It's getting Frosty

It was a peaceful and sunny day outside the gates of Kiri. Nothing seemed out of the ordiarny until all of a sudden a column of whirling snow descended from the sky. Out of the coloum stepped a man dressed in red, flanked by two snowmen wearing black top hats. Out of all the villages in the world this was the most likely to fall on his naughty list. So much thirst for blood it was a wonder they hadn’t all killed each other already. But even so he would try and save them just the same.

“Well you water-rats! Are you just going to stand at the gates quivering in fear or will you face me?” He bellowed loud enough for the entire village to hear.

Lacing up her boots, Nozomi stood up, checking over her gear just to double check her armaments. Over her shoulder, placed in two separate baldrics were her Tanto, and her Rigged Umbrella. On her left wrist was a Senbon Launcher, pre loaded with 5 senbon. Near her hips, on both sides, Nozomi had a holster with a single Kunai each in them, in case she needed a quick draw weapon in close range. Her three hip pouches lined her belt, filled with several different weapons and items. One of the pouches held the other 5 senbon, and her 10 Shuriken. A second pouch held only 5 kunai, each one with an explosive tag wrapped around the handle. Her final pouch held an assortment of bombs, 2 Flash bombs, 2 Smoke bombs, and a Chili Pepper bomb. In her pocket, she could feel the military ration pills she had, having never taken them, she knew there were 20 total pills.

Suitably armed, Nozomi was dressed in a fairly standard Kirigakure uniform, mostly black clothing, although she had on a sleeveless shirt, exposing her pale and incredibly thin arms. Although they were small, they showed off a decent amount of muscle, betraying that she was not some sort of pushover by any means, and that she was dedicated to training. Her headband lay loosely around her neck, tied at the back so as not to fall off, but she didn't usually like to wear it on her forehead.

Eyes flashing as she could barely contain her excitement, Nozomi rushed out of her house, heading towards the gates of the village. She was going to show the voice that called her and the rest of Kiri out that she was no pushover cowering in fear. She may be rather shy when it came to every day life, but when it came to fighting, she was never one to back down. Stepping out of the gate, none of the shinobi around her stopping her from doing so, Nozomi ran forward until she was able to stare into the eyes of the man dressed in red. "I quiver in fear of nobody!" hand in one of her pouches, Nozomi pulled it out and launched the Shuriken in her hand towards his face. She was shy, but totally quick to anger.

Having had to deal with Makahshi and her father the entire week, she had a lot of pent up aggression to let out, and this man was the perfect practice dummy to beat down.

Santa chuckled heartily as the young girl before him declared that she wasn’t afraid.  If only the other ninja hanging out around the gate had half her gumption to stand up and defend themselves the village might just stand a chance against the storm that was to come.

“Is this the best you lot can send me? One stick of a girl?” He snarled as he reached to his belt and lazily pulled out an over-sized candy cane stick shaped like a rapier. “You have guts lass. But guts won’t be enough to save you from a monster.” he said as he blurred the cane thought the air effortlessly catching the shuriken by placing the sharp tip though the hole in the center then sending it back towards Nozomi with a flick of his wrist.

“Olaf, deal with this stripling.” He ordered one of his minions with a snap of his fingers.  “Yes, sir Santa!” cried the minture sized snowman as he reached up with his wooden hand and used it to take his top hat off and tip it towards Nozomi.   “Good day miss.  Would you happen to know anything about summer?” he asked before throwing the hat at her.  

The hat itself was just a harmless distraction, the real threat was a hail of five kunai sized icicles daggers that he threw next.  They weren’t enough to be fatal if they did hit, but they’d certainly sting.

Alkaid had been in the middle of observing some gennin training when the challenge to the entire village reached her ears. Needless to say a threat like that took precedent to her ongoing effort to write a dossier for everyone who was anyone in Kiri. Her report wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on if everyone was dead.

Glancing around to check to make sure nobody was watching her she grinned then vanished in a burst of speed. It was so troublesome having to hold back all the time that when the rare chance to cut lose and get away with it came she relished in it like one would savor a fine glass of aged wine.

The moment didn’t last long however as she drew closer to the source of the distrubance she could see a crowd of people gathered around the gates. Several of them where civilians but others where obviously ninja and she couldn’t have them asking too many questions if they saw her true capabilities and started to wonder why on earth she was supposedly only a gennin.

Biting her lip in frustration she couldn’t help but wonder why the heck the freaking guards and other shinobi where milling about the gate and not confronting whatever had issued the challenge. Normally someone calling them rats wouldn’t be allowed to stand, and considering how bloodthirsty so many of them where it was suprising to see them cowering like little babies.

She’d come straight her which meant she hadn’t had time to change. She was still in her disguise as a stock stock Kirigakure ninja. A navy blue vest with a low cut v-line to help show of her modest assets paired with a set of navy blue slacks and the typical sandles most shinobi seemed to wear as well as a purple scarf dangling around her neck that ran down behind her almost all the way to the back of her knees.

As clothing went it wasn’t bad for fitting in, but it wasn’t exactly her first choice for going into battle. She was a Kaguya so she didn’t exactly need a bunch of armor but even she liked to have a flak jacket at the very least when the going got tough. It never hurt to be prudent in a situation like this where grown men where too busy pissing their pants to go into battle.

To make matters worse because she’d been keeping a low profile for her mission she didn’t have any of her real equipment on her. Her cover of a swordwoman without a sword was good for fooling young gennin but not actually having a sword stank for a direct confrontation with anything B-level or worse. Of course she could always produce a new one on the spot, that is if she was willing to risk blowing her cover since on paper she wasn’t supposed to be able to use her bloodline.

Slipped her way thought the crowd she reached the front almost to facepalm at what she saw. Some old man dressed in red who had some kind of creatures made out of snow with him. Where they summons? Puppets? She couldn’t tell at at glance but they the sight was especially comical in light of the fact the only one who’d stepped up to do anything about it so far was one lone gennin.

Alkaid quickly ran the bullet points of what she knew of this gennin though her head which wasn’t much since she had yet to profile her. The girl was about her age and wasn’t her name Nozo… Nozo something or other. In any case she looked promising because as santa had said she had guts which the rest of these louts seemed to lack.

For now Alkaid would sit back and watch. Not because she was scared like the rest of the ninja but because she was an infiltration specialist so fighting up front and directly would be about the single dumbest move she could make. Right now the best thing she could do was to gather as much information on this strange new foes capabilities as she could while looking for a way to either stab him in the back or otherwise sabotage his efforts. She’d only step in if it was starting to look like Nozomi was getting in over her head. Cover or not she wasn’t going to stand by and let one of her wards be killed.

As Santa was talking down on her, calling her a stick of a girl and a stripling, she formed through 3 different hand signs, quickly activating her Oculus Enhancement jutsu. She felt the film of chakra move over her eyes, making her vision sharper and more crisp, picking up finer details around her. Moving into her Spring Chant taijutsu stance, Nozomi watched as her shuriken came whirling back at her, with but a simple flick of his cane. This guy was probably beyond most shinobi, to be certain, or was enhanced by chakra in some way like she was.

Leaning out of the way quickly, Nozomi's hand moved up to catch the throwing star and she was about to launch it back when one of the Snowmen, a foul creature named Olaf, was sent to fight her. Less than thrilled about this matchup, feeling like she was being underestimated by the man in red, Nozomi's mouth twisted into a small scowl before moving back into a smirk. If she was going to have to fight Olaf, then so be it.

Without really giving her any time to answer him, Olaf questioned her about summer, and then threw his hat. Ducking under the hat rather than swatting it out of the way, Nozomi saw the follow up of the icicle blades. Following through with her ducking motion, Nozomi's body twisted into a small tuck and roll, the blades soaring over her as she popped back up moments later. Her use of the Spring Chant style allowed her to move her body parts extremely quickly, and was definitely her preferred style over the Arhat Fist. Strength was all well and good, but it wasn't the only thing that mattered in a fight.

Drawing a single kunai from her pouch, Nozomi held it in her left hand reversed, blade pointed down. "All you need to know about summer is you won't be around to see the next one." Nozomi called out. As she did so, she was gathering chakra at her back, preparing for her Misty Petal Propulsion jutsu, and formed a half tiger seal as well, aiming to stack the Body Flicker Technique on top of it. With a small burst of speed, Nozomi was launched from a stand still to beyond her usual maximum speed, the two jutsu combining rather well. Petals appeared where Nozomi had been, but she was no longer there, instead launched towards Olaf from a stand still.

If she was in front of Olaf and successfully got close, she would seek to jab the Kunai into Olaf's side, a normal attack for her. She wasn't quite sure how to fight snowmen, but hopefully shoving a kunai into them would work.


Stamina: 66/80

Technique's used:

Spoiler:

Relevant UA's:

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Stats:

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Alkaid let out a low wistle as she watched Nozomi smootly dodge the icicle barrage. The way the blond girl moved like flowing water was truly impressive, especially when you considered the amount of training that must have gone into being able to move like that. Once this was all over she was going to have to see about training with her to see if she could pick up some of that movement style for herself.

As Nozomi went to draw a kunai Alakid figured that the very least she could do for her comrade in arms was to create an opening for the other girl to exploit. She couldn’t jump directly in without either getting in the way or revealing her true power level, but it wouldn’t be hard to slip a genjutsu in when nobody was looking her way.

Pointing a finger at Olaf the snowman she cast Flower Ninja Art: Mirror Flower Water on him. As illusions went this one was very low level and fairly harmless. All it would do was make the target think they where surrounded by a flurry of flower petals and darken their surrounding. She had a nastier version of the tech she could have used instead but had opted for this one because obscuring his vision would be enough.

Olaf watched with an expression of mirth on his face as the girl seemed to effortlessly dodge his initial attack. If that had actually been enough to do her it meant she would have been beyond hope and not worth of the gift of salvation his master was hoping to deliver.

“Neither will you if you can’t beat little old me.” he replied to her taunt as he prepaired to fire another round of icicles at her only for her form to vanish from before his eyes replaced by a storm of petals. “Where…” He started to ask something but was cut off as Nozomi embedded a kunai into his side in a burst of stupendous speed.

“He he, that tickles.” he said with a laugh even as a strange thick black goo began to ooze from the spot where he had been stabbed. It was the type of blow that would have severally wounded a normal human, but the snowman didn’t seem to mind which wasn’t to say he’d taken no damage as he was clearly bleeding.

In the blink of an eye he had formed a jagged icicle knife that he clutched in his wooden right hand as he went to return the favor and attempted to stab Nozomi in the gut with it before she could pull away from him.

As the kunai sank into Olaf, the black blood like substance leaking out of him, Nozomi grinned. The first part of her plan succeeded without a hitch. It was due to having already planned out this attack that she began to retreat, aiding her unintentionally against Olaf's counter attack.

As he was laughing about how her attack tickled, Nozomi had already begun to pull away. Her grin never wavered as she let go of the kunai, still stuck in his side, and leapt back, the jagged ice knife barely catching the edge of her shirt and slicing through a bit of the fabric.

She could feel the cold radiating off of the blade, but it didn't end up managing to cut into her, and she gained some distance, leaping backwards and forming the snake seal. It was at that point that the kunai in Olaf's side would sizzle and explode. She had made special care when drawing it to keep the handle hidden, so of course the tag had been concealed, wrapped around the handle as it was.

Hopefully that was all that it took to deal with Okaf, she wasn't fond of fighting the fodder. Should it be, her eyes would focus on the fat red man, and almost silently issue a challenge. "Oh dear, he has been impaled." She said, either way.

Stamina: 64/80
-1 Oculus upkeep
-1 Spring Chant upkeep

Freezing cold weather, ice forming near everywhere in this wretched wet land, but the chuunin actually liked it, it was a change of scenery after all, given the majority of the year had been dominated by wet, heavy rains and moist, humid summers. Compared to those, winter was actually rather fun and thanks to her selfmade armor and boots, a lot less cold compared to what it used to be.

Her outfit was as expected, rather basic, with despite the cold, she was just wearing some fingerless gloves of poor quality, her own military combat boots, her military combat armor with a tubetop underneath and a poor quality long coat over it and long black pants. All she had for weapons were a handful of kunai, some length of wire and a few explosive tags in one hip pouch, with abouth twenty senbon and a handful of shuriken in her other hip pouch. The wristmounted senbon launcher was a tight fit, something Yomi had wanted to complain about at the shop, but yet had to find the time for.

As she scooted over the rooftops, she could find herself stealthily sneaking towards a good viewing spot near a chimney, looking at how a few people seemed to be dealing with a fat, big bearded bastard and one ugly snowman...thing, which was apparently having some issues with the two shinobi, one in particular.

Yomi's eyes instantly widened, that kid was good and strangely familiar, she had probably seen her once. Well, for now she'd just have to watch how things would go, there was after all no need to waste her energy if things could be solved by those two on the ground, for now she just had to sit back, relax and enjoy the show, though Yomi was actually kind of certain that the fat bastard who's booming voice had even reached her at the far end of the village had already noticed her, he seemed...powerful enough to actually be more than she could handle.

Active tech/UA

Silence is Golden

Olaf blinked as he missed hitting Nozomi by a hair.  This human was holding up against him surprisingly well.  Perhaps she’d live to see the next summer after all. If only he could be around to see it with her but alas he realized that wouldn’t be his fate the second he heard the sizzling in his side where the kunai was embedded.  There was just enough time for a single frozen tear to fall from his face before he imploded with a loud bang sending chunks of wet snow flying in every direction.    

“Well played. Perhaps you aren’t such a stripling after all.” said Santa as he used his free hand to unbotton his coat before tossing it to the side revealing the many muscles that where rippling beneath his white undershirt. For someone that looked like an old man he was surprisingly ripped.

“You have earned the right to face me directly. Prehaps your two friends would care to join us.”  said Santa with a knowing grin as he pointed the tip of his candy cane sword directly at Alkaid directing his second Snowman Frosty to attack her with an icecicle barrage.  Then turned his head to face the general direction of where Yomi was lurking and winked at her.  It was if he couldn’t quite see where she was but knew she was around anyhow.

“On guard.” He declared as he rushed forward and took a lazy swipe of his sword in an attempt to bisect Nozomi in half. He wasn’t putting nearly as much power as he possibly could into the blow but it was still enough that blocking it with another sword would be challenging. He wasn’t holding back to slight her, no he could sense the currents of fate flowing strongly around this girl and was so trying to draw out her true power so he could get a better look.  Could she be the one of the people he’d been searching for?

Alkaid clicked her tongue in annoyance at being found out as Santa pointed his sword directly at her. The genjtusu she had used must have given her position away since he’d singled her out and not one of the other many other shinobi gathered around to watch the spectacle. Well if it was fireworks they’d wanted Nozomi seemed happy to oblige. She’d already blown up one of the strange creatures with an explosive tag maybe with Alkaid’s help they could take out the second one that way as well.

At least that was what Alkaid had been hoping for before the man sicked the creature on her. “Aw shit.” She muttered as she quickly jumped to down and to side to dodge out of the way of the razor sharp icecicle at the last possible second. They whizzed past where she’d been standing just a moment ago and embedded themselves deeply into the gate walls that where just behind her. If that had been her the results would not have been pretty.

Going into a roll as she fell Alkaid quickly sprung back up onto her feet. This was bad, really bad. Direct one on one combat when she didn’t have a sword was not her forte. If it was up to her she would have used her silent infiltrator ability to sneak up behind Frosty and ambush him but it was too late for that. Her plan to support Nozomi from the backlines was in tatters so now all she could do was deal with this abomination as quickly as possible then try and get it back on track.

“I don’t have time to deal with the likes of you.” She snarled in disgust as her hands flew into a quick sequence of seals. First Snake followed by Rat as she cast her Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. If Genjutsu had worked on the Olaf it’d work just as well on Frosty here. The range on the tech was short but if he was close enough to be throwing shit at her with those stubby wooden arms of his then he was close enough for her to ensnare him.

Her illusions would cause Frosty to see leaves falling around him, followed by his worst fear. Alkaid didn’t know what his fear was, but she didn’t need since her genjutsu worked on the targets subconsciousness and would pull it out for her. Whatever it showed him would hopefully be enough to put the snowman out of action and allow her to get back to the main event.

Well, her cover was blown, but she didn't care, it simply meant that she was right about this old looking fellow. No man with a pair of lungs like that would've been weak, it was after all widespread knowledge among anyone with an inkling of knowledge on the human body that high lungcapacity meant higher levels of oxygen and thus higher levels of energy and a much more efficient body to be sculpted with muscle and thus insurmountable levels raw strength. So yes, this guy was obviously no slouch, which him removing his red coat only seemed to affirm.

"Heh, noticed me this fast already," She chuckled when scaling down the house upon which roof she had been standing, grinning as she walked over to the duo of shinobi that had already valiantly opposed this mighty-looking old man with his bristling beard and brutish muscles. "So, what's the deal, looking for a fight or simply looking for some amusement, I'm willing to go with either of those, but first..."

Turning her attention towards the critter facing what she surmised as the inferior non-physical class of shinobi, Yomi simply made a half tiger seal while running towards the critter, aiming a powerful palmthrust towards this "Frosty's" head with the intent to blow it clean off. "Oy kid, don't just use some genjutsu thingy on an enemy. You kill it with a fast and decisive strike, plain and simple."

With that being said, Yomi let out a sigh and smiled wickedly towards the girl that had used that weird jutsu and pointed with her thumb towards the big fellow. "You reckon you'd be able to use something like that on this guy without finishing what you've started?"

Stamina: 69/80

Techs/UA used:
Silence is Golden 2/3 (active)
Arhat Fist (active)
Body Flicker
Shatter Palm

Stat changes:
Strength: D->C (arhat fist)->B (shatter palm)
Speed: D->C (body flicker)
Perception: C->D (UA drawback)

There were others around, but that wasn't something Nozomi was necessarily allowed to focus on. She had no clue what he meant by her two friends, because she honestly hadn't been paying any attention to anyone else. Besides, she didn't know Alkaid, and couldn't sense Yomi, so it wasn't like she had any reason to pay attention to them at the moment.

Santa had taken off his overcoat, revealing he had quite the muscles underneath, and wasn't quite a pushover. Nozomi's grin widened as she knew he'd be a fun fight to have. Olaf was a fodder fighter, and didn't actually deserve to fight her. Rather, he didn't deserve her elation for a good fight. She had taken him out far easier than she would have thought for someone who wanted to challenge Kirigakure. She may be an exceptional genin, but there were others above her, and couldn't even take her out.

This one though, seemed like he was someone who would give her a much more difficult and interesting fight. He was someone she could let loose on. Nozomi moved her hands into three new seals as Claus pointed his candy cane sword at Alkaid and gave his knowing wink to Yomi. Dragon, Snake, and Bird. Her hands started to glow slightly, and then petals started to drop from a light aura'd, water like film that shined around her hands.

And then the fight was on. He moved to strike her with the blade, and Nozomi bent down, leaning backwards as one of her hands moved to shove up the blade over her form, using a similar tactic as she had against Makahshi's Executioner's blade. An object using horizontal motion was far more susceptible to vertical change. As soon as it past, she would right herself, and then move forward, launching several strikes towards his arms. The entire aim was for her to slice up his arms and bleed him out, making his arms useless in the process.

Stamina: 57/80

-5 for Dance of the Misty Petals
-1 for Oculus Upkeep
-1 for Spring Chant

Frosty was caught in the Genjutus an began to scream. “Ah not like this, not like this. I’m melting.” before Yomi swooped in and put him out of his misery with one clean decisive blow, decapitating his head with so much force that it went flying for several feet before landing on the ground with a loud splat before his body simply slumped to the ground dead.

With a grin Sanata formed a seal with one hand even as he was attacking Nozomi with the other and suddenly a second Sanata appeared in a burst of smoke. “The deal my dear is that a storm is coming. A storm that will destroy almost everything in it’s path. I’m here looking for people strong enough to survive it… strong enough perhaps to prevent it.” explained the second Santa as he punched his fist together and took a step towards Yomi.

“Do you ladies think you have what it takes to change the tides of fate? Prove yourself to me and I shall bestow you a gift.” With that he rushed forward mirroring Yomi’s form aiming to strike her with the same type of shatter fist that she had used on Frosty.

Meanwhile the main Santa was pleasantly surprised once again. He’d been expecting Nozomi to only try to dodge his blade and not to redirect it as well. She deftly forced his candy cane upwards and then moved her hand covered in razor sharp petals that cut deep into the arm holding the cane forcing him to drop it to the ground with a loud clatter even as he lashed out with his boot aiming to kick her in the gut and force her away from him.

Glancing at his arm as it hung limply from his side he could see that it was badly lacerated, with blood leaking out from many small and painful cuts. The blood was followed by steam and if one looked carefully enough they could see the wounds beginning to close up, albeit it very slowly. He could regenerate but it was far from instant which meant he wouldn’t be able to use that arm again for at least another few minutes.

“You’re the first person to have cut me in a very long while Nozomi of Kiri.” He said stating her name to show that he was beginning to respect her. “If you can manage to do it again then I will declare you worthy.” he declared with that said he held out his remaining hand causing his sword to be draw to it by an invisible force.

“I believe you’ve earned the right to make the first move this time.” he said as he held the candy cane up in a defensive posture waiting for her to come to him.

Alkaid felt impressed as as stylish woman dressed in military artire appeared seemingly out of thin air and struck down the snowman she herself had put under an illusion with a single punch.  As someone who was a bit an infiltration expert she could tell when she was facing someone superior on the subject, someone who she was going to beg for training once this was all over.

She was less impressed at being called a kid. She might not be as stacked as her cousin Tsubaki but she had enough going on that she hoped people would see her as a woman, even if only a young one since she was still 16 after all.

“What difference does it make? Out of the fight is out of the fight.” She asked perplexed on why it mattered so much that she’d only gone to trap the snowman in an illusion with no real follow up.  What was she going to do punch it? She had no real taijutsu to speak of. Sure she could brawl but she was hardly going to be doing fatal damage even if she did strike him which would only serve the break the illusion.

As Yomi jerked her thumb towards the second Santa Alkaid grinned. “No but I reckon you could. That’s what teams are for am I right?” she asked as she cast her  Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique for the second time that day, this time her target being the santa that was rushing towards Yomi.  She’d set him up and Yomi would knock him down.

Stamina  31/40

3- Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique

Blinking as he saw the God himself. It was Santa clause in all it's bloody glory. He existed and he was being tackled by he who must be named. In that case being Nozomei, and her gang of rabbits. He approached Santa Clause Causely. "I want Samehada." He said bluntly. "I've been a good and loyal solider of Kiri. Unlike those naughty Kids attacking you." A devilish smile appeared on his lips. "I can bake all the cookies and milk for you." Akira smiled. Akira wanted the Legendary Sword, even if it was to much for his size.

Nozomi started to lean away as Santa's boot came towards her, but she wasn't quite able to avoid the boot to the gut, sending her skidding backwards a few meters. She jumped and did a small backflip to kill her momentum, landing gracefully on her feet. A small trail of the cherry blossom petals showed the distance between them, as they almost continuously formed and fell from her hands. The kick wasn't too bad, there wasn't a lot of force behind it, but it still shook her quite a bit, and didn't exactly feel good. A small grimace of uncomfortability appeared on her face.

Still, her attacks were quite successful, forcing him to let go of his sword as his arm was unable to hold on. Even still, he started to heal the injuries, and would probably regain use of his arm fairly quickly. Not only that, but he'd made a copy of himself, to go after Alkaid and Yomi. Nozomi assumed it was the clone jutsu, so perhaps getting rid of this one would also get rid of theirs. She really didn't care, the real Santa was her opponent, and she was just starting to have some fun.

It was actually a problem that she'd realized she'd had. Nozomi wasn't really the type to hold back, and went full force from the start. That was all fine and good, but considering she blasted through so much stamina in such a short amount of time, she wasn't exactly a long term fighter, and quickly burned herself out. She was panting slightly, sustaining her level of intensive fighting at her current level of ability was not only stressful on her body, but it also took its toll on her Chakra reserves, which largely helped contribute to how she was able to fight at such a high level.

Then he addressed her, using her name. Taken aback, Nozomi blinked. "How do you-?" she began to ask, trailing off. Her question didn't really need answered, she was just confused. And he obviously hadn't shown his own skills. Her own hit on him was probably something that had landed because she'd surprised him. If he knew her name, he knew she was a genin. And she wasn't an average genin, so she'd probably just caught him off guard. He had the ability to summon his sword to his hand with no effort, so there was more to this man than met the eye.

He gave her the opening move to resume their fight, but Nozomi was stopped by the appearance of some idiot 5 year old. "What the fuck are you doing??" she swore, unable to hold herself back. "Get out of here, this isn't the place for a damn child! Actually, I don't care if you leave, but stay out of my way or I might kill you." She really didn't care if she did or not, Nozomi did not like children. They were pretty much useless, and only ever served to get in the way. They couldn't fight, and she didn't like to hold back for anyone, so there wasn't any fun to be had with them. If he got in her way, she couldn't guarantee she'd care if she hit him on accident.

That said, she began her fight once more, having built up chakra at her back again, and launched herself forward towards Santa, the petal trail behind her, and her hands almost swarmed by the flurry of petals that came with their sudden forward movement. As she got to him, she crouched low, using her much smaller size to her advantage. Her left hand jabbed through the air, seeking to catch him on the thigh. It was a strike her father told her to go for often, as the femoral artery was there, and the chance of slicing it was dangerously high. Her eyes were looking more upward, however, keeping focus on Santa for a counter attack, her right hand prepared to deflect the blade away should she need to.

She'd need to end the fight as quickly as possible, and she didn't think Santa would just let her hit him quite so easily the second time, knowing that she was quite a capable combatant now. This was only her opening move though, and her next attack might prove to be the one that did it for her. Each strike she did would need to be one that helped her take him down if she hit him. That was just how she fought.

Stamina: 49/80

Techniques used:

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Relevant UA:

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Stats:

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Yomi had a smug smile on her face when she listened to this "Santa" explain himself, talking about a coming storm and how it would destroy anything in its path. Still she smiled, even when the man suddenly had created a clone of himself and send it straight towards her while the main form would continue dealing with the one called Nozomi.

Was it a hint of anger, jealousy or maybe even plain annoyance, but Yomi's smile vanished, especially since it seemed that unlike this Nozomi kid, he didn't seem to take anyone else seriously and THAT was something the kunoichi took very, very personally. "Oy, genjutsu kid...if you have any other tricks up your sleeve, use em now."

With the santa clone rushing towards her with blinding speed, Yomi had to think faster than usual, deciding not to defend, but to drop down, bending through her knees completely with the intent to spring up right again when the clone was close enough, aiming to counter his copy of her move with a swift palm aimed to slam upwards against his chin and even if it wouldn't be strong enough to break his neck or even faze him more than having a snowball thrown at him, anything was better than to be felled by your on tactics and moves.

"Kid, no talking, only fighting, maiming and killing!!" Yomi yelled at the toddler that had so suddenly presented himself. It was the unfeeling little one she had thought a lesson before...perfect meatshield in this case. "Brat, you go support Nozomi with all you got, but don't get in her way. You there, the genjutsu kid, I'll need you for this clone, you'll be my support for now!"

Stamina: 63/80

Techs used/active
Arhat fist
Slamming palm

Stat Changes
Strength: D->C (arhat fist)->B (slamming palm)

Santa paused for a moment to stare at Akira with a what the heck expression plastered all over his face.  As a counter guardian he could only do so much to help the humans and was looking for strong warriors to face an oncoming threat, not children that where barely out of diapers.  

“Ho ho ho, children should be in school not on the battlefield.” he said in way of reply as he snapped his fingers causing dozens of additional snowman to appear scattered across the field.  Two of them rushed towards Akira intent on trying to grab him by the shoulders so that they could carry him off the field before he got taken out of a stray explosion or something.  Santa was not entirely heartless they where followed by a Third Snowman who was carrying a toy version of Samehada made of harmless form to give to the boy one they dropped him back at home.

“Sorry for the interruption.” said Santa returned his attention to Nozomi and they resumed their battle.  As she went to attack him he simply grinned and tapped his sword against the ground releasing a burst of frigid air that swept over the petals flash freezing them in an instant before they shattered turning into dust.   Strangely the air wouldn’t have any effect the girl herself other then perhaps to cause her to shiver a little.

“That was a close one, but the same attack never works twice on a Saint.” He said with wink as he tossed his cane into the air for a moment to free up his only working hand.  Using that hand he pulled what looked like a tree ointment off his belt and slammed it into the ground causing it emit a brilliant flash of light in an attempt to disorientate the girl standing before him.

As he went to grab his cane however it seemed to phase though his hand clattering to the ground and sliding several feet away from him before coming to a stop. Clenching his fist and finding it solid he frowned as he realized his remaining time in this realm was growing short. He wasn’t a being meant to exist in this dimension for long periods of time and soon he would have no choice but to return home.

“You’d better hit me with your best shot. Otherwise my next attack WILL put you in the hospital.” He said in a tone of voice that left no doubt he’d have no trouble doing that. For a gennin she was good, but he wanted to see her at the top of her game before he trusted her with the precious ore he had brought with him.  It was too rare to just give to anyone off the street. He needed it to go to someone who would get the most use of of it.

Meanwhile the second Sanata was hit by Alkaid’s Genjutsu, but only for a split second as he seemed to shrug off the illusion as easily as someone punching though wet tissue paper. It was only enough to throw his timing off by a hair but a hair was all Yomi needed as her palm slammed into his chin sending him reeling several steps backwards before he regained his footing.  

“No more parlor tricks from you girl. This is between me and Yomi here” He snareled, a thin trickle of blood running down the corner of his mouth as he touched the buckle of his belt causing it to glow. He’d just activated an enchantment that would automatically dispel any genjutsu below b-rank before it could begin to effect him.  Of course he could have shurged them off anyhow but doing so left a crucial time gab where he was open to exploit. A gap he had just now closed so they couldn’t pull the same trick again.

Taking his thumb he used it to wipe the blood on his chin then slammed it against the ground.  “On Dasher.” he called out as a rain-deer appeared in a burst of smoke and dashed straight towards Yomi antlers first intent on ramming her before she could react to his sudden arrival.  

Of course Sanata knew better and that she’d have little trouble. It was just a distraction as he gestured for his remaining snowmen minions to gather around him.  Picking the nearest one up as if it was as light as a feather he waited for Yomi to make her move and then tossed it at her hard enough that it’d knock the wind right out of her if it connected.

Alkaid blinked in surprise as some dumb kid though it’d be a good idea to walk up to an invader and ask them for freaking presents. The only reason she didn’t say anything about it was because Nozomi had taken the words right out of her mouth. What the fuck indeed. That and the fact she didn’t want to draw any extra attention to herself if she could avoid it. The second Santa stopped paying attention to her was the second she’d make her big move.

She couldn’t help but chuckle softly to herself as Yomi called her Genjutsu girl. As if knowing a couple was enough to suddenly make her a specialist on the subject. It just happened to be that when you weren’t combat focused and didn’t have any elements those happened to be the easiest to pick up since their simply wasn’t much low level ninjtusu or taijutsu around for those who didn’t have time to study those subjects more in depth.

Not all ninja were about flashy combat. Just because Alkaid wasn’t meant for the front lines didn’t make her useless. infiltration meant stealth, sabotage and subterfuge all things she was highly skilled at. She might not be able to give Santa the type of fight he was looking for but that wouldn’t stop him from messing up his day if given half the chance

Well if it was other tricks Yomi wanted then she was about to get them in spades. Santa was going to pay for shoving her to the side and focusing solely on the Chunnin. Yes he would pay dearly indeed. Nobody was so much as glimpsing her way as she began to form hand seals. But she wasn’t signing like normal using two hands to form one seal but rather using her abilty to do one handed signs to duel cast two jutsu at once.

She wasn’t skilled enough to do anything too fancy while duel casting but that hardly mattered when she hardly knew any jutsu to use in the first place. It didn’t need to be fancy for what she had in mind it just had to work.

Her body was envolvped in a burst of smoke and when it cleared nothing seemed to change unless someone was looking really closely to see that the number of snowmen had increased by one since Alkaid had transformed into one and left a clone behind in her place. But who would notice that when there where so many around already.

Shuffling over to the candy cane sword the other Santa had dropped she bent down and picked it up with her stubby wooden arm then followed the other snowmen who had been beckoned to the side of the one fighting Yomi. She waited just behind the one he threw then moved up to take it’s place then made her move stabbing out with the sword in an attempt to pierce Santa in the kidney from the side. If she landed the hit she’d go so far as to twist the sword just to make the blow extra painful out of spite.

The snow men carried him away, and sent him towards his home, granting him what he wanted, While it wasn't the real thing, it was something that will Let Akira dream. So he was very happy with what he got.  He will be good boy and maybe next time he can be granted the the real thing.

(So, I want that weapon as a D Rank Weapon please, Maybe made of Coal or Wood the samehada? Wood would make sense since it's harmless please with Stats, And Akira is out of this thread since he was carried with what he wanted. Can you grant me that mister Event character <3 The Toy Wooden Samehada with stats? As D Rank Weapon! Let this be Akira's xmas gift.)

(Thread Exit.)

Hearing the girl chuckle, Yomi just grinned slightly, but as the fighting continued, she was glad that it seemed that despite its overwhelming power, even the monstrous clone of a more than monstrous invader was not immune to the effects of a well placed genjutsu and that there wasn't much as effective as a slight confusion or illusion to allow another shinobi to get the drop on the enemy. Despite the fact that she had to contend with a clone rather than the real thing might've miffed her a bit, this clone was still a threat in its own right and she knew that despite all appearances, the girl going by the name Nozomi was probably feeling in her element with such a worthy opponent to face.

What happened next was quite the surprise though, with a reindeer suddenly being summoned and charging at her. This action was rather confusing to the woman, who's first idea was to try and grab this beast by the antlers to try and stop it in its tracks, but even if this worked or not, it really didn't matter much, as she wasn't planning on being sidelined by some annoying animal, no matter how strong and simply decided that as soon as she would get a hold on the antlers of the beast, she just had to use her soft body modification and her physical flexibility to throw herself upon the reindeer's back before smothering it with her arms and try to steer it into the santa clone's direction. However, she did not expect to have a snowman being thrown at her and promptly dropped herself onto the ground in an effort to avoid getting hit by what she'd no doubt describe as the equivalent to a rock-filled snowball.

"You call yourself a warrior, flinging your servants at me and hoping they'd hit," She roared and fumed angrily, this was not what she expected from someone who had the bravoure to decide at the earlier point that he'd be able to wipe out the lot of them, even as a clone. So she decided to bait him, no matter what...if she was able to make him lose his cool, it would've been equal to winning the battle before it started. "You're not a winter storm, you're a light summer breeze, hardly noticable on a hot and humid day. I thought you were some big threat,
something that could keep me busy and overwhelm me joyfully with great power and intellect,
but you are nothing but a... failure."

Having said that, she motioned for the clone to go at her, if he dared, grinning from ear to ear, despite the chafings on her back and side from having been forced to jump on the ground and with no doubt still a reindeer to deal with.

Stamina: 60/80

Used Techs:
Soft Body Manipulation

Nozomi was almost amused when her opponent stopped fighting to remove the child from the battle field, although she didn't see why he humored the kid with a toy. Still, she let him do that before they commenced their battle, as she didn't want to attack her opponent when he wasn't paying her attention, it wouldn't feel like she truly earned a win.

"Interruptions will happen, but prepare yourself now." she said in response, before continuing with her previous actions.

Unfortunately for her, Santa was much better prepared this time, cancelling out her Dance of the Misty Petals with some frost. It was rather frustrating, as her own attack had no power behind it, and proved to be completely ineffective. Declaring that the same attack wouldn't work on him twice, Santa proceeded to throw up his cane, and throw down an ornament, letting loose a flash of light that blinded Nozomi, her Oculus Enhancement flaring with the flash bang, and blinded her even further, although she wasn't looking directly at it.

Letting out a cry of surprise, Nozomi's hands instinctively moved to her eyes, trying to shield it from her the flash. She should have lost then and there, but something else interesting saved her from retaliation. Jumping backwards, Nozomi sought to gain a little ground while she couldn't see.

Expecting the sword to pierce into her, she was instead surprised when she heard it clang into the ground. Her vision starting to clear up, she saw Santa staring at his fist and clenching it. For some reason, the blade hadn't been caught, and he had failed to capitalize on her momentary blindness. Blinking out the remainder of the flash from her eyes, although it was still a little hard to focus her sight perfectly, Nozomi heard him speak once more.

"Giving me another shot then? I guess I'll make this one count then, as you say. Just let me get back to my full power, and I'll show you what I can really do." Nozomi said, pulling out 3 pills from her Military Ration's bag, and popping them into her mouth, chewing and swallowing. She felt herself almost restored to her full power, but she wasn't quite done there. Focusing on Santa, before letting out a breath and holding her hands together to focus her chakra. Rather than making a jutsu, Nozomi was digging deep inside herself to force her chakra reserves to ramp out, and it showed around her as a small force of almost wind.

A few pieces of dust and rocks flew around her in a circle as her chakra surged to it's full current potential. It didn't last long, and wasn't particularly noticeable, as Yomi and Alkaid probably wouldn't see it, but if Santa was watching her, he would know she wasn't any normal shinobi. Her Chakra reserves were insane, although there was a drawback to being able to pull out so much chakra. Her body would not be able to withstand any real sort of damage, and if she was hit, that would be about it for her.

Moving her clasped hands into the Tiger seal, Nozomi gathered her chakra again and dispersed it, using the natural water from the ground of Kiri to form up several water clones. 4 in total, surrounding Santa on each side, one of them in front of her, one behind him, and one on either side.

Immediately upon them being made, Nozomi moved through her hand seals again, reactivating her Dance of the Misty Petals, and shifted into the Arhat Fist style, changing up her approach. Even should Santa ruin her jutsu again, the Arhat Fist would allow her to have some amount of force behind her attack.

Her clones weren't stationary. As she was moving through her seals, the clones all formed similar hand signs, the two clones in front of and behind him leaping into the air, and launching two Water Release: Gunshots each, bursting into water as their chakra was nearly depleted, and Nozomi no longer needed them. With 8 condensed blasts of water bearing down on him, the two fired downward slightly faster, there was nowhere for Santa to run.

"This.... is what I can do." Nozomi's left hand moved into the Half Tiger seal once again, and she let out a burst of chakra at her back, launching her forward as well. Her body went flying forward, and her right arm launched forward, using the Shatter Palm technique, aiming for Santa's liver. Strong liver shots would drop anybody, and she'd enhanced her strikes to be as powerful as she possibly could. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Even if Santa managed to dodge, the attacks had been synchronized so that they would all collide before Nozomi could even hit them, so she was in no danger of hitting her own attacks.

Stamina: 63/120
3 Military Rations consumed to restore 30 Chakra

Tech Used:

Spoiler:

Relevant UA's

Spoiler:

Stats:

Spoiler:

Thankfully Akiri allowed himself to be escorted from the area. It seemed the novelty Samehada had been enough to satisfy him, though the d-rank weapon was all he was going to be getting for giving up so easily.  Santa only could hope he’d use it to play like child he was and not to get up to further mischief.  

For a while now Santa had been trying to read Nozomi’s potential fate but had been having trouble getting his future vision to work properly.  The terrible premonition that had brought him here this day was already starting to move of alignment with the present.  The slight difference this had generated had been enough to throw him off.  

Finding the idea of her going to full power intriguing and wanting to see what she could really do he nodded his head in assent and patiently waited while she chugged some pills and reached deep into herself drawing out far more energy they he would have thought possible for someone of her rank surprising him for yet the third time that day.

If he wanted to he could have done something about the massive assault she sent his way. He had numerous ways of deal with it such as flash freezing the water, or teleporting behind her to avoid them entirely but instead he stood and took her shot like a man.  With the amount of effort she’d put into this attack she’d earned at least that much from him.

Shot after shot of water rained down upon him tearing most of his clothes to shreds and soaking what little remained though otherwise he didn’t seem all that bothered by the assault. He had to admit it was a good effort thought as he began to step forward to put an end to things only to realize his mistake in writing it off so soon.

He’d been so focused on the water gun assult from her clones that he hadn’t even noticed the original Nozomi approach him until it was already too late as she sunk her petal enhanced fist straight into his side with so much force that it sent a large splatter of blood showering out of the wound drenching her.

“Well done Nozomi Himitsu the Petal dancer. Of all the foes I faced today across the entire continent, you where by far the most worthy. I can only hope the future that lies ahead of you is a bright one ” He complimented as his body devolved into a cascade of glowing blue light that scattered with the wind leaving only a small bag filled with ryo in it and a lump of strange metal behind.

----

Meanwhile Yomi dealt with the reindeer with the level of easy Santa had expected from her. She wasn’t strong enough to stop it in it’s tracks, but almost like she knew that wouldn’t work she dextarily swung herself up onto it’s back using the antles like a steering while to turn it around sending it charging start towards the person who had summoned it to the field in the first place.

He had to admit he hadn’t been expecting that one. Clicking his tongue in annoyance as she dodged his follow up snowball Sanata was forced to dismiss his summon in a burst of smoke before it could run into him and cause some actual damage leaving him open to a follow up assault from Yomi only to be barraged with words meant to rile him up instead.

He felt confused by her choice of tactics. Nothing she was saying was something he hadn’t heard before in his long long existence. When you’d been around long enough there wasn’t much you hadn’t been called at some point.  When she motioned him to come at her he reached out for another snowball to throw only to gasp in suprise as he felt a sharp piercing pain in his side.

Looking over he saw one of his own snowman stabbing him with one of his candy cane swords.  How had he not seen her coming? Glancing back at Yomi he realized the real intent behind her torrent of insults.  She’d been knowingly distracting him from the threat from her teammate.  

“Halcyon Yomi you truly are The Rouge of mist. You are a credit to your rank misleading me like that.  I leave it to you to lead these girls. If you continue to work together like this, I have no doubt you’ll overcome any threat.” He said with a warm smile as before tossing her a small bag filled with ryo before dropping another one at his side for Alkaid to take.

“And you Alkaid Kaguya, to stab me like that you are a silent sword. No matter what mask you may wear never forget your true face.” he said before dissolving into a pile of snow leaving behind two lump of mysterious metal in his place.

Alkaid had managed to stab the big red man just like she’d been hoping to but something about the whole thing felt off. Usually when you did that and didn’t cover the mouth the victom would let out a grunt of pain at the very least if not a full out cry.  This guy didn’t even seem to notice the fact she’d punctured one of organs.  

Of course he had two kidney so taking one out wasn’t necessarily fatal, but they where on of the more sensative spots in the human body so he should have felt something, unless what she had hit wasn’t a human at all.  All it would take was a simple replacement technique or a clone of some kind and she’d think she’d hit him while the real one got behind her and held her up at knife point which would be game over.

Luckily that didn’t seem to be the cast this time as he simply kept talking, first to Yomi then to her. Alkaid was flattered he’d thought to give her a title, but surprised he knew about her. You didn’t exactly keep papers on inflation specialists with the rank and file troops.   She wanted to bring him in to find out how the heck he had learned so much about them but that wasn’t going to be happening either as he dissolved into snow.

So it’d been some kind of snow clone she’d been fighting from the start after all. Glancing over at where Nozomi had been fighting she saw the lack of a body an realized that perhaps neither of them had been the real deal.  That was a dangling thread that would have to be dealt with later, along with plugging up a possible intelligence leak.

Alkaid was thanking her lucky stars that Nozomi was an ally. She’d seen just enough of her to know she wouldn’t want to go up against her during an exam.  Talk about a match that wouldn’t be in her favor.

Releasing her transformation in a burst of smoke Alkaid quickly scooped up the bag of ryo the man had left for her to take as well as one of the two lumps of metal.  It was like nothing she’d ever seen before which meant she was going to have to get it to an analyst to learn what exactly the material was.  

All and all things had gone well.  Their where hardly any witnesses to see her fighting and she hadn’t given away too much of her true capabilities.  They’d probably been too focused on fighting santa to notice what she did reveal, though if they had noticed at least they weren’t likely to go blab about it since they where all nominally on the same side.

Activating her silent infiltrator Alkaid attempted to quietly slink off without them noticing her leaving.  Maybe if she was lucky they’d forget she’d even been here in the first place.

[exit]