13 - Finals

Fuyuka was not training. She had done some basic training across the days, but today she was not.

She was fishing. To be fair, you can't exactly fish from the ocean in Konoha but she found a nice river to fish in. Why? Because this slightly crazy blue-haired girl is now determined to get a pet piranha, which means starting with food.

It would be fun to have a collection of weird pets.

The sound of a bird caught the girl's attention, causing her to turn her head upwards. A pink and white blur that was probably a hummingbird followed a raven, flying towards the direction away from Konoha.

What a weird combination. Regardless, the finals were starting tomorrow, so she had to fish quickly- I mean, she had to stay focused. On fishing.

Fuyuka wasn't exactly good at fishing, so she managed to catch a single salmon that day. Unfortunately, she liked eating fish and she especially liked eating salmon.

No fish food today, she supposed.

Tomorrow was the finals. Fuyuka had a plan.

Nevermind, that made her sound too cool. Her plan was: fight, win, become chunin, get permission slip from the Hokage, sneak out of the village to look for information on the Tsuyoku Clan.

Yeah, not so much of a plan.

As she sat in the audience, Fuyuka noticed how Sasuke and the sound mummy guy was nowhere to be found. She'd have to watch Naruto fight Neji, then Sasuke fight Gaara before she was up against Naku.

Admittedly, she didn't expect Naruto to be able to scratch the Pretty Hyuga Boy, but the blond ended up winning with a surprise random chakra reserve and exactly one punch.

She didn't really get what happened, but that's that.

Meanwhile, Sasuke still hasn't shown up. The Hokage would have given the win to Gaara, but the Kazekage decided to give him some more time by moving on to the next match.

'I wonder who's next,' Fuyuka thought to herself.

'Wait.'

Oh.

"Fuyuka Hoshino versus Naku Sora. Take your places," the referee announced. Apparently Gecko Man had died, so this guy who looked like Gecko Man but less emo was the proctor instead.

The blue haired girl hauled herself to the ring, her Night Star flower still in her hair but her star pendant dangling from her neck as well. Opposite her, Naku had taken the stage.

"You also heard about Terasu, right?" he asked. Fuyuka raised an eyebrow, surprised at the fact that this was the first thing he brought up. "Yeah."

They were stopped from further conversation by the proctor. "Begin!"

Naku started out by forming a few hand signs and activating the Whirlwind Armament, like he had in his fight with Mitsuka. Fuyuka summoned a Pentagonal Snare, which she chucked into her foe's face as he lunged forward to attack. Naku spun, throwing his cape to deflect the web before throwing a wind-infused kunai at Fuyuka.

The girl grabbed a kunai from her own holster, slashing the incoming one out of the air. She was surprised at how hard it was to knock away a small weapon. It was like trying to deflect solid wind, which, unfortunately, was exactly what she was doing.

With Naku's beloved cape out of commission, Fuyuka threw another Pentagonal Snare at the brown-haired boy, who ducked out of the way and waved it away with a breeze.

Okay, so projectiles don't work. Considering how hard it was to deflect a small kunai, Fuyuka wasn't sure she wanted to punch the guy either.

What were her options? Option 1: fuck around and find out if punching him will kill her hands. Option 2: Clone Jutsu distraction, then try Stellar Snare again. Option 3: Say random stuff that confuses him until Whirlwind Armament wears off- if it did.

Fuyuka was smart. Today she was not acting smart, because she chose option 3.

"What do piranhas eat?" she blurted out.

"What the fuck?"

The magician wannabe was utterly confused by the four words his ears just caught. Surely he misheard. This was a serious fight, who would ask about piranha food?

"Sorry, I don't think piranhas eat what the fuck. What about trash bags? My cat keeps trying to eat them, but I won't let him."

"Did you hit your head?" Naku asked, entirely genuine.

"You're lucky you're the oldest sibling, less people to ban you from getting a pet whale."

The wind around Naku seemed to be slowly getting thicker and more transparent, which hopefully meant it was slowly becoming less condensed. A bit more stalling, and maybe Fuyuka could get a solid hit in.

"I wonder if fish drink coca cola. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Is it just me or does dango go great with orange smoothie but terrible with blueberry?" At this point Fuyuka was spouting everything in her head. Yes, this is what regularly goes through her brain.

"I think tuna is the tastiest type of fish, but salmon sushi is special. I like salmon with soy sauce and wasabi but with sushi, I don't like wasabi that much. Have you ever tried chili pepper dipped in wasabi? Kogane threatened me once and I ran awa-"

'Now's my chance.' Fuyuka's eyes narrowed as she noticed the wind almost entirely dispersing. Her attitude did a 180 as she immediately lunged forward, covering her fist with a Pentagonal Web and punching Naku in the face before he could reinforce his Whirlwind Armament.

Unfortunately, Naku wouldn't fall for the same trick again, if it even counted as a trick.

Annoyed, Naku made some more hand signs. Fuyuka was about to ask why the signs were different from before, when his Whirlwind Armament formed again. Except, way stronger than before.

Meanwhile, in the audience, Terasu tilted his head. "I haven't seen that move before."

"Stormwind Armament. Basically a powered up version of Whirlwind, I haven't really gotten there yet," Mitsuka replied, focused on the fight. "I think dear Fuyuka is screwed."

"Is that so." The green haired genin turned back to the match.

Fuyuka was screwed.

The new wind thing looked like the base Whirlwind Armament, but as she threw a shuriken it went veering off course about a meter before even nearing Naku.

'Shit,' she thought as the brown-haired boy threw another kunai at her. She lifted her own, preparing to deflect it again but it hadn't even touched her when a fierce wind threw her into the wall of the ring.

The blue haired girl managed to deflect the next one with a Triple Bind. However, as she tried to get near her opponent to attack, she jumped back immediately. The air around him was so condensed it was like trying to walk through a whole tornado, except the strength of the tornado was all packed into a few meters.

"That was for yapping about piranhas," Naku mocked, wind visibly swirling around him before he launched a beam of very concentrated wind.

Fuyuka blacked out.

Ouch.