Exhibition Match

Iwa Simulation Zone (Kamui's Point of View)

Kamui, Yugao, and the members of the council assembled in the middle of a rocky plain, a common terrain in the Iwa simulation zone. They were invited to attend a special exhibition match to showcase the skillsets of Team Yugao's new members. This was a requirement for all new Konoha shinobi who skipped past initiation. They were to display their skills before the Hokage to prove their competency.

In this case, the council was invited due to the unique circumstances of the two applicants. Kamui and Yugao's presence was requested since these two would be joining their team specifically.

Facing each other were Naga and Himiko, both looking pretty relaxed about the whole thing.

On one side was Naga, holding one end of a single purple chain stemming from just below her shoulders in each hand. Each end was a stiletto dagger connected at the pommel by the chain link.

Everyone who looked at her was interested in how she would fight with them, especially Kushina who felt a lot of similarities between her chains and Naga's.

They also noticed her wearing her new outfit, which she had bought shortly after arriving in the village. She currently wore a black long-sleeved turtleneck shirt made of a thin polyester-like fabric, dark blue shinobi pants, and black shinobi sandals. According to her, she wasn't trying to make a fashion statement with her outfit; she just wanted to be effective. Whatever she wore couldn't be allowed to slow her down or be too bothersome to put on, so she went with this.

She almost went with a more revealing option for the shirt, believing that using her sex appeal would help distract male targets, which would've made killing them much easier. Kamui had been against it though and vehemently argued against it. Her self-admittedly flimsy argument was that Naga resorting to such means against shinobi weak enough to fall for it would dull her blade. Relying on such banal distractions would both devalue her own reputation and reduce the opportunities for improvement by making fights less challenging. While both knew these were frail arguments at best and even Kamui wasn't completely sure why she was so against it, Naga eventually decided to accept the suggestion.

On the other side was Himiko, holding her whip sword, mirror shield, and wearing the same outfit as before. Her style would likely be a lot more straight forward, though Naga was extremely wary of that shield. Something told her that it posed the greatest threat to her.

Out of the council members, Shikaku was the most interested in Himiko. Something about her style set his instincts on edge. Initially, like all the others, he underestimated her, thinking her sword and shield as predictable and easy to circumvent. Now that he saw it in person though, the instincts he'd honed all his life warned him of the danger.

"The rules are simple. Under no circumstances are any of you to deal lethal damage to your opponent. This battle will last until one of you subdues the other or until ten minutes has passed. Lastly, you aren't allowed to rely on help from others in the battle; that includes summoning animals if you have them. Any questions?" Minato asked.

Receiving no input from either combatant, Minato nodded and grabbed a large leaf from his pocket.

"When this leaf hits the ground, the match will begin." He explained.

"Right/Got it" Naga and Himiko replied.

With a flick of the wrist, the leaf was in the air.

Neither combatant looked, both watching their opponents with the vast majority of their focus. Neither of them was junior enough to have to waste focus watching it with their eyes. In fact, both clearly knew that losing focus would likely lose them the match.

(Combatants' Points of View)

Once the leaf reached the ground, Naga accelerated, instantly closing the distance between her and Himiko. Dagger met shield as Himiko stood her ground against the direct assault.

As if her attack had been anticipated, Naga noticed the sword having extended, surrounding her, and closing in.

Before it could reach her though, she was gone, having backflipped out of the encirclement. With a thought, the two long bangs framing her face gathered into two black snakes with red eyes, mouths, and intricate markings on the top of the head. Like a tailed beast bomb, they both opened their mouths, quickly gathered red-tinted black balls of chakra, and fired them as beams toward different points on the extended sword.

Making contact, the impacted segments were suddenly coated in a thin layer of stone. As she wasn't used to petrifying this way, it was weaker than it could be, but against a segmented weapon, it should be effective in theory.

Having two segments coated in stone, the weapon's flexibility was nullified, turning it into a long whip-like paper weight without the ability to fully retract. However, unlike what she expected from the priestess, Himiko smiled at the sight.

Wanting to capitalize before Himiko fixed her situation and did whatever it was she was smiling about, Naga body flickered to Himiko the second her feat hit the ground. Again, dagger met shield. Smirking, Naga took a deep breath.

'Venom Release: Nightmare Mist' Naga exhaled, blowing a thick stream of crimson fog out of her mouth.

Being caught off guard, Himiko accidently inhaled some of the mist. Realizing the compromising position she may have just been put in, she decided to take some distance while she figured out what this fog did. Instantly, Himiko's sword was coated in black flames, liquifying the stone into molten lava. With a thought, the flame-coated whip quickly retracted into sword form. At the same time, she body flickered backward.

Then it hit her. Himiko's ears were filled with voices of her past.

"Monster!" "Traitorous Witch!" "Pretender!" "Defiler" The booming, hatred-filled voices drowned out the world around her. She could almost see the faces of the hateful citizens who betrayed her, who threw her away at the whims of another. Luckily for her though, her vision hadn't fully been compromised. There were just a few shadows in her vision.

Seeing Himiko's eyes narrow in pain at whatever she was experiencing from her jutsu and the few tears leaking from her eyes, Naga moved to take advantage of the impairment. Unfortunately, she noticed that, despite the visible heartache, Himiko still had most of her focus on her. It shouldn't be possible after being hit with that jutsu, but she would have to work with what she had.

Creating four shadow clones, she and two of them sunk into the ground, while the other two tried approached from the flanks.

Seeing the approaching Naga clones, Himiko did the only thing she knew would work, something that was both effective and didn't need her full attention to perform. Funneling about a quarter of her maximum chakra into her blade, she quickly flipped it into a reverse grip, gripped the handle with both hands, and plunged it into the earth. In the second before it reached the earth though, everyone around them saw the sword' black flames briefly switch to a dark crimson.

"Kagutsuchi: Burning Earth." She called out though gritted teeth.

Then, the ground around them ignited with blackish-crimson flames, instantly superheating it to a molten state. Seeing this, the two clones paused, deciding to observe the jutsu. They'd never seen something like this before, so wisdom advised caution, even for clones.

"Kagutsuchi: Flame Pillar." Another quarter of her chakra disappeared into the sword.

The already superheated ground grew hotter, the glow grew brighter, and eventually, it erupted.

(Audience Point of View)

"What an interesting weapon. I've never seen an extending sword before, especially one that can stream such powerful flames." Yugao commented astonishedly.

"From the looks the others are giving, neither have they." Kamui replied, equally astonished at the priestess's unique weapons. She was more interested in the shield though.

She'd never seen a shield used in combat. She'd read in the library's journals that they're mostly used on the western continent by a class of warriors called knights. They didn't see much use for shinobi or even samurai, so this was a valuable learning opportunity for her.

"Naga's pretty interesting too. It's not obvious, but those are Uzumaki chains she's using. They're a little different, but that must be due to the Kocho bloodline interacting with them. If what I'm seeing is right, Kushina seems to have realized it too." Minato added in.

To the shock of both Kamui and Yugao, Minato was right. Kushina's eyes were wide as saucers. She was even muttering excitedly at finding another family member in Konoha. She hadn't been in the right state of mind during the conference to catch the mention of Naga being part Uzumaki.

"She's an Uzumaki, ya know. I've never seen chains used that way. Can I use them that way?" She muttered to no one in particular.

She'd never tried using their chains as a permanent weapon. She was personally capable of using up to ten with ease and maintaining them for long periods, so it was possible in theory. She'd just have to change the contact points' forms to be more conducive to close range combat. It would take some shape manipulation, but it was possible.

Everyone around her shook their heads in amusement. They were equally impressed with both combatants for displaying such unusual, but effective combat styles.

"What kind of poison is that?" Kamui asked, curious at Himiko's reaction.

She was interested in the fire, but her sharingan could read into its true nature easy enough; the black flames were equivalent to the sharingan's flames of Amaterasu, while the crimson ones were something greater, most definitely involving the Kami. Still, while interesting, those weren't too surprising considering the little they knew about her. The venom? Now, that was new.

"Her chakra is normal, so it might be a type of irritant." Kamui mused to herself.

Itachi shook his head in denial.

"Not every illusion is created via chakra. According to Kurenai, there are herbs out there with hallucinogenic properties that don't rely on chakra. Perhaps, Naga's integrated those herbs into her blood via her bloodline?" Itachi calmly responded with his conjecture.

"Hmm, that's a good observation. I had agreed with your sister due to her unchanged chakra, but you may be right. Like her, I hadn't considered aspects of genjutsu beyond chakra. For the Kocho to come to Konoha is a stroke of fortune indeed." Hiashi calmly gave his own input, receiving nods of agreement from the rest of the council.

This new clan would open new avenues for the village to fight. They only hoped the clan would share the jutsu that were usable by non-clansmen.

Mikoto was silent throughout the whole exchange. Instead, her mangekyou sharingan were active and focusing their full power on the flame jutsu Himiko was using to respond to her now impaired predicament. Like Kamui, she saw the similarities with the black flames and their clan's flames of Amaterasu. Unlike her daughter, she was deeply focusing on the various traits of this new flame and comparing it to her scorch release.

The group continued their observations as the battle continued.

(Combatants' Points of View)

A pillar of fire rose into the heavens. This time though, it was normal fire tinted with the earlier black color. Clearly, this second technique sacrificed quality for quantity.

Naga was forced to retreat, escaping the superheated ground, and taking distance from the burning pillar. Her clones, on the other hand, decided to take the hit and dispel. At her level of mastery over the jutsu, she'd get the chakra back even if it was dispelled. The memory of the flame's effects on the clones would also give Naga a good idea of the fire's potential from different attack surfaces.

'What the hell!? How much chakra does she have!?' Naga thought to herself in shock and awe.

That combination hadn't ever been fully countered before. Normally, she'd have been able to reach the girl and make a few wounds before being counter attacked. Those wounds would be coated in another of her venom release ninjutsu, infecting the victim with a powerful poison. It was a multi-sided approach from the flanks and the ground, making it challenging for opponents to fully evade. Before, she had only thought jinchuriki capable of what Himiko just pulled off. The only ones she previously believed capable of countering that head on without a tailed beast were the Hyuga and maybe Kamui. Whatever the girl just did made her approach impossible.

Looking at the pillar, her eyes widened, realizing that she hadn't gotten the dispelled clones' chakra back. Whatever that jutsu did, burned even the chakra connection she had with them.

'Well damn. There goes half my chakra…' She thought resignedly. With narrowed eyes, Naga planned her next avenue of approach. Without her more lethal jutsu at her disposal, winning this would be challenging.

With Himiko, the ground around her looked as if it had experienced a cataclysm. The coolest area, the outskirts of the blast, was magma; everything else was still-boiling lava. Her breath was labored after having to expend that much chakra at once. Normally, she wouldn't have done that, but with the illusion-inducing venom invading her system, she couldn't afford to let Naga get too close, especially with whatever multi-staged approach she was clearly going for.

Luckily though, she could feel her heart heating up. Since the venom's invasion, it had been pumping extra special chakra through her system to destroy the foreign substance. That's likely why the venom couldn't properly take hold and consume her vision too. Now, after her little tactic and forcing large amounts of chakra through her system, the booming voices had lowered to whispers at this point. As the voices completely faded from her mind, one final cruel reminder passed through it, the one she loathed the most.

'An ignorant, spoiled princess has no business talking to me about loyalty; you're not worthy.' A familiar voice callously chided, a seemingly unfounded resentment burning in his voice.

Shaking her head at the hateful voice's words, Himiko was once again able to focus on the fight; this wasn't the first time her mind was plagued by that man's words, but she'd already gotten used to it.

Looking at Naga, she noticed the girl's cloths had been severely burned, leading to there being holes and tears all over the girl's charred clothing. Deep burns were also visible on the girl's exposed skin, though that was healing at a visible rate.

'Ok, It's about time to attack…' Himiko's eyes darted around the battlefield, trying to reassess her options.

'She's too fast for my lower cost long-range options to work and I don't have enough chakra to waste spamming my shield… Maybe, I should get closer. Yeah, I'll use that.'

Having decided on her course of action, she funneled a small portion of chakra into the sword.

'Kagutsuchi: Spear Mode' The black flames coating the sword increased in density to the point where the sword was fully shrouded in flames. Then, the guard sunk into itself, while the form of the coated weapon thinned and elongated until it resembled a spear. When the flames receded, the blade had been fully transformed into a 7-foot-long spear. Its design was essentially a black-colored spine with a crimson, thin, sharp, bone-like blade. While relatively short for a spear, no one currently looking at it would believe that it was limited to this length.

Moving her shield in front of her and her spear slightly off to the side, Himiko charged at Naga.

From Naga's point of view, the charge was overly simplistic and should be easy to dodge. Proving her point, her two front bangs once again transformed into snakes and fired the red-tinted black beams at the shield, hoping to petrify both the shield and possibly her arm. At the same time, strands from the rest of her hair formed into stiletto-tipped chains that moved to assault the spear wielder from her flanks.

Seeing the incoming beam, Himiko smiled as she channeled chakra to the shield currently displaying Naga's reflection.

"Too easy." Himiko muttered in satisfaction at the snake girl's mistake.

Once the beam hit, it disappeared into the shield, not slowing Himiko down at all. In fact, it was the other way around.

"What!?" Naga's voice stuttered as she felt her body stiffen, having started to petrify. Almost be instinct, she commanded the half of the chains targeting Himiko to return and protect her from the still charging priestess.

'Did my attack turn on me!? How!? I didn't see it reflected?' Naga thoughts sped at a mile per second. 'It's that mirror-like shield. I don't know how, but it reflected my attack instantly, without considering the distance between us. Urgh, I don't have time to worry about the details. I just need to avoid hitting it. Well, at least I didn't use enough chakra in that beam to really turn myself to stone. I need to take more distance.'

Naga funneled as much chakra into her stiffened body as possible, relieving herself of some of the immediate effects. Then, she vanished, barely dodging the impact of the incoming spearhead. For about a minute, it was a game of cat and mouse as Himiko chased the still-stiffed Naga around without getting in a single hit.

Naga smirked, "Oh, come on. You've slowed me down with my own attack and you still can't catch me? Can't you go any faster?"

Himiko grimaced at her words. Speed was never her forte; her style largely relied on counters on single opponents and using wide-range destruction on larger groups. Cleary, Naga was more speed focused with agility that outclassed hers by miles. Himiko was at a clear disadvantage. Still, her mother did teach her a way to reach speed-based fighters.

'Heaven Release: Distance Divide' Himiko lunged forward, thrusting her spear seemingly into thin air.

Naga's eyebrow raised, confused on what Himiko was aiming for. Considering the distance between them, there's no way she was the target.

*Stab*

Naga bit back a pained grunt as an intense wave of heat invaded from the spear piercing her thigh. It had somehow extended, closing the distance faster than she could react.

The odd thing was that the spear hadn't physically extended in the way that anyone expected it to. Its form hadn't changed. Instead, the space between the two combatants shrunk, allowing the base form of the spear to strike her. Well, to the casual observer, the spear looked like it stretched like taffy to reach its target.

As for the burning sensation, the spear wasn't really on fire. Naga was just feeling the remnant inferno from when it was, which was by no means painless. If it weren't for her recently increased healing factor, she'd be dealing with the effects of the 3rd degree burns on her leg, possibly for months. The humbling part was that had this been a real battle with an ignited spear, she would be a dried husk as the heat would have evaporated any moisture in her body almost instantly. Of course, had this been a real battle, she had plenty of her own cards to play, but that still didn't change reality.

A second later, the spear returned to its previous place and the divided space between them returned to normal. Himiko stopped as well, having come to the same conclusion as Naga.

The battle was over. Both knew during their game of cat and mouse that if Naga's legs were injured, she would lose. Most of her arsenal was lethal; without that, she absolutely needed her speed. Having her leg injured like this was fatal.

"I give" "I forfeit" Himiko and Naga simultaneously forfeited the match.

Hearing Himiko say the same thing, Naga turned to her in muted shock.

"Why? We both know I couldn't have beaten you if that continued." Naga asked incredulously.

Himiko shook her head and responded calmly, "It may have looked like that, but I was running out of chakra. Your style directly counters mine and that would have been blaringly obvious had you had access to more of that venom release you used, which, if I were to guess, is mostly lethal. Most of my hits were only effective because you didn't know I could use them and the ones that did anything were all chakra intensive. I'm almost out and while I may have won, I believe a draw would be a better representation."

She really wasn't exaggerating when she explained this. Naga's style really did counter hers. If she were to encounter her as an enemy shinobi, she would need a lot of luck just to stay alive and run away. She could also tell that she would have lost miserably had they been in an enclosed area. The way Naga moved would benefit greatly from it.

Naga pondered Himiko's words and nodded to herself. She agreed with most of what Himiko said. The only part she hadn't anticipated was the chakra cost of those techniques. While it was obvious in hindsight that they would be chakra intensive, she had expected the girl's reserves to be bigger. For Naga, the main reason she was running low on chakra herself was the loss of her connection with her shadow clones not allowing the chakra she invested to transfer back into herself.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap* *Clapping*

The two turned to see the audience clapping at their performance. Walking toward them was the fourth Hokage, whose eyes were wide from Himiko's last technique. Part of him wanted to ask how she did it, but the more reasonable part wanted to respect her privacy. Still, he really didn't have to pry himself…, there was another that would pry for him.

Warping herself next to Himiko, Kamui's sharingan blazed in excitement after having witnessed Himiko's final move.

"How did you do that!?" Kamui asked enthusiastically, invading Himiko's personal space without her realizing.

"Do what?" Himiko asked with raised hands, trying to get the excited girl out of her face.

"That trick with the spear. I've never seen an attack like that before. How did you do it?" Kamui asked, voicing her thoughts without a filter in her excitement.

No one stopped the line of inquiry. Despite their usual aversion to technique-related inquiries, this particular question was important to village security. It was a space-related ability that fell outside of any they'd ever seen. In fact, had they been in Naga's position, only a couple actually believed they could have avoided it, especially being surprised.

"Oh, it's an application of the technique I used to make my priestess duties easier. In short, I use my inborn affinity for space manipulation to shorten the distance between two points. According to my mistress, the human name for the technique would be Heaven Release: Distance Divide." Himiko responded without much care.

"Heaven Release?" Naga confusedly asked, never having heard the term.

"Oh, Heaven Release was what the priestesses of old decided upon for any space-time techniques taught to them by the gods. According to the notes left by the priestess who came up with it, 'the name space-time release wouldn't do it justice and would be an insult to the venerable Kami', or something like that." Himiko casually explained,

"That's so cool! Can you teach me!? I have the basic idea but learning from an expert would really speed it up!" Kamui excitedly asked, not noticing the twitches coming from the others.

Itachi and Minato internally decided to remind Kamui later on that asking questions like that to others is considered rude. They'd do it now, but both thought it would be better to understand this 'heaven release' more.

Himko pondered the question.

'Hmm. I'm pretty sure mom won't mind. I mean, she asked me to be a subordinate to this girl. It's not like the technique is a secret either. Any god could learn it if they wanted to. Plus, it'll be a good bribe to get in the other's good graces.'

Having made her decision, Himiko shrugged.

"Sure. Why not? If what my mistress described about you was right, it should be pretty easy to learn the combat version. As for the more advanced version, you'll have to figure it out on your own. My mistress has stressed that teaching someone charka-based techniques beyond the basics hinders their potential."

"Great!" She cheered. Then, having gotten what she wanted, it quickly dawned on her that she had let her excitement slip her filter.

Turning to the others, she scratched her head embarrassedly, "Oops. I got a little carried away there." She muttered.

"We know." Everyone replied almost simultaneously.

*Nervous chuckle* Needless to say, they wouldn't let her live this down for months.