Chapter 26: Drops in the River

In the ever-pouring rain, Warai stood opposite her opponent, with Hanzo of the Salamander watching unperturbed from above. The shinobi in front of her wore traditional Amegakure attire, with shin guards and arm guards, and wrappings covering his face, except for his eyes, which shone a menacing green.

Warai was in a bad spot. Odds were, this shinobi, which Hanzo called Arasa, was a water release user, which would completely nullify her skill with fire. She would need to rely on her shurikenjutsu and Sharingan, and perhaps even that one thing...But no, she couldn't. Not unless it got ugly.

The moderator shouted for them to start. Warai wanted to finish this quickly, and so did her enemy. They rushed at each other, kunai in hand, and crossed blades. A clanging resounded across the plain, and the moment after they both came to a rest, the rain ninja's body melted into water.

'A water clone, dammit!'

Warai herself had sustained a bad cut on her arm, which began seeping blood into the already soaked ground. But where was the real Arasa? If that was a clone, where could he be? She rapidly spun around, looking everywhere for him, when suddenly she was stabbed in the gut. She couldn't see who hit her, even though it was right in front of her.

Shin was watching this with bated breath. She was confident in her kids, but these rain-nin didn't seem to shy away from bloodshed. Kannin and Tetsu were equally worried about Warai. They had never seen her bleed this much, and the fight just began.

'So he stabbed me without being visible. This is either a highly complex ninjutsu, or, more likely, a genjutsu which makes him invisible to my eyes.'

This was really bad for Warai, now not only was her fire release nullified, but her Sharingan weren't so helpful since the guy was invisible. She steeled herself, gritted her teeth, and gripped the kunai in her hand hard. Using her ears, she tried to hear where her enemy was, surely the splashing of his feet in the puddles would alert her.

But they didn't, Warai took a slash on her leg, not having heard a thing.

'This is definitely a genjutsu, unless he's really from the Hidden Mist and using Hydrification'

She opened her Sharingan, which at this point had developed two tomoes in both eyes, to scan the chakra around her, garnering further concern from her teammates. Looking around, the chakra was everywhere, making a hazy effect, she was unable to see through.

'What kind of technique is this?' She asked, taking another slash on the back this time.

She was running out of options. If her injuries kept piling up like this, she would certainly lose. So she started thinking hard, releasing a fireball every once in a while to keep Arasa on his toes.

'A genjutsu that makes him invisible and obscures my Sharingan with a chakra haze...'

'That's it! He's using the rain!'

Warai hypothesized that Arasa was using the rain to refract light away from himself, making him virtually invisible. To do this, he would need to insert his chakra into the rain, which clouded her vision. She overclocked her Sharingan to try and see through it, eventually making them bleed a little.

It hurt. Her body was bleeding and her eyes were screaming for rest, but she did it anyway. She didn't have much chakra left after overworking her Sharingan, and needed to end this quickly. She began to see vague shades of Arasa through the rain, but he was moving so fast it was hard to keep up. Throwing kunai at the shade, she heard him wince, and she saw blood spill into the puddle below where she aimed.

Her teammates silently cheered for Warai, the battle wasn't over, but she seemed to make a major breakthrough just by finding her enemy in the rain.

Shin shook her head, 'Why is it always genjutsu users?'

Warai threw another kunai, this time at the shade's path, at which she heard a chuckle, as if to mock her poor aim. The kunai then exploded, as the tag she put on it detonated. She then finally saw her opponent fly away, the wrappings on his face ragged and burnt, and his left leg bleeding. He slid across the ground, and Warai deactivated her Sharingan to conserve chakra. She flickered to his body and put a kunai at his throat and claimed,

"I win!"

But it was then that she felt a kunai at her own neck. She saw the body in front of her again melt into water, and she heard behind her

"I win."

-

"Damn water clones." Warai huffed once she got to the sideline

"You did wonderfully," Shin said, "that shinobi probably has a couple years of experience on you. Losing is no shame."

"I could've beat him, I know it."

"Relax, Warai, let's see how Kannin fares."

So the three of them watched Kannin prepare himself for his battle.

Tetsu leaned over and said, "Do you think he'll use his sword?"

Shin whispered, "Not at first. Unless he's really skilled, he needs both of his hands to weave seals for his jutsu, and I'm willing to bet he wants to use his jutsu instead of the sword."

Warai looked over as well, seeing Koseki still in its sheath, and muttered to the other two, "I suppose that makes sense."

Shin was right. Kannin was strategizing on the field, and he bet that his jutsu knowledge would do him best. He knew he definitely didn't want to use his chains unless it was absolutely necessary. They were a secret weapon, per se. He had comprehended the trick behind the last rain-nin, and made preparations to counteract any similar jutsu, but he didn't really know what to make of his opponent.

Opposite Kannin stood a woman, about 4 inches taller than him, with long, curly brown hair and an Amegakure forehead protector around her neck. Her dress was pure black, except for the red ribbon that tied her hair back. She had many scars on her face, one of which passed over her brown eyes.