Two strange ninja are walking down the street from the other direction towards the group. Their forehead protectors have an hourglass shaped etched on, rather than the leaf the locals have. One has a large metal case strapped to her back.

The other bears a thick bundle, heavily swaddled in cloth with a tuft of hair poking out of the top. They pause to observe the antics.

"Hidden Leaf genin? They don't look like much."

Mariko hears that, and pivots to look at him. "Hey, asshole, who're you guys?"

"Mm. Too fresh. Not competitors."

"The hell does that mean? You wanna go?"

"Mariko, stop." She turns to the two Suna - genin? "Competitors... Are you guys here for the chunin exams?" She hadn't known they were being held in Konoha this year, but genin are often left out of the loop.

"At least one of you thinks with more than her fists."

"You could try being polite you know." She's also going to take that as a 'yes'.

"Hey, fight me, and I'll show you how well I think."

"Far be it from me to deny a lady's request." He raises his hands and twiddles his fingers dramatically.

Rian buries her face in her palms.

Mariko frowns, then flares her chakra, carefully breaking the chakra strings connected to her - they're invisible, but she can sense them well enough, and it takes talent to make fine enough chakra strings. "You're good," she says, "but - " and she rapidly runs through the calculations then raises her hand, a spiked chakra chain shooting out from her palm, straight at her enemy.

It's knocked off course by a fist of sand, coming from out of nowhere.

Shit.

"Enough, Kankurou. You waste time here."

The voice comes from a girl in the nearby tree, standing upside down on the bottom of a branch, arms folded across her chest. The sand retreats into a large gourd on her back.

"Elieyha-"

And that chakra is seriously freaky, it's like she has two, and she should've been paying more attention, she didn't feel the - Suna genin? Difficult to believe with that chakra - coming. 

She lowers her palm, senses on high alert. 

Rian glances over at her teammate, notices her wariness, then turns to the new girl. "Elieyha, was it? Good to meet all of you." Less so this Kankurou. "Thanks for breaking up the fight."

"Who are all you guys, anyways?" the third girl demands, hands on her hips. "Foreign ninja aren't supposed to just be wandering around."

Elieyha dissolves into sand and reforms on the ground by the other two ninja.

"As your companion said, we are here for the chunin exams." She pulls out an official registration card, identifying her as Tsubasa, a genin of Sunagakure, allowed into Konoha for the purpose of taking the chunin exams.

"Well, welcome to Konoha," she says wryly. "It'll be interesting to see you all compete."

"So now that you know our names, I believe it's time for you to share yours."

Elieyha is- glaring? at Mariko. Staring intently, anyway. The dark rings around her eyes accentuate the direction of her gaze.

"Fair enough. I'm Uchiha Rian."

"Uzumaki Mariko," she says warily, arms crossed, staring back at Elieyha (and mostly trying to pick apart what's so weird about her chakra).

"And Haruno Sakura."

"And will we be seeing you three in the future?"

"We'll be around. Our sensei hasn't told us yet if we're being entered."

"I hope that you do," she says softly. "I do not want to miss the chance to kill you."

Okay, then. Someone more poorly socialized than Mariko, that's impressive. 

"I think killing's discouraged, most stages," she says, mildly. "Anyways, we have training to get to." As of five seconds ago.

She turns on her heel and walks away.

The other two follow after, at a slight distance.

And Rian drags her teammates back to their usual training ground.

"Mariko. Seriously. Pick your battles more carefully, that could've gone seriously bad."

She frowns. "That Kankurou was pissing me off. But - there's something wrong with that Elieyha. She has two chakra signatures, and the second one is - hungry. I think we should avoid them, especially if we end up in the exams." She'll definitely be keeping the Suna team on her radar regardless.

"Fine by me."

They train for a bit, then their sensei appears. She looks at them calmly, then asks, "Hey team, what's happened?"

Rian explains the encounter with the Suna genin - and what Mariko sensed from Elieyha.

"Staying away from them might be a good idea, yes, though you might not be able to. Anyways, those three sort of preempted my news - the chunin exams are being held in Konoha this time, and I'm nominating you guys. You'll have to apply as a team, but - it's definitely potentially dangerous, and there's no shame in waiting until another time. I'm mostly hoping you'll get a feel for the exams while they're on friendly territory."

The three take the papers, then look at each other, and silently agree to go to Sakura's house to talk it over. (They end up deciding to enter; even if they don't get promoted, which is likely, this'll be a good experience.)

There is not much talking among the Sand team, which is how she prefers it. Others are a distraction. Were it not for the Kazekage's directive, she would be here alone.

He'd like to gather more information, but this is enemy territory. It'd be risky. And if he gave the game away, well. Unfortunate would hardly cover it.

It's a week until the first exam. Elieyha doesn't have any more flare-ups, which is... good. Not something she wants to have to deal with. In a few days, it'll be someone else's problem.

They're at the place of the exam at the appointed time.

The building's a minor maze; none of the stairs go up more than one floor, the room numbers aren't logical, the hallways aren't laid out standardly, and there's no map of the layout. Still, they'll be able to find the stairs up easily enough, especially if they follow some of the Konoha genin who seem to know where they're going.

The room numbers in the floor at the top of the first flight of stairs all show something in the 300s; two shinobi stand in front of their room, taunting a crowd that's gathered outside about how hard it is to be chunin. The team of three Konoha kunoichi they met earlier is trying to surreptitiously slip around the back of the crowd.

Genjutsu. This isn't where she wants to be.

Stairs?

Not immediately obvious from where she's standing.

Then through the crowd to look on the other side, paying the distraction as much attention as it is worth: none.

People very noticeably get out of her way. 

Beyond the hallway is an atrium of some kind, with stairs up a flight. Up those, the third floor (again), this time with no genjutsu. The correct room takes a little bit to find, though the low level of noise coming from it makes the task easier. 

(Sometimes it's nice to be following a person like her around.)

What is inside the room?

Ninja, from various villages, sitting in rows of desks. A few turn to look at the new arrivals, some openly staring, most just glancing. There's a group of nine Leaf genin chatting near the door, all about twelve or thirteen years old - including the three girls they ran into earlier, Rian with a blonde girl half draped over her. Mariko's the only one who turns to look at the Sand team, eyes sharp. 

She pushes past to claim a set of desks by the wall.

He smiles at the young Leaves as they go by.

Mariko scowls back at him, and very gamely doesn't stick her tongue out.

No one contests their claim, and people continue trickling into the room.

An older Leaf genin with grey hair approaches the rookies, strikes up a conversation with them - apparently insults Sound somewhere in there, because the Sound team very quickly picks a fight with him, and are interrupted only by the arrival of the proctors.

The first test is introduced - written, they're to take numbers telling them where to sit. There's ten questions total - although only nine are on the paper - and they can get a total of ten points. They'll lose two points per cheating attempt if caught by the watchers. 

Rian and her team take their seats. She knows Mariko and Sakura have this in the bag - for all that Mariko's a trouble-maker, she's smart, and Sakura's a fairly classic bookworm - but her, on the other hand? Yeah, these questions are way above her level; she doesn't even recognize all the kanji. 

Well, nothing for it. In fact, the person sitting in front of her is going almost suspiciously fast through these... And is very easily copied with her sharingan.

Difficulty of the questions combined with the two point deduction per cheating attempt if caught implies that this is not primarily a test of knowledge, but rather covert intelligence gathering. Kankurou and Tsubasa are both bright enough to grasp that so she won't worry about them. She pulls a thin trickle of sand out, just enough to use a clone jutsu to make it into an eye. This she sends skittering off to spy one on of the few people in the room that seem to be confident in what they're writing.

The answers look approximately correct, so she copies them.

Mm. Very tricky. But not impossible. He can solve these. Elieyha could too, but she's likely to take the easier path and cheat. Tsubasa won't be able to, and her abilities aren't suited for cheating. So his problem is getting answers to her. If he had another paper... But people would definitely notice theirs disappearing. Not much of distractions here, everyone's so focused.

A kunai thuds onto the desk of someone across the aisle from him. "What - what was that?" the genin - Hidden Leaf - protests. 

"You've been caught cheating five times. You, and the two on his team, get out of here."

The three slink out, leaving their papers on their desks - one's behind Kankurou, the one who was caught is on the other side of the room, but one's in the row in front of him. 

That'll do. A small chakra string will yoink the paper off the desk while he absent-mindedly taps his forehead, bringing it underneath his chair. He fumbles his pencil and bends down to retrieve it, snagging the extra sheet at the same time. Placing that one underneath his own, he fills out the questions, leaving an impression on the bottom sheet. When he finishes, he slides it into his lap and quickly folds it into an origami mouse that he puppets over to tap against his sister's leg.

She grabs it up and unfolds the paper. Oh good, she's not being left out to dry.

There's a glint in one of the watcher's eyes, and something's written down, but they don't get thrown out, so.

That's what counts. There's only about twenty minutes left of the time they were allotted.

When there's ten minutes left, the main proctor, Ibiki, stands before the room, and says, "And now, we will begin the tenth question. Before I give you the question, I will go over the additional rules. First, for this tenth question, you must choose whether or not you will take it."

That's not a choice.

Somebody voices exactly that, and Ibiki smiles. "You see, there's more special rules - if you choose not to, your points will be dropped to zero, and both you and your two teammates will fail the test. But if you choose to take the question and answer incorrectly, that person will be unable to enter the chunin selection exams again!"

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" one of the Leaf genin protests. "Plenty of people have taken this exam before!"

Ibiki starts to chuckle, then - "You guys got unlucky. I wasn't the proctor before; this year it's my rules. But I'm giving you an out - just choose not to, and you'll be able to try again next time." He pauses for people to digest that, then continues with, "And now let's begin the tenth question! Those who choose not to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave."

There's a long moment of silence, then someone raises his hands, apologizing to his teammates. Slowly, people start to trickle out.

Rian narrows her eyes. This - feels like another trick, but she can't put her finger on how. Still, she doesn't raise her hand, instead crossing her arms over her chest.

If they backed out, Elieyha would kill them. Not that they were going to.

Eventually the trickle peters out entirely, and after a few minutes have passed with no one raising their hand, Ibiki frowns. "I'll ask you all again - your lives are riding on this decision. This is the last chance to quit."

There's some murmuring, but no one does.

Ibiki smiles. "Good decisions. Now, to the fifty-four remaining... I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

"Wait - what - what about the tenth question?"

"There never was such a thing - or you could say that choice was the tenth question."

Tsubasa lets out a soft breath of relief.

Cheap, pointless tricks. Waste of time. Shouldn't have allowed those who would leave to be here in the first place.

He goes on to explain the purpose of the first nine questions - information gathering under pressure - "But those who cheat poorly fail," as he removes his bandanna, revealing numerous scars, and goes on to explain the importance of accurate information.

Torture is unreliable, but those scars are certainly impressive.

Then - the importance of the tenth question, and deciding whether to go into enemy territory at all, whether to risk yourself for the mission.

He's getting quite into the spiel when the glass on one wall explodes inwards, a black ball of cloth flying through the air, resolving into four kunai thunking into each corner of the back wall, unveiling a banner with a woman in a Konoha headband standing before it. "You guys!" she shouts, "This is no time to be celebrating! I am the examiner for the second test, Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go!"

Perhaps this one will involve fighting.

"Anko, you're early," Ibiki says, then gets into a brief argument with Anko about whether he went too soft on the genin, having left eighteen teams.

"Psh. Doesn't matter. I'll cut them in at least half," Anko says, glancing over the assembled genin. "I'm getting impatient. I'll explain the second test once we're at the training ground. Follow me!"

There is a general shuffling, and she leads them to an enormous fenced in training ground on the outskirts of Konoha, where she proceeds to explain the second test - each team will be given a scroll, Heaven or Earth, and they'll have to obtain both scrolls and then make it to the tower at the center of the forest within five days. She's clearly trying to unnerve them throughout the speech; it's not working on many of the genin who outlasted Ibiki, but it is on some.

Rian flashes her sharingan when Anko shows the map, memorizing it; luckily she's fairly close to the front.

Circular arena, tower in the center, river running like so, forest, cliffs. Simple enough.

Big space. The trick will be finding a team with the right scroll to take.

They're directed to a covered booth to pick up their scrolls, and then to their gates. Mariko spends the time picking apart the chakra signatures of the scrolls - there's subtle differences, she thinks, but they definitely contain seals of some kind. 

Mariko tilts her head, frowning, then - "There's two teams we should be avoiding. That Sand team, and the Grass team - they feel weird, like their chakra's compressed, and I don't like the emotions I was getting off them. The Grass team is only a few gates down... To our left's that Rain team, I think we should go for them. I can't really tell at this distance, but - I think when we get close I'll be able to tell if they have the same type of scroll as us or not. The chakra's a bit different."

"Right. One of the Rain team had covered eyes, we'll need to be on the lookout in case he's a sensor, but that sounds like a solid plan to start."

And then the signal to begin comes, and the gates open. Team Seven rush through, following Mariko's lead.

"Do you have a plan?"

"The Rain team that started at the next gate has the scroll we need. We find them, take their scroll, and go to the tower. And I will kill anyone who gets in the way."

...Right.

"How do you know that?"

"I was watching. Let's go."

They find the Rain team in a clearing.

"How foolish... Challenging us head on like this," the apparent leader says. "You'll just die."

The cork of Elieyha's gourd pops off, and a thick stream of sand swirls out, pooling around her feet.

She stands impassive, arms crossed, facing the other ninja.

Her companions stay behind her.

The Rain shinobi tosses his umbrella in the air so it spins, throwing out numerous large senbon that curve and fly straight for Elieyha.

The sand rises in a curtain around her, shielding her from the needles' impacts. When the rain is exhausted, it collapses back to the ground and the metal falls with it.

She cocks her head. "Finished?"

He jerks in surprise. "Why you brat - "

"Desert Coffin."

The sand rushes forward, wrapping around, stiffening, and completely encasing him.

He shouts something incomprehensible, and his teammates jump back, hands going to their weapons.

With a twist of chakra the sand rises into the air. Elieyha reaches forwards and picks up a fallen umbrella, opening it and resting it against her shoulder.

She smiles, clenching her hand. "Desert Funeral." The binding implodes, showering the area with wet, sticky sand.

One of his teammates screams. The other one shakily takes their scroll out of his bag and places it on the ground. "We'll - we'll give you the scroll! Just let us leave!"

"I'm not finished yet." More sand reaches out and grabs both the remaining Rain ninja. "Don't worry, you won't have time to feel the pain."

Take a moment to savor, then- "Desert Funeral."

One team down. What scroll did they leave behind?

Looks like the heaven scroll.

There's a sound over thataways.

Hopefully nothing. He picks up the scroll.

"Heaven. You were right, Elieyha. Now we can get to the tower."

"No."

"No?"

"There are more yet to kill."

"There'll be other chances. Please, let's go. It's dangerous out here."

Whoops.

"Not for you maybe, but for us. You know how the Leaf likes its teams. If one of us doesn't make it, they might disqualify us all."

"There is no use," she growls, "for someone so unskilled."

"We just want to minimize the chances of it happening. Play it smart."

"Fine. We go. But if anyone else crosses our path, we kill them."

"Wouldn't dream of arguing with that."

To the tower, then.

(And the three Leaf genin hiding in the bushes breathe a sigh of relief once they're gone, and make it to the tower about twenty minutes after them. They have to actually avoid hazards.)

Meanwhile...

"Hey guys? I sense something hinky, there's someone coming our way fast - "

Just as she says that, a massive wall of wind slams into the team, sending them flying. 

Mariko goes flying further than the others - shit, they're separated, and that grass genin isn't hiding anymore...

But for now: there's a giant snake (a summon, she's pretty sure, and there's something she should be remembering about snake summons...) rearing in front of her.

She dodges the first strike, then flicks out her chakra chains, one sliding neatly into the snake's eye. It hisses and veers towards her, mouth open to bite.

And Rian's going to chew her out for this, but Mariko holds her ground, chains lashing straight out and into the roof of the snake's mouth, killing it. She has to fling herself to the side as it crashes where she was standing.

Rian manages to anchor herself and shelters behind a tree. She draws her chokuto and leans out when the wind ends, looking for her teammates. 

There's Sakura!

"Rian!" she calls out, "You're not hurt - "

"Wait," she says. "What's Sen's favorite attack?" (Sen being her most commonly summoned nin-cat.)

"Oh - fireballs." Sakura grimaces, remembering a few times she'd lost a spar to a cat.

She doesn't quite relax, but - 

"Good. We should try and find Mariko, though knowing her she'll find us..."

After she says that, there's a rustling in the bushes, and someone who sure looks like Mariko stumbles out. "Ow! Hey, you guys alright?"

Rian's not nearly as good a sensor as Mariko, but her unique chakra's kind of hard to miss at this distance (and Mariko doesn't quite talk like that) - 

She flings a kunai as fast as she can, only for her opponent to dodge. 

Sakura protests, but - "That's not Mariko."

The interloper drops their transformation to reveal the Grass genin from earlier - the same one Mariko had said to avoid. "Clever. How did you know, Rian?"

"Talent," she says, activating her sharingan and already flashing through the handseals for the summoning technique, but - 

Blood spraying from beside her, Sakura screaming, red sky and black clouds - 

Rian falls to her knees, gasping for breath, shaking. She takes a deep breath, nearly retches, glances over - 

Sakura is frozen and shaking.

"Heh. You can no longer move. Now, let's begin the battle for our scrolls, with our lives on the line - " And he idly throws a brace of kunai at Sakura, as if she's barely even worth the effort it'd take to kill her.

"Fuck you," Rian shouts, moving faster than she ever has to grab her teammate and drag her away. Her fear's already turned to anger, fueling an itching in her eyes. 

"Sakura, get up, we need to fight or run - "

"What - what was that - " she stutters, but shakily follows Rian's directions - only to spot a snake slowly lowering itself beside them.

"Rian - watch out!"

Rian throws herself away from the snake and Sakura - it follows her, good - she finishes the summoning technique, pulling Sen through, only to have to dodge away from her cat. Sen adapts immediately, shooting a fireball at the snake, and while it's distracted Rian darts over and above it, sinking her sword into its eye, then dodging back as its skin cracks and splits.

Their opponent emerges. "Heh. You don't stink of fear like you should, little girl... Prey should try and run away, rather than futilely struggling to fight a predator." And he lunges up the tree, slithering around it like a snake - 

Only to have to dodge as several chakra chains thunk into the bark, bringing him up short.

"Hey, snake freak! Leave my teammates alone!" Mariko shouts, giving Sen an opening to breathe a line of fire at their opponent - who simply weathers the attack with a smirk.

"Good to see you, Mariko."

"Heh. You sure have spirit, little Uzumaki. But - " And he pulls back his sleeve, swiping blood down the seal there, summoning a truly enormous snake beneath him - "I'm afraid I'll have to kill you and take your scroll."

Shit she doesn't have summons anywhere near that size, let alone the chakra for them - 

Well, nothing for it but to improvise. She trades a glance with Mariko.

Who launches herself at the snake - which swats her aside with its tail, then lunges to swallow her.

...Ah, might as well...

She rights herself just in time for the snake's jaws to close around her body, waits a moment, then bursts her chakra chains around her, pulling on her deepest reserves of chakra, slicing the snake's insides into ribbons, then using another chain to catch herself as she falls free, pulling herself up to the branch next to Rian.

Her whisker marks might be thickening slightly. This guy's emotions make it clear he's toying with them, and that pisses her off.

Gross, but effective.

She launches into a shurikenjutsu assault against the Grass-nin, using Sen's occasional fireball as cover for her attacks. Mariko helps, chakra chains and unerring accuracy helping drive their opponent right where they want him - and Rian breathes out fire that shapes itself into a roaring white-hot dragon.

- Which barely phases their enemy. 

"Your eyes are truly something," he says, walking clear of the smoke. His face looks cracked, and they can now see a single golden eye. "But not good enough to defeat me."

His neck elongates, head surging forwards, and Rian can't dodge in time as his fangs sink into her neck.

He's going to get a chakra chain through his neck if she has anything to say about it - 

And he swats her into a tree, hard enough to crack the bark, and she slumps, falling unconscious to the ground below with a small crash.

"My name is Orochimaru. You will be seeking me out for power, Uchiha Rian," he says, and melts into the shadows.

"Fuck you fuck you fuck you," Rian gasps out before her protests fade into screams as the pain mounts. Mercifully, she passes out.

That snaps Sakura out of her terrified daze.

...Okay. Deep breath. She needs to find shelter, needs to get her team safe, how the hell is she supposed to drag both of them - 

(She gets them as far away from the battle as she can, then stashes them beneath an uplifted tree root and sets to making traps. She's strongly starting to regret agreeing to these exams.)

Mariko wakes quickly enough, accelerated healing taking care of her fractured bones. She's still incredibly sore, but - 

She confirms with Sakura what happened, glances at Rian - nearly recoils at the vicious energy roiling off that mark.

Stop. Think. It must be some kind of seal... 

"If you can keep watch, I can keep an eye on this seal, how it's forming might be critical information to removing it," she says softly to Sakura, who nods.

(And when they're attacked, Mariko's eyes flash red - how dare these genin try to take away her teammate - and, well. She's never claimed to be nice, and her red-tinged chakra forms into spiked chains, and Sakura lunges forward with kunai while the three are distracted - )

And Rian stands, gasping, vile chakra racing through her veins - 

She grits her teeth and looks out at the battle, glaring at their bloodied opponents. "Leave. Now," she manages, trying to fight back the rage demanding she dismember them, make them pay for even thinking about hurting her loved ones - 

They do, leaving their scroll behind.

Earth.

Rian half turns. 

"Mariko, do you still have our scroll?"

She nods. "Yeah - you - " That power is somehow worse than sensing Elieyha, because it's her teammate. "Please - calm down."

"Right." Rian takes a breath, another, and - the sheer urge to kill fades. She shudders when it does, stumbling.

"I - "

Right. People who showed up to help Sakura are here. Not the time for melodrama, Rian.

She turns woodenly. "Thank you for the help."

Team Ten nod, and Rian stumbles over to help Ino tend to Lee, until his team arrives to fetch him.

Once they've all gone their separate ways, Rian takes a shuddering breath and turns to her team. 

"So. Straight for the Tower?" 

Nods. "Yeah. Assuming that Orochimaru doesn't come back, I can keep us away from - everyone." Then, quietly - "Rian... I don't think you should be using chakra. That seal... It's got this vile chakra in it, that's trying to spread like poison."

Shiver and neck-rub. "Well, I'll just have to stick to shuriken and kenjutsu until our resident seal master fixes me up," she says, trying and mostly failing for a light tone.

"That seal's beyond anything I've ever seen, but - I'll try."

And to the Tower, successfully avoiding the traps, even when it means going the long way around.

They are thoroughly bedraggled by the time they get there, but luckily they have a few days to rest. They can't receive medical attention until the exam's confirmed over, but other than the goddamned seal on her friend's neck they don't have any major injuries.

Enough teams make it through the exams for a preliminary round, and Team Seven gathers with the others in the arena.

Five teams made it through - that Sound team, the Sand team, Team Kurenai, Team Gai, and their own Team Sesshi. There'll be seven matches, with one person receiving a pass.

Prelims, huh. Wonder who'll get the bye.

Always delays. But a chance to fight, so it evens out.

The first fight called is Aburame Shino versus Zaku, which ends decisively in Shino's favor after a short back-and-forth. Then Hinata against Neji, which goes... Rather horribly (Mariko: is now almost as pissed at Neji as she is at the Sound team).

Next Kankurou and Inuzuka Kiba are called down to the ring.

Inuzuka, huh? The dog people.

"Cute puppy. Does he do tricks?"

"I'll show you tricks!" Kiba says, as Akamaru jumps to the ground. "Heh. Your team's tough; I'm gonna have to step this up." And he takes out two pills, tossing one to his dog, whose fur turns red after he eats it. A pulse of chakra, and the dog's transformed into an exact copy of Kiba, who grows more bestial. 

"Fang over fang!" And they're spinning, moving rapidly to attack Kankurou. 

He tosses the bundle on his back aside when Kiba pulls the pills out, but apparently can't get out of the way fast enough before his body is drilled into the wall.

They skid to a halt, grinning.

"Hah! Take that!"

Kankurou's head lolls awkwardly around like he's got a broken neck, before suddenly snapping back upright.

Six limbs suddenly snap around Kiba, locking him in tight. The Transformation Jutsu fades, revealing an ominous carved wood puppet. Its mouth gapes open, and a razor-sharp blade pokes forth.

The Kiba turns into a much smaller dog, pushing away from the puppet.

It shakes out its limbs with a rolling clatter and lunges at the other Kiba, a knife for each hand.

He throws himself to the side, then sniffs and lunges for the bundle, twisting into another attack.

He's fast. Not fast enough.

Another Body Replacement has them twisting right into the puppet again.

He doesn't abort in time, slamming into the puppet.

Karasu attacks in a flurry. A couple scratches should be enough.

Elieyha would disapprove, but the poison on the blades this time isn't lethal.

He collapses, and the proctor calls the fight in Kankurou's favor. 

He stays down long enough to give the medics a sample of the poison he used before returning to the upper ring.

The medics are grateful.

The next match called is Uzumaki Mariko versus Dosu.

Heh.

She goes down to the arena opposite her opponent, and thinks - she knows he uses sound waves to disorient his enemies, so she needs to keep out of range of that amplifier gauntlet thing, or have him unable to reach it. Simple enough.

When the match starts, she jumps back, and flings a chakra chain at Dosu. He dodges, but the chain curves around behind him, looping to catch him from behind. He barely notices in time, jumping over the chain - which she then dismisses - before rushing at Mariko, gauntlet at the ready.

She ducks in then rolls to avoid him, just out of his range, slamming her open hand on the ground at he then closes, ink spiraling out from her fingers. A chakra pulse, and the ground heaves, exploding. She curls in on herself, closes her eyes and plugs her ears with chakra, and projects a thick chakra shield from her feet, mostly shielding her from the blast, but still sending her flying. She lets herself sail, then flips at the last second to land on a wall and look for her opponent.

He's gone flying too, skidding across the ground, clearly disoriented. Mariko lashes at him with a chakra chain from either side, successfully wrapping around him, and then yanks him towards her, launching herself at him in the same motion. Her fist collides with his jaw, then her knee with his stomach. He stumbles, recovers, and she body flickers behind him. A brief moment of disorientation, but she recovers first, lashing out to slam a kunai hilt into the base of his neck. He collapses, unconscious. 

The match is called in her favor, and medics come to cart Dosu away.

Then - 

Tsubasa versus Tenten.

That wasn't an Earth Release. Exploding tag? He didn't see any paper. Did she apply the seal directly to the ground? Impressive.

Uzumaki Mariko. That name, she will remember.

Here goes.

When the proctor calls the match to start, Tenten jumps back to a good distance, then throws three kunai at Tsubasa, spread out slightly, mostly to test her reflexes.

Easy. She flips out of the way.

Another barrage right at where she's about to land.

She flips her fan over her shoulder with a brief windburst, deflecting both the metal and her trajectory.

A wind user. Great.

...She pretty much has two options. Try to overwhelm her with the Twin Rising Dragons, or close into melee combat. That fan doesn't look too maneuverable...

Mind made up, Tenten takes out two scrolls, unraveling them and jumping at the same time, twisting to throw a arsenal's worth of weapons at her opponent. 

Same trick, same counter, just slightly scaled up. Opening her fan wide, Tsubasa slings a sustained gust at the incoming weaponry, scattering it to fall harmlessly across the floor.

Tenten lands, twitches her fingers, and sends the weaponry flying right back at Tsubasa from all directions.

She sets her fan perpendicular to the ground and spins completely around, creating a widening vortex of high-speed air to push the attack away.

As she stops - 

There's a scuffing sound behind her, like barely muffled footsteps, and a whistling in the air.

-Flicker for distance, turn, mark the target-

"Wind Release: Wind Scythe!"

Tenten drops, trying to slide under the slicing winds.

Tsubasa redirects her attack to slide up and underneath Tenten, pushing her into the air.

She goes flying.

She intensifies the jutsu to the point where it begins to slice like it is a scythe.

That draws blood. 

Tenten rights herself, flickers to the side then back towards Tsubasa, sweeping her staff at her legs.

She slams her fan down into the floor to block, then vaults over to launch a chakra-boosted kick at her opponent's center of mass.

Which connects, slamming Tenten into the floor with a grunt of pain.

Tsubasa grabs her fan again and- "Wind Release: Wind Scythe!"

Tenten's unable to get up in time, and is blown straight into the wall, knocking her head against the brick and slumping, woozy but still conscious, leaving her struggling to get to her feet.

She can fix that. She closes the fan and snaps it to her back, closing with Tenten at a quick run to deliver a series of disabling blows.

And Tenten's down for the count.

The fight's called in Tsubasa's favor.

She jumps back into the stands, next to Kankurou and Elieyha.

"Took you long enough. Shouldn't play with your food."

"Shut up."

Tenten is taken away by medics, and the next match is called: Uchiha Rian versus Kin.

...Rian had been kinda hoping she'd get a pass, but. At least she has abilities that don't rely on chakra. Her best bet will be to end this quickly. 

She goes down to face her opponent in the arena, hand resting lightly on the hilt of her sword. When the match begins, Kin idly tosses two senbon with bells attached. Rian dodges easily, eyes narrowing - she thinks she recognizes the trick, but she doubts Kin's plan is so straightforward. And both the other Sound genin had sound-based attacks...

The bells ring from behind her, and Rian reflexively dodges, risking a glance - Kin's manipulating the bells with nin-wire. Clever.

Kin throws another few senbon - mixed bells and plain - but Rian's already moving, giving the attacks a wide berth, her eyes picking out the slivers of light even without her sharingan. 

Closing like this will be difficult, so...

Rian's hand goes to her pouch, and she jumps, twisting to throw a set of nine kunai at Kin - who dodges, smirking, except two of Rian's kunai had intentionally gone off the mark, one bouncing off the other to fly at her opponent's unprotected back. It sinks in, and Kin curses.

Rian lands, the bells ring again, and wow she's getting dizzy - 

Her eyes narrow. That's not the seal on her neck - Kin must be doing it somehow, which means Rian's window to finish this just got shorter.

She pushes through the sensation of vertigo, mentally blocking out her body's insistent message that the ground is spinning. Only the input from her eyes matters.

Rian lunges forwards, twisting out of the way of yet more senbon, and she's on Kin, drawing her sword and slashing at the other girl in the same motion. Kin dodges, barely, Rian's chokuto catching the front of her vest. Rian shifts her grip on her sword, and presses the attack.

Now that she's close, it's ultimately little contest - the best weapon Kin has is a kunai - and Rian isn't shy about drawing blood (this girl threatened Sakura and works for Orochimaru, and Rian isn't normally bloodthirsty but there's a whisper in the back of her head - ). 

The fight ends when she forces an opening to trip her opponent. Rian's on Kin before the other girl can recover, kunai trapping her hands and the edge of her sword at her neck, cutting in slightly. "I suggest you surrender," Rian says, calmly.

Kin glares, but does so, and Rian gets off her. Kin rips herself free and rubs at her neck, then leaves for medical treatment.

Rian cleans her sword and returns to the watcher's area.

"Strange fight," he remarks.

"Hm?"

"The Konoha girl didn't use any gen- or ninjutsu."

"Or Sharingan," says Elieyha, breaking silence. "So much for the famed Uchiha. Disappointing."

"It is strange."

"Her kenjutsu is excellent, though. Even with the disorientation genjutsu."

She snorts dismissively.

Next - 

Elieyha versus Haruno Sakura, who takes one look at her opponent then shouts, "I concede the match!" before even bothering to go down to the arena.

(Anyone Mariko is wary of is someone Sakura really, really doesn't want to tangle with. Sakura can be headstrong, but she's never been accused of being suicidal.)

What.

Sand seeps out of the gourd past the cork as she strides threateningly over to below where Sakura is standing.

"The preliminaries are over," the proctor declares. He and the gathered Leaf jounin are all watching Elieyha. "Rock Lee gets a bye. Those who are going on to the finals line up in front of me."

It doesn't seem like she heard, or is paying any attention.

The other Sand genin line up by the proctor.

"Elieyha," the proctor says sharply, as the Leaf genin (Neji, Lee, Mariko, Rian, and Shino) go to line up as well. 

Sakura's jounin sensei steps protectively in front of her, glaring down Elieyha.

She bares her teeth and holds the glare for a moment longer before turning on her heel and striding off to where the rest are lined up.

The Hokage comes down and gives another short speech, then they're told to pick out pieces of paper to determine their ordering in the finals.

The finals end up looking like so:

First Tsubasa versus Rock Lee, then Uzumaki Mariko versus Hyuuga Neji, then Kankurou versus Aburame Shino, then lastly Elieyha versus Uchiha Rian.

The one they didn't get too see. He looks... eager.

The bodysuit is a questionable fashion choice.

Chakra-eating beetles. That could be problematic.

Boring.

Lee is definitely very enthusiastic about the finals. And loud. And convinced he'll be facing Neji in the second round. 

(Mariko is staring at Neji and mouthing 'you're going down'.)

They're told the date of the final test - one month from today - and then the Hokage explains the tournament structure, that they'll be tested on more than just ability to win, and finally dismisses them.

A month of nothing. She is beginning to hate Konoha.

The Sand team manages to extricate from the Tower and back to their rooms without incident. The two of them that are not Elieyha are given strict instructions by their jounin to watch her carefully and not let her cause any trouble. Easier said than done. She really wants to kill someone, and he's only got so much chakra with which to run puppets to distract her. He and Tsubasa are not really at a level where they can be proper training partners long-term. He mentions as much to the jounin. A short time later, a collection of very interesting scrolls appears, some bearing the mark of the Leaf or clans belonging thereto. He leaves them where Elieyha can find them.

With the time this buys him, he can prepare for his match. Researching and preparing insecticides mostly, both gaseous and contact varieties. There's also the possibility that the bugs will latch onto his chakra strings, so he practices quickly breaking and reforming them.

What Tsubasa needs first is information. She doesn't know anything about who her opponent is or how he fights.

There are a lot of training grounds in the woods. She ghosts through them, looking for Rock Lee.

Who can be found rather loudly attacking a wooden training post. There's a noticeable dent in the side, and he's counting his strikes out loud - "One hundred forty one, one hundred forty two, one hundred forty three - "

Impressive taijutsu.

After he finishes, he stretches, then declares, "Yosh! I will now run ten laps around the village! If I fail, I will do two hundred push-ups with only one hand!" And then he's off.

...Okay. Does he actually do that?

Apparently, yes.

Seriously?

If he's practicing this hard, hand-to-hand is probably the only thing he can do. That's not great. She's competent but clearly not on this guy's level. She might have to borrow some tricks from Kankurou. Poisoned senbon, maybe. She's got a month to brush up.

She watches the rest of the day to make sure he doesn't do anything else.

He spends the afternoon sparring with his similarly-clad sensei. He's also, apparently, fast, and doesn't seem to do much other than train. 

This matchup is looking worse all the time.

...But she's getting the beginnings of a strategy.

The full moon is coming up. It's getting harder to keep Shukaku contained. She's restless, doesn't sleep well even by her standards. The girl who surrendered rather than fight keeps troubling her mind. Makes her angry. The others are watching, but they're distracted with their own plans. It's not that hard to slip away.

She goes looking for Haruno Sakura.

Team Seven goes out for a celebratory dinner after leaving the Forest of Death, then splits up afterwards, Rian going to train with her sister, Mariko with their sensei, and Sakura floating between her two teammates. She helps Mariko work on her seals, practices the body flicker and spars with Rian.

About a week after the preliminaries, Sakura's walking home from the Uchiha district after a long day of training, so late that it's pretty much nighttime. The path back cuts through one of Konoha's many parks, which is basically deserted this time of day.

But not entirely.

A gust of sand blows across the path and forms into Elieyha's shape. "You. Owe me a fight."

"I don't think so." And she body flickers away, back towards the Uchiha compound.

She's faster. She lands in front of Sakura, sand whipping out to grab ankles.

"Slow. Weak. Stop running."

"Eep!" She flickers again, up into the trees - 

- And glowing chains race at Elieyha as Mariko blurs into sight, eyes narrowed. "Hey! Leave my teammate alone!"

A wall of sand intercepts them. She turns her head to look at the interloper.

"This is no concern of yours. Depart."

"It became my concern when you decided to pick a fight with my friend."

She shakes her head dismissively. "Your time is later."

She turns away, moves after Sakura.

A chain arcing to wrap around her.

Blocked by sand again, a stiffening shell. Elieyha whirls around, a snarl painted across her face. "Now, then."

A larger stream of sand erupts from the gourd, coursing fiercely at Mariko.

Holding all the equations in her head at the same time is hard, but - 

Chains thud into the ground around her, a shimmering golden shield spreading between them.

The sand hammers down repeatedly.

It doesn't do particularly much.

Mariko flares her chakra, and chains burst from the ground at Elieyha's feet.

She jumps and avoids them, barely. Her sand retreats to form a pillow underneath her, supporting her in midair.

She draws out a thin, dense strand of sand and uses it to strike at the chains, power concentrated to a point.

She can certainly tangle the chains up, and Mariko dismisses any that get damaged, but new chains burst from her shield. There's very clearly an intent to bind Elieyha within them, from the way the chains move.

She is the cage, not the caged, and she will not be caught.

Her attacks grow fiercer. "Die," she snarls.

"Fuck you, we never did anything to you - " But her attacks are faltering, clearly chakra-intensive.

Hers do not. Shukaku is near, which is her grace and her curse, but she is almost (close, so close) past the point of caring about that.

"You exist."

A flicker - 

And a woman dressed in dark mission clothes, an Uchiha clan symbol on either shoulder, is suddenly between the two fighters. 

"That's enough of that," she says, coldly.

All she sees is someone else in the way, this one without a barrier-

She's faster than Elieyha's sand, and there's a knife at her throat before she can even blink, unnaturally keen edge pushing away the inner sand shield. Her eyes are crimson, and there's a pressure pushing at Elieyha's mind - directly at Shukaku's power.

"Look, little genin, it would be rather inconvenient if my sister had to get new teammates at this point. I suggest you run along, and I'll pretend I didn't see you breaking exam rules."

What.

Her eyes flicker, and she blinks, She stumbles back a step.

Then clenches her fists.

"They do not matter. You waste yourself to fight for them."

"They matter to my sister, and their existence strengthens this village."

She holds for a few seconds more, then backs off into the darkness.

"Well, that was exciting," she comments once Elieyha's out of sight and Mariko's confirmed she's leaving. "You two okay?"

They nod, and Sakura says, "Yeah, thanks for showing up. She just - appeared and said I owed her a fight..."

"You'll probably want to stick near a jounin until she leaves. Me, Sesshi, or that Jiraiya, most likely. I can walk you home after training, or you can stay with us, if you'd like."

Shudder. "I'd rather she not show up at my house, so if it wouldn't be an imposition, I'd like to stay over..."

"Alright. We'll go get your things, then." And, turning to Mariko, "You did well, defending your teammate, but you should have gotten someone higher ranked, rather than running off on your own."

"I - sensed that Elieyha approaching Sakura, and just... reacted. I'll try to grab someone if it happens again, though." And train like mad, so she doesn't lose the next fight.

"Good. ...Actually, why don't you stay with us, too. It'll be team bonding, or something." She knows most people consider than important, and 'left one team member out in the cold' is a bad look.

"...Sure. You're closer to the training ground anyways..."

And they go to get their stuff, then retreat to the Uchiha house for the night.

The strong fight and the weak die. That is the order of the world. To fight for others attaches weakness. There is no worth outside the self. She will kill the other Uchiha, and the lesson will be seen.

She's touchier than normal over the next few weeks, the hunger deferred panting inside. Her companions step lightly.

Team Seven steps up their training after the encounter with Elieyha.

Mariko runs into the Toad Sannin of all people, and man did she expect differently from him - she wants to bug him into teaching her more sealing, but his personality annoys the crap out of her, especially the way he refuses to just tell her anything. She does grit her teeth and put up with some of it, especially once he starts teaching her to summon the Nine Tails' chakra actually on purpose - which will be a major asset in battle, though she doesn't like the haze it settles over her mind. The Nine Tails himself is almost charming, in a very rude way, though he laughs when she snarls back at him. Figures she'd have an ass sealed in her head.

Rian's fairly open about the new technique she's learning with her sister, so, fine, whatever, Mariko tells her about the modifications she's been making to her chains. And the ridiculous number of explosive tags she wheedled Sakura into helping her make. (She can't safely close with the Hyuuga, and he'll probably be able to defend better against her chains than most, so clearly the solution is explosives. Not to mention, she'll either be facing Rian or Elieyha in the final round, and explosives are another great solution, though Rian's had the ridiculous idea of trying to choreograph their fight or something to show off.)

A month is both too long and too short. She wants more time to work on her jutsu, but if she almost trips over Elieyha one more time she is going to have a heart attack. Her brother is confident, but he was always good at keeping his shell up. They practice together some, and he has some advice about misdirection.

She makes sure her pouch is well-stocked before the day of the exam.

The day of, they're instructed to line up along the arena floor. It's grassy and large, with a few bushes and short trees dotting it. The proctor is a different person than before, oddly enough. 

The proctor rehashes the match ups, possibly for the benefit of the crowd watching, then the rules - fight until death or forfeit, unless he determines that the fight is over and steps in. 

"Now, the first match - Uzumaki Mariko, Hyuuga Neji. Those two stay here, while the rest of you go to the waiting room."

The Sand group goes upstairs with the others to observe.

Mariko stands to face Neji, and the proctor calls a start to the fight. 

"This will be fun, seeing you fall apart as you discover your reality..." Neji taunts, sliding into an open position. 

"Pounding your face into the dirt's what'll be fun," Mariko says, and idly throws a brace of shuriken towards him - all of which he easily knocks off course.

"With these eyes... I can easily tell that everything is decided at a person's birth. Talent especially. And losers like you have none."

She narrows her eyes, says, "If you really think that talent is everything, you're going to get a harsh wake-up call in the real world, pretty boy," then chains shoot from her back, arcing towards him. He knocks some off course, manages to dodge a few, and lunges for Mariko - and at least twenty chains burst from the ground surrounding him. His eyes narrow, and he twists, a visible sheen of chakra surrounding his body as he spins, destroying all the chains.

Before Mariko can summon more, he shifts into another ready position and charges her, striking at her chakra points. She stumbles back, coughs, then straightens.

"You shouldn't be standing," Neji says, then - "Ah. Clever. You shielded yourself with your chakra... But for someone like you, there's no point in fighting." 

She scowls, runs through possibilities in her head - she doesn't want to use the explosives early, doesn't think he'll fall for the same trick that Sound nin did, but... "Hey, asshole, guess what - I was saving this for my fight against Rian, but I you get a special treat..."

And she summons her chakra - and summons more, and more, until it's visible like fire around her, first blue then shading into red, and there's the feeling of a predator...

And her closed chakra points are blown wide open. 

Chains erupt from everywhere, more than can be quickly counted, slamming into Neji. He spins, destroying some, but there's more, and when he tries to attack Mariko she's summoned a shimmering golden barrier around herself (chakra intensive, but she has so much now). She continues the barrage, not seeming tired at all, until he's exhausted enough that the next chain catches him around the wrist - and that hand becomes incapable of channeling chakra. He struggles, she yanks at him, and binds him in yet more chains, nullifying his chakra entirely.

Mariko dismisses the barrier, draws a kunai, then walks up to place it against his neck. "I suggest you surrender," she says, coldly. Her chakra's still shaded red, and she wants to slit his throat, but also knows that thought isn't her, so. Intimidation it is.

He glares at her, struggles against his bonds, but finally surrenders.

And the match is called in her favor, to first stunned silence and then cheers from the crowd. 

Mariko pockets her kunai, releases her chains, and walks to the exam room.

Tsubasa and Lee are called down to fight. 

Elieyha twitches when the red chakra comes out.

Tsubasa goes down to the arena.

Lee jumps down, and when the proctor calls a start, says, "Yosh! I am excited for this match, but know I will win this!"

She jumps back for distance, and blasts a wide-angle Wind Scythe at him.

He vanishes, running behind her, then moving to attack her from behind.

She spins with her fan in one hand, the other launching wire-trailing senbon to be propelled by the gust.

He jumps well over it, bearing quickly down on her from above.

She evades backwards, sending more senbon to set crossing wires.

He lands, and moves at her faster than she can see, dodging her senbon.

She does another spinning burst.

It doesn't connect.

He backs up to the top of the wall, then punches the air. "Yosh! You are a most worthy opponent, to force me to take these off!" And he bends down, fiddling with something around his ankles - then tosses two sets of weights to the ground, making a small crater.

He's suddenly much faster as he presses his attack.

Fuckfuckfuck- She takes a breath and holds it, drops a poison smoke bomb, launches upwards with a wind blast to disperse it-

She moves more quickly than she ever has, stretching all the wire she has across the arena in an effort to stop him moving, covering her stops with smoke as best she can.

That slows him down.

Not enough; he's moving quickly enough that the smoke flows around him, and he manages to break some of the nin-wire. 

When he's slow enough to see, she tries the wide-angle blasts again.

A few hit, some knocking him back, some drawing blood.

He gets clear of the nin-wire, bouncing off he wall to lunge at her.

Slam the fan down to block-

He lands on top of it.

She punches up, poisoned needle half-concealed in her fist.

He dodges, and swings around, aiming a roundhouse kick at her head.

She raises her arms to block it, but lets the impact launch her back into the arena wall.

She peels herself off. "I forfeit."

"That was a good fight!" Lee declares, going to fetch his weights. 

The proctor next calls down Kankurou and Aburame Shino.

She nods at her brother, passing him on the stairs.

He winks.

Shino stands opposite Kankurou silently, not bothering to chatter.

One of those types. Okay.

Numerous beetles pour out of Shino's sleeves, the cloud spreading out then moving to converge on Kankurou's position.

He spins Karasu out of its wrappings and launches it up and over the beetles towards Shino, abandoning his own position at the same time.

The beetles curve to follow him, and Shino moves slightly out of the way of Karasu. Several beetles home in on the chakra strings connecting Kankurou to the puppet.

He keeps moving, lets the beetles land on the strings to get an idea of their drain rate.

These ones seem to be fairly fast; they eat through the chakra strings in a few seconds.

Good thing he practiced dropping and reforming them quickly.

Karasu sprays a stream of poison gas at Shino.

Who turns into a person-shaped mass of bugs that quickly disperse. A few bugs that're caught drop dead.

It's unclear where the real Shino is.

That's a problem. Is there any sort of center to the bugs' movement?

Nope. 

The swarm's focusing mostly on him, though there's a good bit of fowling up Karasu's strings going on.

A few black dots, easy to miss, are crawling rapidly across the ground, easier to avoid but harder to notice. In fact, the swarm might be trying to herd him towards them.

Isn't that interesting. Smells an awful lot like a trap.

He maneuvers Karasu to a mostly-free spot, and does a quick transform-and-replacement under cover of snapping his strings to shake off some bugs. And then the puppet can be the one to take the trap.

The bugs notice the switch, though Karasu does end up with a few more passengers.

Tsk. He'll vent some gas to kill them.

That works for most - 

But not all, and the ones that don't drop dead from the poison seem to be multiplying.

That's a problem. He needs to find the controller. The arena's not that big, right?

Not very.

And those trees are the best bet... Okay. He can run a search pattern, looking for places the insects respond more strongly as well as normal tracking signs. And rely more on Replacement to get out of trouble than poison.

The insects don't seem to be responding to any areas more strongly than others. There's a bit of disturbed earth over there, but not much else in terms of signs.

And if Karasu walks over it?

Nothing.

Not a trap. Earth Walking? Explains why he can't be found. Expensive jutsu in terms of chakra, though. He might be able to outlast up here, wait for him to surface.

In the meantime, he should work on reducing the number of bugs around. Skipping the poison, he has Karasu roll to crush them.

The bugs are mostly able to get around that.

There's still a lot of them, and they're moving now so that it's hard to dodge out of the way.

He uses all of the considerable stealth skills he has, buying more time.

Stealth doesn't really work against the bugs, and they're smart about circling around him and sneaking from behind.

Shame to go without even seeing his opponent. He slips a rebreather on, and drops one of his other poison bombs.

That one's more effective than the last.

The clouds of bugs are definitely thinning.

Good. Any sign of him surfacing? He's a fresh genin, can't have that much chakra.

The fight drags on for a bit more, but - 

Shino does eventually surface, saying "I forfeit. Why? I am low on chakra, and would not have enough for the next fight." He inclines his head towards Kankurou, then walks towards the waiting room.

Sure, that's one way to do it. He wraps Karasu back up and heads upstairs.

"You won."

"You don't have to sound so surprised about it."

And then: 

Uchiha Rian versus Elieyha.

Rian goes down to the arena, hand resting lightly on the hilt of her sword.

Elieyha swirls down a gust of sand, more already streaming out her gourd and piling on the ground.

As soon as the proctor calls the exam to start, Rian's body flickering back and up onto the wall, where she runs through a sequence of several handsigns - and breathes out a fireball that fills the entire arena, hot enough to turn the trees to ash.

It's suddenly very, very, very hot where her technique strikes - easily in the thousands of degrees, enough to start to melt the outside edges of the sand. The fire is hungry, rapidly stealing the area's oxygen.

(The proctor body flickers clear.)

There's no sign of Elieyha when the fireball clears, just a patch of sand where she was standing that slowly grows wider.

Can she sense her anywhere?

Somewhere behind that enormous mass of sand that just pulled out of the ground and started flinging pieces of itself at her, probably.

...She's going to have to blow most of her chakra on this fight, isn't she.

She body flickers, then flickers again, and again, and again, focusing, until there's several clones of her on the walls, each one apparently real.

The column explodes in a razor-edge disk-

-"Agh!" and Elieyha collapses to her knees, clutching her head.

(more of them taste the blood drink of it see them fall before me i am the only)

"Shut up and let me fight," she snarls.

Okay then! She darts in a few times to test the sand's reaction; any attacks pass harmlessly through the clones as she moves away, but they're able to hit briefly before she flickers to the next one.

Is Elieyha making anything close to eye contact with any of her clones?

Still holding her head, pulling the sand back in.

She'll throw some explosive note-tagged kunai towards Elieyha, mostly to try and encourage her to look up.

The sand bats them away without her noticing.

(crack the bones suck the marrow)

"We'll get to that faster if you stop distracting me." She grunts in pain.

She'll try an auditory illusion, then, a high-pitched keening that only Elieyha can hear, which should cause some vertigo.

She hasn't stood up yet, but the next wave of attacks goes wide.

Good. 

She continues testing the sand, tightening the genjutsu and adding layers - footsteps that she isn't making, the whistle of a kunai where there isn't one...

Elieyha attacks at the false signals, but there's no defense where the threat is illusionary.

Interesting. Combined with Mariko sensing two chakra signatures from her...

How quick is the sand? Could she get past it with a body flicker?

Maybe.

Elieyha begins lashing out blindly, long whips of sand streaking across the arena.

Yeah she's gonna have to risk it.

She adds a few auditory illusions to distract whatever's controlling the sand, tries to cancel out the sound of her own footprints, then pours as much speed as she can, making a few feints with the clones, then darts in (prepared to abort if the sand reacts to her in time), slamming an extremely high powered explosive tag on Elieyha's clothes, then goes to flicker away, activating the tag at the same time.

The sand catches her arm before she can pull away.

Elieyha looks down in shock.

Her after image clones fade.

Rian's gonna get caught in the side by the explosion, then. She makes a shield of chakra as best she can, tries to illusion Elieyha into thinking she's over there - 

Hopefully enough so that the sand releases her.

The area around the tag cracks and falls off. The sand holding Rian rushes in to envelop it as Elieyha jumps backwards, trips because of the genjutsu influence-

And the tag goes off, easily ten times the strength of a normal explosive tag (Mariko's idea of 'safeties' is 'what are those'). Rian tries to flicker away, but unless the sand stops the explosion, she's going to catch a good bit of it. 

There wasn't enough of sand to completely negate it. But most of it was coming from Rian's side, so she's better off than Elieyha.

She knows enough first aid medical techniques to address what's immediately concerning. She can handle the rest after the fight.

How badly injured is her opponent?

Flat on her back. Jagged cracks spiderweb across her body. Her skin flakes, then dissolves in a rush of sand. Beneath, it is the angry red of a burn.

(kill them hurt them make them bleed for what they have done)

Yeah. The hell with this. She sits up, gathers all the sand into a enclosing sphere around her body, and starts running through handseals.

Annnd that's concerning!

Rian continues healing herself, poised to flicker if Elieyha attacks again.

(This fight is not going her way).

No immediate moves are forthcoming.

This is bad. If Elieyha stays like that-

-she won't be able to see the signal. Probably isn't even thinking about the signal. This is not good.

Okay. So her options are 'more fire' - probably won't work - 'more explosives' - again, she doesn't have that many  - somehow disrupt the ground under her - and Rian is strongly regretting being neither lightning nor earth natured.

...She hasn't tried auxiliary sensory genjutsu much. She carefully tries to make Elieyha feel like the air touching her skin is suddenly several thousand degrees. It's harder, not having line of sight, but she already has a hook with her auditory illusions...

There is an unearthly shriek and an enormous bestial hand reaches out from inside to swipe at her.

Ahhhh yeah that's not going the way she planned.

She flickers out of the way.

The hand retreats, and there's a flash of- something, in the hole it leaves.

...Is the something willing to make eye contact?

For an instant, it's focused on her.

And she pushes as hard as she can, trying to reach into it and - do the mental equivalent of grabbing it by the scruff of its neck (and she's damn sure now it's a bijuu, and can't the sharingan do something about that - )

For the barest eyeblink it seems to be working-

-and then a huge weight pushes back-

And the globe explodes, revealing Elieyha standing inside, sand sloughing off her face and one arm.

Okay then, not effective on its own.

Her hand goes to her kunai pouch, but then - 

Feathers start to fall over the entire arena, and there's a soothing whispering in the back of her mind...

Rian shakes her head. 'Genjutsu? But how - '

And then the Kage box explodes.

She collapses again.

That's the signal. He pops a pair of soldier pills out of a hidden pocket, flips one to Tsubasa.

She takes it, cracks it between her teeth, energy rushing through her. The two of them flip down to where Elieyha is moaning on the arena floor.

"Doesn't look good."

"Yeah."

Their jounin escort lands beside them.

"What's going on? Get her up, she's the linchpin to this plan."

"Her chakra's almost completely exhausted. If we gave her a pill now-"

He grunts. "Fine. We need her pointed at the enemy. You two, take her out of here and see to her recovery. Then we will proceed with the plan."

"Right." Between the two of them, they lift her up, and flee out of the arena.

Mariko jumps down, followed after a few seconds by Lee and Shino.

"What's going on?" Rian asks the proctor, who's staring at the jounin.

"Looks like an invasion. You four - go after that Elieyha, stop whatever they're planning. Consider this an A-rank mission, under Uchiha Rian. I'll cover your leaving."

Rian nods, sharply, and motions to the other three. "Mariko, you've got a fix on their location?"