Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Chronicles of Kakashi & the Kunoichi from Thunder Country ❯ The Chuunin Finals ( Chapter 10 )

 

The Chuunin Finals

 

 

After a few days of testing her abilities, her father brought out the summoning contract. They had been training in their backyard, despite Rika's futile protests that they were ruining her garden. “I wasn't sure you'd be ready for this, but I'm proud of you having passed the first two exams so easily. The third part will be the true test of your abilities. You may need an Ace up your sleeve.” He bit his thumb, placed it palm down on the ground, and summoned a giant eagle which flapped its wings and let out a loud shriek, much to Rika's horror (she stayed inside the house). “You need to concentrate your chakra when you do this. The more chakra, the larger the bird. To vary the type of bird, use different chakra ratios.”

 

Rikako was delighted. This was something different than a regular jutsu. But she felt the practice of biting a thumb each time to draw blood was too unsanitary, gross, and painful. Instead she cut nicked her finger with a kunai. `Mental note, need something like a ring or bracelet with a sharp edge, kunai are also unsanitary. Maybe I should carry around a pack of lancets. She signed her name in blood as was required, bloodied the other fingers and palm and then pressed her hand onto the scroll, leaving behind a bloody print to seal the contract.

 

She had seen her father use birds to deliver messages and medicine though she had never seen him perform the summoning ritual before. He did not want her to be a shinobi and only grudgingly taught her a few jutsu when she was in the Academy. But now he seemed to warm up to the idea and was actually proud of his talented little daughter.

 

On her first try she summoned a lovely green macaw. By the end of the month she was able to summon an eagle about human size. Still not one large enough to carry her weight, but her father was nevertheless impressed.

 

'Birds are so much better than smelly dogs or slimy slugs or scary snakes or ugly toads,' she thought. `Birds are good for transport, aerial surveillance, and they have very sharp eyes.' Rikako preferred to summon smaller birds like canaries, nightingales and parrots just to listen to their songs and to converse. Once, while in a particularly bad mood, she summoned a large vulture with evil eyes that horrified her father and nearly gave her mom an aneurysm.

 

Otori also taught her weapons and target training, and techniques to improve her taijutsu. Of her skills, he noted they could use the most improvement. `What has Kakashi been doing with his genin? She has the potential to be much better than this! That lazy slacker. At least her ninjustsu is quite good and she even knows a bit of genjutsu.

 

“Why don't you try this…this… or this…” Otori took out weapon after weapon from his collection.

 

His daughter methodically evaluated each one. “I don't like swords. They're heavy and clumsy. I don't like projectile weapons where you can run out of ammunition. These staffs are too long. Nunchucks take too much dexterity to use accurately.” But amongst his collection she finally found her favorite weapon - a metallic telescoping staff that converted to a double headed spear and which she could twirl like a baton. It retracted to a short rod barely two feet in length that could be easily strapped on her back or at her waist. At full extension, it was nearly six feet. Despite its size, it was no heavier than a regular sword.

 

“Sometimes seals and jutsu are not enough. You should always have a physical weapon ready. Shuriken don't normally kill. Kunai can, but they had to be thrown accurately and with force or during close combat. As a woman, you'll be at a disadvantage since you don't have the reach or the strength of a man. You can use your chakra to extend your reach and strength, but there will be times when you've depleted your chakra. This will help even things.”

 

“I don't plan to kill anyone, and I don't want to.” She shuddered as the blood and brain splattered results of the C mission came to mind.

 

“Sometimes you have to.” `Unfortunate, but unavoidable, she really should just be a village doctor.'

 

“I've been working with the senbon, like the needles you used for acupuncture. I'm pretty good now. I can paralyze my opponents instead of killing them.”

 

“Well, those require a lot more accuracy. This staff can be used in defense as well.” He twirled the staff quickly and its circular motion acted like a shield.

 

Rikako was visibly impressed and realized she needed the staff, not so much for attack but for defense. With it she would be able to deflect shuriken, kunai, and other physical weapons. By forcing chakra into it, she would be able to deflect some ninjutsu attacks as well. Her father was right; her petite size meant she had a shorter reach than average. She found the staff's variable length to be an important asset.

 

She also found a few other interesting items in a box long hidden away in storage: a bracelet that hid a spool of strong wire, a ring which opened to dispense poison, earrings that were actually flash bombs. There were all sorts of jewelry and accessories, normally meant for kunoichi. `I wonder if there's something about dear old dad I should know.'

 

-…-…-…-…-

 

The day for the chuunin finals soon arrived. Important dignitaries from the allied bordering countries filled the stadium with their robes of many colors. The air buzzed with excitement as the audience impatiently anticipated the techniques and strategies they would see. Many had bet quite a bit of money on the favorites, while others rooted for the underdog.

 

Kakashi arrived late as usual to the stadium, but just in time to see his genin's fights. But he made the mistake of entering the same area as Gai, and the further mistake of nodding in greeting. The man in the horrid green jumpsuit ran over with his usual alacrity.

 

“I see you finally made it, rival Kakashi. I'll be keeping my eyes on your genin, to see what sort of tricks you taught them to defeat my team in the last exam.”

 

“Hmm, tricks? I didn't teach them any particular tricks to use against your team.”

 

“You must have! My genin said your team must have used kage bunshin. There were more than three of them! You know that's a forbidden jutsu. Just because Naruto learned it…”

 

“It wasn't kage bunshin. It was another trick my team came up with by themselves. I told you they would leave your team in the dust.”

 

“No you didn't! You didn't say anything this time. That was your other genin team!”

 

“Oh? Is that right? Well, I guess I forgot to say it again,” Kakashi shrugged.

 

“You must tell me the trick! My team needs to know to get stronger.”

 

“You know a shinobi can't reveal his secrets.” Kakashi had learned during his training with the boys how they passed the second exam. He was impressed but disappointed at the same time. An alliance was a smart idea. After all, to be a lord or a kage you needed to be able to form alliances, to be able to read people and decided whom to trust or not to trust. But he had wanted to test their strength.

 

Gai gave him a look somewhere between desperation and wanting to kill him. Kakashi sighed, “I don't know the particulars, but if you really want to know, maybe you can get it out of my genin.” `There, that will keep him off my back for a while.'

 

Any further discussion was interrupted by the announcement for the next fight.

 

-…-…-…-

 

Rikako's battle outfit consisted of her usual attire, a black long sleeve T-shirt, but now covered by a short brown kimono with green trim, handcrafted by her mother to her specifications. The right sleeve fit like a normal loose shirt sleeve while the left was longer and wider, like a kimono sleeve, just enough to hide her hands while performing seals. She reasoned that if Kakashi had an eye that could copy hand seals and techniques, there could be others with similar abilities. With the long left sleeve she could hide both her hands if she wanted to.

 

The Cloud shinobi wore a gauze veil covering his face and was dressed in loose fitting light gray robes. Rikako waited calmly for him to make the first move after the examiner signaled the start of their match. She observed how he stood, his hand movements, and the speed of his hand seals. His first jutsu was the cloud cover technique and damp white mist obscured the field. Alarmed at the loss of visibility, the little kunoichi threw a smoke bomb to add to the obscurity and hide her retreat behind the clump of trees toward the back of the stadium.

 

The Cloud shinobi laughed, the usual villainous laugh, stood his ground, and said, “There's nowhere to run and I don't need to see you to attack you.” He formed a complex sequence of seals and the entire field became statically charged, as if a thunder cloud came down from the heavens. Lightning crackled all around, hair stood on end, even Genma, the referee, decided to take cover.

 

From a distance, a spray of fireballs appeared. Rikako had hoped to disrupt his jutsu hand seals, but the cloud shinobi deftly dodged them and finished his seals. Running behind the mass of fireballs, she appeared suddenly on top of the Cloud shinobi, shooting out more fireballs from her mouth.

 

A lightening bolt came from the ground and struck the little kunoichi. For a split second her skeleton seemed to be visible. The crowd gasped. Was it over? Such a pity whenever a pretty girl like that died.

 

But then the figure crumbled to dust. It was just an earth clone replacement!

 

The Cloud shinobi laughed derisively. “Hiding and attacking with clones are signs of cowardice and weakness. Soon my chakra cloud will consume your chakra.” As if in response to his boast, the electricity in the air crackled with greater intensity.

 

'He sure likes to talk. Overconfidence is always a weakness,' Rikako thought as she performed several seal sequences, one after another.

 

First she attacked the Cloud shinobi directly with her staff at full extension; its double spearheads still gleamed in the dim light.

 

The Cloud shinobi smiled. `That staff is metallic. She's not very smart. That weapon will attract the lightning and she'll end up fried to a crisp.' He sent another lightning bolt at her while his opponent was still in mid-air.

 

She twisted her body to avoid the attack, but the abrupt change in direction caused her to fall ungracefully to the ground. The Cloud shinobi quickly sent another lightning bolt, a stronger one. `Time to end this,' he thought. This time, it struck her staff. The figure holding it crumbled to dust, but the staff was left standing in the ground.

 

The crowded gasped again, excited by the quick action and impressed by the number of techniques the genin had displayed. But then their attention turned away from the kunochi and her staff.

 

Forty feet away, the Cloud shinobi began to convulse, clutching at his heart desperately.

 

-..:-…-…-

 

“Cloud shinobi use lightning attacks, which are very strong, but hard to control, and can backfire on the user since there are conductive materials all around us.”

 

Her father had taught her well, Kakashi evaluated. She must have performed the seals for an earth runnel and water stream and attacked the cloud shinobi directly to draw his attention away from the approaching water. She avoided his first lightning attack, stuck the staff into the ground where the runnel started, and then used the replacement technique and earth clone. The second lightning bolt hit her staff and the electricity was drawn into the staff down to the water and conducted over to the Cloud shinobi. Although he was immune to the statically charged chakra cloud, he was not immune to the effects of thousands of volts of electricity. Kakashi smiled to himself. At least five jutsu covering three elements (fire, earth and water), in a fight barely lasting two minutes. The judges had to be impressed. He knew he was.

 

Rikako had hid herself behind the trees, encased within an tomb of earth to protect herself from the lightning. She soon sensed the fight was over and came out from her earth tomb. The chakra cloud was dissipating. The Cloud shinobi was on the ground writhing in pain. She quickly ran over and checked his pulse and pupils. His heart was in arrhythmia and he was going into cardiac arrest. “Medic!” she cried and performed a stasis seal to stabilize his condition. Then she placed her hand on his chest, sending regular jolts of chakra to his heart, trying to force a regular rhythm.

 

The crowd fell silent, waiting for the outcome, surprised that the girl would bother to save an opponent who just tried to kill her with no hesitation.

 

“Very nicely done, rival Kakashi, I see you have a smart one on your team. Still, her speed could be better. If she were on my team…”

 

“Hmm? Did you just say something?” Kakashi asked nonchalantly even though he heard everything Gai had just said.

 

“You...You! You're right next to me! How could you possibly not hear what I said? I know you purposely assume an apathetic attitude just to thwart me!

 

Kakashi shrugged as he watched the Cloud genin being carried off the field by the medics. The fight was obviously over and the petite kunoichi was declared the winner. `That was good, but still not her true strength. Well, we'll see what happens in the next round.'

 

The chuunin finals had sixteen participants, which meant there were to be four rounds of fights. Poor Takeo did not make it pass the first round despite his sincere efforts. Kenji got knocked out in the second round mostly because he had been injured in the first and insisted on continuing instead of dropping out as was recommended by the medics. Rikako volunteerily bowed out in the middle of the third round. She recognized her opponent's superior speed and skills and wisely did not want her life to be cut short.

 

At the conclusion of over two hours of continuous fighting, the Hokage and the other judges discussed the performance of all the participants. Not only the winners, but also the losers were evaluated. Just because someone lost, didn't necessarily mean they were not strong enough or smart enough. And just because someone won did not mean he or she had what it took to be a chuunin, a leader of a squad.

 

One by one they either failed or passed. When they came to Kakashi's little kunoichi they agreed: She's wary and patient. Waits for her opponent to make the first move. You can feel her gauging her opponent, testing him, discovering his strengths and weakness, before developing a strategy. She takes in consideration her surroundings. She has good offense and defense tactics. A good range of jutsu, though not a lot of power. She has good medical skills and shows concern for a fallen enemy - not really a characteristic we'd want to encourage in a ninja. But she's persistent and determined, yet she knows when to give up.

 

Pass!

 

 

-…-…-End of Part I-...-…-

 

 

Author's Notes:

I would write the other fights in the finals, but alas I'm not an action writer. It took me forever just to come up with what this.

Lightning does originate from the ground, not the sky.

I like Gai but since I am a Kakashi fan, Gai will always lose to Kakashi!

Please forgive my unoriginal naming of minor OCs, they're just named after whatever anime characters I can think of. Only my main OCs get more consideration.