Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Way of the Jinchuuriki ❯ Arc 3, Chapter 19 - Chunin Exam Finals ( Chapter 19 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Zagger the Bloody Angel 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.19.2011 | Updated On: 06.19.2011 | Pages: 6 | Words: 10.8K | Visits: 233 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.19.2011 | Updated On: 06.19.2011 | Pages: 6 | Words: 10.8K | Visits: 233 | Status: Completed
It was loud, that she knew well. She had to hold her ears to keep from hissing in pain and she didn't have the same kind of senses as her partner Kerlya had and this was painful. And she even doubted that it was going to stay this quiet when the fights started. She would only hope they quieted down during the fights.
Otherwise Sakura would have to surgically remove some voice boxes of people nearby her.
At least she wasn't feeling the worst of it. She was quite sure Kiba was at he was he nearly fell over after someone yelled directly behind him. She had to restrain him from clawing that person's face off.
Down on the arena floor Kerlya was glad that she wasn't apart of the crowd. Just from where she stood her ears were echoing in pain. She couldn't imagine being up in the crowd otherwise she would have passed out due to her ear buds exploding. "Damn where is Yugito… Let's just get this over with."
Sasuke could only nod in agreement as he wanted to start despite his match was after Kerlya's. Surprisingly the copy cat, who had a reputation of being extremely late to everything, had brought him here early for some reason. "I wonder what the pool is at now…"
"Pool?" Lee said in confusion as the first thing he thought of was naturally a swimming pool and he had to wonder why Sasuke wanted to go swimming at a time like this.
Catching her teammate's confusion, and knowing he was very dense at times, Tenten rubbed her temple before explaining to him. "He meant the betting pool, Lee. A lot of people are gambling on the outcome of the first round matches and even who will win the tournament overall. Hell some made bracket bets."
"Bracket bets?" Neji raised his eyebrow as he didn't understand at first before almost slapping his forehead. "Oh… Making predictions to see who moves on to each fight and eventually choosing the winner of it all."
"Why are any of you interested in this? We're here to fight and become chunin!" Lee yelled at his friends as he thought it was more imperative to focus on their fights instead of people betting.
While they all had to admit he had a point, even the Rock ninja that were staying quiet, every single one of them had made bets of their own and filled out a bracket. They could make some wicked money by being correct about who was going to win.
"Talkative, aren't you guys?" Kakashi stated in a poof of smoke as he stood in front of him. "Alright, I'm your examiner and referee for today. I believe all of you know most of the rules so there no point going over most of them. However there are a few changes from the prelims I should tell you about."
"The field will not be restored back to its normal state after each fight so you will have to adapt to the changes, especially if they are wide spread." Kakashi commented as he was sure that someone was going to alter the arena during the finals, most likely Gaara.
"There is only one other rule changes and it is quite simple concept to grasp. You cannot leave the stadium at any time or enter the stands during a fight. The only exception to this is if you are taken out of the stadium. If that is the case the opponent must halt their attack until they return into the boundaries or they are disqualified for endangering other lives." Kakashi stated with his one eye gazing upon the ten gennin sternly, making sure they understood.
Seeing that there was no arguments, even from Gaara who seemed to be the most likely to break the exemption of the second rule, Kakashi turned his attention to the booth as the Kages began to arrive. "Alright then… The Hokage will make his announcement when he arrives."
In the booth were the Kages sat to watch their gennin compete, a seat designed for each different Kage despite most never having to attend one at the same time, both the Third Tsuchikage and the Fourth Kazekage were patiently waiting for the Hokage with their guards.
Obviously both knew something was up but the young, compared to the old Tsuchikage, Kazekage spoke with mild irritation. "There better have been something major to keep him waiting like this."
"I wouldn't doubt it, boy." The Tsuchikage glared as his country was also not on good terms with the Sand. "If you had paid any attention you would notice that the land of fire and rice right now are extremely tense… War may break out between the Sound and Leaf very soon."
The Kazekage nodded as he flicked his hand through his hair as he did notice that. "Good. Gaara needs combat experience and I'll make sure to send him along with them when it finally erupts."
Only being able to nod, the Tsuchikage understood the necessity of having a jinchuuriki needing battle experience on a large scale. It was make them that more effective. "Ah… Lord Hokage. You are a little late."
"Sorry for the delay, Lord Tsuchikage." Hizuren commented as he lightly bowed as did his two guards. "However I was going over some critical details with my head ninjas here if the Sound attempts to push its boundaries again."
Neither Kage missed the acknowledgement of his head ninjas. Both were the most dangerous ninja in Konoha, possibly more deadly the Hokage. The Phantom Assassin Uchiha Itachi and the Prince of Konoha Namikaze-Mitarashi Naruto. Even if anyone had dreamed to think about assassinating the Hokage today they would be dealt with handily by the two.
"If you wouldn't mind if I start this so we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the day from our grievances." Sarutobi softly spoke but both Kage's simply nodded in agreement.
Both were glad that they didn't have to deal with the mind numbing nuisance known as their only unbeaten and nameless advisory for the next couple of days. How they loved the Chunin Exams.
"Good morning everyone!" The Hokage began as he stood at the front the booth, clearly seen by all in the stadium. "Thank you for attending the Seventeenth Bi-Annual Chunin Exams here in our great village! I remind all of those that are guest to behave accordingly. I wouldn't want to be forced to throw someone out."
Getting a chuckle from most of the crowd, the Hokage's attention turned to the ten standing in the arena along with Kakashi. "Gennin of the Leaf, the Rock and the Sand… May you remember why you are here. Today you are here to compete for a chance of being promoted to chunin. Hold nothing back and show us why you are deserving of such a promotion and give us a great show!"
"You may begin!" Hizuren finished, the Hokage only smiled at everyone as he stood at the balcony a little longer before nodding to Kakashi to take over.
Seating in the middle seat, between the two visiting Kages, the elderly Hokage pulled out his own bracket and smirked. "So are you sure of this, Naruto? I don't like to think I would lose a couple thousand on this."
"Oh good… I thought I was the only one that threw his money in the lot." The Kazekage gasped in relief before pulling out his own bracket and looked at it. "I have Gaara and Raiu in the finals. It makes the most sense since the two are jinchuuriki and vessels are always difficult to defeat. Gaara should win but I am unsure of Raiu's abilities."
"Raiu will win." The Tsuchikage commented before pulling out his own bracket as he believed it was a sure thing and walk out of here with ten thousand in his pocket at the very least. "This style sets it up so were he will not be tested until the finals by Gaara and by then he'll be worn down by his competition."
"Naruto are you sure?" The Hokage said one last time as he looked at his bracket and the blonde nodded. "Alright then… The finals will be Sasuke and Raiu and Raiu will win as Sasuke will be utterly exhausted when the face him. …I don't like going against my own ninja, Naruto."
"He's got a point though, Lord Hokage. I love my brother but if he can get past Gaara he will be exhausted and have to have another fight just to get to the finals. Raiu should take this." Itachi commented before pulling out his own bracket revealing he had Raiu and Lee, surprisingly, in the finals.
Seeing that another guard was in the bet as well, finally all guards but Naruto pulled out their own bracket and started bickering with one another and the Kages.
Naruto simply twitched. Was this how Kage's spent their free time? If this was any indicator on what they did on business trips…
No wonder why nothing ever got done.
Down below the arena slowly began to quiet down as all gennin outside of Kerlya and Aschen stayed on the ground. All Konoha gennin in the stands tensed as they remembered how easily she handled the sound gennin. It didn't help their cause because Ino was close to beating if she had actually knocked Ralts unconscious.
"I don't feel good about this… While my mother and sister say Kerlya is a genius and that why she graduated early… We have always been close in skill." Kiba spoke with a little trepidation about this fight as his squad had seen how good her team was in the forest.
"Don't worry… I know Kerlya has improved greatly in this last month if it is anything compared to how much I've come along." Sakura spoke with a confident smirk as she knew that Yugito's training match Naruto's in intensity and growth. "Still this girl worries me. Just from her movements in her fight in the prelims…"
"She's lighting fast with the nunchuck and she seems to have a mastery for water jutsu… For a Rock ninja." Shino commented as he analyzed her when they caught a glimpse of them in the forest.
"And she has a lot of chakra for a kunoichi." Hinata spoke, half her face covered in bandages as her skin still had not recovered completely and would be badly scarred when it did as she refused a skin graft.
Sakura could only shake her head as she looked down at her friend and flicked her hand through her hair. "I'm still not worried. I know she has been prepared for much worse than what that Rock kunoichi can offer. It may be close… But I have faith."
Finally back down at the arena, Kakashi went through his progressions before checking one last time with the two fighters. "If both of you are prepared… Then let the first battle of the Chunin Exam Finals start!"
Kerlya didn't waste time and charged straight towards Aschen with her hands drawn to her claws in case her opponent drew her nunchuck. She wasn't disappointed when the black haired girl drew forth her weapon of choice and withdrew her claws to meet the weapon.
But to her greatest surprise, Aschen easily shifted to the side with frightening agility and flicked her nunchuck up and into her chest. Or so the Rock gennin thought would happen as she was caught off guard by Kerlya's agility, matching her own, and shifting out of the blow and drew her claw to her face.
Flipping back to avoid the blow, she dragged her hand after a few seals against the ground and ran forward towards as Ralts joined his mistress and was fed a pill and they began their transformation. Not going to let this happen, she tossed her nunchuck ahead towards her partner to put him out of this early.
With a crack, Ralts immediately turned back to his canine form much to Kerlya's surprise. The amount of force it took to knock Ralts down so easily… Frightened her. She had only seen Naruto and Yugito put him down without any trouble. …But she gave up her weapon to do it.
Lifting the nunchuck she drew it into her own pouch and slashed out at Aschen as she arrive but to her horror she had a new weapon drawn… A kusarigama.
It was an odd weapon choice, she had to admit, but the weapon was said to be once popular by the ninjas of old when the samurai were in control. The small hand scythe was normally used to cut weeds but the ball bearing at the end was to smash into the armor of samurai and knock them unconscious.
Her claws could barely do anything to block the small scythe as it was too late to counter the blade. So putting her fist into the mid handle of the weapon, only her forearm was gashed as the blade went across it before hooking her claw and pulling it off.
Jumping back and hissing, she had no time to stand still as Aschen began twirling the ball and chain on the other end and flicked it towards her skull. Ducking beneath and rushing her Kerlya started a chain of seals before she was suddenly interrupted as a geyser of water burst right in front of her, halting her progress.
"Ah… I expected as much." Aschen grinned as saw the water burst out from a large crack in the ground that suddenly emerged. "It was said that the Second Hokage had just as much to do with Konoha's creation… As he filled an underground water reservoir to make the land fertile and give his people a water source. It seems one of my clones found it and tunneled a supply of water to me."
Kerlya's eyes widened as Aschen began going through a long series of hand seals as water began to pour around them saturate the ground before other geysers erupted as the earth below gave way and started filling the arena floor. She tried to charge but her opponent finished the seals too quickly. "Suiton: Suiryudan."
A dragon formed from the first well of gushing water and roared before and nearly drove Kerlya off her feet. If she had not slid underneath the rest of the blast she would have been in real trouble as the dragon crashed into the wall and caused severe damage.
Rolling away from the ball bearing and rushing her opponents, she growled loudly as her opponent finished another series of seals and water began to spin behind her. "Suiton: Daibakufu."
The water behind her shot out in a giant mass of spiraling water, bearing down onto Kerlya. She did not hesitate for a second with a quick push off from the ground, her body spun into her clan's most well known technique. "TSUGA!"
Tearing through the water burst with almost simplistic ease, Kerlya flipped out of her spin and tossed her other claw towards Aschen. She expected her opponent to block it with her small scythe and she did but this was what she wanted as she drew out two kunai and landed in front of her and sliced out at her mid section.
Using the chain to stop the blow, Aschen's eye widened as the kunai snapped the chain with unreal ease before the other knocked the other half of the kusarigama from her hand. Not wanting to stay this close, she tried to jump back but Kerlya had expected this and while she could not keep her there she did the next best thing.
She slammed her foot into the girl's stomach.
Tumbling across the small layer of water that had formed over the ground as they geysers stop gushing water, Aschen's gaze went straight to see what her opponent was doing. See Kerlya charging her to close the ground quickly, she had no choice in this as it was going to be a close range battle. So drawing two sais, she jumped into a counter charge.
The weapons met with a loud clang as the two met each others slash. Kerlya was faster to react to and slashed out her other kunai but it was blocked to before Aschen followed with a slash from her own. Keeping up, she stopped the slash and tried to stab through Aschen's guard only for the sai to catch the kunai in its guard and nearly rip it out of Kerlya's grip.
As the two continued exchanging slashes only for them to be deflected, Kiba looked onto the fight with a sense of pride for his clan and slight irritation that Kerlya had bested him again. "Yeah! Kick her ass! Show her who the boss is!"
"How quickly he changes his tune…" Chouji muttered as he watched the fight in slight awe as well but in irritation on how quickly Kiba jumped on the bandwagon. "But she can't keep this up. It looks like she's fighting a weapon's mistress in her own game. Only Tenten probably can match her in such a contest."
Sakura could only grin at this outcome and knew this was in Kerlya's favor. And at that moment Yugito had shown up to watch of the rest of the gennin. "Yes that is true but… Kerlya has hardly wasted any chakra so far. She is simply wearing down Aschen's guard and then she is going to finish this as that girl is almost already out of chakra and can't defend an attack with chakra and will be too battered to physically withstand one."
"It won't be long now… Kerlya almost has her." Sakura finished as she remembered when the two were a match for another and Kerlya always seemed to win their fights as this was how she naturally fought.
Wear the opponent down then bombard them with overwhelming strength or jutsu. A style she and Sasuke had begun to pick up from their fellow team mate.
Aschen knew this was not going in her favor and had to either end this fight or get away. She was easily better then her with bladed weapons but this was the problem. She was no slouch and match her move for move and while she could eventually win this was taking its toll on her and even if she won this fight she might not be able to win her next as there was only going to be a one match interval as this was an elimination bout.
Kerlya kept her focus as while she could see Aschen was slowly wearing down her hand speed was increasing each second as if she wanted to put an end to this. If she kept this too close for very much longer she would be on the wrong end of her fury of slashes and could be scarred to life if she was lucky.
Stepping it up and turning this into not only a battle of weapons, Kerlya found and opening and spun dropped a round house into Aschen's chest. The girl was so surprised as they both had been battling with their blades only that she slid back before screaming out as she threw her sai at her. So countering with her kunai to deflect it.
Both took off towards the other as their weapons collided, knocking the kunai into the water next to Aschen and the sai into the air by Kerlya's head. Grabbing the weapon, they met again in a series of slashes in an equal bout.
It seemed Aschen was not use to the most basic ninja weapon, the kunai. Kerlya quickly spotted this and with the sai, she caught it within its guard and ripped it out of her gasp but on the down side was that Aschen had done the same.
Not going to let that stand, the Inuzuka slammed the back of her fist across the Rock kunoichi's check bone before thrusting the sai in. Aschen caught it in her guard but was unable to rip it free but this cost her as their weapons were locked. Kerlya brought the fight into a clench.
Driving her knee into the girl's stomach repeatedly as she kept the sais locked, Kerlya's felt them slipping from her grasp and it wouldn't be too long till Aschen had both again. And it wasn't helping that the girl seemed to know enough of hand-to-hand to realize how to release herself form a one handed clench.
Having her clench hand knocked away from the back, Kerlya lost grip of the sai and skidded back from Aschen as she now had both her sais and was almost on her. There was almost nothing she could do to stop this attack. There wasn't enough time for her to draw two kunai and retrieve the ones she had lost.
But her day was saved as Ralts was awake again and took Aschen's feet out from underneath her with a well timed tackle. The dog couldn't do much else but paddle away as the water was enough for him to be unable to walk regularly when Aschen threw one of her sais towards the canine.
Kerlya intercepted it with one of her kunai before she went through a series of hand seals and flipped into the air, righting herself and giving her one last look of her opponent as she took a deep breath. "Katon: Inu no Makai!"
"NO WAY!" Kiba screamed out in shocked as he witnessed Kerlya using the technique. "The Dogs of Hell?! She can actually use them!"
"What's the problem? You sound upset and a… A little scared." Ino spoke in worry as Kiba, while always very vocal and emotional, did not seem to be one to show fear.
"The Dogs of Hell is a secret technique of our clan… Only able to be used by those with a fire affinity." Kiba started with narrowed eyes as he saw this technique as almost forbidden. "It is said that the owner of the jutsu can communicate with the deceased partners of fallen clansman and call them forth into bodies of fire and have them assault their opponent. And if one is skilled enough with them…"
"Each single dog could have the impact of a Grand Fireball." Kiba finished with narrowed eyes. "The amount of chakra it takes would mean that she has easily more than double of my own as I can't even dream of using that technique right now."
"Kiba…" Hana's voice spoke, knowing this outcome was likely after she first started teaching Kerlya this the month before the exam. "Don't let your jealousy get the better of you little bro… I only taught this to Kerlya as I was asked to and I don't turn Naruto down."
Kiba could only growl but kept is eyes on the match. If Kerlya was this strong now… He had to take his training to a whole different level. He was the heir to the clan.
He couldn't let one of is own clansmen be stronger then he was.
A fury of flames spewed from her mouth almost like wave of fire at first. The flames quickly took shape into a dozen full sized dogs, like those of their clan. All landed on the water and steam burst from their landing, blocking the view for anyone, before all twelve burst from the steam and straight to Aschen.
The said Rock kunoichi's eyes widened at the sight before her, unsure how to handle this. Her chakra was almost non existent and her muscles burned and stung. A soldier pill would take care of this problem as it soothed the muscles and refilled the chakra but she didn't have one on her at the moment.
There was only one thing she could do about this. She had to dodge.
Flipping over the first one, the next jumped to where she had flipped but she easily slid underneath it. However to her immense surprise a fire dog slid under his own brethren to hit her. Barely rolling out of the way, she was forced to her feet quickly just to slide out of the way of the next.
It was almost as… As if these dogs were sentient beings and had there own will as her opponent did not seem like she was controlling the movement of these flaming canine. That was quite disturbing to her but she had no time to think about this any longer.
Being forced to the air as one came from behind, two more jumped to meet her in mid air. She didn't have the chakra to burst higher or halt her rise into the air so the only thing she could do was throw her sais at the two flaming beasts. But even that did not work to how she expected.
Both erupted and their flames spewed over her. Her luck happened to be that the distance the flames traveled dulled the impact and the burns. Rolling her body so she could see below, her eyes widened as each canine came for her in mid air. There was no way she was going to dodge this! She could avoid a few but not all ten!
Pulling out as many weapons as she could to throw, she was only able to take care of five before the rest overwhelmed her and ignited their flames around her.
Aschen screamed out as the flames burned around and collapsed onto her being. The flames were hotter then even Satoshi's own and felt like they really came from hell.
Thankfully the pain washed away as she finally hit the water and sunk into the small depth. The fire thankfully could not withstand the water and was finally extinguished. There was no resistance to stave off the oncoming darkness and she let herself slip into unconsciousness.
"Winner Inuzuka Kerlya!" Kakashi announced as he felt Aschen pass out and knew she would not be getting up any time soon.
At that very moment Kerlya fell onto her knees, sweat pouring dampening her clothing. She had used almost all of her chakra in that attack and the rest to match Aschen's movements. She had hoped she could make it to the next fight against Lee without having to resort to the Dogs of Hell but… Now she was in trouble.
She was, however, surprised when she was helped to her feet by the same gennin she was currently thinking about along with Sasuke. "Thanks guys…"
"Don't mention it! You are a leaf shinobi like we are and we are suppose to help one another! Now I'll get you to the stands before Sasuke's fight starts or I'll do a hundred laps around Konoha before our match!" Lee happily chirped before he took over completely for Sasuke seeing that the next fight was the Uchiha's.
Blushing, for reasons unknown, Kerlya felt tempted to slow down their progress. She didn't doubt Lee could run a hundred laps around Konoha during this fight and that would have to drain him… But she also found the tactic against a fellow leaf shinobi to be cheep. She would save that for someone that deserved it, not Lee.
But it seemed her luck was about to change. Her own personal medic had come to help her. How she loved her team. It was the perfect design. A great illusionist, a powerful close to mid range combat specialist, an infamous ninjutsu powerhouse and an apprentice medic with a great understanding of medicine.
The sand swirled before him and in within it Gaara had appeared on the arena floor. Sasuke smirked at this. He would have to thank Sakura for giving everything he needed to defeat the sand vessel.
Pocketing his hands, acting like was beneath him, Sasuke didn't even bother to pay attention to the sand shinobi. Of course this was a tactic to get him riled and have him attack him, but he knew the sand shinobi to keep his composure. He, in fact, was counting on it.
"I hope little bro isn't too confident about this…" Miko groaned after she caught glimpse of what Sasuke was doing. "He'll get his ass handed to him if he doesn't take this seriously…"
"He's taking it seriously. I have to hand it to him though. He's using Kakashi's own taijutsu style as only he keeps such a lax stance." Mikoto comforted her daughter as she quickly caught hold of what Sasuke had been trained in over the last month.
"I just hope he doesn't blow it. After Kerlya winning the first match it would be a shame to see him go down." Hana stated, seating next to them after she went to go check on Kiba and his friends. "Yugi… What do you think?"
Looking down in the arena with a critical eye, Yugito shrugged as she slid in by Mikoto. "It is hard to say. I know Gaara most likely trained but without a teacher like Sasuke had I can't be sure how far he progressed. But nonetheless this will be a close fight and either can win. And even if they do win… The front portion of the tournament is brutal path to the final."
"Tell me about it… The Rock gennin doesn't even look like he's going to get a challenge before he gets to the final round." Miko groaned at the set up of the matches and felt like it was rigged. Not that anyone could rig it within Naruto's sensory range but still…
"Alright you two!" Kakashi motioned to Sasuke and Gaara, making eye contact with Sasuke for a moment. "I want a good and clean fight. …Ah, who am I kidding! Fight as dirty as you want! Begin!"
"Has Kakashi lost his mind?" Hizuren twitched in the Hokage booth besides the Naruto and Itachi.
"Probably." Naruto responded with his norm before shrugging his shoulders. "I would have lost mine training my team… But since I never was sane I couldn't."
While Itachi and the Third twitched at Naruto, the sand began to carefully pour from Gaara's gourd. The rock girl had really altered his plans drastically. He could still use his sand while it was wet but it was far more difficult to do so and after it was completely saturated it was useless.
He could always tunnel for more and create a small outlet so he could use as much as he needed. Yet if he wasn't close enough to it the sand would be useless. But nonetheless…
As Gaara started to create what seemed to be an air tunnel in the foot, maybe two, deep water Sasuke knew he had to act there. He couldn't let Gaara gather the sand he needed. Sure his strategy was to take what the sand ninja threw out and throw it back at him but soon as he brought more sand into the equation…
Rushing across the shallow water and to his opponent, Sasuke veered directions suddenly as the sand leapt up to counter his attack. But at the very moment Sasuke changed directions he vanished.
Oh Gaara was not happy at the moment. The last person that just vanished on him was that pink haired girl he fought in the preliminaries. So if he just vanished… He hated fucking speedsters!
Reappearing directly behind Gaara, Sasuke's fist caught his cheek as Gaara turned to see what had happened and knocked him back. Not hesitating as Gaara slid from him, he kept his pace and rushed the sand wielder, ducking to the side of his sand and jumping into his ring and catching the strap of his gourd.
Using a little of what Kerlya had done to Aschen, Sasuke repeatedly drove his knee into Gaara's abdomen before swing Gaara full circle and tossing him towards the closest wall just as his sand surrounded him.
The sand collapsed onto Sasuke but the Uchiha quickly switched out and found Gaara on the surface of the stadium's wall. Twirling a few shuriken from his pouch, he tossed them towards Gaara and followed behind. The sand did as he expected and preemptively intercepted his projectiles and attempted to lash out at him.
Using a burst of his superior speed, he appeared above Gaara but the red head's smirk suddenly had him on guard. He instantly realized why as multiple spikes of sand shot around Gaara, forming a dangerous shield. Deciding not to attack, he focused chakra to his feet and pushed off the first spike to gather some distance and solve how to attack now.
But soon as he pushed off the sand spikes burst out towards him. Cursing and dropping to the water, he pushed off and into the air and over the spikes. Yet it wasn't enough as the sand tendrils shattered and small cutting spikes tore through Sasuke. His arms were cut heavily, protecting his face and torso but his vitals were unharmed.
Landing and evaluating Gaara from a distance, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the dark smirk adorned on the red head's face. He liked this kid less and less. He cared less if he was a jinchuuriki and deserved to be pitied… This guy wanted nothing but blood. That was a monster by his definition.
Having an idea, Sasuke went through a variety of seals in rapid succession before his tri tomoe Sharingan spun. "Sution: Suiryudan!"
The dragon burst from the shallow water before Sasuke and roared as it crashed into the spot Gaara had occupied. The Suna shinobi wisely jumped up to avoid the dragon and having his sand soaked. But what caught his attention was the lack of damaged the dragon had done to the wall compared to the Rock Kunoichi…
It was as if very little chakra was put into it… It was a set up!
Looking straight ahead, Sasuke was already on Gaara with his hands burning with electricity that admitted what seemed to be chirping. Lashing the sand he had out in his gourd towards the Uchiha to keep this attack from striking out against him.
Gaara fell into Sasuke's trap once more as the bolts of electricity from one palm fired into the sand and dispersed it as his other hand still held the electricity in his palm as he thrusted it forward, towards Gaara's chest. "CHIDORI!"
At the very last second Gaara managed to twist away from the blow. But his lack of speed was obvious as Sasuke quickly plunged it through the side of his rib cage, taking a few ribs with the electrical surge.
The red head yelled as he hit, water splashed around him. Before his seal had been set as it was the sand demon would have taken care of the wound and its presence would have filled him in moments. The problem was now the way it was set… It could still heal him but it could not do so as quickly. His only benefit was now being able to sleep and controlling the demon's powers as his own.
Thrashing about, trying to pick himself up and continue the fight, Gaara fell forward as he stood onto one knee. His eyes watched Sasuke carefully as he paced around him, looking for a new opening to attack.
Narrowing his eyes at this, Gaara gripped his wounded rib cage and commanded the last of his sand into a dome around him.
"Not happening… Surio no jutsu!" Sasuke growled out before a shadow clone burst from the ground before and surrounded Gaara before Sasuke started the seals of Chidori once more. "Surrender now or my Chidori will take your head."
Never having been put in a position like this before, never having so little sand to aid him, Gaara growled out at the Uchiha. This was humiliating. He was going to be beaten by this weakling? He was Gaara of the Desert and no one defeat him!
"GO AHEAD AND TRY!" Gaara roared out as golden charka burst around him and dispersed the water prison and the shadow clone.
Sasuke's eyes widened in horror as the golden chakra attracted every grain of sand in the area to Gaara. It quickly took shape, far faster then anything he had ever seen before. But the horror had only begun as Gaara's shape was no final.
He had taken the form the Tanuki within his gut.
Thanking his lucky stars that he had already went through the seals and had the chakra ready, the Chidori burst to life. Sasuke knew that he had only one more shot in this fight. Sure he had enough chakra for another Chidori but…
He doubted he would get the chance to use another if this one failed.
With no hesitation, Sasuke charged as he pulled his electrified hand back and drew a kunai with his other. Gaara countered his charge with a deafening roar before he struck out his claw.
Batting it with his other arm, Sasuke stuck the kunai and used it to catapult himself into the air. The other claw extended out and slashed at his face. Moving just enough so that it didn't take his head, three blood marks trailed down his cheek as he drug the lighting in his palm down the arm to slow his pace and to aim carefully to end this battle.
That turned to be a bad move as the other claw slashed out and caught him, his left arm guarding against the blow but did little to nothing to stop the blow. Ignoring the gash marks as he tumbled, he thrusted the lighting in his palm to the closest body part to him. That just happened to be Gaara's hip.
Gaara roared out in agony as the Chidori pierced through his hip bone and brought him down to one knee. But it wasn't over as he noted Sasuke rolling away. He swatted the boy away with his tail but he still noted that he was smirking… How dare he smirk at…?
Watching Gaara be engulfed by the explosion of his tag, stuck into the bottom of his tail, Sasuke slowly stood and wiped the blood from his face. Staring at the debris of his fallen foe, he waited to see the result. If he failed there was little more he could do but try one more Chidori and burn the last of his chakra he was trying to conserve.
Finally a smirk graced his lips as the cloud of debris settled and Gaara laid on a small pile of sand that extended above the water's reach. He was out cold.
"Uchiha Sasuke is the victor!" Kakashi announced to the crowd while grinning at Sasuke for win the fight despite the difficult opponent he was up against.
"YES! SASUKE!" Sakura thrusted her fist into the air, having return from healing Kerlya the best she could, happy to see both her friends one their first fight and continue their shot at winning the tournament and becoming chunin.
"Wow… The Chidori huh?" Mikoto smirked at her youngest son as he turned his head towards them and waved. "Now that he has made it past Gaara his next fight should be easier but… He burned through a lot of chakra to beat Gaara."
Hinata only nodded as everyone was sitting close together and enjoying the fights with one another. "From what I can see he has enough to use that technique again one more time before he depletes his coils. …But I don't think Sasuke is stupid enough to use it again."
"Oh I'm sure Sasuke has something up his sleeve. I know little bro wouldn't just show off everything in his first fight even if he was going up against a high caliber opponent." Miko stated as she really wanted to get out and fight now after watching the last two fights.
How she wished she was a gennin again. They had so much more fun.
"Two for two right now… Looks like you may be right about this, Naruto." Hizuren spoke as he checked off another win in his favor on his bracket. "So how are your brackets coming?"
Neither the Tsuchikage nor Kazekage said a word as they angrily crossed out Gaara from their brackets as they had thought Gaara winning was a sure thing. Leave it to Konoha and an Uchiha to screw everything up.
Finally the fourth Kazekage growled out. "Dammit! If it wasn't for that extra seal… Dammit! That seals is a blessing and a curse! Now Gaara is in heavier control but he can't release as much of it as once!"
"Don't be too sore, Lord Kazekage." The elderly Tsuchikage spoke with a smirk as his bracket was entirely crushed yet as Raiu had yet to fight. "After all he was trained by the Prince of Konoha here. It isn't too much of a surprise as I had this fight going either way and the winner to fight Raiu in the finals."
"Yeah, yeah… Whatever. Let's just wait and see who wins out of everyone. …Maybe I can still win some betting in the single matches." The fourth Kazekage groaned as he came out all the way here to Konoha to watch his only gennin, his son at that, lose in the first round.
Their trip home was going to be a silent one.
"Crap… I have to fight again." Kerlya groaned, still exhausted from her battle against Aschen. The only bright side was she wasn't running on fumes like she was right after the fight. She thanked Sakura for that.
She wanted to fight and to keep going but as she was right now she couldn't stand up against Lee. She had difficulties the one time they sparred and they both were at top condition then.
But she wasn't going to quit. She was an Inuzuka and the last thing they did was quit. It got them in a lot of trouble at times but it was bred into their being. They weren't quitters.
So dragging her way back to the arena, barely having enough in her coils to stay afloat on the water, Kerlya's eyes widened as she noticed something about Lee. He was simply standing in the water splashing at the top of his shins. Could Lee… Could he not use chakra?
This was a stunning revelation to Kerlya. But it was one that very well could give her the edge to take this fight and move onto the next round and take a longer rest. She hated to be cheep but… This was about becoming chunin and they were ninja.
There was nothing considered cheep in a battle between ninja.
Making sure Ralts was ready, not that he could do much as he already ate a pill an unfortunately feeding him one so soon would cause him severe problems, Kerlya slid into her clan's stance, one that allowed them to use their claws as their main weapon, she smirked. "Don't hold back on me Lee."
"I look forward to our fight!" Lee pumped his fist before he slid into his battle stance, grinning as he was looking forward to a good fight against a good friend.
"It seems both of you are ready so I won't get in your way." Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, returning more to normal with a stoic demeanor, he slid his hands down. "Let this match begin!"
Since she didn't have that much chakra as Sakura could only recover so much, Kerlya had to jump the gun and attack Lee. There was no choice in the matter and she figured Lee's movements would be slowed by the water.
Oh she couldn't be so wrong.
Her eyes widened as Lee wasn't even bothered by the water and hit his normal top speed in near knee deep water. She could not have been as surprised when Lee was on her and smashed an elbow into her gut. Rolling across the water from the blow, she quickly recovered only for Lee to be on her again and this time he was in the air.
Grabbing his fist, she tried to toss him to the side and gain some distance, her eyes widened in horror. He was much lighter than she remembered and he was able to take advantage of this and break free, barely flew a few feet and quickly righted himself.
Lee kept his edge and benefited from Kerlya's shock and inability to put some distance between them. Jumping up and out of the water, he barraged her with a flurry of quick fists and ended with a kick to her guard. But with just a tap on the ground, he twisted his foot and disappeared from Kerlya's eyes.
Kerlya couldn't believe what she was seeing. Lee didn't even need to walk on water for this fight. But the worst of this was that he knocked her back from his blows and then with pure speed he disappeared. There was nothing she could do as she felt his presence at the last second before his knee connected to the back of her head.
Before she could fall into the water and possibly drown, Lee caught the knocked out Kerlya before lifting her onto his shoulder. Kakashi saw this and called it. "Rock Lee will move onto the next round to face Uchiha Sasuke!"
Handing Kerlya to the medics that came to see to her, Lee smiled before bowing lightly and heading to the contestant's booth to watch the next fight and to prepare for his fight against Sasuke.
"Ouch… I knew she was going to be outclassed but…" Sakura grimaced as she watched her friend be taken to the medical room there in the stadium.
"She might have gotten overconfident that since Lee couldn't walk on water that he would be slower and that cost her. It is a mistake many would make… I bet no one noticed Lee took of his weights for today." Sasuke responded as Sakura tended to his wounds, watching as the last gash on his arm was mended.
Looking at Lee for a second as he came up and noting that he did not have his weights on, Sakura simply shook her head and sighed. Her chakra was getting deplete from tending to her teammates. "Lee, do you need anything for me to look at once I'm finished with Sasuke?"
"No, I'm fine Sakura!" Lee spoke with hearts in his eyes directed towards Sakura. "But I must say that your compassion and care for your comrades is…"
"Lee…" Tenten twitched at Lee as he stood right in front of the stairs. "Could you move? You're good guy pose is blocking the entire stairway and I need to get down. My fight is next."
"OH!" Lee suddenly jumped out of Tenten's way. "Good luck Tenten! Let the power of youth guide you and you'll be sure to win!"
"Power of youth… Right." Tenten muttered before she smiled and waved at Lee and Neji. "I'll take care of this guy for you Neji! Just don't go easy on me when we fight!"
"Take care of him first then worry about me, Tenten." Neji spoke for he did not want to see another girl he was close to get hurt, especially if Tenten wasn't focusing on this guy after what he did to Hinata.
But if he did hurt her… He would kill him. Hurting Hinata was strike one and burning her that she needed skin graft to look as she use to be was strike two. If he did anything like that to Tenten he would carve out his heart. His fate be damned!
Making it to the arena floor, Tenten narrowed her gaze and focused her attention onto Satoshi. The punk had badly hurt Hinata, a good friend of hers, and had tried to kill and would have succeed if his own team mate had not of stopped him. It seemed Raiu was the only one of the bunch that was a decent person as she heard about what Aschen did in the forest to the rain team.
Reeling in her emotions, she focused her attention on Satoshi as he was prepared to fight her and had a ninjato strapped onto his belt and his hand was already on the grip. Smirking at this, oh she would delight him if he wanted to play with her in a sword duel.
Getting creeped by her wicked smirk, Kakashi knew Tenten was ready and seeing how tense Satoshi he could guess he was ready to. "As I can see both of you are ready for this, let this fight commence!"
Satoshi went straight for the jugular as he drew his ninjato and sliced for Tenten's neck. He was not interested in showing off his abilities. He wanted to take down every opponent as quickly and with as little energy as possible. He needed every bit of it for these next to rounds to stand any chance against Raiu.
A scimitar burst from her scroll and parried his strike. He figured she was a weapon's mistress as Aschen was so he figured she knew how to handle a sword. But since he was only trained in a sword and Aschen hardly could handle a candle to him in a sword fight he was sure he could win this.
That was when he noticed the second being thrusted to his gut. Quickly parrying that blow, he found himself on the wrong end of a fury of slashes from Konoha's weapon's mistress.
The first thing Tenten trained was her hand speed. From since she was a little kid she had always practiced and practiced increasing the speed of her arms and flicks of her wrists. Living around all the weapons her parents' made she wanted to master every single one of them and the first step was to have fluid and fast hands.
And that she had and while she was a master at no weapon yet she was very, very good with all of them. All two hundred plus weapons she carried on her. And she was going to make this guy feel the burn before she decided to switch weapons.
Satoshi was in trouble and he knew it. He could not keep blocking her strikes as fast as they were coming. This girl was far faster then Aschen and it seemed that training with her during the month to get a feel for this girl was not helping him. The only thing that did help was that Aschen had used two swords on him a lot.
Building his chakra in his skin, preparing for his clan's special technique, he was ready to parry the next blow when Tenten tossed both scimitars at his face. It was an effective strategy as he couldn't concentrate any chakra in his body when two blades flying at your eyes.
Ducking below, he was surprised when the two clanged against each other just an inch from where they would have hit him and fell harmlessly behind him. It was in that moment Tenten pulled out two large scrolls in the middle of the air. "Soshryu!"
Hundreds if not thousands of various weapons appeared besides Tenten as the smoke of a dragon rose around her. Then in the next moment, each weapon was tossed towards Satoshi. Tenten's arms were simple blurs to everyone as she threw each and every weapon within the span of ten seconds.
However a wall of earth stood before Satoshi, who had no choice but to call onto it for defense. There was no way he was going to dodge the amount of projectiles that were aimed towards him. He would have needed to be much faster in order to do that and speed wasn't one of his strong suits.
But now he was pissed. She was besting him and he would not lose to someone from Konoha much less some broad from the leaf!
Charging at her as she landed, his chakra flared as he neared her. He could see her eyes widened and knew there wasn't enough time to get out of the way of this as he released his attack. "Katon: Flare Burst!"
Fire and ash erupted around him, engulfing Tenten in the blast. But this time there was no screaming as Tenten burst from the flames and ashes with some bad burns but nothing that couldn't be taken care of.
In the fire, Satoshi was screaming out in agony and why was soon apparent as Tenten held onto dozens of wires. But that proved to be her downfall as a large dragon burst from the wires as Satoshi wasn't just screaming in pain.
"Katon: Ryuka!"
Tenten couldn't release her wires fast enough and this time she truly was engulfed by the flames. Screaming out, she collapsed onto the ground but not before she threw a kunai straight into the ashes of the eruption.
The flames were immediately extinguished as Satoshi yelled out in pain as the ashes fell to the earth from their debris cloud. The lone kunai had struck him in his collar bone.
Deciding against ripping it out and letting the medic deal with the damage as he would need to be in fighting condition soon enough, Satoshi sighed in relief when Kakashi announced his victory. "This match goes to Satoshi!"
"Ah… Finally a blemish on your bracket, eh Lord Hokage?" The Kazekage grinned while he watched the Hokage twitch at his supposedly perfect bracket made by Naruto.
"Naruto… I thought you said this was guaranteed!" Hizuren yelled at Naruto as he did not want to lose a chance of claiming the large pot that a lot of people had thrown into the bracket bets this year.
"No I said it was a solid bracket. Besides I've learned not to bet over the years… Yugito never loses and she threw a few thousand in. Her bracket will be the perfect one. That is the only guarantee I can give you." Naruto calmly responded to his Hokage, not seeing the big deal in losing a few thousand ryo but could see why he wanted to claim the whole pot.
"Wait… Are you saying that we're all going to lose our money and you didn't tell us?!" The fourth Kazekage raged at Naruto at the realization that there was only one person that was going to win the pot.
"Of course!" Yugito decided to make her presence known for she wanted to be closer to Naruto. "Old man Hokage… Can you get someone else to guard you for a while? It isn't like Naruto doesn't have this spot marked already."
Both the Tsuchikage and Kazekage suddenly fell deathly ill at Yugito's words while the Hokage only shook his head. "I'm surprised he's stayed here this long. Naruto you can take a break. You can to Itachi. Hayate and Yamato were going to fill in at the break anyways."
Wondering when his sensei had become an Anbu much less an Anbu captain, Naruto shrugged as he followed Yugito into a secluded hallway as the fight between Shikamaru and Raiu was about to get started. "So what is it that you want?"
"Can't a girl want to make out with her boyfriend?" Yugito stated as they finally decided to make it official during the month break when they saw each other, mostly during Kerlya's training at night. For some reason that had been the trigger to their realtionship.
Weird…
Naruto could only tilt his head in agreement, mildly intrigued by 'making out', before glaring at her. "I guess… But I know you better than that. So what do you want?"
"I know you were scouting Raiu this entire month… What have you found out about him?" Yugito sighed for she knew trying to get anything past Naruto was nearly impossible as he was so damn perceptive.
"There is no doubt he possesses the seven tails and that he knows enough of time and space to use that technique of his. However he has a limit with it and can only use it five times in one day. He's lucky that Nanabi is sealed within him or it would obviously drain more stamina from him and make it five times in a couple of days as his technique has not been perfected." Naruto commented for he concluded.
Narrowing her eyes at this for a moment, she looked out at the battle field to see the fight start; Yugito had one last question to ask. "Do you think that he was sent here to assassinate…"
"No. He was here to show off Iwa's power and gather less attention from Konoha and to the Rock. …Besides he only has one target and that is me. My existence is the reason of his suffering." Naruto softly stated before he turned his attention to the fight and leaned against the wall, ending this conversation with Yugito.
Shikamaru was not one to normally fight a hopeless battle like he knew this one to be. There was no way he was going to beat this guy and he knew that. But there was one reason why he didn't forfeit this fight immediately.
He had to weaken this guy for one of his own comrades to beat him later on. No matter if it was Neji, Sasuke or Lee. He had to force this guy to expend himself against him and his shadows. The only problem was…
This arena barely had any shade to begin with! It was a Nara's worst nightmare!
Thankfully Shikamaru already had a plan for this as he drew a single kunai while Raiu simply mimicked him. Frowning as he noted this, he shook his head before rushing the rock vessel. Everything seemed to go according to plan for Raiu countered charged and just before they met Shikamaru did a baseball slide beneath Raiu's legs and dug the kunai into the ground.
There was a flash bang on the handle.
Soon as it went off, Shikamaru made it to the tree. It was his best refugee thanks to the shade and if his opponent neared it he would be able to catch him in his shadow. Still he needed to by some time and thankfully he had a few of balloons and umbrellas on him…
Having them pre-inflated for this and connected to a few umbrellas, he tossed them into the air to cast shade on more of the arena by blotting out the sun. Now to find Raiu and catch him…
"Nice trick… Too bad there is one thing he didn't count on." Shikamaru's eyes went wide as he looked up to see Raiu simply sitting on the tree with his hands in a seal. "I happen to be very talented in wind jutsu."
A furious gale burst around Raiu, knocking everything thing away from him. The umbrellas were blown away while the tree bent and nearly cracked from the force of the jutsu but held firm. Once the gale ended, Raiu was no longer on the tree and Shikamaru was on guard before he felt the cold blade of a kunai on the back of his neck.
"I win."
"I don't think so." Shikamaru commented as he closed his eyes for a moment and mimicked Raiu's current position. "Shadow Possession successful… Now time for the next step."
Forcing Raiu to drop the kunai, he did a few seals that Raiu mimicked before his eyes opened. "Kage Nui!"
Tendrils made of the shadows lifted from the shade and surrounded Raiu, all poised to strike and impale his body. Narrowing his eyes for a moment, he tried to force his way through the hold but he couldn't muster enough strength and there would be enough time to avoid these… There was no choice.
Shikamaru suddenly felt that he was holding nothing the exact moments his tendrils would have pierced Raiu's body and ended the fight. He was actually hopeful for it to work as if he won… He could actually insure that Konoha ninja would come out of this tournament as the winner.
But it was to his dismay that he had somehow escape and out of the corner of his eye there stood Raiu, in the middle of the arena. "Very good… You actually had me there. …I didn't think I would be forced to use that against a gennin. But now that I have… I might as well not waste any more of my chakra."
"So… Say hello." Green chakra began to form around Raiu as his eyes shifted and bled crimson before finally the shape of a beetle with two wings formed behind him. "To the demon inside of me… Nanabi take flight."
For once in his life Shikamaru didn't find something like this in his words troublesome. He found this so much more…
This was terrifying.
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"What is it my lady? Why are we stopping here?" A tall figured spoke to his shorter partner after noticing that she stopped and closed her eyes.
She did not respond immediately and kept her eyes shut. Finally after a moment her eyes opened to reveal dead red eyes. "We will rest here. Any closer and we will slip into his sensory range. He'll be on guard today thanks to Orochimaru's appearance in the leaf a month ago."
The tall man only nodded. He had to expect as much with for the Prince of Konoha was a hard one to fool. "I'll take over first watch and take care of any stragglers that might find us here. I wouldn't want to spoil your homecoming."
"This is no longer my home… Now that my husband is no longer here. This place never was kind to me outside of that lovable fool." She stated as the wind whipped around her and her red hair flared behind her. "Kisame… Leave him to me. I don't want any interference, understand? I can deal with him alone."
Kisame only grinned before bowing slightly to the red haired princess. "You have my word… Lady Kushina."
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Otherwise Sakura would have to surgically remove some voice boxes of people nearby her.
At least she wasn't feeling the worst of it. She was quite sure Kiba was at he was he nearly fell over after someone yelled directly behind him. She had to restrain him from clawing that person's face off.
Down on the arena floor Kerlya was glad that she wasn't apart of the crowd. Just from where she stood her ears were echoing in pain. She couldn't imagine being up in the crowd otherwise she would have passed out due to her ear buds exploding. "Damn where is Yugito… Let's just get this over with."
Sasuke could only nod in agreement as he wanted to start despite his match was after Kerlya's. Surprisingly the copy cat, who had a reputation of being extremely late to everything, had brought him here early for some reason. "I wonder what the pool is at now…"
"Pool?" Lee said in confusion as the first thing he thought of was naturally a swimming pool and he had to wonder why Sasuke wanted to go swimming at a time like this.
Catching her teammate's confusion, and knowing he was very dense at times, Tenten rubbed her temple before explaining to him. "He meant the betting pool, Lee. A lot of people are gambling on the outcome of the first round matches and even who will win the tournament overall. Hell some made bracket bets."
"Bracket bets?" Neji raised his eyebrow as he didn't understand at first before almost slapping his forehead. "Oh… Making predictions to see who moves on to each fight and eventually choosing the winner of it all."
"Why are any of you interested in this? We're here to fight and become chunin!" Lee yelled at his friends as he thought it was more imperative to focus on their fights instead of people betting.
While they all had to admit he had a point, even the Rock ninja that were staying quiet, every single one of them had made bets of their own and filled out a bracket. They could make some wicked money by being correct about who was going to win.
"Talkative, aren't you guys?" Kakashi stated in a poof of smoke as he stood in front of him. "Alright, I'm your examiner and referee for today. I believe all of you know most of the rules so there no point going over most of them. However there are a few changes from the prelims I should tell you about."
"The field will not be restored back to its normal state after each fight so you will have to adapt to the changes, especially if they are wide spread." Kakashi commented as he was sure that someone was going to alter the arena during the finals, most likely Gaara.
"There is only one other rule changes and it is quite simple concept to grasp. You cannot leave the stadium at any time or enter the stands during a fight. The only exception to this is if you are taken out of the stadium. If that is the case the opponent must halt their attack until they return into the boundaries or they are disqualified for endangering other lives." Kakashi stated with his one eye gazing upon the ten gennin sternly, making sure they understood.
Seeing that there was no arguments, even from Gaara who seemed to be the most likely to break the exemption of the second rule, Kakashi turned his attention to the booth as the Kages began to arrive. "Alright then… The Hokage will make his announcement when he arrives."
In the booth were the Kages sat to watch their gennin compete, a seat designed for each different Kage despite most never having to attend one at the same time, both the Third Tsuchikage and the Fourth Kazekage were patiently waiting for the Hokage with their guards.
Obviously both knew something was up but the young, compared to the old Tsuchikage, Kazekage spoke with mild irritation. "There better have been something major to keep him waiting like this."
"I wouldn't doubt it, boy." The Tsuchikage glared as his country was also not on good terms with the Sand. "If you had paid any attention you would notice that the land of fire and rice right now are extremely tense… War may break out between the Sound and Leaf very soon."
The Kazekage nodded as he flicked his hand through his hair as he did notice that. "Good. Gaara needs combat experience and I'll make sure to send him along with them when it finally erupts."
Only being able to nod, the Tsuchikage understood the necessity of having a jinchuuriki needing battle experience on a large scale. It was make them that more effective. "Ah… Lord Hokage. You are a little late."
"Sorry for the delay, Lord Tsuchikage." Hizuren commented as he lightly bowed as did his two guards. "However I was going over some critical details with my head ninjas here if the Sound attempts to push its boundaries again."
Neither Kage missed the acknowledgement of his head ninjas. Both were the most dangerous ninja in Konoha, possibly more deadly the Hokage. The Phantom Assassin Uchiha Itachi and the Prince of Konoha Namikaze-Mitarashi Naruto. Even if anyone had dreamed to think about assassinating the Hokage today they would be dealt with handily by the two.
"If you wouldn't mind if I start this so we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the day from our grievances." Sarutobi softly spoke but both Kage's simply nodded in agreement.
Both were glad that they didn't have to deal with the mind numbing nuisance known as their only unbeaten and nameless advisory for the next couple of days. How they loved the Chunin Exams.
"Good morning everyone!" The Hokage began as he stood at the front the booth, clearly seen by all in the stadium. "Thank you for attending the Seventeenth Bi-Annual Chunin Exams here in our great village! I remind all of those that are guest to behave accordingly. I wouldn't want to be forced to throw someone out."
Getting a chuckle from most of the crowd, the Hokage's attention turned to the ten standing in the arena along with Kakashi. "Gennin of the Leaf, the Rock and the Sand… May you remember why you are here. Today you are here to compete for a chance of being promoted to chunin. Hold nothing back and show us why you are deserving of such a promotion and give us a great show!"
"You may begin!" Hizuren finished, the Hokage only smiled at everyone as he stood at the balcony a little longer before nodding to Kakashi to take over.
Seating in the middle seat, between the two visiting Kages, the elderly Hokage pulled out his own bracket and smirked. "So are you sure of this, Naruto? I don't like to think I would lose a couple thousand on this."
"Oh good… I thought I was the only one that threw his money in the lot." The Kazekage gasped in relief before pulling out his own bracket and looked at it. "I have Gaara and Raiu in the finals. It makes the most sense since the two are jinchuuriki and vessels are always difficult to defeat. Gaara should win but I am unsure of Raiu's abilities."
"Raiu will win." The Tsuchikage commented before pulling out his own bracket as he believed it was a sure thing and walk out of here with ten thousand in his pocket at the very least. "This style sets it up so were he will not be tested until the finals by Gaara and by then he'll be worn down by his competition."
"Naruto are you sure?" The Hokage said one last time as he looked at his bracket and the blonde nodded. "Alright then… The finals will be Sasuke and Raiu and Raiu will win as Sasuke will be utterly exhausted when the face him. …I don't like going against my own ninja, Naruto."
"He's got a point though, Lord Hokage. I love my brother but if he can get past Gaara he will be exhausted and have to have another fight just to get to the finals. Raiu should take this." Itachi commented before pulling out his own bracket revealing he had Raiu and Lee, surprisingly, in the finals.
Seeing that another guard was in the bet as well, finally all guards but Naruto pulled out their own bracket and started bickering with one another and the Kages.
Naruto simply twitched. Was this how Kage's spent their free time? If this was any indicator on what they did on business trips…
No wonder why nothing ever got done.
Down below the arena slowly began to quiet down as all gennin outside of Kerlya and Aschen stayed on the ground. All Konoha gennin in the stands tensed as they remembered how easily she handled the sound gennin. It didn't help their cause because Ino was close to beating if she had actually knocked Ralts unconscious.
"I don't feel good about this… While my mother and sister say Kerlya is a genius and that why she graduated early… We have always been close in skill." Kiba spoke with a little trepidation about this fight as his squad had seen how good her team was in the forest.
"Don't worry… I know Kerlya has improved greatly in this last month if it is anything compared to how much I've come along." Sakura spoke with a confident smirk as she knew that Yugito's training match Naruto's in intensity and growth. "Still this girl worries me. Just from her movements in her fight in the prelims…"
"She's lighting fast with the nunchuck and she seems to have a mastery for water jutsu… For a Rock ninja." Shino commented as he analyzed her when they caught a glimpse of them in the forest.
"And she has a lot of chakra for a kunoichi." Hinata spoke, half her face covered in bandages as her skin still had not recovered completely and would be badly scarred when it did as she refused a skin graft.
Sakura could only shake her head as she looked down at her friend and flicked her hand through her hair. "I'm still not worried. I know she has been prepared for much worse than what that Rock kunoichi can offer. It may be close… But I have faith."
Finally back down at the arena, Kakashi went through his progressions before checking one last time with the two fighters. "If both of you are prepared… Then let the first battle of the Chunin Exam Finals start!"
Kerlya didn't waste time and charged straight towards Aschen with her hands drawn to her claws in case her opponent drew her nunchuck. She wasn't disappointed when the black haired girl drew forth her weapon of choice and withdrew her claws to meet the weapon.
But to her greatest surprise, Aschen easily shifted to the side with frightening agility and flicked her nunchuck up and into her chest. Or so the Rock gennin thought would happen as she was caught off guard by Kerlya's agility, matching her own, and shifting out of the blow and drew her claw to her face.
Flipping back to avoid the blow, she dragged her hand after a few seals against the ground and ran forward towards as Ralts joined his mistress and was fed a pill and they began their transformation. Not going to let this happen, she tossed her nunchuck ahead towards her partner to put him out of this early.
With a crack, Ralts immediately turned back to his canine form much to Kerlya's surprise. The amount of force it took to knock Ralts down so easily… Frightened her. She had only seen Naruto and Yugito put him down without any trouble. …But she gave up her weapon to do it.
Lifting the nunchuck she drew it into her own pouch and slashed out at Aschen as she arrive but to her horror she had a new weapon drawn… A kusarigama.
It was an odd weapon choice, she had to admit, but the weapon was said to be once popular by the ninjas of old when the samurai were in control. The small hand scythe was normally used to cut weeds but the ball bearing at the end was to smash into the armor of samurai and knock them unconscious.
Her claws could barely do anything to block the small scythe as it was too late to counter the blade. So putting her fist into the mid handle of the weapon, only her forearm was gashed as the blade went across it before hooking her claw and pulling it off.
Jumping back and hissing, she had no time to stand still as Aschen began twirling the ball and chain on the other end and flicked it towards her skull. Ducking beneath and rushing her Kerlya started a chain of seals before she was suddenly interrupted as a geyser of water burst right in front of her, halting her progress.
"Ah… I expected as much." Aschen grinned as saw the water burst out from a large crack in the ground that suddenly emerged. "It was said that the Second Hokage had just as much to do with Konoha's creation… As he filled an underground water reservoir to make the land fertile and give his people a water source. It seems one of my clones found it and tunneled a supply of water to me."
Kerlya's eyes widened as Aschen began going through a long series of hand seals as water began to pour around them saturate the ground before other geysers erupted as the earth below gave way and started filling the arena floor. She tried to charge but her opponent finished the seals too quickly. "Suiton: Suiryudan."
A dragon formed from the first well of gushing water and roared before and nearly drove Kerlya off her feet. If she had not slid underneath the rest of the blast she would have been in real trouble as the dragon crashed into the wall and caused severe damage.
Rolling away from the ball bearing and rushing her opponents, she growled loudly as her opponent finished another series of seals and water began to spin behind her. "Suiton: Daibakufu."
The water behind her shot out in a giant mass of spiraling water, bearing down onto Kerlya. She did not hesitate for a second with a quick push off from the ground, her body spun into her clan's most well known technique. "TSUGA!"
Tearing through the water burst with almost simplistic ease, Kerlya flipped out of her spin and tossed her other claw towards Aschen. She expected her opponent to block it with her small scythe and she did but this was what she wanted as she drew out two kunai and landed in front of her and sliced out at her mid section.
Using the chain to stop the blow, Aschen's eye widened as the kunai snapped the chain with unreal ease before the other knocked the other half of the kusarigama from her hand. Not wanting to stay this close, she tried to jump back but Kerlya had expected this and while she could not keep her there she did the next best thing.
She slammed her foot into the girl's stomach.
Tumbling across the small layer of water that had formed over the ground as they geysers stop gushing water, Aschen's gaze went straight to see what her opponent was doing. See Kerlya charging her to close the ground quickly, she had no choice in this as it was going to be a close range battle. So drawing two sais, she jumped into a counter charge.
The weapons met with a loud clang as the two met each others slash. Kerlya was faster to react to and slashed out her other kunai but it was blocked to before Aschen followed with a slash from her own. Keeping up, she stopped the slash and tried to stab through Aschen's guard only for the sai to catch the kunai in its guard and nearly rip it out of Kerlya's grip.
As the two continued exchanging slashes only for them to be deflected, Kiba looked onto the fight with a sense of pride for his clan and slight irritation that Kerlya had bested him again. "Yeah! Kick her ass! Show her who the boss is!"
"How quickly he changes his tune…" Chouji muttered as he watched the fight in slight awe as well but in irritation on how quickly Kiba jumped on the bandwagon. "But she can't keep this up. It looks like she's fighting a weapon's mistress in her own game. Only Tenten probably can match her in such a contest."
Sakura could only grin at this outcome and knew this was in Kerlya's favor. And at that moment Yugito had shown up to watch of the rest of the gennin. "Yes that is true but… Kerlya has hardly wasted any chakra so far. She is simply wearing down Aschen's guard and then she is going to finish this as that girl is almost already out of chakra and can't defend an attack with chakra and will be too battered to physically withstand one."
"It won't be long now… Kerlya almost has her." Sakura finished as she remembered when the two were a match for another and Kerlya always seemed to win their fights as this was how she naturally fought.
Wear the opponent down then bombard them with overwhelming strength or jutsu. A style she and Sasuke had begun to pick up from their fellow team mate.
Aschen knew this was not going in her favor and had to either end this fight or get away. She was easily better then her with bladed weapons but this was the problem. She was no slouch and match her move for move and while she could eventually win this was taking its toll on her and even if she won this fight she might not be able to win her next as there was only going to be a one match interval as this was an elimination bout.
Kerlya kept her focus as while she could see Aschen was slowly wearing down her hand speed was increasing each second as if she wanted to put an end to this. If she kept this too close for very much longer she would be on the wrong end of her fury of slashes and could be scarred to life if she was lucky.
Stepping it up and turning this into not only a battle of weapons, Kerlya found and opening and spun dropped a round house into Aschen's chest. The girl was so surprised as they both had been battling with their blades only that she slid back before screaming out as she threw her sai at her. So countering with her kunai to deflect it.
Both took off towards the other as their weapons collided, knocking the kunai into the water next to Aschen and the sai into the air by Kerlya's head. Grabbing the weapon, they met again in a series of slashes in an equal bout.
It seemed Aschen was not use to the most basic ninja weapon, the kunai. Kerlya quickly spotted this and with the sai, she caught it within its guard and ripped it out of her gasp but on the down side was that Aschen had done the same.
Not going to let that stand, the Inuzuka slammed the back of her fist across the Rock kunoichi's check bone before thrusting the sai in. Aschen caught it in her guard but was unable to rip it free but this cost her as their weapons were locked. Kerlya brought the fight into a clench.
Driving her knee into the girl's stomach repeatedly as she kept the sais locked, Kerlya's felt them slipping from her grasp and it wouldn't be too long till Aschen had both again. And it wasn't helping that the girl seemed to know enough of hand-to-hand to realize how to release herself form a one handed clench.
Having her clench hand knocked away from the back, Kerlya lost grip of the sai and skidded back from Aschen as she now had both her sais and was almost on her. There was almost nothing she could do to stop this attack. There wasn't enough time for her to draw two kunai and retrieve the ones she had lost.
But her day was saved as Ralts was awake again and took Aschen's feet out from underneath her with a well timed tackle. The dog couldn't do much else but paddle away as the water was enough for him to be unable to walk regularly when Aschen threw one of her sais towards the canine.
Kerlya intercepted it with one of her kunai before she went through a series of hand seals and flipped into the air, righting herself and giving her one last look of her opponent as she took a deep breath. "Katon: Inu no Makai!"
"NO WAY!" Kiba screamed out in shocked as he witnessed Kerlya using the technique. "The Dogs of Hell?! She can actually use them!"
"What's the problem? You sound upset and a… A little scared." Ino spoke in worry as Kiba, while always very vocal and emotional, did not seem to be one to show fear.
"The Dogs of Hell is a secret technique of our clan… Only able to be used by those with a fire affinity." Kiba started with narrowed eyes as he saw this technique as almost forbidden. "It is said that the owner of the jutsu can communicate with the deceased partners of fallen clansman and call them forth into bodies of fire and have them assault their opponent. And if one is skilled enough with them…"
"Each single dog could have the impact of a Grand Fireball." Kiba finished with narrowed eyes. "The amount of chakra it takes would mean that she has easily more than double of my own as I can't even dream of using that technique right now."
"Kiba…" Hana's voice spoke, knowing this outcome was likely after she first started teaching Kerlya this the month before the exam. "Don't let your jealousy get the better of you little bro… I only taught this to Kerlya as I was asked to and I don't turn Naruto down."
Kiba could only growl but kept is eyes on the match. If Kerlya was this strong now… He had to take his training to a whole different level. He was the heir to the clan.
He couldn't let one of is own clansmen be stronger then he was.
A fury of flames spewed from her mouth almost like wave of fire at first. The flames quickly took shape into a dozen full sized dogs, like those of their clan. All landed on the water and steam burst from their landing, blocking the view for anyone, before all twelve burst from the steam and straight to Aschen.
The said Rock kunoichi's eyes widened at the sight before her, unsure how to handle this. Her chakra was almost non existent and her muscles burned and stung. A soldier pill would take care of this problem as it soothed the muscles and refilled the chakra but she didn't have one on her at the moment.
There was only one thing she could do about this. She had to dodge.
Flipping over the first one, the next jumped to where she had flipped but she easily slid underneath it. However to her immense surprise a fire dog slid under his own brethren to hit her. Barely rolling out of the way, she was forced to her feet quickly just to slide out of the way of the next.
It was almost as… As if these dogs were sentient beings and had there own will as her opponent did not seem like she was controlling the movement of these flaming canine. That was quite disturbing to her but she had no time to think about this any longer.
Being forced to the air as one came from behind, two more jumped to meet her in mid air. She didn't have the chakra to burst higher or halt her rise into the air so the only thing she could do was throw her sais at the two flaming beasts. But even that did not work to how she expected.
Both erupted and their flames spewed over her. Her luck happened to be that the distance the flames traveled dulled the impact and the burns. Rolling her body so she could see below, her eyes widened as each canine came for her in mid air. There was no way she was going to dodge this! She could avoid a few but not all ten!
Pulling out as many weapons as she could to throw, she was only able to take care of five before the rest overwhelmed her and ignited their flames around her.
Aschen screamed out as the flames burned around and collapsed onto her being. The flames were hotter then even Satoshi's own and felt like they really came from hell.
Thankfully the pain washed away as she finally hit the water and sunk into the small depth. The fire thankfully could not withstand the water and was finally extinguished. There was no resistance to stave off the oncoming darkness and she let herself slip into unconsciousness.
"Winner Inuzuka Kerlya!" Kakashi announced as he felt Aschen pass out and knew she would not be getting up any time soon.
At that very moment Kerlya fell onto her knees, sweat pouring dampening her clothing. She had used almost all of her chakra in that attack and the rest to match Aschen's movements. She had hoped she could make it to the next fight against Lee without having to resort to the Dogs of Hell but… Now she was in trouble.
She was, however, surprised when she was helped to her feet by the same gennin she was currently thinking about along with Sasuke. "Thanks guys…"
"Don't mention it! You are a leaf shinobi like we are and we are suppose to help one another! Now I'll get you to the stands before Sasuke's fight starts or I'll do a hundred laps around Konoha before our match!" Lee happily chirped before he took over completely for Sasuke seeing that the next fight was the Uchiha's.
Blushing, for reasons unknown, Kerlya felt tempted to slow down their progress. She didn't doubt Lee could run a hundred laps around Konoha during this fight and that would have to drain him… But she also found the tactic against a fellow leaf shinobi to be cheep. She would save that for someone that deserved it, not Lee.
But it seemed her luck was about to change. Her own personal medic had come to help her. How she loved her team. It was the perfect design. A great illusionist, a powerful close to mid range combat specialist, an infamous ninjutsu powerhouse and an apprentice medic with a great understanding of medicine.
The sand swirled before him and in within it Gaara had appeared on the arena floor. Sasuke smirked at this. He would have to thank Sakura for giving everything he needed to defeat the sand vessel.
Pocketing his hands, acting like was beneath him, Sasuke didn't even bother to pay attention to the sand shinobi. Of course this was a tactic to get him riled and have him attack him, but he knew the sand shinobi to keep his composure. He, in fact, was counting on it.
"I hope little bro isn't too confident about this…" Miko groaned after she caught glimpse of what Sasuke was doing. "He'll get his ass handed to him if he doesn't take this seriously…"
"He's taking it seriously. I have to hand it to him though. He's using Kakashi's own taijutsu style as only he keeps such a lax stance." Mikoto comforted her daughter as she quickly caught hold of what Sasuke had been trained in over the last month.
"I just hope he doesn't blow it. After Kerlya winning the first match it would be a shame to see him go down." Hana stated, seating next to them after she went to go check on Kiba and his friends. "Yugi… What do you think?"
Looking down in the arena with a critical eye, Yugito shrugged as she slid in by Mikoto. "It is hard to say. I know Gaara most likely trained but without a teacher like Sasuke had I can't be sure how far he progressed. But nonetheless this will be a close fight and either can win. And even if they do win… The front portion of the tournament is brutal path to the final."
"Tell me about it… The Rock gennin doesn't even look like he's going to get a challenge before he gets to the final round." Miko groaned at the set up of the matches and felt like it was rigged. Not that anyone could rig it within Naruto's sensory range but still…
"Alright you two!" Kakashi motioned to Sasuke and Gaara, making eye contact with Sasuke for a moment. "I want a good and clean fight. …Ah, who am I kidding! Fight as dirty as you want! Begin!"
"Has Kakashi lost his mind?" Hizuren twitched in the Hokage booth besides the Naruto and Itachi.
"Probably." Naruto responded with his norm before shrugging his shoulders. "I would have lost mine training my team… But since I never was sane I couldn't."
While Itachi and the Third twitched at Naruto, the sand began to carefully pour from Gaara's gourd. The rock girl had really altered his plans drastically. He could still use his sand while it was wet but it was far more difficult to do so and after it was completely saturated it was useless.
He could always tunnel for more and create a small outlet so he could use as much as he needed. Yet if he wasn't close enough to it the sand would be useless. But nonetheless…
As Gaara started to create what seemed to be an air tunnel in the foot, maybe two, deep water Sasuke knew he had to act there. He couldn't let Gaara gather the sand he needed. Sure his strategy was to take what the sand ninja threw out and throw it back at him but soon as he brought more sand into the equation…
Rushing across the shallow water and to his opponent, Sasuke veered directions suddenly as the sand leapt up to counter his attack. But at the very moment Sasuke changed directions he vanished.
Oh Gaara was not happy at the moment. The last person that just vanished on him was that pink haired girl he fought in the preliminaries. So if he just vanished… He hated fucking speedsters!
Reappearing directly behind Gaara, Sasuke's fist caught his cheek as Gaara turned to see what had happened and knocked him back. Not hesitating as Gaara slid from him, he kept his pace and rushed the sand wielder, ducking to the side of his sand and jumping into his ring and catching the strap of his gourd.
Using a little of what Kerlya had done to Aschen, Sasuke repeatedly drove his knee into Gaara's abdomen before swing Gaara full circle and tossing him towards the closest wall just as his sand surrounded him.
The sand collapsed onto Sasuke but the Uchiha quickly switched out and found Gaara on the surface of the stadium's wall. Twirling a few shuriken from his pouch, he tossed them towards Gaara and followed behind. The sand did as he expected and preemptively intercepted his projectiles and attempted to lash out at him.
Using a burst of his superior speed, he appeared above Gaara but the red head's smirk suddenly had him on guard. He instantly realized why as multiple spikes of sand shot around Gaara, forming a dangerous shield. Deciding not to attack, he focused chakra to his feet and pushed off the first spike to gather some distance and solve how to attack now.
But soon as he pushed off the sand spikes burst out towards him. Cursing and dropping to the water, he pushed off and into the air and over the spikes. Yet it wasn't enough as the sand tendrils shattered and small cutting spikes tore through Sasuke. His arms were cut heavily, protecting his face and torso but his vitals were unharmed.
Landing and evaluating Gaara from a distance, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the dark smirk adorned on the red head's face. He liked this kid less and less. He cared less if he was a jinchuuriki and deserved to be pitied… This guy wanted nothing but blood. That was a monster by his definition.
Having an idea, Sasuke went through a variety of seals in rapid succession before his tri tomoe Sharingan spun. "Sution: Suiryudan!"
The dragon burst from the shallow water before Sasuke and roared as it crashed into the spot Gaara had occupied. The Suna shinobi wisely jumped up to avoid the dragon and having his sand soaked. But what caught his attention was the lack of damaged the dragon had done to the wall compared to the Rock Kunoichi…
It was as if very little chakra was put into it… It was a set up!
Looking straight ahead, Sasuke was already on Gaara with his hands burning with electricity that admitted what seemed to be chirping. Lashing the sand he had out in his gourd towards the Uchiha to keep this attack from striking out against him.
Gaara fell into Sasuke's trap once more as the bolts of electricity from one palm fired into the sand and dispersed it as his other hand still held the electricity in his palm as he thrusted it forward, towards Gaara's chest. "CHIDORI!"
At the very last second Gaara managed to twist away from the blow. But his lack of speed was obvious as Sasuke quickly plunged it through the side of his rib cage, taking a few ribs with the electrical surge.
The red head yelled as he hit, water splashed around him. Before his seal had been set as it was the sand demon would have taken care of the wound and its presence would have filled him in moments. The problem was now the way it was set… It could still heal him but it could not do so as quickly. His only benefit was now being able to sleep and controlling the demon's powers as his own.
Thrashing about, trying to pick himself up and continue the fight, Gaara fell forward as he stood onto one knee. His eyes watched Sasuke carefully as he paced around him, looking for a new opening to attack.
Narrowing his eyes at this, Gaara gripped his wounded rib cage and commanded the last of his sand into a dome around him.
"Not happening… Surio no jutsu!" Sasuke growled out before a shadow clone burst from the ground before and surrounded Gaara before Sasuke started the seals of Chidori once more. "Surrender now or my Chidori will take your head."
Never having been put in a position like this before, never having so little sand to aid him, Gaara growled out at the Uchiha. This was humiliating. He was going to be beaten by this weakling? He was Gaara of the Desert and no one defeat him!
"GO AHEAD AND TRY!" Gaara roared out as golden charka burst around him and dispersed the water prison and the shadow clone.
Sasuke's eyes widened in horror as the golden chakra attracted every grain of sand in the area to Gaara. It quickly took shape, far faster then anything he had ever seen before. But the horror had only begun as Gaara's shape was no final.
He had taken the form the Tanuki within his gut.
Thanking his lucky stars that he had already went through the seals and had the chakra ready, the Chidori burst to life. Sasuke knew that he had only one more shot in this fight. Sure he had enough chakra for another Chidori but…
He doubted he would get the chance to use another if this one failed.
With no hesitation, Sasuke charged as he pulled his electrified hand back and drew a kunai with his other. Gaara countered his charge with a deafening roar before he struck out his claw.
Batting it with his other arm, Sasuke stuck the kunai and used it to catapult himself into the air. The other claw extended out and slashed at his face. Moving just enough so that it didn't take his head, three blood marks trailed down his cheek as he drug the lighting in his palm down the arm to slow his pace and to aim carefully to end this battle.
That turned to be a bad move as the other claw slashed out and caught him, his left arm guarding against the blow but did little to nothing to stop the blow. Ignoring the gash marks as he tumbled, he thrusted the lighting in his palm to the closest body part to him. That just happened to be Gaara's hip.
Gaara roared out in agony as the Chidori pierced through his hip bone and brought him down to one knee. But it wasn't over as he noted Sasuke rolling away. He swatted the boy away with his tail but he still noted that he was smirking… How dare he smirk at…?
Watching Gaara be engulfed by the explosion of his tag, stuck into the bottom of his tail, Sasuke slowly stood and wiped the blood from his face. Staring at the debris of his fallen foe, he waited to see the result. If he failed there was little more he could do but try one more Chidori and burn the last of his chakra he was trying to conserve.
Finally a smirk graced his lips as the cloud of debris settled and Gaara laid on a small pile of sand that extended above the water's reach. He was out cold.
"Uchiha Sasuke is the victor!" Kakashi announced to the crowd while grinning at Sasuke for win the fight despite the difficult opponent he was up against.
"YES! SASUKE!" Sakura thrusted her fist into the air, having return from healing Kerlya the best she could, happy to see both her friends one their first fight and continue their shot at winning the tournament and becoming chunin.
"Wow… The Chidori huh?" Mikoto smirked at her youngest son as he turned his head towards them and waved. "Now that he has made it past Gaara his next fight should be easier but… He burned through a lot of chakra to beat Gaara."
Hinata only nodded as everyone was sitting close together and enjoying the fights with one another. "From what I can see he has enough to use that technique again one more time before he depletes his coils. …But I don't think Sasuke is stupid enough to use it again."
"Oh I'm sure Sasuke has something up his sleeve. I know little bro wouldn't just show off everything in his first fight even if he was going up against a high caliber opponent." Miko stated as she really wanted to get out and fight now after watching the last two fights.
How she wished she was a gennin again. They had so much more fun.
"Two for two right now… Looks like you may be right about this, Naruto." Hizuren spoke as he checked off another win in his favor on his bracket. "So how are your brackets coming?"
Neither the Tsuchikage nor Kazekage said a word as they angrily crossed out Gaara from their brackets as they had thought Gaara winning was a sure thing. Leave it to Konoha and an Uchiha to screw everything up.
Finally the fourth Kazekage growled out. "Dammit! If it wasn't for that extra seal… Dammit! That seals is a blessing and a curse! Now Gaara is in heavier control but he can't release as much of it as once!"
"Don't be too sore, Lord Kazekage." The elderly Tsuchikage spoke with a smirk as his bracket was entirely crushed yet as Raiu had yet to fight. "After all he was trained by the Prince of Konoha here. It isn't too much of a surprise as I had this fight going either way and the winner to fight Raiu in the finals."
"Yeah, yeah… Whatever. Let's just wait and see who wins out of everyone. …Maybe I can still win some betting in the single matches." The fourth Kazekage groaned as he came out all the way here to Konoha to watch his only gennin, his son at that, lose in the first round.
Their trip home was going to be a silent one.
"Crap… I have to fight again." Kerlya groaned, still exhausted from her battle against Aschen. The only bright side was she wasn't running on fumes like she was right after the fight. She thanked Sakura for that.
She wanted to fight and to keep going but as she was right now she couldn't stand up against Lee. She had difficulties the one time they sparred and they both were at top condition then.
But she wasn't going to quit. She was an Inuzuka and the last thing they did was quit. It got them in a lot of trouble at times but it was bred into their being. They weren't quitters.
So dragging her way back to the arena, barely having enough in her coils to stay afloat on the water, Kerlya's eyes widened as she noticed something about Lee. He was simply standing in the water splashing at the top of his shins. Could Lee… Could he not use chakra?
This was a stunning revelation to Kerlya. But it was one that very well could give her the edge to take this fight and move onto the next round and take a longer rest. She hated to be cheep but… This was about becoming chunin and they were ninja.
There was nothing considered cheep in a battle between ninja.
Making sure Ralts was ready, not that he could do much as he already ate a pill an unfortunately feeding him one so soon would cause him severe problems, Kerlya slid into her clan's stance, one that allowed them to use their claws as their main weapon, she smirked. "Don't hold back on me Lee."
"I look forward to our fight!" Lee pumped his fist before he slid into his battle stance, grinning as he was looking forward to a good fight against a good friend.
"It seems both of you are ready so I won't get in your way." Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, returning more to normal with a stoic demeanor, he slid his hands down. "Let this match begin!"
Since she didn't have that much chakra as Sakura could only recover so much, Kerlya had to jump the gun and attack Lee. There was no choice in the matter and she figured Lee's movements would be slowed by the water.
Oh she couldn't be so wrong.
Her eyes widened as Lee wasn't even bothered by the water and hit his normal top speed in near knee deep water. She could not have been as surprised when Lee was on her and smashed an elbow into her gut. Rolling across the water from the blow, she quickly recovered only for Lee to be on her again and this time he was in the air.
Grabbing his fist, she tried to toss him to the side and gain some distance, her eyes widened in horror. He was much lighter than she remembered and he was able to take advantage of this and break free, barely flew a few feet and quickly righted himself.
Lee kept his edge and benefited from Kerlya's shock and inability to put some distance between them. Jumping up and out of the water, he barraged her with a flurry of quick fists and ended with a kick to her guard. But with just a tap on the ground, he twisted his foot and disappeared from Kerlya's eyes.
Kerlya couldn't believe what she was seeing. Lee didn't even need to walk on water for this fight. But the worst of this was that he knocked her back from his blows and then with pure speed he disappeared. There was nothing she could do as she felt his presence at the last second before his knee connected to the back of her head.
Before she could fall into the water and possibly drown, Lee caught the knocked out Kerlya before lifting her onto his shoulder. Kakashi saw this and called it. "Rock Lee will move onto the next round to face Uchiha Sasuke!"
Handing Kerlya to the medics that came to see to her, Lee smiled before bowing lightly and heading to the contestant's booth to watch the next fight and to prepare for his fight against Sasuke.
"Ouch… I knew she was going to be outclassed but…" Sakura grimaced as she watched her friend be taken to the medical room there in the stadium.
"She might have gotten overconfident that since Lee couldn't walk on water that he would be slower and that cost her. It is a mistake many would make… I bet no one noticed Lee took of his weights for today." Sasuke responded as Sakura tended to his wounds, watching as the last gash on his arm was mended.
Looking at Lee for a second as he came up and noting that he did not have his weights on, Sakura simply shook her head and sighed. Her chakra was getting deplete from tending to her teammates. "Lee, do you need anything for me to look at once I'm finished with Sasuke?"
"No, I'm fine Sakura!" Lee spoke with hearts in his eyes directed towards Sakura. "But I must say that your compassion and care for your comrades is…"
"Lee…" Tenten twitched at Lee as he stood right in front of the stairs. "Could you move? You're good guy pose is blocking the entire stairway and I need to get down. My fight is next."
"OH!" Lee suddenly jumped out of Tenten's way. "Good luck Tenten! Let the power of youth guide you and you'll be sure to win!"
"Power of youth… Right." Tenten muttered before she smiled and waved at Lee and Neji. "I'll take care of this guy for you Neji! Just don't go easy on me when we fight!"
"Take care of him first then worry about me, Tenten." Neji spoke for he did not want to see another girl he was close to get hurt, especially if Tenten wasn't focusing on this guy after what he did to Hinata.
But if he did hurt her… He would kill him. Hurting Hinata was strike one and burning her that she needed skin graft to look as she use to be was strike two. If he did anything like that to Tenten he would carve out his heart. His fate be damned!
Making it to the arena floor, Tenten narrowed her gaze and focused her attention onto Satoshi. The punk had badly hurt Hinata, a good friend of hers, and had tried to kill and would have succeed if his own team mate had not of stopped him. It seemed Raiu was the only one of the bunch that was a decent person as she heard about what Aschen did in the forest to the rain team.
Reeling in her emotions, she focused her attention on Satoshi as he was prepared to fight her and had a ninjato strapped onto his belt and his hand was already on the grip. Smirking at this, oh she would delight him if he wanted to play with her in a sword duel.
Getting creeped by her wicked smirk, Kakashi knew Tenten was ready and seeing how tense Satoshi he could guess he was ready to. "As I can see both of you are ready for this, let this fight commence!"
Satoshi went straight for the jugular as he drew his ninjato and sliced for Tenten's neck. He was not interested in showing off his abilities. He wanted to take down every opponent as quickly and with as little energy as possible. He needed every bit of it for these next to rounds to stand any chance against Raiu.
A scimitar burst from her scroll and parried his strike. He figured she was a weapon's mistress as Aschen was so he figured she knew how to handle a sword. But since he was only trained in a sword and Aschen hardly could handle a candle to him in a sword fight he was sure he could win this.
That was when he noticed the second being thrusted to his gut. Quickly parrying that blow, he found himself on the wrong end of a fury of slashes from Konoha's weapon's mistress.
The first thing Tenten trained was her hand speed. From since she was a little kid she had always practiced and practiced increasing the speed of her arms and flicks of her wrists. Living around all the weapons her parents' made she wanted to master every single one of them and the first step was to have fluid and fast hands.
And that she had and while she was a master at no weapon yet she was very, very good with all of them. All two hundred plus weapons she carried on her. And she was going to make this guy feel the burn before she decided to switch weapons.
Satoshi was in trouble and he knew it. He could not keep blocking her strikes as fast as they were coming. This girl was far faster then Aschen and it seemed that training with her during the month to get a feel for this girl was not helping him. The only thing that did help was that Aschen had used two swords on him a lot.
Building his chakra in his skin, preparing for his clan's special technique, he was ready to parry the next blow when Tenten tossed both scimitars at his face. It was an effective strategy as he couldn't concentrate any chakra in his body when two blades flying at your eyes.
Ducking below, he was surprised when the two clanged against each other just an inch from where they would have hit him and fell harmlessly behind him. It was in that moment Tenten pulled out two large scrolls in the middle of the air. "Soshryu!"
Hundreds if not thousands of various weapons appeared besides Tenten as the smoke of a dragon rose around her. Then in the next moment, each weapon was tossed towards Satoshi. Tenten's arms were simple blurs to everyone as she threw each and every weapon within the span of ten seconds.
However a wall of earth stood before Satoshi, who had no choice but to call onto it for defense. There was no way he was going to dodge the amount of projectiles that were aimed towards him. He would have needed to be much faster in order to do that and speed wasn't one of his strong suits.
But now he was pissed. She was besting him and he would not lose to someone from Konoha much less some broad from the leaf!
Charging at her as she landed, his chakra flared as he neared her. He could see her eyes widened and knew there wasn't enough time to get out of the way of this as he released his attack. "Katon: Flare Burst!"
Fire and ash erupted around him, engulfing Tenten in the blast. But this time there was no screaming as Tenten burst from the flames and ashes with some bad burns but nothing that couldn't be taken care of.
In the fire, Satoshi was screaming out in agony and why was soon apparent as Tenten held onto dozens of wires. But that proved to be her downfall as a large dragon burst from the wires as Satoshi wasn't just screaming in pain.
"Katon: Ryuka!"
Tenten couldn't release her wires fast enough and this time she truly was engulfed by the flames. Screaming out, she collapsed onto the ground but not before she threw a kunai straight into the ashes of the eruption.
The flames were immediately extinguished as Satoshi yelled out in pain as the ashes fell to the earth from their debris cloud. The lone kunai had struck him in his collar bone.
Deciding against ripping it out and letting the medic deal with the damage as he would need to be in fighting condition soon enough, Satoshi sighed in relief when Kakashi announced his victory. "This match goes to Satoshi!"
"Ah… Finally a blemish on your bracket, eh Lord Hokage?" The Kazekage grinned while he watched the Hokage twitch at his supposedly perfect bracket made by Naruto.
"Naruto… I thought you said this was guaranteed!" Hizuren yelled at Naruto as he did not want to lose a chance of claiming the large pot that a lot of people had thrown into the bracket bets this year.
"No I said it was a solid bracket. Besides I've learned not to bet over the years… Yugito never loses and she threw a few thousand in. Her bracket will be the perfect one. That is the only guarantee I can give you." Naruto calmly responded to his Hokage, not seeing the big deal in losing a few thousand ryo but could see why he wanted to claim the whole pot.
"Wait… Are you saying that we're all going to lose our money and you didn't tell us?!" The fourth Kazekage raged at Naruto at the realization that there was only one person that was going to win the pot.
"Of course!" Yugito decided to make her presence known for she wanted to be closer to Naruto. "Old man Hokage… Can you get someone else to guard you for a while? It isn't like Naruto doesn't have this spot marked already."
Both the Tsuchikage and Kazekage suddenly fell deathly ill at Yugito's words while the Hokage only shook his head. "I'm surprised he's stayed here this long. Naruto you can take a break. You can to Itachi. Hayate and Yamato were going to fill in at the break anyways."
Wondering when his sensei had become an Anbu much less an Anbu captain, Naruto shrugged as he followed Yugito into a secluded hallway as the fight between Shikamaru and Raiu was about to get started. "So what is it that you want?"
"Can't a girl want to make out with her boyfriend?" Yugito stated as they finally decided to make it official during the month break when they saw each other, mostly during Kerlya's training at night. For some reason that had been the trigger to their realtionship.
Weird…
Naruto could only tilt his head in agreement, mildly intrigued by 'making out', before glaring at her. "I guess… But I know you better than that. So what do you want?"
"I know you were scouting Raiu this entire month… What have you found out about him?" Yugito sighed for she knew trying to get anything past Naruto was nearly impossible as he was so damn perceptive.
"There is no doubt he possesses the seven tails and that he knows enough of time and space to use that technique of his. However he has a limit with it and can only use it five times in one day. He's lucky that Nanabi is sealed within him or it would obviously drain more stamina from him and make it five times in a couple of days as his technique has not been perfected." Naruto commented for he concluded.
Narrowing her eyes at this for a moment, she looked out at the battle field to see the fight start; Yugito had one last question to ask. "Do you think that he was sent here to assassinate…"
"No. He was here to show off Iwa's power and gather less attention from Konoha and to the Rock. …Besides he only has one target and that is me. My existence is the reason of his suffering." Naruto softly stated before he turned his attention to the fight and leaned against the wall, ending this conversation with Yugito.
Shikamaru was not one to normally fight a hopeless battle like he knew this one to be. There was no way he was going to beat this guy and he knew that. But there was one reason why he didn't forfeit this fight immediately.
He had to weaken this guy for one of his own comrades to beat him later on. No matter if it was Neji, Sasuke or Lee. He had to force this guy to expend himself against him and his shadows. The only problem was…
This arena barely had any shade to begin with! It was a Nara's worst nightmare!
Thankfully Shikamaru already had a plan for this as he drew a single kunai while Raiu simply mimicked him. Frowning as he noted this, he shook his head before rushing the rock vessel. Everything seemed to go according to plan for Raiu countered charged and just before they met Shikamaru did a baseball slide beneath Raiu's legs and dug the kunai into the ground.
There was a flash bang on the handle.
Soon as it went off, Shikamaru made it to the tree. It was his best refugee thanks to the shade and if his opponent neared it he would be able to catch him in his shadow. Still he needed to by some time and thankfully he had a few of balloons and umbrellas on him…
Having them pre-inflated for this and connected to a few umbrellas, he tossed them into the air to cast shade on more of the arena by blotting out the sun. Now to find Raiu and catch him…
"Nice trick… Too bad there is one thing he didn't count on." Shikamaru's eyes went wide as he looked up to see Raiu simply sitting on the tree with his hands in a seal. "I happen to be very talented in wind jutsu."
A furious gale burst around Raiu, knocking everything thing away from him. The umbrellas were blown away while the tree bent and nearly cracked from the force of the jutsu but held firm. Once the gale ended, Raiu was no longer on the tree and Shikamaru was on guard before he felt the cold blade of a kunai on the back of his neck.
"I win."
"I don't think so." Shikamaru commented as he closed his eyes for a moment and mimicked Raiu's current position. "Shadow Possession successful… Now time for the next step."
Forcing Raiu to drop the kunai, he did a few seals that Raiu mimicked before his eyes opened. "Kage Nui!"
Tendrils made of the shadows lifted from the shade and surrounded Raiu, all poised to strike and impale his body. Narrowing his eyes for a moment, he tried to force his way through the hold but he couldn't muster enough strength and there would be enough time to avoid these… There was no choice.
Shikamaru suddenly felt that he was holding nothing the exact moments his tendrils would have pierced Raiu's body and ended the fight. He was actually hopeful for it to work as if he won… He could actually insure that Konoha ninja would come out of this tournament as the winner.
But it was to his dismay that he had somehow escape and out of the corner of his eye there stood Raiu, in the middle of the arena. "Very good… You actually had me there. …I didn't think I would be forced to use that against a gennin. But now that I have… I might as well not waste any more of my chakra."
"So… Say hello." Green chakra began to form around Raiu as his eyes shifted and bled crimson before finally the shape of a beetle with two wings formed behind him. "To the demon inside of me… Nanabi take flight."
For once in his life Shikamaru didn't find something like this in his words troublesome. He found this so much more…
This was terrifying.
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"What is it my lady? Why are we stopping here?" A tall figured spoke to his shorter partner after noticing that she stopped and closed her eyes.
She did not respond immediately and kept her eyes shut. Finally after a moment her eyes opened to reveal dead red eyes. "We will rest here. Any closer and we will slip into his sensory range. He'll be on guard today thanks to Orochimaru's appearance in the leaf a month ago."
The tall man only nodded. He had to expect as much with for the Prince of Konoha was a hard one to fool. "I'll take over first watch and take care of any stragglers that might find us here. I wouldn't want to spoil your homecoming."
"This is no longer my home… Now that my husband is no longer here. This place never was kind to me outside of that lovable fool." She stated as the wind whipped around her and her red hair flared behind her. "Kisame… Leave him to me. I don't want any interference, understand? I can deal with him alone."
Kisame only grinned before bowing slightly to the red haired princess. "You have my word… Lady Kushina."
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