Ushi’s opportunity:


Raizen stood up, wobbled a bit, and looked around at his teammates. They seemed to be alright, they were still alive at least. But he wasn’t sure how long that might last. He needed to do something; he needed to find an opportunity.

Ganju played another quick note, it didn’t last long because of his damaged lungs, but the shrill sound still caused Raizen to cringe. He felt some more blood run from his ears and had to steady himself as his knees shook from lack of balance. Raizen stumbled backward and found a tree to lean against to keep himself upright. “This really isn’t good.” He thought to himself. “I can barely stand.”

Raizen tried to stand upright again but just then Ganju, who didn’t seem able to take a breath deep enough to play his flute at the moment, charged.

Ganju was fast, faster than he looked. “I can’t evade this.” Raizen muttered as a thought occurred to him. Deciding to go with his lack of balance, at the instance one would normally dodge a straight thrust, he just dropped. In one fluid motion Raizen fell hard to the ground and Ganju stabbed his piccolo into the tree. Taking this opportunity, Raizen took out a kunai and tried to stab Ganju’s other hand into the tree, temporarily immobilizing him. But Ganju saw this and moved enough so that only his sleeve was fastened to the trunk. “Excellent.” Raizen muttered as he got up and stumbled away.

“Hey!” Ganju yelled out. “Get back here!”

Raizen looked to where his friends were as he stumbled along. “Ushi’s closer, I’ll go that way.” Raizen tried to dash over to his teammate, only to find his balance was still terrible. He tripped, caught himself, and spun around. Now Masato’s battle crossed Raizen’s path. He tripped again, dodging a swinging fist, got upright, spun to the left, and missed a kick. With Raizen’s poor balance it actually looked like drunken fist.

Masato’s fight moved on. Raizen stumbled into Ushi’s. A swing, a trip, and punch a spin, Raizen missed both attacks. Ushi took a step back and that’s when Raizen noticed an opening in Rin. Raizen tripped again, but as he did he struck Rin in the chest with a double handed empty palm strike. Rin flew back into the air in an arc. It was then that Raizen noticed two things with his Byakugan. Ushi was gone, and Ganju was back. Ganju kicked Raizen in the face as he fell to the ground, causing him to fall on his back and breaking his nose at the same time.

“Gah!” Raizen held his face as blood flowed from his nose. “This just went from not good to even worse.” He thought as he tried to get up but simply fell back to the ground.