Remember Remember The 5th of November

Katsumi woke up just a little bit before her alarm went off and quickly fumbled with the device to ensure she shut it off quickly. She then rolled out of bed and looked at the calendar, a wide smile on her face as she saw the circle around the date that was today. The fifth of November, it was time to see what it was she was being summoned to a Kumite for. Quickly making her bed, she moved to the closet and began to put on her Official Uniform she had custom designed, having freshly cleaned and tailored it to ensure both fit and presentability. There wasn’t a thing in the world that could bring her down, because true to his word, the Mizukage had set something up where she was being summoned to show people what she was made of, to prove herself ready for whatever it was that was being thrown at her.

At a guess, she imagined it had something to do with the Chuunin Exams. Those weren’t that far off, if she recalled correctly, and it was very possible that she was being tested within the village before being shipped off to Konoha where it was supposed to be held, to ensure that she was going to be able to represent the village and not make an absolute fool of herself. In preparation for both the Exams and the Kumite, she had taken her training to the next level; techniques. They were low level, D-Rank techniques, but they were a solid start to what she would need to be able to learn going forward. She still couldn’t manage Ninjutsu, but she was getting close, and the dark-haired woman smiled in the mirror as she looked herself over, taking a few extra moments to run a brush through her hair and check her teeth.

And then she was off, walking quickly and quietly through the still relatively sleepy streets, only a few people milling about and starting to open their shops. She was early, but that was hardly her fault, because she was simply excited to see what would be happening and to get the show on the road. Approaching the Academy where she had never before set foot inside, she followed the instructions she had been given and moved to a large door that would lead to the Kumite arena, and paused just outside the door, shaking her hands a little bit and taking a deep breath, gathering her always present confidence and holding it in her chest. Head held high, she pushed open the doors and marched inside, and took a moment to look over the surroundings, noting that she seemed to be one of the first ones to arrive, just as planned. This gave her an additional moment to survey the surroundings, check and see what kind of grip she had on the floor, what kind of distance she had between the walls. Knowing your surroundings was absolutely key, after all, to being able to maneuver without having to look around.

Katsumi followed her instructions and moved to the balcony on the right side of the Arena, walking calmly up the stairs, as this was where she would need to wait until the Jounin, whoever it was, called them forward and explained what was going on. But she was not satisfied with just that, because the match, in her mind, had already started. The moment a Genin moved to the other side and made eye contact, she would activate her Power of the Wasp technique, the hidden well of Chakra she had within her. This would cause her eyes to flash and overall chakra levels to jump in intensity, so any Sensors or just someone paying close attention would feel it, combined with the effect of her Chakra Ink Tattoo (ask for a pic if you want one) on her back to begin to glow, even through her clothing just slightly.

[1]

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Spoiler:

Daisuke wasn't sure why he had been picked to be apart of this Kumite, but each passing day built up a pressure inside the young man and when the morning finally came for the big day, his half-asleep state had nearly forgotten about the Kumite until his brain kicked in, any drowsiness was instantly replaced with energy and got out of the bed, seeing the time and saw that he still had a few hours until he had to go. He took it easy in the morning, following his usual schedule of breakfast and a smoke would be a good time as any to calm down his stress levels for this fight, but he remembered back to his promise with Hana every single time the thought of smoking came to mind. He paced around his apartment sometimes, which helped a little but not much, time would eventually do it's thing and the deadline drawed nearer. Daisuke decided to finally put on his outfit, a more formal one fitting the pride of his clan.

His appearance consisted of a light lavender, loose-fitting, long-sleeved zip-up shirt with the Kaguya clan emblem crested on the lower front region, black pants cut off around mid-calf, bandages wrapped around his ankles and finally traditional black shinobi sandals. He decided that his "practical" outfits weren't good enough in the event that his bones became difficult to contain, intentionally having the loose shirt for the occasions he has to use his bones and he had a feeling he might have to for this match, if it got to that point at least.

After getting dressed in his new ninja outfit, he went on his way, remembering the directions given to him clear as day thanks to the stress. He came across the academy which brought a bit of nostalgia, but it didn't take long for him to find the door and open it, finding the arena. The sheer size of it only gave a bit more pressure, as this felt like it was the big leagues... he breathed out and in, pretending as if he was having a smoke... okay... he got this.

He waited by the balcony and as soon as he was called forward, it was a surprise to him that his adversary is a familiar face... Katsumi. He found her to be eccentric, but in a good way. He didn't know he was facing off against her, but he also remembered that she liked a good fight and after their last spar... he had a lot more to show this time around. He thought back to his weeks of training his usage of his Kaguya bone, she was superior in Taijutsu and he imagined she had the same amount of time to train as well, if she didn't train harder than him... but what she didn't have are Kaguya bones, and that might be the saving grace for him in this fight.

He already knew this was going to be intense, so he pushed off the sleeves and his shirt was hanging down, as he didn't want to pierce his clothing for when he does have to use his bone. He prepared a fighting stance, and decided to give the courtesy of a first hit by quickly ripping out a bone-like kunai from his wrist, throwing it at her. It wasn't intended to be a serious strike, more so to get her moving.

The Stuff:

Katsumi watched as none other than Daisuke, or Bone Boy, as she liked to tease him with, was her opponent.  The Jounin called them forward, asking if they knew the rules to the match which Katsumi nodded to.  A standard match, nothing lethal if at all possible.  To her, this was nothing out of the ordinary, as she often challenged people to sparring matches, but the biggest thing that made this different wasn't that, but what this meant for her.  The Mizukage had told her during the Comet Event that she would be called upon and told to prove herself, and this was her opportunity, and on top of that was the lingering thoughts about the Chuunin exams.  Before they started, she looked towards Daisuke and said one simple phrase.

"Nothin' Personal, but I ain't holdin' back this time."  This was about as friendly as she could get in the moment because what she was about to do was nothing like when they had sparred back then.  She had intentionally brought her speed, strength, and agility to match his in order to have a good fight.  Settling backwards into a loose stance, she prepared herself by slowly letting the chakra flood into her body.  She didn't have any techniques back then either... that wasn't true now.  She felt her senses get sharper as he produced a Kunai of Bone to get things started.  She moved all at once with precision, power and speed, accelerating herself far faster than she normally could, catching the Kunai in one hand and launching herself forward into a flying front kick that even most Jounin would find impressive, aimed towards his chest to knock the air out of him and send him flying if she got it off.

[2]

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The Stuff:

He did agree that neither of them should hold back for this occasion, he liked Katsumi but with how this fight was looking, he wasn't planning to hold back himself. He expected her to deal with the kunai well, he waited for her to make the next move and saw so as soon as she started to launch herself into the air about a few meters away from him and towards him in a linear path, he aimed his throwing hand's fingers, which is already up due to him throwing the kunai from earlier and he fired five drilling bullets from his fingers, aimed for her lower body and more so her upper legs as he's hoping to hurt her ability to move. When the bullets were cleanly shot off from his fingers, he tries to move to the side if he can.

With the speed of the bullets themselves and the speed that she's flying at with her kick, especially towards him, he'd be curious to see if she could think of a counter to this. He knows that she isn't planning to hold back and he isn't planning to either.

The Stuff:

Katsumi didn't have a proper counter, her ability to see what he was up to barely able to keep up with what he was doing, despite how much sharper her eyes had gotten lately. She was able to track the projectile's path, but only barely, and she was in mid-air, so dodging wasn't a great option either, so, she did the only thing she could and swiped at them with her kunai. For the most part, this was successful; one of the bullets missed cleanly thanks to her side-ways position and where he had aimed, another grazed her, and one more bit into her flesh through her clothing cleanly, but Katsumi had knocked away the other two with her mad swipe, keeping the majority of the damage to a minimum. But there was one thing that she didn't do, and it was something Daisuke had seen before, and that was stopped or even slow her attack.

She was willing to take a hit to deal a hit, and with her confidence in her strength, she was certain that she could deal more punishment than her opponent. But the Kaguya were tough, and it was obvious he was stepping up his game in a huge way. She saw him try to dodge but knew it would be too late, and Katsumi was very careful to inflict as much kinetic impact as possible without pushing him away if at all possible because she needed to keep him close. If she could manage that, she was certain she could handle a close-quarters brawl. Her blood from his bullets spattered lightly on his clothing, but her eyes showed nothing but that the pain was fueling her, as she pressed forward to get as close as possible for her next strike.

The Stuff:

Daisuke wasn't as quick as he thought, their close range and her incredible speed wasn't something his eye could perceive in time, so a kick had landed on the Kaguya's stomach, letting out a painful groan as he stepped back a bit, he definitely felt that one and it felt similar to the pain he felt back in his spar with her but a lot worse, his chest was starting to swell from the solid kick until it turned into outright pain, like a hammer hit against the spot she kicked and he could feel the flow of blood drip out of his mouth, but his instincts kicked in and he wanted to punish her for getting in close quarters like this. He couldn't do much previously in his spar against her, but he had enough skill in his bones now.

Eight bones suddenly protruded from his body and stuck in place, Daisuke's knees, elbows, palms and shoulders. He tried to be as quick as possible when his bones quickly protruded and aimed his right-hand palm towards her as she ran towards him, hoping to pierce her towards her abdomen once more. He needed to get a stab in, but he didn't want to actually kill her and still intended to aim for her non-vital areas.

The Stuff:

Katsumi didn't hesitate or even flinch as a bunch of bone spikes erupted out of Daisuke; she had assumed he was capable of such things since he could manipulate his bone structure and was much tougher than your average ninja. Then again, so was she; already she could feel the blood slowly stopping in the wound she had in her side slowly, despite the fact that she hadn't slowed down in the slightest. The pain was nothing but fuel for her, and it was not going to be letting the chance to get another solid blow in go by. She had to be more careful, considering his bones, but he still had a few vulnerable spots where she could land a blow, and she would start with another technique she had learned.

She moved in close and her leg came up, with far more reach than her arms, swinging wide towards his face, but she knew with her hand to hand speed it would be difficult at best for him to realize that it was just a little short. This should cause his guard to rise, as the feint was designed, feeling confident that he could punish the action by stabbing her leg once it made contact. But that never happened, instead she went low, assuming the feint worked and targetted his ankle with a vicious sweep kick that was hopefully enough to knock him off his feet and injure his ankle. Already her mind was working out what she wanted to do for her next move, knowing that she could start targetting anything that didn't have bones; the gut, throat, meaty parts of the legs, and any exposed joints were also fair game. Only time would tell if she was able to find one of those weaknesses and take advantage of it though.

[4]

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The Stuff:

(Unfortunately, Dread has OOC forfeited this match as he will be unable to post in a timely fashion as a result of internet outage. Katsumi will thus be declared the winner although Dread's sincere effort and excellent conduct has been noted. Good work both of you.)

Menza decided that he had some time to drop in on the Kiri fight before heading off to rendezvous with Rin for his
Ōtsutsuki prize. He used the transformation jutsu to disguise himself as a Kirigakure Jounin proctor. The man had well-forged credentials and thus was allowed to spectate and oversee the results of the match. He had taken on the appearance of a generic Kiri Hunter-Nin complete with ANBU mask. He remained silent and watched with glee as the two shinobi went at it. They both were fairly talented but Menza noticed that the Kurahasa had exquisite form. Her speed, precision, and finesse were on a completely different level than most genin. He found watching her fight to be quite the titillating experience. He had forgotten what it was like to be so enthralled by a young kunoichi. He was curious to how the match would play out but the more he watched, was the more he was convinced that this "Katsumi" girl was the one. She didn't have a bloodline which meant that she was more likely to rely on the bijuu's power. She also had much more grit and passion than Daisuke. The lad appeared pretty humdrum about the match and Menza did not sense a killer instinct from him. It'd be much more interesting to see how Katsumi developed the Beast. The results of a successful sealing would be far more worthy of study and thus Menza unilaterally decided who he'd give the Bijuu too.

Earlier he had acquiesed to letting Kyoji take point on deciding who should get it, but given his complications with Rin and Yui, Menza decided that he should take a more active role in cultivating his potential research subjects. The disguised Kiri-Nin could see that Katsumi was on the verge of disabling Daisuke with a wicked sweep kick. He cleared his throat and raised a red flag that he had snatched from somewhere.

"WE'VE SEEN ENOUGH! THE MATCH IS OVER!"

The proctor would step between the two combatants and forcibly call the match. Menza did not think it necessary to explicitly name a victor. To leave this interrupted fight on a cliffhanger was good. It would encourage them both to get stronger and perhaps fight each other again so as to come to a more definitive conclusion as to who is the superior ninja. Perhaps these two gladiators would meet during the Chuunin Exams.

That's a fight I'd like to see.... the Cursed One mused. He whispered in the proctor's ear that Katsumi was to receive the gift. He then left the arena and teleported away from behind the school. Shin would probably be arriving soon with the Bijuu and when he did, Katsumi was due to receive a power the likes of which she could only dream of. The two would be told congratulations and would be sent home. They'd receive word on what was to happen next at a later date.

Menza Exit via Teleportation.

Daisuke took yet another heavy hit, this time to the leg as while his constitution took it quite well considering, it still stung hellishly, just as he was about to try to do some form of counterup, Daisuke heard that thunderous voice across the arena along with a mysterious man suddenly going between them, actually ending the match. He wasn't quite sure what happened, but he took it for what it is and just expelled the bones that were sticking out of his body, having his normal mobility again save from the heavy kick to his stomach and leg earlier, they left their hurt on him but he can still walk himself home decently enough. The bones would eventually wither away.

He didn't quite know how to take this, he was definitely disappointed but he wouldn't say he's mad either. He was hoping to achieve something grand out of this, he might've been a bit more bitter if he lost but they didn't even announce who won, if there's even a winner. He'd simply give a goodbye wave to Katsumi as he made his way to leave the arena.

[Exit]

Katsumi felt the blow connect and had planned for a follow up now that she had hopefully hindered him a little bit, but she heard the voice call out and stop the match, her face darkened for a moment. Had she been too overzealous? She didn’t even know what the fight was about, still theorizing Chuunin exams and such, but nothing had been said even now. What was the deal? Did they stop the fight because Daisuke was about to perform some kind of move that she didn’t see? Who won? Why did they stop it early? Relaxing down to the ground for a moment, because she was close to the ground already, she took a moment to gather her wits, regain her normal smug expression and push the thoughts and worries into the corner of her mind, and stood back up. Looking to Daisuke, she gave him a smile. “Your tougher than last time... we gotta go again sometime.”

She looked to all the people watching for a moment, trying to read their reactions and not having much luck. She was supposed to leave now, wait to be contacted later, but that only made the nerves grow more powerful. Still, she had been told to do something, and in case her reaction was being monitored, she nodded and silently moved towards the exit. Once she was outside in the open air, she took a moment and looked around. Not being observed at the moment, she lifted a leg and rotated her ankle, the soreness from hitting what was the equivalent of brick wall repetitively. After it was worked a bit, she began to rotate both her wrists in similar fashion as she moved from the building. He had grown stronger... she had to take him seriously this time... and that was exciting.

[EXIT]

[5]