Starring:
Date: January 24, 2012
Summary:
Shemri and Takeshi contest over one of the last unmatched jounin candidate scrolls.
"First Promotion Exams - Age Against Beauty: Shemri vs. Takeshi"
West Shiren Caverns [Land of Wind]
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The western area of Shiren Caverns is typified by long vertical passages. Narrow walkways formed by accidents of geology wind over deep pits, with stalagmites and columns jutting up all around. A trained shinobi shouldn't have too much trouble climbing up or down these passages, provided they aren't hindered by rivals or the local fauna. Say, isn't that spider web abnormally large…?
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Okay, things didn't go very well for Shemri at the start of this thing. :P She thinks she could've won against that weird shadow guy, but that's not how things happened to turn out. At least he was halfway-decent and didn't push things any further after she surrendered her scroll. Since then Shemri's been largely hiding out, letting her burned skin recover and stockpiling food for herself and Shiikaa. Being a huntress, she's well equipped for this sort of survival test. And now, she feels ready to take another shot at actually competing. Consequently, she's sitting out in the middle of one of the unintentional catwalks in the western sector of Shiren Caverns, waiting for another jounin candidate to come her way.
Takeshi had made the caves his home, even with all the wild beasts and problems that had been cooked up by another candidate, he held no fear. The animals that ran wild were spider beings, something that he was intimately familiar with thanks to the Okumo clan. Even now, he still walked the floors of the cave, uncaring for anything beyond the path that he travels everyday around the whole of the cave in search of opponents. Three fights so far and three people had been crushed. So far, no one had been brave enough to give a fourth victory to the old man.
Having determined that there was no reason to walk around without protection, he had resorted to the robes he wore in Kirigakure, the long white robes along with the odori symbol on his forehead could only lead to one person - Clan Elder Odori.
Shemri and Shiikaa can detect a person's approach through the echoes in the cavern quite a bit ahead of time, especially for one walking boldly and without stealth. Shemri stands and waits for the footsteps to enter the same alcove as her. When Takeshi arrives, Shemri speaks. "Greetings. I am Maneshi Shemri of Sunagakure. If you have a scroll for the jounin exam, I shall be your opponent." Shemri and Shiikaa begin to gather their chakra. "I apologize for not having a scroll to lose to you, but that is the nature of this test. I advise you not to flee, for the hunt is the specialty of my clan. If you cannot demonstrate to me that you lack a scroll, you must fight." Shiikaa hops up onto Shemri's shoulder, and there is the brief POOF of a transformation. Black fur runs up the entirety of Shemri's right arm, and a lithe tail curls out behind her. "Make yourself ready."
Takeshi stops and stares over at the strange cat creature with a raised brow, "Seriously? Girls turned into cats?" He seems to stop for a second..a long second…and then his eyes light up, "Another one of my fantasies in the flesh!" Then he cackles, like a creepy old man, before snorting and shrugging off the robes to the ground. The old man doesn't bother with getting ready, this was more interesting, what that girl would do. "A scroll? Yes, I have a scroll. The question is whether or not you can take it. I'm not betting too highly on you, but at least you're willing to allow me to crush you, which will make a grandtotal of four flawless victories. Are you ready, Girl?"
Shemri rolls her eyes. "I have lately seen one who is learning to do so more literally. Regardless, I hope that your fantasy does not involve being torn to ribbons." Shemri springs into the air and throws a quick spread of shuriken in Takeshi's direction, then uses the momentum of her leap to come down at him with a hard punch. Then she swipes at Takeshi with her cat-arm, claws keening with wind chakra.
Takeshi doesn't even laugh at the girl as she comes in, the shuriken bouncing off of the elders body as the punch lands on his shoulder with seemingly no effect. As the cat girl pushes off and twirls about with her wind powers, the elder simply moves quickly to the side, the wind completely missing him in its pointed path. Then and only then he grins, "I thought you were going to take my scroll?"
Shemri nods solemnly. "This is a fact." Shemri plants her arm firmly on the rock and shoots her leg out sideways at Takeshi's gut. Rather than having to retract the kick to regain balance from this position, however, she swings around and in toward Takeshi, supported by her sashes which ripple to life and move beneath her like extra legs. Shemri's other leg rises upward from below Takeshi's midriff to strike at his chin, then she falls backward onto the sashes and her tail. Both legs lift and tuck, then surge forward in a kangaroo kick to Takeshi's chest.
The cat girl launchs forward again and once more the Kaguya ignores her. The maneshi makes her movements known, going through a quick and through combo before ending in a kangaroo kick, which causes a single foot to push back against the force, the elder having to take one step backwards. Then there's a laugh, "Well, that wasn't half bad. You still don't have a chance though. Welcome to the Kaguya clan."
There's a moment of silence before the elder begins chanting and his own chakra surges forth, the presence of the elder increasing, the ground cracking. No physical change, but an enormous increase in pure presence and strength. "Let's make you fall now."
Shemri frowns. "Ah. Aha. You seem to have great confidence in your endurance." Springing back onto her feet, Shemri pulls a pair of kunai from her pouch. And another pair. And another. The knives are quickly distributed amongst sashes, hands, and tail. "Please do not blame me, then, if you wind up more seriously injured than I intended. I have no wish to permanently harm anyone for the sake of a test, but it appears I cannot afford to hold back." Shemri steps in and does exactly what you'd expect from all that cutlery — slashes, stabs, and slices at Takeshi in a storm of steel.
Takeshi once again doesn't move, the blades striking at his body in multiple places, except this time he doesn't move back a step. The strikes are done and he just grins back at her, "You're pretty sure of yourself too and I'm tired of playing around with you." He doesn't say more than that as he simply disappears from the girl.
Within seconds, he's on top of her and throwing punches in his patented hyuuga copycat move. A couple hundred hits in the blink of an eye, something that many people try to emulate but only a few ever achieve.
Shemri moves quickly in response to Takeshi's assault, jerking this way and that nearly as fast as the blows come in. Nearly, but not quite…and yet the strikes which manage to make contact seem to glance off with no effect. Finally, Takeshi makes a final punch at Shemri's solar plexus, releasing a shockwave of chakra. With a WHOOSH, Shemri is gone!
…A little too gone for even such a powerful blow. "Well done, Shiikaa," Shemri murmurs, perched against the cavern wall off to the side. "Your wind is most useful." Shemri shifts her feet slightly, gaining the best possible purchase. "I am pleased to have an opponent as durable as yourself," Shemri calls out to Takeshi. "I thought I would not be able to try this technique on a live opponent until we were in the safety of the arenas, but this place is perfect for it, and you are perfect to receive it." >)
Shemri is suddenly gone again. A second later, something blurs past Takeshi. Something grey and red and olive and black, and apparently sharp. Once again it whizzes past, drawing another cut. For the briefest of moments, an image of Shemri can be seen on a rock formation a short distance away, gripping it as though catching herself from flying past it into the distance. Then she's blurred into nothing and another cut comes. Here, there, all around the cavern, Shemri zips past Takeshi and alters trajectory, catching onto and instantly swinging around stalactites, columns, and catwalks, using arms, legs, sashes, and tail.
Takeshi doesn't react as she dodges, his fist entering the final stages as normal, acting like he had been caught off guard without the momentum to change course, which should make it just right in enticing shemri into the trap. It works, the cat girl is queueing up one of her final moves judging by the speech and as his hand falls she's already on him. It's going to be close, no wait, she has him! He's completely caught off guard, her blade streaks by and nothing. Wait, that isn't right, it should have hit something. Again it whizzes by through his head and nothing, just air. What was this trickery? By the end of it, not a single weapon had pierced him and yet all had moved through him.
The elder simply smiled, "I like speed." And then he's gone, a palm trying to come straight down into her elbow and destroy the limb with the ending five inch punch.
Well that was a bit disappointing. :P The inaugaral use of Shemri and Shiikaa's shiny new technique doesn't quite manage to hit the opponent. As Takeshi darts in to counterattack, Shemri tries to burst enough chakra into her limbs for one more evasive blur, but — nope, Takeshi managed a hit this time. >.<; Fortunately the extra strength afforded by the transformed Shiikaa being wrapped around Shemri's arm prevents the elbow from being broken, but it'll take a moment for that arm to recover. Shiikaa didn't appreciate it either. ^>.x^
Also fortunate, Shemri's got plenty of limbs to spare! One of Shemri's sashes rears up with a kunai ready to stab down at Takeshi — but it doesn't, instead Shemri's tail flicks around in an attempt to thud into Takeshi's ribs. Shemri grabs at Takeshi's wrist with her good arm for a good ol'-fashioned basic taijutsu lock, then tries to hold it in place with a sash so her hand is free to uppercut Takeshi's jaw. >/
- Note: The scene was paused here for several weeks.
There's some attacks and Takeshi does whatever it is he ended up doing about them. Some hit and some didn't, but his player doesn't remember the line of thought anymore, so we'll skip to the next part.
The elder is now a little mad, but that's okay, it's time to try out something different now. He breathes in a large breath, then with a few handseals sends it back out, the fire streaming forward and causing a smoke cloud to form. The smoke wasn't the real damage, well, inhalation would hurt, but no, the real damage were the little points of red within, hundreds of them like fireflies.
Seeing a ranged ninjutsu attack in the making, Shemri simply drops off the side of the catwalk. Her sashes catch onto the rock formation and swing her underneath. "Shiikaa wishes you to know that he shall repay you in full for that strike on the arm," Shemri remarks. "I would tell him it is foolish to hold a grudge when we are supposed to be fighting, but eh, it shall not do much to change things." :P Shemri is loosening her sashes while she speaks, pulling the folded lengths out to their full reach. Then she runs out onto the side of the catwalk, leaps to one of the cavern walls, and rebounds off it in Takeshi's direction. She falls well short of him, but her sashes reach out to grip the catwalk. She swings under, up, and around to come at Takeshi with a kick from the other side, then follows up with a sock to the jaw with the arm Shiikaa is encasing. Feel the furry wrath, old dude! ^>.<^
Takeshi is hit by the leg snap and then the elder just kind of gives up. The second punch sending him backwards into a wall, which he doesn't emerge from. For all intents and purposes, Shemri has won this round of the fight.
Shemri blinks. Hmmm. Well, that seemed to do the trick. c.c About time, really, most other opponents would've given up sooner. :P Shemri cautiously goes over to the large crack in the wall Takeshi disappeared into. Must be another chamber back there. Shemri reaches her sash into the space and pokes around until she locates Takeshi's scroll. She takes it and bows. "Many thanks for a worthy combat. Farewell." Shiikaa *POOFS* back into his usual form, and they head off.
