Chapter 7
"Talking"
'Thinking / Flashbacks'
"Demon Talking / Jutsu usage"
'Demon Thinking / Mentioning of a Jutsu'
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto except for the OCs I create. A wise man named Masashi Kishimoto once said some very wise words, "All people, even the strongest ones, have weaknesses, however, Madara does not." True words since should anybody ever meet Madara on the battlefield… well, you could at least try to pray before your inevitable death...
Kusagakure's chūnin exam arena
"Are both contestants ready?", asked Chimi. She looked at both contestants. Both haven't changed their looks to look more imposing for the nobles watching since the last time she saw them, which was at the end of the second exam. Taifū still wore a simple brown battle uniform which is quite common in Sunagakure, even adorning the usual turban. She received two nods, one from each contestant confirming their readiness.
"Without further ado, BEGIN!", shouted Chimi as she immediately jumped backwards to give the competitors some space to fight.
Taifū quickly pulled the fan, that was strapped on his back, from his back and opened it showing one purple circle currently in the middle of the fan. He swung the fan at Kurotsuchi, who hasn't moved yet, by the way, quickly forming some hand seals, Snake → Dragon → Bird, and shouted, "Fūton: Kamaitachi no Jutsu".
After swinging the fan, a giant wind cortex formed, completely engulfing Kurotsuchi inside, cutting her all over her body. Once the vortex stopped Kurotsuchi's body plummeted towards the ground. Taifū arrogantly smirked, "Well wasn't that easy. Proctor, call the match she won't get back up!"
He turned around and walked away, awaiting the proctor to call the match. When he didn't hear her call the match, Taifū rose an eyebrow and turned around only to see "Kurotsuchi's" body turn to rocks, "What? 'Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu'? When did she… no matter where is she?", asked Taifū himself turning around his own axis multiple times. After about half a minute finally, did he notice Kurotsuchi form out of the ground, already forming a set of hand seals, Snake → Ram → Dog → Rat → Snake → Tiger, and silently saying "Doton: Kengan no Jutsu"!
Kurotsuchi sprinted as fast as she could towards Taifū, hoping to quickly knock him out without revealing too much of her skill set. Unluckily, for Kurotsuchi, however, Taifū did see her out of the corner of his eye and quickly turned towards her and brought up his fan to block her punch.
The stone of Kurotsuchi's stone fist hitting the metal of Taifū's fan caused a great number of sparks to appear, which disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. Due to the force of the stone fist, Taifū noticed how he was slowly pushed backwards, 'I cannot engage her in taijutsu… her 'Doton: Kengan no Jutsu' will overpower me easily. I need to gain distance and force her into long-range combat. Seemingly she seems to specialize in close quarter combat.'
Beginning his plan, Taifū somersaulted backwards multiple times, gaining a good distance between himself and Kurotsuchi. He quickly stuck his fan into the ground and performed a few hand seals, Tiger → Rabbit → Dog → Ram → Dragon, and shouted, "Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu". Once he finished the hand seals he pulled out his fan out of the ground, opening his fan until it showed two purple circles. He swung his fan, causing five blades of wind to form, flying towards Kurotsuchi.
Slowly getting annoyed that her opponent noticed that she isn't so good at long-range combat, Kurotsuchi merely tsked in annoyance and jumped sideways, dodging the wind blades skillfully. When the wind blades hit the stadium walls they left behind deep gashes of at least 5 feet in length and a foot or two in depth. Kurotsuchi gulped nervously when she saw the effects of the wind blades, 'I don't even want to know what would've happened if that hit me… Doesn't matter right now just be glad that I dodged it rather than trying to block it. More importantly right now… I have to disarm him then I may be able to force him to surrender but that could be quite difficult… Wait I have an idea...'
Regaining her composure she formed hand seals once again, Ram → Monkey → Horse → Ram, "Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu". Just as she said that from out of the ground five Kurotsuchi's formed out of the rocky ground of the stadium. She addressed the two clones on her left quietly, "You two hide underground and when I give the signal, you jump at him and hold him down long enough for me to finish him off, understood?". The two clones nodded and placed themselves behind her and the three other clones. Kurotsuchi then addressed the rest of the clones quietly, "We distract him with ninjutsu and taijutsu, let's go!"
The three clones plus the original placed themselves in front of the two clones behind them, to block Taifū's view of the clones, who quickly used 'Doton: Moruragakure no Jutsu' to hide underground. Seeing no reaction from Taifū, Kurotsuchi was inwardly relieved that that part of her plan worked. A quick nod to the clones and the clones sped forwards, intent on engaging him in taijutsu while the original Kurotsuchi used ninjutsu to herd him towards the stadium wall.
Taifū dodged a blow aimed at his head while simultaneously blocking a knee strike with the side of his battle fan. He felt himself being pushed back and before long he felt his back press against a wall. His eyes widened in realization of his situation but before he could act, Kurotsuchi shouted, "NOW!"
Out of the ground, two rock clones jumped and held down his limbs. Taifū desperately tried to make them release him but to no avail. Kurotsuchi, not wanting to give him time to escape sped towards him while forming hand seals, Snake → Ram → Dog → Rat → Snake → Tiger, "Doton: Kengan no Jutsu". Rocks gathered at Kurotsuchi's fist tripling the size of her actual fist. She slammed her fist in his abdomen, knocking out all his air plus making him spit out a glob of blood. He vainly tried to keep his consciousness but ultimately lost his consciousness.
Seeing the Suna genin hit the ground, unconscious, Chimi called the match, "Winner of the first Fight of Round One: Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure!" The whole stadium erupted in cheers at the fight they witnessed while not as spectacular as perhaps a battle between jōnin, it was still a sight to behold.
Kage box
"I must say your granddaughter performed grandiose, Tsuchikage-dono.", praised the Yondaime Kazekage, Rasa.
"Of course, she did! I myself oversaw to her training!", boasted the elderly Tsuchikage, Ryōtenbin no Ōnoki, while subtly glancing over to see his Konohagakure counterpart. He seethed inwardly seeing the calm exterior of number two of Iwagakure's most hated shinobi, number one on the list being none other than Uchiha Madara, former Uchiha Clan patriarch and the one who tried to force an early Iwagakure to submit to the power of Konohagakure.
Minato sensed the subtle killing intent leaked by the elderly Tsuchikage and chuckled inwardly, 'Some things never change, I guess…' Minato then put in his own two cents, "I'm sure my eldest and second eldest will also make quite the show, don't you agree, Kazekage-dono, Tsuchikage-dono?"
"Hmpf, we shall see… though I doubt they will be able to beat my granddaughter.", was the creative answer of Ōnoki, while the Kazekage didn't have the animosity of the Tsuchikage in his answer, "I'm sure they will but they should be careful should they face Koishi-kun. He can be… devastating in a fight for a lack of a better word."
"Well I shall see forward to his fight then but first my attention lies with my son.", replied Minato with a kind smile at the prospect of seeing his eldest child fight, after all being the Hokage he hadn't as much time to spent with all his children as he would love to have. The last time he has seen his son fight was long ago when they were in their first year of the academy.
"So do you recommend them for chūnin?", questioned the Kazekage.
"Kurotsuchi seems to be chūnin material and we certainly can expect some more showings of her worthiness but Taifū, in my opinion, was too easily tricked by her plan. He should've easily seen her hide the two clones behind her and then sent them underground. But it is still your decision with Taifū, Kazekage-dono:", stated Minato, Ōnoki agreed with him as did the leader of Kusagakure with a single approving grunt.
The Kages turned towards the leader of Kusagakure, a man named Fotane, who looked like he was definitely past his prime. His mouth was covered by bandages up to and including his nose and his head was bald. While his looks may suggest otherwise, he was generally a very kind and accepting old man. The reason as to why he wore bandages over his mouth was due to him being mute and only able to make a few grunts at the max, thus he can only communicate in sign language only taught to his most trusted shinobis. He wore simple brown robes tied with a brown thin rope as well as light brown pants and traditional wooden sandals. Actually, the only thing hinting to his older age were the many wrinkles in his face. He gestured for his bodyguard to come forward and formed a few hand signs, signaling the guard to tell the proctor to continue with the next match. The guard nodded and shunshinned into the arena.
A few minutes earlier, spectator seats
"Kaa-chan? Onii-chan is fighting now right?", asked an ecstatic Aiko who sat on the lap of her mother. Kushina smiled down at her youngest child and ruffled her hair, "Yes, Naruto-kun is going to fight next."
"Onii-chan will win this exam easily!", exclaimed Aiko while waving around with her arms to try to imitate the 'cool stuff her elder brother could do'.
Sasuke, who sat with his mother right next to them, scoffed, "No way! Nii-san is easily the strongest here, right kaa-chan?"
Mikoto rubbed her chin, "It really is complicated. It depends on if and how they will fight and what Naruto-kun learned during the month under Jiraiya-sama."
Aiko looked smug while Sasuke couldn't believe what he just heard. Someone was at least as strong as his brother? In Sasuke's beliefs, Itachi was the most powerful shinobi in the world.
Suddenly they heard throughout the whole arena, "Namikaze Naruto of Konohagakure and Ashi of Kusagakure please find yourself in the arena within the next five minutes!"
They didn't have to wait long for Naruto to enter the arena.
Stadium arena
For the event of these chūnin exams, he discarded his old clothes and adopted a new attire. Currently, he was wearing a pair of black pants and gloves, with a white form-fitting shirt underneath. Over that Naruto wore a black, high-collared, long sleeve mantle with the Namikaze Clan emblem adorning its back. Although you couldn't see it behind all his hair. Speaking of his hair, where before he let his hair hang freely without restraint, he now bound his hair together with bandages from his neck to his shoulder blades. He also bandaged up the two bangs framing his face on both sides. His hair was long, reaching his lower back, but ultimately cut short on top. He wore a simple grey obi and a belt, keeping the attire together. Lastly, he wore his forehead protector with black cloth around his forehead.
Naruto went up to the proctor and waited there with his arms crossed in front of his chest, waiting patiently for his opponent. He waited for a few minutes until finally, his opponent came. He had a happy, carefree attitude, but even without his Sharingan, Naruto could see him gauging his strength. But it was seemingly all for naught as Ashi suddenly smirked cockily, apparently, he didn't gauge Naruto's strength correctly or his own. Ashi wore the common attire worn by Kusagakure shinobi except for a beige scarf that covered his mouth and shoulders. He wore his forehead protector like a bandanna covering to the top of his head. Out of the side of his bandanna came his light brown hair.
They stood apart a few yards and waited for the proctor to start the match. Chimi looked at Ashi first, then looked at Naruto and saw both were ready but to be sure, "Are you both ready?"
"Yes, Chimi-san", replied Naruto while Ashi just kept smirking and grunted in agreement.
"Then, BEGIN!", shouted Chimi and once again jumped back.
Naruto moved not an inch except for activating his three-tomoe Sharingan, drawing gasps from all those around knowing that he wasn't an Uchiha so how did he acquire the Sharingan? Well, most would ask him and his family… but even they don't know why or how. This greatly aggravated Ashi, how he hated to be underestimated. In his anger, he shouted out, "Hey you bastard, don't underestimate me!"
He began to weave hand seals, Snake → Ram → Boar → Horse → Bird, and finally clapped his hands together and was about to shout out his jutsu's name, he saw Naruto being completely in sync with himself. Ashi saw Naruto perfectly copy his every movement. They both simultaneously shouted out, "Fūton: Reppūshō". From both shinobi powerful gales of wind hit and canceled themselves. Ashi tsked in annoyance and thought about what to do next when he thought about another jutsu he could try. As Naruto saw him moulding chakra to perform another jutsu, he placed Ashi under a genjutsu to make him think Naruto could see into the future. Ashi was about to begin weaving hand seals when Naruto began to weave exactly the hand seals he thought about, Rat → Rabbit → Dog, Naruto even finished them beforehand and pulling his collar down to show his mouth, he then calmly said, "Fūton: Shinkūgyoku".
Out of Naruto's mouth, he shot tiny bullets of compressed air that could easily rip through flesh. While still in shock about this, Ashi managed to dodge the air bullets, "What was that?! Can you see into the future?"
Naruto managed a small smirk, although no one saw it beneath his high-collar, "Perhaps… perhaps not… but what is important now is… that you're no match for me!", taunted Naruto.
Luckily for Naruto, it seemed like Ashi was easily angered and Ashi retaliated to this taunt by performing the jutsu Naruto just used, "Fūton: Shinkūgyoku". He shot a few dozens of those air bullets, only then realizing just how much chakra he expended by this. Naruto just weaved in and out, easily dodging all the bullets. Having enough of this little skirmish, Naruto sped forward, intent on engaging Ashi in taijutsu.
Ashi, still in his enraged state, just threw around sloppy punches. Once again, Naruto just dodged them and deflected them to areas where they did no harm to him. Naruto also shot in some jabs, intently focussing on those areas which are most powerful. For example, the solar plexus. Finally, getting enough Ashi forced himself to calm down, he refocused his strength and his punches. Still, it was too late. Ashi threw a punch at Naruto's face, who in retaliation just moved a bit to the side and caught Ashi's hand within his left palm. Ashi then tried an uppercut which was then caught in Naruto's right palm.
Ashi tried to free himself but soon found out that Naruto's hands wouldn't budge. After a few seconds of stand-still, Naruto impassively requested, "I'm gonna borrow your hand for a bit!"
Everyone in the arena heard it and were confused since they did not know much about Uchiha Clan abilities. Mikoto smirked while Itachi was doing the same. Still, the rest of the stadium including Ashi himself didn't know how he could 'borrow a hand'. The answer soon came as Naruto used Ashi's hand to weave hand seals! Ashi tried to resist but his hand didn't follow his commands anymore. Naruto forced Ashi to weave the hand seals he wanted, Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger, Naruto then released Ashi's hand and jumped backwards into the sky, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu". Unlike normally where the "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" is a large infernal ball of flames, this time its shape was rather formed to be kind of a flamethrower.
The flames came dangerously close to Ashi as he jumped back several times to dodge the flames. When the flames finally dispersed, he saw Naruto standing in the middle of the scorched earth. Suddenly, Ashi felt severe pain in his legs and looked down at them. His eyes widened when his legs blurred a bit and suddenly kunai and senbon needles appeared lodged in his legs. Next came pain in his arms, he looked at them and saw shurikens lodged in his arms, all missing important veins but still painful as hell. Ashi fell backwards on his butt, unable to stand anymore the pain was too excruciating. It felt like torture since the now obvious genjutsu stored up all the pain inflicted to him while he was caught under it. He only had one question before losing his consciousness due to pain overload, "W-When?"
Naruto's impassive face cleared showing a bit of emotion, "When I grabbed your hands you looked me in the eyes for what felt like hours. I was almost compelled to not putting you into a genjutsu but you wouldn't have learned from it then. Because there is one rule you'll always have to follow when fighting a wielder of the Sharingan… Never and I mean never look him directly into the eyes or you forfeit your life."
After the lecture, Ashi finally lost consciousness and Chimi approached Naruto, "Due to knock out the winner is Namikaze Naruto!"
The whole stadium erupted in cheers and applause and one could even hear Kushina shout at everyone how her son and daughter would beat every one of them. When Naruto heard that he chuckled lightly. His mother and sister were always so… brash. But he liked it nonetheless. The only ones not cheering were the few shinobi of Iwagakure who attended the finals as well as the Tsuchikage. The most he got was a small quiet clapping of the Tsuchikage, who had to admit that the boy had talent. Even the Kazekage had to admit that Naruto's tactics were phenomenal for his rank and age.
Spectator seats
"Onii-chan won, Kaa-chan!", exclaimed Aiko overly happy seeing her brother fight so good.
"Yes, he did, Aiko-chan. I bet you're proud to be his sister, aren't you? You also want to become as strong as him right?", asked Kushina with Aiko nodding enthusiastically.
"Hn, he was okay… still not as good as Nii-san but okay.", pouted Sasuke. He had to admit Naruto's fight was impressive but he wouldn't betray his brother.
"Yeah, right you just don't want to admit that Onii-chan is better than Itachi, right Sasuke?", teased Aiko with Sasuke blushing from embarrassment at being caught.
"S-Shut u-up.", stammered Sasuke but Aiko continued to sit on her mother's lap with a knowing smirk but she decided to let it fall… for now. She returned her sight to the arena and saw Naruto re-enter the contestant's box.
Meanwhile, Kage box
"That was quite the show your son put on, Hokage-dono.", praised the Kazekage.
"Thank you, Kazekage-dono. I'm quite proud of him myself. I'm also looking forward to seeing my daughters fight. My wife trained her during the month so I'm confident she also will make quite the show.", said Minato with a proud smile.
"Hmpf, even though I don't like it, I have to admit that he did make a good show.", admitted Ōnoki, "Still, he will be no match for Kurotsuchi."
"We will see, Tsuchikage-dono.", replied Minato with a little smirk, "But first recommendations for chūnin."
Rasa began, "I'm sorry, Fotane-dono, but I must say Ashi isn't ready to become chūnin as of yet. He was short-tempered, was easily taunted, and is quite arrogant. You should advise his sensei to help him overcome that arrogance."
Fotane nodded at this summary and formed a few hand signs as a reply. His translator then told them what he said, "I must agree with you and I will address his sensei with this problem. Thank you for the critics."
Ōnoki, as well as Minato, agreed with Rasa's deduction. Rasa then continued, "But I must definitely recommend Naruto-kun for chūnin. Hell, I would almost recommend him to jōnin but we haven't seen enough of his genius yet to justify such a decision. Also, jōnin-level missions aren't something for such a young mind..."
Nobody could deny that claim, even though Ōnoki would've loved to. They all agreed that Naruto was definitely becoming chūnin, perhaps even jōnin.
"Fotane-dono, would you please initiate the next match?", asked Minato formally. Fotane nodded and once again gestured for the guard to inform the proctor.
Stadium arena
"Would Koishi of Sunagakure and Kinoko of Kusagakure please come to the arena?", announced Chimi.
Koishi entered first, with Kinoko only being a few feet behind. Koishi had his usual arrogant smirk, like every Suna-nin in the exams. He wore the standard Sunagakure shinobi attire minus the flak jacket and turban. His uniform was light-brown to better blend in with the deserts of Kaze no Kuni.
Kinoko, on the other hand, wore a lab coat that obstructed the view of his shirt and pants. The only thing other than that to see was that he had black shinobi sandals, pale blond hair, and light brown pupilless eyes.
They placed themselves a few feet apart, facing each other. Chimi questioned, "You guys ready?"
Kinoko answered with a polite, "Yes, Chimi-san.", while Koishi simply disregarded her question and grunted in approval.
"Then I announce Fight Three of Round One to start now, BEGIN!", shouted Chimi while jumping back.
"You should surrender now! You stand no chance against me! I'm the strongest genin in these exams, nobody is able to defeat me!", declared Koishi with a very arrogant smirk.
Instantly Koishi opened his pouches at the sides of his hips and black sand started to escape from the pouches. Kinoko didn't show it but he was really nervous on the inside, 'Dammit! He seems strong and I'm only the supporting type… I'm a medic-nin for Kami's sake.'
Opting to finish the fight very quickly, Koishi formed the Tiger hand seal and the black sand started to form to thousands of small black needles that quickly surrounded Kinoko from all sides even from above, "Surrender now, you can't win against me, fool!", stated Koishi arrogantly.
Kinoko clicked his tongue, he could see that this jutsu would hurt quite a bit but he could patch himself up after being hit… as long as it didn't pierce any vital points. But the look of Koishi told Kinoko that he would only aim at all his vital spots. He was in a dilemma. Either fight and risk being hit and die or surrender and live for another day and maybe get field promoted to chūnin. Perhaps with a good enough explanation, he could at least leave a good impression behind with the judges. Kinoko sighed defeated and rose his hand, "Proctor, I forfeit. My skill-set is unfit to combat his specific skill-set. I'm a medic-nin, not a long-range ninjutsu type."
Chimi smiled kindly at Kinoko, having seen her multiple times working at the hospital. Apparently, she was really talented in iryō ninjutsu. Chimi nodded at her, "Due to forfeit, the winner of Fight Three is Koishi of Sunagakure!"
Unlike, the first two matches there were only a few clapping and cheering. Not only was the fight short and boring but that arrogant attitude of Koishi spoiled the fun in the match. But Koishi apparently didn't care… or he was imagining the whole stadium going ape-shit crazy about how cool he is and how they want to marry him, in his mind.
"For Fight Four, would Uchiha Itachi of Konohagakure and Akatsuchi of Iwagakure please enter the stadium!", announced Chimi which made the whole stadium giddy at the prospect of seeing the Uchiha prodigy fight, but none more than Uchiha Sasuke, who adored his big brother more than anything, and Uchiha Fugaku who wanted to see how far his son has grown. Mikoto didn't cheer loudly because, firstly Itachi knew she would always be proud of him, and secondly… well, she was their sensei and knew exactly what Itachi was capable of.
Kage box, a few minutes earlier
Rasa frowned at his nephew's attitude. The attitude came when they discovered he possessed the Jiton Kekkei Genkai and he was told that he could maybe take after his relative, the Sandaime Kazekage, and control Iron Sand with it. When Koishi heard that his attitude changed overnight. He turned arrogant and began to compare himself in power to the Sandaime Kazekage, who was, in fact, the strongest Kazekage in history and as such the strongest shinobi in Sunagakure's history.
"Well, to praise Kinoko, I have to say he knew when to quit being a medic-nin and all. Perhaps, you should allow him to prove some other way that he's ready to become a chūnin, Fotane-dono. We should really agree on some different method for medic-nins to be promoted to chūnin after all their skill set is not for fighting but rather support and sometimes defense. Or at least a different final exam of the chūnin exams only for medic-nins since they too require the necessary intellectual skills as well as survival skills.", analyzed Minato with Ōnoki and Rasa agreeing. Fotane agreed which came through an approving grunt.
"I cannot say much for Koishi either, other than he acted quickly and effectively but that arrogant attitude may become a problem when he is a team leader, which he will be as a chūnin. Kazekage-dono, not to be rude but you should take him down a peg or two.", insisted Minato where surprisingly the first to agree was the Kazekage himself.
"I know he has been like that ever since I told him of one of our ancestors the Sandaime Kazekage. He began comparing himself to how great his ancestor was and started to sell Sandaime-sama's achievements as his own to the point where he even adopted the same Iron Sand. He's a little bundle of trouble. If he continues to show arrogance during this exam, I'll simply deny to promote him until he got his arrogance in check!", declared Rasa firmly. Minato smiled, that was actually a good idea.
Before the Kage could ask Fotane to continue the matches, the elderly man already motioned for his bodyguard to continue the exams.
Stadium arena
During the one-month training period, neither Itachi nor Akatsuchi changed their attire. THey both still sported the same look they did when they entered the exams. They stood a few feet apart with Chimi standing in between them, "Are you both ready?", Chimi asked.
Both replied in a polite, "Yes."
"Then without further ado, Fight Four of Round One, BEGIN!", shouted Chimi and jumped back.
Akatsuchi wasted no time and ran to engage Itachi in taijutsu. With his superior physical strength and size, he thought he would be dominating in taijutsu against the Uchiha prodigy. He thought wrong, seeing as Itachi simply danced around the punches and kicks with his Sharingan activated to predict the trajectory of every attack. Akatsuchi threw a punch at Itachi's temple, hoping to knock him out quickly. Itachi deflected the blow to someplace safe. Using the momentum of his punch, Akatsuchi spun around and performed a roundhouse kick. Once again Itachi dodged, this time by ducking beneath the kick, and jumped back, throwing multiple kunai.
Akatsuchi dodged the kunai easily but saw a little glint in the air. Focussing onto the glint he noticed ninja wire. His eyes widened and he turned around to see the kunai coming directly at him. He once again tried to dodge but this time received multiple cuts along his legs and arms. One kunai even lodged itself in his right arm.
Akatsuchi backed off form Itachi, creating space between them. He quickly performed the Snake hand seal and shouted, "Doton: Gōremu no Jutsu". He then proceeded to vomit out large quantities of rocks, quickly forming a humanoid stone golem, easily towering a few feet over Akatsuchi in size. Giving a mental command, Akatsuchi told the golem to rush at Itachi and to crush him. The golem sprinted forward at astonishing speeds, considering its build and stature. Itachi jumped back multiple times trying to evade the large rock giant. Yet he did notice that Akatsuchi hadn't moved from his spot yet, meaning either one could not move during the duration of this jutsu or he wasn't skilled enough to divide his concentration between moving and operating his own body while simultaneously commanding the movements of the golem. Not that it mattered to Itachi right now, important was that he wasn't moving.
Making a quick plan in his mind, Itachi ran toward Akatsuchi. Seeing Itachi approach him quickly, Akatsuchi commanded the golem to defend him. The golem quickly positioned itself between Akatsuchi and Itachi. Feeling slightly annoyed by the golem, not that one could see it on Itachi's perfectly stoic face, he began forming hand seals, Rat → Tiger → Dog → Ox → Rabbit → Tiger, and shouted, "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu". A multitude of smaller fireballs escaped Itachi's mouth and skillfully evaded the golem, heading straight for Akatsuchi. Grunting in annoyance Akatsuchi jumped away, causing the golem to crumble away due to the broken concentration.
Quickly performing the necessary hand seals, Snake → Ram → Dog → Rat → Snake → Tiger, Akatsuchi said, "Doton: Kengan no Jutsu". His hands quickly became engulfed in stone. He then closed the distance between himself and his opponent very quickly and tried to engage Itachi in taijutsu again. When Itachi dodged the punch, a drop of sweat rolled down his brow. The place where the punch landed had now become a decently-sized crater, 'I sure don't wanna get hit by one of those', thought Itachi to himself.
Arming himself with throwable weaponry once again, Itachi quickly fired them off towards Akatsuchi, who proceeded to simply bat them away with his rock fists. Akatsuchi formed a few rock clones to surround Itachi and cut off every escape route. He formed three clones all also daunting the rock fists. Akatsuchi was also sweating quite profusely and breathing heavily due to exhaustion, after all, he was still rather young and his chakra coils weren't completely matured yet, unlike a specific redhead clan whose members have kage-level chakra reserves when they are chūnin level.
Itachi did his best to dodge the blows but eventually, he got hit by a single punch and launched backwards. He skidded across the floor and laid face down. The crowd was silent. The Uchiha prodigy was defeated by some genin from Iwagakure. None were more shocked than Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Sasuke. Fugaku because he didn't think that Itachi would disappoint him in such a way. While Sasuke thought his brother unbeatable. Akatsuchi smiled. Not only had he defeated the Uchiha prodigy but also just in the knack of time since he was already running low on chakra. Chimi was about to call the match in Akatsuchi's favor when Itachi's body suddenly erupted in a flock of crows. They flew around Akatsuchi, disorienting him severely. Suddenly they all stopped around him, facing Akatsuchi. After a few seconds of standstill, and confusion in Akatsuchi's case, the crows sped towards Akatsuchi. Finally sensing the slight distortion in his own chakra, Akatsuchi formed the Ram hand seal, "Kai!" All the crows transformed into shurikens, hellbent on establishing contact with Akatsuchi's skin.
Having already lost his rock fists due to his exhaustion, all he could do was position his arm in front of his face, preventing severe damage. Taking the brunt of the attack, Akatsuchi fell forward on one knee, due to pain and exhaustion. Out of a shadow from the sides of the arena, Itachi stepped out holding his stomach in pain. He did take the blow but was able to place Akatsuchi under a genjutsu before Akatsuchi noticed. He approached Akatsuchi and held a kunai to his throat, "Surrender!", commanded Itachi.
Seeing no way out of this and being too tired to argue, Akatsuchi simply surrendered. Chimi returned to the middle of the arena and enhanced her voice with chakra, "Due to a forfeit by Akatsuchi of Iwagakure, the winner is Uchiha Itachi of Konohagakure!"
The crowd went wild. What a fight that was. The civilians, though they had no idea what the shinobi down there were doing other than beating the crap out of the other, were entertained. More so those that bet on the Uchiha winning. Those were the happiest right now.
Itachi looked up at his family and saw with his still activated Sharingan, his father and mother mouthing the words, 'I'm proud of you, my son/Itachi-kun!'. He also saw his little brother boasting about how cool his big brother was compared to all the other contestants. Itachi even managed a smile seeing that. Yet he did know that his biggest challenge in these exams would be his own teammates…
Kage box
"Well, well, well, would you look at that another victory of Konoha over Iwa, wouldn't you agree, Tsuchikage-dono?", playfully taunted Rasa.
Ōnoki was inwardly seething. Akatsuchi was one of the most promising genin of Iwagakure at the moment and he was bested by this Konoha pest.
"Hey, hey, Kazekage-dono you don't have to taunt him… his back might make him problems otherwise.", Minato tried to salvage the situation… and failed at that.
"No respect for your elders, you younglings! Back in my time- OWW!", suddenly shouted Ōnoki holding his back in pain. He grumbled something underneath his breath and sitting back down on his seat.
"Well, Kazekage-dono, Tsuchikage-dono. What are your opinions on both of these genins?", asked Minato.
"Well, Hokage-dono. In my opinion, both performed wonderfully. That Itachi boy surely knew when he was outclassed in strength and searched for ways to defeat his enemies. At the same time, he showed promise in nin- and genjutsu. Akatsuchi, on the other hand, showed great promise in taijutsu, especially with the "Doton: Kengan no Jutsu". He also did his best to negate the Sharingan by creating clones to attack the blindspots of the Uchiha kid. He followed a simple rule, 'When facing a Sharingan user alone, retreat or surrender. When in twos, one shall take the back.' So, in short, I would recommend both of them for chūnin already!", declared the Kazekage.
"Thank you, Kazekage-dono, and I agree with both your suggestions. Do we all agree on promoting Akatsuchi and Uchiha Itachi to chūnin?", asked Minato the whole gathering of village leaders. They all agreed and Fotane motioned for the next match to begin.
Stadium arena
"Would Deidara of Iwagakure and Take of Kusagakure, please find themselves in the arena for Fight Five of Round One?", asked Chimi with increased volume.
Both Deidara and Take quickly entered the arena. Take was a young male shinobi with short, straight, black hair and green eyes. He wore the standard Kusagakure shinobi attire without a flak jacket and beige shinobi sandals. Meanwhile, Deidara's only change in attire was that his pouches seemed a little bigger and fuller than beforehand.
They stood a few yards apart with Deidara's hands slowly nearing his hip pouches, while Take's hands seemingly did the same. After asking if they're both ready, Chimi began the match, "Fight Five of Round One, BEGIN!"
Deidara jumped back while plunging his hands inside his hip pouches and pulled out two globs of a white substance. On closer inspection, one could see that the substance had the properties of clay. He held them both in his hands and smirked, "You will be the first to experience my art in this exam! For my art is something beautiful that reaches its height in existence when it is about to perish explosively. For true art is only existent for a few moments before making room for new art, hn!", shouted Deidara he held his hands up, besides his head, and showed Take the globs of clay. Then creepily enough from underneath the clay a tongue carved out its way to completely pull it into its hand mouth. Deidara did gain a tick mark when he heard Aiko, unbeknownst to him, shout out, "Yucks!", making the whole stadium snicker.
Take not wanting his opponent to finish… whatever he was doing, reached into his hip pouches as well. He pulled out a multitude of senbon needles out, all dripping in a pale greenish liquid. He threw them with deadly accuracy at his opponent who dodged as best he could but was ultimately scratched at his left arm. Deidara immediately felt his left arm numbing and unresponsive to his commands. He clicked his tongue and noticed that, for some reason, his mouth in the left hand didn't stop chewing. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he continued working on his clay, 'Almost finished only a few more moments, then I'll show him the extent of my art, hn!', thought Deidara to himself, also slowly noticing that his left shoulder was starting to numb as well, 'That stupid poison, it annoys me to no end, hn!'
Take continued to throw senbon at Deidara who dodged every single one of them, much to Deidara's delight. Noticing that his right-hand mouth had finished chewing the clay, he smirked. It spat out the clay and Deidara formed the clay with one hand. Once finished he opened his palm to reveal two beautifully shaped birds with four wings each. Deidara jumped to his left flank and threw the birds at Take. Even though he was confused by the birds, Take did not want to find out what they could do. Deidara held up his right hand in a half Ram seal and grunted, making the birds poof in a small cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the birds have grown a little in size and started to quickly flap their wings, taking off at neck-breaking speeds. The sped towards Take who jumped to his side to dodge one bird while hitting the other with a few senbon causing it to detonate prematurely. 'So they explode when hit and he can most likely also detonate them at wish. Well, it looks like I'm fighting one of the holders of Iwagakure's Bakuton Kekkei Genkai.', thought Take to himself patting himself mentally on the shoulder for remembering the fact that he knew the Kekkei Genkai.
He shook himself out of his thoughts and looked around for the other bird. It seemingly disappeared. He looked back at Deidara and saw him following something from above downwards with his pupil. Looking up he saw the clay bird in a nosedive, quickly approaching Take, "It is too late to dodge now! Experience my art. because art is an EXPLOSION!", shouted Deidara as his hand formed half a Ram seal once again and he shouted, "Katsu!"
The bird exploded in an explosion, easily double the size of a normal exploding tag. During the explosion, Deidara also swung his left arm with a formed animal behind his back, since he couldn't move it freely. When the dust of the explosion cleared, Take emerged from the small crater. His clothes were singed and he had light burns on his legs and more serve ones at his arms since he protected his head with his arms from the explosion. He was also breathing heavily, having expended a large amount of chakra to toughen up his skin to take less damage during the explosion. Take took a deep breath and opened his mouth emitting a dark green cloud of poisonous gas, thinking, 'Dokugiri'. Deidara placed his elbow as quick as possible in front of his mouth and nose but wasn't quick enough and ended up inhaling some of the gas. The effects were immediate and Deidara felt all his muscles suddenly cramp and he unceremoniously fell to the ground with his face upwards. The still slightly exhausted Take approached Deidara, "You don't have to try. It is my most efficient paralysis poison." He positioned a kunai at Deidara's throat, "Surrender!"
Yet he didn't expect Deidara to smirk widely, "Oh I wouldn't be so sure, hn!" Take then noticed that his right hand, which was resting on Deidara's chest to support his own weight, slowly sunk into his chest. This was also the moment Deidara's whole body turned a pure white. 'Nendo Bunshin? But when?', then it hit him during the explosion of the first bird, he lost sight of Deidara for some time. He tried pulling his hand out of Deidara's chest but it didn't budge. Slowly Deidara rose out of the ground via, "Doton: Moruragakure no Jutsu". Deidara's real form smirked, "I would advise you to forfeit now or you will be blown to pieces, hn." But Take didn't seem to take the advice, "I won't surrender! Surrendering is the cowards way out!", shouted Take back while simultaneously thinking, 'Well, except if you're a support-type ninja like a medic-nin…'
Deidra shrugged with his shoulders and grinned, "Then you will become my first piece of art in the exams! Because art is an explosion!" shouted Deidara and immediately brought up his right hand in a half Ram seal and shouted, "Katsu!"
The clone exploded in an explosion easily dwarfing the first two. Deidara stood there comically shedding a tear at the 'beauty of his art'. When the dust cleared once again, Deidara expected a corpse to lie there. Yet upon closer inspection, he saw only the remnants of a wooden log lie there. He widened his eyes and turned around just in time to receive three senbon needles in his right leg, causing him to fall to his knees. Deidara looked up to see the heavy breathing and sweating form of Take there before him, standing on wobbly legs due to exhaustion, "This match is over, surrender now! We both don't have any more chakra left and you're in the disadvantageous position!" And this was the truth, as Deidara was also breathing quite heavily, although still lighter than Take, and was also sweating quite profusely. But this statement unwillingly gave Deidara some information that ensured his victory, 'I see he is out of chakra and wants to make me surrender because of my bad position.. well, bad for him I still have a little surprise for him.', thought Deidara while developing a new smirk.
"You're quite right on everything, except one fact…", Take rose an eyebrow and subsequently narrowed his eyes, "Yes I don't have any chakra left to create another clay figure… but-" and just as Deidara said the but a clay centipede shot out of the ground beneath Take and tied him up, preventing him from performing any movement. Take looked shocked and saw Deidara move his right hand to a half Ram seal for the last time. Deidara then continued, "-but I still have enough chakra to detonate an already existing clay figure.", Deidara smirk grew by the second. There were two options for Take. Option One, surrender and perhaps become promoted to chūnin due to good performance or Option Two, get blown to pieces by this art fanatic. Take sighed defeated and spoke to the proctor, "Proctor, I forfeit. I'm all out of chakra and I certainly don't want to be blown to pieces by this art fanatic." The proctor nodded and announced the winner while Deidara was shouting at Take that his art was pure perfection and that he was no fanatic, just a lover of extravagant art. "The winner of Fight Five of Round One is Deidara of Iwagakure!", shouted Chimi throughout the whole stadium.
The whole stadium erupted in cheers, especially the children who found the explosions fascinating and cool. Deidara managed a small smile due to his exhaustion and headed towards the medic bay to get his chakra refueled, 'I'm really lucky this guy didn't force me to try anything above C1! I still can't really control my C2 explosives… Man, after these exams I gotta train harder…', thought Deidara as he left the arena.
Kage box
"That was quite the show, Tsuchikage-dono. That genin of yours, although quite eccentric, seems really skilled for his age.", praised Minato with Rasa agreeing. Meanwhile, Ōnoki was happy that another of his genin managed to advance to the second round. He was too lost in his own thoughts to even notice the ramblings of the other Kage.
"You think his heart stopped beating?", asked Rasa playfully.
With an amused smile, Minato answered, "No, I think he's shocked to see another one of his genin pass the exam… It's hard to get happy messages at his age."
Even Fotane joined in. His translator spoke Fotane's thoughts, "I think he's only happy that his back isn't hurting right now." This caused the Kages around Ōnoki to snicker at his expense.
This caused the Kage's to laugh and knock Ōnoki out of his thoughts, "Were you all just making fun of me?", asked Ōnoki with dangerously narrowed eyes. His suspicions were only confirmed when the other Kages and Fotane sarcastically remarked, "We would never do such an atrocious thing. I mean making fun of an old man that should already give up his title to the next person..."
Ōnoki sighed, "Screw you all. Now to the topic at hand, chūnin promotion proposals."
"I would recommend both of them for chūnin. They showed incredible promise and would be great additions to your respective villages, Tsuchikage-dono, Fotane-dono.", judged Minato regaining his more serious attitude.
"I agree with Hokage-dono, do you, Tsuchikage-dono, Fotane-dono?", both agreed and Fotane motioned for the last fight of the round to commence.
Spectator seats
"Onee-chan is up, yippie!", chirped Aiko not even attempting to hide her excitement at seeing another one of her siblings showing off the power of Konoha, not that Aiko knew that purpose of the exams.
"Yes, I'm excited as well, Aiko-chan, but for now calm down see, Kimiko-chan is already entering the arena!", said Kushina as she saw her eldest daughter enter the arena.
"Let's see what you taught your daughter and my student, Kushi-chan.", said Mikoto with a smile at seeing another one of her students most likely dominate her fight.
Stadium arena
As Kimiko entered everyone could see her new look. Her normally free scarlet hair, now was bound together in a high ponytail, reaching down to her mid-back with two bangs framing her face. Would it be free it would easily reach down to her butt but it was only free when not on missions now. She now wore a brick red sleeveless shirt, a pair of black pants, blue heeled shinobi sandals, fingerless gloves with a metal plate at the back of the hand, a white obi keeping her shirt and pants together, and grey ANBU-style wristguards. Her forehead protector sat on her forehead. Her katana was slung on her back in a beautiful sheath.
She took her spot on the field and waited a few minutes until her opponent entered the arena. Surredō was wearing attire specialized for warfare in the desert. He had very pale green short hair, which spiked at the back of his head. His eyes also had the same shade of green in them. On his back was a large bandaged… thing.
Kimiko reminded herself that her opponent was a puppeteer, 'According to Nii-san, puppeteers are long-range fighters and thus weak in taijutsu… Additionally, those puppets have all kinds of hidden weapons and can be moved and weaponized even after being dismembered, although that requires more skill to do. Unlucky for him that I'm good in both long and close range combat.', thought Kimiko to herself, entering a kind of battle mode, like Naruto likes to do, to shove away distractions from her mind.
Surredō stood in across from Kimiko waiting for the match to begin. He was already reaching behind his back to unwrap his puppet. A puppet made by none other than Akasuna no Sasori himself, Crow.
Chimi looked between the genin and saw both of them ready, "Fight Six of Round One. Let the fight BEGIN!", shouted Chimi and jumped back to safety.
Surredō immediately pulled the puppet from his back, which automatically unwrapped itself from inside the bandages. He quickly attached chakra strings to the puppet via the 'Kugutsu no Jutsu'. He waited for Kimiko to make a move.
Kimiko simply drew her katana. They stared at one another waiting for the other to make a move. Increasingly becoming more frustrated with the lack of action from his opponent, Surredō sought to make the first move. His left index finger twitched a little and the mouth of Crow opened. Another finger twitch and a plethora of senbon needles were shot in the direction of Kimiko, all of them dipped into a deadly poison. Not that it mattered to Kimiko. Since her chakra was so similar to Senju Hashirama's, her chakra also had the same properties, thus granting her the powerful regeneration of Hashirama. Such a simple poison could not hurt her. That didn't mean she wanted to get hit since it still hurt her and the regeneration still took quite some chakra from her still developing chakra reserves.
She danced around all of the projectiles, not getting hit even once. When the storm of needles finally ended she sped forward at high genin speeds. Her katana was held in a reverse grip in her right hand. Once she was about five yards away from the puppet, her speed suddenly increased, reaching high chūnin, bordering low jōnin speeds. She moved too fast for the civilian population to witness but for the shinobi population, it was still visible. Nonetheless, it was impressive to see a genin this fast. She reappeared behind both Surredō and Crow. Her katana was now held above her left shoulder behind her head. She then whispered, "Zankō".
Surredō couldn't believe his eyes as he saw his puppet fall to pieces after she whispered the name of her technique, as well as the appearance of a large cut along his right arm. He gripped his right arm and created distance between them once again. He reattached his chakra strings at the multitude of single pieces of his puppet and commanded them to himself. These parts were forearms, arms, legs, and even the head of the puppet. Out of all the joints then came hidden blades into view. All dripping with the same purple liquid the senbons were drenched in. He positioned them around himself to prevent Kimiko from engaging him in taijutsu or kenjutsu.
Kimiko though only smirked and performed the Tiger hand seal and shouted, "Suiton: Teppōdama". After announcing her jutsu, her cheeks puffed outwards, being filled with water. Quickly kneading enough chakra to perform the jutsu she shot a dozen average sized water bullets at Surredō, all not being aimed at him but rather the single pieces of the puppet that protected him. When he realized how outclassed he was, seeing as how his puppet was made useless in only a few moments. Yet, before he could attempt to surrender Kimiko's fist was buried in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He skidded backwards along the ground until finally colliding with the arena wall. The wall now had a Surredō sized crater in the wall. Slowly, his unconscious form slowly stumbled out of the wall, falling face first into the dirt.
Chimi chuckled at the efficiency, that Kimiko used to finish her match as quickly as possible as well as giving as little information about her skills as possible. All her opponents knew about her was that she could be fast, used a single suiton jutsu and has a katana.
"Winner of Fight Six of Round One; Namikaze Kimiko!", announced Chimi and broke the audience out of their shocked expressions. Cheers were heard all over the stadium, cheering for the quick and efficient finish. Kimiko chuckled to herself and went to return to the contestant's box.
Spectator seats
"Wow, Kaa-chan did you see that? Onee-chan blinked forward and then... whoosh… and she was behind him and then his doll fell apart. And then Onee-chan spewed out water and hit him so hard he flew away.", recited Aiko in such an excited manner that she tried to imitate the sound effects of the battle as best she could and tried to imitate the fight itself as well.
Kushina smiled warmly at her youngest, "Yes I did, Aiko-chan. Your Onee-chan did very well, she will most likely be promoted just like your Onii-chan."
Aiko smiled a megawatt smile of the century at the prospect of being able to brag about how cool her siblings were when she entered the academy.
Kage box
"Hokage-dono… are you trying to create another Kushina or what?", asked Rasa with a deadpan expression on his face. He already had the 'pleasure' once to meet Kushina in an enraged state. Safe to say the only thing that protected Rasa this day, was his Jiton Kekkei Genkai coupled with his gold dust.
"I assure you, Kazekage-dono, that my eldest daughter only idolizes her mother. Also, if we were to have to Kushina's in the compound me and my son would most likely not survive all that long.", joked Minato.
Rasa chuckled and even Ōnoki let out a little snicker, more at the prospect of the most hated person of his village being violated at home. "Well, to come to the decision of chūnin promotions!", began Ōnoki, "That Surredō looked completely helpless as soon as his puppet was destroyed. He seems overly reliant on this single weapon. He needs to further his horizon to become an effective shinobi and chūnin."
"I agree with Tsuchikage-dono, Kazekage-dono.", said Minato.
"I understand and agree as well. He isn't ready to become a team leader if he is reliant on only one skill. But your daughter on the other hand… she performed astoundingly. She finished the fight quickly and did not show many of her skills, like a true shinobi she first 'worsened' her own skills, to make him feel a false sense of security. Then at the last moment used her true skills to cripple her opponent's offense as well as defense. Remarkable.", praised Rasa.
Meanwhile, Ōnoki was just grumbling to himself saying something along the lines of 'stupid Namikaze and their geniuses…'
"Who agrees on promoting Namikaze Kimiko to chūnin?", asked the translator of Fotane as all the Kage raised their hands, although Ōnoki only did so begrudgingly.
"Fotane-dono? As far as I remember, there is a thirty-minute break due now, right?", asked Minato at which Fotane nodded, "Well then I'm going talk to my wife a little.", with that said Minato left the Kage box.
Stadium arena
"The next Round of Matches will continue in half an hour. Please find yourself back five minutes past the time limit at the latest!", said Chimi as she joined some Kusa jōnin-senseis for the duration of the break. During the break, some chūnin were also repairing the damage done to the arena during the first batch of matches.
Spectator seats
"...so did you enjoy the fights up until now?", asked a voice behind Kushina.
She and Aiko turned around to see Minato standing there. Kushina smiled at her husband while Aiko was trying to imitate the cool moves of her Onii-chan and Onee-chan once again. Aiko then exclaimed how excited she was to see both of them fight again.
"Now that's the spirit, Aiko-chan!", praised Minato causing Aiko to blush a bit in embarrassment. They talked about the fights for the rest of the thirty minutes until Minato had to return to the Kage box. Before they departed Minato and Kushina kissed quickly causing Aiko to state her disgust, "Yucks…"
Kushina then smirked evilly to herself, "Oh you don't like it? Well, then how about I show you how about a sample!"
Kushina then kissed Aiko on her nose, her forehead, literally everywhere on her head causing her to giggle and blush at the same time. Before Kushina could continue her torture, they heard, "Round Two is about to begin! Winner of Match One; Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure, and Winner of Match Two; Namikaze Naruto of Konohagakure, please enter the arena!"
They quickly entered the arena and stood opposite to each other. Both smirking, confident in their abilities. "Are you both ready?" inquired Chimi, receiving two nods, "Then I declare Fight One of Round Two as officially started, BEGIN!"...
Author note: I want to apologize for the long delay, thus I reward your patience with a longer than usual chapter! Also, the poll for the pairing has now officially ended with the release of this chapter and the winner is:
Naruto x Female Uchiha Clan member!
I also created another small poll that isn't so impacting on the story like the one before.
I thank you all for supporting the story and I would like to hear your thoughts on the story so please review my fanfiction. I really wanna hear your feedback and what I can improve in terms of writing skills!
With that said, See ya until the release of the next chapter! ^^
"Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu" = "Rock Clone Technique"
"Doton: Kengan no Jutsu" = "Earth Release: Fist Rock Technique"
"Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu" = "Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique"
"Doton: Moruragakure no Jutsu" = "Hiding like a mole Technique"
"Fūton: Reppūshō" = "Wind Release: Gale Palm"
"Fūton: Shinkūgyoku" = "Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere"
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" = "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique"
"Kaze no Kuni" = "Land of Wind"
"Doton: Gōremu no Jutsu" = "Earth Release: Golem Technique"
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu" = "Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique"
"Kai!" = "Release!"
"Katsu!" = "Phrase used by Deidara to detonate his exploding clay, originally used in Zen Buddhism"
"Dokugiri" = "Poison Mist"
"Nendo Bunshin" = "Clay Clone"
"Akasuna no Sasori" = "Sasori of the Red Sands"
"Kugutsu no Jutsu" = "Puppet Technique"
"Zankō" = "Afterglow"
