9 - End of the Preliminaries

The Unmegan was really annoying.

During the Forest of Death, Fuyuka had gotten a few hard hits. They didn't hurt that bad now, they weren't even visible anymore considering she was an anime character whose injuries were just brown lines.

But Terasu could see them. Fuyuka was confused when he decided to target her right elbow, before flinching in pain as she recalled getting punched at that exact spot. She retorted by throwing a kunai at the boy, who quickly dodged as he realized.

At least the Unmegan didn't seem to offer any defensive utility. In all honesty, Terasu didn't look much like a fighter at all.

Fuyuka was still struggling, as she was basically getting stabbed in all her half-healed injuries, which hurt like heck. She found herself performing best by staying on the offensive, as her green-haired foe was the definition of a glass cannon.

Unfortunately, Terasu was also smart. As soon as Fuyuka launched a Pentagonal Snare, he redirected his attacks to her beautiful, wonderful, perfect, amazing hair. Or more specifically, the flower.

How does he know?

Perhaps he can see offensive weaknesses as well, as the flower was certainly contributing to her damage.

Regardless, Fuyuka stuck to her plan, which was no plan. She launched a shuriken to create an opening before preparing a kick, only for her foe to kick her kneecaps.

"Ow!" she complained, jumping back.

As the back-and-forth went on, Fuyuka realized the Unmegan had a crucial weakness. Or perhaps, this was just Terasu's weakness.

He refused to look at the audience.

It was clear the green-haired boy was a nice person. He had friends. He didn't want his friends to suffer, yet if he glanced at them, he'd see when they die.

Fuyuka was not a nice person. If it was for the sake of winning, she'll have to take advantage of her foe's weakness. The blue-haired girl threw her last shuriken, jumping backwards and letting her momentum carry her to the walls of the ring. She jumped up, landing on the audience part of the ring, just outside the fence, earning a yelp from Naruto and Lee, who were standing there.

Terasu whipped around to face her, before quickly jerking his head away.

Fuyuka smirked smugly as her guess was confirmed. Indeed, Terasu would not look towards the audience no matter what.

Taking advantage of her momentary safety, Fuyuka patted her holster. She was out of shuriken, with five kunai left. Better use it wisely, Terasu would still be able to dodge based on sound and instinct.

She began by jumping up in the air, launching a kunai and summoning two Pentagonal Snares, one which she used as a trampoline to land on the other side of the ring. She threw another kunai as Terasu swivelled towards her, knocking his shuriken out of the air.

"Stellar Snare: Pentagonal Snare!" she shouted, summoning a new web which she threw.

Terasu stepped sideways to dodge it, stepping right into her trap.

Earlier, while midair, she had thrown the second web onto the ground as a trap. Since Terasu knew she'd be standing beside the audience, he tried to keep an eye on her while midair, causing him to ignore what was going on behind him.

The boy flinched at the web stuck to his shoes and legs, searing at his skin. Now that he was momentarily trapped by the pain, Fuyuka threw another web. She didn't have much energy left, so she tried to create a smaller Snare. To the girl's shock, she instead summoned a simple triangle instead of the intricate pentagonal web.

Hey, maybe she could make bigger shapes too, then. Well, worry about that later.

Fuyuka launched the triangle, entangling Terasu, who ducked out of the way and lunged forward. He tried to kick at her, stellar snare still attached.

Fuyuka yelped as the web made contact with her arm, but shook off her opponent and summoned another Triple Bind (she decided to name it), which successfully ensnared the black-eyed genin.

She finished off by kicking him as hard as possible, knocking the green-haired boy back a few steps, unable to get up.

"Fuyuka Hoshino is the winner."

Fuyuka grinned smugly, walking out of the ring, waving her arms to make the Stellar Snares vanish. The group of medical ninja once again rushed into the ring, lifting up the unconscious genin and taking him away for healing.

The final two fights went relatively quick. Fuyuka considered going to rest up from her fight, but decided to watch the last fights first.

So here she was, sitting against the wall. Her arms were crossed and she looked like she was about to kill someone, but she was just tired and her arms hurt like heck from getting kicked by her own technique.

'Gaara vs. Rock Lee'

This one was tense, with Lee doing all he can, including using moves with terrible prices. In the end, the mysterious and frankly creepy as hell sand genin demolished him. Fuyuka shivered, hoping she didn't have to fight the guy in the finals.

The last fight was very fast. 'Choji Akimichi vs. Dosu Kinuta'

Poor fat boy (oops, sorry, poor big-boned boy) tried to use his rolling move, but got nuked pretty quickly by the bandaged sound genin.

Gecko Man- no, no, Hayate Gekko, proceeded to announce that they would have a month of training before the tournament style finals. Fuyuka drew a number like everyone else, finding herself facing Naku first thing.

Ouch.

The winner of that match would face the winner of Naruto, Pretty Hyuga Boy, Creepy Old Gaara and Sasuke, who will then face the winner of Shikamaru, Temari, Bug Boy and Puppet Guy.

Fuyuka sighed. She was way too tired, she was forgetting more and more names. Also, during this month was the perfect time to ask the Hokage about Kogane and her family.

Welp, rest comes first.

That night, she pulled up her blanket, a frown on her face as she glanced at the night sky outside her window. The blue flower lay on her bedside table.

Something was going to happen soon. She's sure.