Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Chunin ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10

 

February 6th had come at last. The day was unusually warm for February. The village was packed to the gills with visitors. Now Tsunade understood the tension Sarutobi must have gone through six months ago. Lots of people and a credible threat on her hands. Now she could understand why he hadn't expelled the Sound. The wasn't any real evidence. In this case too she would have been accused of fixing the competition in favor of the Leaf if she expelled the Waterfall team. It made her nervous beyond belief. The ANBU were told in no uncertain terms to be aware of the Waterfall shinobi and even their fans.

 

These things always attracted enormous crowds from all over the shinobi world. No doubt there were enemies of the Leaf disguised and hiding amongst the spectators to spy on the young talent. For all they knew, Orochimaru himself could be there. Or an Akatsuki member. The stadium was packed. It was designed to hold about 14,000 spectators. It had to accommodate a wee bit more than that. More like 16,000.

 

Sakura was in the ladies locker room splashing cold water on her face. She was struggling not to throw up. In the mirror, she could see Ino standing behind her.

 

“Don't freak out,” teased Ino. “I'm sure it won't be that bad.”

 

“I don't care about the fights,” she replied. “I just don't like being the center of attention in front of all those thousands of people. And this past month, I've received no less than ten death threats in the mail each day. Either `win or I'll kill you' or `take a dive or I'll kill you'. Damn gamblers.”

 

“Yeah, Shikamaru's gotten about ten times more,” said Ino. “Someone even tried to have him disqualified as proctor because he took Temari to a movie. The Hokage personally guaranteed his integrity.”

 

Hinata was sitting by herself on a bench trying very hard not to let all this get to her. Her father had driven her like a slave for the past month. If the training didn't pay off, she feared he might write her off entirely. She wished Naruto were here. Him talking to her may have made her nervous. But him rooting for her would have made her strong as a lion. But if he had shown up… The unthinkable occurred to her. What if she had to fight him? Suddenly she was relieved that he wasn't going to be there.

 

Shizune walked into the locker room and had a had a look at the six girls who were about to put it all on the line. She wouldn't have relived the experience of the exam for all the money in the world. She knew what it was like.

 

“Ladies, it's time.”

 

---

 

The crowd rose to its feet and applauded as the Feudal Lords for all the lands not in direct conflict the Hidden Leaf were brought in and introduced. They took their places in the judges box. Next, Shikamaru was introduced as proctor.

 

“And now,” called out the announcer, “the moment we've all been waiting for. This year's Genin combatants.”

 

All fifteen fighters were marched into the arena by Shizune and Kakashi. The roar of the crowd was deafening. Osamu wasn't paying much attention to the crowd. His eyes were on his master. And his gaze spoke volumes.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. We politely remind you that anyone caught trying to interfere with the competition in any way will be ejected and possibly prosecuted. We now begin our first match of the day which will be between Gaara of the Hidden Sand Village and Osamu of the Hidden Waterfall Village. All other competitors, please take your place in the participant box.”

 

“Kick his ass, Gaara,” said Kankuro as he left to take his seat.

 

Shikamaru called both fighters to the center. “All right, you know the rules. This goes on until one of you dies or forfeits. For the safety of the competitors, I reserve the right to stop the match at any time and declare a winner if it's clear that one of you is beaten and in danger of being killed. On my mark, get ready… FIGHT!”

 

Quick as a flash, Osamu leaped backwards putting about ninety feet between him and Gaara. He formed a short series of hand signs then took a deep breath with two fingers by his mouth. Gaara knew a fire jutsu was coming. But everyone was astounded by the flame. It was white hot, moved extremely fast, and was enormous in size and duration. Gaara put his sand shield up. When the flame subsided he was in for quite a surprise. The sand had melted down and as it hardened, it had formed glass. This was quite a fire technique. In fact it seemed it was second only to Amaterasu.

 

Gaara quickly summoned sand from his gourd and sent it flying toward Osamu. The boy reacted with a few more hand signs and by the time the sand reached him, he was surrounded by a rotating sphere of white hot flame. The kid was good. Gaara was more intrigued than intimidated.

 

Osamu was making another series of hand signs. He slapped the ground twice. From the spots he slapped emerged two enormous panthers made entirely of flame. The panthers raced over towards Gaara. One leaped at him from the left, the other from the right. He jumped out of the way at the last second. They collided and dissipated.

 

“Wow,” remarked Temari. “Gaara usually doesn't move much in battle. This kid is something else.”

 

Osamu used the same hand seals again but this time slapped the ground eight times. Eight oxen made of flame appeared at once. Dodging was out of the question. Blocking them with sand was out too. Gaara showed no signs of fear as Osamu released them.

 

Gaara produced a massive amount of sand and created eight sand clones. They charged at the oncoming oxen. Sure, these would be melted as well. What Osamu didn't realized was that Gaara had place paper bombs on these clones. The flame lit the bombs and the explosion dissipated all the oxen.

 

Without giving Osamu any chance to react, Gaara started turning the ground itself into sand. He sent a moderate-sized Sand Tsunami in Osamu's direction. At the same time he used the Quicksand technique so that the ground beneath Osamu would try to swallow him up. The wall of sand was as tall as a house. Osamu gave it everything he had and melted it. But to his shock, Gaara was nowhere to be seen.

 

BOOM!

 

Gaara came flying out of the sandy ground in front of him and decked him with all his might. For a moment, Osamu blacked out. When he hit the ground, it jarred him awake again. Gaara wasted no time running over to where he had landed and put a kunai to his throat.

 

“Surrender,” said Gaara. “It's over.”

 

“Damn right it is,” replied Osamu with a grin. He pulled open his shirt to reveal he was covered in paper bombs. “See you in hell.”

 

BANG!

 

When the smoke cleared, Gaara was still alive. He had used the Shield of Shukaku technique to save himself. Physically he was unharmed. Emotionally he was a train wreck. It was like reliving Yashamaru all over again. Once again, someone wanted him dead so badly that they were willing to sacrifice their own life in order to do it.

 

The spectators could scarcely believe it either. The only sound you could hear was people talking to each other about it. No shouts or applause or anything.

 

“The winner is Gaara,” announced Shikamaru. He glanced up to the participant's balcony and signaled Kankuro to come down. Gaara hadn't moved one inch. Kankuro ran over to Gaara's side immediately.

 

“Come on, let's get you out of here.”

 

Though Gaara wasn't hurt, Kankuro helped him off as if he were. When the two got within the confines of the stairwell, Gaara broke down crying.

 

“People are blind sometimes,” said Kankuro. “Blind and stupid. You can't do anything about that. All any of us can do is to be our own personal best. Obviously these guys are up to something. Don't take it personally.”

 

At that exact moment Michiko walked by to start her match. She flashed Gaara a dirty look and kept right on walking.

 

“I dare you to eyeball my brother like that again, bitch,” said Kankuro angrily.

 

She ignored him completely and kept right on walking.

 

“Kankuro, just let it go,” muttered Gaara.

 

---

 

Shino and Michiko entered the field. The shouts for Shino were quite loud. He was the day's first Leaf competitor. They walked to the middle and faced each other. Shino was almost amused to see yet another competitor giving him such a smug look. People like that were just asking to be knocked down a peg. He'd certainly humiliated more than a few cocky opponents in his time.

 

“Begin,” said Shikamaru.

 

Immediately, Shino raised his arms and a swarm of beetles much larger than what he normally produced came forth. The girl hadn't moved or made a hand sign. She just stood there with her arms folded and a smug expression. Shino sent his massive cloud of bugs straight at her.

 

ZAP!

 

Every bug that came at her found itself electrocuted when it came within one foot. She had still not moved. The girl was like a human bug zapper. Now for the first time, Shino was worried.

 

“Like my kekkei genkai?” she asked.

 

Kekkei genkai? So that's why she didn't need to use a hand sign. She put her right index and middle finger together and pointed them at Shino. “Taser!”

 

An electrical current shot from Michiko's fingers and hit Shino. He went down like a ton of bricks. She tried to hit him again before he had a chance to get up but he rolled away. Shino noticed that the attack had a short range. The current was only about three feet long.

 

ZAP!

 

Michiko hadn't noticed the desert beetles that Shino had been saving for Gaara coming out of the ground behind her. It made no difference. They suffered the same fate when they came within a foot. The girl seemed to have an absolute defense against bugs.

 

Shino leaped back and bit one finger.

 

“Summoning: Giant Beetle!”

 

A beetle the size of a large van appeared. Shino hated to use this so early but he reasoned that even if he ruined the element of surprise and lost to Gaara as a result, he could still make Chunin if he put up a good fight in this match.

 

He hopped onto the bug's back and it took flight. The bug began to spit insect venom in spurts down at Michiko. She easily dodged. It was when he tried to dive bomb her that he and quite a few other people were in for a horrible shock. He could see her forming hand seals but didn't recognize the pattern. Little did he or anyone else know that she'd been spying on Kakashi while he had been doing a little training during the thirty days between exams.

 

“Chidori!”

 

Kakashi nearly swallowed his tongue. She hadn't performed the technique well but she did it well enough to slice through the underside of the beetle. Shino was flung off and landed on his face. The dying beetle disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

“Shikamaru, I give.”

 

“Winner: Michiko”

 

Shino picked himself up, brushed himself off and walked back to the stairwell. He was met by Kiba who was on his way down for his own match.

 

“What the hell happened?” asked Kiba.

 

“I lost,” replied Shino.

 

“Yes, I can see that. I can't for the life of me figure out how.”

 

“Well there was no way I could get her with my insects. And taijutsu was out. That Taser was far more painful than it looked. And if she was capable of using Chidori, that's something I just wasn't willing to mess with. Anyway, good luck to you.”

 

“Thanks,” replied Kiba. He walked down the stairs to the field.

 

Shino continued up the stairs. He looked up and at the top of the stairs was his father.

 

“Sorry about the big beetle, dad,” he said. “I guess we need to breed some bugs that can resist…”

 

“Never mind that,” interrupted Shibi. “Are you alright?”

 

“It still stings pretty bad from that Taser but otherwise I'm OK.”

 

“That's what matters. I'm proud of you. You fought well and displayed good judgment in knowing when to stop and not letting your pride get the best of you. Now let's get you checked out by a medic. I just want to make doubly sure you're alright.”

 

---

 

Kurenai sat down next to Kakashi in the stands.

 

“You look as white as a ghost,” she said.

 

“I still can't believe what I just saw,” he said. “How on earth did she pick that up?”

 

“She's a lightning type,” replied Kurenai. “Even someone without a Sharingan can copy a technique that goes along with their own chakra nature if they can memorize the hand seals.”

 

“But when…”

 

“Oh look, my trainee versus yours,” interrupted Kurenai. “I wonder who's going to take this one.”

 

“Hate to disappoint you but Ten Ten has this one in the bag,” he said.

 

“Care to place a wager on that?”

 

“Fine by me. What terms?”

 

Kurenai grinned. “She wins and I cook all your meals for a week. He wins, you paint my apartment.”

 

“You got yourself a bet,” said Kakashi.

 

---

 

Ten Ten stood face-to-face with Kiba and Akamaru.

 

“That mutt pees on me and you're paying my dry cleaning,” she threatened.

 

“Oh that's just his way of saying hello,” said Kiba with a grin.

 

“You two ready?” asked Shikamaru. They both nodded. “FIGHT!”

 

Akamaru wasted no time jumping onto Kiba's back and transforming into a duplicate of Kiba.

 

“Ready, boy? Fang Over Fang!”

 

Ten Ten jumped back and they hit the ground where she'd just been standing.

 

BANG!

 

No one had noticed her place a paper bomb on that spot. The explosion sent Kiba and Akamaru flying twenty feet in opposite directions. Akamaru's transformation dissipated as he hit the ground. Ten Ten whipped out a set of nunchaku and raced over to where Kiba had landed.

 

Though he'd had the wind knocked out of him badly, he had no time to recover. He yanked out a kunai to try to block her but she shattered the blade with her weapon. Kiba had to dodge this way and that to avoid getting hit. All of the sudden, Ten Ten noticed her weapon seemed heavy. She looked and Akamaru had jumped up and latched onto it with his teeth. Kiba jumped up and punched her and sent her flying backwards.

 

“Let's try it again, Akamaru!”

 

“Arf!”

 

Akamaru transformed once again.

 

“Fang Over Fang!”

 

Ten Ten tossed a barrage of shuriken but they were easily deflected by the technique and she got hit head-on. Though she was battered, she wasn't finished just yet. She began to form hand signs. All of the sudden, a huge, black square-shaped seal with Chinese characters appeared on the ground. Kiba and Akamaru were standing in the middle of the seal. She yanked out one of her weapon summoning scrolls and opened it. She set it face-down on the perimeter of the square closest to her. The square and the characters within it glowed.

 

Before Kiba had a chance to wonder what was going on, a shuriken shot out of the ground one inch from where he was standing. Then another a few inches from that. And another. Next thing he knew, shuriken were flying all over the place. He and Akamaru did their best to dodge them but realized they couldn't avoid them all by mere evasion.

 

“Fang Over Fang!”

 

Once again he was able to deflect the weapons. But this had been what Ten Ten had been waiting for. She pulled out another scroll and summoned a bow and arrow. The barrage had been a distraction. She fired an arrow with a paper bomb attached.

 

BANG!

 

This time Kiba was hurt. He'd received a bad flesh wound to his left thigh. He struggled to his feet.

 

Kakashi turned toward Kurenai. “I like my eggplant just lightly salted.”

 

“It's not over yet,” she said.

 

Kiba motioned for Akamaru. “OK boy, you know what we've been planning for. Let's do it. Tunneling Fang!”

 

The two of them dug into the earth. A moment later they flew out at Ten Ten but missed. She dodged them and jumped back. They tried it again but got the same result. They didn't give up. Time after time they kept using Tunneling Fang and she kept dodging. The field was starting to look like Swiss cheese from all the holes they'd dug. It got to the point where they were going in and out of holes they'd already dug.

 

Once more, the two flew out of a hole and she dodged.

 

BAM!

 

Ten Ten was hit on the head from behind and knocked out. Akamaru and a regular clone had come out of that last hole but the real Kiba had not. He'd concealed himself in another hole and when she got too close he'd jumped out and surprised her.

 

“Winner: Kiba!”

 

“I like my paint latex, light blue preferably,” said Kurenai with a grin.

 

Kiba wasn't doing any celebrating. He'd lost a great deal of blood from his leg wound and collapsed to the ground. The medics came out to attend to him.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said the announcer , “We will need to take a short break in order to fill the holes in the field left from the last match. We thank you for your patience. Please be sure to visit the concession stand brought to you by Ichiraku's. Whenever visiting the Land of Fire, think Ichiraku, the first name in ramen.”

 

End Chapter 10

 

© 2009 Joseph Kerner

 

Disclaimer: Naruto is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto