A Test[Shihouin & Hope]

Shi walked rather quickly out of the Hokage's office, pausing briefly to be sure that Hope was following. His quick pace continued down the steps of the building, still checking out of the corner of his eye at regular intervals to make sure that Hope was keeping up. Quickly the two were on the streets of Konoha, headed towards the training grounds. He didnt speak, his mask still firmly in place, and his cloak billowing behind him. The streets were filled with few people, a rather un-busy day today Shi assumed.

After a fifteen or so quick paced walk, the two Shinobi reached the Training Grounds, this one, was slightly out of the way, and there was no one here on this quiet evening. It was perfect training ground stocked with abundant natural resources of ever type. Shi gave Hope a quick nod and quickly spoke, "Your opponent is Shihouin Uchiha and he will be here shorty." He gave hope a quick nod before he disappeared in a kicked up cloud of dirt. Shi used his speed to his advantage, his disappearance merely the result of quick movements and the diversion of the dirt, simple really. He was now perched on a tree branch, hidden well by the thick cover of leaves. He was intently curious about this fight, he had read Shihouin's record and by all rights, the kid had a decent skill level for his rank, but this newcomer he had no knowledge of, so perhaps he would be surprised.




[ooc:]Short, but I just wanted to get this started. I will wait to post again until the fights over and give the results and such.

Seriously. "You guys took way too long to get here. Next time, make an effort to at least show up on time?" Shihouin had started off agitated, but he didn't care. By the time he'd gotten there, he'd had enough time to go get food and come back and to eat and take a quick nap. As soon as they'ed arrived though, he make his obvious entrance from the shadows since he'd already been there for a little while. Coming from out underneath the brush of the forest without so much as touching a leaf, Shihouin stood about ten meters away from from a very colorful individual.

He wore his normal get up, with both nin-pouches on his waist, his sword at his hop and the blue Uchiha shirt and white shorts to match his outfit. The same get up he'd been wearing for a while now. The person in front of him however seemed to care a bit more about their looks, but it was his face that stuck out the most. "If my ancient history serves me correct, you share a remarking resemblance to the Second Hokage. Well, whatever. It's time to fight." Shihouin began to prepare his move and enter into a stance with a kunai drawn in his right hand. He would wait for his opponent to make the first move, if he decided to make it. Hopefully, he would.

A sweatdrop slithered down the side of Hope's cheek as he realised how fast Shi was moving. Hope sighed quietly to himself. I guess we're late. My fault but still....

This seemed to be too fast for an average walk, there was way too much.... anxiety in the steps. Hope struggled to keep up as they fled out of the office and practically flew down the stairs. "I'm sorry. Give me a minute". Looking up to Shi, Hope noticed that he wasn't stopping for anything and not for anyone. He had been given orders and he wasn't about to waste time doing trivial things like resting. "No breaks then huh?" He gave no reply.

Ducking and weaving. Even though the streets of Konoha weren't very busy there were enough people on the street to make things more complicated. Hope had to weave around people as he tried to keep up with Shi. Damn this guy moves fast when he wants to!. His trail of thought was broken as they reached the opening to what Hope presumed was the training ground where his test was about to take place.

Hope looked around, wanting to get to know this battlefield a little better before he got involved in a fight. After all the 'enemy' ninja would/should have an advantage..Hmm this area seems ideal for a training ground actually. It's out of the way. Has a little stream over there. Actually I should remember that, I may be able to use it later on.....It would seem like there's quite a lot of things here. Usable things. Hope had no idea who this opponent was in terms of skill although the Hokage did mention something about him being enthusiastic. The shinobi was either an over-enthusiastic brat that would most likely get in over his head OR he would be a blood thirsty ninja. Whichever the young uchiha was it was time to find out.

Shi kicked up a cloud of dirt and fled using it as a diversion. "Very well then. Shi, Watch closely. I'd hate to have to fight for nothing......" Pausing to check for Shi's chakra signature, to make sure that he wasn't talking to himself, Hope stood his ground as he observed his opponent.

"Shihouin Uchiha, I presume? Well I'm not going to apologize for missing what I had not planned myself. I made no promise to get here at a specific time so you'll have to excuse me just this once." Something that Shihounin said in reply caught his attention."If my ancient history serves me correct, you share a remarking resemblance to the Second Hokage. Well, whatever. It's time to fight.". After taking a moment to take in Shihouin's appearance he soon answered. "Well it's been said that I could be the reincarnation of him but I don't know. Either way you share a similar appearance with the late Sasuke Uchiha yourself. I see that you don't want to talk any more......well I guess we should start this."

Watching as the boy in front of him armed himself and slid into a fighting stance, Hope guessed that he wanted him to make the first move. An good opening jutsu? It has to be simple yet intelligent, force Shihouin onto defensive whilst not being too strenuous. I have an idea.. Hope collected his chakra within his core then let it flow out of him and into the ground. Collecting the water from within the ground was simple, but the tiring part was yet to come. Chakra-infused 'bubbles' of water rose up to their eye level. Forcing his eyes into a slight glare, the bubbles shot towards Shihouin followed by more bubbles. Hope wanted to keep a continuous flow of bubbles in an attempt to reduce the chances of Shihouin dodging. It could have been dodged before hand but Hope didn't detect any sharingan activation going on.

What?! He couldn't just be Chuunin ranked, the level of ninjutsu he was using was extremely high or was it? No, it couldn't have been a high level ninjutsu, maybe this person had some sort of bloodline which allowed him to use some sort of technique to this level? Whatever. It was too easy to get around. Not to mention it was easy to see that his focus was on Shihouin, which somewhat meant that the jutsu was as well...

The moment the bubbles rose out of the ground, Shihouin moved back about two meters, back into the forest, under the cover of shade. He would have to watch his opponent to make sure of a few things first before testing his opponent. The bubbles directed at him would hit the tree of course and Shihouin didn't spend on staying still in the forest either. The jutsu was easy to dodge once he moved back into to cover, leaving Shihouin somewhere in the forest, obviously safe from the jutsu. A kunai and two shuriken burst out from the forest immediately after, at the opponents 10 o'clock. Why bubbles?

He continued to prepare his move-set making sure that everything was going according to his original plan. With this new information, he knew he was at the disadvantage elementally. This would make things a bit more tiresome offensively, but fighting with the offense wasn't entirely out of his ability. He had a trump card which he'd been training and if he used it, things would change strategically for his opponent. However Shihouin's main question was yet to be solved. He hoped his opponent would indeed answer.

Shihouin's movements weren't very surprising. Predictable to say the most. Too easy....I increased the distance between us which is a bonus. Now wanting to test out Shihouin's level of concentration, Hope began to talk to him. "You know that you were prone to attack when you were running away right? And a few trees aren't really going to save you.".

Being crafty, Hope formed more bubbles behind Shihouin and slowly made them edge closer to him every passing moment. Hope seemed to have underestimate Shihouin as he soon abandoned his stance and took off around the forest-like area. Not standing still. Not being an easy target. Hmm.....perhaps this will be more interesting than I'd thought it would be. Nonetheless, I am not going to waste time and chakra trying to chase him. I shall let him wear himself out and then strike! The thought caused a grin to spread across his face. Hope could have used his chakra to manoeuvre the bubbles around the tress but he didn't want to. Like he said, he didn't want to waste his energy and if that made Shihouin imagine limits on the jutsu being used then who was he to stop him?

Closing his eyes, Hope gave in to his senses, listening to the movements that belonged to Shihouin. The tell-tale sounds that gave him away; that include snapping branches and the crunching sound of the leaves. Hope let out a sigh. "You should be more careful when moving around you know. I could follow you based on hearing alone,". Opening his eyes, he continued speaking, "If I wanted to that is......".

There was a near inaudible rush of wind as Hope noticed weapons being launched in his general direction. "Projectile weaponry.....really?" Due to the fact that the previous jutsu that he had used was beginning to dissipate, using a pair from the remaining bubbles, he increased their density and moved them into the path of the projectiles. They were dense enough to slow down one shuriken, and the kunai to the extent of causing them to fall to the ground short of their target before dispersing. There was however one more thing travelling towards him. The remaining Shuriken. "You want to snuff me out? Your going to have to try a little bit harder than that!". Knowing that he probably only had one shot at this, he thought it was important. "Water Style: Water Whip Jutsu! Take it.......BACK" Weaving a chain of handsigns, A white translucent rope shot forth and wrapped around the shuriken. Swinging it above his head and around his body, and allowing the jutsu to fall apart, Hope sent the traitorous Shuriken soaring back towards his attacker. Turning to face the Shihouin's position he spoke out to him. "You do realise that by throwing projectiles at me, you have just given away your position right? True that you could use a clone or the body flicker jutsu to cover more ground but either way....I'll get you in the end....".

Beginning to grow impatient he called out to the boy. "I take it your waiting for an opening so you can spring your sharingan on me later huh? I know that you've got a lot of nasty little toys waiting for me...Don't make me wait forever." He changed from his usual carefree attitude to a more serious one and this reflected onto his expression.

"You want to hide from me in this miniature forest? So be it, I'll level it for you!". Putting his hands together in front of him whilst collecting chakra, Hope pulled his hands together into a sort of clap. Water Style: Water Shockwave!. All of the moisture in the air was immediately drawn towards Hope. It spiralled around him, all the while gaining mass. It grew larger and taller with every second. As the three hundred and sixth degree barrier erected itself between Hope and Shihouin neither of them could see the other. At the peak of the vortex, the water exploded into a huge wave. Hope made it arc around the battlefield so that he could refocus on his target. It arced to the right, moving across the river. Picking up water. Increasing in size. It shot towards the forest area and crashed into them. It levelled the first few trees and carried on doing the same to the ones behind it. IF Shihouin somehow managed to dodge then he still won't been able to hide amongst the trees again. "Fight me Shihouin. I don't want to see petty attempts of attacking. Activate your sharingan. Fight me on equal terms. Come on Shihouin don't you want to rank up? This is all or nothing you know!" He called out to the now barren 'wasteland' that he had created. "Give it your all...."

(OOC: Sorry about the wait. My browser keeps fucking up when I go to post and I lose connection. I edited the one that I was going to post so it was really just a matter of copying and pasting the original then adding to it. One again, sorry for the wait).

'He' was able to throw the shuriken and the kunai at the optimum time, which would allow him to keep moving on sturdy material and focus the opponents attacks on 'his' position. Out of the sight range of the opponent due to the foliage, the bubbles behind 'him' had not gone unnoticed and it was easy to dodge them and keep them out of any immediate range of attack. Once the shuriken were thrown, the bubbles were able to deflect some of the attack except for the most important shuriken. As the opponent wrapped the shuriken around his body and sent it back at the position it was thrown from, it got easier from there. The shuriken would go into the forest and be caught by 'him' where it could be held down.

What was more important though was Shihouin's timing. He had the opponent's focus on the attack in front of him, since he was moving on sturdy material things got to be a whole lot easier for him and a lot more difficult for the opponent. Once the shuriken from the attack was in position, Shihouin was ready to make his move. On a sturdy branch about four meters above the ground, a kunai was thrown to flank the opponent from behind.

Due to all of the bubbles in the way of the sight between the opponent and the weapon, it had become near impossible for the opponent to see the transparent/translucent wire on the shuriken. When the opponent spun the shuriken around his body and sent it back at 'him', he'd only helped in wrapping the wire around his body unknowingly. After throwing it, the shurken would caught and in that same moment of time, 'he' would pull both ends of the wire -since 'he' had the other end- and constrict all of his movements. Being unable to move would open him to his flank. This kunai carried a tag attached to the head of it so it wouldn't make any noise upon travel. Not to mention that it was thrown in a way that it would not be in contact of the foliage of the forest. This would happen before he had any time to use any techniques, since it would happen the same time his opponent decided to start talking and chance his attitude and expression. The kunai would explode in between his legs and bring his balance off and Shihouin prepared his next move to finish his opponent.

Since the kunai would explode the moment the wire stopped the opponent from moving, the only logical way out was a kawarimi. The opponent had made everything worse on his end and the timing of Shihouin's attack was too fast for the opponent to move or counter since his opponent decided to start talking.

No sound. hmm....he's not there. He must have moved away. If I were him where would I attack from? Hope's eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen. Damn him. Damn him to hell. I left myself open to be attacked from behind! Damn. He attempted to turn around to face the obvious attack head on but found that there was some kind of resistance, "..The Hell?" Now focusing his eyes on his torso, he made out some kind of material wrapped across him. Testing out it out, to see if he was correct, Hope tightened his hand into a fist and then opened it back out. "Hmm I see. Very clever Shihouin. You made me wrap it around myself. Nice touch with the what? Translucent metal wire? A very efficient creation. Very clever young Uchiha"

Struggling to put his hands together, he created a handsign and disappeared in a combination of smoke and kicked up dirt leaving a log in his place which soon fell to the ground. A stray Kunai hit the suspended log before it fell. It seemed that Shihouin pulled the wire tightly at the same time which would have caught Hope completely off guard. Bending down to look at the tag that was tied on to the kunai, one thought popped into his mind. hmm...interesting. A tag that eliminates sound. He was completely oblivious to the fact that, that same Kunai would've hit him. His eyes widened as he recognized the design of the tag. An exploding tag! Shit!. Building chakra in his legs, He released it all at once to increase the distance of his escaping jump. Not fully escaping the blast, Hope was thrown backwards but yet remained able to land on his feet. After the dirt cloud cleared Hope began to formulate an attack.

Since I know his rough position, I should play on a different field... Doing a dummy handsign, Hope used the shadow shuriken technique and threw two Kunais towards Shihouin; with the second shuriken being hidden by the first. With creating a dummy handsign, Hope wondered if Shihouin expected anything. If he did then we'd have a problem on our hands unless Shihouin acted defensively and if he didn't notice it then well nothing. It wouldn't exactly effect anything now would it?

Following the pre-drawn path of the projectiles, a battle cry erupted from him as he armed himself with a Kunai and charged towards Shihouin. "You coward. Fight me on evil footing. Face to Face. FIGHT MEEEEE!". Now getting closer to his opponent with every step, Confidence flood his being. Overconfidence. Giving himself into his emotions and senses or more specifically giving in to anger and hate, All of his muscles tensed in response to the negative emotion and one thought consumed his mind and eradicated all logical form. The thought became a need. The need became an obsession. A obsession with inflicting as much damage as inhumanely possible....

OOC: Sorry about the quality and length.

Shihouin had prepared his move-set long ago, especially the move-set which had just taken the opponent by total surprise. With the kawarimi out of the way the battle had become interesting but Shihouin didn't expect it to be this interesting. His opponent couldn't have been a chuunin level. Why would he kawarimi so close to the location of the attack, then take the time to look at it?

That's right. The explosive note would still go off, of course it would. Not only that, the explosive note had caught the opponent up in the blast. Since he'd already prepared this move it would be simple. He had his sword drawn and his body ready. When the opponent took the time to talk and charge up energy for a jump, Shihouin had already been moving on solid footing for this attack. With his sword drawn in a perfect position, he launched his attack. As the opponent flew backwards in the air, Shihouin would burst out from behind the opponent and stab him in the right lung. Thanks to the explosive note, he wouldn't be able to sense Shihouin move, he would feel the blade of the black ninjato penetrate his lung and it would be too late. He would survive of course, but it would be obvious as to who was stronger.

At the last possible moment a chakra signature appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was too late to do anything about it. Hope would die. Time seemed to stand still as if it were his last living moments, 'the last hour'. Wincing in pain as the black blade pierced the back of his lung and shot out of the front of his body. Hope's whole life flashed before his eyes; his birth, his father's training sessions, his death, learning tactics and jutsu within Kirigakure academy, the death of his mother, the journey to Konoha, becoming a Konoha shinobi and finally taking this test. He wanted to live. There was so many things that he hadn't done yet. So many things he had yet to achieve. The burning desire to become reunited with the remainder of his family renewed itself. Hope wanted to move, wanted to dodge but all he could do was roll his eyes to their corners as if trying to look at his opponent. Wanting to say something to express his feelings, he could only give off a smile as his body exploded into water, covering the blade and reaching Shihouin's clothing.

OOC: Posting as if, I hit the real you which was decided by two members of the staff team.

IC: Removing his blade from his right lung, Shihouin slowly pulled the blade out. Whether he injured his lungs again when he removed the blade wasn't relevant to him or not. As far as he was concerned, this opponent deserved every last bit of it. Pulling the blade from his chest, he flicked the blood off it and scattered it into the ground. Sheathing the sword in a timely fashion, Shihouin thought about what he did and what he'd intended to do. He also thought about the reason he was supposed to be here.

'This guy was obviously Chuunin in terms of power, but was I brought here to just test his power? He obviously failed. Not even Nasamea or anyone I've ever fought as been this bad... I can't believe it though. Why would the higher-ups in the village even consider someone like this for Chuunin in the first place? Is the Hokage seriously...??'

Damn. It was like he thought it was. No matter how strong he could get physically and mentally, there was always someone in his way. Shihouin attacked the Hokage to prove his worth to the village, to show that he wasn't D Ranked any more, but obviously the Hokage was thinking other than that. Anger and frustration began to cloud his thought process. As far as he was concerned, people like this didn't need to be shinobi. As long as there were people that would stop his conquest to become a higher ranking shinobi, Shihouin would put forth every effort to moving those obstacles out of the way.

He turned on his Sharingan and scanned the area, catching someone's chakra way in the distance. "You've got about five seconds to get him." From 'Shihouin's' starting point in the forest, a bright orange light took a flame. Fire raced around the entire clearing in a circle, setting the entire forest a blaze. Unable to escape his own flames with any sort of speed or technique, Shihouin used his kawarimi to escape the ring of fire. The problem here was simple. Since the opponent had pulled water from the ground and the air for his water jutsu, the battlefield had become that much more suitable for fire element techniques. Not to mention his kawarimi was an attack as well, a log full of explosive notes.

He could get in trouble for recklessly endangering a shinobi's life. As long as the Hokage kept underestimating his potential, he didn't care. He just wanted to be taken more seriously.