Temari was growing more and more disgruntled the more she searched the underground of the arena. She was extremely good at locating enemies thanks to her innate talent and loads of hard work in both earth and wind manipulations.
After all, she wasn’t like Gaara or her father who had their bloodlines right off the bat. Temari had to work hard to awaken hers. And since it did not awaken on its own, forcefully awakening it would have been impossible without mastering the natures needed for her bloodline.
At this point, Temari was the best at Earth Manipulation and only second to Lady Pakura in Wind. And she was damn proud of it too.
So… why couldn’t she get even a hint of her opponent!?
‘As expected, he knows his stuff as a Kage should.’ Temari thought, feeling disheartened.
Temari’s thoughts were interrupted as she felt her chakra sense catch something extremely unexpected.
As usual, the sandy ground was turning into rock but this time, it wasn’t erratic and random. No, this time it headed straight towards her!
‘He found me!? How!?’ Temari inwardly freaked out.
Right at the start of their fight, she understood they both used the same way of locating each other. They both tried to send a sonar-like wave of earth-natured chakra into the ground, getting a clear picture of anything the wave passed.
The problem with that was simple. Her wave and Onoki’s wave canceled each other out whenever they met, and as such, no wave ever reached either of their bodies.
As Temari frantically thought about how she was found out while fighting the rock-creation Jutsu of her opponent with her sand-making Jutsu, preventing it to get closer to her position, she suddenly felt her most recent wave of earth chakra cancel out Onoki’s wave… but in her focused state, she for the first time felt a very subtle and weak wave of chakra come right after the main wave, passing through her.
Temari’s eyes widened, ‘So that’s how! The cunning bastard!’ She grumbled.
Alas, experience counted for something and it was obvious Onoki had the advantage in that…
Temari realized that fighting underground was no longer in her best interest. Not when her opponent was better at locating her.
Temari quickly stopped trying to fight Onoki’s Jutsu and propelled herself upward, burrowing towards the surface. After reaching it, Temari did not stay on the ground. Instead, she flew into the sky, hovering around fifteen meters above the ground while channeling her chakra downward, focusing on turning more of the ground to sand.
It might have appeared that Temari had an advantage now that she wasn’t underground. After all, she could affect a bigger surface of the ground, and by now, the entire surface of the arena was a well of moving sand.
Onoki seemed to be trapped. He was underground and above him was sand… Temari’s domain.
Alas, there was a reason why neither Temari nor Onoki tried to get out of the underground at the start, trying to utilize this kind of tactic.
Temari abruptly jerked her body to the right, only barely evading a thick Dust Release beam that suddenly came out of the ground. Before she could relax, she had to move back, evading another beam… and another, and another…
Temari was flying from left to right, back and forth, evading Onoki’s attacks by a slight margin.
This was why neither of them wanted to get out of the ground. Earth had more density, hence the sonar-like chakra location technique took time to return results. Air wasn’t as dense, however, and as such, even when Onoki was underground and practically blind, he was still able to locate Temari with pinpoint precision and aim his Jutsu at her.
While she was frantically evading the vicious attacks, Temari was also slightly focused on preparing a counter-attack. She knew the only way to break out of being on the defensive was to go on the offensive, even if it was a bit risky and tricky to focus on two things at the same time.
Onoki was too focused on trying to hit Temari and that made sneaking an attack past his guard easier than it should have been.
Then again, nobody could blame him for that. His attacks were literally one-hit-kill.
Temari’s sand almost reached him, and if not for his vast experience and quick reflexes… even if his back hurt from the sudden movement… he would have been squished into a paste.
Onoki barely dodged Temari’s sand but he was forced to leave the safety of the ground and resurface. Knowing that staying on the ground was foolish when fighting against somebody capable of manipulating sand, he instantly floated into the air.
Temari was not happy that she didn’t catch Onoki with her sneak attack. But she decided to take what she could get and be satisfied with it. Having him out of the ground and where she could see and attack him was good enough.
“That wasn’t half bad. I guess you really know a bit about being a ninja.” Onoki remarked in a tone that made it impossible to know if he was being sarcastic or not.
Temari looked at him, opened her mouth… and Onoki barely scrambled to the side as a Wind Slash almost bisected him, causing cold sweat to drench his hurting back.
‘How careless of me.’ He scolded himself. He expected the inexperienced teenager to be swept by the need to have the last word and when she opened her mouth, he got distracted for a second due to his expectations.
He really expected Temari to be bratty and too stubborn. Even adult ninjas sometimes fell for this pitfall and started having a verbal battle during a fight at the slightest verbal provocation. Too much unnecessary pride.
Onoki too was prideful and stubborn but he knew a battle was no place for these things.
“Tsk.” Onoki clicked his tongue. ‘The bitch actually used my experience against me!’ He inwardly grumbled. ‘Why can’t she just drop dead? Bothersome brat.’
Temari’s and Onoki’s eyes met and their chakras surged up, pressure and killing intent spreading to the surroundings as the winds around Temari started to get sharper while Onoki’s hands gained a slight white glow.
A silent second passed… before the two got into action, Temari sending one Wind Slash after another at Onoki while evading one Dust Release beam after another.
Onoki used his proficiency in gravity manipulation to evade Temari’s Wind Slashes, frowning a bit when he noticed the large gashes these slashes left on the arena walls when they landed. There was enough power in them to split him in half if they hit.
Then again, with every evade of Temari, his beams were making holes in the opposite wall of the arena. These holes were big enough that Temari would lose a big chunk of her body if she was hit.
Onoki’s expression darkened when he started to notice that Temari was a bit too fast at evading. That led him to pay more attention to her flying technique and when he did, he received the shock of his life. It was too similar to his own! He was supposed to be the only one in the world capable of doing that!
Temari was not really using the Wind Chakra to fly. She simply used the most advanced form of earth chakra manipulation, gravity manipulation, as well. Not even Hiruzen Sarutobi was capable of doing that and he was given the title of the God of Shinobi! Onoki was extremely proud of being the only man capable of such earth manipulation mastery.
And yet…
Onoki gritted his teeth in anger. ‘Good! I will show you, trying to use gravity manipulation in front of me!’ His attacks became even more vicious, faster, and deadlier but this time, he tried to affect Temari’s flight technique with his own chakra.
Unfortunately for him, Temari just rolled her eyes when she felt it. Gravity manipulation was her trump card. It was what she was best at. As if some decrepit old geezer could control her own flight technique… She inwardly scoffed and let Onoki continue trying, if only to make him waste more of his chakra.
In this manner, the match between Temari and Onoki continued, both trying to score a hit on the other.
Despite that, there were no massive moves. No landscape devastating techniques were exchanged between them. Both were using basic but incredibly fast and deadly attacks in hopes to save chakra, both for different reasons, while trying to incapacitate their foe for good.
Alas, that was easier said than done in a fight between two long-ranged Kage-level fighters. Especially when both were reluctant to use their strongest techniques.
Their impasse would continue for a long time yet…
