[hirana kizumi]

After the Raikage’s speech, a massive man of the Fujiyama clan would step forward to take over the nitty-gritty of moving the days’ events along: some of the genin from group C would recognize him as the "trapped” man who had lain in the road beneath his toppled cart the day prior. When the previous fight concluded, he cleared his throat to announce the fourth of the day's fights. "Next up! Kuronmeru Enyo of Kirigakure! Versus! His twin brother, Kuronmeru Shiu of Kirigakure! Do your best to keep track of who's who, folks!” There were two vivid yellow stripes painted onto the hard-packed dirt ground of the arena about twenty meters apart: designated starting zones for each of the genin to stand on. They would be instructed to bow, and then the countdown for the round to start would begin. "Three… …two… …one… Begin!” KURONMERU ENYO VS. KURONMERU SHIU

Kuronmeru Enyo Kuronmeru Shiu

LAIKA OF THQ

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo was surprised to say the very least to hear that he and his brother would be fighting instead of him with someone else. It was a strange turn of events, and he did not know how to feel about it. But they would have to do their best, whatever that meant in this case.

They listened to the Raikage speech, got to watch a few of the fights and finally were announced and given the chance to stand across from each other.

Enyo kept his eyes on his twin, far more interested in their match-up than the crowd that had collected to watch them in the arena. Instead of bowing Enyo fully ignored the gesture and started to approach Shiu when they were less than an arms length away from each other he would thrust his arm out to the other boy expecting Shiu's in return.

He would wait a beat just to insure that they would be bowing to each other at the same time their hands holding onto the other, with intent to press lips against the top of the hand in a formal kiss. It was a strange thing to do but it was an official spar between two Kuronmeru children and this was the law.

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Shiu had, likewise, been surprised to find himself pitted against his twin starting the third round. Having recognized several of the participants in the fights preceding their own and, especially where the obnoxious Kusa-Konoha couple were concerned, Shiu doubted the pairing was coincidence. It seemed a poor choice to him. Sparring with Enyo came as naturally to him as waking up in bed in the morning. The two of them had been training against each other their entire lives. If this was not meant to be a challenge to them, then the only purpose it could serve was to put on a spectacle.

Shiu mirrored his twin’s actions, meeting him in the center of the arena and ignoring the proctor’s solicitation for a standard bow. He detested the forceful thrust of Enyo’s arm, but without thought to that or any of his other reservations, Shiu presented his arm in the same manner. He waited not a second after Enyo to dip his head down and press his lips to the armguard that shielded the back of Enyo’s hand. In doing so, he imparted just a little of his own water, his own blood. The ritual gesture almost soothed him—a small familiarity in an otherwise foreign nation, even if he came back up with the taste of dirt and dust that could only be accounted for by the race up the mountain, and their inability to give themselves a proper wash since the exams had started.

The formality complete, Shiu turned to space himself several paces back, again, a length’s away he normally would take within their compound’s training grounds. All the while, he had begun to telegraph in his mind what he would do to begin their spar before turning.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo too would detach from Shiu and take several paces away from the other boy in an attempt to create space between the two of them. Once they were an adequate distance and they both turned, Enyo would reach down into a pouch to throw some shuriken towards his opponent. This was mostly to try and send Shiu to the left as the shuriken would fly in from the right, a herding maneuver. If it worked - which there was some doubt it would - Enyo would run up on Shiu with his fists balled up in an attempt to punch his twin brother in the face.

Clearly there was no hesitation in terms of violence, but there was a good chance Shiu had some kind of retaliation for all of this. The two of them had been fighting since they were very young, in fact, since they could really walk upright properly they had been throwing fists and weapons at each other.

Enyo felt that it was silly to pit them against each other were it not for the show of it all. He hoped to confuse the audience though, even now when he was up against his twin, in truth, they were up against the world.

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Enyo had made the first move. A change in how things usually started with him.

There was only a fraction of a delay on Shiu’s part. The moment he saw the shuriken coming from his right, he flanked to his left, but cut a diagonal forward to begin closing the vertical distance between the two of them, rather than taking the more passive route of simply dodging to the side. They met, both charging in the other’s direction. Shiu tilted his torso to move his way out of the fist’s direction so that it passed his ear, rather than connecting with his face. He planted his foot the moment he felt close enough to have a chance to get inside Enyo’s guard and, using the momentum he still had, brought his arm up, bent, to aim an elbow strike at his twin brother’s jaw.

Just as Enyo’s offensive had not been infallible, Shiu knew his own had room for a counter. It was enough to demonstrate to any unwitting spectators that the conditioning for violence between the two of them was a mutual one.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo's entry into Shiu's field was thwarted with blunt blocks, followed quickly by a jab with his elbow towards his jaw. There was not a lot of opportunity here to dodge out of the way, but he moved his head off to the side - quickly. Or as quickly as he could muster, and that allowed the elbow to pass by the length of his jaw not quite hitting it squarely but causing some fabric burn, a reddish mark to remind him later that Shiu got just a little too close in his attempt to get to him.

The response was fierce and not particularly stifled by the idea that he was fighting his twin brother. If this was going to show anything, it was going to show just how ruthless the two boys could be, and how ruthless the Kuronmeru could be. It was a name that would be well known around the world if they had any say in it.

So, Enyo reached out to try and use the proximity to grab Shiu by both shoulders with respective hands fingers digging into the fabric that rested upon his frame before using his knee to try and knee Shiu in the stomach.

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Given the proximity, Shiu did not have enough time to pull away from Enyo's grab.

His brother's hands locked down on him, anchoring him in place. Having both seen and engaged in as many spars with Enyo as he had, what came next was not a surprise. Shiu curved his spine, hunched his shoulders to draw his belly back, but it was barely enough to avoid the worst of the blow.

Enyo's knee drove, hard, beneath his ridcage and jabbed at his stomach. It was not vomit-inducing, nor did it knock the air out of him, but it was enough to make his breath stutter and a wave of nausea pass over him. The bruising force against his ribs was more than manageable, but the nausea was disorienting and made his senses swim.

Shiu's lips curled in a sneer. He used his already bent-forward form to shove his weight—arms, hands, shoulders, whatever could most easily reach—against Enyo, and he stepped forward to try to stomp on his brother's foot as he did so. It was a simple push meant to do little more than create some space between them while he recovered. If he was lucky, he may be able to take advantage of Enyo's one leg being off the ground and throw him off balance, but it was unlikely. The upset to his stomach made the reaction delayed, and Enyo very well could have already moved onto his next move.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo smirked when the impact became true and made his brother keel over. It was not so much that he felt good about hitting Shiu, but that he felt good about *hitting*. But the sensation of good did not last very long because Shiu was throwing his entire body weight - not that either of them weighed a whole lot - into Enyo forcing him off balance with it.

Enyo let go of Shiu because he did not want the extra weight to fall with him in the case that he could not catch himself. He kept stumbling backwards one foot after the other until he fell back onto his bum and stared briefly at Shiu with a sneer as he picked himself back up.

He took out a kunai then and moved forward towards Shiu, this time without throwing it he went in to try and literally stab Shiu in the shoulder.

None of this was a particularly explosive battle that was showing off much skill aside from the very basic, but neither of them were going to show their cards this early on. Not in front of a bunch of peasants and not if they could help it.

He wondered if their father would be happy with all of this or not.

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Shiu took the moment where his twin brother had fallen to the ground to recompose himself. He stood still for a moment, willing the nausea to subside. Enyo would allow little more than the shock of it to pass by, however, and in very little time, he had drawn his kunai to attack.

Shiu, seeing this, reflected that action. He dropped his hand to his thigh and tugged the holster open, drawing a kunai of his own. Steel met steel as he brought the flat end of his own kunai to meet the stabbing motion of his brother’s in a block.

The fingers of his non-dominant hand twitched. He felt a compulsion to focus his chakra to his palm, crystallize the air into a weapon he wouldn’t have to reach for and grab. It was what he normally would do in this situation, where he was in close quarters and had a hand free. Shiu forcibly suppressed this urge, knowing what it would mean to do such a thing right in that moment. Instead, he crossed his arm to draw a kunai from his holster into his left hand. Before trying anything else with the second kunai he now held, Shiu pushed against the blade that he had blocked, swinging his right arm out in an attempt to parry the offending kunai and open his brother’s guard.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Their arms shook with pressure against each other when they collided, blade against blade. The metal scrapping and making a horrific noise as it did, it echoed in the arena. They were not providing the most exciting battle, and Enyo knew that. But it was with purpose, and he saw that urge appear in his brother's eyes for a moment. Enyo stared at him with a hint of contempt, as if shouting at him to suppress the need.

Shiu did.

Fortunately and they could fight a little longer. At home this kind of battle would be more intense, it would be with the intent to kill each other. Their father never let it get that bad, but it was what he encouraged in both of his sons. He pressed down harder into the battle, and then Shiu parried and threw his dominant hand aside, it left his guard open. Something their father would not approve of.

The kunai was flung from his fingers and he knew that he had to get on the offensive, he grabbed at another kunai in a holster and would put his arms in an x if Shiu decided to come down on him, hoping that both kunai in his right hand and the hidden blade mechanism would be enough to defend against his twin.

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

That Enyo had lost his grip on his kunai had been a surprise, but not an unwelcome one.

He knew his brother was not defenseless. The both of them had the same fumei ha fit to them. Close quarters always came with the risk of lacerations, but in that moment, as with so many others, Shiu did not care.

With a dance of his fingers, he adjusted the grip on the kunai in his dominant right so that his fist wrapped around its handle and aimed the blade downward. Disregarding anything that Enyo was doing, he brought his fist down with his blade—the kunai was plunging towards his brother's right, though with no specific target. It could aim for his deltoid, his brachilalis, trapezius. In the heat of the moment, all it sought after was flesh.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo had pre-emptively created an x shape with his arms to try and block Shiu's incoming attack, but the incoming attack had a different trajectory from what he had been expecting. It was going towards his side, which meant he only had one thing he could do in this particular situation. He would aggressively lower that x shape down, thrusting his elbows down to collide with Shiu's forearm in an attempt to hit a sensitive part of the arm overall. Well, sensitive and fragile in general. If it made impact in his attempt at defense, it would certainly not break his brother's bones, but set the incoming kunai off of its trajectory entirely before he would put some bend to his knees to jump away from Shiu.

Not back though, rather to the side in the direction opposite of where the kunai had initially been coming in an attempt to really halt the attack entirely.

If all of that succeeded he would lower his arms and let out a puff of air.

"All you got?" The reality was that this was not the end of their physical ability, but how much did either one of them want to play their cards out to the public?

Kuronmeru Shiu

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[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Enyo's crossed arms collided with Shiu's forearm. The speed and impact of his brother's thrust made him acutely aware of their bones knocking against each other, sending a sharp, albeit brief, pain flashing through his senses. He grit his teeth against it, but the force of Enyo's block was enough to create the buffer needed to jump aside and evade.

The muscles in Shiu's legs tensed to give pursuit, but then Enyo opened his mouth for the first time since their spar to deliver one of his haughty taunts. It was enough to give the younger twin pause. Really?

He took a moment to leer at Enyo. There were no shortage of times that his brother would make obnoxious statements just to goad him. For as long as he could remember, it had always been in Enyo's nature to talk too much. The fact he still used these baiting tactics on him, and was willing to do this now, in an arena before hundreds of spectators of all places, especially within the context that they had barely begun their spar and Enyo knew this was not all that he was capable of, felt ridiculous to him. Shiu was miffed by this childish act, and it was plain to see from his expression.

Having stopped already, he let the moment linger, playing the fight up to that point over in his head. Yes, he supposed now was as good a time as any.

Shiu relaxed his posture, letting his arms drop to his sides. Beneath his harsh scowl, he searched Enyo's own expression for understanding. They had done enough. Now they needed to act upon what they had agreed upon before, in preparation for this exact scenario.

Without a word, Shiu raised his hand up over his head in a sign of forfeiture.

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Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo stood stock still, staring back at Shiu, searching the lines of the younger twins face. He wasn't sure what he was searching for, but perhaps some hint beyond the irritated scowl that he had understood what Enyo was trying to hint at. It seemed that there was some sense of understanding because Shiu's posture would grow relaxed in due time and Enyo's would mirror his twins almost immediately as they both seemingly let out an exhale.

Would this be embarrassing? Perhaps some would think of it as such. But the two twins had calculated something, and if their father were here Enyo hoped that he would take a liking to this calculated attempt, this endeavor where both of them were doing the exact same thing.

As Shiu raised his hand, Enyo would mimic at the exact same time, almost as if they were connected physically and not by some twin-like fancy. Their hands raised and they stood there, neither one of them spoke a word but it was a flag to show their simultaneous forfeit to each other.

They were calling it a literal tie, before they could bring themselves to a literal battle conclusion where one was losing or winning, they chose this route.

Kuronmeru Shiu

aeron at thq

[hirana kizumi]

The twins raised their hands in unison, each calling a nonverbal forfeit to the other in the exact same moment. Neither would win, but neither would lose either, and an audible murmur of confusion rippled through the crowd of spectators. "And the winner is… no one! The Kuronmeru brothers end their fight in a perfect tie! Twin synchrony in action, folks!” Boos echoed from those who had hoped for more of a knock-em-down, drag-em-out fight between brothers; cheering and respectful applause from those who seemed to recognize the importance of this fraternal bond and respected either the apparent mind-meld, or the calculation that had created this moment. With neither boy being especially injured, they were allowed to return to the spectator stands without issue, and were able to watch the remainder of the fights before the next part of the round began. [+1 OMINOUS FEELING OF POTENTIAL PATERNAL DISAPPOINTMENT]

LAIKA OF THQ