Alvarcus vs Hiro
"Green, Hiro." Eito greets us. "So it's the same rules as last time. Remember them?"
We both nod our consent.
"Great." He raises his voice loud so that the other crowd can hear him. "Fighters ready?"
"Yep!" Hiro chirps out.
"I am." I confidently reply. I've prepared for this.
"Begin!" Eito vanishes in a swirl of leaves.
Neither Hiro or I move, we're still standing slack and observing the other. He's seen me take a beating, one so severe that almost everyone else would have died from it. It will be interesting to see how he plans to work around that. Maybe he'll try to restrain me? Probably not, he did see my strength already. Honestly I have no idea how he's going to approach this.
"So, Midori-chan, how about we make a bet?" Hiro breaks the tense silence.
That's... weird. I didn't think he was the betting type. "I'm listening."
"If I win, I want to take you out on a date." He's oozing confidence. "I have a whole night planned already, so we can do it tonight before we have to go our separate ways."
Oh hell no! Okay, okay just play it cool. There's no way I'm going to lose here. It'll never happen. Look at this as an opportunity to get something then take your revenge once he has been beaten. "And if I win?"
"Uh..." Hiro looks blankly at me, then his face lights up as if he's just thought of the world's best idea. "You could take me on a date!"
"NO!" I yell out. "Absolutely not!"
His face falls in defeat. "What do you want then?"
I... uh don't actually know. There really isn't anything I want from him.
I swiftly spin and face the Kage's gazebo before kneeling. "Orochimaru-sama, is there anything you desire from this gennin?"
My response hushes the crowd. Before there were whispers, quiet conversation that were talking about how cute we could be together or how adorable Hiro is to going to such lengths to woo me or even remarks about how cold my heart is.
Orochimaru grins in glee and eagerly leans forward in his plush chair. He's so happy that I thought to ask him before making my own terms. "Choices choices! There isn't much a gennin can offer, but for him I believe I can come up with something! A piece of his Jiongu would be satisfactory. It would be interesting to compare it to other kinjutsu and bloodlines."
He wants the Jiongu again? Well, it would provide a nice baseline to compare against mine.
I turn back to Hiro. His jaw is hanging open and he's starring at Orochimaru in equal parts fear, awe, and terror. It isn't everyday that someone casually reveals your trump card for you, especially in front of an audience.
"That is my term. I want a piece of your Jiongu. Do you accept?"
"You want Taki's most revered kinjutsu? All I asked for was a date!" He shouts in disbelief. "Those two things are not anywhere near the same value!"
"I'm glad you agree, your price is far steeper." I will not go on a damn date with anyone! If I do it'll be in my normal form not this female one! Why is this happening to me? Being Midori is a terrible idea, I'm never doing it again!
"But, but it's a kinjutsu..." Hiro trails off while looking flabbergasted.
"And we're talking about my first date. Much more important." I can't believe I'm actually going through with this. "So do you agree or not? Pretty sure we were supposed to be fighting like five minutes ago."
"Uh... you know what? Yes, I do accept. It isn't like I'm going to lose!" Hiro falls into a taijutsu stance.
"Thank you for the Jiongu. I'm sure Orochimaru-sama will cherish it." I mirror him and take up my own taijutsu stance.
We fall into a tense silence again. We're staring at each other, neither making the slightest movement. Then at some unspoken command we both burst into action.
I lunge at him while pulling out two of my new weapons. The blue blade in my right hand and the green in my left. I plan on at least getting one of them into his system, the blue could end the fight and the green will make him easier to get to if I can't make the blue connect.
But before I can stab or slice him, Hiro lightly jumps backwards and flies through hand seals. He's prepping a jutsu. "Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!" A long eerily green blade of pure wind forms between Hiro and me and launches at me.
I side step out of the way, the speed of his jutsu isn't enough to catch me off guard. It barely slowed my assault.
Something sharp cuts through the top of my left shoulder, barely enough to break my skin but enough to reach it through my multiple layers of clothing. "Huh." I reverse my berserker charge and hop a few meters away. "So there were two blades? Not just one?"
"Wrong." Hiro smirks and points towards my right arm. "There were three."
Sure enough, there's a tear in my coat. Wow, I must be slacking. I'll have to take this a little more seriously. "I liked this coat."
I place a hand on my shoulder and leave it there for a moment. If everyone assumes I'm a medic nin, I might as well play the part. My hand comes away with a smear of blood on it, the Jiongu pushed some out to match the size of the wound.
"I'm not sorry." Hiro taunts. "You excel at close range, there's no way I'm going to let you near me. Plus I have no idea what those... are those teeth? Yeah I have no idea what those do and I don't want to find out."
"Fine." I sheath the two poison blades again. "Long range it is." I fly through hand seals at an astonishing rate, much faster than Hiro did. "Earth Release: Ten Thousand Fists!"
As my innumerable fists of earth surge towards Hiro, a specific sound can be heard above it. It's one I'm intimately familiar with. It's the sound I hear whenever I push out a monster.
SQUELCH
A mass of black threads forms between Hiro and my fists of earth and takes the hit unflinchingly. He used one of his monsters as a shield. Judging by the mask he has it wearing, it's his earth heart. That makes sense, earth is a naturally defensive element. But having the monster take the hit? That's just mean.
~Thank you for not doing that.~
Yeah yeah, just be quiet.
"Oh no!" Hiro taunts me again. "It looks like your attack failed! Whatever shall you do now?" He grins at his monster. "You won't be able to get past this, they're indestructible."
"Really now? Let's test that." I do something crazy, I charge at the monster.
The distance between us is closed in two seconds, but that is enough time for the monster to swing a fist at me. Unlike my battle with Lee, I nimbly contort out of the way and the fist sails past me. I firmly plant both feet on the ground a spring up well within striking distance of the one weak spot of the earth monster. I yank out the orange blade and plunge it deep into the monster's head, I don't go through the mask, rather I go around it utilizing the natural curve of my toothy weapon. Instead of withdrawing it, I let it stay embedded into the monster's head.
Then something happens that shouldn't happen, the mass of threads crushes me in a bear hug. I'm pinned between it's arms and chest. I must have missed the heart.
"Well this isn't embarrassing at all." I say with the ease of someone going for a walk instead of someone being submitted to crushing force.
"You can talk still?" Hiro pokes his head around the hulking body of his monster. "Earthy here is strong enough to squish grown men."
"Uh... did you not see my first fight?" I reply without a hint of strain in my voice despite the suddenly increased pressure. "Or did you happen to forget that I made a lot of craters by being thrown into the ground?"
The pressure increases again. "I remember. I didn't want to hurt you too badly though. I want you to be presentable for our date! Oh you should wear a dress! We can go to a fancy restaurant and everything, I can wear a suit and I'll buy you beautiful flowers-"
"My lovely orchid no!" A distinctly youthful voice is heard from the sidelines.
"-definitely not orchids. Perhaps lilies? Or roses? Oh I know, a bouquet of red roses!" Hiro isn't even paying me any attention anymore. He thinks he's got me trapped. "Doesn't that sound wonderful?"
Any second now. Just be patient. It'll be any second now. Then I can beat him to a bloody pulp.
"Midori-chan?" Hiro asks out of concern. "Is it too much now?"
"No. Just waiting." I growl out. I'm going to enjoy what happens next.
"For what?"
Hiro's earth monster writhes in agony and loses it's grip on me. I waste no time and leap away from it.
If the Jiongu can feel pain, Hiro's certainly is right now. The black threads that made it up are little more than a heaping mound of struggling serpents. The vague humanoid appearance is long gone, it's just a pile of flailing limbs.
After ten seconds, the monster dies. The threads stop moving and they start to waste away into nothing, they're becoming dust. My dagger clatters to the ground.
I always wondered what would happen if a heart was destroyed in a monster. I got my answer.
"That. I was waiting for that."
"What did you do!?" Hiro shouts at me from a fair distance away. As I watched his monster die he put a lot of space between us. "You missed the weak point! You didn't hit the heart! So why did it die?!"
I casually pick up the orange dagger from the ground and merrily twirl it between my fingers. "This baby. She's coated in poison, and this unique blend is acidic. It melts flesh, by leaving it embedded in that thing I gave it ample time to come in contact with it's heart. All it needed was the slightest of touches. I just had to wait for it to eat through the Jiongu first. Pretty cool right?"
Hiro's whole demeanor has changed. He's not as carefree any longer, now he's serious. Now he's dangerous. "You destroyed my heart."
"I did." I confirm. "How many do you have left?"
"Enough." Another monster leaves Hiro's body with a sickening squelch. This one has a fire themed mask.
In unison both Hiro and his monster ready a jutsu. Not good. If I destroyed earth, that means he still has wind and fire. I personally know that mixing those two is a hell of a lot of fun for the jutsu user but not for their target.
I don't like being the target.
"Combination Jutsu: Fire and Wind Bullet!" Hiro roars.
"Wait that's it?" A pathetically puny fireball launches at me. Sasuke's Grand Fireballs are way hotter and bigger than this, and my version of using fire and wind can melt stone. But Hiro can only do this? "Mediocre."
I don't even bother to dodge. I simply coat my hand in chakra and backhand the weak attack away.
"That was a disappointment. You're Fire Wave or whatever that was is way better than that." I shake my head.
"It wasn't meant to do damage." Hiro says from behind me. "It was just a distraction." His warm hand grips the back of my neck and black threads wrap the rest of the way around it. "Will you surrender?"
...
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