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Kenji was surprised to say the least that Haruko would use shuriken...it was not a weapon he would have expected so far from home, as he had not seen anyone use them since he left. "It would appear that my suspicions were correct...how interesting..." By the time Haruko had fanned the shuriken, his hands were already in a seal, as he formed a few more signs, "Suiton: Mizu no Ai", was whispered from beneath Kenji's mask as water suddenly burst forth from his body into the air as if he was carrying bags of it on his, which all suddenly exploded...

As the shuriken were released towards him, and the water was still floating in the air, Kenji made a few more quick hand seals ending with the last held in front of him as he focused very intently on the incoming attacks..."Suiton: Mizu Shuriken no jutsu" , just as the words finished, the loose water all around him condensed into 6 water shuriken, which immediately began to spin rapidly and shot forward, each one set to collide with one of Haruko's. Each shuriken hit it's mark, as 6 explosions of water could be seen in the area between the two of them, followed by all six of Haruko's shuriken flying off in different directions, becoming lost in the high grass.

"Excellent technique Haruko! I would never have imagined you would use shuriken as well! I knew this would be exciting!" One would normally have expected an immediate counter attacks, but strangely enough, Kenji simply relaxed again, placing his left hand back on his hilt and waiting to see what Haruko would do next. It would almost seem like he was treating it like a game..."Come...let's see what else we have in common..."

When Haruko charged his, Kenji instinctively tightened his grip on his kodachi and pulled it out to act as a guard against the senbon, when his eyes suddenly widened at her disappearance, only to see her re-appear quickly behind him..."She's Fast!" ...Kenji had only a second to react as he drew his hands together forming a quick seal before all of the attacks hit at once, each senbon sinking into it's target firmly as did Haruko's elbow to the stomach. Water suddenly exploded around Haruko as the substitution's image was destroyed, sending water fly all over the area, getting her rather wet.

...a voice was then heard from about 10 feet to the side, as Kenji performed several hand seals and held his fist straight out towards Haruko's chest..."Suiton: Suitama!" Water from the area quickly formed around his arm, covering his fist and forearm before collecting into his fist in a large ball which shot forward at Haruko from close range.

"Again...she's so quick...", Kenji was once again surprised by her quick reactions, as that trick normally would have won him the fight...a smile cracked on his face as he realized that Haruko would be excellent competition compared to the others his age back home. Still recovering from the maneuver, and the emergency use of his Utsusemi, Kenji could only look up as he saw haruko suddenly draw out...an instrument of some kind?

"Well that's unique...", he thought to himself, but was quickly reprimanded for his loss of focus as he just barely saw 3 distortions of air rushing towards him...a high pitched frequency coming along with them directly at him. Without knowing what this was, Kenji quickly drew his Kodachi, ducking under the first sound blade by an inch. As the curious technique past him, he could hear a shrill noise come off the blade which was very distracting, throwing him off balance as he just barely avoided the second blade, which grazed his hair sending a few strands flying. Without any more time, Kenji lifted his kodachi to the third sound blade in an attempt to deflect it, but the kodachi only let out a shrill vibration of noise as the sound wave moved around it, being deflected only ever so slightly away from his head and slicing a large cut into his cheek and on the upper collar of his robe.

Touching the wound almost in disbelief, Kenji saw that he could no longer afford to see the fight as a game...she was going all out. Again a smile came to his face, as he stood up, a droplet of blood trickling down his cheek as he looked up at Haruko..."Well then, I guess its time to get serious!" Immediately moving into a series of hand seals, Kenji pushed chakra into his feet and leapt up into the air, easily reaching Haruko's height as he finished his seal, again, resulting in an explosion of water off of him, just as before. The scene moved almost in slow motion with his speed, his body and the water almost floating in front of her as he clasped his hands together in another set of seals..."Suiton: Deshio no jutsu!", the water quickly surged from all around him as if they were standing on water and a wave was coming up over his back to consume him. As the wavefront came to him however, it opened up to move around him and closed again once it was past, surging directly towards Haruko with great force. As the wavefront closed in on her and hid him, he then prepared his next attack.

As the wave collided with the sound, its momentum was weakened, but it pushed onward as the waves started to trickle over the top of the barrier towards Haruko. Then, suddenly, 3 forms appeared around Haruko, one to the left, another to the right, and the third directly behind her...each of them looking exactly like Kenji. As they appeared (each one coming only a second after the last), they quickly spun around to deliver a whirlwind kick towards her midsection from all sides.

With the wave pushing forward, and the 3 figured of Kenji closing in, it didn't look like there were many places to run.

With the waves moving in with no barrier, the three images colliding, and the sound waves all meeting in one chaotic center, and incredible explosion of water occurred, decimating everything in the area and showering down onto the field, soaking Haruko and the area around her for about 5 feet. Looking up, there didn't seem to be anything left, until a voice could be heard behind her once again...

"Sorry my dear, this might hurt a little..." , with a few quick hand seals already having been prepped, Kenji's outstretched arm and index finger started to pulse with streaks of electricity as it crackled off around them. "Raiton: Rakurai no jutsu", with the incantation finished, the collected lightning jumped off of Kenji's outstretched finger in a bolt about 1 foot long, directly aimed at Haruko's back. With the amount of water she was drenched in, this promised to do some good damage.

"An interesting girl...Sound, Wind, Earth, and so talented with it all. This is what the village needed to see! People and abilities beyond what they know...new ways to deal with the new threats against the forest. if they would only listen that change is not always a bad thing and that the old ways need changing to a new world. Stagnation will ruin them..."

..."speaking of which..." Kenji smiled as he wondered what Haruko was preparing in that dome, but he was not about to just sit around and find out. As in life, on the battlefield, one cannot simply sit around and wait, or feel safe behind walls. Performing a few hand seals, these ones longer then the others due to the delicate nature of the technique, Kenji crouched down and placed his hands to the ground..."Genton: Tsuta Shibari" Kenji's hands merged slowly into the ground, disappearing into the earth up to his wrists, with no disruption to the surface at all..."Too bad I can't really see her...I'll just have to guess..."

Taking his best guess, Kenji picked a spot in the center of the dome for the roots to come up in. it was a shot in the dark, but the odds were she wasn't planning on an attack from below.

***In the Dome***

...the ground around the dome suddenly began to shake as you could feel something moving beneath the earth. After a few seconds, a series of roots and vines shot up out of the ground near the middle of the dome, which would immediately try to entangle anything it was able to get near within a 3-5 foot radius. If the roots found nothing, Kenji would have to pick another spot and have the roots rise up there...

"Gotcha!"...with his hands still melded with the earth, Kenji could in essence feel through the vines and roots what they were experiencing, though he still couldn't see anything. Once he grabbed hold of Haruko's images leg, the rest of the vines and roots were quick to react, several of them shooting up her leg and grabbing tight as it pulled at her, dropping her to the ground where the rest of the roots and vines proceeded to entangle all around her, 2 around around each arm and leg and a final two crisscrossing across her chest and midsection, holding her to the ground..."...time for a hug!"

...at Kenji's command the vines instantly tightened, squeezing on all of the limbs in an attempt to restrain and her to the ground so that he could take his time to get in and finish the fight by forcing a forfeit. To his surprise however, Kenji soon felt the vines slip away as the wood image Haruko had made crumbled under the restraining pressure of the vines. One of the roots tapped at the crumbled piles of vine in an almost comical fashion to see what it had restrained"Shoot...that must have been a decoy, time to keep guessing I suppose. She can't run away forever...but then again, I can't keep this up forever either." Starting to feel some strain on his chakra reserves now, Kenji had one of the roots "look" around the room as a scare tactic before the roots and vines slithered back down into the earth it had erupted from.

All was silent in the dome for a few seconds before the rumbling was felt again, and then on the opposite side of the dome, the roots shot up again, this time much more quickly then before, lashing around to find a target, and when finding none, disappearing again into the ground, only to shoot up again about 10 feet away to the side a second later, repeating the search. "Two misses, fine, let's go to the other side." ...Haruko could then feel another rumbling beneath her feet.

Oki was just watching in aw while eating chips. "oooooooh!!!! so this is how WEAK the village is!" ' these people don't stand a chance againest my granny!' oki thought happily as she tried to sneak away. 'but then... would that mean i'm weak too?' the girl thought in emo/ gloom mode. 'I MUST WORK HARDER!' the girl suddenly remembered she had to be somewhere else and scream "OMFG!!! I TOTTALY FORGOT!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"