Resounding Success [NK]

It was agreed that it would be two versus one in this spar much to Sanada's glee he wouldn't have to fight these two power houses by himself. The air was becoming too thick for him as both higher ups were flaring their chakra showing just how strong they were. Sanada sighed geez...what have I gotten myself into he would ask himself. However he did feel slightly bad for having the two have to put a cap on their skills to facilitate him though he didn't mind it too much if it meant he could at least not get ran over in the first moment.

Reaching into his breast pocket of his vest where he kept his special smokes with his right hand he pulled out a small black box with gold trim. These were his best smokes only to be used while in combat, flicking open the top of the carton he pulled out two cigarettes with his left hand placing one in his mouth letting the taste of vanilla seep into his lips. He placed the other smoke in his left pocket before closing the lid and placing the rest back into his vest pocket. Going into his right pocket of his slacks he pulled out a lighter bringing it elegantly up to his smoke igniting the flame has he took a quick inhale lighting the cigarette letting it hang loosely on his lips. Using his left hand he slightly loosened his tie from around his neck allowing room to breath while putting both hands in his pocket. Walking over to Naoki he stood a meter to his left, tilting his head in the general direction not taking his eyes of the boss he would asksooo what's the plan captain with the cigarette still dangling on his bottom lip.

(1 clove lit)

Seems the leader did not object to any of Naoki's suggestions. This was promising to be an interesting fight. The Uchiha was already considering possible ways to approach Kaede who stood about five meters from him, when he noticed his ally walk up to him. It seemed kind of childish, since attacking from two positions than one would be more effective, but it was also quite an obvious thing from the psychological point of view. The chuunin felt mighty inferior to both of them, probably thanks to their little display of chakra just now. And it was probably nearly instinctual he could come to his ally like that. What intrigued the Uchiha was that the man still managed to maintain his casual and relaxed attitude. Also him taking out that second smoke... Naoki was no expert, he heard that smoking helps the stress, but this did not seem like the best time to have one... Maybe there was a catch there, maybe he would get to see something interesting, like with Saiga. After all, there are probably as many styles and unique abilities as there are shinobi in the world.

Fixing his eyes on Kaede, the Uchiha explained his idea quite simply. "Be as much of a nuisance to him as possible, I guess... well, here goes!" With that he would perform a string of hand seals and after putting his left hand to his mouth, send out six small fireballs. An initiation just like the last time. What Kaede did not know was that in these fireballs were hidden sunfly seals. Two of the fires headed straight for the Uzumaki, two more approaching from his sides, trying to flank him and the last two from above. The seals and fires would follow Kaede for a bit, if he was to dodge them. At the same time Naoki was already preparing for the next move. At half his speed, he would lunge towards his opponent while gathering chakra in his right hand, the chakra that would take form of purple flames and five symbols at his fingertips.

1294 w.

Kaede didn't have to wait that long it seemed. Within moments Naoki was beginning the fight. He remembered this opening move from the last time the two fought. Normally he would dance around a bit, but he was feeling lazy. Counting out six fireballs in his vision a chain was fired forth from his chest. He wondered for a second if he was perhaps abusing his bloodline far to much. Though such a thought was quickly wiped from his mind, the chain split off into six identical chains. Each of which diverted themselves to intercept the fireballs as they were moving through the air. All six of them made a sweeping motion, an attempt to 'cut' through the fire and simply disperse them away into nothing. Sanada had yet to make a move, so he continued to focus on the actions of Naoki. It seemed the man was not showing any new tricks right now.

He recalled the flames that were on the man's fingers. Kaede still wasn't entirely sure what that technique actually did. Though judging from the looks of it, and the way in which Naoki tried to hit him with that hand before, he assumed it was a jutsu that only worked on contact. Deducing that it was most likely some sort of sealing technique he thought best to avoid it for now. He moved backwards, mirroring the speed at which Naoki was moving towards him. This also served as a way to avoid those fireballs if his chains proved ineffective against them. Unfortunately, Kaede did not believe he would be able to avoid that annoying flame thing for the entirety of the fight. So that was why he quickly ran some hand seals through his mind, just in case.

Well things had started and Sanada's job was to annoy the boss as much as he could which was perfect for his skill set as it was. Arching his back he inhaled slowly on his clove cigarette feeling the smoke fill his lungs, he had constantly done breathing exercises to increase his lung capacity and it had payed off. He had to impress the higher ups as much as he could in this spar so they woudn't think any less of him. Watch out for chains sprouting from chest....great.. he would say to himself.

While Naoki had the bosses attention occupied Sanada finished inhaling four segments from his cigarette before exhaling it back on to the area around him. In moments the smoke would begin to take form into the exact copy of himself. The smoke also began to split into multiple copies till the final number reached 20 smoky copies of himself wavering between solid and intangible he enjoyed using his smoking clone illusion jutsu. If he wasn't interrupted and targeted after this he would use the rest of the smoke in his lungs to breath on himself using the covering smoke jutsu. It allowed him to blend in with his clones as well and he and his clones would begin to move in on the boss to cut off his avenues of movement.

(4 segments used 1 left)

As the fight began, Naoki saw the leader's chain ability be used. At first it appeared as a single chain, which then split into multiple, each targeting one of the fireballs with the seals inside. While normal chains would be all but effective against his orbs and maybe the fireballs as well, these were certainly no regular chains. As far as his sharingan could tell, they were manifestations of Kaede's chakra, shot from his body, possibly from one of the tenketsu points he knew about, but could not see. There were a few ideas he could consider and a couple moments to consider them, since they agreed to fight at half their speed, meaning the orbs and fireballs and the chains were all moving at about the same speed, which Naoki would consider somewhat moderate.

Actually screw this, is what he thought, more or less. Deciding not to ponder if he could make the fireballs dodge the chains or the orbs dodge them inside the fires, while those get cut, Naoki simply directed all six of the fires to suddenly crash into the ground. The seals with them. It was time to use something Naoki thought of yesterday, after watching that space warping technique Saiga used, something real cool.
As the fireballs crashed into the ground, they would explode, lifting the sandy dirt into the air and obscuring vision of the spot it exploded on for a few moments. During that moment, the orbs inside them would active in a new way, phasing through the soil, through the earth and diving into the ground. Just like that the six orbs previously hidden in the fireballs would now be hidden in the ground and more, they could still move while underground. The positions of all six would forms somewhat of an arc, half a circle. The center of such circle would be Kaede. Transmitting mental instructions to the seals, Naoki would send them at his opponent's feet. Naoki knew from his yesterday's fight that Saiga could track his seals with the chakra sensory, which both he and Kaede had too. So it was possible that the Uzumaki would see this coming. But then again, in those positions the fireballs made of chakra just exploded, so he might not realized what was happening until it was too late. Well, about to find out.

Regardless of what was happening with the seals, it did not distract the Uchiha's own attack. The orbs could react on their own and all he needed to do was send them orders, not guide their every move. So, as all of the above was transpiring, the man continued on his approach, the right hand in flames would now be raised at his shoulder, prepared to grab it victim, if allowed. Naoki would dash among the forming shadowy figures, which were a new sight to him. Being made of smoke, well, it made sense for them to be the Chuunins work, so the man did not worry about it.

1791 w.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to accept the rule of taking it more slowly than before. Kaede took notice of several things in quick succession. First, he noticed the appearance of twenty or so copies of Sanada appearing. It seemed that the man possessed some sort of clone jutsu, quite intriguing. Second, something was going on underneath him. It seemed that Naoki did have some new tricks after all. Kaede noticed several chakra signatures were located underneath the sand. He didn't really care what they actually were, more so where they were going. Judging quickly that they were moving underground towards him Kaede began to think over his actions. The third thing he noticed was that Naoki was still moving towards him. Though his vision was somewhat obscured by the annoying sand that had been kicked up by that terrible firework display, he could still see well enough to know the location of the man.

The clones were not an immediate threat it seemed, so he would deal with the threats that were immediate. Kaede stopped back-tracking and moved forward instead. His advance would be towards Naoki, meeting him halfway if the man did not change his course. As the movement speed of Kaede, the chakra signatures and Naoki were just about identical the following would likely happen. The chakra signatures would arrive at their destination around the time that the two men would be within touching distance. In fact, it would be about the time that the Uchiha would be making a move to grab him. Kaede of course was not that worried about such a thing. Substitution was a rather underused technique in Kaede's opinion. Even if it was one of the first things taught in the Academy, it had been a long time since he had seen it used effectively. Perhaps it was it's unpopular nature that made Kaede enjoy using it so much. Whatever the reason the Uzumaki would disappear, replaced by one of the deck chairs littering the beach.

Most likely both the flaming hand of justice and the chakra signatures would make contact with the deck chair, given the close proximity of the different entities before Kaede had changed location. Not entirely sure what would happen he took a moment to observe from his new location. Only a moment however. Said location was about ten metres or so off to the right of both Naoki and the clones. The six chains were still functional of course and were once again put to use. A sweeping motion was made by the chains, all six of them swinging to the left. All the while still growing in length, the chains had aligned themselves in a line vertically, mirroring rungs of a ladder. Such a formation was done in order to prevent someone from trying to clear the chains by jumping or just ducking under them. With a length of about twenty-five metres it would seem like the chains would be capable of side-swiping both Naoki and a good number of the clones. Though at this speed it shouldn't be that hard to dodge.

The two higher ups were putting on a brilliant display of power and tactics each move countering and reacting to the previous. This was showing their familiarity with one another but each one was pressing forward none the less as if it were a sophisticated dance where they both took turns leading. It was hist turn to step into the foray and turn this waltz in more of a tango.

The first order of business was to avoid the chains that were arcing wide left towards their location. He didn't need to move all of the clones, just a few to ensure he wasn't made out to be the real one. As the chains would make their way pass the boss would more than likely see the chains pass through 15 of the clones. It would look as if they phased through reality and re enterd as the chains passed, those clones would start running at their full speed of 30 to close the distance.

While the chain would reach himself and the 5 clones he had stay behind they would each jump in between the meter gap in space between the chains tucking the body into a ball  to ensure nothing was touched. He had to ensure this was done properly as he controlled each clone to do the same, clearing the chains. Although he was the only one that needed to do it he had to keep up the guessing game as one of them was the real one.

The 15 other clones would now be 4 meters away from the boss, 5 of them would stop in a horizontal line and begin to perform hand seals at a moderate speed as if about to unleash a joint attack but this was all for show. the other 10 would close the gap while 5 would branch to the left of the boss and the other 5 to the right.

If this all went uninterrupted Sanada would line the 5 up that were with him in a front to back line very closely with him located at the back. He did this to confuse the boss on which was him again if he had been made. The 5 clones and himself would begin running at his top speed of 20 rather groggily zigzagging in between each other.

While this happened he would break off from the clones to Naoki's position reaching him he would tell him his plan "Traveling in that group of clones is my genjutsu, I'm going to use my hidden mist jutsu to cover the field please be careful. With that if uninterrupted he would form the appropriate hand seal causing the mist to form around all of them with him at the epicenter. If this all went as planned the 5 clones would be reaching the boss launching fake attacks of kicks and punches that if let touch would pass through him if he knew they couldn't touch him, as the mist takes over the battlefield decreasing everyone's visibility.

Kaede did something unexpected. Her rushed to meet Naoki. What was unexpected about it, is that based from their last fight, Kaede knew to avoid the five element seal. And coming straight for Naoki increased the risk of catching it. But hey, what the hell, if he wanted to lose it this way, then who was Naoki to decline such a win? At the time his hand reached the leader, the seals were about to reach the man's feet as well. However, that was when the blade of Uchiha, the sharingan tracked something really intriguing. Kaede's chakra was changing rapidly, it was changing previously in a slightly different way, something that Naoki did not quite understand before. But now it started to make sense, he was familiar with the technique being executed, one of the most basic techniques taught in the academy. What was truly intriguing was that the technique required hand seals in preparation and could not be just activated in a middle of a step, and it was made possible by the strange chakra flow that came before it. That was the technique that prepared the chakra system for a seamless execution without the hand seals.

Naoki would smile as his hand touched a chair in front of him, which for a moment carried on the illusion of Kaede, an illusion he obviously could see through after observing the technique activate. That was a very handy move and it did not seem all that complex, if you knew the trick. Naoki's chakra sensory caught the moves of Sanada, he was definitely into something, but it did not appear to be quite as straightforward as Naoki would have liked. Phantoms and illusions were not going to cut it this time. So, to try and correct this he would swing his left hand, from under the sleeve came a kunai, grasped for a moment it would be tossed towards the Chuunin in an arc, meant for him to catch. At the same time, Naoki would release a number of sunflies from his feet, immediately the orbs would conceal themselves underground, not meeting the sunlight for a second. A total of 14 seals would be released, joining with the ones already out, they would spread among the smoke clones, traveling in their shadows. When the transition was over, the Uchiha used the dreadful power of the sharingan and copied the chakra flow he saw in Kaede before the technique activated. In a moment he would be replaced with a chair not too different from the one that took the leader's place. And before the chains crashed the said chair, he would be now standing a meter behind his opponent, only an empty table between them. A table that Naoki would flip, sending it at Kaede, while two more orbs were released from his hands. Finally making their appearance in daylight, the orbs would shoot at the limited speed towards the Uzumaki, phasing through the table if need be and trying to ram him, damaging his chakra if successful. And then came the mist.

2342 w.
[Copied Inner Seals with Sharingan]

Kaede was growing rather sick of having to go slowly already. He made a note never to do this again. The chains were largely ineffective it seemed, as the clones themselves were simply illusions. Thus Kaede felt the need to not actually give a damn about them for now. Thankfully he could now completely turn his focus to that of Naoki, who had just copied his move in a far less stylish fashion. His sensory allowed him to figure out where Naoki was rather quickly. The Uzumaki leader did not bother to turn around, instead taking out his hands from his pockets in a swift motion. The table would press against his back by the time he had put his hands together, though the time of contact was not enough to send him off balance. The hand seal completed before the Sunflies were to touch the table, and Kaede body flickered forward a distance of about twenty metres or so. This put the man about fifteen meters away from the closest clone to him. Sometime during that motion he had decided to rid himself of the six chains, being just before he had finished the hand seal. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking the time to open his mind's eye and survey his surroundings. "You know, purposely having to slow my actions down requires a lot more effort than I thought it would." He mused out loud, waiting for the actions of the two men. For now he would remain on the defensive, letting the two of them have their fun with their tricks.

[1000+/1000 Mind's Eye Mastered]

Sanada was amazed at how these two battled, it also made him very tired and he hoped he never made it that high in ranking. His clones were getting to their limit and he figured the boss had figured that they were just illusions. He let 10 of them go and vanish in a poof of smoke, that's when Naoki threw a kunai in his direction. Was he trying to attack him as well? Was he upset that he wasn't doing anything? Either way it wasn't cool to be throwing things at your teammate he stepped to the right letting it plunge in to the ground nest to him.

"That's dangerous....shouldn't be throwing things" he would say under his breath finishing summoning up the mist. A few moments would pass before the mist took over everything. He didn't know if the other two had extra sensing abilities but for now he hoped no one could see anything. He reached down and over for the kunai that had been thrown at him grimacing. Throwing sharp things at me...., what to do now, he was alone in the mist maybe he should lay down and take a nap the weather was perfect for one. Nah more than likely he would be seen magically and be scolded for it.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his other cigarette putting it to his lips and lighting it quickly he didn't know when the next attack was coming or where. He didn't know if this would work but he figured it was his best bet to do anything. He would breath in 3 segments of his cigarette before exhaling a 15 meter wide cone of vanilla scented smoke into the fog in the general direction of where he last saw the boss. This was his topographagnosia jutsu it was what he put a lot of time and effort in to creating and his strongest jutsu now he just prayed that it hit something....preferably not his teammate.

(1 clove used)
(3 segments of new clove used)