“Man, just my luck,” Kiba sighed but spoke confidently, “I hope you and Ino aren’t that close. I’d hate to be chased down after beating you out of the Exams.”
I raised an eyebrow in response, hands tucked away in my pants. “You speak with much…arrogance.” I stated, smiling to myself when he reacted with an annoyed look. “Let’s have a fair match.”
With that, the examiner raised a hand and brought it down. “Begin!”
Immediately, Kiba made a hand seal and soon, chakra could be seen rising from his body. I removed my hands from my pockets and just as he lunged towards me, I held out my arms to block him. I began to analyse his attack patterns while trying to keep my distance, but it was a lot easier said than done. He was fast and it was hard to keep up. It was more than once that he almost got me to slip up, but I managed to push him back at one point so I could regain my balance. Without wasting a second, he came at me again with a rapid series of kicks and punches. Soon, he was driving me back into the wall.
“Come on, Riku! Take him down!” I heard Ino shout from the sidelines. “Show ‘im how it’s done!”
“Looks like you’re having a hard time keeping up!” He taunted, not slowing down one bit. I remained silent, completely focused on reading his movements. Once I was a foot away from the wall, I made my first move. “We may have worked together a little during the second test, but now you’re just like every other genin in this room – my opponent!”
At the same moment he punched with his right arm, I leaned away, surprising him with a dodge instead of a block. As his momentum carried him through, I brought my left arm up and drove my elbow right between his shoulders, satisfied with the loud thud as I successfully landed the strike. Just as I heard Kiba landing, Akamaru was already jumping towards me, but I easily tossed him towards the genin.
I figured it was time to shift from defense to offense. I couldn’t dodge and block forever, after all. Flowing my chakra out around me, the space rippled and soon, four mirages of me appeared.
“Guess we can’t mess around. Let’s go, Akamaru!” In a blink of an eye, he swallowed a food pill and flicked one towards Akamaru, who caught it in his mouth with ease. Curiously, I watched as the pup’s fur began to turn red. The increase in chakra that came from both of them didn’t go unnoticed. “There may be five of you, but just try and keep up now. This pill enhances our sense of smell by tenfold and doubles our chakra!”
Running at each other, I mixed myself up with the mirages and confused them. With all five of me jumping around, I wasn’t the only one having a hard time keeping track of my opponent’s movement. He struck first, slashing at the mirage next to me. It wavered and disappeared, leaving him with four targets. At the same time, he and Akamaru kept jumping at us as fast as they could, trying their best to land a strike. Another mirage disappeared, then another.
“Only two targets left.” He grinned and the two of them attacked simultaneously. I frowned and pulled out a kunai as I held my arms in front of me, taking a hit to my forearms. My mirage disappeared as I spun to the side, slashing up Kiba’s sleeve and leaving him with a flesh wound. “Damn it…the scent of blood!”
“You know, enhancing your senses isn’t a very good idea when you’re up against a genjutsu user. I mean, I understand why you used this strategy against Naruto during the last Exams, but now you’re just asking to be let out of the game.” I informed, preparing myself for the next attack.
Ignoring me, Kiba and Akamaru jumped into the air and began spinning rapidly. “Man-Beast Taijutsu: Fang Over Fang!”
They turned into what looked like gray pillars as they spun towards me. I quickly scanned my surroundings and braced myself, taking the hit with my arms. The force was enough to send me back and I winced as I landed on my back, sliding back until I lost momentum. Before I could get up, smoke bombs were thrown at me and a large cloud of smoke blinded me. Well, wasn’t that just lovely.
A series of strikes began to come at me. He definitely wasn’t holding back, but I just had to last a while longer to re-position myself. Despite speed being one of my strengths, I still ended up taking a few hits and eventually hightailed out of the smoke altogether. Right as I broke free, I was greeted by another spinning gray figure coming straight at me. The other Kiba was using the same technique from behind.
“Riku, move!” I heard Naruto shout.
“Never thought of doing that before.” I commented sarcastically and jumped to the side, pulling out eight kunai knives as I did so. I flipped back to gain some more distance and threw my weapons at the two incoming genin, catching them by their jackets and pushing them back. I immediately began to form a new series of hand seals while running towards the two of them.
“Trembling Eyes.” As I ran up to them, I held out my hands and with chakra focused to the tips of my fingers, tapped their foreheads with them. I slowed down to a stop before turning around to see the two of them struggling as they got up. “Unfortunately, smell is a bit trickier to mess with. I’m not that great, but have fun with your warped vision.”
The genjutsu I placed on them didn’t blind them, but it did make it seem like they were incredibly dizzy. It was clear that my technique was working because the two of them wobbled about as they tried to regain their balance. With a crooked smile, I sprinted up to one of them and slammed my fist into his stomach. I wasted no time landing a combo that sent him flying into the air with a strong kick, followed by a series of aerial strikes that finished with me kicking him across the room and into the wall with my shin.
“Wait to go, Riku!” Ino cheered, waving her arms about.
“Oh! I didn’t know she could do that!” I heard Chouji comment loudly with his mouth full.
As Kiba pushed himself off the ground, cursing under his breath, I spun around to fend off the transformed Akamaru. It seemed although I’d just never catch a break. Left, right, right, left, below, left, below again—I was breathing heavily now, knowing that if I slipped up, I’d take a painful hit.
“Fang Over Fang!”
Oh, shit. I forgot there were two of them.
I didn’t have enough time to react and before I knew it, a pain exploded across my back and I was launched into the air. Several cuts appeared on my body as I landed, I slid across the ground once again. Before I could even start getting up, the other Kiba lunged towards me and slammed me into the ground. I felt at least a couple of ribs crack from the impact and my mask caught the blood that shot from my mouth. I was still conscious, but the growing numbness and the ringing in my head almost made me want to knock myself out.
“I’d stay down if I were you, Riku.” I heard Kiba warn while standing next to his transformed companion.
I stayed on my back for a moment and dared to close my eyes, almost as if I really was unconscious. I had to regain my composure before trying to get up. After making sure my body could still move, I slowly opened my eyes and began to peel my arms out of the small crate that I was lying in.
“That seems like the smart thing to do…” I started while trying my best not to inhale my own blood, “…But this is a really uncomfortable place to take a nap.”
I winced and slowly pushed myself up while unzipping my mask so I could spit out my blood. I was still left with the sticky substance getting smeared all over my face, at least I wasn’t breathing it in. Once I zipped my mask shut, the two of them were already approaching at their usual above-average speed. Neither of us were in great shape, but it was pretty obvious that I had taken more damage at this point. That wouldn’t be stopping me any time soon though. Right before they hit me, I pushed out a burst of chakra through my feet and propelled myself into the air to dodge.
There was an arrogant grin on his face as he drew nearer. “Heh, I see an opening!” Kiba announced, preparing that spinning technique of his. I was ready for him this time, though.
“Hey Kiba, I’m not limited to just genjutsu.” I murmured to myself as the two of them charged at be again as I landed. “Lightning Release; Lightning Edge.” With a few hand seals, I focused chakra to my hands and feet. Much to everybody’s surprise, they began to spark and quickly erupted into a wild coat of lightning.
“What the—since when did you learn ninjutsu?!” Kiba exclaimed in shock.
I offered no explanation and charged towards him. Before either of them could redirect themselves, I reached out and grabbed one of them by the shoulders. The force pushing against me caused me to be pushed back into the wall, but I landed against it with my feet and kicked off with another burst of chakra. At the same time, the lightning cut across his body and caused him to scream out in pain. After a 360-spin in the air, I threw him into the other Kiba coming my way, causing them both to be shocked by the lightning.
Before they hit the ground, I jumped after them and with one kick each, slammed them back into the ground. The room fell silent except for the cracking of the lightning. Once I landed, I had the lightning around my hands disappear. There was a puff of smoke and Akamaru returned to normal, but it seems although Kiba could still stand.
“Tch, that isn’t ninjutsu.” He grumbled while pushing himself onto his feet. “You could at least try to make it feel a little more convincing.”
“Maa…and here I thought I could have a little more fun with some faulty lightning.” I pouted mockingly.
I could sense the disbelief coming from my comrades as they silently demanded why I tricked everybody into thinking I was using Lightning Release ninjutsu. It may have looked like the real deal but sadly, I haven’t quite reached the level of elemental ninjutsu yet. At least it made this match at least remotely more interesting, and it affected my opponent considerably.
“Riku, quit messing around and take him out already!” Ino’s piercing voice shouted from the sidelines.
Now that Akamaru was out of the picture, that wouldn’t take much longer.
Just when I was a few feet away from him and he was ready to counterattack, I launched myself over him with another burst of chakra. I flipped over him just enough so that I could reach up and grab him by his shoulders. As I landed, I pulled him over my head and with as much force as I could, threw him into the ground.
“Let me repay you for earlier.” I muttered as his back slammed into the ground. Before his body even settled, I brought my hands together into one fist and from above my head, I brought my hands down to strike him in the solar plexus. This time, he was the one who coughed up blood, but I didn’t stop there. If I could still move after what he did to me, then he’d definitely still be able to move after that.
I was just about to strike again but to my surprise, he grabbed me by the wrists and threw me off to the side. I landed on my back a fair distance away, wincing from the sharp pain coming from my ribs, but managed to stay focused enough to catch Kiba’s fist before it connected with my jaw. He was now crouching over me and I was pushing up against his fist, but I soon pulled my legs back and into the air to strike at his head.
When he easily dodged that attempt, I released his fist as he pulled back, which gave me enough time and space to get back onto my feet. We were now facing each other with only a few feet between us. Both of us had taken significant damage and I was sure we were both dealing with a few cracked ribs and sore limbs, but that wasn’t going to stop us from continuing this match until there was one clear winner.
“Let’s finish this.” I said while holding up my fists.
“I’ll make you regret taking out Akamaru!” He growled back, and the two of us ran towards each other.
He struck first, and an exchange of taijutsu ensued. He eventually managed to throw a kick to my face, but I blocked it with my forearms and was only pushed back by a few feet. Before he could prepare another attack, I pulled out the last of my kunai knives – the ones that had explosive tags wrapped around the handles.
As I threw them towards him, Kiba repeatedly jumped and flipped back to avoid them. However, I had thrown them in a line and the area between him and I was completely clouded after all the tags exploded, which gave me a chance to catch him by surprise. Without a moment’s notice, I dashed through the expanding cloud of smoke. The moment I broke through the other side, I leapt into the air and kicked his chin as hard as I could, striking him into the air.
I immediately jumped after him and with a quick spin in the air, slammed my shin into his side and sent him flying to the opposite end of the arena. He slammed into the wall with a loud crash and another large could of dust formed while I landed on the ground with a thud. My legs were shaking and my knees were on the verge of giving out, so I had to stay kneeling. If that didn’t finish him off, I probably wouldn’t have been able to continue.
I brushed my hair out of my face as I gasped for air, surprised at how drawn out the battle had become. Silence filled the room as the dust settled. The dust settled and I heard a groan come from Kiba, but he didn’t get up. I sighed in relief as I slowly stood up on trembling legs. The announcer made his declaration, ending the match.
“Winner: Mumeishi Riku!”
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Chapter notes: In which Riku fights Kiba.
Chapter end notes: Hope this was interesting enough for a genin fight. Thanks for reading!