Kakashi was bored. Not an all-together unheard of occurrence, though considering right now he was cut off from his normal recourse for boredom it made it all the tougher. A shame really, he'd just picked up a new one a few days ago, and he was in the middle of a good part right now. But he had promised Sasuke he would give him information on the winners of the preliminaries, and more importantly Gai had entrusted him to spectate the last of his students while he rushed Rock Lee to the hospital. He'd of accepted regardless, but he couldn't remember a time he'd seen Gai this distraught over something. Not that he could really blame him, with the condition the Sand Jinchūriki left his student in. He'd hoped to at least give him some good news regarding the last member of his team.
A shame she proved not to be up to the task. One of Asuma's genin said the fight was over before it began, and he couldn't bring himself to disagree. She was by all indications a skilled weapons user...but against a good wind user she'd need to be a lot more than just a skilled weapons user. And as Gai's student slammed down on the Sand genin's fan, her back bending visibly on impact he winced slightly. Not at the injury of course, but at the thought he may have to tell Gai another one of his students ended up crippled. Then she was spent sprawling through the field of discarded weaponry and he mentally added "severe lacerations" to that assessment.
And yes, a quick glance confirmed what he had suspected, a broken spine. The way they stayed still despite the girl's attempts to rise was something of a dead giveaway. Still, he felt one of his eyebrows creep up as yet another of his best friend's pupils refused to give up...or pass out...despite grievous injuries. It looked like the girl was intent on fighting despite her injuries, he had to give her points for guts at least. Unfortunately guts don't matter much if it's impossible for you to hit your opponent. And then he glanced at her opponent, and he lifted his back off the wall, because the sand genin was practically radiating confidence. But to his eyes he saw something else entirely, she's too close. She thought she had the fight in the bag, after all her opponent couldn't hit her even with her trump card, and now she couldn't even stand. And to be fair to her, she was almost certainly right, the fight was over...unless.
Then he saw it, the girl's arms tensed, coiling underneath her for a split second before she flipped up. The two kunai she was keeping hidden underneath her body flashing out towards her opponent. Even from here he could see her opponent lean back in surprise. The sand genin was good, but she was too close, not enough time to block with a Jutsu. The second kunai missed, but the first carved a line across her cheek. Then her retaliatory wind-blast slammed Gai's student into the far wall, her injuries making it impossible for her to even attempt to dodge. And with that he leaned back against the wall.
He sighed, Well, at least I can tell Gai his student managed to land a hit on her opponent. And that she never gave up. but after a hit like that...it may not matter if she wants to give up or not. After a certain point, your body decides that for you. He could hear the genin around him begin excitedly chatting as the dust cloud from the girl's impact, but he just kept his sight trained where the girl should be, waiting for the dust to clear.
NO.
His stiffened as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand-up, and he saw some of the genin stiffen as well. They felt it too, he realized. He didn't know what it was, but something just shifted. He felt his left eye narrow as the dust began to shift and whirl, reverberating with the sounds of shifting masonry. Light tore at the edges of the dust, pushing it out of the way as she emerged. Resplendent as hundreds of golden blades and scrolls shifted around her, burning in their intensity like a second star, Gai's student strode out of the dust cloud. With a cruel smirk on her face and a kunai idly playing through her fingers. He felt something twist inside him as, an urge to shrink back in the face of her radia-ah, he blinked, so that's it then? a fear genjutsu. Interesting.
Down in the arena her opponent looked frozen there, an ashen expression on her face as she tried to steady her shock and gather her courage. Idly, Kakashi pushed up his headband, revealing his sharingan to the air, and if anything his eyes widened further. Chakra was pouring from her body, suffusing the air around her in that display. He could see how it formed the structures floating around, but he couldn't copy it. Hm, a new bloodline limit? But he dismissed that as well, it was something else, it all felt off. Not just the strucutre of the Jutsu, whatever it was, but the chakra itself. It felt too...refined, too perfect. He could see more chakra, still flowing through her that felt normal, but the contrast was disconcerting.
"K-Kakashi-Sensei?" He was interrupted by Sakura glancing back at him, "W-what's she doing?"
He gave an slight shrug, "It's chakra, a lot of it. That aura. It's a fear genjutsu, makes it hard to look at her."
"Oh." He turned back from his student. And as for Naruto...
"Hell yeah, Bun-girl! Kick her ass! You can do it!"
He was being himself.
Kakashi turned back to the fight just as Gai's student sent two kunai flying at her opponent, both moving so fast they left an after image. Wisps of that strange chakra still clung to them as they sliced through the air, carving a faint trail in their wake. One of them was swatted away by a gust of wind, her opponent finally beginning to overcome the genjutsu, but she was too slow and the other hit her square in the shoulder. But he wasn't focusing on that, his attention were on the hand signs the girls hands were currently flying through. Drawing the normal chakra still inside out, where it mixed with the flowing gold that surrounded and she moved.
A weapon clattered to the ground as it bore the hit meant for her, as she appeared in a puff of smoke behind her opponent, body wreathed in golden light as she flung two more knives at the sand genin, before substituting herself again, and again and again.
But despite her newfound prowess, she still couldn't reliably hit her opponent, and it really was a testament to her opponents skill that she was still keeping up.
Still, Kakashi certainly wasn't bored now.
Then Gai's student stopped, skidding to a halt by a large fuma shuriken lying on the ground. With a single movement it was in her hand, and with another it was flying towards her opponent. Too high and to the right his brain helpfully supplied, just as his breath hitched in his throat. He saw the thrower take one step as their hands blurred, their opponent leaning slightly to dodge the blade...just like they always did. A cloud of smoke, and an unruly mop of blonde hair flashes in his vision.
Flying Thunder God Second Step
He hears cheers as the girl's kunai collides with her opponent's fan in a cloud of sparks, then she twists her body, disarming herself and her opponent. Her body flows, narrowly spinning out of the way the high pressure wave that would have pulped her if had hit. And then her fist connects with the sand genin's face, and then it's all over. The blonde girl slumps backwards, falling onto her discarded fan. But all he can do is stare at the winner of the match. Well, that certainly got a lot more exciting, he says sardonically, for a genin to use the substitution jutsu like that. It shouldn't be possible, especially with how she performed the first half of the match.
Idly, he notes the girl helping her opponent walk to the sidelines and the waiting medics as he pulls down his headband. Then less idly, he notes her collapsing just after she handed off the sand girl. Then he sighed as he noted the medical-nin looking awkwardly between her and the sole stretcher they had remaining. A quick statement to Naruto and Sakura, and then an even quicker Shunshin and he was standing besides the medical-nins. "I can carry her, her jounin-sensei left her in my care for her match."
The two medics glance at each other, and then shrug. He picks up the young girl, eyes immediately going to the blazing image of her a sun currently burning over her headband. Yes, it looks like certainly got more exciting. Then he stopped for a second, mind crashing to a halt as he remembered something.
Wait, how the hell am I going to explain this to Gai?
Oh yes, and [X] Plan: Fast but Less Pretty Tenten won
