"The next match is Uchiha Sasuke, vs Tsuchimikado Shizuka. Would both competitors please come down?" The stadium cheered wildly at finally being able to see the last Uchiha fight, when Genma finally announced it. No real attention was given to the competitor, other than acknowledging them as the one who will be fighting Sasuke.
But when Shizuka was the only one to arrive in the arena, that changed. Sasuke hadn't arrived and it had been over 10 minutes already. Shizuka was twirling her long, straight black hair around her finger in boredom. Her impressive yellow eyes were glancing around the stadium, from the Kage box, to the competitors private waiting area. A masked shinobi appeared beside Genma, the proctor of the third part, the tournament part of the Chunin exams, and whispered something briefly before disappearing in a burst of speed.
Genma cleared his throat, and probably reinforced his throat with chakra, as his next announcement was loud enough to reach the whole stadium, "If Uchiha Sasuke doesn't arrive in 10 minutes, he will be disqualified, and Tsuchimikado Shizuka will be the winner."
Shizuka would have frowned at the idea of winning by default, but due to the fact that her clan, albeit small, was watching her. Any moves she makes, reflect back upon her clan. She instead chose to fiddle with the ornate handle of her massive sword strapped on her back. The sword's hilt was wrapped in white bandages, while the butt of the hilt had a deep blue pearl, the unique gold cross guard had green ones. The blade itself was long, curved, and a menacing black. It's name was Yoru, and it was the treasure of the Tsuchimikado clan.
She waited for the 10 minutes, and was just about to start walking back up to the competitor's box. There were only 15 seconds left, and Shizuka counted it. She had nothing better to do after all. She turned and walked towards the stairs, when the sound of leaves blowing around in the wind reached her ears. She turned to see, a swirl of leaves was spinning in the middle of the arena, and two distinct silhouettes could be seen clearly. A tiny smirk appeared on her delicate face.
"We aren't late, are we?"
The arena burst into a mixture of clapping, angry yelling, and booing, but that did nothing to bother the sharingan pair. Uchiha Sasuke looked as aloof as always, though there was a hint of pride in his posture. Hatake Kakashi looked completely opposite to him, white hair, lazy posture, and a sheepish look in his one exposed eye.
"Ugh, no, but you were only 10 seconds away from disqualification. Don't let your tardiness bleed over to your students too, Kakashi." Genma scolded Kakashi lightly, before waving him off, and waving Shizuka back to the center of the arena.
Sasuke kept his eye trained on hers, appraising her, and looking for any signs of nervousness or arrogance. But he found neither. The only thing he saw in her eyes were an overwhelming confidence. But that was nothing new, ever since their days in the academy, Sasuke knew she was always incredibly confident.
"Alright, are you both ready?" Seeing no moves to acknowledge his question by the two Chunin-hopefuls, he raised his arm into the air, and shouted, "Begin!"
OoooooO
"Who do you think will win this battle, Hokage-dono?" The robed Kazekage asked while glancing at the old Hokage. The man in question had his eyes still on the two young shinobi, who were currently waiting for the other to to make the first move. He answered without turning, "The Tsuchimikado clan, as is common knowledge, are a clan that focuses heavily on Kenjutsu. The stronger members of the clan can cut their enemy from a distance, using solely technique, but it is when they add the benefit of nature transformation, that they become deadly." The Kazekage nodded along, as he knew all of this, anyone would if they took the time out of their day to look it up, but the Hokage continued, "Though a bit more hidden, there is more to their clan than just that, which I am sure you already know. Once every few decades, someone is born with a unique Kekkei Genkai. This Kekkei Genkai controls the power of, and I quote, the power of darkness. The users of this Kekkei Genkai, the Yami, tend to heavily lean towards one tricking it. But Shizuka here is the daughter of the clan head, she possesses the Yami, and is chosen by the legendary sword, Yoru. I believe that Sasuke-kun would have a hard time beating that."
The Kazekage, since he arrived had a deep frown on his face. Though it was normal for Raasa to be frowning, he looked almost furious. Though this conversation seemed to lessen it slightly. He also expressed surprise at the capabilities of the Kunoichi who was about to go into battle with her equal in age, leaf ninja comrade. The Hokage took this moment to question why he looked to be in a bad mood, "Because, two weeks before the journey here, your village's missing snake decided to stop by Sunagakure and attempt at my life, and now I heard a rumor of certain white snakes being spotted within the second exam by the Genin from Suna. Any explanation, Hokage-dono?"
The Hokage was rightfully surprised at this, but he wasn't old for nothing, and he took it in quickly, and responded, "Orochimaru has an… interest in the Sharingan's ability to copy all jutsu, and marked young Sasuke down there with a curse mark, after somehow sneaking into the village for these exams. I would love nothing more than to play it off, but after hearing your story, I am certain he is planning something big. You do not go from attempting to kill a Kage, to marking Konoha's only user of the sharingan with a curse mark in two weeks on a whim." The Kazekage discreetly channelled gold sand to the corner of the room, though he made it easy enough for Hiruzen to see it as well, before they went back to watching the match, that was just about to begin.
OooooooO
Shizuka was tired of the waiting game, and put her hand on the hilt of Yoru. Sasuke activated his Sharingan as well, and his hands slowly drew toward his shuriken. Faster than even his Sharingan could keep up with, the sword was drawn, and slashed vertically toward him. Instantly, his instincts demanded that he jumped to the side, and he obeyed. He was lucky that he did, as right after the slash was executed, a large arc of green energy followed the trajectory toward Sasuke.
Cold sweat ran down the Sasuke's neck, and he instantly thought of ending the battle quickly. He threw 4 shuriken with both hands, and then went through a few hand seals. The hand seals he went through were one of the things he was taught by Kakashi over his training period. They were the hand seals for the Kage Shuriken Jutsu, which clones his Shuriken, multiplying them instantly. Hundreds of shadow clone shuriken, each possessing the threat of a real one, flew towards Shizuka, who once again lifted her massive sword with minimal effort. She swung, and the green energy once again burst forth, but this time, with a wider range, cutting up the entire swarm.
Sasuke hadn't stayed idle after throwing his Shuriken, as seen by his positioning at the top of the wall directly behind Shizuka, with lightning flowing from his right hand. The sound of the thousand chirping birds couldn't be heard, due to the clanging and popping off all the shuriken, and he used it to his advantage. He charged, at speeds which would make Chunin jealous. He left a trail of blue lightning behind him, and he was behind Shizuka in a split second, hand pulled back and ready to thrust.
To Sasuke's confusion, Shizuka's entire back was instantly covered by a black, smoky substance, and though hesitant, Sasuke plunged his jab of thunder into it, but also heard Shizuka's voice, overlapping with his own.
"Black hole." "Chidori!"
Shizuka smirked, and said, "Liberation," sending Sasuke flying back, while holding his heavily damaged right arm. She turned around, and looked at the preteen who just hit the massive rock wall of the stadium. Shizuka's smirk didn't let up, as she walked towards the tree, which was also the only part of the arena that wasn't flat ground. She extended her arm towards it, and the same black smoke lunged at the tree, and submerged it in smoke. The tree was gone within seconds, and the only thing left to show it was there in the first place, was the holes of the roots which had also been absorbed, "Black hole.."
Shizuka turned her attention back to Sasuke, who had now gotten up, his right arm hanging limply on his side. Shizuka stopped smirking, and her mount settled into a thin line, before she spoke, "Surrender now, or you might die. I'm done holding back."
Sasuke, and the rest of the spectators were all mind blown. She cut down hundreds of shuriken in just one wave of her sword, while keeping watch on Sasuke, and then she completely countered the technique made by Hatake Kakashi, and she was holding back?!
Sasuke hesitated, him, the last Uchiha, surrendering to the heir of a minor clan?! The concept of him giving up was completely foreign to him, but somehow, he had a strange sense of foreboding, if he were to continue. Shizuka had been seen as strong if the academy, though also extremely bored. She always defeated the other students in spars, using weird strategies that always worked, as if treating the spars like a game. She would do stuff from evading for the entire match, before tripping the enemy on a banana peel somehow. Sometimes she would be pushing the enemy back with a quick assault of amazing Taijutsu, before the enemy fell through the ground, as though walk on paper. The point is, she beat everyone, without taking it seriously. Even him. And now that Shizuka was telling him that she would go all out. It would be a lie if he said he wasn't afraid.
Even if this was different from the academy, she had already completely defeated the entirety of the training he had been given from Kakashi, and she wasn't even being serious. The only thing he had left was the Housenka no Jutsu, the Goukakyuu no Jutsu, the Ryuuka no Jutsu, and the curse mark, which he also felt wouldn't be enough, nor would he want to rely on it. So he did the only thing he could do.
"...I give up."
OoooooO
Disbelief was just as clear on Naruto's face, as it was on Sakura's, Kakashi's eye, and the rest of the rookie Genin. Sasuke gave up.. There was absolutely no one who was expecting that outcome, even though Kakashi sincerely hoped that he would. After observing the fight, he knew that Sasuke had no way to combat Shizuka. He even suspected that a few of the Jonin would not be able to defeat her. Though it made sense.
The Tsuchimikado were hard enough when training someone with either Yami, or Yoru. But when both were given to one person, the training they would need to endure must have been harder than the Anbu training, which is said to be second only to Guy's training. Perhaps he should have gone for teaching Sasuke some long range techniques, instead of only a weapon technique, and an assassination-one shot killing technique.
He sighed, knowing that it is too late to regret this decision. There are more than one chance to become Chunin, and this time he will definitely prepare his students properly, their teamwork is acceptable when it counts.
"S-Sasuke… gave up..?"
Naruto was in denial, Sasuke was his rival, he said that he wanted to fight him. Sasuke had always somehow done better than him, and now that same Sasuke who he begrudgingly respected, gave up. He grew angry, mad at Sasuke for giving up so easily, and was about to give him a piece of his mind, before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Now now, let's take a minute now to wonder why he gave up, before you make any rash decisions Naruto," Naruto turned and saw that Kakashi was the owner of the hand that was holding him back. He looked at him questioningly, and was about to yell about how he just gave up, but Kakashi spoke before he could, "So listen, first of all the girl cut apart hundreds of shuriken with a swing of her sword, and then, she was able to capture the arm of Sasuke, which was surrounded by lethal amounts of lightning, and make it damaging to Sasuke somehow. She was then able to throw Sasuke back at half the speed he went in with, at the very least. Sasuke's arm is broken, and you saw that she swallowed the entire tree with the darkness. What would happen if she swallowed up Sasuke's whole body in that?" The Genin's, and even the Jonin's eyes widened as they considered it. Sasuke's arm was only in there for a few seconds after all, he would die without a doubt, "And then, there is the fact that we have no idea about the range of it, nor do we know the other applications of the power. Also, we do not know if that was the best she could do with her sword, or if she was playing around with that too. Lastly, we are not sure if that was all that she could do, or if she had other tricks. Are you sure that you want to yell at Sasuke for giving up in front of something like that?"
Naruto, and the rest who wanted to argue with Sasuke's decision, or ridicule him, all quieted down. They took a seat again, and waited for the next match to start, until white feathers began falling from the sky..