Genin Takedown - 12

"The next match will be between Hatake Sato and Toshi." Hayate announced, eyeing the silver haired boy curiously as he waved up to his team enthusiastically, 'It makes you wonder if Kakashi may look like him without the mask...' He speculated, noticing the striking similarities between the two.

Toshi, the second genin from the surviving team of Cloud nin, leapt over the railing eagerly. He was sick of waiting for his fight. It came as a surprise to Sato, as well as a number of others, how closely the Kumo nin resembled Naruto; although his gold hair was tied back into a short ponytail.

Watchful sapphire eyes locked onto Sato as the Leaf ninja stood a short distance away, stretching thoroughly in preparation for the match. Kakashi made a sound of embarrassment at the sight of his ridiculous nephew, suspecting he had a few stunts to pull.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in thought, 'That just leaves the last Cloud shinobi then for my match. If I watch carefully I may learn some of the techniques that my opponent will have.'

Before Hayate could tell them to begin, Sato raised his hand expectantly, "Uh, proctor-sir? Can I just have a moment before we get going?"

The examiner shrugged in response while coughing, wondering what the boy could possibly do at the last second.

Toshi scowled in impatience as Sato hastily retrieved a small thermos from his back pouch, confounding the whole of the audience with the exception of Kakashi, who merely saw it as a routine gesture.

The silver haired genin quickly guzzled down the last of the coffee he had saved for himself in hopes of replenishing his energy before his fight.

"What is he doing?" Gaara was annoyed that he had actually expected Sato to have a serious fight, as far-fetched as it sounded.

Naruto had been witness to Sato's coffee-drinking habit and was able to identify it, "You don't want to know. It's just too stupid..."

Sato tossed the empty thermos over his shoulder a few seconds later, satisfied, and Kurenai sighed as she caught it with ease from her place up on the balcony. Asuma smirked at her from a short distance away.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Sato announced, giving a thankful grin to Hayate.

The proctor frowned at him as he cleared his throat, "Then begin."

"He's just as weird as ever, that kid..." Naruto muttered half to himself, "There's no way he's strong enough to win this one."

Without missing a beat Sato had formed three unusual hand seals and produced four clones of himself. Naruto had picked up, however, that one of the seals that the Leaf nin had used was similar to the seal required to create shadow clones, 'There's no way he can make shadow clones! I know he steals scrolls just as often as Haku-kun does, but he couldn't have learned that jutsu!'

Toshi took to an offensive stance, his broad physique clearly suggesting he was skilled in taijutsu; something that disappointed the Leaf ninja. Sato and his replications drew out metal wires from their respective holsters and darted forward in full cooperation.

The clones leapt clear over the Kumo nin's head and scattered throughout the room, securing the wires to walls with metal pegs and kunai. Sato moved directly to his opponent with a cry, in order to distract him from his clones' trap-setting.

"Whatever trick you've got planned won't work on me!" Toshi slammed his fist into Sato with dead-on accuracy and power, but only hit air, "W-What?"

The smirking image of Sato faded away as Toshi skidded to a confused halt, "It was genjutsu?"

"Yup."

The humiliated Cloud shinobi turned around, seeing the true Sato all the way on the opposite side of the gymnasium. His duplications were still busy hanging kunai from the wires they had suspended.

Kakashi chuckled to himself, 'It looks like he's gotten faster. It used to take him ages to set something up, and now he has an entire unit doing all the work for him...maybe Gai's niece is rubbing off on him.'

"I may not be big on the whole hand-to-hand combat gig, but I get by..." Sato smiled openly as Toshi raced back at him with startling speed, and halted again when the once-laboring clones Sato had created abandoned their places and dove for him wildly.

Toshi retreated back, blocking their attacks, not expecting them to be solid. Sato leapt up with ease onto his suspended-wire network with cat-like poise and drew a kodachi, "Let's get started!"

With a gentle pluck, the blade severed a specifically chosen wire and let loose a flurry of shuriken that had been in plain sight.

"Wouldn't a trap be more effective if it was hidden, maybe?" Ino frowned, just as stupefied as many other shinobi by the silver haired nin's strategy.

"Not always. A trap that the opponent is allowed to see is the one they react to," Asuma clarified, taking a short drag on his cigarette, "Which forces them into another trap."

In unison, the clones evaded the projectiles, as did the Cloud shinobi with little effort. Toshi had found himself back in the center of the gymnasium where he had started after he had avoided the first wave of attacks.

Sato, in the midst of his scrambling clones tossed a unique kunai that skimmed past his opponent, missing by inches. He frowned to himself, slightly upset, but continued on severing wires as he moved, not giving the Cloud nin a chance to counter.

One of the clones had been careless. Stumbling after being struck by a jab to the side, the stunned clone was hit again with a brutal sweep kick that destroyed it, and in turn, caused it to burst into flame.

Toshi leapt back, confounded, "What the-?"

The intense fire flickered out where the clone had been eliminated, and in response, the rest of the replications and Sato perched up on the wire network, fearing they too would be pummeled.

"What was that?" Temari narrowed her eyes in confusion, "That was no ordinary clone!"

"A Fire Clone," Baki muttered, impressed, "Leaf shinobi seldom use such outdated techniques and it is a skill few master. Similar to shadow clones, fire clones are solid enough to strike an enemy and handle weaponry, but they have a major drawback that shadow clones don't."

He has his students' full attention, "Elementally they're unstable and burn themselves up only after a few short minutes...making them perfect for ninja who utilize traps and explosives."

They looked backed down as Toshi decided on a different method of destroying the last of Sato's clones, taking aim with kunai.

"Whoa wait a minute!" Sato leapt in unison with his clones, abandoning the wire they had been balanced on which was then snapped by the oncoming projectiles. The Kumo nin had sprung Sato's own trap and both Cloud and Leaf shinobi were scrambling around avoiding the metal darts that were raining down.

It easily finished two of Sato's clones, leaving only one as they darted around the Kumo ninja, not wanting to get too close.

"That pansy! He's afraid to use taijutsu so he's just running in circles! Even Hinata-chan could take this guy!" Naruto found Sato's strategy atrocious, and as an afterthought, 'Well, there was that one time I punched him and he was completely out...it's like he's flimsier than Haku-kun!'

The final fire clone dove at Toshi, who avoided it as its glowing form reached out for an object forgotten on the floor beside him. Sato smirked an leapt back up onto his cable net, watching as the clone made contact with the kunai he had thrown earlier and the tag that was attached to it.

Shikamaru knowingly covered his ears with a sigh.

Sato knew it was a bit too much gunpowder for such a small tag, but he loved his traditional, 'cannon-like' weapons, as he had once explained to his teammates. The clone had detonated it, and Toshi had disappeared inside the billowing cloud of smoke.