86 Chapter 86:

Hana Inazuka stood proud, surrounded by her three wolf-like dogs as they glared daggers at the hidden rain ninja.

Gogi, the said rain shinobi stood with his hands by his sides, having taken them out of his pockets as he glanced half-heartedly towards his militarist.

"This should be a little more interesting now." He said as he tilted his head to the side menacingly with his voice sounding robotic through his rebreather.

The crowd watched in apprehension as the two shinobi stood in a fierce face-off, both of them waiting for the right moment to make a move.

"Let's do this!" Hana shouted as she commanded her dogs to attack, quickly joining their ranks as she dropped down low, charging like a wild animal towards Gogi.

Gogi remained still, seeming as he watched Hana and her wolves charge towards him, not seeming distressed in the slightest.

"Well, I guess I had better make a move," Gogi said as he flicked his wrist allowing a purple ball to drop from his sleeve into his hand.

Hana noticed it in his hand, seeing that it was a poison smoke bomb and quickly orders her dogs to retreat to safety as she tried to throw a volley of shuriken at him.

"Your poison can't hurt me if I don't breath it in." She said with a smile.

Gogi didn't move as the shuriken flew towards him, simply tilting his head to the side as he let the ninja stars pass his head by mere millimetres.

Hana watched as he dropped the smoke bomb onto the ground, bouncing twice before it burst and released the poison gas, causing Shibi and the other exam invigilators to also take a step back away from the poison smoke.

Gogi raised his hands slowly as the poison smoke rose around him, making a few hand signs very slowly before his body seemed to disappear into the smoke.

Hana and her ninja hounds waited and watched carefully as the smoke cleared, revealing no trace of Gogi's location.

However, Gogi did not know that the Inuzuka clan had a tremendous sense of smell and could track their prey by scent alone.

"Behind us!" Hana suddenly shouted as she got a whiff of his sent from behind, quickly jumping out of the way of a volley of kunai that was headed right towards her.

"Not bad," Gogi said from behind her.

Hana quickly pivoted in her heel as she spun around to counterattack. Her ninja hounds had already done so, having four legs they had been able to counter much quicker.

However, Gogi quickly dropped another poison smoke bomb, fading back into the purple mist as he disappeared again.

Hana took another low stance as she and her ninja hounds waited for the fog to disperse once more.

"He seems to be able to hide in his poison smoke, making getting close to him to attack difficult," Haku said as he watched from the spectating area.

"Yes, it seems that the only way to track him is by scent." Kimimaro then said, watching as Hana dodged another flurry of kunai landing back onto her four limbs like an animal.

"Ninja art of beast mimicry, all-fours jutsu!" Hana said as her chakra seemed to flare to life, letting her features become wilder and her chakra more intense.

"Alright then! Time to do this!" Hana said as suddenly all of her ninja hounds transformed into her, mimicking her perfectly as the four of them quickly jumped around and mixed their positions trying to confuse Gogi.

"Her speed has increased drastically," Koyuki said almost impressed at how animal-like she looked.

Kaga agreed, having fought against the Inuzuka clan in the past.

"The Inuzuka clan are a clan that specializes in canine combat, forming an innceprible bond with their Ninken from an early age. They also share similar traits to that of the dogs themselves, having an extremely keen sense of smell, sharp claws and even sharper teeth." He said, enlightening his students on the subject.

"I see," Kimimaro said, not taking his eyes off of the battle.

Hana was darting around as she continued to dodge round after round of kunai, seeming to prove more difficult to hit than intended.

"Fang over fang!" Hana shouted as she hopped onto the back of one of the clones, the other set doing the same with all of them suddenly turning so fast that became a blur of razor-sharp claws headed towards Gogi.

"Now, now. Nice doggies!" He shouted as he dashed across the battleground avoiding the first attack watching them crash into the wall behind him.

The second was now headed right for Gogi, forcing him to jump into the air only just avoiding her attack.

Hana and her clone stopped rotating and landed on the ground skidding to a halt.

"Now!" She shouted as the clone jumped into the air with Hana using the Ninken to boost her ascent, allowing her to catch Gogi while he was still falling through the air.

"Nowhere to hide now!" She shouted as she readied her claws for an attack.

"She caught him," Koyuki said, impressed at her swift movement and planning.

"Not quite." Kaga then said, having seen something the others hadn't.

Gogi watched as Hana came hurling towards him as she flew through the air.

"You fell for it." He said, knowing that she would try and close the distance between them when he had nowhere to go.

Gogi pulled what looked like a gas canister out from his weapons pouch, holding it in his hand as he extended it to meet Hana's attack.

"Shit!" She thought, realizing all too late what he was doing, however, the damage was done as she hit the canister with her claws, causing it to burst and covering her in a poison cloud of smoke.

Everyone waited to see what would happen as the smoke cloud covered both of them, restricting visibility for all outside of it.

Movement suddenly caught everyone's eye as Hana flew out of the poison cloud on one side, landing a little rough as she skidded along the floor. Gogi dropped out of the other side, also landing on the floor and looking a little off.

Hana tried her best to stand up to her full height, knowing that she had breathed in some of the poison

"This isn't good." She thought as she started to stumble until finally she dropped to her knees.

Her Ninken knew something wasn't right and quickly all rushed over to her side, their transformations wearing off.

"Looks like the poison is taking effect," Gogi said as he watched from a distance.

"But I have to say, you put up a better fight than I expected." He then said as he looked down at his chest, seeing the claw marks she had left.

"Still, in the end, you never stood a chance." He said as he placed his hands back into his pockets.

Hana could feel her vision going blurry, knowing that she could blackout at any moment.

Hana looked at her Ninken, seeing they were worried about her, whimpering as they could sense she was in a bad state.

"It doesn't matter if I blackout... You three can take him..." She said to them, giving the three of them one final command.

The three Ninken all nodded as they understood their master's final command before she dropped to the ground unconscious.

All three of them turned to face Gogi, snarling and baring their fangs at him.

Gogi seemed surprised as they turned on him, getting ready to charge even though their master had become unable to fight.

"I don't like hurting animals if I don't have to, but I won't hold back," Gogi said as he slowly took his hands out of his pockets once more.

"That's enough!" Shibi suddenly said as he appeared between Gogi and the three ninja hounds.

Gogi waited for a moment but noticed that the dogs had backed off a little at Shibi's presence.

"Hana Inuzuka is unable to continue, Gogi of the hidden rain is the winner!" He shouted annoying the end of the battle.

"Medics!" Shibi then shouted as he knew there would be a limited window for an antidote to be used if she was to survive.

Kneeling down beside her as he allowed some of his own inserts to crawl into her body and go to work on extracting the poison.

Gogi placed his hands back into his pockets seeing that the match was over, turning his back on them as he started to walk away.

However, the Ninken were not happy with the result and as their master had commanded, they were going to try and finish him for good.

The three of them suddenly charged towards Gogi, snarling as they were about to try and rip him to pieces.

Gogi turned around as he tried to react in time, not expecting the dogs to lung past the instructor.

"WHISTLE!!!!"

"That's enough!" A gruff female voice that demanded respect shouted.

The dogs suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, looking scared as they didn't dare move without a command.

Everyone looked over to who had given the command, seeing a wild-looking woman who also bore the same marking as Hana on her cheeks, showing she too was a member of the Inuzuka clan.

She whistled once more, this time getting the three wolfhounds to turn around and retreat with their tails between their legs without so much as a grunt, clearly being feared as the alpha.

Everyone was surprised but also impressed as they watched the whole thing happen. Noting that the woman did not look impressed in the slightest.

Even Sarutobi giggled to himself as he pulled his hat down over his face a little.

"That Tsume. She never changes." He thought as he watched the Ninken return to her side before the medics carted Hana off to treat her. Seeing that she was already improving thanks to Shibi's intervention.

Once everything had calmed down, Shibi returned to the centre of the hall so he could give his announcement.

"That concludes the fifth match, and as stated before we shall hold a small interval before the next match is announced."

No one seemed overly bothered by having a break but welcomed the chance to rest regardless.

"Alright, the next match will be held here in half an hour," Shibi said, letting them all know.

With that, all said and done everyone seemed to go about their own way with others simply remaining in their current spot not seeing the point in moving.

Others used the time to stretch their legs or head to the bathroom. However, Kimimaro used this time to inspect the behaviour of the other, making mental notes of things they did so he might be able to use it against them later.

Haku wasn't all too bothered as he had already won his match, earning himself a place in the finals.

Koyuki on the other hand used this time to eat something, not realizing how hungry she was after watching all of the matches so far.

Kaga remained with them, however, soon took his leave as he had a small task that needed completing.

"I'll be back soon." He said, taking his leave.

Haku and the others didn't seem bothered and simply nodded as they watched him leave.

Kaga headed into the back of the hall until he came to the entrance of the building itself. He headed outside into the forest, all while making sure no one was watching or following him before he pulled out a small scroll from his weapons pouch.

Kaga took one more look around to make sure no one was watching him and once happy he opened the scroll and placed it down on the ground.

The scroll had lots of writing on it, containing a seal of some sort.

Kaga started to make a few select hand signs that unlocked the seal and activated it before he placed his hand onto the scroll.

Slowly the air around the scroll grew colder and colder until it started to freeze, forming what looked to be a mirror, growing and growing in size until it was large enough for a person to walk through like a door.

A moment or two passed as Kaga stood up, waiting patiently by the ice mirror's side until finally, it started to ripple as a foot passed through first, followed by the rest of its owner body.

"Good to see you, Lord Mizukage," Kaga said as he bowed his head ever so slightly.

Fuyōna stepped fully out of the ice mirror, placing his foot onto the grass beneath him as he adjusted the tip of his Mizukage hat with his thumb and index finger allowing him to look Kaga in the eye.

"So this is the forest of death." Fuyōna then said with a smile on his face, taking a look around in awe as it looked just how he had imagined.

"I'm looking forwards tk watching the remaining matches in person, now that I have taken care of business back in the village," Fuyōna said as he turned to Kaga with a smile on his face.

"Of course sir, allow me to show you inside," Kaga said offering the lead him to where the matches were being held.

Fuyōna nodded.

"Lead the way."

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