The Tortoise and the Ghost (Ryuu Vs, Miyuki)

Ryuu entered the arena with a hopeful trepidation that had him shaking. The arena was broad and circular, roughly fifty meters across with high walls surrounding it. Outside, along the perimeter, a roaring crowd greeted them. Ryuu waved to the crowd as he approached the center, eager for them to get a good hard look at him and remember his name. He wasn't worried about his matchup at all: not that he knew who she was. Rather, he was excited to get a move on with this fight and flex his abilities. This would be one of the few occasions that he'd be allowed to really go all out and so he intended to savor it.

He stood before his opponent: a young girl about his height. A Mist genin, apparently, though Ryuu didn't recall ever meeting her. This would be the first time he even spoke to her, much less fought her. Still, as a first-hand witness to this impending fight, she could bring tales of his awesomeness back home to hopefully impress the higher ups.

"I don't think we've met before." Ryuu remarked, stretching his arms up above him to limber up. He didn't bother taking off his leather jacket for this bout. "The name's Ryuu. Don't worry about taking it easy on me, yeah? I wanna see what you've got."

He scrutinized her reaction, sizing his opponent up. Oddly, there was something about his opponent that seemed relatable, despite the fact that he was sure he never knew her. Maybe that would become clear as they fought.

As the match began, Miyuki's first action was to jump backward and create some distance. Clearly she knew who she was facing, which was fine enough. given that she hadn't opted to cover her retreat with jutsu, he ran after her forming hand seals. "Water Release: Gunshot!" He called. He gathered a large glob of water in his mouth and spat it with the force of a bullet, sending it careening toward her. From here, he would take this chance to probe her defenses, seeing whether she would dodge or block. Dodging would, perhaps, be the better choice, as Ryu was confident he could overcome whatever defense she was able to muster out of that little pipe she had.

Ryuu wasn't worried that the water gun flying over her head. She responded with a jutsu of her own, blowing bubbles out of her pipe. Incanting "Explosion Bubble Jutsu," Ryuu was let into a key fact he wouldn't have known otherwise--that the bubbles were explosive. Fair enough, he figured. He still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve, and as she said he would do much better in melee anyway.

Taking a big leap straight toward her, he manifested his Coral Armor, letting the hard substance quickly coat his entire body. The shuriken bounced right off, and the three bubbles burst right next to him. While it was loud and annoying, the coral only cracked a little bit, the armor surrounding him still fairly intact. He sharpened the coral on his arms into claws as he arrived right in front of her, opening with a horizontal slash followed by a strong kick. It could possibly go one of two ways: If both attacks hit, then she'd be sent flying backward, and he would follow up with some Coral Spike Bullets. If the kick were blocked, then he would try to grab her arms and suplex her over him, in order to render her prone. If she managed to slink away, he would simply follow and try to maintain a close distance.

As Ryuu's claw sunk into the rubber bubble, the bubble started to be covered by coral, greatly reducing its ability to stretch and deform. He tossed it to the side. He followed that up with the seals for Water Release: Starch Syrup Capturing Field, manipulating the sticky syrup to grab the remaining rubber bubbles around him and pull them to the ground. "You're really running your mouth, aren't you? That's not a good look for someone who hasn't even touched me yet."

The Coral Spike Bullets reflected back at him bounced right off his Coral Armor, landing on the ground uselessly. Continuing to manipulate the Starch Syrup Capturing Field, Ryuu expanded it to cover her section of the stadium, putting in a larger-than-normal amount of chakra in the technique to expand the technique's range greatly. In order to cut off her escape, he had the field split into two and emerge to either side of her, going all the way to the walls of the stadium before moving in to fill the gap.

Ryuu raised an eyebrow as the mist began to roll in from her jutsu. While she could use the mist to hide, did she forget that he too comes from the Hidden Mist Village? He's taken more than just the basic courses in Silent Killing, and he knew very well not only how to perform it, but what to look out for if someone else was going for it.

He became still, allowing himself to hear what was going on around him while simultaneously being as quiet as possible. At least his opponent was quiet enough to not get caught right away. He'd have to do something entirely different then. Using a Hidden Mist Jutsu of his own, he filled the battlefield with even more mist--his mist, and quite a thick mist at that. Surely she would notice the mist getting this thick, but he needed an ample amount of water vapor in the air so he could perform this next attack.

Making a handseal, he formed four water clones utilizing some of the mist, making it so that they appeared out of nowhere near where he had seen her enter. If any of the water clones spotted her, he would know, and they absolute would spot her as they all made their way into the center of the mist.

Maybe she could deal with one of him, but four? Not likely--and with all this mist around, he still had one last trick up his sleeve too.

The four clones approached with fervor. They tore through the mist in search of Miyuki, with one goal in mind. They didn't have any armor, but that wasn't a concern--Ryuu didn't particularly care if she could distinguish them as clones. Their attacks were still worthy of fear, and the water that composed them could too be reused for other jutsu.

Explosions rocked the arena. It seemed that Miyuki was less interested in hiding now and more interested in finding his clones. One of them actually got hit straight on with an explosive tag and blew up, returning into the vapor whence it came. Based on the direction that kunai had come from, Ryuu and his clones were able to make a judgment on where she was, and the remaining three clones homed in on her.

The next moves would be made with the intent to land a Water Prison Jutsu, hopefully ending the match. While there was no standing water to form a Water Prison, there was plenty of Mist that could be used hovering around the battlefield. Ryuu's first clone approached, throwing a kunai ahead of him and coming in low. Miyuki was low to the ground as well, in an unstable position that would let her react, but not stand sturdy, so the clone opted to slide across the ground and sweep her legs. A second appeared, and the second opted to attempt to interfere with her in the air, attempting to grapple a limb or even her body to hold her in place. The third clone would do the same, diving at her to interfere with her movement and stop her from using her pipe or any other jutsu.

In the meantime, Ryuu circled around, intending to come at her from the rear. If Miyuki was distracted with the three clones, he should have ample time to sneak in. So, utilizing the distraction, he came from behind, intending to touch her with his palm long enough to activate the Water Prison Jutsu. If successful, the three clones and much of the mist Ryuu created would be sucked into a sphere of water, except Miyuki would be pressed into the center of it, unable to move for as long as Ryuu's hand was in the water.

Once it became clear that Miyuki was not able to escape the sphere, Ryuu breathed a sigh of relief. The mist dispersed, and as the outcome was revealed to everyone watching, the match was called in his favor. He released the jutsu, letting the water fall to the ground. As the crowd roared among them, Ryuu offered his hand to Miyuki.

"Good match." He said. While it didn't press him to go all out, it was still interesting dealing with an opponent as slippery as Miyuki, and he could walk away knowing he learned something. The same wasn't necessarily true for all fights, so in this case, he was more than happy to be genuine when saying that he enjoyed this fight.