Chapter 5: Little Ninja Academy Test Finale
A/N: I lied, it's not short (I thought it would be but it wasn't)
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"Kurogami, Maya Izuno, forward!" Usami called out the second to last match of Group 7, the two fighters stepping forward.
The two performed the seal of confrontation and faced each other, a few metres between them. They had both seen each other fight against Hanabi, meaning they already had an idea of the other's fighting style which made them focus harder than before.
Kurogami was on his orthodox stance, whilst Maya was in a cat stance (her front foot's heel raised slightly to make her stand on her toes), with her hands held up like that of a cat, her hands open and her sharp claws shining from the reflection of the sun.
"Ryah!" With a... meow? Hiss? Kurogami wasn't really sure, but Maya had made a cat-like noise as she pounced forward with a quick first step and sent a fast roundhouse kick with her back leg towards Kurogami's head.
Kurogami dodged the fast kick, barely, by moving his head back a little. Unfortunately for him, Maya capitalised on this opportunity by not stopping her rotation, doing a 360 whilst jumping up half-way through the spin and sending a spinning back kick towards Kurogami's face.
The spectators, even Usami herself, had their mouths gaped at the athleticism displayed by Maya who had connected the sole of her shoe with Kurogami's cheek, knocking him to the floor momentarily before he hurriedly pushed himself up and jumped back, putting distance between themselves once more as he looked at his HP fall to almost half.
'Damn... I need to get better at fighting' Kurogami noted, wiping the dirt from his face which he earned from Maya's boot, 'Ew...' He cringed, not liking getting dirty as he wiped the mess on his shirt.
He raised his fists once more as he watched Maya charge at him, swinging her arms at him to slash at him with her claw-like nails.
Loud swished could be heard as Maya's slashes hit nothing but air as Kurogami swiftly avoided her barrage of attacks before sending a quick, damaging side kick to Maya's body.
"O-Oww..." Maya winced at the pain of her ribs, ignoring it shortly after as she sent a front kick towards Kurogami's stomach.
The attack landed, causing him to gag as her shoe dug into his stomach. A smile plastered itself onto Maya's face as she watched Kurogami's figure lower as he bent over a little.
She was about to jump up in joy at the opportunity to rematch with Hanabi. However, what she hadn't expected was for Kurogami to send a fast overhead punch towards her face, the fist connecting with her nose strongly causing her to go flying as her nose scrunched up into her face.
The loud impact from her hitting the ground sung across the field, the spectators "Ooo..." wincing as they felt second-hand pain from her blunt landing.
*Drip... drop* Light red blood oozed out of Maya's scrunched nose, causing her to panic as she attempted to stop the bleeding by bringing her arm up to her nose, "W-WAHHHH!" She bawled her eyes out, her tears mixing with the blood from her nose as it fell on the ground.
"Never let your guard down, that's the basics of a ninja" Usami instructed as she walked over to the crying Maya, a concerned frown on her face as she called over two students to quickly bring Maya to the infirmary to get her healed up.
"U-Uh... sorry?" Kurogami awkwardly apologised, feeling the stares of all the students on him as he looked at Maya's figure being brought over to the infirmary, her reputation dropping from 5 to -5, 'It was an accident!' He sighed, walking back in line. [Maya Izuno, Level 8, defeated! 370 Exp Gained!] (100 -> 470/2600)
"We'll begin the final match between Kurogami and Hanabi Hyuga once Maya and the others return, feel free to take another toilet or drink break until then" Usami said, the kids bolting to the toilet as their bladder was mere milliseconds from bursting by the astonishing speed they ran at.
"Congratulations on making it to the finals, Kurogami!" Naruto gave his friend a big smile, happy for him, "Man, you should've seen your face when you hit that girl! It was hilarious!" He chuckled.
"It was an accident, I swear... I didn't mean to hit her that hard" Kurogami argued, giving an 'I-give-up' sigh
"It wasn't your fault... it was her weakness and stupidity that led her to getting injured" Kurogami and Naruto turned their heads to see Hanabi walk up to them, her arms crossed, "Had this been a fight to the death, she'd have died due to her incapability of keeping her guard up" She sighed in disappointment.
"I guess" Kurogami shrugged, using Hanabi's reasoning as the way to cope with his action, 'All I did was give a girl a bloody nose... it's not that deep' He joked, chuckling to himself quietly.
"Anyway, I'm hoping you can put up at least a little better compared to the first fight, see ya" Hanabi waved, walking away from the duo as they turned to look at each other with confused expressions
"Why's she walking away like it's the end of a movie...? We're literally all outside and you're gonna be fighting her in a minute or two" Naruto questioned, looking at Hanabi's back as she kept walking and walking until she came to a stop not so far from them, looking at a rock on the floor.
"I don't know Naruto... I don't know" Kurogami sniggered. He knew, realistically, that he wouldn't win against Hanabi - A trained, talented Hyuga heiress. However, that wouldn't stop him from giving it his all.
A few minutes passed, which healed Kurogami back to full HP thankfully, when Maya and the other's arrived. A few kids ran up to Maya and asked if she was okay, to which she simply said "Yeah" and spoke with her friends, occasionally sending Kurogami a glare.
"Time for the finals... Kurogami, Hanabi Hyuga, forward!" Usami called out, the two fighters stepping forward as they faced each other with small smiles on their faces.
They bowed at each other and whispered to each other, "Good luck/May the better fighter win" whilst doing so before entering their stances, even Hanabi as she had both her hands open, one placed by her hip and the other hand out in front of her.
'I don't know if I should be happy that she's taking this at least a little serious... or be shitting bricks' Kurogami's body shivered a little, his stomach rumbling quietly at the PTSD of her palm strike from last time.
"Begin!" Usami shouted, Kurogami jumping up high and taking a new approach by sending a descending axe kick towards Hanabi's still, focused figure.
As his front leg approached her head, she moved her body as if it was water and gracefully side-stepped the kick, spinning a little in the process as she placed her hand on the leg and parried it a little, causing Kurogami's balance to falter a little as he forcefully stopped himself from tripping embarrassingly.
She sent a quick, sharp and dangerous palm strike towards Kurogami's open ribs - holding back a little as she didn't want to injure him too badly and possibly breaking it as well.
Much to her surprise, Kurogami reacted to the attack as he parried her arm away, to which she parried that arm away causing him to use the momentum of the parry as he spun round and went for a spinning elbow towards her surprised face.
There was a system notification telling him that his [Kickboxing] skill had changed once more to [Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)], keeping the same buffs they already had (Except 'Speed of punches and kicks' changed to 'Speed of attacks' as a whole).
The elbow had actually landed. Kurogami wasn't entirely sure if Hanabi had let it happen or if he had just been that fast, but he wasn't going to say no. The elbow gave Hanabi a bruise on her cheek, she also spat out some blood from the inside of her mouth before wiping her mouth clean which revealed a big smile.
The 'innocent' smile caused Kurogami to shiver slightly, she looked more crazy than happy right now. Though, he wasn't going to stop his offensive approach as he threw a barrage of punches, kicks, elbow, even a bloody headbutt.
The two engaged in a fight that didn't seem suitable for two 6 year olds. Usami was honestly quite concerned about how the fight would go and thought about stopping the fight a few times and calling it a draw, but she watched Kurogami's flying figure land on the ground flat on his back, coughing and gasping for air after having been winded.
[HP - 93/1030] "Haa... Haa..." 'Fuck...' He looked up at the blue sky above him, his stomach and sides in crazy pain after him and Hanabi sent attacks back and forth between one another.
"Nnn..." He attempted to lift himself up weakly, "Gagh!" He gagged, feeling winded once more as he looked forward to see Hanabi's knee on his stomach, her palm held up directly in front of his face
"Surrender" She stated, unmoving as she dug her knee a little further into his stomach the longer he hesitated
"I-I surrender...!" He shouted loudly for Usami to hear, causing her to call the match, "Damn it..." He kissed his teeth, feeling pissed at himself for the loss, 'Why am I so pissed... it's a bloody kids fight' He told himself.
"Here" He heard Hanabi's voice in his ear. He saw her holding her hand out for him to grab, which he did before they performed the seal of reconciliation, "It was a good match, probably the best I've had with a kid my age" Hanabi complimented, flashing Kurogami a nice smile as she held out her hand for a hand shake, "The name's Hanabi Hyuga, it's nice to meet you..."
Kurogami looked at the petite hand before grabbing it with his own, looking up (Much to his embarrassment at the 3 inch difference in height) at Hanabi with a smile of his own from his beaten up face, "Kurogami, no last name... nice to meet you too, Hanabi" [Reputation: 8 -> 10]
[Mixed Martial Arts: Active Skill - Lv. 4 -> Lv. 6]
[Activating the skill grants +4 STR and +4 DEX -> +6. Speed of attacks increased by 16% -> 20%]
[Passive Skill: Physical Endurance - Lv. 2 -> Lv. 4]
[The body's durability increases, allowing for less damage taken. 2% decrease -> 4% in damage taken by attacks]
The two went back in the line, Kurogami standing next to Naruto who congratulated him on getting 2nd place and wishing him a confident "Better luck next time... though, it'll be me you face in the final rather than anyone else!"
"Okay okay! Settle down, kids... silence!" She yelled, the kids finally silencing after the eventful tournaments, "We'll now be heading to the theory test site where you'll be doing your second half and final part of the test, and then you'll get to go home. Exciting, right?! Let's go!" She led the group through the cafeteria and through some halls, eventually ending up in front of a classroom, "Everyone, in! Sit in one of the seats!" She ordered.
The group entered, and Kurogami and the others could see the big classroom's seats being separated with quite some distance. Kurogami went to the back row, the seat closest to the window. Naruto sat next to him with a big, goofy smile, and Hanabi in front of him who simply turned around and waved quietly before turning back around to the paper in front of her.
Kurogami looked at the first question and... 'Seriously...? If a ninja has 8 kunai and throws 3, how many does he have left?... He obviously has 4!' He joked sarcastically, laughing at how easy the questions were, forgetting the fact that the test was for him and all other 6 year olds in the room currently.
"You have an hour to answer as many questions as possible! Once an hour is up, you'll all form a single-file line and hand in your papers and then you can go home!" Usami announced, "Begin!"
And so, a long, quiet, depressing hour passed. Kurogami's hand hurt from the pencil pressing against his hand, but after Usami announced an hour had passed, he almost threw his pencil across the room in joy.
"SINGLE-FILE LINE! STARTING FROM THE FRONT ROW!" Usami screamed, face-palming at the idiotic kids who didn't know what a single-file line meant.
Naruto, Kurogami and Hanabi stood at the back of the line (In that order), their papers in hand as the line grew shorter and shorter with each passing second.
Kurogami handed his paper to Usami before walking up to Naruto who waited at the door, a worried expression, "I think I've failed..." He cried.
"The questions were super easy, Naruto... if you fail, you should really, and I mean REALLY consider getting tutored before becoming a ninja" Kurogami suggested.
"It's not that simple, Kurogami... I almost forgot I had to write my name at the front until the last minute!" Naruto gripped his hair, a small chuckle entering the boys' ears.
"What idiot forgets to write their name on the front of the sheet? It's literally the first thing they tell you to do-" Hanabi remarked
"Hanabi! You forgot to write your name!" Usami called out to a flushed, embarrassed Hanabi as she ignored the "..." judgemental stares from Kurogami and Naruto, "C-Coming!" She ran to Usami and wrote her name down before glaring at the boys and raising her palm, a clear threat.
The boys stayed quiet, letting Hanabi walk ahead of them so they could talk telepathically with their eyes, 'What an idiot' Kurogami said, 'I know right, who forgets to write their name?' Naruto replied, covering his mouth to prevent a laugh.
The three left the school, Hanabi waited at the gate, "See you tomorrow, Kurogami!" She waved goodbye before taking notice of a smug Naruto next to him, "And you too, Boruto!" She added, shocking Naruto as not one, but two people had spoken to him normally (he hoped)... two!
"And it's Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki! Get the future Hokage's name right!" He shouted in return, "Eee!" He screeched, running back to his home when he saw Hanabi run up to him with her palm held up.
"Hahaha!" She bellowed in laughter, "What an idiot" She shook her head and looked at Kurogami who stayed in place, face-palming himself, "See you tomorrow too, Hanabi" He said, walking away from the school.
"H-Hanabi...!" Shortly after the boys departed, a timid girl with dark blue hair and white but also slightly lavender eyes called out with a small smile.
"Hinata-nee!" (A/N: Should I use japanese suffixes, or just use 'Big Sis Hinata' in this and similar cases in the future) Hanabi waved, the two Hyuga sisters walking back home to the Hyuga household as they talked about their day at school today.
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