Riku waited…. again
The white-haired scoundrel had decided to take up a seated position, simply watching the others as they ran through the course. The pain on his cheek sat there momentarily as everyone did their own methods of getting across the course. Riku always thought it was weird, using so much jutsu to solve problems. It was like showing your hand to everyone at the table, what do you do now that they’ve seen everything.
“Well,” Riku declared with a sleepy grin on his face, “Time for my turn to play dodgeball.”
As the scoundrel glanced at the course for his own ideas, he remembered what he saw already. Those kunai are mostly fakes, but that very end had a fair few more solid kunai. His position is apparently switching between the fakes, the hell is he moving so fast? Riku stopped pondering it as he gave a sly grin.
He didn’t need to figure out his secret.
He looked towards Katsu as the pain on his cheek caught his notice. With a wave towards him, Riku flicked out a card, giving a small nod to him. He’d blindsided him with that punch, that was the message to help out. The rogue then glanced to his own platform, where Kiramaru had left behind his dog. With a smile, Riku walked over and picked up the dog, patting it on the head.
“Fair trade for the card,” Riku muttered with a wink towards Kiramaru on the otherside.
With that, Riku flicked out one of the cards from his deck, teasingly tossing it across the course. As the paper card sailed through the air, one of the kunai sailing out to knock it to the floor. The boys smile fading for a moment as he looked at the facedown card halfway across the course, he realised with an internal sigh.
“Didn’t check what card that was ...” Riku whispered, “I’m gonna have to recount the whole deck at this rate.”
With no more time left to mourn, the boy placed the deck of cards in his pocket before pulling out a small bundle of wire string. It was always handy to have some for a trap. After unwrapping it and letting most it fall to the platform floor, Riku took one chance to glance towards the apparent clones.
“Lets play.” Riku said with a smirk.
With a throw up of his hands, the metallic string began to hang in the air, glimmering in the sunlight (in a manner like his grin). Riku helped Kiramaru’s dog onto his back, before sprinting across the course.
Riku wasn’t the fastest or the most skilled. Hell, he barely knew any jutsu, especially in comparison to this class. For all those problems however, he always did have an upside, he was always a conman at heart. As the small dome of floating string was suddenly barraged by kunai, only one in each dozen pushed past the strings … the real one. The rogue jumped and bound as he ran across the course, avoiding the kunai that pushed past his wires. Then as he reached halfway across the course, Riku gave a wink to the crowd on the otherside. The white-haired boy dropped in what appeared to be a trip, before sliding across the floor, his hands releasing the strings as he peered towards the clones. He remembered the end of this, the volley of kunai, Riku wasn’t gonna be able to dodge them, they were all real from the seems of it. This would’ve required Riku to use more tricks if he wanted to win, and he didn’t want to reveal to anyone here much of anything. Lucky for him, Shinzo had made a fatal mistake,
he’d spoken to Riku before.
“Stupid mutt!” Riku shouted as he stabilized himself from his slide, attempting to cause confusion.
He grabbed the dog from his back, and as his hand moved to lift him up, he grabbed hold of the card that he’d watched get hit by the kunai. With a yell, the boy then tossed the dog into the air, a dangerous height. Shinzo had cared when he spoke before, his eyes flashing with a grin as the dog sailed up. Shinzo wouldn’t risk the dog to keep throwing, a wicked smile going on his face as he watched one of the clones leap up to catch the dog. As the dog got caught, Riku quickly threw his hands together.
“I got you!” Riku declared loudly, from the dogs collar the paper card coming loose.
The card from the ground finally revealed itself, floating in the air for a moment before the seal hidden behind the surface activated, a smokebomb appearing and detonating in the saviour’s face. With the smoke in place, Riku bolted down the course. The distraction didn’t last as long as he’d of liked, as four-fifths of the way across, the kunai volleys started up anew. Not wanting to risk revealing his hand, Riku had to accept a few hits at the end, several wooden kunai hitting his sides as Riku mistimed his dodges.
The scoundrel giving a small bow as he jogged off the course, winking to the crowd before walking over to hang nearby his friends, Kiramaru and Katsu.
“I was counting seven. Anyone else counting seven?” Riku asked with a playful grunt, rubbing his sides where the final volley landed.
WC: 879