[Netsu Midori]

Midori ends the use of the Atsuki Ken technique when she can see that she's punched Hotarubi down into a gormless and limbless pod of a man on the ground, feeling quite sure of herself, perhaps to the level of being overconfident. He truly was as without limbs as he was without gorm. She even scoffs as he mentions that he's a Ninjutsu specialist, and tries to get in one more one-liner at him while she brings her hands together to start forming seals for an actual Ninjutsu technique, another one of the Netsu's favorite techniques.

"Yeah? So am I."

She performs the three handseals necessary for the technique quickly enough, but she's unable to pull forth enough Kesshoton energy before she can see that Hotarubi is pulling in stones for himself, and then, much more dangerously, lots of dirt. Compacted dirt can be at least as hard as stone while still being able to be manipulated even more finely, so perhaps Midori should not have goaded him on so strongly. The pelting at her back is somewhat uncomfortable, but the catsuit ensures that it's not actually painful. She starts to bring her hands forwards to try and blast Hotarubi's coalesced dirt body away, but before she can aim the strike at him, two fists are already coming for her face. Her attempts to dodge with the previous agility she'd displayed earlier does her no favors this time, and she ends up trying to spin away from the strikes only to take them both on her jaw. The attack rattles her skull enough to make her spin straight down, the Kesshoton chakra instantly disappearing as she loses consciousness and all of her focus, thankfully making the green glow go out instead of dangerously returning to her body in an unprocessed form and likely causing it to backfire on her.

She's only down in a crumpled heap for no more than a half a minute before she wakes back up, still in pain from the strike to her jaw, but now groggily sitting back up and glaring up at the higher ranking ninja, rubbing her face where the strike connected. On the bright side, she hadn't cracked a tooth from the force of the attack, but her brain was still a little foggy.

"Uff. Remind me not to try to piss you off next time..."

Mentally, Midori is already thinking that she probably needs to train in more than just the Kesshoton techniques if she wants to be a real menace to her opponents. But for now, she needs to actually sleep, and not just the unrestful sleep of someone that had just been clocked out cold. It takes her a moment for her body to remember how to balance on two legs, but she does so eventually, albeit a bit wobbly before she walks off the sparring platform, heading back towards the fake Takigakure. After all, it was the most direct route back to her own home, where she can ice her wounds and consider her options for training in the future.

[EXIT THREAD]

[Akira]

Try as she might he grit his teeth, not allowing her a single second of joy as he quickly overwhelmed her. When it came to it, Hotarubi had to feel superior and as she fell back he lept forward, and when she would wake up half a second later, she might've wondered why there was dirt and debris in her scalp.

As the woman fell and Hotarubi lept forward, clawlike hands gripped down to her scalp at her hair and from her position with him on top, his other formless hand formed into a hammer that he was going to "put down" in her face but as it neared her body, through his grit teeth and sneer it came to a slow, and then a stop- and he spent some ten seconds staring at her, and then let go.

Standing himself back off and though wiping himself free of dirt as he turned back, though this time his clothes were a complete wreck and he hadn't brought any spares.

Hotarubi would tut. "Yep." And that would be enough for them. "Go rest up. Practice." And that he would quickly leave without anything further to protect his ego- it had clearly been hurt. He couldn't just... even if Ryu said those with power took it. He had nearly done something that the Yamakira would have regret later. This wasn't the Chūnin exams: this was a friendly shinobi.

But, he had achieved what he wanted. It wasn't domination till the very end: but he had practiced.

[End]

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