Finding Victory Amidst Schemes (Ori | Sayuri)

Having never really found himself for all this political theater, Ori lamented his position right at the heart of it. While it was true that a Chuunin promotion would be beneficial for him (immensely beneficial, in fact, as it would allow him to get away with so much more) he didn't enjoy the prospect of having to tip his hand a little further than normal in order to get what he wanted.

If he understood the matchup correctly, his opponent was Sayuri Uzumaki, a red-headed upstart with lots of personality and little actual substance. While he appreciated the chance to learn more about her in combat, Ori felt that knowledge wouldn't exactly be useful long-term. And yet here he was, devouring drips and morsels of knowledge like a ragged stray.

Worse yet, the field was relatively barren. Other than some boulders along the walls and a couple of trees, there wasn't much offered in the way of terrain here. There was little he could use precisely to his advantage, but that didn't mean there wasn't a solution at all. He'd just have to get creative.

He reached inside of his coat and palmed a fistful of senbon, each tipped in a nasty little paralyzing nerve agent. Perhaps, he could end this quickly.

Sayuri had not been looking forward to the Chuunin exams, knowing that while she didn't lack talent there was some serious gaps in her training that were going to hinder any real chance at success. Too much focus on tinkering with sealing techniques that could hardly help her in a one on one duel. Particularly when it came to someone like Ori. She wasn't entirely familiar with the boy, but he had something of a reputation for shenanigans.. Which meant this fight was probably going to get messy quite quickly if the proctors didn't step in. The redhead shook her head and stepped up to the line and peered across the arena, noting her opponent fishing through his coat.

Taking a ready stance, she waited for the round to start. Victory or defeat she needed to make sure that this was something that the higher ups would take not of if she was ever going to advance in her career. After all, there was always next year if she couldn't prevail.. and perhaps in that time she would come up with something that could give her an edge on any opponent, no matter how tricky they were.

And then, the match begun.

Ori hoped to gain a quick advantage, and so he ran forward toward his foe. Forming a rat seal in his free hand, he cast his shadow forward, hoping to ensnare her. It was an obvious opening, but he hoped that he could quickly pull ahead and gain momentum with the move. It was at this time he retrieved three of the the poisoned senbon from his coat, watching closely to how she would react. He didn't plan to throw the senbon just yet, not until she made a move to get out of the way of his Shadow Imitation technique, but if she trapped herself in the air he would toss those senbon right at her.

Abilities Used:

The start of the bout wasn't particularly exciting, her opponent opting to take her on from a distance by stretching out his shadow. An ability that Sayuri was not going to allow to hit her. As secretive as the clans of Konoha could be they had reputation enough that their signature jutsu was not something that could just be ignored. Instead, she countered this open with a jutsu of her own, a swift string of handseals followed by drawing and launching a shuriken in one motion would reveal it's purpose. The weapon lit up with electricity, energy coating it entirely to propel it at intense speed towards Ori.

However, hitting was not her goal, while it would be a bonus she intended to detonate the shuriken at just the right motion, a final seal being formed at the perfect moment to explode into a field of lightning to catch the boy by surprise. However that went, she would dart to the left, utilizing surprising speed to avoid the snaking shadow tendril and move around the boy, hoping to force him to face the sun, ensuring that any shadow techniques would find it harder to find a route toward her without being severely obvious.

Technique's Used:

Ori wasn't about to get hit by that shuriken. He'd trained too hard for that, and he wasn't born yesterday. It seemed his foe was savvy regarding the Shadow Imitation techinque, so there was no point keeping that up. He ceased the jutsu, focusing his energy on narrowly avoiding the shuriken. The less movement, the better, or so he thought.

The shuriken was in fact charged and ready to blow. Stepping aside wasn't enough, and as the shuriken detonated, he found himself caught in a field of electricity. His hand spasmed enough for him to drop the senbon on the ground--they landed randomly penetrating the ground. He faced her, a smirk playing on her face. His hair poked out everywhere from the shock. "Fair enough." He muttered.

It was very clear what she was doing to react to his jutsu: by staying in the area on the east side of the stadium, he'd have to stretch his shadow more and it would be more obvious, but standing in the large shadow cast by the stadium wall was hardly the right thing to do, not that he'd stop her. He opted to put the pressure on. He wrapped ninja wire around the ring of a kunai, the metal wire binding tight enough to be secure, and he threw the knife deliberately short of where Sayuri was headed. As the kunai knife hit the ground within the shadow of the stadium wall, if Sayuri remained in range, Ori would use the Lightning Release: Spider Web technique, electrifying the ground within a few meters of where the weapon dug into the ground as the jutsu conducted from his hand through the wire.

Abilities Used:

Sayuri would not stay in range in the least, in fact the second she saw him throw the kunai and it's tethered wire she darted in the opposite direction. While she didn't have much in her favour, she did have the edge in speed. However she hadn't been using it all to much just yet. As she cleared the landing point of the thrown weapon from earlier, Sayuri would instead move in to attack directly. All things considered, she needed to hit fast and hard to put her opponent down before he pulled off any tricks, assuming that is she hadn't fallen for one already.

In a flash of speed she closed the distance between them, forming handseals once more as she drew a pair of shuriken. This time they didn't seem to have the same speed as her first, instead the two weapons trajectory split and fanned out, arcing electricity between them. It was an uncomplicated plan, distract the boy long enough to get close so she could use her agility to keep him on the back foot. She was practically a blur to the uninitiated and soon she was upon him, launching into a series of savage kicks that targeted him from legs to head. However, as she completed the first rotation of her kick, a silvery chain of chakra seemed to manifest from her back to lash out with some force. Not as well known as the Nara clan's signature jutsu, these chains were known to be potent for sealing techniques, but it seemed that she hadn't quite matured the technique beyond a blunt instrument just yet. The rest of the series would follow regardless for him to deal with. The girl didn't want to admit it, but she could feel the strain of her improper chakra use coming on already, and was a looming threat to her success here.

Techniques Used:

She nimbly hopped away from where the kunai dug itself into the ground, and so he wound up not using the Lightning Release: Spider Web. He was happy enough to have the kunai in the ground with a wire to his hand, as it would not only help him defend himself from other lightning charged projectiles, but also connect his shadow to the largest shadow in the arena should he hold the wire low enough. As Sayuri leapt away from that large shadow and toward him, little did she seem to understand that her true enemy could very well lay behind her.

But he would work on that plan later. For now, he had the incoming threat of Sayuri's approach to deal with. The pair of shuriken sailed around him with lightning arcing between them. He crouched under their shared beam, forming another Rat seal while holding the wire in his left hand. She approached, and a chain slithered out of her back as she did so. Ori was somewhat unfamiliar with the exact jutsu that summoned this chain, but it wasn't particularly an issue for him, as he was prepared to intercept far worse than that.

His shadow grew into a broad disc as she approached, numerous threads emerging from the ground like dark, wispy tentacles. Ori's efficient allocation of his chakra enabled him to generate numerous threads and manipulate them very precisely. It wouldn't matter if she hopped around, the tendrils would wrap around her limbs as she did. He was sure she would reroute herself elsewhere as his threat became apparent, but as he was crouched, the wire cast just enough of a shadow to connect him to the shadow cast by the stadium wall, and so more tendrils would await her there from behind if she went in that direction. Regardless of which batch of fresh hell she dove into, if any at all, he would give special care to immobilizing that chain, lest he find himself regretting it. It seemed that the chain could possibly slink around his threads if he weren't careful, so he would have to put a stop to that.

Abilities Used:

As she moved in to close the distance, the boy summoned what seemed to be a large number of shadow-like tendrils that would rise from the ground. It wasn't a technique she was familiar with however. Which meant she had nothing to go on other than needing to ensure that he wouldn't be able to play this little game. In response, she was given only a moment to consider her options. In this case, she chose a more extreme option than was possibly required. Moments before coming in range of the shadow sewing technique, there was a burst of chakra eminating from her body. A rarer technique, but a well known one around the Leaf. The first of the Eight Gates, specifically the Gate of Opening.

Her already considerable speed was boosted further, where a single step no longer seemed human. Or at least, it wasn't a speed to be expected for such a young shinobi. During this burst of new energy, a further three chains sprout from her back, extending out as she moved like a blur, hopefully fast enough to avoid being tangled in the shadows while defending herself from them with the chakra from her chains. Passing him entirely, she moved to his back, lashing out wildly with all four of the chains, aiming to brute force her way through his defences.

Techniques Used:

Brute forcing through his defenses would be easier said than done. Her chakra output appeared to increase, focused solely on increasing her agility. She accurately wove out of the way of his shadow tendrils, darting behind him in a movement that was so fast he wouldn't have known if it weren't the most reasonable position for her to be in. She was behind him by the time he was able to even turn his head, but thankfully, vision was all he needed his body to do, as the Shadow Sewing jutsu was faster.

She lunged with her chains once again. This time she had manifested four of them, but they would fall just as easy. Her control over their precise movements seemed nonexistent--she focused more on thrashing them wildly around. It was clear her mastery over chakra finesse was limited; Ori's jutsu was orders of magnitude more dexterous, and as she attempted to push aside the shadows he entangled the chains instead, looping through the holes in between and wrapping around. As soon as he had any leverage at all, he would begin to pull on them, reducing her mobility while the chains remained. He would hoist her up into the air and entangle a limb. From there, provided he was actually successful, the chance of which seemed to have a luck component, he would quickly move onto a finisher, wrapping the tendrils around her body and her neck.

As much as he hated relying on hope, he hoped her luck was at its end here, as maintaining such a complicated Shadow Sewing jutsu was getting costly. He had a decent amount more in him with it, but drawing out the fight would only cost him dearly unless her augmenting her physical abilities drained her chakra just as highly, which was a possibility.

Unfortunately for Ori, Sayuri's chakra reserves were not what she was risking by using the first gate. It was her physical body that was going to suffer for this rather dangerous little gambit as even now she was working her body beyond her mental limitations, muscles and joints working to the point of breaking as they propelled her fowards. Her chains did little to combat his jutsu, the shadow tendrils being far more dexterous than the chains to quickly tie through the loops in an attempt to slow her down.

However, even as the chains were ensnared by the shadowy tendrils, it seemed she hadn't given up. Just as victory was all but assured, the chains simply vanished, dispelled at a thought while breaking free to finish her last charge. In an impressive show of her agility, Sayuri had dropped suddenly and in a violent kick aimed at the boy's chin. A successful hit was sure to send him skyward only for the girl to follow like a shadow, if only a little quicker to finish her combo attack, a follow-up heel-drop that was decidedly going to send him crashing back to earth. Of course, that was assuming her speed would win out in the end. If this failed it was unlikely she'd be able to pull back a win, but only time would tell how this was going to pan out.

Techniques Used:

Sayuri slipped out of the tendrils before he could fully ensnare her, and it was at that moment he knew that it was checkmate. White would mate black in one--and he found Sayuri below his chin before he cold react. She kicked him in the chin and his vision swam. Separated from the ground at that point, his shadows ceased to exist, rendering any further defense futile. He could, perhaps, have manifested more tendrils from under his coat, but his brain was spaghetti from the kick, and she was above him suddenly--almost instantly in his eyes--and she heel kicked him down into the ground. He landed with a crash, settled in a crater.

He was still conscious, albeit barely. His brain wanted nothing more than to count stars, and getting up seemed like an impossible task. His chakra reserves were mostly spent, and he hurt absolutely everywhere. Now seemed a good time to take a nap.

He could rest assured, anyhow, that if Nakita caught wind of what happened here, assuming she hadn't been watching this whole time, then there would be no safe place on earth for Sayuri to run. Shame she'd be facing her next round, then. The vengeful side of him could at least be content in that.

Upon landing, Sayuri seemed to still be in combat mode. Flipping a kunai from the weapon pouch on her thigh ready to continue her assault when the proctor quickly moved in between them. Even for her, the final barrage had been something of a blur, an instinctual last chance attack that just so happened to pay off. With the senior shinobi in her way she snapped out of this trance upon realizing she had managed to win. The adrenaline calmed, though her weapon arm shook, grip tightening on the weapon expecting the trickster laying down in the crater was going to get-up at any second.

Sayuri had not expected such an outcome, though it wasn't a long bout by any means, the two were basically on par. With Ori's schemes far above her own, while Sayuri's disregard for her own safety had managed to win out. She stared a little longer, looking past the proctor for any sign of trickery, unwilling to believe this was it..

That was until the result were announced, and the reality finally hit her. With one final look at her opponent, the Uzumaki turned and silently began to walk away. Only for the payment for her little stunt with the gates to hit her as well. It was a forbidden jutsu for a reason after all, and it seemed that all at once her muscles began to burn with the stress she had just put them under. She managed to hold this just under the surface, working through the pain as she was escorted from the arena. Getting out of sight just in time as her strength ran out and she collapsed into the wall, requiring the aid of the on-site medics to assist her beyond that point. She could only hope she'd be in shape for the next round.

--- End Therd ---