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Auron shifted his position, a grin spreading across his lips as the sharp edge of his sword sliced into Deidara’s flesh, spilling warm blood which fell in droplets back towards the stadium floor, the crimson beads leaking from the bomber like precious jewels. The warrior monk took a proud stride along the magically created floor amongst the clouds which he had created. Deidara’s bird was hovering still, as the man who had once ridden the clay sculpture fell towards the ground. Auron smirked, looking at the bird.

“Humph!” he grunted - the closest attempt at laughter he seemed willing to make. In truth, he had expected Deidara to put up a little more of a fight than that. After all, his tactics had been second to none – although Auron had dismissed the ranged attack as cowardice, it was a smart move nonetheless.

“Never mind.” Auron stated, as he took a few lazy steps on air. It was nice and quiet up there, now that Deidara had fallen. In fact, it was so quiet, he could even hear the descending ninja, who had almost reached a distance at which he was invisible.

“…is a bang.” Was all that Auron heard. He didn’t even have time to curse. The clay bird exploded in a fantastic display of smoke and shrapnel, pieces of which scratched across Auron’s body and face.

With his concentration lost, so was Auron’s levitation spell. He fell quickly – faster than Deidara had, unsurprisingly, considering he probably weighed a great deal more than the scrawny Akatsuki member. In fact, he was so much faster, he reached the floor some few seconds before Deidara, who continued to plummet as Auron landed in an awkward somersault which continued for several meters, before he came to a clumsy halt, sliding on his side just inches away from the edge of the ring which would have caused his disqualification. The crowd was whooping, cheering and booing, all at the same time. It seemed that Auron’s speed had not been due to weight alone – had he propelled himself using magic? It certainly seemed so, his movements were now unnaturally speedy, each body motion seeming jerky and somewhat hastened. Looking closely, one could have seen the faintest of orange auras wrapped around Auron.

The monk spat blood, cracking his neck once or twice as he jogged towards his sword which lay on the ground – he had dropped it during his flight.

“You want to stay in the air, Deidara?!” Auron screamed. His very voice shook the stadium, or at least it seemed to.

An unnatural hush fell over the crowd, with the occasional shout of “Kill him!” or “What next?” littering the silence. Auron pushed one of his arms out in front of him, every muscle in it bulging as he did so, supporting his sword on his shoulder with the other hand. Small tufts of dust and stone began swirling around him as he gathered power, concentrating it into his blade, and the floor around him. Slowly, the twister intensified, until after mere moments it had begun blistering around Auron, and the rest of the stadium. Hats flew off the heads of old women, drinks and burgers flew from hungry spectator’s hands, and even a pair of women’s undergarments could be seen in the magical tornado, yet nobody seemed to notice or question why they were there.

Auron himself began spinning, clutching he blade with each hand, spinning in a circle. Too busy to see whether or not Deidara had landed, or even if he was still in the air.

If not, then where else? Auron thought, as he rotated at inhuman speeds. That bastard ninja is a crafty one, after all…

Eventually, once he had reached his maximum circular speed, Auron stopped moving abruptly. As a result, the tornado lifted off into the air, tearing numerous tiles of the arena floor up with it. The monk smiled as it lifted into the sky, twisting and turning, growing ever bigger. Dust and smoke littered the arena, causing his vision to suffer.

“You had better not be lurking in this smoke, Deidara.” Auron snapped, praying to no God in particular that he had been caught up in his tornado.