Round 2: Genin Bouts: Akujin vs Aiyax

[Ace Trainer]

The arena has a 25m radius and is mostly comprised of grass land, trees to provide some shelter and texture to the battlefield. However, 5m from the wall surrounding the entire arena is sandy terrain. The arena is marked by a 20m high wall that is built in the shape of a doughnut, the seats are layered with ten rows running along the whole perimeter of the arena. There is a tower that is supported by pillars and columns above the northers side of the stadium, this is where the representatives of other nations are seated. The participants have the own place to wait until their turn, it is at the bottom section of the wall surrounding the battlefield and has a viewing window that allows the participants to watch fighting that take place. Akujin will begin at the eastern most point, standing directly in front of the sand. Aiya will begin at the western most point, standing directly in front of the sand.

The judges for this bout will be [Asawari, Taeko; Onu], [Darinami, Kagota; Rain] and [Takuya, Minori; Kabu]

First poster has 72 hours to respond, all following posts have 48 hours, with one [1] extension granted upon request. Please ensure you're familiar with the rules for the event. If you're currently in registry, the 72 hours begins once both participants have been approved.

Akujin posts first.

[Zao]

The young man sighed in the waiting area before his match was about to begin, if there was one person he didn't want to get in the ring with it was the fellow Konoha genin Aiya. Partly because of how she just pounded her opponent in the first match until she ultimately overwhelmed and finished him. He shook his head slightly from side-to-side recalling the match in his mind as the boy's almost glowing yellow irises temporarily hid behind their eyelids. Inhaling slowly he checked over his gear and pulled up the half mask up to the bridge of his nose and walked out into the arena after being signaled by one of the shinobi. It only took a few steps to cross the boundary of sand as he looked directly across the arena seeing the young girl who was taller and more muscular than himself. 'Getting close is a high risk...' Before the match began he'd already been thinking about how to approach this next fight as he'd, normally against an unknown opponent he'd use a closing tactic to scout their abilities and combine that with a surprise assault from his explosive clay.

Yet, having used that the round before and exposed his clay art to win the previous match it seemed that perhaps he should switch things up a bit this time and use a more cautious approach. As he'd already seen the amount of damage she could produce with those heavy stone weapons. How did she even lift those thing anyways? It was time for this to begin as the judges signal the referee. Begin!

The boy moved his left hand grasping hold of a special scroll that was holstered upon his lower back and in a fluid, well practiced motion it was drawn and and began to unravel itself in mid air as the right hand flash to the spine of the scroll pulling out a ink brush from the scroll itself. His eyes rapidly shifting between the enemy across the battlefield and the partially unrolled scroll. His right hand moving at great speed as the details of three separate animals rapidly came to life, chakra infused into each stroke of the ink brush as its tip made contact with the special parchment. Akujin's ink style was something he hadn't revealed at the competition so far and he hoped that his multi beast technique would allow for him to catch the weapon user off guard enough that he might find an opening to pursue. It only took the time it would have normally taking another to form hand seals that the last stroke of the brush lifted from the parchment of the scroll and three individual black lines stretched from the page growing rapidly in size. 'Hope this works...'

The one to the left was an albino looking crocodile with black detailing totaling five meters in length from snout to tip of its powerful looking tail as its body was wide and low to ground, as soon as it made contact with the ground it flanked toward the other genin's right side with impressive speed despite its short, stocky looking clawed legs. Next was the creature that formed directly in front of him, a massive five meter long python like snake with unique black patterns on its white body as it slithered forward, though slower than the crocodile but it seemed strangely muscular for a snake who normally had rather slender bodies. And lastly, this one did not shoot to the ground like the previous two had but it launched towards the sky as a meter tall bird came to life with its large clawed feet and hooked beak. Like the other two it also approached but its speed was much faster than the snake's, and even faster than the crocodiles but its thin frame made it look somewhat weak.

Akujin used these specific three masterpieces of his beast imitation artform to judge the strengths of the fellow genin from his home village. The crocodile was well balanced (ten speed and strength), while the snake was slower but more powerful physically (five speed and fifteen strength), and lastly the bird was very fast but lacked any real striking power but could serve as a diversion creator with its speed (2.5 Strength and 17.5 Speed or 2 and 18 if we don't like half numbers). Aiya would have a crocodile pressing down on the right, a large snake closing from the front, and a large bird attacking from her upper left with each attempting to use their natural gifts to target their prey. The crocodile snapping with its large mouth, the snake attempting to bite and bind the girl, and the bird attempting to attack her upper body and face with its sharp claws..

Jutsu UsedShow

Super Beast Imitating - Multi Beast
C-rank Ninjutsu
Prerequisite: Lower rank Beast Imitating technique
Using chakra-infused ink, the user can quickly and expertly draw a three matching animals onto their scroll. The moment the brush is removed from the scroll, the images will leap from the paper, grow to life-size as described in their technique, and act according to the user's will based on the animal type. Last 6 posts.


Super Beast Imitating - Crocodile
D-rank Ninjutsu
Requirement: Suiton based ink
Using chakra-infused ink, the user can quickly and expertly draw an crocodile like anime onto their scroll. The moment the brush is removed from the scroll the image will leap from the paper growing to life-size of up to five meters in length and attempt to bite the target and hold them in its jaws thrashing them about. This construct gains a speed and strength equal to [Control], also being able to move at it's normal speed in and out of the water. Lasting four posts.

Super Beast Imitating - Snake
D-rank Ninjutsu
Using chakra-infused ink, the user can quickly and expertly draw a snake onto their scroll. The moment the brush is removed from the scroll the image will leap from the paper growing to life-size of up to five meters in length and will attempt to bite and bind the target(s). This construct gains a speed equal to [Control/2] and strength equal to [Control x1.5] and last four posts.

Super Beast Imitating - Bird
D-rank Ninjutsu
Using chakra-infused ink, the user can quickly and expertly draw a bird like animal onto their scroll. The moment the brush is removed from the scroll, the image leap from the paper growing to life-size no more than a meter in size and will scout ahead of the user for the next four posts. This construct gains a speed equal to [Control x1.75] and strength equal to [Control/4], lasts four posts.

[TyDie]

"Akujin..." The girl had said the name quietly to herself a few times as she paced back and forth in her waiting room, running over what she knew about the boy thus far; which wasn't much. She knew he used some kind of exploding clay, and he had a sword he knew how to use to some extent... but that was about it. He seemed far more adept at casting then anything else, which would make for a difficult fight for Aiya; getting close would be incredibly difficult. She'd have to be clever, fight at all ranges, make use of her weapon skills in a variety of ways. But most importantly; she'd have to keep him from casting as much as possible. Those explosions he used... they looked far beyond her ability to handle in terms of overall power. Her chitin wouldn't stand against such devastation...

As she was called into the ring, she stood proudly across from the young genin, a smile on her face as she observed him. "Good luck, comrade! One of us must lose, but at least we're losing to a fellow Konoha shinobi!" She grinned fiercly, her teeth showing as she eyed the boy with determination. She wasn't sure how this fight was going to go, but one thing was certain; by the end of it, no one could say she didn't give it her all.
"HAJIME!" The moment the ref announced the beginning of the fight, Aiya's left hand reached behind her, producing her bow, while her right produced three arrows. Her eyes watched carefully as the boy produced some kind of... scroll? She hadn't seen that in the previous rounds! Of course he still has some tricks up his sleeve... The girl thought, and sure enough a moment later she was met with three beasts of equally fearful power. From the front, a snake. From the side, a crocodile. And from the sky, a bird. She had been hoping to hold it back, but there was no way she could handle such a multi-fronted assault without the help of her Spider Form. And so, in a brief moment, her body's true form emerged; Her skin blackened, her hair fell out, and all the traits of her bloodline showed forth. In an instant, she had gone from human to spider, her extra arms reaching for her shuriken holsters, each removing two shuriken. She was now armed with her bow, three arrows, and eight shuriken as the ink beasts approached...

With a quick dodge to the left, away from the crocodile, Aiya would avoid most of the damage from the bird, her armor protecting her from the rest. In response, a series of four shuriken would fly from her two 'middle' arms as it flew in, aiming for the creature's wings. If they didn't outright destroy the ink beast, they would hopefully clip it's wings at least. After doing so, her bow and arrows would be passed down from her 'normal' arms to her 'middle' arms, freeing up the main hands for the purpose of a string of hand seals. Continuing to run around the edge of the arena, sticking close to the edge of the sand without crossing it, Aiya would leap, turn around, and launch her remaining four shuriken at the crocodile beast, hoping to prevent it's attacks as well. Finally, as the snake reared closer, she took aim with her bow and two arrows and waited for the creature to lunge at her. As it did, she'd let fly both arrows, aiming to pierce it's skull and body with enough force to put it down.

Finally, assuming all of this worked as planned, her last remaining arrow would be fired at the boy himself, it's tip glowing with chakra as her seals had finished. Once it closed in, a "kai" seal would cause the arrow to shatter into tiny pieces, peppering the area with shrapnel and concussive force. Her main arms were already reaching for her staff now...

Jutsu UsedShow

*[Flawless Aim Style • Rapid Reload]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After years of training, the practitioner has learned how to quickly and accurately access their ranged weapon stores at all times in combat. This cuts the effective "reload" time by half, up to a maximum speed equal to the practitioner's Speed score. This also applies to returning unused projectiles to their storage containers or switching between types of projectile weaponry.

*[Flawless Aim Style • Tracking]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After much training and study, the practitioner has learned how to read an opponent's movements and adjust their aim accordingly to compensate without penalty. This Discipline allows the practitioner to accurately hit moving targets, though sudden changes in the opponent's movements will still affect accuracy.

*[Flawless Aim Style • Dead Angle Targeting]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After much training and study, the practitioner has learned how to use projectiles at close range, even point-blank range, with the same Strength as attacks against more distant targets. This Discipline allows the practitioner to use Flawless Aim techniques against melee-range targets without excessive exposure to counterattack and without losing Speed, Strength, or accuracy.

*[Flawless Aim Style • Repeater Shot]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Preparing multiple projectiles, the practitioner launches each of the projectiles at one or more targets. For each target beyond the first, the accuracy of each of the attacks is decreased, suffering a -1 Strength penalty for each additional target.

*[Flawless Aim Style • Evasive Maneuvers]
C-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
The practitioner has learned how to accurately launch projectiles while moving through the flow of combat. This Discipline represents the practitioner's ability to accurately launch projectiles while moving at full Speed, while jumping, rolling, sliding off the ground, or while performing other basic combat movements.

[Doton • Shrapnel Shot]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
Aiya will perform a series of hand seals, funneling chakra within a projectile made of stone, such as her arrows or a weapon created by Doton. Then, after firing the projectile, a single hand seal after the fact will cause the projectile to explode. This will shower the area within 5 meters of the projectile with rocky shrapnel, propelled with strength equal to Aiya's [Control].

[Zao]

Akujin couldn't be more surprised when the genin under went her transformation, entering into a spider like state that turned the shinobi's skin dark and made her long hair fall out as six additional eyes opened up around the now bald head. Though the most scary part for the young shinobi was the additional arms that sprouted from the girl's back. He knew just how scary the fighter could be with just two arms and now with four additional ones his plan to close in after judging her ability to take on multiple target's flew right out the window. 'Now that's a scary sight!' Though he didn't speak aloud to the fellow Konoha nin his mind was running a mile a minute as he watched her dodge his alligator by dodging to the left and in turn he maneuvered himself to his left in order to attempt and keep the maximum amount of distance that he possibly could between them.

The bird was like feathers tickling the new hardened skin of the target, claws scraping against them without as much as leaving a mark before rapidly turning in the air attempting to come in for a second attack before it was caught with the small barrage of shuriken, the weakness of the beast being that it was to close after its first dive attack to dodge and it wasn't strong enough to absorb the incoming attacks. They would easily tear through the thin wings sending the ink bird imitation crashing into the ground a short distance away turning into the form of a small black puddle. At this point the tiny genin could already tell that even with the level of chakra he'd used before it wasn't enough to deal with what ever this form of Aiya's was and not haven't seen it before hand he was caught on his heels, something that he truly hated. 'Damn it!' He cursed not at his enemy but himself for underestimating her, he still had tricks for this match and he should have assumed that his opponent still had a few things that hadn't been revealed from the first fight.

As the kunai impacted the thick bodied crocodile the man's right hand had already swept by the top of the scroll refreshing its ink and began to draw once more now, chakra flowing from his core, down through his arm, and into the rapidly moving ink brush as it once more created the exact same images as it did from the first multi beast technique. Only this time digging deeper into his reserves to increase their strength and in turn their size due to the increase in chakra. While the ink brush was at work creating what would be the boy's next art piece the shuriken had made short work of the crocodile, their combined damage enough to destabilize the creature's form causing it to go the way of the bird and break apart into a splash of ink. Though Aiya would find that even though the snake was a bit sluggish it made up for that in its strength as it took both the arrows, which barely dug into the paper white skin of the beast with its black detailing as the snake continued to pursue its target but it would not be able to catch up due to its slower speed (5) unless the girl stopped or was fixed in place for some reason.

An arrow sprang from its bow and in return three new beasts seemed to respawn from the strange parchment in the same order as before: crocodile on the left, snake middle, bird on the right in the air. Only this time they were slightly bigger (made with [15] Control), the crocodile was closer to eight meters long as it shuffled rapidly across the ground and the snake was about the same length as it lifted its large body up to intercept the arrow meant for its creator, and the bird was actually faster than Akujin could track as it speeded around to the right with its near three meter size at it attempted to fix the spider-girl in place from the right. He made an assumption that this should be enough to create an opening for himself and as the scroll seemed to retract into its spine and was tossed into its holder on the man's back, his gloved right hand reaching up to grasp the hilt of his short bladed katana and the left hand stuffing itself down into the clay pouch on his left hip.

It was at that moment, just after the arrow had impacted the ink serpent that it exploded with good force, an effect fully noted by the explosion specialist himself as he was shielded from the blast by the think body of the serpent in front of him absorbing a good portion of the blast. The rest reflected in the other directions as some flak impacted the large crocodile that took up a good portion of the area but didn't cause it to pause in its movement and the bird's high speed movement had allowed for it to escape the blast range of the explosive arrow before it the explosion took place. Due to the serpent's strength the blast left a moderate sized crater on its under belly about a meter down from its large head but was not enough to destroy the beast as it only momentarily flinched before regaining its momentum and resuming its simple task: that being to grapple and bind the six armed figure.

The mouth on the hand inside the pouch had opened up as the long tongue wrapped around a small lump of clay, pulling it into the mouth where the tooth filled mouth began to chew the clay as the hand was removed from the pouch and Akujin himself continued movement circling off to the left keeping the hand closed into a fist. The larger snake and crocodile ink beast where used as a type of buffer or shield between himself and Aiya, using them and their large sizes as best he could in order to allow them to close in first and him to keep out of striking distance if possible. As the clay within the hand was being chewed he was simultaneously channeling his explosive nature chakra into the clay that his hand was shaping, trying to focus at how the spider ninja would handle the slightly stronger ink beasts this time around. Looking for any openings that might happen or patterns in her defense as he didn't truly understand anything about the ninja's transformation other than it gave her more hands to fight him with and more eyes which he could only assume increased her field of vision...on top of that he also didn't know how long she could maintain this crazy state either. 'What a monster...' This was all he could think as the beasts would one again attempt to clash against the spider queen.

Creation Speed and StrengthsShow

Same three as before, using the same multi technique. Just used with [15] control this time around.

Crocodile = 15 speed and strength
Snake = 8 speed and 22 strength
Bird = 4 strength and 26 speed

[TyDie]

Aiya watched with growing ferocity as her arrow was intercepted by yet another set of strange, inky creations; Another set of three, though her arrow had taken a large chunk out of the snake and dealt a bit of damage to the nearby crocodile as well. They were likely tougher given their increased size, but she had no doubt she could handle them in much the same way as before. The issue here was more the bird; it's speed was incredible, and while she could perceive it's movements with her honed eyesight, she could nowhere near match it's speed. Perhaps that could be her advantage though; She still had her armor for now, and the bird had to get close for an attack.

Her staff was brandished now, and her bow slid away instead, while two of her other arms reached for more shuriken, three in each hand. She was running low, she couldn't afford to keep burning through them like this, but it was the best she could think of for now. With a toss to each of the two ground creature, three shuriken would be aimed for the crocodile and three for the snake, using all of her power. They would be overall weaker, but if they moved in a standard, straightforward path as she predicted, each of the shuriken would hit, and the combined force would hopefully be enough to put them down.

Simultaneously, the bird was rushing towards her, and the only thing Aiya could think of to respond to that threat was to jab her staff out as it came in towards her, thrusting it forward towards the creatures main body. It's claws would once more dig into her armor, tearing off more chunks of chitin, but it hadn't reached flesh yet. And at full force, she could only hope her jab was enough to lay the bird down low, removing the threat of the three constructs once again.

"I can't let him keep me at bay the entire time, i'm running out of ranged weapons..." The genin's mind raced; he had put away the scroll for now, but he could whip it back out with ease if she didn't close the gap. So, once all of the ink beasts were dealt with again, she'd rush forward, twirling her staff with impressive speed as a means of deflecting and protecting herself from oncoming attacks. As she approached, her skin's color would return to normal, and her extra arms and armor would fade for the time being. She'd have to go at the boy without the aid of her Spider form... hopefully she wouldn't need it.

Jutsu UsedShow

[Spider's Sight]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
The eyesight of a spider, while often overlooked, is incredibly acute. Some spiders hunt purely using their incredible eyesight to locate prey, homing in on their target from incredibly far distances with ease. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of vision to the level of the spider, allowing her to perceive and react to even slight movements with relative ease. The tensing of muscles are a great indicator of a future action, and with her incredible eyesight, Aiya is capable of perceiving brief muscle tension, allowing her more time to react. This also grants Aiya the equivalent of 20/5 vision, allowing her to see with clarity at 20 feet what most see at 5 feet, granting her a much better scope of distance vision than most.

[Seiryu no Kiba • Sharpening Claws]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After years of training, the practitioner has learned how to quickly and accurately access their ranged weapon stores at all times in combat. This cuts the effective "reload" time by half, up to a maximum speed equal to the practitioner's Speed score. This also applies to returning unused projectiles to their storage containers or switching between types of projectile weaponry.

[Seiryu no Kiba • Draconic Predictions]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After much training and study, the practitioner has learned how to read an opponent's movements and adjust their aim accordingly to compensate without penalty. This Discipline allows the practitioner to accurately hit moving targets, though sudden changes in the opponent's movements will still affect accuracy.

[Seiryu no Kiba • Many Fangs]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Preparing multiple projectiles, the practitioner launches each of the projectiles at one or more targets. For each target beyond the first, the accuracy of each of the attacks is decreased, suffering a -1 Strength penalty for each additional target.

[Suzaku no Tsubasa • Peck]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
One of the simplest and most basic of strikes, Aiya will grip her polearm with one hand near the center and one hand towards the back end of the polearm. She will then aim her polearm at an opponent before pushing forward with the back hand, sliding the polearm forward in a thrusting strike. This is an incredibly safe and versatile strike, as it can be used from almost any position and in almost any situation with little risk to Aiya.

[Suzaku no Tsubasa • Wing Buffet]
D-Rank Taijutsu Stance
A staple technique of any polearm style, Aiya is capable of maintaining incredible momentum with her polearm by twisting and twirling it in her hands. By rotating her hands, arms and body in various ways, Aiya can spin her polearm around her body in large circles. Doing this works as a functional defense capable of slapping away blows and mundane projectiles of a lesser strength than her own. This also acts as a powerful offense, delivering sweeping strikes backed by the momentum of the spins.

[Zao]

Again, the spider form girl used her new body to its limit it would seem as she launched more projectiles that would slam into the two larger beasts as they appeared to the largest threat he assumed due to their increased size and strength. The double prong attack combined with the new projectiles would be enough to make work of the sluggish snake who was not able to achieve its mission before it collapsed onto the ground after being hit with the shuriken and melded itself into a large puddle of dark liquid. While the crocodile faired a bit better as its head was struck by the projectiles, thrown with great precision despite the tense situation which he'd put Aiya in at the moment. They struck with enough force to cause the beast to pause but what most effected the large creature was the fact that its eyesight had been claimed by the shuriken impacts leading it to blindly thrash about and snap at where it thought its target was as it still charged directly forward hoping to latch onto its prey.

Meanwhile with the faster ink bird creation, the greatest strength of the creation (its speed) was turned into a giant weakness against such a proficient weapon user who had a multitude of tools to deal with different situation. Due to is simple attack patterns and immense speed one only needed to be able to predict its path in order to launch a counter attack, which Aiya did in that moment with her staff. The sheer speed of the beast combined with the impacting strength of colliding with a jabbed staff at her full strength caused the creation to be skewered like a kabob onto the staff, destroying the creation as her staff would find itself covered with a stick black liquid due to the counterattack. As this unfolded Aku had already made up his mind that he'd need to use 'that' technique to win against such a beast or at least to keep himself from ending up like his poor bird creation had. While his opponent skewered the bird the left hand unfolded as from the mouth was spat a small piece of clay formed in near the spitting image of Akujin himself and as the crocodile snapped blindly forwards from behind its long tail was a puff of smoke as he had tossed forward the small figurine and used a hand seal with the other hand.

From a poof of smoke appeared Akujin, or at least what looked like Akujin, dashing forward with a full fifteen speed as the clone circled just around the right side of the blind crocodile that would find its biting jaws smashed away from the twirling staff of his opponent due its lack of sight combined with her skill in the user of the weapon system. The clay clone reached up as it moved forwards to meet Aiya, withdrawing the short blade katana with the right hand from over its should and slashing down at the spinning staff with fifteen strength attempting to potentially knock her back, the creation not able to mentally take notice of the changing body of the fellow genin that was reverting back to its former normal human appearance. 'So it must have a short time limit...'

On the left back side of the crocodile that had been knocked back could be found the real masked shinobi who held the same hand seal as before, judging the unfolding events as he was able to take in the changes in his opponent. "Surrender!" His voice called out in unison with his clones attack that met the spider girl head on at this point, perhaps she wouldn't heed or understand why he was telling her to surrender but in his slightly muffled voice was care for the other Leaf shinobi's safety as these kinds of techniques weren't meant to be used against or near allies. But in his head the boy had a plan, as if his opponent landed a solid attack on the clay clone figure it would revert back to clay exposing the danger of the situation to her...he didn't want to blow up the clone as it was a more powerful blasts then he had used in the previous round but that in and of itself was a testament to just how strong the genin saw his fellow village shinobi, she was quite the scary girl for sure. While he called out to the girl the boy was still bounding backwards landing him close to the track of sand that encircled the tiny arena area, creating distance between them and placing himself outside the potential blast range of the clay clone if it came down to it.

Jutsu UsedShow

Explosive Clay: C2 - Clone
C-rank Ninjutsu
The Sozo family member allows their clay hand to "mold" a small bite of clay into the shape of themselves infusing the creation with their volatile chakra in the process. At the end of the building, the small clay human will activate with a puff of chakra smoke growing to life-size, taking on the image and exact size of the user. This clay construct gains a speed equal to [Control] and explodes with [Control] strength at the creator's will, lasting up six posts.

15 Control

[TyDie]

That croc was resilient, she'd have to concede that point... But at least the snake and bird were dealt with, and the croc was blind, so it was all she could do to stay ahead of it as he nipped at her heels while she approached Akujin for a direct assault. But she saw the boy's hand drop a figure, and as the figure grew to look like him, she cursed under her breath. "Clone..." It was all she could think it might be. The croc was chasing her as best it could as she rushed forward, no doubt hearing her footsteps... but an idea occurred to her. The clone reached for it's weapon, and Aiya knew immediately what it was about to do based on the miniscule movements she picked up from it.

Swinging horizontally with her staff, her aim was to hit the clone's wrist as it came down, both knocking the attack away from her as well as damaging the clone. But in doing so, combined with Akujin's call out, she'd recognize the clone as one of his clay creations... Not good. The croc was still flailing behind her, while the clone in front of her was made of volatile explosive clay!

It was all she could do to slap together a few seals as the croc rushed in, swapping places with a large nearby tree branch that had fallen off of a tree 10 meters away from the clone and croc. This would put the tree between her and the clone, while Akujin was still no closer to her. Damn... He's really good."" With a bit of luck, the crocodile might bash into the clone and they'd both be taken care of.

JutsuShow

*[Basic Jutsu • Change of Body Stance Technique]
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
After completing the necessary handseals, the user is able to quickly substitute his/her body with a nearby object that is at least 2/3rds his/her size, but no bigger than their body. This substitution allows the object to take the force of the attack that was meant for the user, additionally allowing the user to create distance between him/her and the opponent. The object used in this jutsu may not be objects that are imbued with chakra or controlled by it, and they may also only be single, solid objects within a 10 meter radius of the user. This technique may only be used a total of one time in a single thread, give or take how many times Shunshin no Jutsu has already been used.

[Zao]

What the young genin had hoped would force the fellow Konoha shinobi into surrendering didn't work as he watched her movements carefully from a distance, her taijutsu was well above his own as she managed to easily block the blatant sword strike from the clone using the advantage of the bo staff's size and striking at a weak point in the attack. This attack was enough to destabilize the clone's body as it's identical appearance to its creator rapidly faded as the skin tone went from pale white to grey and its features became rather dull looking. 'Too strong...' The young man could only comment to himself as he steadied his resolve and made the decision and with an audible "Kai!" his clone erupted in a blaze of fiery rage that consumed a ten meter area in which the clone, the blinded crocodile, and Aiya had been. Due to the small size of the arena even Akujin himself had to raise his other hand to shield himself as debris, smoke, and dust were launched into the air as a crater was formed from the explosive force created by the clone exploding.

But that was not the end as Zao's volatile chakra and special clay produced a unique result when used together, pieces of the original clay art that exploded didn't explode completely upon the first detonation and were thrown in the immediate area just outside the original blast range that had left its mark originally on the tree which shielded the young genin. Fifteen pieces of the original figure had been thrown evenly around the explosion and only a moment after the first explosion went off, the other explosions followed extending the range of the original blast by about three and a half meters but these explosions were only half as strong (7 strength) but their number would end up destroying the tree and potentially injuring his opponent. Due to the last minute nature of her swap and the lack of experience at his level he didn't know at the moment that Aiya had managed to swap places with the tree branch/limp that was disintegrated in the blast and over half the arena now was covered in one large and numerous small craters.

On the opposite end of the arena, Aku had one hand on the blade over his right shoulder while the left hand was clenched into a fist and the arm was being lowered from his dust covered masked face, his eyes searching through the literal fog of war that covered their miniature battlefield. Their was a slight ringing in his ears from being to close to the explosion and he was currently unable to see the results of the blast and thus remained on guard as the hand slipped into the clay pouch again, the dirty palm opening up to reveal the long tongue that took in another small chunk of clay into his mouth. 'Aiya is smart and strong...I believe that one of the referees would have stopped the match if that actually hit her...but what did she do if it didn't?' His lack of combat experience showed as he was slightly confused as his eyes weren't preceptive enough to catch her hand seals right before the explosion.

The hand chewed as he had thought about their fight up to this point, she was overwhelming proficient at long and close range taijutsu, so using his own sword techniques would be very difficult and he would easily be overwhelmed in his mind. Her performance so far led him to believe that which had been why he attempted to use a decoy technique with his clone to attack her by surprise but her reaction speed and techniques were able to make up for being caught off guard, having powerful abilities of perception. To beat a opponent like that he would need more stealth and subtlety...it was her spider form that gave him the idea for his next and potentially last play as his chakra was draining faster than normal using his multi beast techniques back to back like that. "Spiders...hah."

From the chewing hand the mouth in the palm opened as five tiny one inch spiders of clay were spit out turning his hand to the ground the five fell to the ground as he made a hand seal causing them to be enveloped in tiny puffs of chakra smoke as they were given life growing to about two inches in size. The ringing in his ears was gone as he listened for movement in the fading fog of destruction from the clone's explosions earlier as the five spiders crawled forward in what was left of the short grass to about three to four meters away from their creator and attempted to hide themselves in the grass waiting for someone or something to come into range so they could leap onto it. 'Can I trap a spider in a web?'

Jutsu + Clay PassiveShow

The volatile nature of this clay allows it to be detonated at will when infused with their volatile chakra during the creation of clay constructs. Due to the volatile nature of these naturally explosive creations, the techniques are not up-ranked like normal explosive techniques are. Upon exploding the clay chain breaks into X number of pieces with X strength, where X is equal to 1/2 the [Control] of the jutsu (rounded up) and these pieces are distributed over an area of Y meters around the initial blast, where Y is equal to 1/4th the [Control] of the jutsu (rounded up) before exploding as secondary explosions.

Explosive Clay: C1 - Insect
D-rank Ninjutsu
The Sozo family member allows their clay hand to "mold" a small bite of clay into the shape of an insect (such as a cricket, locust, centipede, butterfly/moth, or spider) infusing the creation with their volatile chakra in the process. At the end of the building, the small clay insect will activate with a puff of chakra smoke growing to life-size (no larger than one third of a meter) having the normal attributes that species of insect would normal have. This clay construct gains a speed equal to [Control] and explodes with [Control] strength at the creator's will, lasting up to four posts.

Explosive Clay: C2 - Multi C1 Figurines
C-rank Ninjutsu
Prerequisite: Lower rank clay technique
The Sozo family member allows their clay hand to "mold" a moderate bite of clay into the shape of a multiple figurines, infusing the creation with their volatile chakra in the process. At the end of the building, the small clay figurines will activate with a puff of chakra smoke growing to life-size, as described in their individual technique. The amount one can create with this technique is three with the exception being insects with the user is able to create up to five. These clay constructs gain a speed equal to [Control] and explodes with [Control] strength at the creator's will, lasting up to six posts.

used with 10 control

[TyDie]

As the explosion went off, Aiya's hair was thrown all about, the force of the explosion sending a shockwave through the arena that left her horrified. If she hadn't gotten out of there at the exact moment she did... There was no use thinking about 'what ifs'. The secondary explosions were what caught her, a grunt of pain resounding as she was caught in one of the many secondary blasts and sent forward a meter or so, landing on her face. "Holy hell... this guy's explosives are terrifying. I cannot let him catch me directly with one, the force would be too much to bear..." The smoke and dust covered the arena, making it so that neither opponent could see the other. And the powerful explosion left Aiya's ears ringing for a few, leaving her holding one ear as she thought of a plan...

As her ears returned to normal, she found that she could hear something... Chewing? She hadn't noticed it before, but that definitely sounded like some kind of chewing, like Akujin had gum in his mouth or something. It was definitely coming from where she last saw Akujin, so she could reasonably assume it was him. "If I can just hit him once..." Aiya performed a few hand seals as Doton chakra flowed through her hands and into one of the three arrows she reached for. Leaving her staff on the ground, she'd also reach for her bow, nock all three arrows, and pinpoint the location of the chewing sound through the smoke and fog. And then, with a deep breath, she'd let fly all three arrows, aiming directly for Akujin through the fog and smoke at a speed of 10 and a strength of 8 for each arrow. If she heard a sound of pain, some kind of grunt or moan that would lead her to believe she had hit him, she'd yell out.

"One of those arrows is primed to explode! Give up and I won't Kai it!"

Regardless of what he did or if she hit him at all, she'd put her bow away and reach for her staff while she slowly stepped towards where Akujin was last located, focusing on any sounds, smells or feelings in the earth that might lead her to believe something was amiss. She was feeling the fatigue of her physical maneuvers for certain, but her chakra reserves were still relatively okay, having only performed a couple of techniques. She might even have enough to tap into her Spider Blood again soon...

JutsuShow

[Doton • Shrapnel Shot]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
Aiya will perform a series of hand seals, funneling chakra within a projectile made of stone, such as her arrows or a weapon created by Doton. Then, after firing the projectile, a single hand seal after the fact will cause the projectile to explode. This will shower the area within 5 meters of the projectile with rocky shrapnel, propelled with strength equal to Aiya's [Control].

[Seiryu no Kiba • Many Fangs]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Preparing multiple projectiles, the practitioner launches each of the projectiles at one or more targets. For each target beyond the first, the accuracy of each of the attacks is decreased, suffering a -1 Strength penalty for each additional target.

[Spider's Touch]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spiders must rely on their ability to feel their web twitch with their legs to know when something has entered their web. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of touch to the level of the spider. By feeling vibrations within something she is touching, she can pinpoint the location of any vibrations made within 20 meters of her. Vibrations are created when something touches the surface in question, so things such as walking along the ground or tapping on a wall she is touching will let her know exactly where the vibration came from. She can also discern the general size of the thing creating the vibrations, letting her differentiate smaller things like projectiles or debris from larger things like people or boulders. In general, the weight of a thing increases the intensity of the vibrations it creates.

[Spider's Sound]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spider's are incredibly sensitive to vibrations of all kinds, as their bodies are covered with hundreds of tiny hairs that let them pick up on sounds and tremors. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of hearing to the level of the spider. With this jutsu, she can hear loud or obnoxious sounds from up to 200 meters away. For things of average volume, such as the sound of someone walking or running, she can pinpoint their exact location within 20 meters of her person. This allows her to tell where the sound is in relation to her, and how close they to her.

[Spider's Scent]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spider's release chemicals in the air that other spiders can smell very easily at long distances to ward off competition or attract mates. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of smell to the level of the spider. Her sense of smell is so keen that she can pick up the smell of rotting flesh from 200 meters away. Of course, few things stink that much, so for the average scents like the smell of a human, the range is limited to 20 meters. This allows her to tell the direction of a smell, as well as how close they are based on the potency of their scent.

[Zao]

The five spiders had just started to move away from their young creator as the thud of the weapon's bow string could be heard as it twanged from releasing an unknown amount of arrows in the deathly silent arena as the onlookers that were viewing above waited in suspense for what would happen next as the smoke and dust was still slowly clearing away. Three arrows cut through the dust cloud that separated the young man as he barely caught their path as they pushed through the smoke forcing him to act on just instinct in an attempt to evade the heavy stone tipped arrows that had been actually fired at him. In a flash his right hand drew the blade as it came down at a diagonal angle in its arch in front of him clashing with the arrow that was about to use his center chest region as target practice. A ting of steel impacting against stone could briefly be heard before a grunt of pain.

His attack had been able to take out the more centered arrow, deflecting it enough to miss his shoulder and face with the impact of the strike and his twisting movements but it left him unable to complete dodge the other ones that had been fired simultaneously. One cruised by under his right arm and left a nasty gash across his ribcage that blood had already started to freely flow from as it continued on slamming into the wall with the previous arrow. But the worst was the last of the three arrows which had impacted him in the upper left portion of his chest just before the shoulder socket, this was the arrow that had caused for him to involunteerily call out in pain as its impact force combined with his own turning with the sword strike left him off balance as he fell backwards and to the left side. This action broke off a portion of the arrows shaft leaving the stone arrow head still buried within the small shinobi's chest with a piece of the shaft sticking out.

While neither were fatal wounds, the shoulder one damaged the muscle and nerves leading to the left arm and prevented him from being able to reach into his clay pouch, as he rolled over from the impact onto his back he found himself mere inches from the sand track that circled around the arena. 'Those arrows were very accurate...how did she do that?' The man slowly pushed himself up with the sword gripped hand as the left arm hung down to the side as he ended up in a sitting position with the sword placed in a defensive position across in front of his body. He couldn't understand how someone would be able to so accurately attack him from that kind of situation, he hadn't really be making any noise and who could see through that thick cloud of dirt and smoke? It was at this moment after he managed to stop moving that his own spiders had moved about four to five meters from his own position and stopped moving themselves, waiting for what they had been made to do, this was also when he heard the feminine voice calling out to him. 'One of them?!'

Not only had she been able to accurately attack him but she had even been able to create another one of those exploding arrows from before. But Akujin tried to reason with himself briefly, one of the three was said to have explosive potential so in theory the one in his shoulder had a two thirds chance of not being dangerous. There was also the thought that she might be bluffing to force him into surrendering. Could he stall for time and draw her in? He couldn't be sure but he wasn't willing to just give up yet after having fought this hard to get past the first round and again in this fight against Aiya. "Only one you say?" He called out, his voice hiding the pain that radiated from the stone arrow in his shoulder region, or at least the best he could at this point while attempting to show a bit of boldness in his rhetorical questioning.

The smoke and dust were clearing enough to allow for him to see her silhouette breaking through along with the fact that she was carrying that scary staff now...what a terrifying girl. It seemed that this fight was about to draw into its final closing moments as blood began to stain through his dark cloth shirt around the arrow injury causing the shirt to gain an almost dark inky circle around the wound.

JutsuShow

In Order

*[Iaido • Shinigami Draw]
C-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Losing the use of one's hand or arm in a fight can be a death sentence, but Iaido has found a simple, elegant response to this desperate situation. Using their free hand, the practitioner momentarily braces the edge of their sword against the inside of the scabbard before drawing. While it does not confer the instant acceleration benefit of its parent technique, this Discipline does allow the practitioner to use Iaido techniques at their normal speed even with only one hand.

*[Iaido • Last Breath]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
The most iconic (and most basic) strike of Iaido, the practitioner quickly draws and cuts with their blade in a wide arc in one fluid motion. This simultaneous draw and attack straight from the scabbard makes Iaido well-suited for an initial surprise attack and for taking advantage of openings presented by the opponent.

[TyDie]

Aiya continued to slowly walk forward as the smoke in front of her began to settle, feeling the 'thud' of her target hitting the ground after hearing his grunt of pain. These two things gave her more than enough information to know where he was, though the clearing of the smoke also allowed her to get a better bearing of the battlefield. He called out about her having only one exploding arrowhead, but one was all she needed if he refused to surrender. "Yes, one. I know I hit you at least once, I can smell the blood. It's been a great match Akujin, I'm glad to have fought you." As she spoke, a clear air of respect to her voice, the smoke fully settled, and she could see the boy was on his back now, bleeding from the shoulder. As her eyes landed on him, her skin once more blackened, and her spider form emerged as chitin grew along her body and her extra arms burst forth. But still, she couldn't tell which arrow was her exploding arrow; the one that had hit the wall and the shaft sticking out of his arm were both buried so far that she couldn't see if the tip was glowing with her chakra. The last arrow, the one that had split, clearly wasn't the explosive arrow.

"But there's no sense in either of us getting hurt any worse. Don't make me Kai, the explosion would rip your arm to pieces..." She wasn't sure which arrow was explosive, but there was a 50% chance that it was the one in his arm. Those weren't odds she was willing to bet on, and Akujin shouldn't want to either. "I could just as easily rain down kunai on you from here." As she spoke, her right hand would reach into her ninja pouch, removing three kunai knives that she would hold between her fingers, holding them up like a claw. She was standing about 8 meters away, her staff in one hand and the kunai in another, with four arms open and ready for other actions. She was clearly exhausted, she couldn't even try to stop her panting. "You've got till three. One... Two... Three. "

If he let her hit three, she'd toss the Kunai at him, one at a time.

JutsuShow

[Seiryu no Kiba • Sharpening Claws]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After years of training, the practitioner has learned how to quickly and accurately access their ranged weapon stores at all times in combat. This cuts the effective "reload" time by half, up to a maximum speed equal to the practitioner's Speed score. This also applies to returning unused projectiles to their storage containers or switching between types of projectile weaponry.

[Seiryu no Kiba • Draconic Predictions]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After much training and study, the practitioner has learned how to read an opponent's movements and adjust their aim accordingly to compensate without penalty. This Discipline allows the practitioner to accurately hit moving targets, though sudden changes in the opponent's movements will still affect accuracy.

[Zao]

"It has been a good match..." Akujin called back out to the woman who was becoming clearer as the smoke was only still settling over the ground dropping below waist high he brought his left leg in and under him allowing for him to set forward into a single knee, kneeling position and the hand with the short sword spun around with a wrist movement and with rather high skill the boy sheathed the short katana but didn't let go of its hilt. Then he seemed to weakly push up onto both feet shifting his left slightly forward as the left arm simply hung limp, the boy leaning his upper body forward to assist in drawing his sword. "You are strong, but I'm not terrible with this little sword." His words came as a retort to both of her threats, of blowing of his arm or she could rain down kunai on him. Her skills with projectiles rivaled her melee skill for sure, the arrow in his left shoulder was proof of that.

Exhaling slowly the man observed the distance between them, eight meters...she was still a few meters to far away even though the explosions had a good range he still needed to find a way to make her move closer. Could he continue to stall or draw her in. It was a bold assumption and it seemed less likely as she mentioned that she could just as easily rain kunai down upon him. This was a bit outside the normal for him, having normally relied strictly upon his constructs to deal with opponents he had only recently began learning Iaido so his skills with it were low in number and his style was a slight deviation on the original as he wore his sword on his right shoulder and now at the hip. She had also reassumed the monstrous looking spider form from earlier that allowed her to go toe-to-toe with his multiple constructs at the same time...perhaps what he needed was something unexpected...a momentary diversion.

'One....two...' His lean muscled legs bent slightly ready to move, though his movement would be a bit different than his opponent expected, or at least he hoped it would be. When her count reached two he knew that he could no longer wait and that the scary girl would without a doubt carry out her plan to attack him. With nothing else to lose at this point the genin didn't leap forward but straight up pushing with all his strength to gain some elevation as he rotated his body forward during the jump and unleashed a high speed sword draw. Though the draw was just to build up the speed of the sword as the boy's grip loosened sending the sword careening at high speed downwards aimed directly for the head of his opponent with all those creepy eyes. The hand that threw the weapon rapidly retracted back to him forming a single handed hand seal which caused for his five little spiders in hiding to leap towards their target from the ground in a semi circle fashion.

'Kai!' Before she manifested the weird spider form he was to worried about the damage his little insects might cause to her, but the genin reactivating her ability helped him build the resolve to attempt this knowing that the sturdy blackened chitin had high defensive properties as he saw when his bird attacked her earlier in the fight. Each of the five spiders exploded enveloping an area between five-to-ten meters before the secondary explosions occurred just like before increasing the area of explosions (ten additional tiny explosions around each the original ones at two and a half strength.) While this would envelop the area around his opponent's location the force itself slammed him backwards as he flew back and impacted the hard stone wall before he fell down land weakly on his feet and collapsed onto his knees in the sand with only his single arm to keep him from face planting.

The boy's vision was blurry and he could only hear a deafening ringing in his ears, having hit not only his back but his head on the wall from the shockwave of the explosion. At the moment he was unable to defend himself if any attack come, that last attack had been the last act of a desperate young man who wasn't quite ready to surrender, seeking even the slightest chance of victory that he could grasp at with his remaining hand. As for what happened to Aiya, he couldn't begin to tell in his current state...hopefully his attack didn't go overboard...he should he head slightly back and forth as a trickle of warm blood ran down the back of his neck from a small gash on the back of his head. The edges of his vision darkened ever so slightly as he tried to focus himself and lift his head looking at a dizzying battlefield filled once more with dust and smoke....

JutsuShow

*[Iaido • One with the Sword]
C-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Prerequisite(s): *[Iaido • One with the Sheath].
The practitioner has learned how to more quickly and efficiently sheath his blades even without the use of both hands. The practitioner can now sheath the blade just as quickly with one hand as could be done with two hands, and so long as the scabbard remains on their person, the practitioner will always have an exact knowledge of the position of their scabbard.

**[Iaido • One with the Sheath]
D-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Prerequisite(s): 8 Speed.
The practitioner has learned how to more quickly and efficiently sheath his blades. The practitioner can now seamlessly transition from drawing their blade to slash to sheathing their blade, allowing the practitioner to sheath their sword in half the time, up to a maximum speed equal to their Speed score, for the more rapid execution of Iaido techniques.

*[Iaido • Shinigami Draw]
C-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Losing the use of one's hand or arm in a fight can be a death sentence, but Iaido has found a simple, elegant response to this desperate situation. Using their free hand, the practitioner momentarily braces the edge of their sword against the inside of the scabbard before drawing. While it does not confer the instant acceleration benefit of its parent technique, this Discipline does allow the practitioner to use Iaido techniques at their normal speed even with only one hand.

*[Iaido • Last Breath]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
The most iconic (and most basic) strike of Iaido, the practitioner quickly draws and cuts with their blade in a wide arc in one fluid motion. This simultaneous draw and attack straight from the scabbard makes Iaido well-suited for an initial surprise attack and for taking advantage of openings presented by the opponent.

Kai!

[TyDie]

Aiya got to two before the boy made a move against her. His resolve... it was uncanny. But she'd keep true to her word, tossing the first kunai at the boy as he hopped towards her, throwing his sword at her as a last ditch effort. In response, her second Kunai was thrown at the weapon itself, knocking it from the air before it made contact with her head. Before she could throw the third kunai however... they appeared. The eyes in the side of her head caught movement in the grass as the spiders emerged, the tiny tremors they made as they moved clued her in that there was more than one... at least three. And as they leapt forward, Aiya only had one response...

Hold up all six of her hands and pray.
BOOOM The arena was once again filled with a series of powerful explosions. The force of one blast wasn't enough to break through her armor alone, but three of the main blasts caught her before the force of the explosives sent her far enough away from the epicenter that the rest of the main explosions missed. The secondary explosions rained down as well, a couple of them catching her within their range. And of course, the concussive force of the blast sent her flying with incredible speed out of the bounds of the arena, into a wall, with a powerful "THWACK".

Her armor? Shattered. Her ears? Deafened. She slid down the wall and into the sand, her head lulling to the side and her eyes fluttering. Her vision was incredibly blurry, she had almost no idea where she was right now. It would take a solid 15 seconds before she had any sense of direction. And with her senses returning, the sense of pain was overwhelming, so much so she shouted out in pain. "Gah! You're insane!" Aiya yelled out, her breathing labored and quick. She had at least a couple broken ribs, her extra arms having taken a good portion of the damage meant for her torso and head. Her left arm was broken too, making five of her six arms completely unusable... But her legs still worked. And her extra eyes granted her the knowledge of where Akujin was in relation to her now.

He was no more than five meters away, also in the sand.

Her last remaining hand still held the third Kunai, somehow she hadn't dropped it during that explosion. Most likely, her body tensing in instinct had allowed her to keep a hand on the throwing knife. "...Three." As she spoke, she yelled in pain as her body moved in spite, throwing the last kunai at the boy's chest.

Jutsu UsedShow

[Spider's Sight]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
The eyesight of a spider, while often overlooked, is incredibly acute. Some spiders hunt purely using their incredible eyesight to locate prey, homing in on their target from incredibly far distances with ease. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of vision to the level of the spider, allowing her to perceive and react to even slight movements with relative ease. The tensing of muscles are a great indicator of a future action, and with her incredible eyesight, Aiya is capable of perceiving brief muscle tension, allowing her more time to react. This also grants Aiya the equivalent of 20/5 vision, allowing her to see with clarity at 20 feet what most see at 5 feet, granting her a much better scope of distance vision than most.

[Zao]

It was several seconds, the boy had only managed to find a seat on his bum in that amount of time and let his back rest against the wall as his hands simply hung down on either side resting the hands in the grainy sand below him. What he heard several seconds later was what sounded like screaming, not the kind from just pain but the kind someone makes when they're really pissed off and even though he couldn't understand the words the tone and volume of the scream was enough to send a cold shiver down the little boy's spine at the moment. "Hah." A labored breath was followed by a faint laugh as his vision was growing darker than before, simply fighting to stay upright against the wall that his back was upon and conscious to see what was going on, but he was able to force out a tiny laugh at the situation. 'Seems I couldn't beat her after all, heh.'

Their was some action coming from the young woman, but honestly the genin couldn't tell what it was. This was the angered kunai throw as she finally was able to reach the number three as the kunai was launched toward his chest just as the boy passed slam out and fell over to the side allowing the kunai to impact into the wall. Unconscious the masked shinobi had an unseen half smirk at the fight he had endured against the spider girl, his body limp on the ground at the moment as this fight came to a close. If his actions spoke anything about him in this fight, the young Sozo boy might end up being the one to bring about his own end with his reckless acceptance of risk involving his explosive clay...but it sure was a fun ride.