"I am fighting a girl, so troublesome" Shikamaru complained as he made his way down, getting a few encouraging words from Asuma on the way. Kin meanwhile recieved her own encouraging words from her teammates.
Both soon stood facing each other. "Are you ready?" Hayate asked both of them. Shikamaru yawned his assent, while a "Hai" came from Kin. "Well then, Fight!"
Kin jumped backwards, launching multiple senbon, forcing Shikamaru to dodge. Her second wave of senbon jingled, and flew wide. Raising an eyebrows from Shikamaru, who below his lazy exterior, had his mind in overdrive, trying to figure out her tactics, preferably without becoming a porcupine in the process.
His hand dived into his kunai pouch, and returned fire while dodging the third. A sharp pain in his thigh informed him he was not successful, before he could throw his second kunai, he suddenly heard jingling, and lost his sense of balance.
'Poison?.. No.. Genjutsu!' Shikamaru thought, biting his lower lip to break him free, just in time to roll away, he felt something snap against his body, and heard a single jingle.
'Snap? Wire... connected to bell.. Genjutsu timed through the sound of the bells' he thought, now effortlessly countering the next genjutsu attack with his chakra. 'Wire casts shadow..' A smile would have made its way on the boy's face if he wasn't lazy. He quickly sank unto his knees, forming his hands into the proper seal.
His unexpected movement caused Kin's next wave of senbon go over him, who was getting irritated her genjutsu wasn't taking hold, before she suddenly froze up.
A faint smirk managed to make its way on Shikamaru's face, who saw Kin had her hand full with senbon. Forced to mimic Shikamaru, who moved his hand that the senbon threatened to piece Kin's throat.
"Forfeit" he drawled lazily. Kin grimaced "I forfeit" she responded.
"Winner by forfeit, Nara Shikamaru"
Shikamaru released his jutsu, and Kin slumped in defeat. However an approving nod from the disguised Kushina rose her spirits, and she quickly made her way back to her team. Who offered words of consolation while Shikamaru received praise.
Naruto felt obliged to send an approving nod to Shikamaru, he saw the pencil thin shadow move along the shadows of the wires. Realizing slightly after Shikamaru how the Oto girl jingled the bells.
The board spun, and Naruto saw his own name.
"Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha versus Inuzuka Kiba from Konoha"
"Yahoo! We got an easy win!" Kiba laughed. Naruto kept his face impassive, but inwardly.. 'Revenge will be so sweet.' Naruto thought almost bloodthirsty 'Without Mizuki to get on my case whenever I win back at the academy, I can finally get some payback'
"Ready to lose you clan less loser? Akamaru stand to the side, I don't need your help for this" Naruto ignored him, waiting on Hayate to start the match. "Pay attention you failure of a ninja?!" Kiba demanded. Naruto just looked at Kiba bored, further riling up the boy.
'Show him what you can do Naru-chan' Kushina cheered in her mind. 'Beat that fox boy to pulp Kiba' Kurenai thought. Echoing the thoughts of several jonin present.
Seeing the banter wasn't going anywhere. "Are you ready boys?" Both of them nodded. "Then, fight!"
"Il finish this in one move, Passing fang!" Kiba shouted, rapidly spinning, turning into a grey razor sharp corkscrew that spun its way towards Naruto.
'Passing fang huh?' Naruto thought, his mind in overdrive as Kiba spun closer. 'I can see you aim at my side, and your head is exposed' Naruto quickly stepped so Kiba would hit in dead center, anchored himself to the ground with chakra, and cocked back right fist. 'You know the technique, but you haven't mastered it! You are wide open!'
Timing it just right, he plunged his right fist into the eye of the storm, raking the right side of Kiba's head hard as Kiba spun into his fist. Kiba's attack lost its spin rapidly, Naruto weakened his hold on the ground and allowed him to be pushed back by Kiba's momentum, his right fist hurting badly as it kept knocking into Kiba's spinning head, under pressure from holding the attacking dog boy back.
Judging Kiba lost enough spin, his left fist thundered into an uppercut, flying past the spinning clawed hands and hitting Kiba's chest just under his neck, before bouncing upward and hitting his jaw. Kiba's vector was re-directed upward, slowly raising into the sky. Naruto spiked his chakra to his feet, launching himself upward, something he learned during the tree climbing exercise.
He misjudged however, and used to much chakra, missing the chance to use his fists, but settled for a devastating kick to Kiba's midriff, knocking him away, landing roughly halfway the other side of the arena while Naruto landed clumsily. Unbalanced by the rough aerial kick.
"D…Da..Damn you" Kiba cursed, groggily raising to his feet while Naruto regained his balance. "Akamaru, let's go!" he ordered, tossing a pill for the dog to eat. Naruto was too far away to do stop it. He tossed a kunai to try to keep the dog off-balance, but the dog handily dodged it, crunching down on the pill while it did.
The dogs fur turned red. "Beast Human clone!" Akamaru poofed into Kiba. Naruto grinned "You want clones? You get clones, kage bunshin!" A small legion of clones appeared around Naruto, who bull rushed the pair of Kiba's.
Despite the pain Naruto managed to inflict with his combo, Kiba kept up his best, fighting through the mass with bestial efficiency, yet for every two clones he dispelled, he took a hit.
'I am going to lose against that loser at this rate, where is the real one!' Kiba thought, trying to use his nose as the clones where without smell. After a couple of frantic seconds, he found the real Naruto, standing at the back of his home-made horde. "Follow me Akamaru!" he shouted, leaping into the air towards Naruto.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise Kiba managed to find him. But then smirked, by jumping, Kiba left himself open. A counterplan formed in his mind. And he quickly made a couple of clones. Both of them aimed their bodies at a Kiba, before supercharging the chakra output at their feet. With a double loud bang, leaving a small crater at their launch site, both clones rocketed towards the Kiba's, knocking into them bodily before dispersing by the pressure of the impact.
Knocked out of balance, direction and blinded by the smoke. Both Kiba and the transformed Akumaru landed roughly near Naruto, who hopped back. His horde of clones descending upon the pair like a pack of raptors.
Before Naruto's clones could properly start the beating. Hayate interrupted "Winner by interference, Uzumaki Naruto"
Naruto, surprised by the suddenly declaration, quickly dispelled his clones before it was used to disqualify him. A small true smile made his way on his face when he realized he had a measure of payback for all the crap Kiba gave him. And that he earned a genuine chance to be promoted.
'Well done Naru-chan' Kushina thought, impressed how Naruto controlled the fight with well-timed taijutsu and a single jutsu, showing another inventive way to use the shadow clone technique. Most of the remaining public was less happy, realizing the unpopular boy might actually make the promotion. With Oto and Suna both having participants, they would also be sending their judges. And if the Konoha ones would judge him unfairly, that would attract attention they did not want to have.
Ignoring the inner turmoil of the room, the board spun uncaringly forward. While the medics carted off a cursing Kiba. "Hyuga Neji from Konoha versus Hyuga Hinata from Konoha"
Naruto saw the anger in Neji's eyes, and realized he would vent that on Hinata. Worried, but aware he could not do anything, he watched helplessly as Hayate started the match, and Neji started assaulted Hinata with words, targeting her fears and self-confidence.
Naruto gritted his teeth as he saw the girls confidence falter. Then, she glanced at him, and Naruto responded by flashing her a big grin, and a thumbs up hidden from the rest the room. It seemed to work, the girl gathered herself and told her cousin to fight.
And fight they did, a rapid clash of finger pokes, palm strikes and other gentle fist attacks clashed back and forth. Initially Hinata seemed to keep up, but Neji's experience won in the end. Slowly closing her tenkutsu in her arm, while redirecting the girls counter strikes to non-vital places. With a powerful blow to the chest, Neji knocked Hinata to the ground. Yet Hinata stubbornly refused to stay down. Much to Neji's ire. The second round of fighting was clearly in Neji's favor, the damage the girl had taken slowing her down too much. Throwing her back on the ground
"It is you who is hurt Neji-neesan" Hinata spoke softly after the match ended in Neji's favor. Standing back on her feet despite the beating she took. Neji eyes conveyed untold anger, and he rushed forward to finish her off. Stopped inches away from dealing a deathblow by the proctor and the three instructors.
"More protection for the main family?!" Neji raged. Hayate shook his head "Protecting you from disqualifying yourself and murder charges Hyuga, now get back up the balconies."
Neji stomped off, while Hinata was taken away by the medics.
Naruto dearly wanted to leap off the balcony, draw upon Kyuubi's power and slaughter the bastard for hurting his family member who cared for him. He was certain whatever issue he had with the main branch family. Hinata wasn't a part of it, she was far too kind for that.
A growl at the back of his mind warned him he was drawing on his tenants chakra, and he stepped back, reining in his anger.
Thankfully the rest did not notice his loss of control. And watched as the board spun again.
"Rock Lee of Konoha versus Gaara from Suna."
Gaara teleported down in a swirl of sand, looking bored. Lee meanwhile unleashed a loud "Yosh!" as he hopped down, brimming with excitement.
"Are you two ready?" "Hai!" A certain green clad genin boomed. Gaara merely nodded. "Then fight!" Hayate yelled, leaping backwards not to get caught in the storm of youth he just unleashed.
Lee shot forward, aiming a flying kick at Gaara's face. To nearly everyone's surprise, sand suddenly sprang from the gourd, blocking the kick. Jumping off, Lee blurred to Gaara's side, aiming a straight punch, yet once again the sand interfered.
Gaara looked bored at Lee "Is that all?" before aiming his arm at Lee "Suna Senbon" he intoned calmly as more sand poured out of the gourd, forming senbon the size of his forearm, before they launched rapidly at Lee.
Lee ducked and weaved beneath the attack, hoping Gaara spend all his sand on the attack, he launched forward. But the sand thwarted him again. Lee was forced away from Gaara by another barrage of sand senbon.
Guy, seeing his mini-me wasn't making any progress, shouted "Lee, take them off!" Lee looked surprised, as he hopped to the top of the statue, standing on top of the finger. "I thought I could only take them off to protect those dear to me." Lee shouted back. Ducking to avoid getting his head taken off by another super-sized needle of sand.
"I allow it!" Guy simply boomed back. "Hai Guy-sensei!" Lee shouted energetically. He quickly ducked down again, removing his leg weight, holding them up, he dropped them. Some of the watchers made fun of the weights. Gaara merely watched, wondering if the fight would become more interesting.
When the weights landed, making a large crater, a giant dust cloud and a worthy boom. He smiled, knowing it just got better.
As lee shot forward again, many times quicker that before. Actually bypassing Gaara's mobile sand defense, and showing Gaara wore a sand armor over his skin as he landed his blows, cracking the armor. Naruto could only watch with awe, impressed by what a dedicated student could do taught by a proper teacher.
Gaara started moving around making it harder for Lee to hit him and riding the blows that came through his defense to reduce the damage, having uncrossed his arms, he actually looked like he was fighting now. A maniac grin made its way on his face. "Yes, make me feel alive!" he shouted and he ordered his sand to envelop Lee.
Temari could only shake her head. It was roughly a month ago when Kushina changed Gaara's seal and had a heart to heart talk with Gaara. She did this after she defeating him in battle. Afterwards her brother actually apologized to her and Kankuro for what he had done. Her baby brother learning the voice in his head was actually a murderous chakra being.
She wasn't sure what she wanted from her now sort off sane brother. But at least the 'Make me feel alive while fighting you' Gaara beat the 'Shut up or I murder you' Gaara hands down. As an added bonus, ever since Kushina had her talk with her father, the man actually seemed to de-thaw a bit, trying to reconnect with his estranged children.
Temari welcomed the change with open arms, always wishing she could keep her family together like her mother did before she died to seal Ichibi in her brother. Kankuro kept his distance, like a true puppeteer and he watched what happened without interfering personally. Gaara rejected all attempts at reproach. Bitter over what happened, but at least he stopped trying to murder the man.
A loud "Yosh!" shook her out of her thoughts, and saw the green spandex boy wrap Gaara in his bandages midair, having launched Gaara upwards with a devastating kick after breaking out of the sand envelopment. Both boys started rapidly spinning to the ground "Front Lotus!", actually worrying Temari Gaara might get hurt.
A loud boom and an enormous dust cloud hid both. Before suddenly a green blur slammed into the wall. And a maniac laughter emerged from the cloud. As the dust settled, it showed Gaara with a maniac grin. "Yes, make me feel alive!"
Lee dug himself out of the wall, standing groggily. He perked up when his sensei shouted. "Lee, the lotus of the leaf blooms twice" Lee responded with an loud "Hai-sensei!" Guy pointedly ignored the horrified look the Konoha jonin sensei shot him.
Lee took a wide stance. Gaara just stepped back and watched, interested in what kind of power up his opponent would make this time. "Kaimon KAI, kyumon KAI, seimon KAI!" Lee chanted, at each 'Kai' more energy started to spark around him, his skin turning red. With the final 'Kai' Gaara would be wearing a chesmire smile if he could. His blood boiling with anticipation.
He would be disappointed however, the green clad boy turned into a blur, rapidly striking him multiple times. His sand armor chipped away with each powerful blow, his sand defense far too slow to keep up. His sand was blasted all over the arena by the power of the green clad boy.
Gaara suddenly felt himself kicked upwards, even as he flew up, more blows landed on him. There suddenly was a pause, acting on instinct, realizing the final blow was coming, his gourd disintegrated, forming a shell around him just as Lee hit, pounding him into the ground. Obscuring his form by the big dust cloud that sprung up from the impact.
Most Konoha genin cheered at the apparent victory of their fellow genin. But stopped when they heard a pained "No" from Guy. As Lee landed, he was suddenly slapped into the wall by a thick tendril of sand. Knocking the boy out. "Yes, you made me feel alive, we must fight again!" the insane boy demanded from the unconscious Lee.
Hayate quickly darted forward, checking Lee's vitals. "Winner by knockout, Gaara!"
Temari sighed in relief, glad her brother made it. Kankuro smiled as Gaara appeared beside him "Well done Gaara, you made us worry." Gaara blinked in surprise. "I am sorry, I did not intend to." He spoke silently. Temari felt like slapping Kankuro. 'He is trying dammit!' "Don't be Gaara, you are safe, that is what matters." She quickly gave him a short hug to reinforce the message.
Kushina smiled at the interplay between the siblings, happy she managed to teach the bullheaded Kazekage he tore apart his own family with what he was doing and had done, losing the only thing he had beside his village.
Naruto felt both awe, and worry. He knew he was stronger with Kyuubi's chakra, but as the woman in the forest had shown, it did not make him invincible, and the power both displayed made him realize how far behind he was.
The last two participants knew they were up, but they had to wait until the worst of the damage was repaired with some earth jutsu. Lee having made multiple craters into the floor and wall. During this, Kakashi returned with an exhausted Sasuke. 'Well that is proof why Sasuke never responded to his horde of fangirls.' Naruto joked to himself. 'It also shows that Kakashi truly bends over for the Uchiha clan'
Kakashi shot Naruto a glare when he heard he won his match. 'Damn you. Couldn't you just die already and leave us in peace?' Kakashi complained in his mind, before distracting himself from his unwanted student with his orange book.
"Akimichi Chōji from Konoha versus Kinuta Dosu from Oto" Hayate announced as soon the arena was repaired.
Choji looked reluctant, but was promised barbeque if he won. Meanwhile the heavily bandaged Oto genin waited patiently for Choji to come down.
"Are you two ready?" Both boys gave him a nod "Very well, the last match, fight!"
"Barbeque!" Choji shouted as a war cry, rapidly expanding in size. Hayate , knowing what an Akimichi could do, rapidly bailed out. Dosu didn't, and his lone visible eye widened in horror as an giant Choji bore down on him.
Snapping out of his surprised stupor, Dosu quickly jumped aside, avoiding becoming a human pancake. Choji made a surprisingly sharp turn for his bulk. Forcing Dosu to rapidly evade again. This time, Dosu managed to create some distance, trying to figure a way to hit the enlarged boys head. Who re-aimed himself, and spun into gear for another charge.
This happened several times, each time Dosu attempted to hit Choji, and Choji trying to squash Dosu. Suddenly, Choji changed tactics, adding a spin to his roll, making him a giant curveball, trying to capitalize on Dosu's tendency to jump to his right.
It failed however, Dosu could dodge on time, and managed to swipe out Choji's head, the melody arm Dosu used completely disorientating and nauseating the boy. Thinking victory was his, Dosu stopped to catch him breath, trying to control his rapid beating heart from surviving multiple attempts of getting the said organ squashed out of him, and completely failing to notice how the disorientated Choji kept rolling around, making a slow lazy turn before approaching him from behind, knocking him over and crushing his legs.
Dosu's loud cry of pain was too much for Choji's head, and with a load groan he returned to his normal size, laying on his back whining to himself.
Hayate waited, hoping Choji would recover, since Dosu's crushed legs would prevent him from standing up. Sadly, after a minute it was clear Choji was incapacitated.
"Since both fighters cannot continue, it's a draw!" he declared, and soon the medics came in, carting both boys to the hospital.
After the arena was cleared out, Hayate appeared in the middle of it. "If all remaining participants could line up here" he ordered.
They did so, and where soon presented with a box. "Each of you will draw a number from this box, this will decide your line up.
Neji went first "Two" he declared.
"Three" from Gaara
"Eight" Temari declared.
"Six" Kankuro added.
"One" from Naruto, who smiled inwardly he could get some payback for Hinata.
"Four" Sasuke said, seizing up Gaara, having missed the fight.
"Seven, troublesome" A lazy Nara complained.
"Five" From Zaku.
Hayate quickly wrote down the numbers.
"The third exam matchups will be this.
The first match is Uzumaki Naruto against Hyuga Neji
The second match is Gaara of Suna against Uchiha Sasuke
The third match is Abumi Zaku versus Kankuro of Suna
The fourth match is Nara Shikimaru versus Temari of Suna
From their it's logical what would happen next. These fights will happen a month from now." Taking in the quizzeled glances from the chuunin hopefuls. He chuckled "This will give Konoha time to prepare for the event, as many foreign dignitaries will come to watch. Are there any questions?"
Shikimaru spoke up "Will only the winner become chuunin?" 'It would be so troublesome to win'
"Good question" Hayate admitted "No, each fight will be judged by the present Kages, and a high ranking member from the villages who attends. That means for the coming exams, there are six judges you need to impress. Winning gives you another chance to impress the judges"
Naruto smiled inwardly. Despite lying to him often, the old monkey was at least fair to him, meaning at worst only one judge could truly be against him.
"Any more questions?" a silence responded him. "Very well, we will see you all next month, take a good look at your opponent, and prepare well. Good luck!"
Naruto glanced at Neji, before walking towards Sasuke and Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto spoke with fake cheer. "How will you be training us the coming month?" Honestly, Naruto already had a good suspicion what the answer to that would be. Kakashi eye-smiled at Naruto "Sorry Naruto, I will be training Sasuke here. Good luck!" and with that, he poofed away with Sasuke in tow.
Baki, the suna jonin sensei looked surprised at the blatant favoritism, and how only Guy seemed to be disturbed by it from the Konoha teams. Kushina would have sighed, if she didn't have to keep her disguise on. 'Well, what do you expect from a student from that man' she thought.
Before she could consider approaching the boy in her current disguise, Guy marched over towards Naruto. "A most unyouthful action from my usually youthful comrade. As Neji will be training with his clan, and with Lee and Tenten in the hospital, allow my youthful self to train you until they recovered."
Naruto blinked in surprise. Not expecting a jonin to offer him help. A smile made his way to his face. "Thank you very much Guy-sensei, when and where do we meet?"
"Meet me tomorrow at the west gate at 5 in the morning, we will start with a most youthful sprint around the village!" Guy boomed.
"Alright, Thank you again. I see you then sensei" Naruto replied with equal vigor. Not noticing the death-glare Kushina was shooting Guy in her disguise.
'If you dare to corrupt my son Guy, I will murder you, revive you, and then torture you, before murdering you again.' She thought dangerously.
AN: You know what's embarrassing? Having to read your own fic to find out who the last fighter was that passed. Slightly longer than usual fic thanks to Gaara/Lee fight, which was surprisingly fun to write, I hope you enjoy reading. Writing the Dosu/Choji fight felt like an counting the beans after an epic boss fight.
Also, another word count mark achieved, 20k words, here I am! \o/
Tormound: Sorry for disappointing you, but my attempt to describe the gentle fist fighting just.. failed… epically. So I destroyed all the evidence I tried.. aside from this statement…
BigBossVince: Do you happen to know where it comes from? It just suddenly hit me when I started to write Kushina. You are most likely correct, but I am faaar too lazy to fix all the pages.
Quest Reviewer: As seen, only Guy, and thus by extension, Lee are friendly. Tenten is neutral. Naruto hates Neji's guts. I will not spoiler the other characters, but some might be overlooked for the sake of storyflow.
Mudane: I love to shout Naruto-style:I will never! But life can be unpredictable, so I cannot make a promise. I suspect Vanex lost interest in his story when he wrote himself in a hole. Something I am trying very hard to prevent.
Sabery: I am afraid I am not sure I understand your question. For Anko, read the first chapter. And honestly, would you waste energy on something so clearly useless?
Plums: I agree the mostly canon style fights are boring, but it's as much as for you, as for me to try and learn writing fights, which I still fail at sometimes. Hopefully the fights in this chapter are different enough to catch your interest. To compensate, its triple chapter day today!
Von Kreuz: It was surprisingly easier this chapter, perhaps because they didn't speak that much, or because letting them be loud felt more natural now.
PS: Chapter might be a bit too hot off the press. But I wanted to finish the prelims.
