Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Chunin ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter 17

 

“I'm starting to see a little bit of me in so many people,” said Gaara. “In his case, he feels guilty for once turning his back on his own family over past grievances. I've been there. It will be hard for me to fight him, now that I realize this.”

 

“Don't over-think this,” said Kankuro. “We humans are social creatures because we see a little of ourselves in almost everyone. We have something in common so we tend to stick together. Don't let that stop you.”

 

The two were sitting together in the empty stands while all around them the cleaners swept up debris from the aisles. It had taken thirty minutes to heal Gaara and seventy to heal Neji. They had their eyes trained on Neji who was standing in the middle of the field and hadn't moved an inch in over an hour.

 

“He'd make a good statue,” said Kankuro. “Although I pity the first pigeon that messes with him.”

 

“He's deep in thought,” said Gaara.

 

---

 

Hiashi came back into the hospital room.

 

“Alright, I have the snacks. You know, usually when you invite someone, you don't make them go out and buy the food.”

 

“Last one to arrive buys,” said Inoichi. “That's the rule.”

 

“They went easy on you,” said Ino. “I remember the last time I arrived last. It was an actual meal instead of snacks. Ever tried to feed a couple of hungry Akimichis? That was a week's Genin salary down the drain.”

 

“You've got the sound off on the TV,” said Hiashi.

 

`Yeah, well these commentators get on my nerves,” said Choji. “These guys have to talk throughout the three hour intermission. There's only so much interesting stuff to say about the final; certainly not enough to fill up three hours. So they get boring after awhile.”

 

---

 

Hanabi was waiting outside the medical room for Hinata. After what seemed like an eternity she was finally released.

 

“Should we go find Father?” asked Hanabi.

 

“No, we'll stay here and cheer on Neji.”

 

“Hinata?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Will I ever get one of those curse seals?”

 

Hinata stopped dead in her tracks. “Not on your life. First of all you're female. Second of all, once Naruto becomes Hokage there won't be any more Main and Branch.”

 

“You sure have a lot of faith in that kid.” All of the sudden, Hanabi had a mischievous idea. “Hey Hinata!” When Hinata turned around, Hanabi transformed herself into a shirtless Naruto. Hinata took one look and passed out. “Like shooting fish in a barrel.”

 

---

 

Gaara walked up to Neji.

 

“Mind if I stare out into space with you?” he asked.

 

“Go right ahead,” said Neji.

 

“Lee came to me last night,” said Gaara. “Told me exactly what was on his mind and asked me not to go easy on him and I told him to do the same. Well that took guts on his part to tell me he was nervous. And right now I'm nervous myself.”

 

“Me too,” admitted Neji.

 

“But in a way, this one doesn't matter as much, does it? I mean we already had our big re-matches, fought the past, and here we are.”

 

Neji thought for a moment. “It doesn't matter but… it does.”

 

“Oh, no doubt.”

 

The two stood there and waited in silence for the crowds to return.

 

---

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the main event. We've waited months for this moment. Two young warriors have risen up among the Genin of their respective villages and meet head on in a clash of the titans. Without any further interruption, we present to you the Final: Gaara of the Sand vs. Neji Hyuga of the Leaf!”

 

Shikamaru was all grins. “Well, I'm almost done with this enormous pain. And I'm sure you guys are fed up with the whole thing by now as well. So let's get this over with. On my mark… Ready? FIGHT!”

 

Immediately Gaara conjured up a group of Sand Clones and sent them after Neji. With his Byakugan, Neji could see that yet again each one had an exploding tag concealed inside. Gaara had probably wanted him to strike them with one of his taijutsu techniques. Nothing doing. He whipped out some exploding kunai of his own and blew them up before they ever reached him.

 

Just then, one more clone came up out of the ground and hit Neji in the gut. His Byakugan had not spotted it since it had not taken form until the last second. But since Naruto's sneak attack last year, Neji had been slightly more aware of ground attacks. He saw it just in time to flex his abs. With the millions of sit-ups Gai had made him do over the years, he barely felt a thing and easily dispatched the clone with Gentle Fist.

 

Neji raced up to Gaara head-on. He saw Gaara about to dispatch some sand and at the last second, side-stepped. In a blur of speed he appeared beside Gaara and punched him in the face. He'd gotten the idea from what Hinata had done. It appeared the Sand Armor had done nothing. Blood came out of Gaara's mouth. Just then a massive blast of sand hit Neji in the chest and sent him flying backwards about twenty feet.

 

“Sand Shuriken!”

 

“Heavenly Spin!”

 

Neji easily blocked Gaara's attack but the second he stopped spinning, the real surprise came. A hand made of sand popped out of the ground and grabbed Neji by the ankle. This time he hadn't been expecting it. It slammed him violently to the ground several times before he finally broke free.

 

“Prison Sand Burial!”

 

This was bad. Gaara hadn't given Neji even an instant to recover. The ground beneath him began to turn to quicksand and swallow him up. Neji tried to use Heavenly Spin to free himself but it was too late. Within seconds he found himself completely submerged and sinking deeper every moment. He could feel the sand getting tight around him and correctly guessed Gaara was trying to crush him. It would have worked too on another opponent. But since Neji had tried to activate Heavenly Spin, even though he couldn't rotate, he still had chakra pouring out of every chakra point on his body protecting him. That however did not change the fact that he was sinking, that he couldn't free himself, and that he was running out of air.

 

“I'm not going to die like this,” he thought. “No chance. Not after coming so far. I won't be the only one on my team who can't open a Chakra Gate.” He thought back to his training days. About how Gai tried to show them all how it was done but that only Lee seemed able to do it. Neji recalled that it was the first time Lee had beaten him at anything. “OK… think hard… use the spurt of adrenaline you have now and send it to your head… I feel it… FIRST GATE OPEN!” Neji shot out of the earth like a rocket.

 

“Yay Neji!” screamed Lee. “Stronger than you were yesterday for sure!”

 

“Atta boy!” hollered Ten Ten. “Show him what Team Gai is made of!”

 

“Did I just see what I think I saw?” said Kankuro. “No way! The human body can't possibly survive that technique.

 

Temari was speechless. She knew Kimimaro had survived but that he'd had a modified body.

 

Gaara was just as shocked but didn't have time to dwell on it. Neji was coming at him at top speed and his hands were glowing with more intensity than ever. With a gate open, his Gentle Fist would have been three times deadlier. Gaara decided it wise to take to the air again on a cloud of sand. As soon as he'd reached a decent altitude, one high enough where the world's best jumper (not even Lee) could reach him, he turned towards the situation on the ground. He reached out in the direction of the ground and closed his fist, drawing it back towards him. A huge spike of condensed sand emerged which Neji barely dodged. Gaara tried it again. This time Neji cut right through it with Gentle Fist.

 

Not content with two attempts, Gaara rapidly began pulling more and more spikes out of the ground. Neji's speed and power were phenomenal. Within seconds a whole forest of spikes had emerged. Shikamaru had to run up one of the arena walls to get out of the way. Neji didn't bother. He leaped from the sides of one spike after another. Finally he noticed some carelessness on Gaara's part. Gaara had let a particularly tall spike grow close to where he was floating. Neji climbed the spike and leaped up towards Gaara. Gaara in turn floated away thinking he wasn't in range to be hit by Neji.

 

To everyone's shock, Neji unraveled the wrapping on his right arm and flung out the end, catching Gaara. He wrapped him up, reeled him in, grabbed him and plummeted downwards. Neji wasn't capable of using a true Lotus because the rotation of the technique was too much for him. But with a Gate open, he could execute a sort of partial Lotus that would slam Gaara into a spike.

 

BAM!

 

For a moment, no one could breathe. Kankuro and Temari were in utter shock. Neji had slammed Gaara headfirst into a spike, impaling him. He left him up there with the soles of his feet pointing straight up. The other spikes dissipated.

 

Shikamaru walked up to inspect what had happened. He could scarcely believe it either.

 

Neji grinned and closed the Gate. “Well, that was fun. Now come on out, faker!”

 

The impaled figure of Gaara turned to sand and crumbled. The real Gaara emerged from inside the spike.

 

“How did you know?” he asked. “Your eyes were closed when I did it.”

 

“My Byakugan could see into the spike, replied Neji. “So as soon as I re-opened my eyes, I could see you.”

 

Up in the stands, Hanabi looked over at her sister who had her own Byakugan activated.

 

“Did you see how he did it?”

 

Hinata nodded. “He can actually dematerialize into sand and reappear wherever he wants, including a mass of solid sand.”

 

“You impress me Neji Hyuga,” said Gaara. “Using the techniques of your teammate like that is brilliant. The fact that you lack eyes that can copy techniques like Sasuke Uchiha makes it even more impressive.”

 

“When I was younger, I was too foolish to give Lee the credit he deserves,” said Neji. “But I realize that he deserves to make Chunin more than any of us.”

 

“I see that another person besides Lee has opened your eyes as well. You know who I'm talking about. Naruto Uzumaki. The fool who has the wisdom of a sage.”

 

Neji grinned. “Come to think of it, that's one thing you and I have in common. We both earned a beating and a vital lesson from that kid last time.”

 

“I wish he were here to see this. Shall we finish this with power worthy of his praise?”

 

“Oh by all means. I hate long, drawn out battles.”

 

Gaara clapped. “I! Saru! Ne! Uma! Saru! Uma! Hitsuji! Uma!” He clapped a final time. “Sand Tsunami!”

 

This time the massive wave of sand had spikes growing out of it. Neji knew there was no avoiding it. He focused as much chakra as he possibly could.

 

“Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher!”

 

He blasted a hole in the attack wide enough to slip through. He raced at Gaara one more time. His intent was to hit him with Mountain Crusher and while Gaara was reeling back, he'd use Sixty-Four Palms. But it was not to be. Gaara had been expecting him to make such a move. The moment he came through the hole, a massive arm of sand emerged from Gaara's own arm and grabbed Neji by the throat and lifted him in the air.

 

“Surrender!” warned Gaara. “Your chakra will not break this. I have too much of my own chakra running through it.”

 

Neji could see with his Byakugan that he wasn't bluffing. A massive load of chakra flowed from Gaara's body into the sand that was choking him. He couldn't breathe at all and it took all the strength in his neck muscles to avoid getting his neck broken.

 

“Tap your thigh three times to indicate surrender and I will stop,” said Gaara.

 

“Stronger than I was yesterday,” thought Neji to himself. “That's damn right. And more experienced too. Even the strongest opponent can be beaten by a trick he's never seen before.”

 

Neji grabbed the arm. Just like with Kidomaru, he sent damaging chakra of his own through the sand and into Gaara's body. With a loud scream of pain, Gaara let go of him and his Sand Armor crumbled and fell off. Neji took advantage immediately.

 

“Eight Trigrams Two Palms! Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms! Thirty-Two Palms! Sixty-Four Palms! One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!”

 

Gaara collapsed to his hands and knees. He could not rise or even move. He couldn't feel any chakra anywhere in his entire body except in his head. Try as he might, he couldn't move a muscle in his limbs or torso. He sadly hung his head.

 

Shikamaru walked up. “Guys, that was incredible.” He cleared his throat. “Winner and champion of the Winter Tournament: Neji Hyuga!”

 

At the hospital, Hiashi had tried to keep his composure and maintain dignity but when Neji won, he couldn't stop himself from jumping up and down and yelling excitedly.

 

CLICK!

 

He looked over to see the source of that noise. It was Choza with a camera.

 

“Oh you are going to pay through the nose to keep that picture from going public, Hiashi.”

 

The roar of the crowd was louder than ever. But a moment later something even louder would change the mood entirely.

 

BANG!

 

A hole blew through the wall of the arena. Quick as a wink, the three fugitive Waterfall shinobi charged through, straight at the helpless Gaara. They split up and came at him from three different directions.

 

“Oh no you don't!” hollered Neji. He raced up to Nobuo. Before he had a chance to even react, Neji easily killed him with Gentle Fist.

 

Michiko came at him from another side. Shikamaru got in her way and impaled her through the heart with his newly-acquired Shadow Sewing.

 

Shikamaru and Neji turned and saw to their dismay that they couldn't reach Hashirama in time.

 

“Die monster!” he screamed as he raced towards Gaara with a drawn kunai.

 

---

 

“Where am I? What is this place?”

 

Gaara found himself in a dark, rocky place he'd never seen before. He got up and looked around. He could hear the sound of water dripping. It looked as though he was in an intersection of several long tunnels hewn through rock. Each cave lead off in a different direction.

 

“It's so cold in here.”

 

Just then, he swore he could hear a low rumble, sounding almost like a laugh coming from one of the tunnels.

 

“Hello?”

 

He followed the tunnel from where he had heard the laughter. Suddenly he could go no further. A series of wires with sealing tags blocked his path. At first he thought he was alone and that there was nothing on the other side of the wires. This is why he was so horribly startled to see glowing eyes out of the abyss.

 

“Hello again my boy. Good to see you. Been a while.”

 

“This must be a bad dream,” muttered Gaara.

 

“No,” replied the Shukaku. “This is your last and only chance to live. As we speak, an opponent is racing straight towards you and you are helpless to stop him. No one is close enough to help you. Except me. Use me and I will open your chakra points and supply you with my power. Together we will crush this foe.”

 

“No,” replied Gaara.

 

“I see. You prefer death? Or are you just too damn proud to accept help?”

 

“I don't know much about the Nine-Tails,” said Gaara, “But I know I don't have the level of control over you that Naruto has over that thing. I tend to think you are a more psychotic creature than the Fox.”

 

“Irrelevant,” replied Shukaku. “You have no choice.”

 

“If I use you I could end up hurting the spectators. If that…

 

“THE SPECTATORS?!” interrupted Shukaku. “When the hell did you start caring about them? These are the same people who rejected you, who wanted you dead just like the man who is about to strike you down. Defend yourself, fool!”

 

“I am. From you.”

 

Gaara turned his back on the Shukaku and walked away.

 

“NO!” screamed the monster. It flung itself against the wires but to no avail. “Your pride just killed us both!”

 

Gaara touched the mark on his forehead that he'd made so many years ago. “No. Not my pride. My love. I don't want to die… but…”

 

---

 

Gaara was flashed back to reality. Hashirama was closing in. Shikamaru's shadow would never reach him in time. Gaara still couldn't move or use chakra.

 

Suddenly there was a small, subtle flash of white that traveled from Gaara to Hashirama. No one in the stands even saw what happened, but the next thing anyone knew, Hashirama was clutching his chest and falling to the ground. Even in the most hopeless of moments, Gaara had managed to keep his head. The punch to the mouth he'd received from Neji had severely loosened one of his wisdom teeth. He still had chakra use in his head. He sucked out the tooth and spit it at Hahirama with all his might. The tooth hit him in the chest like he'd been shot by a rifle. He fell on his face directly in front of Gaara.

 

“You should have let me kill you,” said Hashirama. “You'll die soon anyway but this death would cause less harm.”

 

Gaara had no time to contemplate what Hashirama was babbling about. A moment later, Tsunade appeared with Raido, Shizune, and Kakashi behind her.

 

“Neji, is he booby trapped?” asked Tsunade.

 

“Your grandfather… was the greatest,” said Hashirama to Tsunade. He seemed to be having trouble speaking.

 

“Not that I can see,” replied Neji.

 

“He earned so much respect in our village.”

 

Tsunade carefully rolled him onto his back and looked at his chest.

 

“Your wound is mortal,” she announced. “Nothing can be done.”

 

“We sent the greatest fighter we ever produced after him.”

 

“Did you hear what I just said?” asked Tsunade.

 

“But he failed. And thus, the First Hokage earned so much respect among us for his strength. That's why my father named me after him. But him… who failed…”

 

“Don't try to talk,” said Tsunade. “It will only make it more painful.”

 

“Him that… failed… lives…” Hashirama struggled to breathe. “He's with… THEM… now… and… they want… I had to stop… I…” But he couldn't continue. He took one last breath and died.

 

Tsunade closed Hashirama's eyes and looked up at Gaara. “You got his aortic arch.”

 

Kankuro, Temari, and all three Sand Jonin appeared on the field.

 

“My gosh, is he all right?” asked Baki.

 

“He's fine,” said Neji. He looked over at Gaara. “Looks like we both defeated someone better than ourselves today. I know for a fact that you're a better shinobi than me. And that this guy was better than both of us. I guess we learned a lot about ourselves and what we can do when we went after Sasuke, huh?”

 

“You said it,” replied Gaara.

 

Temari and Kankuro helped him to his feet. Just then, every single spectator from the Hidden Sand Village broke into thunderous applause. Kankuro couldn't help but notice that the younger ones were the loudest and of the younger ones, the females seemed particularly enthusiastic.

 

“You seem to have groupies here,” he said with a grin.

 

“Shows you what you know, Shukaku,” thought Gaara to himself. “Once rejected but not always. Not when you have love within.”

 

---

 

Kiba could hear Shino angrily grumbling to himself.

 

“OK, what's the problem?”

 

“Hmph! I do everything I can against Michiko and lose and then Shikamaru easily kills her with one hit.”

 

Everyone who had participated was gathered in the center of the arena for the closing ceremonies of the tournament. Ino and Choji had to sit in wheelchairs but they were also present. They were enduring about the longest, most pointless, and most boring speech any of them had ever heard from Koharu about the ninja of tomorrow. Tsunade looked like she was about to deck the old lady if she didn't shut up soon.

 

Finally Koharu's speech ended. The applause was less than enthusiastic and more polite than anything. Ebizo had actually fallen asleep in his seat. The applause woke him up.

 

Tsunade took the microphone. “Yes, yes, that was… uh… certainly inspirational. Now the moment we've all been waiting for.” Anko and Baki each appeared in a puff of smoke carrying large boxes. “These contain vests worn by ninja of Chunin level or higher; green for Leaf, tan for Sand. Let's find out who will be getting one. We have the results from the judges.”

 

She handed the microphone over to Baki.

 

“Promotions to Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Sand this year go to… all three participants. Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara.”

 

Kankuro and Temari were stunned. They'd both lost in the first round and didn't expect to make it. Baki handed out vests to all three of them and then handed the microphone over to Anko.

 

“Promotions to Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Leaf this year go to… five participants. Hinata Hyuga, Choji Akimichi, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuga, and Rock Lee.”

 

“Told you I'd make it, little buddy,” whispered Choji.

 

Anko handed vests out to all five of them.

 

Tsunade took the microphone back. “Well, this leaves only one matter of business left. The next Exams will be held in the Hidden Sand starting July 1st. I can assure you the temperature should be a great deal warmer by then.”

 

---

 

All the newly promoted Chunin and their families had a celebratory dinner that night at a restaurant near the stadium. Sakura glanced over to the table where Sand Siblings and Baki were seated. She leaned over to Ino.

 

“Doesn't that sensei of theirs kind of give you the creeps a little?” she whispered.

 

“Oh he's OK,” said Ino. “Came into our family's shop a couple times to buy white roses for a friend that died. Seemed pleasant enough. You actually going to wear that thing?”

 

Sakura looked down at the vest. “Naw. Not very fashionable, is it?”

 

“I will wear it!” said Lee proudly. “Now I can finally look just like Gai Sensei.

 

Gai grinned. “Thank you Lee. I'm flattered. But you must be your own ninja. You must always remember… NO LEE, THAT'S NOT WATER!”

 

Too late.

 

 

THE END

 

© 2009 Joseph Kerner

 

Disclaimer: Naruto is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto

 

Thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate it.