Starring:
Ryouji, Sado, Michiko (emitter)
Date: August 11, 2014
Summary:
The Chuunin exams bring together two long-standing rivals in one epic fight at their top abilities. It's finally time to see who will come out on top.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Fourth Promotion Exams - Rivals Clash! Ryouji vs. Sado"
Kanayama Hiko Arena - Fighting Ring [Kumogakure]
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The arena before you is as large as an open field. Vast stone walls surround the arena. They look as rough and uneven as the walls of a cave. The walls climb straight up, higher and higher to the distant stands. The only break in the rough hewn walls is a round, cave-like entrance leading back to the lobby. The grounds of the arena are a mixture of lands. On one half is uneven, rocky ground like many of the places found in Kumo. The other half is firm packed soil with a long row of full grown trees that encircle the edges of the arena. Within the center of the field is a wide, deep pool surrounded by sandy shores. It's a tribute to all five nations, yet seems to blend naturally together as if one were standing on the edge of the nations' borders.
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Contents:
Exits:
Out - (O) [Kanayama Hiko Arena - Lobby]
Finally, the official results are out! The battle between Ryouji and Sado was official. Kumo managed to convince a Jounin from Iwagakure to oversee the match. An attempt to keep it neutral and also a sign of good faith. He doesn't give any fancy announcement like Hiei did, but he does announce the fighting genin. "Okay, everyone! We've got Reizei Ryouji facing off against Yotsuki Sado! Remember we've got the dampening fields up, so you two genin can go all out." With th the steps back and just eyes the contestants.
Ryouji sits in a kneeling position in a waiting room outside the arena. As he hears his name being called, he slips to a standing position and picks up his swords. "Ok Ryouji, by the books. Don't mess this up." he says softly to himself. He picks up his swords laying out in front of him and straps them on in various places on his body. Then blows out the candle light in front of him before walking out into the daylight of the arena. He waves to the crowd before walking out to the middle and waiting for Sado.
Sado walks into the arena for the second time as the second round begins. He was far less nervous than he was the previous match, being a little more 'used' to the spectacle of the event. His eyes are trained forward towards the Iwagakure Jounin and beyond to Ryouji, his rival, team mate, and friend. Once he got to the center of the arena, he looks up at the Iwagakure Jounin, wondering idly if he was a Murasame clan member. Holding his tongue, he turns back to Ryouji and holds his fist out. "Ready?"
Already his insides a thurmming with chakra as it builds up. Ryouji holds his own fist out, bumping it with Sado's, "You bet Sado-kun, let's give the folks a good show. By the way, you haven't given me a birthday present. I'd suggest throwing this fight, making me a chuunin would be a great idea." He jokes about it of course, he would never forgive Sado for throwing the fight, and Sado should know it. Ryouji looks back at the offical, nods, and glares at Sado, "I'm ready. Let's see what you've got." as he gestures towards Sado with his hand to 'bring it'.
The Jounin looks between the contestants, making sure they're both ready. It seems like it, certainly. "Okay, you two. Start when you want. I'll step in if I think it needs to be done." He waves his hands, signaling for the fight to start. He seemed … bored… But attentive.
Sado smiles as his friend bumps fists, not just a Yotsuki tradition anymore since the founding of Kumogakure. "I was planning on giving you a nice bruised rib as a birthday present, Ryouji-kun. For the boy who has everything else." he says as a retort, a grin on his face as he punches one fist into his other open palm. "YOSHA." he says, getting pumped. Ryouji makes the mistake of giving the Yotsuki the first move. Sado charges two fists of lightning chakra and rushes towards Ryouji, aiming to strike him with back to back soulstrikes.
Ryouji was only being fair and he's taking a pounding for it. He gets hit in the gut with the first hit, the second in the form of a right cross which sends him stumbling back. "Ow…" he states, rubbing his jaw. "…alright, let's do this right." He jumps back into Sado, pulling cutter's hilt out, attempting to ram it home someplace soft. But changes pace with a twin point blank beams of chakra from his palms. The first one was discord, but the second one might hit…might. Still, not a good way to start a fight Ryouji.
Maybe sado had sparred with Michiko so many times that it had just become second nature to dodge flying projectiles, or maybe Sado was in the zone today. Whatever it was, both of his attacks strike home and, to top it all off, he is able to move through Ryouji's counter attack despite the close range while putting himself in a good place for his own counter. "Better step up the speed, Ryouji-kun, or this will be quite the birthday gift." he says as he lashes out with a powerful kick infused with chakra before spinning around with another from the same leg in a roundhouse fashion.
Ryouji says, "Then let's cut with the dramatics and pretenses….yeeeah! Let's do this Sado-kun!" He pushes his body right into the max of his blur form, sending shivering lines of energy down his arms and legs. He slides his feet in a wide stance and grips his hip swords. He blinks out for a second, moving behind Sado. Blinks out a second time, ending up to his side. Then blinking out once more to where he started. It's his patend pending Reizei flashs strike triple combo.
Sado sees Ryouji begin to get serious by activating the strongest Blur he has seen his friend use to dodge his techniques. Sado 'tsks' as he misses and has to react quickly to three fast counter attacks. Able to move his body out of the way of the first two, he is hit by the last, waking him up a bit to the fight that was going on here. With a brief pause, Sado is covered in a lightning aura of chakra, crackling up and down his body. He focuses some of that lightning into his elbow, flying forward aiming for Ryouji's gut before swinging his other fist around, charged with lightning as well, towards him to push him back.
Michiko watches from the stands, curious to see if Sado might continue his two-attack pattern. It seems like yes, and it also seems like he's beating Ryouji for this first round of attack. Michiko cheers for both from her perch, even if they can't hear. Ryouji then decides to go full-out Blur. So early? Well, it's his fight… Sado has his own lightning on his skin. indeed, this battle is already very intense. And it's only a few rounds in.
Ryouji pushes the battle for a good reason. Every other fight, he's waited it out, got nickle and dimed until he pushed into blur III, but by then he was too weak to do anything effective. This time, he knows who he's up against. No holding back, no 'testing the waters' so he won't get against of himself. He easily dodges out of the way of both lightning attacks from Sado and comes in with swords out and in each hand. He reverses one sword and pushes with it, then flips it back around and goes in for a double stab of the dual swords.
Sado has to step up his game on the defensive front as Ryouji comes in with a powerful attack. Not wanting to get hit by his swordback, Sado makes sure he is nowhere near the blade as it swings through an afterimage of him, making the dual slash a little less intensive to dodge due to having time to use his keen eyesight. He begins his next jutsu, moving slowly at first, much slower than usual to throw Ryouji off. "My gift to you, Ryouji-kun." he says as he gets closer, still moving slow. Suddenly, with a burst of speed, he would seemingly disappear, appearing behind Ryouji and hitting him in two key muscle joints with a significant amount of electricity to attempt to temporarily disable his friend. With the seals in place, this move needed to do its job of disabling because it wouldn't hurt as much with all the protection. "Happy Birthday!"
Ryouji has been wanting this fight. Has been itching for it since beating his first opponent. Now, he fears it. He has gotten over his head. Sado is just too good. For Sado to have done that to Ryouji, to move faster and hit harder, and to stop his body like flipping off a light switch. Ryouji would congradulate him, if he wasn't twitching on the floor and writing in pain. He's got nothing that'll match that. At least not now. He's stuck for the time being, using his chakra to at least bust himself free. Or at least trying to, with no luck.
To say Sado goes easy on his friend as he lays on the ground was debatable. He didn't bother moulding chakra nor did he charge any lightning. He wasn't interested in a total destruction of his friend's ego or anything, he just wanted to give him a good fight and say he didn't hold back. He was still saving a sort of ace up his sleeve, but that he didn't plan on using on his friends, it was more for in overwhelmingly uneven circumstances like the recent 4v2. He kicks Ryouji in the gut a few times, more to say, 'Hey, the fight's not over, get back up here.' with renewed vigor.
Each kick sounds like jackhammers in Ryouji's ears. The pain feels like a dagger each time. For sure something is broken. But this is it, he's hit his limit. He squints up in the stands, especially up at the spot where the Reizei are. His father, who is just frowning at this point. So much initial talent, now look at him. On the ground, being gut kicked. His brother, triumphant, seeing his brother down there getting pummeled. So much jelaously, now he's just pissed that he didn't get the shot at beating him. Ryouji pulls himself up, propping himself up with a sword before he's fulling on his feet. "You think…I'm giving up that easy?" he says through labored breaths. "I haven't begun this fight yet…" and he brings his swords up, charging at Sado once more, into the frey. He whips his swords around him in an arc, trailing silver and blue lines in front of him before plunging them in again at the target.
"There's the Ryouji-kun I know." Sado says with a grin as Ryouji gets back up after that display with the renewed vigor he wanted Ryouji to have. He moves away from the attacks, both of them deadly enough if they hit him. "Nice." he says, mostly thinking out loud to himself as he charges more lightning into his fists. He races back towards Ryouji to engage the Reizei in hand to hand combat, striking not twice this time, but three back to back strikes aimed to wear Ryouji down even further.
"Ryouji-kun, get up!" is what Michiko called out to the Reizei when he was downed with that sudden shock. She had seen Suzume use it on Hiei, and it was a nasty blow to receive. It looked like he was alright, the boy able to send two rather powerful sword slashes at Sado. The Yotsuki is able to avoid the attacks again, and Michiko wonders if it's thanks to all the spars she had with Sado that led to his current strength… "Sado-kun, don't get /too/ carried away against Ryouji-kun!" she shouts. She doubts they'll hear her…
Ryouji glares at Sado and as he comes in, Ryouji lurches forward. His swords snap back into their sayas with his body moving up and between the lightning punches using his smaller size to get in close. He gets in past the fists, snaping his own fists out in a gut punch before disappearing, dodging the middle hit, and returning in the same spot again and punching in the same spot again. He grips his cutter, pulling the handle out for a strike, then snapping it outward in a line of blue.
Sado has to get creative as Ryouji counters not one but two of his fists, moving his body just enough so that his attempts hit air. His series of attacks do not land on Sado, but the young Yotsuki is left catching his breath as the fight drags on, feeling the drain of stamina that a battle takes on your body. He wipes the sweat from his brow, smiling at his friend. "Lets finish this up." he says as he charges lightning into his elbow in order to dash forward to strike Ryouji in the gut, disappearing from view directly after the hit lands or misses in order to strike Ryouji with a move that rivals his fastest speeds, appearing behind him having already attacked.
The Iwagakure Jounin who was charged with watching over the battle observed the two Kumo genin with a passive expression. Iwa was really not well-represented in the Exams, so he had less interest than he should. He was a bit grumpy when he had to admit that the genin here were very good. In his opinion, they deserved the rank of Chuunin, regardless of who the victor turned out to be. At least, if this was based on fighting skill alone. Naturally there were other things to think about, like leadership skills.
Noting both contestants' condition he steps into the battle arena. His booming voice is enough to draw their attentions, hopefully. Sado was already intending to wrap things up, too. "Reizei Ryouji. It's been determined that continuing any further would be bad for your health, even with our barriers up. Do you still wish to continue?"
Ryouji is shivering as his body is about to fall apart. He's got multiple broken ribs. Burns from lightning hits. Bruses all over his body. Cuts and abrasions all over his body. He looks through his one good eye, the other has swollen shut. "I…don't…." he pauses as he swallows his pride, knowing he might not win this, even if he pushes Sado like Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman. He was getting there, taking all the hits and wearing out Sado until he fell over. But he's not sure his body could take more abuse or even if he could out last Sado. "…want to go on." He raises his hand in surrender, not quite sure if he should, but taking caution over bravado this time.
"You do want to go on, Ryouji-kun. That's what makes us friends. The point is, you made a good decision to NOT go on." Sado says as his friend surrenders the match. Aside from heavy breathing, Sado looked good, though the true 'damage' of a match isn't just in health. His lightning fades as the match is over, and Sado moves over to investigate Ryouji. "Sure glad those dampening seals are in place, though I most certainly wouldn't have used some of those techniques if they weren't. Your speed kept up with mine, something not even Michiko can claim." he says to his friend with a smile.
The Jounin nods, signaling to a few medic nin on standby. They go over to Ryouji and Sado each, giving some of their major wounds a quick check. Meanwhile, the Iwa Jounin announces to the whole crowd, "The winner of this fight. Yotsuki Sado!" He gives the young boy a rough pat on the back in congratulations. Then Ryouji, though it's more careful due to the Reizei's condition. "Good match, you two. You'll make Kumogakure a strong village that we have to watch out for."
Ryouji keeps the blur going, afarid if he shuts it down for a moment, he'll drop right where he's standing. "Yeah…g..guess it's better than…n..nothing." He slowly starts turning down his blur, like a novice horse rider coming off the saddle of his first long ride. Fast and you'll fall on your butt. He slumps as his body starts feeling the damage and burnt out feeling. At least he's not crashing as hard as he would were this real and those shields are on.
Michiko tsks, having totally heard what Sado just said. She … well, she is tempted to hop down into the arena, but she isn't a complete and total nutcase. She comes down into the arena the normal way as fast as she can, which is actually pretty fast. "Ryouji-kun, Sado-kun. Good fight, you two." She gives Sado a punch in the arm, her own form of congratulations to the Yotsuki. "My speed is perfectly fine, Sado-kun… Anyway, you two should both get to the hospital so the medic nin can look after you."
