Norio had the appearance of someone quite unimpressive. Granted, his age was a major factor; given a few years, the boy would likely overcome his physical shortcomings. But until then, most opponents saw a meek, young form. They made many assumptions and judgments, and the boy didn't really steer them either way. The general consensus was that he was weak, small, inexperienced and naive - probably a genin fresh out of the academy-oven. The boy liked this imagining of him just fine; it helped his purposes.  

Norio was quite used to facing older opponents. While his age wasn't exactly prodigal, most Genin only really hit their stride at about fifteen or sixteen, whereas the youth was already considered to be far above his average peer. Case and point - his previous opponent had been older - but this one did not seem to be so. In fact, though Norio had quite childish looks and his short height generally fooled people into believing him to be even as young as ten, the boy before him had a similarly deceptive face and didn't seem like a giant either. Depending on facial expression, tone of voice and style of hair, his opponent could easily occupy quite a vague age range. Norio wasn't thus sure if the other was younger or not. To some degree it did not matter, but the information was certainly no mere piece of trivia.

While Norio was clothed in his usual outfit - white long-sleeved top, with grey trousers - the other boy was clothed in a sleevless kung fu top, black pants and sneakers, which was not exactly regular shinobi gear, but it was ordinary enough. What Norio did find odd however, was the presence of a baseball cap on the other's head. The cap was tilted as if to cover the eyes and while one might be confused by the purpose behind this, the Hyuuga emblem on the cap gave that little secret away rather all too easily. It seemed quite odd to disclose your lineage so casually; were the Hyuuga not a popular clan in Konoha?

The fact that his opponent did so likely suggested that he was proud of who he was... and while there was usually nothing wrong with that, why would anyone be proud of being a Hyuuga?

Tch.

Norio hated the Hyuuga. It was an obvious contradiction of sorts, since he himself was one... well kinda. Due to the circumstances of his upbringing, the boy hated the idea of associating with his father's family. Living among the Hyuuga and learning their ways was merely a lesser evil, the other (greater) evil being living in an orphanage or on the street. This didn't change the fact that he disliked his father and felt no kinship towards anyone who bore the name he himself refused to represent himself by. Of course he wasn't foolish enough to squander gifts granted to him; even if he hated the Hyuuga, why would he not learn how to master his Byakugan or the Gentle Fist style? Only an idiot would allow his dislike or hatred to get in the way of gaining more power. Indeed learning the Gentle Fist style was quite fundamental. Chakra was after all a mixture of spiritual and physical power; a healthy mind was best found in a healthy body.

It seemed at first glance, that his opponent had the healthier body on his side. Hopefully, Norio's mind would be sufficiently superior to allow him to triumph.

Let The Match Begin!

The instant those words were said, Hiryuu reached for his kit. Norio followed the movement with his keen eyes, while his right hand traveled to his own kit (which was attached to the back of his belt) almost in tandem with his opponent. The boy jumped back (think: long step) the moment Hiryuu's hand resurfaced, hoping to thus confuse him slightly, forcing him to recalculate the use of whatever Hiryuu was planning to grab out of his kit. As it happened, the Hyuuga had grasped three shuriken, which he sent out in quick succession, starting himself to move after the first projectile was thrown. Norio's jump backwards did gave him a few extra precious seconds to react to the dangers.

Having grabbed a kunai out of his kit, the first shuriken, which was aimed at his abdomen, was quite easily deflected, the cling of metal  against metal sounding the missile's failure. The second shuriken, which followed swiftly after the first, was avoided by a movement of the head and his upper body to the left, the projectile missing his cheek narrowly. This left the third shuriken, which was travelling far too low for the boy to reach comfortable with his kunai-wielding hand. The movement of his head had limited him quite heavily in terms of what he could do, so he did the only thing he thought feasible in the amount of time given to him, and threw the kunai with a flick of the wrist, hitting the last shuriken out of the way in the nick of time.

Since the last shuriken had been aimed at his right knee, the boy had involuntarily stepped to the left, when throwing the kunai. Since he had already done so, it seemed only logical to keep moving in that direction, and especially since Hiryuu started advancing (directly towards Norio?) the boy himself broke into a run to the left (Hiryuu's right), his right hand urgently thrust back into the kit.

Combat Log:

It didn't seem like Norio's opponent would make it easy for him to get away. The other genin was seemingly unfazed by the boy's neutralization of his three projectiles. He just kept on running at Norio, and when Norio tried to run to the left, the Hyuuga reached out for his genin kit again. Fortunately Norio already has his right hand inside his own kit, ready to grab the equipment he would need to counter whatever was coming at him.

The Hyuuga had reached for three shuriken, once again and threw them in the boy's direction. Unlike last time however, his opponent's focus seemed to be on stopping him from running away. Two shuriken flew towards where his feet would land, had he kept on going to the left. So Norio stopped abruptly. He was aware that this was the likely intended effect, as his opponent had clearly shown that he was a close-combat fighter and so Norio running away was not ideal for him. Or at least, that was the likely reason for why he was trying to charge the boy. Maybe the reckless charging was a bold bluff, made believable by the presence of the Hyuuga emblem on his cap.

Having stopped abruptly, the boy's right hand resurfaced, holding three shuriken of his own. Norio's eyes hurriedly worked out how to throw his projectiles as to counter the remaining threat, and his hand launched two of his three shuriken with that primary goal in mind. Of course the boy was aware that he needed to fight back and try to hurt the Hyuuga, and to that effect his third shuriken was carefully aimed at the other genin.

As luck had it, one of Norio's shuriken hit the Hyuuga's missile as intended, causing both to safely fall to the ground. The second shuriken designated to that same duty missed, instead flying quite high at the Hyuuga, placing his throat in danger. The third shuriken was flying true to its intended path, headed for the right thigh. Norio hoped in vein that the metal star would cut the artery found there.

Since his run to the left was halted, the boy instead dashed to his right. While the Hyuuga seemed much faster, the need to change direction twice now would hopefully slow him somewhat. Norio's right hand dipped into his kit for the third time, leaving his left ready to answer to any potential hand-to-hand attack.

The Hyuuga's speed could work to the boy's advantage. The two oncoming projectiles would be hard to deal with seeing as the Konoha genin was pretty much charging the white-haired boy at full speed. Stopping abruptly could prove much harder than it had for Norio, who had barely began to move to the left when his attempt was halted.

Combat Log:

Combat Note:

The boy watched as the Hyuuga performed an elaborate twist of his body, elegantly dodging the two shuriken which had been thrown at him at very short range. This twist released chakra in a fashion similar to the Heavenly Spin, though that technique was always performed when one was stationary and it was sustained for multiple spins; this variation was quite interesting. The jump and twist was an odd choice for dealing with the missiles, because rather than use the Hakkeshō Kaiten's defensive power to simply deflect the shuriken and render them harmless, the other genin seemingly used the Kaiten to propel himself forward. Maybe he thought Norio would attempt to attack him while he was mid-air, which was a well-placed fear.

The Hyuuga aimed his chakra-coated bullet-like body so to cut off Norio's escape. Of course, Norio, seeing the spinning body rushing to get in front of him, stopped abruptly yet again (this was likely what his opponent intended, or maybe his opponent hoped that he would collide with the boy). All this stopping was getting annoying. There was no helping it... He would have to put up a physical fight and somehow get away from this charging genin.

The boy quickly got into a fighting stance, his left hand in front of his body, which was lowered, his right emerging from his kit. The veins around his eyes popped out, as his irises became white and his vision evolved and improved exponentially. Norio waited, his body tense and ready, adrenaline pumping, his eyes focused more so than ever, as his kinsman landed having finished his elaborate maneuver. And as he continued to advance towards Norio, his hands raised, two fingers protruded, clearly preparing to use a technique that was most dangerous and would have likely ended the fight here and there had it connected, the white-haired boy finally struck back.

With his left hand shaped like a claw, palm extended towards the Hyuuga, his right hand (also a claw) under the wrist of the left, the boy thrust his left hand forward. Chakra surged from his upper body, exploding from his extended palm, firing out a compressed, violent vacuum-shell, that, like a super-powered, point-blank shotgun round, smashed into the body of the oncoming attacker. His opponent would be thrown back at least five metres, oxygen likely driven out of him, his abdomen taking a beating (though negligible).

But Norio would not rest on laurels. He reverted back quickly to his stance, left hand extended forward, while the right dived back into his kit. While his all-seeing eyes followed the movements of his opponent, the right hand produced two small scrolls, which he dropped to the floor, letting them unroll. Having formed a simple handseal, the two wooden creations suddenly appeared out of the scrolls, accompanied by small explosions of smoke. The boy's eyes were unfazed by the cloud of grey, harmless gas that seemingly blocked his vision.

One creature was a bull or had the looks of one, towering and menacing, standing proudly in front of the boy. The puppet next to it was less impressive, merely an impersonation of a six foot human being (taller than both boys), with eyes, mouth and fake red hair, clad in a long black cloak. Show time!

Combat Log:

Puppets:

Combat Note:

OOC Note:

It felt good to finally drive his opponent back even if, granted, his attempt at doing so had not been as successful as planned. The other genin was surprisingly adaptable, having halted his charge just in time to partially block the Hakke Kūshō. Rather than be propelled backwards hopelessly, the Hyuuga instead slid away, his feet dragging across the earthy ground (the friction burn must have been a bitch), having stopped four metres away. The distance wasn't great, but it would have to do.

Since Norio used the Empty Palm and then instantly went for the scrolls in his kit, his scrolls were out before his opponent stopped sliding. Hence, his puppets were on the field first, appearing approximately when the Hyuuga had taken out scrolls of his own. Interesting. The odds of him being a puppeteer just like Norio were probably one to a million, yet wouldn't that be the greatest coincidence ever? Two Hyuuga puppeteers meeting in such distinct circumstances... such a meeting would had to be owed to fate.

But the boy didn't wait to see what would come out from his kinsman's scrolls, his fingers having unleashed thin, normally invisible to the eye (though Hiryuu's Byakugan would be able to see them) strings made of chakra. These strings attached to his puppets swiftly, five per each puppet, a puppet per each hand respectively. Norio was ready and his opponent wasn't far behind him.

Having unsealed the contents of his scrolls, Norio's Byakugan saw multiple weapons appearing out of the Hyuuga's parchments. Many items had appeared: kunai, senbon, a coiled wire and what were likely smoke bombs. Norio counted 13 items, which were swiftly pocketed, put away for future use.

The Hyuuga then spoke up. He unsheathed a sword as he spoke, meaningless words coming out from his lips. Elders? Betraying the arts? Who cared about any of that. Norio did not respond verbally. Instead his response was in the form of beginning of his counter-attack.

With a small private smile, the youth's fingers began to move, as both his puppets charged forward at top speed towards his opponent. The Bull was leading this charge, the humanoid puppet following closely beside (to the right of the Bull, and about a feet behind it), acting in a supplementary measure. Finally, Norio could do what he did best.

As the Bull covered two metres, his head tilted upward, his mouth opening to reveal what Hiryuu would likely see to be a launcher of sorts. And indeed it was. A subtle tug of a string activated a mechanism that released twelve shuriken flying towards Hiryuu from 2 metres away. Such a large number of shuriken could cover just about all the bases and counter almost any idea for defense or evasion the opponent could think of. Two shuriken would fly slightly to the left, two slightly to the right; four would be aimed at his upper body¹, while another four flew towards his lower body² , rendering ducking or jumping a poor and painful response. Having fired these projectiles, the Bull's head would tilt back down, lowering its (6 inch) horns so as to put them on the level of the Hyuuga's throat.

The Hyuuga would have to act fast and carefully if he didn't want to die right then and there from this projectile-barrage. Of course even if the threat of the shuriken was somehow neutralized, the Bull would be upon the boy almost instantly after the shuriken hit their mark, its huge, heavy body coming in fast, with a lot of momentum behind it. The second puppet was not a step behind, only appearing slower because Norio needed it to be where it was; it was in fact lighter and more agile. Norio felt pretty confident about this strategy, but his eyes were carefully surveying the scene, his fingers ready to redirect his puppets and change strategy if necessary.

¹Aimed at: Head, left pectoral, right pectoral and upper abdomen respectively.
²Aimed at: Left thigh, right thigh, right knee and left hip respectively.

Combat Log:

Edit Note:

Rokudo, Norio has failed to post within 72 hours and is thus disqualified, with Hyuuga, Hiryuu emerging as victor by default.