Starring:
Fuyu, Takeshi, Kara, Hinotori, Shemri
Date: October 31, 2010
Summary:
Sunagakure's premiere Puppeteer battles Kirigakure's most senior Kaguya at the First World Ninja Competition. WHO WILL SURVIVE!? </gundam>
"First World Ninja Competition - Mobile Dolls and Crossbones Vanguard: Kara vs. Takeshi!"
Peach Pit Stadium Arena 1 Ring
Kusagakure has seen much excitement the past few days. But today is the same day as a certain foreign holiday falls upon. 'Halloween', it is called. It is a time of fear, of joy, and of imagination. Kusagakure does not celebrate Halloween, and yet it is hard to deny that there IS a certain atmosphere of 'festival' around the Village… And as foreign as Halloween may be, there are those who may yet be garbed in outlandish costumes. Ninja from Sunagakure, for instance, are often dressed a bit oddly compared to those used to the lush and verdant environment that is the Land of Grass. Desert-dwellers simply have other things to account for in their choice of clothing. There are only a couple Land of Wind ninja participating in the tournament, but the huge difference in aesthetics is apparent without it being proliferant.
On the other hand, the Land of Water, even though it is even further away than the Land of Wind, is somehow more familiar in regard to how its people dress and conduct themselves. Odd, that. Well, here is hoping that the survivalist mentality of the desert people and the kill-em-all-and-let-the-morticians-sort-em-out mentality of the island people will result in a fantastic show.
Fuyu stands in the middle of the ring, once more called to proctor a match. She waits for the appointed time to arrive, and then calls out with a special voice amplifying tool she was given, which when placed alongside the throat, will transmit the sub-vocalizations to receivers situated around the stadium. Interesting technology, really. "This match is about to begin!" she announces. She does not even really have to yell much, either. It would be like all over the stadium, Fuyu is standing right nearby, instead of all the way down at the bottom. "Kaguya Odori Takeshi, of the Land of Water, against Uudo Kara, of the Land of Wind! Participants: To your positions!"
This was all pretty annoying really. Showing up here, signing up and then waiting around, but then, that was the idea behind the tournament. A coming together of the nations in a peaceful competition, the first of its kind, but in reality it was probaly just a convenient way for other nations to pit their best fighters against one another in a kind of sizing up of the competition should another war begin.
He had been paying attention to each match, never missing a single one and he even attended a banquet put on by the Daimyo, but now it was time to fight. After all, this is why he travelled here with the rest of Team Zero to begin with. They were all registered! Now it was time for the matches to begin. How this would end would rely entirely on luck or some combination of luck and skill therein, but that wasn't so odd.
After receiving notice that his match was picked next, he sauntered over as slowly as possible. However, he still managed to be just a few minutes early, check in, fill out forms that allowed him to fight and other such annoying formalties and finally enter the ring to either wait on or find his opponent. Either one was possible.
So, amidst the people filing into the stands, there's a Takeshi, cane and all, idly standing at his designated starting position.
Kara frowned when she heard her name called. She had specifically >not< registered for the tournament as 'Uudo' Kara. She doesn't want everyone and his brother's dog knowing she is the daughter of the famous archaeologist 'Doctor Uudo Eddo' of the Land of Wind. Did someone mess with her registration!? Scanning the crowd as she enters the ring, Kara doesn't >see< him, but that doesn't necessarily mean her father isn't present. Hmph. Oh, well. As long as no one attributes her success to something her father did, then all should be well.
Oh, except she can't use more than one of her Puppets, on account of her dad having been the one to uncover the other two, and those two having been in restricted artifacts storage until she stole them. Well. That kind of screws up her battle plans completely, doesn't it? Sigh. And yes, the people of Sunagakure apparently >do< celebrate Halloween as of this year, and further they >do< dress oddly at times… But even among the odd, Kara is the oddest. She is dressed as some sort of Ancient Egyptian costume, with headdress, mantle, skirt/loincloth, etc. all matching a woman of that era. Thankfully she has the good sense not to go around topless too. She has a black spandex top on under the mantle. No underboob 4 u.
Kara strides out to the middle of the ring, waving and smiling to everyone, whether they cheer for her or not, as though she were some sort of beauty queen or famous personality instead of just a Chuunin from Sunagakure. When she arrives near the center, she squints and smiles around, perhaps not seeing her opponent, or perhaps not recognizing him as being such, depending on where exactly he is standing at this particular moment, and whether he looks like a warrior or just some old dood.
Also, Kara seems to have some kind of harness on her back with slots for multiple scrolls. Only three scrolls are slotted in place right this second, though. Minor detail, but there you have it.
Fuyu waits until both contestants are in place, and then looks between the two, making sure they are both ready. When she has such confirmation, the Uchiha woman wastes no time. She just yells, "BEGIN." forgetting about the voice-amplifier she is hooked up to, and possibly deafening everyone in the stands for a sec, before Body Flickering up to the observation platform. The barriers that will ensure no one dies are already up. The seals are in place. The match has begun!
Hinotori hadn't gone to the party last night mainly to preparing for today, he wasn't into parties much and with today being the holiday, he did manages to get a feel of something. He didn't know what, but shrugging it off, he walks up the stairs leading to the stands. He was surprised to see them pretty packed today, smiling and walking towards the back and leaning against a wall, he looks down into the pit to watch as Fuyu annoucnes the fighters. Watching as they are called, he looks to the woman who is called. Hinotori watches her as she comes out, it was good to see someone smiling before a match, most people only have been brooding are too intense to do anything else. Though as he looks at her he notices the harness, and wonders whats in it.
Kara blinks as the woman goes leaping or flickering out of the ring. "…Wait, what? I thought >she< was my opponent. So who am I supposed to be fighting? Is he invisible!? Is this 'Invisible no Jutsu' in action!?!" She starts freaking out about how she's going to fight an invisible enemy, completely missing her actual opponent in the process.
Takeshi is probably just going, 'wtf' at all this as Kara whirls around, as though she can't find him. Eventually, however, she gets a grip. "Get a grip, Kara!" she says to herself. She even clenches a fist in determination and nods firmly. "I won't give up some invisible guy! Not without trying!" Having affirmed her comittment to doing her best, she snags a metal ring that is apparently attached to a pull-cord with one finger and then yanks on it.
A cloud of smoke erupts from her back, and her first and most important battle tool is called forth… When the smoke clears, there is what appears to be a mummified corpse in the funeral garments of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh standing to Kara's right side, and slightly in front of her, while she stands in the Kugutsu no Jutsu stance. Torso leaning back, legs forward, one arm raised, the other extended, and the fingers held loosely on both hands.
"Kugutsu no Jutsu: Pharaoh!" she calls out and then grins. Even though she still doesn't seem to have noticed where her opponent is. Darn invisible people!
Takeshi just raises an eyebrow at the antics. There really wasn't any other response to it all. He was standing right in front of her and yet, apparently her eyesight is worse than his. That's not going to bode well when she gets older most likely, but there's not really much else can be done about it. There's a sigh as he waves his hand in the air towards her, "Hey. Over here. Nobody is invisible."
His hand returns to the cane in front of him and there's another sigh. "A puppet master. Never did like those things, but at least it looks like it's not going to be attacking me head on anytime soon, those kind are worse, what with their hidden compartments, retractable knife blades, poison darts and all other manner of thing that can appear out of no where to slice you, dice you and make you wish that you had a wood cutter."
Other than his rant on puppets, he makes no movement from his spot.
As events unfold in the ring, Hinotori wonders what was going on with Kara, "Whats her deal?" he asks more to himself then to anyone else around him. Shaking his head, he hoped Takeshi wasn't going to flip out either. Sighing, Hinotori gets comfortable against the wall, most of the spectators are getting eager for a fight and he had to admit it himself that he too wanted to see….."Puppets." he says, "Oh this is about to get good." he chuckles as Kara seems to be getting ready.
Kara hears the voice calling out to her and turns to face Takeshi with a slightly confused and pretty darn cute expression on her face. "Huh? You mean… My opponent is… You?" She points at Takeshi with one finger, and Pharaoh's jaw drops open as though he too were shocked. "I know, right, Pharaoh-kun?" She nods to her Puppet. Is she actually talking to her Puppet now too? "We come all this way for a fight and then we get a guy like >this<. What a bummer." She sighs, face a bit :/ looking. Then she shrugs and perks back up, smiling and squinting and says, "Well, nice to meet you, Kaguya-san!" She waves with one hand, and immediately a tube drops down from the roof of the Puppet's mouth, followed shortly after by a continuous, high-pitched, metallic noise as a stream of silvery flashes in the afternoon sunlight emit from that tube, right at Takeshi!
It seems things have begun for real now, though Kara looks to be sort of confused as she takes her eyes off of her opponent to look at Pharaoh with a perplexed expression. Takeshi, meanwhile, as hundreds of senbon streaking towards him.
Takeshi stares at her. Now, she finally sees him, but her opening comment is how annoyed she is by having the old man as her opponent. Oh well, He figured that anyone would probably react the same way given the circumstances and his appearance, but if she thought this was going to be an easy match, it won't. As the puppet's mouth opens, he sighs, "Oh great. This one shoots senbon. I hate senbon. Absolutely. Positively. Hate. Senbon."
As for the attack, well, it didn't work. The senbon would stream at Takeshi, who would simply move out of the attack's range, and the senbon would hit a delayed image, the image soon swirling into nothing. He was still standing the same way, hands on his cane and watching Kara. "I apologize. I will try to make this fight worth your while. I did not mean to be an unsuitable opponent." A polite bow is offered, though not a full one, as he is an old man after all.
The cane is lifted off the ground before being thrown to the side, "I suppose I can give up the farce for a little bit." The robes are brushed off and he cracks his knuckles and neck. Finally, there's another bow, this time a full one, "Well then. May the best shinobi win."
His hands raise, both palm up in front of him and with a single stamp on the ground with his left foot, he's off, at high speed. Speeds far above the average person's speed and then he's pushing against her stomach with a palm. She would feel no pain, really only noting the touch as if a feather had landed there. However, if she didn't defend or move soon, an unseen force would barrel towards her and slam against her frame and Takeshi wouldn't back down, taking the chance to raise his fist and slam it towards her forehead.
Kara starts saying, "W-Wait, Pharaoh-kun. I didn't say to attack yet! We're still introducing ourselves!" Then she turns to face Takeshi, smiling as he apologizes and bows. "No, no! It's okay!" she tries to reassure her opponent, waving her other hand a bit. The tube in Pharaoh's mouth goes back up into his head. "It's just that I heard the Kaguya get to be like… Totally invulnerable the more experienced they are, and you look pretty experienced, so I was hoping for someone younger so I actually have a chance of--" she is cut off as she finds that Takeshi has suddenly appeared in front of her and is trying to >touch< her! "Wh-what!?" A stream of something black and making the noise of buzzing spills forth from Pharaoh's mouth, and then swarms around the area, concealing Kara and Pharaoh both for a moment. A cloud of black flies!? When the cloud disperses, Kara and Pharaoh are standing a fair distance away, Takeshi's blows having missed (except for some very unfortunate flies).
"Hang on a sec, please! We're not ready yet." She then turns to Pharaoh and places a hand on his shoulder. "Look, just attack when I say to, alright? This is my first time in a tournament like this and I don't want to mess it up--" Pharaoh interrupts her by unleashing another cloud of insects. This time, the insects are larger, with long, gangling legs, and mouths that appear to be made for eating meat, not just consuming refuse as flies would. They also produce a different sort of droning. The Locusts fly from Pharaoh's mouth and head towards Takeshi as Kara yells, "--Wait, stop! Pharaoh-kun, what has gotten into you!?"
The Locusts head right towards Takeshi, attempting to make a meal out of him!
Hinotori blinks as the first exchanges go through, the old man looking spry all of a sudden tries to attack Kara, but is blocked. Noticing he isn't being looked up, he quietly activates his sharingan and continues watching the match. Though what draws a laugh from him as Kara starts scolding her puppet when it attacked then stopped then sent larger insects towards Takeshi. 'She should really watching out for the old guy.' he thinks to himself. So far the match is enjoyable, but he wants to see how Kara does when pressured.
Takeshi shakes his head, "Bugs. Bugs, mummies. I must have really got the short end of the stick. Oh well, just have to deal with it, my Odori pride is at stake." He nods at her, "Please inform me when you are read.." And another attack streams out of the puppet. More bugs, obviously intent on eating him. He sighs, "You know, I don't think your bugs really want to eat leathery, old kaguya skin and bone, but that's just me."
With a shrug, he walks forward, into the cloud of insects and applying the basics behind Whirlwind Technique, simply moves, appearing all over the place, outside of the cloud, inside, above, in the middle. And yet, at the end of it all, he's standing in front of the puppet, nodding at it. "You may just be older than me!" With a smirk, he waits for the puppet to begin to act in retaliation and then he's gone, almost seeming to slide across the ground instantly and attempt to slam two palms into Kara's side.
Kara turns her attention back to Takeshi and calls out, "Sorry!" When he is attacked again. But then she relaxes when he pops back up in front of Pharaoh, seemingly okay. "Whoah. Good thing you're so fast! Anyway, sorry about all thi--" then Takeshi reappears again, and Kara, still smiling, freezes in place in surprise! A sweat drop runs down her cheek as those two hands come flying at her side. And just before they can touch her, a cloud of flies blocks Takeshi's view of her. There's still not enough time to dodge, though. Right? And yet when he sweeps his hands through the space Kara >should< be, he is met with naught but more carrion-eating insects.
A second later, Kara comes running out of the cloud, hands in the air, crying out, "Wait! Wait! Stop!" She then comes to a stop herself, turning and skidding across the ground on her sandalled feet. Pharaoh finishes hopping along after her. "Look, I know what this looks like, but it's not my fault!" She turns to Pharaoh and growls at him with a frown. The mummy chatters his teeth. "…Because I'm not >ready< yet! >That's< why! Why do you keep attacking!?" More teeth chattering. "…Something on the roof of your mouth? Have you been >eating< again!?" Pharaoh shrugs and chatters some more. ">PEANUTBUTTER!?< Wha--Bu-->You don't even have a stomach to hold it in!< I would know! I'm the one who >removed< it to make room for more scroll storage!"
Pharaoh just shrugs. "Fine! I'll ungunk you, but after that, no more attacking until I say so!" She then reaches for Pharaoh's mouth, but he turns his head away. "Wh--" she reaches again, but he turns the other way. "…." They repeat this for several seconds until Kara gets frustrated and stops. Gritting her teeth, she says, "Fine. If that's the way you want it…" Then she leaps on top of the mummy and starts trying to pry his mouth open! "I'll be with you in one second, Kaguya-san!" Pharaoh starts moving around underneath her, resulting in a balancing act of sorts, where he tries to support Kara's weight with withered or possibly-non-existant muscles. "We're just having some…" She manages to get the jaw to open, pulling it open wider and wider, using both hands, until the jawbone of a living human would have surely broken. "…technical…" She then looks down into the exposed mouth and inner-throat of her Puppet. The hands of Pharaoh reach up and start trying to force his mouth closed. "…difficulties!" she finally gets out as she reaches swiftly into the Puppet's mouth to try to clean the roof of it.
Unfortunately, she seems to accidentally trigger something, because there is a sound like a bomb going off underwater, a sort of *WHOMP* and then something goes streaking up out of Pharaoh's mouth, barely missing hitting Kara in the face as she leans back out of the way.
A canister reaches the apex of its ascent, high above the ring, almost touching the barrier that surrounds it, and then it cracks open. Acid begins to rain down on the ring, but it is also accompanied by a cryogenic gas that freezes the acid drops, turning them into iceshards. Of acid. So they both cut AND dissolve. Great.
Pharaoh and Kara topple and fall over, sending Kara tumbling across the ground. She sits up woozily, hair a bit sticking out in places, and says meekly, "I got the peanutbutter." She holds up one finger, which is coated in peanutbutter.
Takeshi scratches his head in confusion. "I…uh…You DO realize this is a tournament..where we..fight and the like..Right? I mean, I don't think this realization has come over you…Either that or your pretending, but either way…Are you serious?" He just shakes his head in defeat, "I don't know what to do anymore." It seems that Kara might win just by being Kara this time, as it obviously has left Takeshi without any idea how to respond to the girl and her peanut-butter eating, stomachless puppet.
Regardless, the canister that flies out of the things stomach sends another attack at him, which Teshi simple avoids again, the shards shattering against the ground. "Are you ready now?" He stares at her at this point with blank eyes.
Those eyes of his is able to easily watch both Kara and Takeshi attack and defend, though he can't help but laugh as Kara starts to argue with her puppet. Smiling as she then jumps on it and tries to pry open it's mouth. He didn't know nothing about puppets, but they are suppused to be inanimate objects aren't they? SHrugging, Hinotori looks over to Takeshi, he was amazed at the old man, who probably is younger then he's portraying, neither are able to land a blow on the other. Skill has a great deal to do with attacking and defending, but he wanted to see more.
Kara stands up and tries to shake the sticky peanutbutter off her finger. "Yes, I'm--" She tries to go into her Kugutsu no Jutsu stance but goes back to normal and shakes her hand some more. "Okay, I'm--" She goes back into her stance, and then stops again. "Fricking peanutbutter. Hang on a sec." She turns to her Puppet, still sprawled on the ground, and snaps out, "Get up, already!" as she makes a gesture. Pharaoh jumps to his feet. "I need a napkin." A puff of smoke comes out of Pharaoh's mouth, and then a towel comes out immediately afterwards. "--No, a >napkin<." Pharaoh chatters his teeth. "I know it's washable and reusable! But there's not a lot of water in the desert!" More tooth chattering. "…Oh. >Oh!< Right, cause we're not >in< the desert right now. They probably have loads of water here! Well… Okay, then." She takes the towel and wipes off the peanutbutter from her index finger to her satisfaction. Then she stuffs the towel back into Pharaoh's mouth. He swallows it.
"Alright, we can begin in a sec." She goes into her Kugutsu no Jutsu stance again. "Hah!" Pause. "Okay, that's out of the way. Pharaoh-17: Papyrus Reed Boat!" Pharaoh immediately expels a tiny origami boat from his mouth, which then bursts into a cloud of smoke. When the smoke vanishes, there is a boat of papyrus, made in the style of Ancient Egyptians, sitting there. In the air. It… Floats? Kara leaps into the boat, and Pharaoh joins her.
"Okay, I'm ready! Thank you for your patience, Kaguya-san~! <3" She bows to Takeshi.
Takeshi nods, "Alright. I'm glad to see that it's time to get everything going." He bows once more, "Now the match can truly begin I imagine. Good luck." He stares at her as she floats into the air, apparently not impressed by the papyrus boat. If she thought that would be her sanctuary, it probably won't. After all, it was papyrus, not some kind of steel ship.
His left hand moves to reach up by the right shoulder and then it flicks back to his side, several kunai in ready now, seemingly having come from inside the sleeve of his robes. Another movement and with a simple swipe he sends the kunai towards the boat and its occupants. Otherwise, he makes no attempt at movement this round, first, he would see how this thing operated.
Shemri makes her way through the stands with Fukanzen, looking for a good place to sit. She's still feeling a touch out of sorts from the outcome of her first fight, but not so much that she'd miss her team-mate's match. Fukanzen came along largely out of a sense of loyalty and politeness, plus he does find this tournament to be an interesting spectator sport. That left Megumi-chan with more time alone with Gramma and Grampa to be spoiled rotten. Whee! n.n
Finding a couple of seats fairly near the front of the seating area, Shemri and Fukanzen settle in and look down on the ring. "Hoi, give it your all from the start, Kara-san!" Shemri shouts down. "Do not give him any chance, no matter how weak he may seem!" >.<
Nodding eagerly, Kara straightens up and stands ready. When the kunai come flying at her and the boat, the boat shoots backwards, allowing the kunai to go off course and hit the ground. "Yeah, this should be lots of fun!" Then she gets serious. "Pharaoh-1: Needle Cannon!" she calls out. Pharaoh sprays a stream of senbon at Takeshi, but varies the trajectory a bit, possibly to counter evasion attempts. This means the spray is more or less continuous for about ten seconds in a row.
Kara hears Shemri calling out to her, and turns to wave in the general direction she thinks she may be, before looking back to see how Takeshi is doing.
Hinotoris eyes watches the bout, taking in the actions of the puppet master. Even though she was arguing with her puppet….Maybe ti was all her plan in an attempt to throw off Takeshi, even though he has been able to dodge her puppet attacks, but then again her puppet was able to dodge her attack. Rubbing the back of his head, he does hear the new arrival in Shemri as she appears and starts rooting for Kara.
Takeshi shrugs silently, "Well, I suppose so." He stretches out lazily and yawns slightly before lowering his arms and staring up at her. She makes the bold declaration of giving it her all, which doesn't seem to impress Takeshi at all. Nor do the senbon for that matter, even though he realy.hates.senbon.
In response, he moves to the side, some of the senbon managing to stick into his arm and in retaliation, he decides he's just going to deal with it. From that point on, he stands up, straightens his robes and the senbon assail themselves against his body. At the end, he looks like one giant pincushion, or he would, but the senbon hadn't managed to pierce him far enough to stay in, instead, they've pooled up around his body. "Surely, the senbon aren't the only thing up your sleeve?" He steps out from the senbon pile, blood trickling down at various places, but not at all seeming phased from it. "How about this then, let's just blow it all to hell."
He winds his arm up, an audible crackin sound heard and then he jumps, faster than before, if that's even possible. Within in a heartbeat, he's in her face, up in the air, foot on the side of her papyrus boat, fingers attempting to embed themselves in her shoulder blade and if it hits, she'll feel them push against her bones, trying to break them and allow his hand to reach even farther back. And then, if she doesn't manage to stop that, it'd be done with, the hand snapping forward in a punch that would truly hurt this time, not like the touch from last time. A five inch punch, with enough force to probably rock the boat if it truly hit.
Kara doesn't get hurt. Or at least, she isn't >used to< getting hurt. She… Can't really remember any time after that S-Rank mission with Team Randi that she has been injured. She thought she was untouchable. She had advanced so much since then, after all! And then Takeshi appears right next to her, as she hovers a few feet above the ground, and graps her shoulder. It hurts when he tries to break her shoulder, but the boat floats upwards several feet, pulling her away from the hand -- even though the grip itself might remain. "Aaahh!" she yells out in pain, before the punch comes in and strikes her in the face, instead of the shoulder, due to the shift in location! She is hurled away by the force of it, but the boat, and Pharaoh, both move perfectly to remain underneath her in the process. It thus catches her when she starts to descend. "…Ow." she whimpers. Her right cheek is all red and inflamed, and probably is going to turn into a nasty bruise. As she lies in the boat, she decides that she apparently can't hold back against an opponent like this. She wasn't sure the barrier thing would work right, and so wanted this to be drawn out and dramatic. Fun for both of them.
Pharaoh turns on Takeshi, apparently displeased with this treatment of his master. They are now about a dozen feet above the ground, but with the speed of this opponent, that might not be much of a defense. Pharaoh faces Takeshi completely as Kara sits up and moves into a crouch. She then sets her mouth in a line of determination. "Pharaoh-20:" she begins. Pharaoh shoots out a stream of blood from his mouth! Or it looks like blood anyway. The stream attempts to douse Takeshi in a sticky, oily, slippery substance… And then a tube extends from Pharaoh's mouth. A flame clicks on on the tip. "Pharaoh's Judgement!" Kara finishes. The flame streaks outwards, attempting to engulf Takeshi. But the moment the flames touch >this< oil… *BOOOOOOOM* A massive fireball the size of a Kage's mansion!
Takeshi lands on the ground with a soft thud as the boat goes rolling back for its captain. He stands up again and shakes his fist out, a sigh coming over him. All in all, Takeshi appears okay for wear, not really seeming bothered by anything right now, His eyes roll up to his opponent and he tips his head, "Well, as you wish."
The falling blood, oil stuff whatever it is doesn't make him any happier. Now, he has to deal with oil..and..then it ignites, apparently burning oil. He pushes off the ground and the fire lights up his robes as it falls on him. Apparently, it was fast enough to catch him off guard, or perhaps he didn't think it was a threat until it burned. Either way, he flies out of the wall of flame and pulls a cord, his over robes falling down on the ground burning, leaving just his gi underneath. There's a tsk, "Burning now is it? Burning oil. Don't they call that pitch?" He shrugs, but it doesn't look like he'll be making a move this round as he deals with the burns and other problems.
Oooo, explosions. Always a crowd-pleaser. n.n Shemri winces at the searing brightness of the attack, then peers through the dissipating flames and smoke to see the outcome. Yup, looks like that did something! "Good move, Kara-san! Keep this up and you shall triumph!"
The puppet master seems to be in control of the match so far, a small smile appears on Hinotoris face as he shifts his position on the wall a little. He focused a bit on Takeshi during the fight, even though the man was losing. Watching as he performed his defenses, he shakes his head, "Not anticipating his opponent." he says. But as he hears Shemri, and the ring lights up a bit. Chuckling as the explosion, "Nice move." he says.
Kara waves at Takeshi briefly. "No, it's okay! The barrier will keep you from dying!" she tries to reassure him as he moves to get out of the conflagration that now lights up the ring and fills the air with the crackling of flames and the smell of smoke. "You could stay in the fire. Really! I mean it for serious!" She shrugs as Takeshi pats himself down, trying to recover from being at the center of a fireball. Then she stands up.
The Papyrus Reed Boat starts sinking towards the ground, and Kara looks down at it in surprise. "…Huh. Guess it ran out of Chakra. Well, I think a change of tactics is in order regardless! This guy is fast. Really, really, really, >stupid-fast<. So… I'll just need something…" She grins. "Faster." She clasps her hands together and focuses her Chakra, preparing it for some heavy-duty butt-kicking.
Just as the boat reaches the ground, Kara finishes and snags a metal ring attached to another pull cord, which is in turn attached to a scroll in that harness on her back. She yanks on the cord, and a cloud of smoke erupts from her back. When it clears, there is a >second Puppet< standing there.
This one is very different from the first. It looks like a statue. A statue of some dark metal, shaped like a woman… But with the head of a lioness. "Kugutsu no Jutsu: Kara no Ni-Kugutsu! <Puppet Art: Kara's Dual Puppetry!>"
Cue the song 'Reverse Situation':
Teshi just stares at the two puppets. Who knows how this would turn the battle, but it was probably a good idea to give it a round and see how things go. AFter all, he had to take some time to let this poison flow over before he could actually mount a counter assault. Already weakened, the poison was just biting into that strength more and she didn't seem content on attacking for now, so it's a staring match between two chuunin, completely different in every aspect.
Kara stares at Takeshi alright. She watches, waiting for him to make some move… When he does nothing, she decides it's up to her. She feels bad for beating on someone's grandpa, but she'll feel worse if she sits on her butt for too long and winds up losing the match. She has had fun so far, when she wasn't nearly getting her shoulder broken. But dragging things out now would be pointless. Kara wiggles her left hand's fingers slightly, and the new Puppet draws its arms at the elbows, with palms pointed forward. Isn't it made of solid metal? How can it move like that? It's like it has joints, or as though the metal were as flexible as flesh…
Kara then moves both hands as though there were invisible strings attached to each. Immediately, Pharaoh sends out a stream of fire from his mouth again and the lioness-headed Puppet lunges forward at speeds compareable to Takeshi's own, trying to get into melee range and slash with her claws. Does the metal Puppet care that the flamethrower strike would hit her as well as the opponent if she is in the way? Not really. Maybe she has a high melting point?
Immediately after this attack, successful or not, Pharaoh sprays out another stream of that oily blood substance. This time, it does not appear to be combustible, however. Just sticky and slippery at the same time.
Takeshi shrugs lightly, it looks like she's running out of things to use. More importantly, her movements have slowed, this may be perfect. She's pulling out the last stitch effort now. He realizes this and in the newness of his discovery, all of the attacks miss. In fact, the two puppets working together seems less effective against Takeshi than the one puppet working as a supporter. Perhaps she should have left the one out and the other tied up, or perhaps takeshi just excells at fighting more than one opponent.
He simply jumps, scoots and dodges around the attacks before centering himself once more. After all, he wasn't going let this fight end with his loss if he can help it. After centering himself, he jumps forward again, just like last time, apparently unconcerned with using the same trick twice - probably because he really, really trusts his speed quotient. Either way, Kara'd find her herself dealing with another snap strike, fingers and five inch punch and all. Even if it didn't hit, he wasn't going to stick around for the retaliation and he disappeared back to his original spot just as quickly. Hands in his pockets, lazy stare on his face.
As Takeshi evades all her attacks, she just keeps smiling. Seems she has something in mind that isn't being messed up by her opponent remaining unharmed. But when he appears right in front of her again, >that< certainly messes things up. Luckily, Pharaoh stayed nearby. So he leaps to the side, and a glowing red field of energy erupts from him at several points on his body, eventually forming into a pyramid-shaped barrier. The barrier only barely came up in time to blunt the full-force of the Kaguya's blow. And some of it still got through, simply because of the barrie not being fully formed when the punch struck.
Kara takes a couple steps back, and breathes out roughly. Gasping for breath she looks down at the spot that was punched. Dang it! Right in the chest! That >hurts<! She was saving those for her boyfriend! Not to mention, she thinks the damage goes deeper than simply mammary tissue. Her ribs hurt too, and it's hard to breathe now for some reason. She looks up with a scowl, and suddenly doesn't feel bad about what she is about to do anymore.
Right behind Takeshi, as the same moment he returns to his position, the lioness Puppet reappears, and stabs forward with a blade that protrudes from her right palm. Right at Takeshi's back, at about the position of his right lung. Payback is a--Wait, what are female cats called? Well, whatever they're called, that is totally what payback is right now!
Kara mutters, "Sekhmet-30: Lady of Slaughter."
DING! A window pops up over the main action, and a chibi-Shemri wearing a veterinarian's lab coat walks in. "Greetings. Today, we shall discuss feline taxonomy." There is the clicking of a slide projector, and an image of a heavy-looking cat appears. Shemri lifts a pointer and taps the image. "When a female cat becomes pregnant, she may be referred to as a 'queen'." The slide moves to show the cat some time after giving birth, with a litter of kittens crowded around for feeding. "This term also applies while the cat is nursing." *Click-click*, and next is a picture of the cat, a single kitten sitting nearby, and an arrow drawn from kitten to mother cat. "In relation to one cat, its mother may be called its 'dam'." Chibi!Shemri lowers the pointer. "That aside, a female cat is simply called a female cat." The picture goes blank, chibi!Shemri bows, and the window disappears to reveal the main action again.
There y'go, Kara. Payback is a queen, a dam, or just plain a kitty.
Hinotori couldn't believe at the way the match is going, Kara has pretty much taken the match and ran with it. "Impressive." he says simply. His eyes reverting back to his normal almond brown color. The final blow from Karas puppet was something he wasn't expecting and it looks like the old man wasn't expecting it either. Shaking his head he looks towards the old man to see if he was going to do something.
Yes, Takeshi hadn't been expecting a puppet to sprout a rotating buzzsaw of death and fly at him from behind, no that wasn't quite on his list of things to expect from the puppet master. Still, it was a good match for both in his opinion, not that he has much left to have an opinion on. He's pretty much out for the count, with pretty deep gashes to boot, but none of them managing to completely harm him. For once, that kaguya bone structure comes in handy for something other than looking nice.
Fuyu sees Takeshi impaled by the sword that protrudes from the lion-headed Puppet's palm. She watches and sees how the target locks up at that strike and does nothing else. He may not be dead, but he's wounded at least. Badly enough to end the match. So she does. "This match is over! Kaguya Odori Takeshi is in no condition to continue to fight! The winner is Uudo Kara!"
