[X] Train your pokemon. You're reasonably sure that Giga Drain could dent his enormous amounts of chakra and Haunter could definitely bypass his sand all together. But no use borrowing trouble.
[X] Train with Uzumaki Karin and Naruto. You want Karin to put on a good showing so the Hokage would surely accept her within the village and Naruto to beat the smug Hyuuga.
[X] Train your other abilities (Genjutsu and Kenjutsu are capped.)
-[X] Taijutsu
Saya trained with her pokemon in the last week, stretching her limits as she coordinated with them to an extraordinary degree. She also trained her taijutsu on her own with Han and with Karin and Naruto. Naruto had a lot of problems with his taijutsu and Karin smoothed them out by working with him. He wouldn't be beating anyone higher than a genin in taijutsu but with his clones, he would be a lot more formidable. They exchanged techniques freely and even found their affinities by Saya dipping into her fund to buy chakra paper. Naruto turned out to be a Wind affinity while Karin was a Water affinity. After a tough training session, they all lied down in the field.
" ... Hey guys. I'm really glad I met you," Naruto mumbled. Karin grinned, her boisterous personality showing.
"Me too Naruto! Though, are you showing your soft side?" She teased.
"Oh shut up! I was trying to be sincere!" Naruto exclaimed, before turning on his side to pout.
"Hah! You're a marshmellow, not a fishcake!" Karin said, before pouncing on him with tickles.
" ... Yeah, I'm glad I met you guys too," Saya muttered, though the two couldn't hear her over their roughhousing.
At that moment, Saya wished she had perfect memory, because she wanted to keep this forever. She smiled bittersweetly.
---
It was the day. Everyone was here. The first match was Naruto versus Neji. Saya and Karin mouth 'kick his ass' as they left for the balconies reserved for participants. Saya took a moment to survey her opponents. She didn't do any recon so she was slightly worried about what surprises they might have up their sleeve. Kankuro seemed antsy as he stared over the balcony, his back foot jumping up and down. Gaara and Uchiha Sasuke was cool as a cucumber as Lee and Tenten cheered on Neji. Well Tenten more than Lee. He seemed torn between Naruto and Neji, alternating cheers.
The match started and Naruto started playing keep away with his clones. Neji tore through them despite Naruto's improved taijutsu though he was working with close margins. They proceeded to talk during the match, revealing the dirty laundry of the Hyuuga clan. Neji then revealed some kind of bullshit Hyuuga technique that was a spinning orb of chakra. Saya concluded it took a lot of energy though, and kept watching as Neji then sealed a lot of Naruto's tenketsu. Karin was yelling herself hoarse at Naruto but Naruto managed to pull on ... a different kind of chakra? Karin went deathly silent as Saya blinked. It couldn't be ...
He defeated Neji with an uppercut much to their amazement and Karin was the first one to yell her congratulations in the silence, though it was very vulgar. Naruto ran up the stairs to the shared lounge and Karin gave him a giant hug.
"That was awesome Naruto!" she exclaimed. Saya just watched in amusement before Uchiha Sasuke and Rock Lee went down to fight. When the examiner declared the start, they both disappeared in blurs. Sasuke was matching him in taijutsu much to his surprise and they both went at each other ferociously. Their combinations were complex and their speed was incredible, but to Saya's experienced eye, she realized that the Uchiha, no matter what kind of training he did, did not have the same stamina as Lee. He would not last as long. The Uchiha seemed to realize this and switched gears, starting to use a plethora of fire jutsu and shuriken with ninja wire. Lee got injured by some burns and took a moment to evaluate the situation. He then did something to his chakra?
"Is he ...?" Saya asked Karin. Karin shook her head.
"Its his chakra. I think he's activating his gates." She explained. "Which ... is incredibly dangerous."
He then turned into a blur and started smashing the Uchiha around, who to his credit, managed to protect his vulnerable areas. It ended with Sasuke unconscious and Lee panting before falling over. The examiner looked at them and shook his head.
"I guess it's a double knock out. Wow." Karin said, blinking. The crowd seemed happy enough though and the next match was called. Then Kankuro withdrew?
Saya frowned at that. But why? Her thoughts were distracted by Karin jumping down into the arena with Tenten before facing each other. Tenten pulled out a scroll and Karin settled into a taijutsu stance. Once it started, Tenten jumped into the air and threw a barrage of weapons at Karin who knocked them away with her chakra chains.
"You can't hurt me with that!" Karin yelled, though her eyebrows were furrowed.
"Oh, I know," Tenten said with a smile before grabbing a giant hammer off the ground and running forward with it to slam it into Karin. Fortunately, she dodged, but she realized she was surrounded with weapons by a weaponsmaster. Tenten would use a weapon on Karin, and just before Karin would get used to the rhythm, Tenten would switch to another weapon like a katana or a kusarigama or a goddamn club. It was keeping her off balance and Saya was afraid that Karin's luck was going to run out. Karin desperately threw down a smoke bomb, causing Tenten to still as she searched for her visually. Oh. She wasn't a sensor. That was unfortunate for her.
Karin pounced on Tenten from behind her with two bunshin clones next to her. Tenten threw kunai but Karin smashed them out of the way with her chakra chains and wrapped her up in them.
"Give up or I'll squeeze the air out of you until you're unconscious!" Karin demanded. Tenten grimaced before sighing.
"I surrender," she said, frowning.
"Winner, Uzumaki Karin!" Karin looked like the Great Sage herself had appeared to give her his blessing. She ran up the stairs to see Naruto and they basically started having a hug party. Saya took a deep breath. Looks like it was her turn.
She jumped down, seeing Gaara taking the stairs and not wanting to be with him in a small narrow corridor. She faced him, wondering what kind of jinchuuriki he was, and got the plan ready in her head. She couldn't really use Fearow because she was told there was a height limit on the matches in order to prevent this exact summon shenaniganery.
Who do you use?
[ ] Haunter
[ ] Honedge
[ ] Roselia
[ ] Fearow
What is your plan?
[ ] Use Roselia and Honedge to distract Gaara while Haunter possesses him from behind and force a surrender.
[ ] Summon all your pokemon and attack him aggressively.
[ ] Use Honedge's saint sword mode and atttack Gaara with it. You'll only have two minutes of it, but you can fuck up a lot of shit with two minutes.
[ ] Mess with him with Genjutsu and Roselia's Sweet Scent. Then attack with your chakra blade.
[ ] Forfeit. Fuck this shit I'm out.
[ ] Write In.
