Kusari no Naruto

Tenth Link

Naruto grinned viciously as he stepped out with his opponent, eyeing her in a way most women would have found uncomfortable. Samui just bore it with a cold, detached expression as her own eyes made searching passes on the much shorter blond. She took in everything she could, from his energetic stance that had him slowly moving from one foot to another, to the way his fingers twitched ever so slightly at her every movement. The feral expression was the last thing on her mind as she absorbed what she could glean from his body language alone; it was frustratingly little.

Every little tick she noticed seemed to vanish as soon as her eyes passed it by, only to be replaced by another. It was like watching some constantly changing, adapting and infuriatingly complex puzzle that refused to conform to any standards. It was like he had taken the Shinobi principle of removing any and all tells from his body, and completely flipped it around, giving himself an almost whimsical number that only served to deceive and confuse. It was frighteningly effective from what Samui could tell, and neither of them had even done anything yet.

Naruto on the other hand forwent any kind of initial assessment, as he had been warned from doing by Tako many times. Pre-conceptions subverted or manipulated expectations to lull opponents into certain manners of fighting. Presenting weak spots where there are none, a preference for a certain side or arm, false nervous habits. No, it had been drilled into Naruto's head to ignore anything that did not expressly come up in a fight. Fights were savage, brutal, often swift and most of all honest; the only truths Naruto could ever believe were with his fists and chains.

Then the arm descended and adrenaline slowed down time for the both of them, elongating that initial split second into a long, drawn-out staring contest. At that moment, the smoke bomb Samui had dropped as soon as the proctor raised her arm hit the ground, enveloping the small clearing in a thick grey smoke. Naruto noted it as the tactic Samui had used in her last fight, creating cover to use swift and lethally precise guerrilla tactics from the trees to whittle down her opponent. He wouldn't allow the same thing to happen to him and in one fluid motion dived into the ground, just in time for a buzzing, electrified sword to come sailing through the spot he had just occupied.

"Hmm, pulling out the big guns just for me?" Naruto asked with that same ferocious grin as Samui retreated back into the safety of the trees with her sword. Naruto quickly showed her just how safe the trees were when chains excitedly burst from his body, grabbed the nearest trunk and proceeded to throw it at her last position. It crashed through four of its brothers before coming to a stop in more pieces than it had left in. A few of the Jounin prospects on the side lines winced, already imagining this fight ending just as brutally as Naruto's last.

"Come on out little Ku-" Naruto was cut off as his chains instinctively pulled him to the floor, causing him to land like some kind of strange insect with its many legs splayed out haphazardly. The blond scowled as he once again saw pale yellow tresses disappear into the undergrowth. She could turn on that Raiton Chakra like her blade had a switch, meaning the hum that gave her away didn't appear until the very last moment. The girl was also annoyingly quiet, despite her swift movements. Naruto was lucky his reflexes were as sharp as they were, or he might have been missing more than a few strands of hair.

"These trees and that lightning Chakra of yours are a pain," Naruto growled as he stood up a little straighter; a somewhat inadvisable move in most cases, however the grin he sported dared someone to test him. The smoke from the initial distraction had cleared by now, giving the spectators a good view as Naruto suddenly retracted his chains towards himself like a curled up spider. Briefly a look of concentration passed over his features before a hazy, almost insubstantial blur surrounded half the length of each chain toward the tips.

"Good thing I know how to deal with both," he muttered, twisting his body into a tight, rapid spin. The chains reacted to the sudden centripetal force by splaying out as wide as they could.