Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.
I hope everyone enjoyed the new year Eve, like I enjoyed. You will notice that I updated this story a day after the date announced. That is normal, I wasn't really in any capability to do so earlier.
Anyhow, I present you the third chapter of 'Naruto the true ninja'. I couldn't reach the spot I wanted before stopping because it was already too long. So you will have to wait for the next chapter for the following. I am not really happy how this chapter came out when I read it, but no matter what I did, I couldn't find a better way to explain something that will prove important for the next chapters, so you will have to deal with it for now. And tell me what you think of it, once you finish reading this chapter.
Now to answer some reviews:
Queenwitch : I can't answer that yet without spoiling. The only thing I can say is that nothing is as it seems in this story. You will soon learn that everyone has hidden motives thanks to several twists that will soon appear.
Malix2 : I know that I humanized Zaku too much before killing him, but I learned that for a death to have the desired effect, you need to make the reader gain an attachment to the character. That is why I did it. A piece of advice, never think that because a character is developed in my story, he won't die. In my story anyway. That is how I like to write. For the cold and uncaring thing, that is exactly what I am trying to portray. There is a reason behind his personality that will be explained later on, when we learn of his past.
For the others reviewers, thank for reviewing my story. It really warm my heart (lol) to see someone interested in reading my story. Sorry for not updating earlier but blame my overworking mind because I have so much ideas that it is difficult to concentrate on only one story. I have 3 others stories I have publied, and 3 more that I am currently writing but for those I am waiting for them to be finished before posting them. I write mostly every time I have an interesting idea for a story. I know the general plot of all my stories but putting in on paper is another story.
Anyway, I have to stop boring you, so I will let you read the chapter 4 of this story.
Edited: 05/12/2013
Chapter 4: gifted, prodigies and genius
Inside the great hall, were standing some of the greatest genins of their generation. Among them were the heirs of the Namikaze and Uchiha clan. Each one of these clans was widely acknowledged as among the most powerful that had existed and still existed. Currently, the genins were moving toward the balconies, all the while looking at the screen above their heads. Apparently they were supposed to fight among themselves to determine those that were worthy of participating in the last part of the chuunins exam.
The fights were one on one and were managed by a proctor that introduced himself as Hayate Gekko. On the balconies, stood the jounin sensei of each team. Each of these jounins was standing relatively close to the team they led. Among them were Asuma Sarutobi, the sensei of team 10 from Konoha, Kurenai Yuuhi, team 8's sensei, Kakashi Hatake, the sensei of team 7 and finally Maito Gai, team 9's sensei.
Those were the ninjas from Konoha, not including Kabuto's team, but as the older team wasn't close to any of the mentioned above, they weren't standing among them.
Far away from them, stood impassively the members of the sand team with their sensei Baki standing behind them. It was easy to feel the tension in the hall. Everyone among the fighters, was analyzing their would be opponent, trying to gather as much information as they could before the start of the fighting.
Once they reached the elevated stages, they directed their attention toward the arena in the center of the room. Hayate was standing there, as he was the referee of the battles. Not far from the center of the arena, on a slightly elevated spot, serenely stood the Sandaime Hokage in accordance to the proceedings of such event. Also beside him were his advisors Homura and Koharu.
According to the proceedings of this event, it was strongly advised for the village holding the chuunins exam that the Kage in charge of the village be present during the preliminaries. It was also required of him to explain to the young ninjas, the reasons behind this event.
Having already given the explanation to the hopeful chuunins (AN: It is the same explanation from canon.), Sarutobi and his advisors were like everyone, looking at the board that would determine the future battles.
'The only things noteworthy in this proceedings are the fact that my estranged student put a cursed seal on Uchiha Sasuke, and the strange genin that is Kabuto. The fact that he gave up even though he was still able to fight doesn't bode well for him in the future. I will have Ibiki look into that later on.'
Sarutobi's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the board finally chose the first battle of the day.
Sasuke Uchiha VS Akado Yoroi
The fight didn't last long. At first Yoroi used his incredible ability to absorb Sasuke's chakra, thus rendering him close to exhaustion. But the latter, using his last and only encounter with Rock Lee, used the beginning of the Omote Renge to overcome his opponent. In the end he created a new move consisting of taijutsu attacks that allowed him to dispatch Yoroi.
This fight didn't leave him unscathed though, as the cursed seal he received in the forest of death – courtesy of Orochimaru – chooses the time he was using his new combo to activate itself. But he did something that surprised those who knew of the cursed seal.
He overcame it completely.
This in turn allowed him to finish his combo, thus winning his fight. On the balcony, Lee was looking at Sasuke in disbelief and a little bit of frustration. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto who was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed on his chest.
"I see that the Uchiha used the technique you graciously showed him during your spar."
Lee turned to look at Naruto with a carefully controlled anger but said nothing knowing that he didn't have anything to say and only had himself to blame. The other Konoha teams looked at the interaction with surprise and a little bit of curiosity, as they couldn't discern if the comment was made to be a scathing remark or something else. But seeing that none of the two elaborated further, they turned their eyes back on board waiting for it to draw the new fighters.
Said board flew through several names before stopping for two, thus announcing the next fight.
Ino Yamanaka VS Sakura Haruno
Unlike the first battle, which was interesting and had lot of suspense, this one was nothing short of disappointing. It wasn't a battle, more like a cat fight. Most of those in the room couldn't help but look at the display in disgust, while the Konoha ninjas were looking at it in shame. In the end, the result of the fight was a draw, thus stopping the two girls from advancing further in this exam. To the happiness of the Sandaime, as he certainly didn't want to show this kind of ninjas to the future clients that will be attending the finals.
After both girls respective sensei took them back to the balconies, with the exception of Kurenai being the person who took Sakura back, as her sensei Kakashi was gone with the Uchiha soon after the latter's fight, everyone looked again at the board. A few seconds later, the board stopped on two names. Two names that were well known in this proceeding.
One for being the child of the Kazekage, while the other was a member of the supposed strongest genin team of Konoha.
Tenten VS Sabaku no Temari
The room became silent, as the tension rose. Tenten who was closely standing by Naruto, stole a glance at her teammate leaning on the wall with his eyes closed. Seeing him not looking back, she sighed before jumping down the balcony to the arena. Upon setting foot on the ground, she looked up just in time to see her opponent glide towards her, using her fan as a makeshift glider.
It wasn't long before Temari stopped herself in front of Tenten, with the proctor standing in the middle. Hayate looked at the two before raising his hand.
"Are you both ready?"
The two girls nodded simply.
"Well then, the battle between Sabaku no Temari and Tenten..." he paused a little, eyeing the two. "now begins".
Once Hayate lowered his hand, he jumped backwards to give the two fighters some space. Surprisingly enough, they stayed rooted on their position, eyeing each other. The first to break to silence was Temari.
"So you are a member of the supposed strongest genin team of Konoha?" She asked.
"Konoha's standard seems to be at an all time low I see!" she finished smirking.
Tenten listened her every words barely stopping herself from charging head first at Temari to make her eat her words. Fortunately she had more control over herself and instead tightly clenched her fists. This didn't go unnoticed by Temari who kept going.
"I mean, look at you. You look more like deadweight than anything else. There is nothing special about you. Why would a ninja village like Konoha label you as a strong genin? To me, it's more like they made up the whole strongest genin team of Konoha, just to boost their reputation?"
If she were to look around, Temari would have noticed the murderous look given by the Konoha ninjas the more she talked.
"For talking like that in a foreign country, either this girl is extremely courageous, or she is completely stupid." Kurenai said frowning in distaste, while the other jounins nodded to that.
There were several murmurs going on in the room, all about the supposedly cover up that Temari revealed. Of course the only ones that were even remotely thinking that she might be right were the genins who of course didn't know the truth. This was making the Konoha jounins smile.
'If only you knew the truth, you wouldn't be talking like that little girl' was going through most of their minds.
Coming back to the arena, Tenten having enough of listening to her opponent, decided to engage first by launching several shurikens at Temari. The latter effortlessly dodged them by weaving around them. Not deterred, Tenten retrieved a scroll from her breast pocket, before opening it in a circular fashion around her. Then by rotating on herself, she launched several kunais and shurikens faster than before, much to the amazement of the onlookers.
'Those weapons are coming faster.' Temari thought while dodging some of them. Those she couldn't, she used her fan to push them away. Finally, Tenten stopped and looked as Temari pushed the last of the weapons away. She frowned at that.
"Is that all you can do? You'll have to do better than that. I am not like you Konoha genins." The amusement was clear in Temari's voice.
"One piece of advice though, upon this fan is draw 3 moons. I doubt that you will make me show you all of them, but in case it were to happen..." She stopped and looked at Tenten with a piercing gaze. "... It will be over for you"
Tenten just scowled at that, not even bothering to acknowledge what she said, before she ran toward Temari with more than average speed. 'Let see how you fare in taijutsu then'.
Temari seeing this, took her fan from her back, and placed herself in a ready position waiting for Tenten to approach. It wasn't long before the latter was upon her and delivered several punches and kicks that were blocked by the fan. She was using the longer reach of her weapon as an advantage. But unfortunately, Tenten had Maito Gai as sensei, so it was obvious that she'd be good in taijutsu.
That was proved true, when she feinted a punch, forcing Temari to try to block it with her fan. But instead, Tenten dropped on the floor, and tried a sweep kick. Fortunately, Temari saw this, and jumped over it. But she forgot that by doing so she would lose her ability to move freely as she was in mid-air. Which Tenten used by taking a kunai from her pocket and launched it at Temari, who was forced to put her fan directly in front of her.
But it covered her view of Tenten, and when she removed the fan, she lost sight of her opponent.
"Where is she?" Temari looked around, trying to find her target.
"Here!"
She heard above her and looked up just in time to see Tenten's kick slam on her face, sending her crashing toward the wall, with blood flowing from her mouth.
On the balconies, Asuma looked at Gai in amazement.
"I can see that she's one of your charge just by looking at this taijutsu, Gai"
Gai answered by smiling widely, showing his white teethes for everyone to see.
Once the dust was settled, the onlookers could see Temari again and she was looking at Tenten with murder in her eyes. Tenten seeing the look smirked, before she ran again toward Temari. But unlike before, Temari opened her fan, showing the first moon, and swung it toward her opponent. A gust of wind was formed and forced Tenten to cover her face until the gust was gone.
When Tenten looked again at Temari's last position, she found nothing. She then looked around, before looking at the ceiling, just in time to see Temari gliding on her fan, above her. She was about to launch another batch of shurikens, when Temari disengaged from her fan, and instead swung it again at close range. This time, 2 moons were visible and the difference was immediate.
A whirlwind was formed and slammed on Tenten violently, creating a layer of dust around the impact. Temari used this time to land on the arena again, waiting for the dust to settle. A few moments later, everyone could see again and were surprised by what they saw.
Because at the center of the impact, Tenten stood, looking at Temari. But what surprised them was the amount of small cuts that were on her body. She looked at Temari with narrowed eyes.
'This is unsuspected. I would never have expected to fight someone that could so easily counter all of my attacks. She can block most of my long-range attacks. The only advantage I have is in taijutsu, but she won't fall for the same trick twice. She won't let me approach her again.'
"What is it? Are you trying to find another way to attack me, now that everything else has failed" taunted Temari, but frowned when Tenten didn't rise to the bait.
'My only chance is to use that attack. But I wanted to keep it for the finals.' She sighed in frustration. 'Not that I have a choice. It is that or I won't even be in the finals'.
Suddenly, to the surprise of Temari, she used the blood on her body and put it on the center of her outfit before going through a few handseals. In a puff of smoke, two scrolls appeared. She took them, before launching them toward the ceiling while they were opening themselves. Looking at it, you would mistake it to two dragons rising to the sky.
"I wanted to keep this attack for the finals, but it seems like I don't have a choice, do I?" Tenten said before jumping at the middle of the unfurling scroll while yelling.
"Twin Rising Dragon"
Temari eyed her with apprehension, trying to understand what she was doing. Then a barrage of weapons of all kind was launched at her quite violently. There were so many weapons that it was like there was a grey cloud above her. Thinking quickly, she opened her fan, still at two moons, before sending a violent gust of wind, which scattered all the weapons away from her, stunning Tenten as she touched ground.
But not wanting to stop there, Tenten jumped toward the ceiling again, and moved her hands in an intricate pattern causing all the weapons scattered on the ground to rose again, before she launched them at Temari who sighed.
"No matter what you do, it won't change a thing"
Before she send another gust of wind like before, this time, also sending Tenten crashing on the ground. Seeing Tenten about to get up again, she scowled in frustration. Then she opened her fan completely, showing the 3 moons at her opponent who widened her eyes.
"This is the end." Temari said.
"Ninpo, Kamaitaichi"
A whirlwind of wind was launched at Tenten much to the horror of Gai and Lee.
"Tenten!" Lee yelled.
The whirlwind was so strong that it launched Tenten in the sky, and surrounded her. Inside it, Tenten was being cut badly by the small blades of wind. She was close to losing consciousness.
'Is this it? In less than a week, I have lost two times. After the ordeal with Orochimaru I thought I wouldn't lose to another genin except maybe my teammates, but was I arrogant?'
Despite the force of the wind, she was still able to steal a look at Naruto who had his eyes closed.
'Was it enough to convince you? Does this show you how far I'm willing to go to improve?' she thought desperately.
As if to answer her questions, Naruto opened his eyes and looked at her directly in the eyes. He did a single movement that answered her questions and allowed her to fall to the blissful darkness while remembering what Naruto did.
He nodded with his head.
Time speeded back to normal, and everyone saw the unconscious form of Tenten falling rapidly to the ground. But as if it wasn't enough, Temari put herself under Tenten and positioned her fan in such way that her opponent would fall on it and possibly break her back. She smirked at what she was about to do and just like before time slowed.
Tenten was falling almost at a snail pace toward her doom, when something happened that shocked everyone in the room.
A blue see through cube formed between Temari's fan and Tenten.
The cube allowed Tenten to land softly as it was very pliable. The only one that had an inkling of what was going on were those that were present in the debacle in the forest of death. So it wasn't a surprise when the members of Asuma's team and Lee looked at the still leaning Naruto. He had his right hand in the ram seal and was looking intently at the cube. Then to the dismay of everyone, the cube stretched out toward him. It stopped just in front of him, with Tenten lying above it.
As if on clue, those that weren't looking at him before, now watched him in wonder. Temari on the other hand, had the face of a baby who just had his candy stolen from him. The smirk had completely disappeared.
'So this is the Namikaze bloodline, the Kekkai jutsu...' was going through the mind of Konoha's jounins, as it was their first time seeing it.
Hayate, seeing what happened raised his hand.
"Seeing as someone intervened on behalf to Tenten, she's disqualified. Winner Temari of Suna"
Temari hearing this, nodded slowly before moving toward her teammates, all the while looking at Naruto like everyone in the room.
Not bothered in the least by the looks he was receiving, Naruto moved from the wall and put his hand above Tenten's body. Then his hand glowed green, indicating the use of medical chakra. He passed it above every parts of Tenten's body. And whenever his hand left an area, all the cuts disappeared, leaving no scar at all, showing his mastery over the medical art.
'Fortunately, those cuts were only superficial. They only made her lose blood. With a blood pill, she should be fine.' Naruto thought while retrieving the pill in question and forcing Tenten to swallow it.
Immediately, those close could already see Tenten's body going from pale to a warm looking color. His work done, he slowly put her on the ground beside him, while the cube dissipated to the wonder of the spectators.
"HUM HUM" Sarutobi hummed to regain everyone's attention and signaling for Hayate to continue with the proceeding, ignoring the muttering of the ninjas whom were talking about what happened.
While the panel rotated, trying to selection a name, Temari was looking at Naruto with barely hidden contempt.
'That bastard think he can steal my prey like that. This isn't over'
As if sensing her, Naruto looked at her with the same impassiveness. During a few seconds that seemed like an eternity for Temari, they kept eye contact. Finally, Temari turned away from those eyes with sweat rolling on her forehead.
'Those eyes... There were NO emotions in them!' she thought frightened.
She had dealt with people with all kind of emotions before. Be it hate, love, kindness, jealousy. Even bloodlust from a few gangs. But never had she looked at someone in the eyes, and saw not even a hint of emotion behind them. This was new to her, unknown. And like every ninjas, the unknown frightened her greatly.
The board came to a stop, announcing the next battle.
Choji Akimichi VS Misumi Tsurugi
Surprisingly, this fight was quick. Misumi possessed the ability to dislocate his joints, thus allowing him to fit into any place or even coiling around his opponent. While Choji, like every Akimichi, could increase the size of any parts of his body. At first the match was to the advantage of Misumi who was faster and more experienced, but he made the error of coiling around Choji, completely forgetting the latter's ability to increase his size to phenomenal proportion. Misumi asked of him to surrender but Choji answered by increasing his body's size to the point of stretching Misumi so much that his body was cut in several parts. This shocked the genins, especially Choji himself who emptied the contents of his stomach on the floor, at the sight of so much blood and body parts. Hayate declared Choji the winner of the match.
With a quick use of Doton jutsu, the gore and vomit was pulled underground, allowing the next fighter to go ahead without a mess to worry about. The board shuffled the remaining names before stopping at two.
Kiba Inuzuka VS Sai
This battle was rather interesting as Kiba, with the help of his companion Akamaru, fought against Sai. At first they were evenly matched, to the surprise of everyone, as Kiba was very fast and powerful in taijutsu. So they were surprised when Sai could keep up with not only Kiba but his dog as well.
Kiba, fed up, used his Inuzuka's attributes by slamming a smoke grenade on the ground, thereby impairing Sai movements, as he couldn't see anymore. And quickly took the advantage, allowing him to deliver several strong hits to Sai. Finally, the latter chooses to withdraw from the battle, as he couldn't get out of the smoke screen, thanks to Akamaru waiting for him outside and tracking his movements. Kiba was thus declared the winner.
Sarutobi, unlike most of the ninjas inside the room wasn't fooled though. He was looking at Sai with narrowed eyes.
'His hand went several times for a sword that wasn't there on his hips. The fact that he was also pulling his punch every time he hit Kiba is another give away.'
'He is part of root obviously. But to think that Danzo would be able to train a child this young to the point of having the reflexes of an anbu level ninja ... Maybe we are underestimating Danzo's faction too much' He thought while narrowing his eyes and stealing a glance at Naruto who had returned to his impassive state and was leaning on the wall.
In the room, everyone turned again to look at the board, waiting excitedly for the next battle. They weren't disappointed when the board chose two genins that were arguably among the most powerful in this exam.
Sabaku no Gaara VS Rock Lee
"Yosh. Finally it is my turn!" Lee yelled while pumping a hand to the sky, displaying his joy at finally being able to fight. Across him, his sensei was the same, much to the horror of the witness.
"My youthful student will finally display the power of youth"
"Gai – sensei, I won't disappoint you!"
"Lee – kun!"
"Gai – sensei!"
"Lee – kun!"
The duo was comically yelling at the top of their lungs, while hugging each other. Strangely enough, a sunset appeared right behind them, scarring for life those looking at the display.
Meanwhile Gaara simply Shunshin-ed to the arena in a violent gust of sand. He appeared with his arms crossed above his chest waiting patiently for his opponent. He didn't have to wait for long as Lee jumped above the rail of the balcony and smoothly landed on the arena, and immediately put himself in front of his opponent.
Suddenly, Lee's hand rose and caught something in his hand. He opened it and from it, fell what looked like a cap made of hardened sand. He then looked at Gaara with a serious look unlike before.
"You shouldn't be so quick to attack. The fight hasn't even started yet."
Gaara just kept looking at him not acknowledging what was being said, only looking at him with hunger in his eyes.
On the balcony, murmurs were heard as the spectators speculated on the outcome of the fight. While that was going on, the members of the sand team just smirked at the Konoha contingent.
"They don't even know what kind of hell their fellow ninja will endure."
Kankuro nodded at Temari, confirming what she just said.
"If they knew what Gaara really was, they wouldn't be so calm."
"But don't you find it ironic?" She questionned her brother who looked at her in surprise.
"What?"
"The fact that I already defeated one of their 'stars' genin. Now, they are about to witness the defeat if not the death of another. I wonder how the Daimyos will react once they learn that our team decimated Konoha's best?"
Baki, who was calmly listening to their conversation, couldn't help but smirk at that. 'Indeed, I wonder. This will be a harsh blow to Konoha's notoriety at the least. Especially during an exam organized in their own turf.'
He looked at Naruto, who was still leaning on the wall, his eyes closed and frowned. 'But I don't think we should sell the chickens before they hatch, so to say. Who knows what that Namikaze is really capable of.'
On the arena, Hayate was looking at the two fighters.
"Are you two ready?"
The two nodded and Hayate took that as his cue to start the match.
"Then Hajime!" Before retreating to a safe spot, while still being close enough to judge the match.
Lee was the first to move, as he took a kunai from his pouch, and held it in a reverse grip before charging at Gaara. The latter was still arms crossed, but with sands floating around him like some kind of barrier. He saw Lee charge at him, and waited patiently for the impact.
He didn't wait for long, as Lee closed the distance fast, before slashing at him. But his sand rose to protect him, and perfectly blocked the attack. Lee not deterred, moved around Gaara, all the while slashing or evading the sand attacks. He was looking for an opening but found none. It seemed the sand was always blocking every attacks no matter what.
He was even forced the jump back as the sand was now following him. He dodged each wave of sand, as they slammed on the ground. Another wave forced him to jump to the sky just as it crashed where he was standing. While in mid-air, he took a batch of shurikens and threw them at Gaara, hopping that with most of the sand away from him, he wouldn't be protected.
But it didn't work as sand came from the gourd and blocked the weapons while the other wave of sand retreated back to protect his master. Nonetheless, he used that reprieve to run behind Gaara, hopping to use a blind spot.
"Konoha Senpuu"
Lee yelled as he did a rotating kick just behind Gaara. But sand rose again to block it, without Gaara turning around to look at it. Which stunned everyone, as they didn't think that the sand could block an attack that wasn't seen by the boy.
Moreover, the sand grabbed Lee's foot and launched him at the wall quite violently. Fortunately, Lee was able to rotate in mid-air and land on the wall with his feet instead of headfirst. Then he landed on the ground, facing his opponent who hadn't moved since the start of the fight.
Gaara looked at him as if bored.
"Is this the extent of your ability?" A shiver went through the back of most of those presents when they heard the voice. Gaara unfolded his arms in a welcoming gesture.
"Come!"
Among the Konoha contingent, expressions of surprise and curiosity could be found, especially among the jounins sensei. Kakashi was looking at the sand genin with a frown on his face.
"This is the first time I see someone with the ability to manipulate sand so easily."
"Indeed, such ability will be very difficult to bypass. Especially while using only taijutsu." Asuma said while smoking a cigarette.
Sakura who was beside them was surprised by what she heard.
"If that's the case, why doesn't he use Ninjutsu then?"
Hearing this, Gai looked at her with a sad expression on his face.
"That's simple." He took a deep breath as if to still his nerves while the genins were looking at him expectantly.
"Lee – kun cannot use anything other than taijutsu." And as he expected, those hearing this had the same reaction.
"What?!"
Gai took another deep breath.
"My wonderful student has had a disability since birth that make him unable to use chakra for anything other than taijutsu. In other words, he cannot use any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu at all." He said to the stunned audience.
"That is why, we focused solely on taijutsu during his training. If it is a taijutsu battle, Lee will never lose to his peers." Gai finished with pride at the end, even though he still stole a glance at his last student who was ignoring them completely.
In the arena, the battle wasn't going well for Lee though, as he couldn't get close to his opponent, and thus couldn't hit him, which sucked as he was a close ranged fighter. Instead, he was forced to dodge wave after wave of sand. A moment later, he narrowly escaped another wave, by jumping on the statue that was in the room.
'Whew, that was a close one' he thought while wiping the sweat rolling down his face.
"Lee – kun!" He was about to move again to engage his opponent when he heard someone call him. He looked at the one who spoke only to see his sensei with his thumb up.
"You can remove them. I give you the permission."
Lee widened his eyes in surprise.
"Really?"
When Gai nodded, Lee smiled like Christmas came earlier. He quickly sat on the giant statue, and rolled up his pants, revealing a set of weights around the ankle, stunning everyone.
While he was removing them, Temari looked at the display in amusement.
"Does he really thinks that a few pounds less will make any differences? What a stupid…"
She was stopped when the weights that Lee removed, fell on the ground, creating a huge crater, thus showing just how heavy they were.
Bulging eyes could be seen after the display.
"Gai, isn't it a bit too much?" Kakashi asked with a sweat drop on his face. Gai only punched his hand to the sky while yelling. "Go!"
Lee obliged, as he disappeared from his spot to appear just in front of a shocked Gaara who wasn't able to follow his movements. He punched at last, and was able to bypass a little the sand protecting Gaara. He moved again, so fast that Gaara lost sight of him.
Gaara moved his head left and right, each time something impacted with his sand, but still he wasn't able to follow him. Finally Lee appeared again above his head, rotating on himself, before drop kicking Gaara.
This time, the kick bypassed the sand and slammed on Gaara's head. The kick was strong enough to make Lee glide on the ground for a few meters to regain his balance, while Gaara was forced to bend downward, almost putting a knee on the ground from the impact.
The Konoha genins seeing this encouraged Lee even more, while the sand team was shocked.
"He touched Gaara?" Temari asked no one in particular, mostly stunned by what happened. After all, no one in Suna had ever been able to bypass the sand guard, so it was natural for them to be so shocked.
Kakashi looked at Lee in wonder.
"He is really fast. You really surpassed yourself with this one, didn't you?"
Gai just smirked.
"Of course. I trained him myself. When I took him, I knew that he would need something of a trump card to be able to compete with the ninja out there, as he lacked the ability to use jutsus. Fortunately I was inspired by our most powerful and youthful hokage to date, the Yondaime hokage."
This grabbed the attention of the entire Konoha contingent. Even Naruto focused on Gai once the latter said this.
"After all, the yondaime, even though he was a Ninjutsu master, rarely used them. Why? Simply because he was too fast for anyone to even touch him."
Now, even the sand team was listening despite the fight going on in the arena.
"At first I thought like several ninjas that yondaime's speed was solely due to the jutsu that got him the flee on sight rank, the Hiraishin no jutsu." Baki shuddered at that, still having nightmare of that jutsu, being one of the few that witnessed it.
"But I was proved wrong when one time, I saw him literally destroy a squad of jounins, only using his natural speed. He moved so fast that it was over way before any of them had the time to even launch a jutsu. That is just how fast he was."
"So I concluded that if Lee could reach such speed, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to use Ninjutsu, as he would be able to outrun any Ninjutsu attacks or even stop them before they were launched. That is why I made him wear weights like myself." Gai finished smugly, much to the awe of the genins.
They all turned back to look at the fight, just in time to see Lee bypass the sand again, and land a strong punch on Gaara's face, sending him skidding across the room.
Lee stopped to look at his handiwork while Gaara stood slowly from his position. Cracks appeared on his face and sand fell from it, showing that he had another layer of sand protecting him. Then to the shock of everyone, he pulled the sand from the ground and made it stick perfectly all over his body, in such a way that it was like a second skin.
Lee looking at this with widened eyes. 'Earlier I could reach him because I was fast enough to bypass his defenses, but now, no matter how fast I am, I won't be able to land a hit without destroying his armor. Only one thing against that.'
'Renge!'
So, he unfastened the bandages that covered his forearms until they were hanging in the air. He put his hands across his face in a guarding position.
"Get ready!" He said before charging at his target with a speed even greater than before, as he had opened the first gate of chakra. Then he began running circle around Gaara who was looking at him as if bored.
"Come!"
"As you wish!" Lee answered before appearing under Gaara and kicking his chin, enough to push him above ground, but not enough for Lee to continue his move.
'The sand must have rendered him too heavy for my kick to properly push him higher.' He thought, before following the first attack with a flurry of kick while the two were ascending the air.
On the sidelines, Kakashi was looking at the combo with appreciation. "Good attacks." While Gai was praying for the attack to work, as he knew that even opening the first gate was damaging for the body.
Once they were high enough, Lee stopped and surrounded Gaara with the bandages he removed from his hand earlier. Gaara looked now like a mummy. Then he held firmly on Gaara before spinning like a top, while falling to the ground headfirst.
"Omote Renge." Lee yelled as he touched the ground in an explosive manner, lifting smoke everywhere.
The smoke cleared to show the form of Gaara lying on the crater with his eyes closed. Gai cheered at that, happy for his student. But it didn't last as the Gaara on the ground collapsed on itself, showing that it was just a shell of hardened sand, shocking Lee who was kneeling beside the crater and was exhausted to say the least.
'Fuck! When did he substitute himself?' He thought in frustration just as a wave of sand crashed on him, sending him flying to the wall.
"Lee!" Gai yelled. He was stunned that Gaara survived the attack, and even that he didn't saw the latter substitute himself.
"When? When did he…"
"When you closed your eyes, praying. Lee diverted his eyes just for a moment because of the pain he was in, but it was enough for Gaara to act." Kakashi said beside him.
The spectators were looking as Gaara who was launching Lee against every wall of the room. And he wasn't showing sign of stopping yet. Lee was doing his best to dodge but he was still too tired to react.
Naruto was looking at the fight with keen interest ever since Gai talked about having Lee emulate his late father and couldn't help but be disappointed so far.
'How can he even hope for Lee to reach yondaime's speed, if he himself doesn't even understand the speed of my father? It wasn't only because my father was fast that he was able to dispatch his opponents so easily after all.'
'First you must know how and when to use such speed for it to be effective. But from what I have seen as of yet, Lee always moves at his top speed, which means constant speed. This makes him easily predictable.'
In the arena, Lee was slowly regaining his strength, as he was now able to dodge a few of the waves.
'Second was maybe the most important thing about my father. Not only was he fast, but he also had an acceleration and deceleration to match it. He could increase or decrease his speed so fast that he could go from genin speed to his max speed almost instantly. Unlike Lee who need a few seconds for it. And there is the fact that Lee cannot seem to be able to reduce his speed quickly. That is why, he is using strict kata since he removed his weights, and is forced to make wide circle around Gaara to control his speed.'
'And finally, yondaime had the ability to change direction instantly despite his speed, thanks to his ability to reduce and increase his speed at will. Something that is invaluable to fight multiple opponents at once or dodge a trap.'
Finally, Lee was dodging every wave of sands like in the beginning, much to Gai's joy who was talking to Sakura again.
"Like I said, a lotus blooms twice." He said confident on the victory of his student.
He was interrupted by a voice that wasn't heard since the start of the preliminaries and what it said shocked him.
"Pathetic!"
Hearing this, the jounins and genins turned to look at the person who said that, only to be surprised to see Naruto looking at the fight with his eyes finally opened. Gai was about to ask what Naruto means by that when the mysterious genin spoke again.
"Is this the extent of the power of the Ichibi Jinchuuriki?" Naruto frowned not even acknowledging the look of shock from the jounins and the sand team.
"Not being able to do anything other than moving his sand around. Does he really think that his defenses will hold against skilled Ninjutsu users?"
In the arena, Lee was once again reaching deep inside to release the chakra gates, this time in an effort to finish the fight completely. Naruto seeing this shook his head in disdain.
"And to think that Lee would be so stupid as to not realize that the armor of sand consume so much chakra that by just waiting a few more instant, his opponent would have been forced to stop using it. What a waste of time." He finished while closing his eyes again.
The whole room was looking at him. It was difficult to say if they were shocked because they didn't think about the amount of chakra the armor would consume or because he just admitted that his teammate was stupid. But they didn't have time to think further on it, as Lee acted at that time.
After opening 4 gates, he finally launched himself at Gaara. He was so fast that by simply moving, he displaced so much air, that a blast of wind pushed everything around him. Once he reached Gaara, he attacked him with a flurry of punches. It was so fast that Gaara looked like a punching ball with Lee appearing everywhere Gaara was about to crash, before punching him again.
He was simply too fast for most to follow his movements. Finally Lee wrapped his bandages around Gaara, before punching him violently toward the ground.
As if it wasn't enough, he stopped Gaara with it, before falling down with a kick and a punch at the same time while yelling.
"Ura Renge"
The attack was so strong that it lifted a huge amount of smoke and created a wide crater. Lee fell a few meters from the crater, and was yelling in pain, because of the strain caused by the opening of the chakra gates. When the smoke was lifted, Lee saw something that made him stop in shock.
Gaara was slowly raising his hand in his direction. Apparently, the gourd he held on his back was turned in sand too, and used to reduce the damage caused by the landing. Slowly a hand made of sand rose and charged at Lee who was doing his best to flee. But it wasn't to be, as the hand grabbed his right arm and foot.
"Sabaku soso"
Gaara said while closing his hand. At the same time, the sand encasing Lee's foot and arm imploded, shocking the Konoha contingent.
Lee fell on the ground like a puppet that had his strings cut.
Again the sand moved toward Lee and was about to reach him, when Gai suddenly appeared in front of the sand path, and dispersed it with a strong backhand.
Seeing this, Hayate was forced to declare Gaara the winner. The latter slowly moved back towards his team, while a silence fell on the room. The medics rushed towards Lee and quickly put him on a stretcher and moved him to the hospital where he would receive extensive care.
Naruto looked at all this with complete disdain. He was aware of the look the sand team was sending him. It was a look laced with surprise and smugness at the same time. If he had to guess, he would say that the surprise was because he knew that Gaara was a Jinchuuriki and the smugness was because the sand team had dispatched his teammates without suffering significant injuries.
"Only one left! Talk about the strongest genin team." Temari said out loud while scoffing at the Konoha nins who heard her and were glaring at her for the comment.
It wasn't long before Gai came back. He had talked with the medic and was relieved to learn that Lee's condition didn't seem to be as bad as he thought it would be. Somehow, Lee had been able to reduce the damage done by the last jutsu used by Gaara. He was proud and sad at the same time for his student, as even if he didn't win his battle, he gave his best. That was all right in his book.
Naruto looking at him coming back couldn't help but sigh.
'I know that you like Lee like a son, but you will be disappointed when you learn the truth about him. But that's not my place to tell you.' He thought before looking at the shuffling board, as he knew he would soon fight. He tuned out Gai and Tenten – whom woke up just before the end of Lee's battle – as they were talking about Lee, in favor of observing said board.
He wasn't the only one who looked at it in anticipation. Before long, the board stopped, defining the next fight.
Hinata Hyuuga VS Shikamaru Nara
While the fight wasn't as eventful as the one between Lee and Gaara, it was still pleasant to look at. Pleasant for whom? That is the question. After all, it was the genin who were risking their life in this tournament.
Anyway, Hinata, while being extremely dangerous in close ranged fighting, as she was a Hyuuga, she wasn't able to win against Shikamaru who used his shadow to bind his opponents. At first, Hinata tried to close the gap between them to use her jyuken attacks, but Shikamaru was smart enough to stop her from doing that. He used his shadow to delimit a perimeter around him so that he could bind Hinata if she came too close. Seeing this, Hinata resolved to use weapons and strategy to fight. Unfortunately, when it comes to strategy, the Nara clan, thus Shikamaru, are among the most dangerous opponents someone can have.
It was difficult, but Shikamaru finally succeeded in capturing her with his shadow, before forcing Hinata to surrender, much to the disappointment of Kurenai, as she was hopping that her student would win this fight.
Once the fight was over, only 3 genins were left. They were Naruto, Shino and Kankuro. The last two were eyeing each other while Naruto was looking at the board with his hands crossed over his chest. It wasn't long before the board stopped, announcing the final match of the preliminary.
Sabaku no Kankuro VS Namikaze Naruto
Seeing this, the room became silent again. This time it wasn't because they were anticipating the match. Not that much anyway. No, it was because with this last match, team 9 from Konoha will have fought exclusively against the sand team. As all of their members were put against a member of the opposing team. Murmurs were heard around the room after that.
"Is the board rigged or something?" Shikamaru asked with narrowed eyes. "How come every member of team 9 is put against the sand team? It is true that it can be possible, but the probability for such thing to happen is very low." He finished, looking at the fighters moving toward the arena.
He wasn't the only one who thought like that. Almost every genin were thinking the same but choose not to voice their opinion. With the exception of the sand team that is.
"Don't worry Kankuro. Even if they try to cheat it won't matter anyway. Just kick his ass. Namikaze or not, if he is anything like his teammates, he won't do much against you!" Temari yelled at her brother who looked at her with a sweat drop.
'Easier said than done. This kid is a monster and you know it. You were there with us in the forest after all. But thanks for trying to cheer me up.' He thought while moving.
Tenten looked at Temari glaring daggers at her for being called weak, but Temari just sneered in her direction once she saw the look on Tenten's face.
While this was going on, the jounins were looking at the fighters, particularly Naruto in anticipation.
"We finally get to see the Namikaze in action." Asuma said to his fellow jounins.
"Indeed! I heard that he was a very dangerous ninja despite his young age." This time it was Kurenai who spoke not minding the fact that the genins were looking at them with curiosity. "Is it true Gai?"
Gai grinned widely when he heard the question. After all, even though he didn't train Naruto as much as his other students, he was still proud to be his teacher. Moreover it wasn't like Naruto needed as much supervision as the others, having seen some of the things he was capable of.
"Dangerous doesn't even come close to describe what he is Kurenai. While I admit not knowing the full extent of his capability, I can tell you this…" He turned to look at her in the eyes with the most serious expression he could muster. "Few people have managed to frighten me with their skills. And Naruto is among those"
This stunned the ones listening to him and immediately they turned to look at the fight in anticipation and hoping to see what would frighten a jounin of such calibre. The sand team having heard this, looked attentively at the fight too, hoping everything would go well for their fellow sand nin.
In the arena, Hayate had just given the signal for the two fighters to begin. Tension was high as the two were observing each other.
'This isn't a fight where I can joke around. I will have to use everything I've got to win this.' Kankuro thought while he adjusted the long object he had on his back, fastening it thoroughly. Gaining the attention of everyone as they wondered what it was. Naruto though, was still looking calmly at him. He hadn't moved since the start of the fight.
Then as if another signal was given, Kankuro moved slowly around the still motionless Naruto, taking care of keeping his distance. This move surprised Naruto a little, but not enough to get a rise from him, as he observed Kankuro circle him like a predator.
'I must not stay in the same position for too long. I certainly don't want him to surround me with that cube of his.' Kankuro thought while moving.
Shortly after, his speed increased, as he was now running in zigzag around Naruto, not giving his opponent a pattern to use. At the same time, he launched several shurikens at Naruto. This time, Naruto moved. But not by much, only enough to escape the weapons that soared harmlessly behind him.
Not deterred, Kankuro took out a kunai with a note on it and threw it at Naruto who again dodged it easily. But instead of flying behind him like the previous shurikens, they exploded in a large puff of smoke, completely covering Naruto in a 10 meters radius. Using the smoke, Kankuro this time, launched senbons that glistened too much to be normal.
Inside the smoke, Naruto had used this opportunity to create an earth clone that got out of it at high speed and hid behind the giant statue representing a ninja with a ram seal. He then sensed the senbons coming at him, as he was familiar with this kind of weapons. Instead of dodging, he put his right hand in a ram seal, and a Kekkai surrounded him, blocking the weapons that fell on the ground harmlessly. Thanks to the cover, no one saw this, and he quickly dispelled it.
Outside the smoke, Kankuro was looking at it anxiously; hoping that at least one of the weapons had touched his target, as a poison was imbibed in each of them. After a moment, the whole room sensed a spike of chakra, just before a wind spear rushed out of the smoke toward Kankuro. The latter jumped to his right, just in time to dodge it, as the spear kept going until it pierced the wall behind. Kankuro then looked back at the cloud of smoke, only to see it get violently pushed outward in a ring pattern, with Naruto at the middle of it, still with the same calm expression.
Kankuro who was still in mid air, put his feet on the ground when Naruto suddenly inclined his body as if he was about to move, then vanished, shocking many in the room because of his speed. Kankuro didn't even have time to register what was going on before his opponent appeared behind him, and slammed the bottom of his right foot on the object behind on his back. The kick was strong enough to project Kankuro toward the statute in the room.
Kankuro was trying to regain his bearing, while flying toward the statue, when the clone created earlier by Naruto got out of his hiding place and using his kunai, cut through the bindings holding the long object to his back before slamming his palm on him, sending him far away from it.
The sand team looking at this were a little unnerved.
'Does he knows about Kankuro's puppet? But how? He never used it before in Konoha' Temari thought surprised. While the Konoha ninjas were confused by Naruto's choice of action.
In the arena, while the first Naruto stayed away from the fight, the earth clone ran toward the object on the ground, completely disregarding Kankuro's downed form, to the surprise of many. But before he could get too close, a hand, more precisely a human hand moved outside of the object wrapped in bindings, showing that it was encased with blue chakra and strings were connected to the Kankuro downed across the two fighters. As fast as it happened, he stood up and launched himself at the incoming Naruto, intercepting him.
The clone seeing this, punched Kankuro in the face, but it was blocked as the latter put his forehands in the path of the punch. Then several other arms erupted from Kankuro's body and caught the clone in a grappling move, stopping his movements.
Then to the shock of those who hadn't understood yet, the real Kankuro got out of the object on the ground, showing to everyone that he was a puppet controller. Then before long, the newly revealed puppet in the form of Kankuro, wrapped the clone strongly enough to make him dissolve in mud, showing that it was an earth clone. All of this while the real Naruto was looking at him with an impassive look.
Kankuro finally turned to look at his opponent.
"How did you know?" he asked with surprise in his eyes. But no answer came.
"It doesn't really matter anyway. Since you forced me to reveal Karasu, I won't hold back anymore."
Suddenly, the newly named Karasu, which had removed the skin covering his wooden body, charged at Naruto as fast as it could. Before long he was in front of Naruto and slashed at the latter with his hand, where a glistening knife had appeared. Naruto ducked under the swing and was about to cut Karasu legs off the ground when knives appeared also on said legs, thus halting Naruto's attack.
He jumped back, while dodging the following attacks coming from Karasu, while Kankuro was behind, controlling the movements of the puppet.
"Don't bother. You may be strong taijutsu wise like your teammates but against Karasu, it's reduced to nothing."
The laughter coming from Kankuro drew Naruto's attention, as he kept dodging Karasu wild swipes.
On the balconies, the jounins were a little surprised by the turn of event. Especially Kurenai whom was hoping to see Naruto destroy Kankuro, as she was quickly becoming tired of Temari's taunting.
"Gai, are you sure that he is that dangerous? We haven't seen anything yet that could frighten you so much."
But instead of answering, Gai was just smiling as he looked at Naruto dodging the attacks with utter ease.
'That is because you have no idea what you should be looking for. After all, it is already happening right in front of your eyes and no one seems to notice it' he thought while looking intently at Naruto who wasn't even focused on the attacks of the puppet but rather on Kankuro's hand, which controlled the puppet.
On the arena, Naruto had been looking intently at Kankuro's hand as he controlled his puppet, and after a moment, he suddenly jumped backward, creating a wide space between Karasu and him, before he raised his left arm that glowed blue. Then not unlike Kankuro, chakra threads came out of it, and flew across the distance before attaching themselves on Karasu who then stopped moving or rather was fighting to move in two different directions at once, much to the shock of everyone.
Kankuro, looking at this widened his eyes, as he tried to control his puppet but to no avail.
"Move! Move! Damn it" he yelled. Finally seeing that it didn't work as two people were controlling the puppet, he faced Naruto with anger evident in his eyes.
"You! How dare you control my puppet?" He gritted his teeth, angered by the idea of someone else controlling his own puppet. "And where did you learn to use puppet techniques for that matter, asshole?"
This stunned several people in the room, as they knew perfectly well that Kugutsu or rather the art of manipulating puppets was a hidden technique from Suna. No one outside of the village knew how to use it, as it was a closely guarded secret. So it was normal for them to be surprised to see someone not from Suna, able to use it.
Naruto looked at Kankuro with his threads still connected to Karasu as they battled for the control of the puppet. Finally for the first time since the battle started, he opened his mouth to speak.
"I learned it from you!" he said to the confusion of Kankuro. Seeing the confusion in Kankuro's eyes, he chose to explain a little more.
"While you were unsuccessfully trying to harm me with that puppet of yours, I was using that time to analyze your technique. It seems that the secret of Kugutsu jutsu lays in two important steps." He paused to look and saw that everyone was listening attentively to what he was saying.
"The first is obviously the chakra threads that you use. But they aren't simple threads. A communication link would be more appropriate to describe it, as it allows you to transfer simple command to the puppet in the form of thoughts pattern. Thus by simply connecting the link with a part of the puppet body, you can command it to do your bidding. Of course there is the problem of how a piece of wood can interpret such command. That is where the second part of the Kugutsu jutsu comes into play."
"I noticed quickly that there was some sort of seal on every part of the puppet that was connected to the threads. The seal is there to interpret the thoughts sent by the user and move the puppet accordingly. That is how you can control your puppet, isn't it?"
Naruto finished looking at a shocked Kankuro who was gaping like a fish, but then he noticed something in Naruto's explanation and narrowed his eyes.
"Even if you somehow learned about the mechanism behind this kind of jutsu, you still shouldn't be able to replicate the chakra threads like that. After all it is not a…" He was stopped by Naruto finishing is sentence.
"… Simple chakra string?" Naruto smiled there. "Indeed it isn't. I suppose that is why no one outside of Suna has been able to replicate it yet. To make a thread able to transfer the thought of the user, one need to create a jutsu specifically designed for it and that requires several handseals. Since you didn't use any to do so, I will assume that it is mandatory in Suna and to all practitioners of this art, to learn how to activate this jutsu without using handseals so as to not give away the means to copy it." He said further stunning Kankuro by his deductive ability.
"But against someone like me, it is meaningless. The moment I understood how the jutsu worked and his purpose, I was able to replicate it without too much difficulty." He finished to a silenced hall, as no one found it in himself to speak after what they learned.
Gai hearing this smirked a little as he was already aware of this little fact. And like he predicted, one of the jounin looked at him for an answer. Said jounin didn't need to speak for Gai to understand what he wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, he spoke while still looking at the arena.
"In this world, there exists two kind of ninjas. The normal one, able to reach normal standard after decade of training and the abnormal ones often termed as 'prodigies', as they are able to reach untold level very quickly. But the truth is that even among the prodigies, there exist three kinds of ninja."
"The first type is the gifted. Those are merely the ones that progress far more quickly than the normal ninjas. If trained properly, those are the ones that rise through the rank at a fast pace. But even then, most of them can be termed as genius of hard work as they train more and are more dedicated than the normal ninja. Kakashi can be an example of this kind of ninja." Gai said as he looked pointedly at Kakashi who nodded simply and waited for the next part of his explanation like everyone within hearing range.
"The second type can be called the prodigies. These ones, like the gifted, progress far more quickly than the normal ninjas. But unlike them, they usually have one or two fields where they are extremely gifted, to the point of understanding and mastering the field so easily that you would think that they have done it all their life. An example of this kind of ninja would be the sannin as each of them was very powerful in their chosen field." Again the jounin nodded as they knew that the sannin were tremendously powerful when it comes to their chosen field with Tsunade in the medical field, Jiraiya in the Fuuinjutsu field and Orochimaru in the Ninjutsu field.
"Finally the last category, the geniuses. There is maybe only one genius for each generation as they simply are unlike any ninjas in every sense of the term. They are the kind of ninja that simply understand every field existing as easily as a prodigy. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, taijutsu, you name it, and they will understand it to such an extent that you would find it absurd."
"I told you all of this because you first needed to understand clearly the difference between them, for you to perfectly understand just why I was frightened by Naruto's skills. And if you haven't made the connection yet, then it is simple. Naruto belongs to the geniuses category."
He finished shocking the whole room to silence as they were digesting what had been said and coming to term with it. After all, they have just learned that there existed someone that could potentially master every ninja abilities – except those needing bloodlines – that existed out there. And they had already witnessed said person put into action his ability by replicating a hidden jutsu like nothing.
In the arena, Kankuro was trying with all his might to get back his control over Karasu but the more this struggle was going on, the more he realised that it was him that was losing ground. He chanced a glance at Naruto and widened his eyes when he saw the latter with his right hand in the ram seal. A memory appeared at the front of his mind where he saw Naruto use the same seal to create a Kekkai that surrounded his target. Knowing what was surely going to happen, he jumped to his left hoping to dodge whatever attack was sure to come.
But nothing happened, surprising him.
Kankuro looked back at Naruto, only to see him in the same position with threads coming from his left hand. It was then that he noticed that by trying to dodge whatever imaginary attack, he relinquished control of his puppet. 'Oh shit!'. He thought before his eyes widened as he saw his puppet charge towards him.
The situation was now reversed has Kankuro was weaving around the attack of his own puppet. He was ducking or sidestepping several blows that would have gravely damaged him. After a while, he used chakra threads to reconnect with his puppet like Naruto had done before, but Naruto saw this, and quickly moved the puppet out of the way before using one of the hidden weapons of Karasu.
The puppet's palm opened to show a launcher with senbons loaded in it. The senbons were fired at a wide-eyed Kankuro with such force that by the end of it, he looked like a porcupine.
But at the surprise of many, Kankuro disappeared in a puff of smoke, being replaced by a chunk of earth, signalling his use of Kawarimi. At the same time, Kankuro charged at Naruto having appeared behind him. Seeing this, Naruto moved the puppet back toward him, hoping to intercept his opponent.
It wasn't long before Karasu was by Naruto's left and Kankuro was a few meters in front of Naruto. Then Kankuro smirked at that.
"You think that I wouldn't take into account the possibility of someone stealing my puppet?" He yelled while moving through handseals and stopping at the Tora seal.
"Activate." He said while jumping backwards and reveled in the fact that he saw the surprise and shock in Naruto's eyes just before the puppet violently exploded beside him.
Gai looked at this in surprise, not expecting Naruto's opponent to be that pragmatic to the point of sacrificing what could be his best trump card like that. The spectators mirrored his expression too, not having expected this turn of event.
While waiting for the dust to settle, Kankuro looked at it with a growing smirk. 'This will make him regret underestimating me.'
Finally the smoke was lifted and he looked at the little crater that was formed, searching for his opponent's remains. The only thing left was the burned remains of Naruto's jacket. Kankuro seeing this searched the whole room for his opponent all the while hoping that Naruto had at least sustained a grievous wound from the explosion.
It was then that he heard a gasp of surprise among the spectators. He looked at the person and saw that it was coming from his sister Temari whom was looking at the ceiling with shock freely displayed on her otherwise impassive face. Like everyone in the room, he looked at the ceiling, looking for what could surprise his sister that much. And what he saw surprised him also.
Because, standing upside down, with his feet on the ceiling, was his opponent. Having lost his jacket in the fire below. He was only wearing his sleeveless shirt that showed his muscled arms. That in fact is what shocked Temari. Naruto's arms were very muscled. Not overly so, but enough that the muscle were clearly defined and showed how tightly packed they were.
To understand the surprise, you will need to first know that because of the overuse of chakra to increase physical prowess in the ninja world, few people were that muscled. Of course they were fit, but they usually didn't work hard enough to become like that. As with the help of chakra, they could increase their strength to 3 times that of a normal muscle. So to see a ninja that fit means that he worked very hard physically. Thus would have a better increase in strength than the other ninja.
Gai also looked shocked at what he saw, if the surprise displayed on his face was anything to go by.
'So that is why despite the training Lee did, he couldn't match him physically? He must be training more than I give him credit for, to have gotten that kind of body.'
Naruto was looking at Kankuro a little peeved by the turn of the event.
'He just had to destroy my jacket. And it was my favourite one, damn.'
He looked at his opponent that had lost his smirk after discovering that he escaped the blast without a scratch other than the lost of his jacket.
'This Kugutsu jutsu is very interesting. I'm not sure that this Suna nin realise the possibilities of this jutsu yet. To be able to create a communication link is nothing short of marvellous. I wonder what would happen if I were to use this on a real person.'
A gleam suddenly appeared in his eyes that would have frightened even Orochimaru if he knew what the gleam meant. After all, he always had that look whenever he was about to test a new idea whether it was reckless or not.
Knowing that he needed to be close to his target, for his test to work, he observed the surrounding arena for just a moment before he looked back at Kankuro, then he acted.
Everyone was looking at Naruto rooted on the ceiling when he suddenly disappeared, leaving a dented ceiling behind. Kankuro looked everywhere for his opponent, panicking more and more, when the latter appeared a few meter to Kankuro's left, before disappearing again. Then the same happened to Kankuro's right, and a few other places around him. Then Naruto finally appeared behind him in a punching position.
"Futon : Reppusho"
A gust of wind was expelled from his hand in Kankuro's direction. The latter seeing this did the only thing he could with his limited options. He Kawarimi-ed to safety by using a chunk of earth the size of a log.
But when he appeared, he was greeted with a violent explosion that tore through his body.
Thanks to his reflex and his relative mastery over Kawarimi, he was able to use it again to escape the explosion. Not completely but enough to leave him still able to fight. Unfortunately, the same thing happened at his new position, and like before, he used the same jutsu to escape.
After the fifth explosion, he was grievously wounded with blood leaking from his arms and forehead. Unfortunately, where he appeared, Naruto was there and quickly used his surprise to take hold of his right arm, before giving a palm strike to the wrist, then the elbow and finally the shoulder. Each time, breaking the articulation, rendering the arm useless and Kankuro screaming in agony at the quick and precise destruction of his right arm.
It happened so fast that few saw all the strikes, before they saw Kankuro kneeling on the ground holding his broken arm, clearly in pain.
While Naruto appeared about 10 meters behind him, the genins, not having understood what happened, looked at their sensei for an explanation. Asuma, who for once didn't have a cigarette in his mouth, was quick to oblige.
"Some of you must not have seen this, but while Naruto seemed to have disappeared from the room, he was in fact placing several explosive seals under each chunk of earth that could be used for Kawarimi. He knew that with Kankuro's puppet destroyed, the latter wouldn't be able to do anything other than use this jutsu to escape, so he planed for the whole thing until Kankuro appeared at the last chunk of earth where he then proceeded to break his whole right arm."
He finished and wasn't surprised to see shocked faces from the genins. Even Shikamaru seemed shocked by that. He was looking at Naruto with curiosity and apprehension. 'He devised such strategy in this short amount of time and was able to apply it perfectly. He even planned for the different actions that his opponent could take. Now I understand the difference between me and him.'
A shudder ran through his spine as he thought of the conclusion he came to. 'Unlike me who need some time to design my strategy, he is able to make them on the spot, and even take into account several scenario at the same time. This boy, he IS dangerous!'
Naruto looked at the downed form of Kankuro and shaped his chakra mentally, to use the chakra threads like before. Instead of several threads, only one was formed this time and went toward Kankuro before connecting with the closest Tenketsu from Kankuro's brain, thus establishing a link between Kankuro and Naruto's mind. But he didn't take into account the fact that the link allowed communication in both directions. So it was not surprising that a rush of images and information came to Naruto and Kankuro's mind, shocking them both.
This information was in fact the memories of Kankuro in Naruto case, and Naruto's memories in Kankuro case.
Thanks to the fact that Naruto connected the thread to a Tenketsu close to Kankuro's brain, he was able to get complete details of everything that Kankuro knew about. But it wasn't the same for the latter, as the connection in Naruto was established on hand. Kankuro was only able to see glimpse of what Naruto saw and did since he was born – of course only what the target remembered –.
The spectators were surprised to see the two opponents put one knee on the ground in Naruto case, and two knees when it comes to Kankuro. Their eyes were blank as if they weren't focused on anything and had lost consciousness. Murmurs were heard all around as they were asking themselves what was going on and were waiting anxiously for what would happen next.
Naruto was in a strange world as everything around him was white, except in front of him, where he was seeing the live of his opponent, in great details. He saw the way Kankuro grew up. He saw how he begins training in Kugutsu very earlier in his carrier. He saw the interaction between the members of the Kazekage family. Thanks to this, he learned everything about Suna and information that wouldn't have been easily gained by a spy. He even saw the whole meeting the council and key members of Suna had in preparation of the invasion of Konoha.
Meanwhile, Kankuro was too in his own world and like Naruto's everything was white while in front of him were images of Naruto's life.
He saw Naruto in a strange compound surrounded with a wide plain that couldn't exist in Konoha.
He saw Naruto training in a strange room were holographic images were displayed.
He saw Naruto learning about his hidden bloodline, the Bunsekigan or analytical eye.
He saw Naruto learning his second bloodline, the Namikaze bloodline allowing him to use Kekkai jutsu.
He saw Naruto meeting with someone with bandages covering his eye and arm.
He then saw just how Naruto learned to use puppetry by using his analytical eye to thoroughly analyze and replicate the technique.
Then the image stopped and he came back to the real world, slowly regaining consciousness. The first thing he noticed was that Naruto was still unconscious and then he looked at himself and saw his state.
'This isn't good. If what I saw are really his memories then there is only one thing that I can do now. Because let's face it, there is no way he will let me survive with the information I got from those flashes of memories.'
The onlookers were stunned to see Kankuro regain control of his body.
"Look, Kankuro woke up." Sakura said while pointing at the sand nin. Kakashi who had long stopped reading his book, looked at this with narrowed eyes.
"I wonder what happened!"
Baki was looking at Kankuro with fear in his eyes. He, like the others sand nins were observing the fight since the beginning and knew that Kankuro wouldn't win this fight.
'Not only does this Namikaze hasn't shown anything other than excellent taijutsu and good use of strategy, but also Kankuro has lost his puppet. And like most of our puppeteer, he is no good without his puppet.'
He looked at his student to see Temari clenching her fist around the rail in obvious panic. He couldn't blame her though, as the situation was quickly deteriorating. He knew that the only reason Kankuro hadn't given up yet was because he was trying to find something that could be used against the Namikaze.
'But it isn't working at all.'
It was at that moment that he saw Kankuro turn around and look at them. He was shocked to see a look he hadn't yet seen in his eyes.
A look of resignation.
It took him a moment to understand why the look, as he saw Kankuro use a coded signal directed at them. Seeing the code, he widened his eyes in fright as he decoded it in less than a second, as the signal was something that was instilled into any high ranked ninjas, and was among the highest priority in the orders one could receive.
He wasn't surprised to heard a gasp of shock coming from Temari and to see even Gaara uncross his arms and look cautiously at his brother.
After all, Kankuro just gave them the order to retrieve whatever information he gained and would give them at all cost.
Even at the cost of his own life.
Author's Note:
Cliffhanger. My first one in a story. This deserves a party yeah! lol.
So what do you think will happen to Kankuro in the next chapter? Will he be able to give whatever information he gained from Naruto, to his siblings? What did Naruto learn from those memories? And what of the spectators?
If you want to know, wait for the next chapter lol.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Naruto's fight or the first part, as it isn't over yet. See you next time.