Chunin Exams Round 2: The Space Between

Wind rustled the leaves on the surrounding trees as Zaine sat perched atop an earthen wall approximately 10 meters tall and 7 meters wide which sat centered in the arena he chose for the second round of the exams - his eyes remained closed as he pondered intentions for the genin he had been assigned for the second round of the exams. "We're not going to make full fledged shinobi out of them over the course of a couple weeks.. but they should at least have this concept down..". The setting for battle was a circular clearing 40 meters in diameter with surrounded by a forest holding trees 20 meters in height and 5 meters wide. 

Upon entering the arena the genin would see the earthen wall sitting perfectly centered in the clearing with nothing else surrounding other than a few boulders of varying size and a lake behind him 20 meters in diameter scratching perimeter of the clearing. Opening his eyes he would reveal his matured eternal mangekyo sharingan before coming to a standing position and taking in his surroundings. Strapped to his back was his prized Katana Benihime and on his lower back there were two weapons pouches containing his standard equipment- though, with what he had in store there wouldnt be much need for it. Ten minutes would pass before his opponents entered the training field and Zaine couldnt help but grin upon seeing a familiar face among them. Finally, it was time to begin.


He maintained his position atop the wall as he peered down. "Welcome and congratulations on making it to the second round of the exams. We don't have much time and I doubt any of us are here to chat with one another. The challenge you're faced with today isn't an ordinary combat scenario, in fact I would venture to say there are ways to reach your goal without it." He would motion to make the clone handseal as his expression transitioned to that of a stern and steadied glare- within moments following this 4 clouds of smoke would erupt along the top of the wall one meter apart  from each other with the result showing 5 identical Zaine Uchiha's. "Among us there are two golden Kunai knives and the only real rule for success is to ensure that by the end of the hour you're making contact with one of them. Upon besting one of us, you'll immediately gain access to a kunai if it is in our possession." Each clone along with the original would squat down just a bit in order to signify that they were ready to begin as the idea would be to give the genin the first move. "If there are no questions, your hour begins now. Show me what you can do!" 

Stats and Equipment:

Jutsu used:

[WC=465]

Page looked up at Zaine's feet, sure to avoid eye contact with the Uchiha knowing the potential of harm, from directly below him on the wall that stood 10 meters tall, 7 meters wide, and a half meter deep, listening to all he had to say attentively, glad to see his comrade, but knowledgeable that holding back wouldn't get him anywhere in this fight. Page and Kouma had talked strategy the previous day, and as Sheffield watched away from the fight in the tree line, Page sprung into action, responding to Zaine's call to action with a simple punch two meters up on the wall, enhanced by earth shaker and expanding in a circle completely encompassing the wall and bleeding off in the 8 meters to any side of the center of the wall, causing the earth to shake and tumble, sending all the clones and Zaine rocketing into the air. Page was wasting no time, knowing he had precious little left and the sooner he would end this the better. picking up four Senbon from his pack, Page would send one at each of the clones, arched so that they could hit them should they stand their ground or if they were launched directly vertically up. Page followed this up with 2 sets of 4 more shuriken, all would be spaced according to an array that would form a total of three parallels lines laterally, spaced out one meter from each other, and four columns spaced out horizontally, each one directed to a different clone. This was angled so steep that should they hop down on the side facing Page, they would also get hit, and if they were made helpless in the air, a similar event would occur, dealing terrible lacerations and punctures to the clones. Page put all the strength and speed he had into this attack, knowing it could be quite strong, but was making sure to reserve energy just in case this attack proved fruitless. 

Page then set his sights on Zaine, if he couldn't take out any of the clones, he had an alternative plan to get those golden kunai. In chess you may choose to rid all the pieces of the opposite side before going in for the king, and this may work, but at any point taking the king wins you the match. If Page managed to find a way to take the king, Zaine in this case, he would have the leverage to push the clones into relinquishing their golden kunai, much as if you captured a kage or higher ranking ninja of a village in war, you could use the advantage to claim some sort of objective. Using surface walking to get up to the top of the wall, Page would start weaving the signs, making the signs Rat Tiger Horse Ox Ram, casting a foul odor that when it would reach the original Zaine as he was coming down, at 5 meters from the wall, paralyzing him with the terrible stench. The now limp body would fall to the ground and into Page's arms, who would take the time to put Zain in an unresisted Octopus Stretch, before leveling a Kunai at his throat, a symbol of taking the opposition's king for capture. Page had no actual intension on cutting or causing any harm to the real Zaine, and if push came to shove he ultimately wouldn't be able to hurt his comrade like this, but he felt if he had at least proved a symbolic victory the proctor may approve enough to let them pass onto the final rounds. Of course should anything not go according to plan, Page was more than alright with changing his actions on the fly. 

Ideally, with all of this set into motion, the clones would all be caught with weapons and Zaine himself would have his arms and legs locked into place, a kunai leveled at his throat. Page would, should this be the case, take the time to remark, "Just one question, sir, do you yield?"

WC: 675

AP costs and Stats:

Stat Page Currently:

Kouma was called out to the field to participate in the second part of the chuunin exams, and he was nervous and excited, but mostly excited. He had yet to have an actual battle, so it would be great to hone the theories and practices that his mentor taught to him thus far in a real situation. Kouma had walked into the field that their proctor had told them to meet at, and in preparation for this, he had already brought out his puppets before this, and essentially walked them there, so they were both standing there about a meter in front of Kouma, Tika Tika being on his left and Shogunate on his right, and they were slightly covering his shoulders from where they stood. Kouma himself was standing a bit farther away from the wall as Zaine made his explanation, which put him about five meters away from the wall so that he did not have to strain his neck too far to see Zaine as he was speaking. As the man on the wall explained the rules of the competition and performed his clone technique, Kouma bowed lightly to him before taking a ready stance, and attaching his chakra strings to his puppets to be ready for when the competition started. Zaine then said 'show me what you got' and all his clones slightly squatted down in a ready stance, and so Kouma was ready to react to whatever happened. As he was getting ready, Page suddenly punched the wall, and a shock wave was spreading out. Kouma made sure to be twelve meters away from Page, as they had discussed a bit of strategy earlier, and so Kouma did something quickly as well. This put him five meters away from the wall and ten meters to Zaine's right.

Kouma's fingers started rapidly moving around his right hand controlling Tika Tika to fire off a silvery white globule of honey consistency substance that was one meter in diameter. The globule was fired through the air in a large arc, and it was aimed fourteen meters directly behind the clone that was closest to the main Zaine, if the real Zaine was in the center. The globule would travel fifteen meters in the air at its apex, which would soar about three meters over the head of this clone. Once this globule hit the ground, it would immediately explode in a large, fifteen meter radius, covering this entire area in extremely sticky honey like liquid. Since this was a fifteen meter radius, it would be able to cover the back of one of the clones, and make that entire area a no go zone. Shogunate on the other hand, would activate the Chakra Slicer Cannons and be ready to fire off some chakra projectiles towards any clones on his side or the middle Zaine, which Kouma thought was the real one. The Slicer Cannon projectiles would be ten meters long and three inches thick if they were fired off. They would have less power than normal because he was not using the full cross projectile, as he thought that clones would poof away in a single hit, and the Slicer Cannons covered quite a large area should they be fired. The projectiles would be charged with lightning chakra, in case Zaine did not jump and used an earth based jutsu to block the attacks.

During this time, the same time as Kouma was manipulating his puppets, he himself would be shuffling backwards at a fairly decent pace, and farther away from the wall,which would put him out of range of the earth shaker shock wave. Kouma was going to attempt to slowly corner the jounin's clones, or at least as many as he could.
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WC: 627
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Chuunin Stats:

Character Stats:

Techs Used, AP and Maths:

Each of the Zaine's carried the same thought as they noted the choice of positioning by Page upon his entrance- his decision to place himself directly in front of the earth wall was interesting to say the least but served to put his proctor even more on guard than he would have been had the Genin kept a fair distance. "Does he truly intend to engage in combat with five of me on his own? Maybe he has a trick up his sleeve. He is Raleth's student after all." This thought would be followed by the entrance of his team mate onto the battlefield and from the looks of it he was a puppet user- excitement was reignited in the Uchiha at the prospect of what these two could accomplish should they choose to work together.  

Operationally speaking, to his surprise as he and his clones readied themselves into a position to begin, Page wasted no time in beginning his assault- the complex tomoe in the eyes of the original Uchiha would slowly spin in a synchronized manner with the two clones nearest to him as they studied his movements. A dense chakra became visible and began to build up within Page with a clear focal point of the arm that he raised up and cocked back in an attempt to punch the wall which each Zaine stood atop. The scarlet eyed Jounin couldnt help but marvel at the fact that such power and focus was possible in a shinobi who still had so much growth and development ahead of him- still, one thing was clear in that his opponent intended to utilize this build up of chakra to inflict devastation upon this wall and a counter measure needed to be enacted. As the three Zaine's in the middle studied Page, the two clones standing at the ends of the wall would keep their view on Kouma who by expression and preparation to move showed clear understanding of what was about to take place- the strings flowing from the Genin's fingers were visible as a steady flow of chakra thus he understood the two puppets would need to be watched as carefully as Kouma. The tension built up by the muscle fibers in Page's arm working in tandem with the chakra he meant to release would result in an impressive blow to the walls core which would send a shockwave up and through the wall from the point of impact at 75 speed and power. 

The three Zaine's that had been following the movements of Page would leap backwards in a crossing formation at a speed of 155 and travel 20 meters from the walls surface as the fist made contact ,avoiding the shockwave from the genin's attack while maintaining a 1 meter distance between them- the three made sure that this was done at a downwards angle in order to obscure the vision of the two genin via the cover provided by the earth wall and effectively remove their ability to differentiate which Zaine was a clone and which was real. The three Zaines would land 5 meters to the right of the lake that touched the perimeter of the clearing. Simultaneously as the the three Zaine's in the middle made their move, the two on the far left and far right would note Kouma's effort to shift his weight to his left leg for the purpose of moving himself- this would put him 5 meter away from the earth wall and 10 meters to the right of the wall's center, where the original Zaine once stood. These two clones would follow suit and leap 20 meters from the wall respectively diagonally/downward to the left and right from the walls edges at speeds of 155 as they watched Kouma's puppets begin to take action. (Given that this still occurs with the current positioning of Zaine and his clones) The puppet that had been on his left upon entering the battlefield released a 1 meter projectile that arced through the air and the trajectory of it seemed to be angled further back to where the other three Zaine's were. The clone that landed 20 meters to the right of Kouma would focus his gaze on the projectile as a slight smirk came over his face and not a moment later the clone would vanish in a puff of smoke.

Though the earth wall now blocked their vision of Page, the information transmitted from the shadow clone that had disappeared gave a clear picture of his position as well as the course of the incoming projectile- with this information the original Zaine would begin to string together handsigns at a speed of 185, his eyes beginning to glow a bright red as he did so. He would move through the handsigns Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Tiger  →  Horse, before taking in a large breath as he focused chakra from the pit of his stomach, up to his chest and out of his mouth in the form of a 6 inch stream of fire that quickly released 3 fireballs that were 10 meters in diameter. The fireballs would travel towards there intended targets at a speed and power of 110- the first fireball would follow the trajectory noted by the clone that disappeared earlier thanks to the assistance of the sharingan and intercept the liquid projectile in mid air. Upon colliding with it the fireball would incinerate the globule as it continued its way through the air and away from the arena. The second fireball took a straight path for the earthen wall that had been damaged by Page and would completely destroy the wall, pushing through to damage Page if he did not take measures to avoid it. The third fireball would be aimed around the wall and would arc at a 45 degree angle once passing it in order to attack Kouma and both of his puppets. 

The stray clone that was now 20 meters to the left of Page readied itself for any counter attacks that his two opponents might have in store. The genin were unaware of it at the moment, but this would prove to be the turning point to decide their likelihood of passing this exam.

Jutsu used:

[WC=1,043]

Page would use his intensely well-developed sense of scent to keep track of the battlefield, finding the smells of each of the clones to be trackable in a three-dimensional space without the need for sight. In order to be 5 meters to their right of the lake, the clones would all have to travel 6 meters to Page’s left as they traveled 20 meters back, 10 meters down and shuffling themselves while maintaining their 1-meter separation from one another, meaning the travel of an additional 6 meters around the central Zaine as the two clones swapped places. This would result in the movement on one plane of 22 meters as Zaine, that being how far back and down Zaine would go, that when added with the 6 meters to the left he would be going, would total to greater than 23 meters before even calculating the mix up.

Meanwhile, the other two clones would move, one hopping from his position 3.5 meters from the center to Zaine’s left, jumping 20 meters, and falling 10, leading to a total travel distance of 22 meters, and arriving 23.5 meters away from the center of the field, crashing into the tree line. The one to Zaine’s right, Page and Kouma’s left, would jump as to be 20 meters away from him before disappearing, but first traveling 25 meters across, as Kouma would be 5 meters to his left of the wall (Zaine’s right). The 25 meters would be crossed along with 10 meters down, forcing this Zaine to move a total of 27 meters of actual travel before dissipating (this was just mostly a clarification of locations compiled).

While Zaine would go on these separate paths, the former farmer would hit the wall a second time with his palm, seeing them begin to jump, grabbing rocks in his opened hand strike, destroying the wall in front of Page, breaking it into a hundred smaller rocks, and allowing him to still gaze directly at the clones as they moved around at 155 speed. As they started their jump, Page would take the falling rocks and launch them where he saw and smelled their exact trajectory would take them, grabbing a handful and scattering 15 towards the clones and real Zaine, attributing 5 rocks towards each Zaine, each in a clump together. These would be traveling at a speed of 140, all traveling about 21 meters to their targets in total distance traveled, meeting them just as they land before they have the opportunity to utilize any jutsu. Along the same time these rocks would crash, the area would also get covered in the honey like liquid from Tika Tika, completely covering them and preventing any motion from the three central Zaines. During this time of flight, Page would pipe up, “So how are we supposed to know which ones will or won’t give us Golden Kunai? Don’t suppose we could ask em over some of Ral’s tea?” If the one sent closest to Keita would disappear of its own volition still, Page would state, “Well I guess not that one.”

These throws would require a physical movement of only a half meter of Page’s arms, who would then set his attention to throwing similarly bundled shots at the two clones to the left and right of him, similarly meeting them as they touched the ground. This response to the leap would ideally take out all the clones in Page’s mind, making them each disappear while sticking Zaine thoroughly into the liquid, which would provide time for Kouma and Page to collect the golden kunai. Page was not sure this would work, but it at least bought himself some time and potentially eliminated the options of their opponent, and with the honey outset Page would start to wade his way through it trying to close distance between himself and Zaine, starting his journey across the 21 meters between them.
 
WC: 654, TWC 1,329

Kouma was fully ready to act, taking into account the length of the small lake behind the wall that the proctor Zaine and his clones were on, as he had positioned his Web Shot mechanism to fire the globule at a point towards the center, but slightly to the back, of the lake, 14m away from the wall where Zaine's clones were on. Kouma was not quite aware of what the sharingan did, but Kouma made it a habit to look at the hands of the opponent to check when they were forming seals, or when they were throwing weapons or some such at him. As he was looking at the general body of the clones, he noticed that they were each going to go in their own separate directions, with the three in the middle jumping as a group and sort of shuffling themselves. Kouma had both of the clones in his field of vision, making sure to watch what they were going to do.

He undid the threads on his Tika Tika puppet to his left, and rapidly performed some one handed hand seals. They were rat, horse, monkey, ram, and bird, in that order. The jutsu he performed would summon forth a spirit from his ancestry, which would occupy Tika Tika, allowing it to move on it’s own, under Kouma’s commands, without the need for the chakra threads, at least for a while. This took hardly no time at all, but as he was performing this action, he noticed that the three Zaines in the middle that had jumped backward and to the right of the lake misjudged their jumping distance.

It seemed like they jumped twenty meters backwards, which would land them smacking directly into a tree, as they were far closer than the apparent 20 meter jump that they had tried to perform. They were also facing backwards, which would obscure their judgment of the distance even more, which would cause them to slam back and back of the head first into the large redwood tree. This would cause the three Zaines that made this jump to take 127 damage each, as the average of their speed and strength, combined with the normal blunt force of the environment, trees having 75 health, which would be halved, would mean that even if the clones did not immediately dissipate from this action, the wind would definitely be knocked out of them.

This would prevent any of the three Zaines from forming any hand seals to intercept Kouma’s Web Shot, which would hit the surface of the lake right after the three Zaines slammed into the tree, meaning it would explode and completely cover all three of them in the viscous liquid. At this point, Tika Tika would be on the move, and the puppet was about to use it’s poison spray cannon, but it also seemed like the clones had the same idea as the originals, which was to horribly misjudge their jump, as their attempted twenty meter jump would land them smack dab into a tree directly to the left of Kouma. These two clones on the edges could potentially avoid the same fate as the other three as they had jumped forward, and so Kouma had Tika Tika run towards him while activating the Poison Spewer mechanism.

This mechanism would spray out a poisonous mist that was ten meters in height and width, but it’s length would follow Tika Tika as she moved towards the clone on the left, essentially drawing a large line on the field. Considering Kouma was already 12 meters from the edge of the clearing, and the clone had either recovered and was on the tree near the ground, or the clone smacked into the tree and would be face first on the ground. Either way, Tika Tika, who was 1 meter closer to the edge of the treeline that Kouma was, would only have to scuttle two meters, which she would do at 100 speed, before spraying down the entire area around the clone that was nearest him, before attempting to slide sideways into an arc, spraying a line of the poison that started nine meters away from the wall on Kouma’s left side, Zaine’s right, and would end directly behind Kouma, essentially cutting off the ways the clone could use to target him.

While Tika Tika did her own thing, Kouma was moving to the middle point between the south of the arena, which was directly behind Kouma, and the far east of the arena, which was on Kouma’s left, Zaine’s right. He would shuffle backwards at his 75 movement speed, making sure to glance back every few moments to make sure that he did not run into any of the random boulders or the roots of the tree line. If he was not interrupted in his movement, he would end up 11 meters from the wall in the middle point, directly to the south-east. Shogunate would stay where he was, just in case the clone tried something fishy, as Kouma was watching out for something to happen.

Techs Used, Ap, and Maths:

As Zaine collided with and slumped down the tree, all four of his clones and himself would be smacked with a series of 5 rocks, all with an impact force of 120 each, knocking the main Zaine out and inflicted lethal damage on the clones to disperse them. Poofing into the air, Page would make his way to where the clones once were, rooting around in the areas when he got there to claim the golden kunai. He would have to dig around in the muck of the spider’s web shot when he got to it, which while annoying posed no true problem in restraining the former farmer, just gross and icky. Finding them finally he would rush through the muck, trudging through the white and sticky substance as it cooked to a warm temperature in the sun, he would eventually get out and hand the slime covered kunai to the partner for this round, Kouma, putting the second in his weapon pouch before going back over to where Zaine had been knocked unconscious.

Lifting their proctor’s, and the friend of his mentor’s, body out of the sticky load that Tika Tika had shot out, Page took the unconscious body of Zaine, knocked out by the assault, and put him over his right shoulder in one hand, bringing him out of the muck before walking out of the area covered in web shot with some difficulty and laying him onto the ground before concentrating his chakra and utilizing his mastery of Mystic palm to start and heal the many fractures caused by the rocks that had concussed him, as well as the large thump he had made, splatting along the tree. This wouldn't awaken Zaine, but it would help stabilize and heal up his wounds so by the time he did wake up he would feel relatively a whole lot better.

Page let out a hearty laugh to Kouma, “I hope this means we passed, would be a shame if our plan went a bit too smoothly. I think Zaine here may have overestimated the space he had for that jump. You hurt at all? I think I’m fine but I went through that smoke bomb of yours and now I’m feeling… awful tired. Think I may have yawn over extended myself there a bit.”
 
WC: 385 TWC:1,714

OOC Stuff:

Kouma had done his actions as smooth as he could muster, relying on the muscle memory of his ancestors that came with his pact. He was going off of what he thought was correct, moving his puppets around in a specific pattern and making sure to take in the environment as much as possible, but all of that came to an abrupt end when the instructor smashed into the environment. At first, Kouma thought it was some sort of ruse, so he had his guard up, ready to change his tactics and support Tika Tika, who was now moving around using a soul that Kouma had called to his service, and so she was essentially fine doing her own thing while he was going to support her. As the proctor smashed into the tree behind him, Kouma was correct in thinking that he would not be able to defend himself fast enough to disrupt the Web Shot mechanism, and combined with the powerful throwing ability of his partner Page, it seemed that the clones and the proctor himself was taken care of. Kouma believed that the proctor had given them some sort of test by showing an opening and a weakness, but Kouma could not figure it out, so he forgot about it. He had no idea how this test would be graded, but Kouma hoped that the swift defeat of the proctor would give them bonus points or something as they went into the final round of the chuunin exam, but he had no idea exactly how he did, as it seemed like he was only covering options and being a support.

As the proctor went down, Page went into action and started walking to each of where the clones dissipated, and started collecting and looking for the golden kunai that they needed to pass. Kouma was closest to the clone on the left of the arena relative to himself, so he would have Tika Tika look around the area and grab the kunai if it was there, bringing it back to him in the sharp mandibles of it's face, as that was the only thing that could actually grasp things on the puppet. Soon they had the kunais one way or another, and had met back near the wall, the proctor's unconscious body in tow. Kouma saw Page starting to heal the proctor's injuries, and Kouma was concerned for his well being as well, but his clan also taught a lot of medical knowledge, so he knew a thing or two about what injuries the proctor could potentially get, and it seemed that he was going to be fine after some rest. Kouma sighed in relief as the proctor was there, and he guessed that they should cart him out of the arena and notify the proper channels that their test, pass or fail, was essentially over. After the proctor was healed up, Page started to tell Kouma about what he was experiencing, and also said that he hoped that this means that they passed, and Kouma agreed. "Yeah, I hope so too, but I can't shake the feeling that this was part of the test." Kouma said, scrutinizing the unconscious body of the proctor, trying to see if he was actually unconscious.

Page then asked if Kouma was hurt, to which he simply shook his head, as he was always at a safe distance from the actual combat, so there was nothing that got close enough to him that would harm him. Page then went to explain to Kouma that he overexerted himself and might have went through Tika Tika's poison cloud, which would definitely put him out like a like in a little while, so Kouma recalled the soul in Tika Tika, severing the connecting and re-establishing the chakra threads onto it, ready to take it out of here. Luckily, Shogunate was large enough to be able to carry both of them should Page also pass out, as he would not let Tika Tika carry around his worst enemy, let alone people he did not want to actually hurt. If Page did actually go through the smoke and it was not just a joke, then Kouma would simply have Shogunate carry both of them out of the arena. "Well, I feel fine, but hopefully we can make it to the third round with good scores. I hope we'll see each other in the finals." Kouma would end off on, before simply leaving the area, with or without Page and the Proctor in tow, depending on the aforementioned circumstances.
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Exit
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WC: 762
Total WC: 2238
Using 315 on Unburial: Screecher with discount, completed, rest of training HERE
Using 1875 on Mystical Palm with discount

the remaining 53 words can fade into dust

Exit:
Claims
TWC:1714
34 ap trained

Approved