Chuunin Exams Final: Nero Yuki vs. Hayate Seiteki

Huh. That was... not what Nero expected. Finals were here already. It felt weird, to have been waiting in this same room with Hayate such a short time ago only to now be waiting to face him in a few seconds.

Sure enough, the Yuki was called to the Stage. Nero didn't walk with his clones this time. This fight was one between two Kirigakure ninja. He wanted to show the ultimate respect.

Adjusting the hat he had picked up from some Konoha merchant to avoid the burning sun, he headed straight for the top part of the arena. If he saw Hayate at any point, Nero would greet him with the Seal of Confrontation.

Stats:

Hayate passed through the gate, taking his time walking across the bridge. The day was a crisp and clear winter afternoon, bright and lacking snow despite the season.

It was an all kiri final again. Even when expanding past just facing Konoha into the wider world, while the other two villages managed to beat konoha out of even having a top 4 placing, it was Kiri that stood alone at the top. The victory was won already. Hayate felt the weight lift off of him. The final battle was a formality, which kiri ninja would take which place, but the mission was achieved.

When Hayate reached the top step, he saw nero looking around. The other boy noticed him and gave a seal. Hayate didn't return it yet. Instead, he stared at Nero and reached over his shoulders, slowly, unclasping the two fuma shuriken, letting them fall in their collapsed state to clatter and come to a rest on the stone dias. He took another step forward, still staring at nero as he undid the buckle holding his sword, letting that too drop, a step ahead of the fuumas. Another quick motion and his leg pouch dropped to the ground, slouching under the weight of its contents. His eyes were obscured for a moment when he lifted the armor off, but then the eye contact resumed, as the heavy swordsman armor fell as well, forming a close line of discarded items.

He continued to walk, feeling the brisk winter air nip at him through the light compression shirt, his breath slowly appearing to filter through the half mask as light plumes of smoke. The headband glinted with the sunlight, making his blonde hair appear even more so. The chill electrified him, made him feel alert and ready. His muscles would soon be warm enough.

Now 5 meters from his own edge, Hayate extended his left arm. A quick flick of his wrist and the long, thin, almost needle like short blade he had strapped to the back of his forearm swung around and into his hand. The customary short sword for the current generation of Kiri ninja to receive or purchase first, as much a rite of passage as an actual weapon.

He then extended his other arm, his right hand making the seal of confrontation.

If they wanted an exhibition, they would get one. Hayate would nod at nero, and then, devoid of all gear but his clothes and short sword, begin to charge.

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Bold move. Hayate was setting up how the fight was going to go. Nero didn't have to agree, to give in to Hayate's ideas of what this fight should have been... But... Nero wasn't one to deny a challenge. Seeing Hayate drop his Fuuma shuriken, he let the scythe he had taken from Nekrun., fall down to the ground behind him.

Nero smiled seeing his friend return his greetings. What kind of a ninja would it make Nero if he didn't return Hayate's? Recognizing the weapon he pulled, Nero unsheathed what he thought would be the exact same shortsword and waited for Hayate attack, as he let his chakra cover him once again.

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As Hayate ran at nero, Nero smiled and drew his similar daggar. Good, then he felt the same way. Time to get down to brass tacks.

At 10m away, Hayate brough his hands together, using his skill with weapons to form the Bird then dog seals despite the sword in his hands. At 7m away a tight column of water flicked out from the condensation on Hayate's skin and clothes, forming a swirling vortex, a vertical column around his body, expanding.

The winter weather made the water almost unbearably cold, but nothing a Kiri ninja would even flinch at, let along a Yuki. It also distorted the view slightly. A wobbly image of Hayate drew back his sword in his left hand, head height, ready to strike, at only 2m away.

Yet the strike didn't come. Instead hayates right foot snapped forward into a knee high kick at neros left knee as soon as he was in range. Not winding up left some power to be desired, but the suddenness, his speed, and the waters distortion was an advantage all its own

OOC:
311AP -10 for Storms Center
301 AP left.

Speed is 125. Storms center reduces audo/visual reaction speed by 10 (for both sides).

Gravity was a funny thing. At the speed the two ninja were moving, at that second, it didn't really matter to Nero. At 10m away, when Hayate started doing some funny business, Nero threw CD into the air, just about 5 centimeters, with perfect balance so it would move up as if in an elevator. With CD airborn, he would quickly perform the Shadow Clone handseal to create 2 clones (to his left and right, both 2 meters away from him), and grab CD again as it was barely at the height Nero let go. Hayate was 7 meters away at that point.

Water and swords. Nero knew he should have expected this. Kireeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. It was on. Nero and his clones moved simultaneously. Nero himself drew 2 kunai with his empty hand and threw them at Hayate to meet him by the time he was about 3 meters away from him. Mero to his right Hero to his left started doing handseals again. Although, this time, they weren't completely random. If paid enough attention, one would gather the handseal string Serpent -> Dragon -> Tiger was repeated more than others.

If Hayate still continued with his movement, Nero would notice the shift in Hayate's momentum. He would take a step back while turning his body sideways (his right shoulder getting closer to Hayate, left shoulder away), to avoid the kick. As the kick lost its momentum, Nero tried to take advantage of Hayate balancing on one leg. Mero would dash towards the Seiteki, and attempt to disarm him. Nero, at the same time, would slash at Hayate's chest with his CD.
 

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Clones popped into being not moments after Hayate finished his jutsu. In true Nero fashion, they started cycling preparatory handseals, though with the distortion of the water he couldn't quite make out what, if any, jutsu might have been prominent among them.

But even with the distortion, he could make out the retrieval and throw of two kunai. Standard tactics to slow down an enemy charge, and as such fully practiced against. The Kunai weren't even faster than hayate, though, giving him time to barely dip below the one aimed at his shoulder and deflect the other kunai out of the way with a quick strike from his weapon. Continuing without breaking stride, Hayate knew he'd have to talk with nero about working out a bit more if he wanted those to do any good.

Nero HAD gotten better at close combat, though. His white glow seemed to help pull him up to almost Hayate's speed in melee, stepping back to dodge the kick and the last sputtering wave of the dying water jutsu. The clone to Hayates left charged, reaching out for Hayates sword hand, while Nero himself tried to strike at Hayates chest. A quick two pronged attack. Not bad.

But you never reach bare flesh towards a swordsmans sword.

In one swift motion he brought the sword, already drawn far back and to the left in a feint for the kick from earlier, whipping forward in a jutsu designed to excel in low reaction time situation. The cloud style move he learned at the kenjutsu academy served well here, targeting the multiple attacks from the front. At a speed of 155, the blade came crashing down in a path that would first target and cleave through Mero's outstretched appendages, likely without him even seeing it coming, and continue to knock aside the dagger aimed at his chest in one smooth cleave.

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[OOC: keeping soul expo up, AP's at the start of the post 78/76/76]

It seemed like Nero had underestimated Hayate's martial talent. With the smallest overextension on Nero's end, Hayate took out one of three Nero's just like that. Mero was gone. In fact, poor Mero wasn't even able to see what the attack was that erased him from existence. This was the life of a clone. Made to be used. Sacrificed to make the owner safe. It wasn't fair. This wasn't what Mero would have wanted. Mero would have much rather lived a long happy life. Differentiate him from Nero, travel far, find some girl and marry her. It wasn't Mero's plan. It wasn't Mero's decision. It wasn't Mero's fault. It didn't matter. He turned into a slim cloud of smoke, and even that didn't last long, dispersing into the air, leaving nothing of the poor clone's short existence.

Nero, luckily enough, could track Hayate's attack, even if just barely. However, knowing he was attacking didn't give him complete advantage. He turned the dagger slightly, just enough so that it would still be knocked away by Hayate's dagger, but wouldn't hit it clean and break it... Not yet anyway. As Nero was sighing with relief, taking a step back, Hero cast a Jutsu. With the last round of handseal rotation finished, a ball of chakra formed in front of Hero's mouth. One that swiftly took the form of ice, then was shot at Hayate's left leg. With the direction, and the angle, the iceball at first would seem like it would be targeting Hayate's  (still airborn at the time) left leg instead. Barely an instant later, that leg would have moved out of the way to open the route for the right leg.

Nero after taking the step back, would hold his CD in front of him in a defensive state, as he pulled two more kunai out, not yet doing anything with them.

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While dealing with the clone to his left and nero in front, the clone to his right had fired an iceball. He barely noticed when the crystalline ball entered the corner of his vision, busy as he was with the sweeping short sword blow and recovering his balance from the kick.

Hayate snapped his right leg back onto the ground, out of the path, but the ball impacted where his left leg, what he had been using as his only support, met the ground. It didn't cause him any pain, in fact, his foot almost felt numb. He spared a glance down to see ice expanding from the impact point around his left foot, crawling up his ankle. He tried to lift it, now that his right foot was back on the ground, but the ice held firm.

Hayate transferred his weapon, now in front of him after deflecting Nero's Blade, to his right hand as he took a deep breath. And then the familiar sensation overtook him. Everything around him seemed to slow down, nero, His clone, the encroaching ice. His muscles, usually unconsciously controlled without thought, he could now sense as if each fiber was its own harp string, taught and ready to play its part. He couldn't hold this precise concentration long, but while he could, he knew how to use it. What little chakra he had flowed, extremely rapidly thanks to his families brand, through each muscle and tendon, giving him precise control.

He used this to slightly pull his right foot back, barely off the ground, before slamming it forward into the ice forming around his left foot. the path would graze ever so close to but not hit his own foot, continuing forward to spray ice shards forward at the Yuki standing before him.

Hayate had a limited window. He couldn't afford another mistake like that. Nero's close combat had improved, true, but it was time to introduce him to a serious Hayate.

Hayate dashed forward, a mere instant behind the ice shards tumbling end over end on their way to the figure in front of them. After they reached the position nero was in, Hayate would aim a powerful punch to the gut at the figure in front of him with his free hand.

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Hayate was even scarier up close. Nero hadn't realized that when they were fighting on the same side. The ice made contact. This was all the confirmation Nero needed. He might have had a chance. The Yuki had a plan. And that plan was either going to give him the win, or it was going to reveal he had no choice after that point. Maybe he should never have let Hayate get this close.

As the ice hit, both Nero and Hero moved. Nero would just take a step back, as Hero took the shortest route to get between Nero and Hayate, making the 3 form a perfect line. Now hidden behind Hero, Nero would throw his Character Development, aimed at an inch above Hero's gut. If hit, the dagger would first go through Hero, and then hopefully hit Hayate. There wasn't any other option Nero had to beat Hayate, so he hoped this would work.

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As Hayate kicked at the Ice, Nero and Hero were already rearranging.

Following the shards forward towards his nearest target in front, Hayate's left fist had cocked back for the punch.  He began to pass by the clone on its left, his fist to the side of his body and punching in to follow through Hero's gut.  But instead, Hero vanished into a puff of smoke, replaced with a gut level dagger concealed by the disappearing clone

The small sword was exactly where the punch was aimed.  It tore into hayate's left fist, sharp metal cleaving aside muscle and tendon, cracking bone. Blood splattered wildly onto the cold stone dias.

Hayate, though, was well past the emotions that had forced him to hold back last exam.  A mere step away from the real Nero, he let out a gutteral, animal yell, one that held all his pain and frustration and anger, while continuing onward that last step.  Emerging into sight past the disappeared clone already in melee range, he raised his own Character Development Sword up to neros throat, barely holding back, sharp metal pressed perhaps too closely against skin.

Wild, animal eyes had replaced that of the calm, in control ninja.  Erratic puffs of smoke bellowed out from ragged breaths into the frigid air.  The dagger trembled, not in fear or excitement, but of being pressed so tightly and barely held back.

Hayate's left arm hung almost limply from his body, his left hand too damaged to do anything.  His right, though, the one holding the dagger, could do anything, and Hayate's eyes made that message all the more clear.  A tense moment hung in the air.

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