Time : The sun is just preparing to fall behind the hills.
Setting : Kanotan Falls - The forest of life : the Majestic cliff, easily eighty feet high, grassy and pristine at the top. A waterfall tumbles off this rocky cliff and down into a large lake. The lake is around ninety meters in diameter.
Beyond the lake, a green, grassy field spotted with gigantic trees. It is said that the trees here are as old as the village Hidden in the leaves.

Contestants :

Inuzuka Hykuu [ http://z13.invisionfree.com/ChroniclesA ... owtopic=26 ]
Tsukikagayaki Jethro [ http://z15.invisionfree.com/KonohaChron ... wtopic=431 ]

Opening post goes to the Inuzuka.

Begin!
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The sun over head drifted in silence toward the shimmering horizon. It's warmth kept company by the cool breeze of the coming nightfall. The moon could be vaguely seen on the opposite horizon. This place possessed such beauty, such grace. The mission at hand was one that Hykuu regretted had to take place in such a sacred and majestic place.

"There is a man in the forest of life..." Hykuu remembered the words of the Ice Lord. "Find him... kill him..." Hykuu's heart dropped. Even for the love of his village, he had no desire to kill a man in this beautiful place. There was no honor in desecrating the majesty of this beautiful scene.

Hykuu found himself rustling for a moment within the trees as he made his way toward the edge of the cliff. It seemed to fall into a small valley, lined with magnificent trees and shimmering mist. "Ninja Art Of Beast Mimicry..." Hykuu sighed to himself as the chakra within him pooled beneath his feet, cushioning his steps and propelling him onward with no noise whatsoever. "....Silent Predator".. His leaps and bounds would soon bring him to the ledge of a cliff, in search of his prey.

The beauty of the surrounding scenery was lost on Jethro, his main priority lying in reuniting with his kin, not looking at the pretty water or the pretty trees...

"Damn nature... getting in my way..." Jethro mumbled, more upset that he'd ran out of liquor last night than the obstacles mother nature had provided him, but anything would put him in an ill temper when he was without his specially blended brews... he'd make more, but there wasn't a bathtub for miles as far as he knew. He sighed as he made hand seals, performing a rather weak Strong Current jutsu, his chakra making alcohol that he'd normally spray out of his mouth, but instead he swallowed it, the taste being awful, but it stopped his feelings of withdrawal for now.

"Now then... Did Mikio say he'd be waiting east or west of the lake..." Jethro said, pondering this as he approached the lake shore, walking onto it and applying chakra to his feet out of habit, still lost in thought over his brother's vague directions.

Hykuu couldn't believe his eyes. Here he'd just meant to pass through the area, yet as he mounted the cliff.. he found that his prey was walking toward the center of the lake in front of him. From the top of the falls, Hykuu's hands slowly kneaded themselves together as he began to draw in a slow, deep breath.

Ushi, Tora, Uma, I, Ne, Tori

As Hykuu leaned backwards, locking his prey in his line of vision, the words ran through his mind. "Fire style..." he leaned forward, releasing his breath as a pillar of flames that soon turned into a massive fireball falling toward the man on the lake. "Fireball Jutsu!!!"

As the flames billowed down, easily large enough to cover the entire surface of the lake in flames if unattended, Hykuu's fingers began to lace themselves back together once more...

U, Uma, Mi, Saru, Tatsu, Tora....

Jethro was stirred from his thoughts by the sound of fire, which is an odd sound to hear when standing in the middle of a lake. He looked up to see a giant fireball hurtling towards him, and instinctively made hand seals.

"Water Style: Strong Current" He said, spraying alcohol from his mouth, the alcohol exploding when it reached the fireball, eliminating the momentum the jutsu had, causing embers instead to cascade harmlessly down to the water below, extinguished before they did any harm.

"Alright you little shit, the hell's your problem?" Jethro asked, looking up at where the fireball had come from.

The explosion shocked Hykuu for a moment, but it was just what he needed. With the embers and ash floating about in the air in company with the steam of the water being heated by the explosion, it was likely the prey hadn't seen him lacing together hand seals until it was far too late...

.....Tatsu, Saru, Uma, Tori, Hitsuji

"Ice Style... Secret Ninjutsu!" growled the predator of the land of snow as he allowed his right hand to fall in front of him. The cold, blue chakra of his body rapidly pooling into the hand. After only a moment, it was as though he were holding a blue flame, sparking with an electrostatic discharge of sorts. He grabbed his wrist with his left hand, trying to keep the technique stable until he was ready to launch it.

He leaped from the cliff then, cocking back his right hand as he flew through the air, toward his prey. The steaming embers in the air turned to black snow as he flew through them, this technique was so cold, it seemed to freeze even the flaming embers that lingered in the air.

He slung his hand toward the foe's body, no doubt even from this distance he was feeling the frozen sting of this technique.. The technique that is said to trap one's soul in a pit of frozen agony for all eternity.... "....ITERU!!!"

The haze prevented Jethro from seeing his opponent... hell, all he could really see was the embers cascading down, and the grey mist the explosion had caused... until all of a sudden everything started getting really cold, with Jethro making out a ball of lightning in the distance, though this was bad news as he was standing atop a large body of water... the fact that this lightning was ice cold made it all the more ominous. He leaped backwards into the air, quickly making hand seals as he looked up, catching a glimpse of a figure striking where Jethro had been moments ago.

"Earth Style: Rising Plateau" He said, a random spike of earth jutting out of the lake under Jethro's feet, allowing him to now stand without being connected to the water, though the platform was barely big enough for that. As he landed, he made more hand seals...

As Hykuu's form slammed into the water's surface, to his surprise the enemy he'd been striking at was no longer there. With a loud, heavy splash as the water froze beneath his impact. This was Iteru... secret technique of the land of snow. As Hykuu impacted the water, all around him the lake splashed upwards and outwards, freezing solid into sharp ice spikes in every direction, some even slamming into the base of the enemy's earth plateau. Hykuu was at the center of this mass of frozen spines, recovering from the heavy toll this attack took on his body.

He reached behind himself, drawing the short Katana that usually lay sheathed on his back. Whatever the enemy had planned, he had to be ready.