“Hey!” An out of breath Ayako yelled as she ran across the balcony. She slipped back into the arena of the tower once word of the current match’s end was heard.
“Hey,” she said again more quietly, stopping next to her team. Yumika and Etsuyo eyed her.
Ayako huffed. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing much,” Yumika answered, turning back towards the ground below. “Just Shino and Zaku’s fight,” she filled in tiredly.
“Oh…” Ayako looked down to see Nishiya helping the medics with Zaku. A smirk spread on her face at the sight of his loss, pleased with it considering their past encounter.
“Where did you go anyway?” Yumika wondered. “And where’s Sasuke and Kakashi sensei?” Naruto and Sakura quickly gathered around closer.
"…You go on back to the preliminaries; I’ll bring Sasuke to the hospital where he’ll be put under tight watch.” Kakashi’s statement ran through her mind.
Ayako glanced at Yumika, then Etsuyo, then at Sakura and Naruto before replying. I can’t possibly tell them the truth. Not now anyways. she thought deeply. How do you explain running into an S-Rank, Rogue Sannin, anyway? “…We just went to a room to…talk,” she lied with a shrug. “That’s all. It ran a little too long and Kakashi sensei didn’t want me to miss your fights, so he sent me back. He and Sasuke should still be together, though.”
Ayako forced a smile for Naruto and Sakura's sake, but Yumika and Etsuyo weren’t fooled. They gave one another a questionable look, but didn’t say anything.
Sakura piped up. “How is Sasuke?” She had her hands clasped under her chin with a hopeful look on her face.
Ayako hesitated. The image of him collapsing in front of her replayed in her mind. “He’s…just fine.” She assured, slowly. “He, sort of, passed out while we were talking. He was very exhausted. I don’t think you’ll see him until after the preliminaries. Kakashi sensei said something about taking him to the hospital to get checked out. Other than that he should be okay.”
“What about the-?”
“Don’t worry about it Sakura.” She snapped. “Just take my word.”
She dropped her head slightly and whispered, “…Okay.”
Without uttering a warning, the panel rapidly shuffled once again. Their conversation was over. Everyone kept quiet and watched the names switch back and forth until it stopped and chose the next two people to battle:
Naturami Yugoshowa vs. Yumika Hakinowa!
A long sigh escaped the chosen girl’s mouth. “Here we go…”
“Good luck, Yumika,” Ayako wished, and looked for her opponent across the room. Teammate of Sachida, huh?
Yumika spun on her heels and headed for the stairs, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. She didn’t make eye contact with anyone and only walked to her destination without a worry or care. Her face remained calm and collected, and her arms were habitually crossed.
Eventually, she ended up in the center of the room in front of Naturami.
They faced one another and eyed each other’s up and down with gazes so sharp they could kill. Even so, Yumika wasn’t intimidated one bit by Naturami.
She was the same body size and shape as her with tannish skin and long emerald green hair tied into low pigtails. Her eyes were wide with shimmering gray irises. The girl wore a plain black, quarter-sleeved kimono with a large white flower at the bottom. A grey, square pouch was attached to her left hip. Her Kusagakure forehead protector was tied around her neck. Her elbows were taped down to her mid-forearm and her legs were taped down to her mid-shin.
Naturami tried her best to give off a terrifying vibe, but of course, Yumika wasn’t going to be affected. Only one thing truly scared her, but that one thing was a secret to almost all.
Hayate coughed. “Yumika Hakinowa. Naturami Yugoshowa. You two have been chosen for the third match.” He introduced once again. “If there are no objections,” He paused to look at both girls. “you may begin.”
Naturami jumped back a couple feet while Yumika remained in her same spot, crossing her arms. She saw her opponent take a fighting stance with her feet widely apart and her hands in fists in front of her.
“Make this hard for me, okay?” Naturami ordered. “Or at least try to so that maybe I’ll actually break a sweat. But I highly doubt that.”
“Cocky, just like your teammate Sachida. But you should learn that just like with him, it’ll get you nowhere…” Yumika widened her stance and let her arms fall to her sides. Her eyebrows knitted together, her eyes squinted. The tension between them grew and silence filled the room.
Naturami was quick, like Sachida. In a blink, she appeared right in front of Yumika, attempting to kick her. Swiftly, Yumika ducked underneath and slipped behind her. The girl spun around throwing a punch, but Yumika easily dodged it by moving to the side.
The grass ninja continuously tried to hit Yumika. She threw numerous punches, and kicks. She jumped in the air and spun low on the ground but every move didn’t touch her opponent. Frustration built up inside her with every passing second.
“Why…can’t…I…hit…you?!” She whined, chopping up her sentence. She rapidly threw punches, but none of them were affective.
“Wow, Yumika is really good at dodging.” Naruto stated amazed at the sight down below.
“She needs to be good at it for her strategy.” Etsuyo said, placing her hands on the railing.
“Yes, for one of her finest strategies to use during a battle.” Nishiya commented.
“What strategy is that?” He asked.
“One like mine, only…” Ayako looked at him. “She doesn’t get hurt a bunch.”
Back down below, Yumika smirked at her opponent’s dissatisfaction, jumping back to take a look at the other girl.
Naturami was already looking pretty tired. After a few minutes of endless striking, her breathing was hard, and sweat droplets started to form on her forehead.
“Hmm…I thought you wouldn’t break a sweat this easily…” Yumika retorted. “You underestimated my definition of ‘hard’, didn’t you?”
Naturami clenched her teeth and grunted. She acted fast again. Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she took out three kunai knives. She swiped her arm across her body and let the knives fly through the air, straight for Yumika.
She only stood there, watching the knives coming closer to her chest. No fear showed on her face because she didn’t feel any. At the last few feet, she inhaled a deep breath, and then blew it all out. She amplified the tiny gust and made it into a wall by having the air absorb her chakra.
The kunai simply crashed against the invisible wall gyrating in crazy directions in the air.
Naturami stared at her astonished. “H-how did you do that?”
She didn’t bother to answer.
It was now her turn to attack back. Yumika had had enough of just dodging and she felt it was time to put a little more effort.
She ran straight for Naturami with her hands in fists. The other girl took action as well and threw more kunai knives in her direction. But she easily moved out of their way. Every stride brought her closer and closer to her target. Until the last few feet, when Naturami held a knife in front of her in a protective way, Yumika jumped high into the air. Doing a summersault in midair, she flew downwards with her right foot kicked out. She wasn’t aiming for the girls head though; she was aiming for the knife.
Yumika landed on the kunai, pushing it and the girl’s hand to the ground. Quickly, she punched Naturami in the face, causing her to fly backwards, into the wall.
Naturami screeched in pain from the hit. Blood dripped from her nose. Her breathing grew rapidly quicker. She got up right away with her eyes began to run wild with anger.
Someone can’t control their temper… Yumika grinned again, standing up straight.
Determined to win, Naturami darted for Yumika again with her hand in a fist. She punched forward at her face. Cocking her head to the right, the girl dodged the punch. She felt a wind brush against her cheek from the force of Naturami’s fist pushing through the air.
Then her opponent did something a little unusual…
She latched onto Yumika’s long, white hair and pulled it, along with her head, downwards straight into her hitched let. Yumika’s face slammed hard against the girl’s knee. Her head flew backwards as she spat a little blood from her mouth.
Naturami saw this as an opening, and took advantage of her vulnerable stance. She punched Yumika right in the gut making her lurch forward, spitting out saliva mixed with a little blood.
“Finally…” She muttered pleased, walking backwards to let Yumika fall to the ground.
Yumika landed on all fours, breathing to suppress the pain. Naturami smirked at her work. But her joy was about to be wiped away in the next few seconds.
…Because Yumika was faking it.
“I thought in this strategy, she wasn’t meant to get hurt?” Naruto was confused.
Ayako rolled her eyes, obviously catching onto her friend’s idea like her team did and Sakura. “Just watch, Naruto…” She sighed.
“Didn’t think I could pack a punch, huh?” Naturami spoke sassily. “Yes, I underestimated you, but you also underestimated me.” She wiped away the small amount of blood under her nose.
Slowly, Yumika began to sit up right, pretending she was still in pain. Her left eye was closed to give it more of an effect.
The two stared at each other for a good amount of time. It was just enough time for Yumika to casually reach into her back pouch and take out her favored weapons: her two fans.
She got back into the fight quickly when she snapped open one of them and swiped it across her chest. Once again, Naturami’s eyes widened in surprise.
Yumika created a large gust of wind that immediately pushed the girl away. Then she passed her other fan into her other hand, opened it, and swiped that one upward. It picked up her opponent and threw her high into the air. She jumped into the air, using her fans to give her more height and when she was just a little higher she brought down both her hands. An extremely forceful gust slammed Naturami down with immense speed.
The girl landed flat on her chest. She groaned as she lied there.
Yumika landed softly on her feet. She looked fine aside from the blood on the corner of her mouth that she didn’t bother to wipe away. “Yeah, you really can pack a punch…” She said sarcastically. “But I’ve taken worse pains.”
Naturami growled as she started to get back on her feet. “I’m tired of your games!” She squealed, huffing. As soon as she stood up fully, she began making hand signs. “You say you’ve taken worse pains? Well I can give you one!” Yumika raised an eyebrow. “What worse pain to experience than one that attacks directly to the heart!”
“You don’t scare me…” She informed.
“But I can show you something that does.” She finished off with a couple more hand signs. “Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!” She called. A large amount of leaves flew in from the outside and circled around Yumika in order to disorient her.
Yumika rolled her eyes and brought her hands together to form the tiger hand sign while still holding onto her fans. “Release!” She counteracted the genjutsu with ease. The leaves stopped in their place and fell down around her feet. “Next time choose a genjutsu that doesn’t have a late reaction.” She extended her arms out to her sides with her two fans faced forward. Gracefully, she began spinning around on one foot. She gradually spun faster, creating a tornado around her. It picked up the leaves causing them to swirl in the twisting air.
“Wind Element: Tornado!” She yelled as jumped out of the twister and controlled it to go after Naturami.
The other people on the balconies held on tightly to the railing to avoid being sucked into the tornado.
Easily it sucked Naturami up and swirled her around fast.
After her opponent was circled up to the top, with one swipe of her fan, Yumika ended the twister and Naturami fell to the ground again.
She was expecting her to be dizzy and unable to continue. But she was proved wrong when her opponent began to laugh. The girl stood up with ease, keeping her silver eyes locked on Yumika’s bright yellow ones. “You fell for it…” She sang.
Yumika’s eyes widened in shock from the mistake she had just made and what she was witnessing right before her:
Her people had appeared and were all spaced out in front of her.
“Help, Yumika!” Someone yelled. Tigers ran from one side to the other, clawing at the people of her clan. Bodies fell before her feet, dead.
She was unable to move. Her feet felt like they were glued to the ground. All she could do was watch as her people were attacked by the animals they worshipped.
Her breathing became choppy. Fear crept in and flowed through her veins. Sweat dripped down her forehead. Her mouth remained open as she continued to be trapped in Naturami’s genjutsu. She gasped.
“Why can’t you just take the leadership?!” Her mother lied before her, dying from a deep scratch to her chest. Her hair was white and was tied into a bun on top of her head that was now askew. She wore a quarter sleeve yellow dress with a turtle neck that reached to her knees that was now covered in blood.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you just took it!” She saw her father next to her mother. He had short white hair combed over to the side and bright yellow eyes like hers. He wore a simple dark green kimono style long sleeve shirt with the three rips, just like Yumika’s, on the right sleeve that exposed light blue underneath and black shorts. Blood covered stained his clothing as well.
“Take the leadership, Yumika. Take it, so that this will never happen!” Her parents pleaded.
“No…” She said aloud.
“Take it willingly…” The scene dramatically changed. Her mother and father were completely fine, but their expression was filled with intent. Their yellow eyes glowed demonically as they came closer to her. “Or we’ll force you into it!” They grabbed at her.
A blood curdling scream erupted from her wide open mouth. Yumika crumpled to the ground, clutching onto her head. Her hands tangled with her hair, tugging roughly at it. She shook horribly. Her heart beat rapidly. Sweat dripped from her forehead and landed on the floor.
“How’d you like that for scary?” Naturami snickered from afar. She stood a few feet away with her hand on her hip.
Unexpectedly to Yumika, the fear that was just overwhelming her, disappeared and a new emotion quickly ran through her veins. Absolute anger filled her causing her to let out short growls and heavy breaths.
Naturami’s cockiness soon vanished from her face.
A ferocious growl erupted from Yumika, echoing the room. Her body shook even more violently as the growl continued to escape her mouth. She began to slowly stand up with her back arched and her head remained hanging downward. “You want to see something even scarier?!” She asked menacingly.
“No genjutsu, it’s one hundred percent real.” She continued standing up all the way. “If you want to see it, don’t take your eyes off of me for one second!”
Suddenly Yumika whipped her head back and bright blue chakra exploded from her body. She let out a loud growl as her eyes changed to a glowing green. Her pupils extended upward to form slits. Her ears pointed at the top. The warm pale skin she normally, turned completely white and her nails grew even sharper. Yumika was revealing parts of her clan’s ultimate jutsu: Complete Tora Form!
“Oh no!” Ayako gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. “She’s losing it!”
“What’s happening to her?!” Sakura yelped just as a huge gust of wind blew from Yumika and extended out towards everyone above the battle scene. Almost all the bystanders blocked the air with their arms.
As soon as it was gone, Etsuyo concluded, “Something she witnessed while under Naturami’s genjutsu probably triggered a hidden emotion inside her and is causing her to go out of control.”
“What are you doing Yumika?!” Naruto yelled bluntly. “Take her down already, I know you can!”
Ayako quickly latched onto Naruto’s orange jacket and pulled him closer. She looked very intense as he looked slightly scared.
“Naruto, I would not want to start yelling at her right now.” She warned through gritted teeth. “This situation just became a whole lot more dangerous. If I were you, I would shut up now unless you want to be torn to shreds like a real tiger would do to any human that angered them.” Ayako let go and turned her attention back to her friend. He remained in the state of shock as he too looked back at the transforming girl.
Yumika brought her head back down revealing the newly grown fangs in her mouth. “This not scary enough yet?” She asked in a gravelly voice, crouching down like an actual animal.
Naturami’s attitude had absolutely changed. No longer was she cocky, and grinning, she was absolutely terrified. Her silvery eyes were even wider and she breathed deeper. She had dropped her weapons at her side and remained frozen staring at Yumika, unable to form a word to answer her.
“Yumika has no sense of control or stability anymore.” Nishiya spoke, walking closer to the railing on the balcony. “This state…” She looked carefully at her student. “It’s not something the Hakinowa’s are proud of creating or enjoy using. It’s only supposed to be a last resort, when lives are at the line. But sometimes they forget…” She paused. “In fact they forget a lot of things. Who they are, what they’re doing. What’s the mission, what are the rules and the plan. And maybe who’s the enemy and who are their comrades. Because all of their senses are turned up to the max, and their emotions are overwhelming them, they barely have a conscience to keep them in line anymore.”
Sakura gulped. “Is Yumika possibly going to attack other people?” I thought she would do it even before this crazy transformation. She thought.
Nishiya squinted her eyes to get an even closer look. She sighed. “I don’t think we have to worry about that. She’s not in the complete form at this time. There are a few other changes she hasn’t gone through. But if Yumika does, then we would have something worse in our hands. Right now, only her stability and control are gone. Her memory should still be there. Though, I won’t be surprised if she forgets how she beats Naturami…”
Ayako remained fixed on her close friend down below. She ground her teeth together and clenched onto the metal in front of her so tightly, her knuckles were pale white. Shaking in fear herself, she tried to find an explanation to the madness occurring. What did she see, exactly that could cause her to resort to this! The last time I saw her like this was when I… It clicked her in head. Could that be the reason why? Was that her worst fear?! The answer lingered in her head as she continued to watch.
Yumika kept her stance as she continued to stare with her sharp, scary, green eyes at Naturami. "What's the matter? Is this scarier than you're used to?" She walked on all fours a little bit forward. "I thought you were the master of fear?" She mocked. "Guess not..."
In a snap, Yumika disappeared from sight and then reappeared in front of Naturami. The girl screamed as she came face to face with such a terrifying face. She was thrown against the wall and then picked up and thrown into the air. She was thrown like a rag doll all over the place with great speed.
Then after a while, Yumika threw her against the ground and crouched over her, growling in her face.
“I SURRENDER!!! I GIVE UP, OKAY?!?! YOU WIN!!! YOU WIN!!! PLEASE JUST STOP!!” Naturami burst into tears under Yumika’s grip.
“Please get off of me!” The girl sobbed terribly, but Yumika didn’t obey. She continued to stare daggers with her eyes.
No…keep on fighting. You know you want to. A sinister side of her conscience ran through her head. You know you want everyone to see what the Hakinowa’s are capable of… It continued. Admit it... you like showing off. You like walking around all tough with people being intimidated by you with just one glance. If you finish it, the people from Kusa, Suna, and Oto will head back to their villages at the end of the exams spreading your name around and what you did. You’ll intimidate a whole mass of people from different places. Doesn’t that sound nice?
Yumika unknowingly raised her right fist and was about to pounce with all her might straight down on Naturami’s face.
“No, Yumika, don’t!” Ayako screamed, leaning far over the railing.
“Yumika, don’t do it!” Etsuyo copied.
She didn’t hear them at all. The only thing she heard was the loud, fast, thumping of her heart and the dark voice telling her to keep going. Without thought, she punched down at Naturami, but suddenly, she was knocked away by something hard.
Yumika roughly growled as she slid on the ground and swiftly rolled back onto her feet. She furiously searched for the person responsible.
To everyone’s surprise, a panel from the ground fell back down into its place. At that sight, she knew who it was.
That person quickly appeared behind and lifted her up off of her feet. Their arms were wrapped over her own, keeping them stuck at her sides. A death grip so tight it hurt her but was effective at keeping her restrained. She struggled to break free.
“Don’t take this any further Yumika.” The voice of her sensei rang in her ears. She flinched and discontinued to squirm. “Calm down, and go back to your normal state. It’s over. You won.” Nishiya remained collected. She tried her best to make a break through to her student.
What are you doing? Yumika’s kinder conscience finally spoke up.You won… now stop. Words ran through her head, but they were foreign to her. Her body wasn’t listening. Don’t take this any further, you can’t afford to. Using the power will just take you one step closer to being leader and you don’t want that remember! Stop this now! Before the marks will appear even darker… Before you won’t be able to take back what you’ve done! Is it worth winning more when you’ll lose something more important…your freedom?
Oh, come on… The sinister voice returned. You know there’s a part of you that truly wants the leadership…the control. You have experience I mean; you’ve been leading your team for a while haven’t you?
Leading your friends in battle is different than leading your clan. You understand why. So turn it off! Turn Tora off, now!
“…Okay…” She muttered through her fangs. Her head dropped as she began to breathe slowly but deeply.
Yumika began to return back to normal. Her fangs, nails, and ears lost their point. Her skin warmed up to her natural pale color. And her eyes changed back to their usual bright yellow, with her pupil shaped to a tiny black dot.
Nishiya let go of her student, but Yumika stayed standing with her head down.
“The winner is Yumika Hakinowa,” Hayate declared.
“Are you alright?” Nishiya walked to the front of Yumika.
She lifted her head up revealing her usual stone cold face. Without making eye contact she muttered dryly, “Yeah…I’m fine.” Walking around her sensei, without another word, Yumika walked away. She walked past the medics who were walking Naturami out of the room, and exited through the large entrance.
“Where’s she going?” Naruto asked.
Ayako gulped. “Don’t worry about it,” she replied softly.
“Yeah, she’ll be back later,” Etsuyo added.
Yumika sat in an empty staircase with her thumb against her lips. Then, she lifted up her sleeve on her left arm, all the way up to her shoulder. She clenched her teeth at the sight she saw.
Three light gray tiger stripes had formed during the battle with Naturami. She quickly whipped her sleeve back down and pressed her forehead against the wall.
She thought about the question Nishiya asked her once more and said aloud, “No. I’m not…” She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. What did I just do?
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Chapter notes: A/N: As I said in my previous message to all of you, I hate to leave you all hanging with questions as to what happens in the rest of this story. So, the next couple chapters will be the last fully written parts of this and then afterwards, I'll just be writing what I had planned/ a summary of the rest.
This chapter is very rough and has been barely edited, but here's what kind of happens.