C6, We Fight
"Talking."
'Thoughts.'
XX
The semi-finals had been interesting to say the least, the first match had been between Sasuke Uchiha and one of Kabout's teammates. The Uchiha had just barely you won his match against his opponent, he couldn't even use his bloodline the Sharingan without risking the power of the curse seal activating again.
He had just barely won thinks to a move he stole Rock Lee, directly afterwards both him and his opponent were taken to the medical personnel in the tower. Sasuke was sent to a special room to have the curse seal taking care of.
The next pair to fight had been Shino versus one of the Sound Ninjas named Zaku, it was a mismatch of epic proportion to say the least. He sound Jutsu's had been powerful but useless against the leaf ninja as one of his arms had been blown off completely of his body. Naruko had to admit that it was a miracle he was even alive.
By the end of the fight Kakashi had reappeared alongside his team with one more person, that person was none other than Kushina Uzumaki.
By this point the last member of Kabout's team was called down to fight one of the Send Ninjas, that ninja was the puppet user Kankuro. He had removed the bundle from his back when the masked ninja attack him, he seemed to be able to stretch his body and constrict Kankuro until he surrender or die. What he wasn't counting on was that the bundle was actually Kankuro and the person he was constricting was the battle puppet which then proceeded to kill him.
The board came to life one more time showing two new names, both Sakura and Ino's names came right up, it was their turn to fight. The two clearly had some kind of rivalry going on, they traded punches and Jutsus back and forth until finally Ino but the back of her ponytail off to use one of her Jutsus Sakura to take over her body and to try to make her forfeit the match. What Ino had been unprepared for was Sakura's inner personality that fought back against her Jutsu. They then proceeded to go all-out in hand-to-hand combat resulting in a double knockout and tie.
The next match was between Temari of the Sand Team and Team Gai's Tenten. Who was a weapons expert, but this had proven to be the worst matchup for Tenten as Temari had blocked and diverted her weapons with just the power of her wind Jutsu's. Tenten got more than she bargained for in this fight, by the end she could no longer fight her opponents and/or was conscious at the time either.
The next bout was between another one of the Sound Ninjas, this time it was the female ninja's turn. Her name was Kin and her opponent was none other than Shikamaru Nara who saw called the lazy genius of Konoha, but a genius none the less. The fight started out as a tug-of-war of Wells with them both tontine and testing each other's abilities out to see a weakness in their strategies. Unfortunately for Kin it was Shikamaru who got the upper hand in the fight, he had managed to catch her in his Shadow Possession Jutsu and maneuvered her into position to take herself out with the help of his Jutsu.
The board came to life again shuffling through the remaining names until it landed on, "YES! All right Akamaru we can take her out, and get even for what she did to us back in Wave Country."
Naruko Uzumaki VS Kiba Inuzuka.
'Great! I have to fight the dog and cute puppy too, and what's worse is has no respect for the female population great. I at least I know some things about his clan's abilities.' Naruko thought to herself.
Kiba jumped down to the arena to await his fight with Naruko to begin, Naruko proceeded to seal up her battle cloak and hat. She then unsealed a few special surprises of hers for this opponent. She wasn't going to make this battle so easy for him, she had already noticed that all the competitors that had one had exploited their enemies weaknesses very well, some better than others. The only two that were a disappointment and all opinions were the fights between Sakura and Ino. It was clear that they had not taken their careers as ninjas very seriously in her opinion, but Kiba could not be labeled that so easily. She could tell that he trained hard and was always ready for a fight, he had underestimated her the first time. Unfortunately for him he did not know what she was truly capable of.
When she jumped down to the arena floor she was still wearing the same battle outfit that she wore in Wave Country at the time of their first meeting, as they walked up to each other to await the proctor to begin the match. Naruko then pulled a small box out of one of her pockets, it was a box of strawberry Pocky and placed one of them in her mouth. She looked up and noticed a look upon Kiba's face and then said, "Oh, I'm sorry you probably want this in dog food flavor right?"
Kiba's face had turned red with anger and even the proctor moved back a bit, but this was all part of her plan. It was a basic rule one of her sensei's had taught her long-ago. 'Break them before you fight' that had been the rule that she had been taught when stealth was not an option such as now. She then took a bite of another piece with a smile on her face making him even matter then before and decided to put more salt into the wound, "So after this fight are you going to need a doctor or a veterinarian dogface... And I don't mean the cute puppy there." Akamaru was starting to like her a lot but knew his partner was going to get his ass kicked big-time, and by a girl no less. As soon as the proctor said begin Kiba ran right at her and began to attack ferociously, every single one of his clans attacked signatures hit home and sent her flying into the wall of the tower arena. Or so he thought. He then heard clapping and looked up to see her standing on the side of the wall just under the stands, both he and his puppy were in shock at seeing this. "That's not possible? I know what a shadow clone is, and they can't take that kind of punishment." She took another bite of her Pocky with that smile on her face and then jumped to the other side of the arena just as she said, "Who said it was a Shadow Clone dog boy." Before Kiba could recognize the danger signs a huge explosion of air hit both him and his partner Akamaru dead on sending them across the arena floor, they were both in a lot of pain from the clones detonation. Up in the stands both Kakashi and Kushina were truly impressed by her tactics in this battle so far, 'So, she's got a clone technique that can double as a bomb at the last minute and can take more damage than a shadow clone can throughout its life. You truly are your father's daughter Naruko.' Kushina thought to herself. Naruko was now more ready for anything that might come of her earlier surprise attack, what they didn't know is that her attack had not even been at full power. Kiba and his partner slowly got up to get back into a fighting stance realizing this would not be an easy fight but he had to ask? "What the hell was that?" She gave him another smile, "Oh that? That was a compression bomb clone I created, you see the more damage you do to it... The bigger the boom is dog breath." Before Kiba and Akamaru could get back up into a fighting stance, Naruko had already made up to five more shadow clones that were then sent to engage the tagteam in combat. As Kiba and Akamaru who was in his men beast clone mode were busy engaging her clones and blocking punches and kicks uppercuts and even once or twice a kick to their balls. The real Naruko then pulled out her secret weapon, she then jumped right over them and threw down her stink bomb right between Kiba and Akamaru.
The bombs smell was so strong that everyone could smell it all over the arena, both human and dog were now incapacitated and realized the fight was already over. Before he could register just how over it really was, he saw the original Naruko walk up right in front of him and with one fast movement she kicked him right in his crotch with all of her righteous female fury.
The blow was so hard that he was on his knees both hands covering his family jewels and letting out a high pitch scream like no other, he looked up right in time to see her bring back right-hand and hit him so hard that one of his teeth flew out of his mouth with blood still dripping from it as it hit the arena floor right in front of the proctor.
Just about every male had their legs crossed hoping to God she would not to the same thing to them, she walked up to the proctor and asked, "Well?"
"Winner, Naruko Uzumaki!"
Kiba had just regained consciousness enough to look over at her, he had to admit she was beautiful. Of course she then said, "Look at my ass like that again and I'll kill you dog boy!" The only thought that entered into his mind was this, 'Women are scary.' He whimpered as they carry him away to the medical ward of the tower.
As Naruko walked back up she then saw the board come to life again with new means, the names this time were... Neji Hyuga VS Hinata Hyuga.
Naruko had seen the look of fear on the girl's face and said to her, "Don't worry, it'll be all right. You just have to wait and see... But until then give him a true fight and don't let him get in here!" She finished by pointing to her head.
The young girl smiled again and continued down to the arena. Neji had done everything in his power to destroy her confidence in spirit, he had failed but instead decided to destroy her body and life. It was a brutal fight and unnecessary fight. His final attempt to kill her even been stopped by the other Jounin sensei's at the last moment, but it was clear to her they had issues.
She jumped down to the arena floor and walked over to Hinata and applied one of her special medical seals upon the girls chest. The damage was now mostly repaired but she would still need immediate medical attention but at least her life was no longer in danger and she would recover much quicker. After this was done she turned on Neji staring into his cold white eyes. For the first time in his life he felt true fear... Not the fear induced by the caged bird seal, no-no this was much more powerful. More primal something only a female could bring upon you that level of dread and fear when it was deserved. This was the definition of righteous female fury at its highest level. She walked forward to him a little bit until she got up to where Hinata's blood set up on the arena floor.
She reached down and put her hand into it, when she brought it up she squeezed the blood out upon the floor with perfect eye contact upon him, her next words put ice water into his veins. "You! I'm coming for your blood, no mercy... No code of conduct, no law. Just vengeance... And when I'm done with you, you will plead for mercy... And I shall have none. I better get him first old man, he's my!"
After she walked away, Neji felt as if the Grim Reaper was standing right beside him waiting for him to die. Almost if saying to him, "You're just living on borrowed time now boy, you should never have hurt that beautiful flower that loved you so... Because now you have to face that deadly rose!"
The next fight was between Gaara and Rock Lee, the two warriors of the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand were surprisingly evenly matched. Lee at superior strength and speed in his hand to hand combat was almost unrivaled, but at the same time Dara had learned to be a defensive and offense of fighter at the same time. It was a deadly combination and the two were going all out. By the end of the match league had unleashed all of the gates that he could safely but Gaara had pulled out some of his special sand moves at a nearly crushed Lee in the process, the only good news is that Lee was not permanently damaged or hurt too badly.
Unfortunately by this point Naruko had become rather bored with the matches, well except for one or two.
The next match had been between the last Sound Ninja and Choji, the fight had been for the lack of a better word interesting. Of course when Choji did turn into a giant ball with chains on and try to run down his enemy like a dead dog on Highway. You would've thought he had achieved victory, but unfortunately his enemy was far stronger than he appeared and sent him flying into a wall so hard he was out cold.
The next match had been unfortunately between Haku and her dear friend Kurotsuchi from Stone Village in Earth Country, now wasn't that the fight devolved into a straight out Fight. It was more like it turned into World War III with the two trading blows left and bloody right. And unfortunately it resulted in a knockout for Haku, although all the Jounin thought it was more like a Kage level battle then a simple fight for the Chunin rank. And the fact that both of them were female only made all the man more afraid for good reason. Especially since it took almost 20 min. to get all the rubble and ice out of the arena.
The next fight would be the last one of the semi finals as the last two members of the Stone Team knock each other out.
Chojuru was a little disappointed that he did not get a chance to test his skills in a fight, but also know this could work out for him in the final matches. No one had seen what he was capable of. Then the listing of who would fight who in the Konoha Stadium was now being displayed for all.
Neji VS Naruko
Sasuke VS Gaara
Kankuro VS Shino
Shikamaru VS Temari
Kurotsuch VS Chojuru
Karin VS Dosu
After it was all announced to them Naruko gave Neji a look that said to him, 'I'm coming for you... Dead man walking.'
It didn't help Neji that he felt a chill run up his spine from her looking at him, his only thoughts were. 'I have to train, fate will make sure I beat her.'
Naruko then walked out of the tower with her team to prepare for the coming fight against both Neji and her sister, she had no illusions that she would fight her sister in the finals of the exams. It was as one of her syntheses would say sometimes, it was a mathematical certainty. Luckily she was prepared for what her sister and mother would possibly do in the coming month. She had luckily brought something to deal with both threats, she would not even need the full month.
But she was someone who believed in overkill, and she knew that her mother would deal with the curse seal on her sister's neck.
XX
Karin had been meditating for some time now, her mother told her to do it in preparation to remove the evil soul fragment from the curse seal itself, the special seal ritual that was about to be conducted would also reconstruct the curse seal into something new. She could already feel the foul snakes soul trying to bribe her with power, she ignored him.
Her mother at this point walked into the room with a strange box which showed a symbol for both the death gods and their natural enemys, their opposites the hollows upon it.
Kushina placed the box right in front of her daughter and opened it to reveal what look like a piece of bone in the shape of a jaw and what look like a sword. The seals in the room were some of the most elaborate that Karin had ever seen in her life.
Her mother then said to her, "Now Karin, to combat the dark snakes seal. I must use these relics of our ancestors to both destroy that soul fragment and to remake the curse seal into something more for you. No longer will it have a dark influence on you that you will have to fight every day of your life my little one. But with its power and your fathers Jutsu the Flying Thunder God you may be unstoppable except to the Hokage and myself. But I'm hoping that with this power that I cannot use, that you can also use it to bring back your sister to us... I made my fair share of mistakes with you to, I'm sorry to say her more than you. But this might be our only chance with her. Now hold onto yourself little one... You will be in for one hell of a ride."
Just then Kushina activated the seals and began the process, she did not know just how important her choice in doing this really would be in the end.
XX
Naruko looked down upon one of her first true friends in the village, no one knew it but Hinata Hyuga had been a young Naruko's best friend.
It had been one of the reasons that she was so ready to kill her old friends cousin so fast.
It was at this point that she turned her head to a part of the room and said, "you can come out now you old pervert... I know your there Jiraiya."
Right at this point a man with long white hair and red markings just under his eyes walked out of the wall and up alongside her at Hinata's bedside. This man's name was Jiraiya the Toad Sannin of the Hidden Leaf Village and one of her sensei's.
"You know kid how I hate it when you call me that right."
She turned her head to look him in the eyes, "Do I look like someone who gives a shit you old pervert."
He had to concede to her on that one, he then turned his head to look down upon the girl in the bed. "How is she?"
"She'll be in here for two weeks, by that time she'll have made a full recovery I hope? I take it that the Old Man sent for you to come back didn't he?"
He walked over to one of the chairs in the room and sit down with a sigh and then said, "Yes and no... He knows where going to need all the help we can get on this one. Your mother's planning something, something big. And I know she has the Flying Thunder God."
Naruko closed her eyes tight and looked down at the ground as she reopened them, whatever her family was planning. It was not going to be good. She should only imagine what was going to happen in one months time.
Jiraiya then saw the look on her face. "You're planning something, aren't you?"
She picked up her had and walked to the door of the hospital room with a smile on her face, oh yes she had something planned all right.
As she walked out the door he heard her say, "if I were you sensei, I would get a seat in the Stadium because I'm going to put on one hell of a show."
End of c6
