see anymore and was hurt, at least if it was a summon or had any sense of harm. If not, then it at least couldn’t see so it couldn’t know where to attack when Yoshi lunged forward to the other thing that used a fan to create the wind bullets.

After the bullets collided with the snake Yoshito loosened his grip on the battle scarred creature to grab hold of his Kusarigama from his back, unsheathing it and holding one of the Kama in one hand while letting the other dangle from the chain. As he lunged forward, the thing not being far from his body, Yoshito would thrust his arm forward in a half circular motion allowing the Kusarigama’s scythe to wrap around it’s neck multiple times over. Using this point of contact, Yoshi would jump on it’s back and pull the kama he had in his hand to drag the thing to the ground no doubt in pain. This felt real, this thing felt as if it could be his opponent. It no doubt would put up a struggle but Yoshito could handle it if this thing was the same as his other opponents, being around his same level of strength among other stats. But it was obvious he was faster than this thing. When the Kama’s chain wrapped around its neck the Kama itself would slice around its neck as it made the circular motion causing one and a half inch deep slices perfectly around its neck.

“I asked your name!”

Four words shot out from Yoshito’s mouth as he struggled to keep the beast down.

⎾ Word Count: [568 | 1,936] ⏌

Chakra: 180/260

Maintained
Substitution Technique [-5]
Ice Release: Supernatural Evasion Practice [-5]
Eyes of the Water God [-0] (4 Posts Left)

Item

Spiraling Lotus:

Chakra 190/250

Maintained Techs
Puppet Technique [-5]

Cooldowns
Floral Butterfly Piercing [2/2]

Cicada Possession
Duration [2/3]

Official Ruling wrote:Due to very little transpiring in the way of meaningful combat between the two participants directly, it is difficult to extrapolate where the battle leads from here. However, the Oze competitor has a puppet body which does not tire, as well as several lower-cost techniques to dodge attacks and heal from damage. With other jutsu to attack both close-up and at range, it can be assumed that Yoshito takes more damage than he is able to meaningfully keep on his opponent.

The victor is Yasubei.