After Hoka was taken away, Mieko and Fujin looked at each other. Mieko warned, "Fujin, if you keep hiding behind your clones, I'll blow up the whole Arena to make you fight me."
Fujin chucked and replied, "Good luck with that." Mieko was annoyed but didn't retort anymore.
They both entered the arena and stood opposite each other. Fujin didn't look at Mieko's face for obvious reasons.
While waiting for Inoichi to announce, Fujin calculated, 'The half-hour break was good. The last two fights cost me around 28% of my chakra. I recovered my chakra up to 80%.
As for Mieko, though she had only one fight, she did use quite a few Fireballs. So even she only has around 80% of chakra left even after the break.
As for Yumi, her reserves dropped to less than 40%. So unless my and Mieko's fight goes on for hours, she won't recover much.
Considering that my maximum reserves are more than double of these two, I should be fine as long as I end this fight with over 30% of my chakra still remaining.'
As he was calculating, Inoichi announced, "The second semi-final starts now, BEGIN!"
As usual, Fujin began the fight with a Wind Explosion jutsu thrown at the very instant Inoichi announced the start of the fight.
Expecting it, Mieko flickered to get out of the way. And then flickered again to attack Fujin.
Instead of engaging her, Fujin flickered into the woods. Mieko followed him. Fujin kept flickering among the woods to create distance from Mieko, while Mieko kept following him with her Sharingan. So both just kept flickering.
The stadium was very confused and awed. Soon after Inoichi announced the match, they saw Fujin throwing a wind sphere that exploded. And at the same time, both Mieko and Fujin disappeared!
Raido exclaimed, "So fast!"
Many chunins in the audience were having difficulties keeping a track of Fujin and Mieko.
After flickering a dozen times, Fujin thought, 'Her flickering speed has improved. Not enough to match me though. I guess she can barely keep a track of me due to her Sharingan.'
Mieko frowned, 'Is he planning to exhaust my chakra by making me flicker so many times?'
Fujin indeed had that thought, 'Should I just keep flickering until she runs out of chakra? I'm better than her at using Body Flicker, meaning that I need less chakra. And despite having to fight twice, my chakra reserve is still higher than hers. So I should have enough chakra left for the final. That said, I don't think she'll act that dumb.'
After analyzing, Fujin concluded that Mieko won't keep chasing him for long. So instead of giving her the initiative, Fujin decided to change tactics. He smirked, 'Let's try that tactic. I could sense that even Renjiro was annoyed by it! Knowing Mieko, she'll be fuming in no time. Haha'
He created a Wind clone while
flickering. The Wind clone stayed in his position and prepared two Wind Explosion jutsus. As soon as Mieko appeared, he threw them at her.
Mieko scowled as she dodged. She threw a few shurikens at the clone. The clone noticed wires attached to the shurikens. He smirked and flickered away. Mieko scowled even more, 'This bastard is infuriating me even more!'
She ignored the clone and flickered towards Fujin. However, this time she was blocked by four Wind clones!
All four clones surrounded her and threw Wind Explosion jutsus on her. She dodged them, but still got a few small cuts. She tried attacking them, but they flickered away as well.
She was about to curse Fujin and begin the chase once more when one clone ran diagonally in front of her and tossed another Wind Explosion jutsu on her.
She dodged and made hand signs. 'Fireball jutsu!'
However, she looked dumbfounded as her fireball jutsu hit nothing but trees. The clone was long gone.
Fujin, who was on the other side of the mini-forest, smirked, 'Hehe, I'll show you how annoying hit-and-run tactics can be. I developed this tactic while fighting Renjiro to get some respite from non-stop beatings! Granted the principle is based on the guerilla warfare and hit & run tactics by mobile army units from my previous life, but that tactic combined with Ninja's speed and accuracy can be so deadly and annoying.'
For the next couple of minutes, Mieko was continuously harassed by Fujin's wind clones. Forget Fujin, she couldn't even chase his wind clones! Nor could she use any big jutsu as every time she built up her chakra, the clones would interrupt her. And this was achieved with just seven clones!
Fujin observed Mieko from a long distance, while constantly disrupting his chakra, in case Mieko had learnt any non-Sharingan based Genjutsu. Mieko now had multiple cuts on her body, though none were fatal.
Fujin thought, 'She looks completely annoyed now. I wonder what she will do when her fuse finally short-circuits.'
Mieko, who had enough of Fujin's tricks, yelled, "FUJIN! Fight me like a man! Stop hiding behind your clones and show some guts!"
Fujin was amused. So were the judges. Ibiki commented, "While she is strong enough to be a chunin, her maturity leaves a lot to be desired."
Genma chuckled and replied, "True. But the tactic she is facing seems to have deliberately been made to annoy her."
Seeing Fujin ignore her pissed Mieko even further! She yelled, "Asshole! I warned you!"
As she yelled, she took out a scroll. Fujin and his clones got on guard, 'Her last scroll had more than 100 Explosion tags! What does she have now?'
She opened the scroll and laid it on the ground. She began building up her chakra. At that instant, two Wind clones appeared. Mieko quickly grabbed 2 kunai with explosion tags, 'I knew it!'
However, instead of throwing Wind Explosion jutsu on her, both clones made a hand sign.
'Great Breakthrough jutsu'
Mieko immediately realized that this was bad! She flickered out of the woods into the open arena.
As soon as she was out, she could see her previous position being ravaged by strong winds. She was about to use the scroll when she noticed something. Fujin was building up his chakra!
When Fujin saw Mieko leaving the forest, he was already building his chakra up. He analyzed, 'Should I hit her with a big one too? No, she'll escape underground and all I'll get is some time. I need to learn Stone Spear jutsu and learn to hit underground enemies with it from a long distance.'
He still kept building his chakra up to counter what she was planning. Mieko began exerting a lot of chakra! The spectators could see blue chakra flowing around her. A couple of Fujin's clones flickered close to her as well. But they noticed that Mieko's scroll had blood on it.
Fujin's clones thought, 'Why's there blood on the scroll? Wait, did she put it there when flickering? And, what exactly is in that scroll that she needs to use her blood and so much chakra?'
Mieko ignored Fujin's clones and slammed her right hand on the scroll, sending her chakra into it. Fujin, who was observing from the woods, was shocked, 'Her chakra dropped by more than half!'
The clones ignored her actions and launched Wind Explosion jutsus on her, but she threw the kunais with explosion tags at them to disperse the jutsu.
While this exchange took place, Fujin, his clones that were in the woods, the judges, and the spectators were all shocked! There were 250 kunais with explosion tags summoned above the arena! And they all seemed to have electricity flowing through them!
Hiruzen's eye twitched, 'The Lighting Explosion Rain Barrage jutsu of Uchiha clan! Do they need to use it in the Chunin exam?'
Fujin was shocked, 'What the heck is this? And why do those kunai look like they have been charged with Lightning chakra? Mieko doesn't have an affinity to Lightning nature.'
Mieko quickly made a few hand signs while dodging Fujin's clones.
'Lightning Explosion Rain Barrage jutsu!'
Expecting the kunais to rain down on him, Fujin looked up and made a hand sign.
'Great Breakthrough jutsu'
This jutsu was supercharged with 10% of his chakra. Very strong winds were generated. At the same time, the kunais began raining down at a very fast speed!
Many kunai were knocked off course slightly. But many managed to pierce into the Great Breakthrough jutsu and maintain their course!
Fujin had expected it. So he had already created a hand sign and went underground.
As soon as Fujin went underground, three wind clones appeared above him. They all made a hand sign.
'Spinning Shield of Wind jutsu!'
A triple-layered defense with Spinning Shield of Wind jutsu appeared above them. Meanwhile, Fujin kept going underground, to a depth of 50 meters.
The kunais rained down on the arena. Fujin's wind clones, who were engaging Mieko, couldn't dodge and were hit by the explosions. They were dispelled.
The remaining three clones managed to block a dozen kunais before one managed to pierce through their triple-layered defense and exploded. All three were dispelled. However, they had done their job by ensuring that no kunai went underground.
The other parts of the arena didn't have any protection. So the kunais kept falling. Since they were charged with Lightning, they managed to pierce a few meters into the ground, before exploding.
When the barrage had ended, the entire ground of the arena was overturned! Not a single tree remained! Dust covered the entire arena.
[A/N : Hundredth chapter!]
