Ninja of the Void
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters associated with it.
"Talking"
Thoughts
Chunin Exams 4
"Ha ha, we've got here first" smirked Ino as she gave a victory sign.
"I'll get you next time Ino-pig" growled Sakura as her fist shook with fury.
At this time the rookie nine had made it to the central tower without too much trouble. After exchanging a few words, the three teams parted ways into their separate doors.
As team seven went inside, they felt anxiety as they looked to the heaven and earth scroll.
"This is so innerving" said Sakura as her hands shook with the heaven scroll.
"No kidding" replied Naruto holding the earth scroll.
Sasuke simply nodded. In the beginning of the test it was made quite clear that opening the scrolls before reaching the end and with both in hand would be met with dire consequences. Upon looking at just the first few symbols he instantly understood what the scrolls were for. "Drop the scrolls now!"
Upon throwing them away, a blast of smoke appeared as team seven prepared themselves for whatever may appear from the summoning scrolls. But as the smoke cleared, they were all stunned to see who it was. "Iruka-sensei?"
The scarred man smirked as he folded his arms. "Long time no see guys".
"Wait, what is going on here?"
"Well it seems you guys didn't have too much trouble getting here, and in good time too considering you were still fresh out of the academy".
"But what are you doing here?" then asked Naruto. "I don't understand".
"Well the second test is designed for us chunins to meet up with the exam takers once they get here to which I was the one summoned here". He then gave a light laugh. "So congratulations, you all pass the second exam" to which a second later team seven gave a cheer at their victory.
"Oh thank god" said Sakura as she sat down to rest.
Sasuke breathed out as he relaxed on the floor.
Naruto however continued to cheer. "Hey Iruka-sensei! Will you buy me a bowl of ramen then?"
Now as things went, all the teams that passed were gathered into the main hall. Frankly Anko was surprised to see as ten teams were successful in making it this far.
As things went, the examinees continued to listen as the Hokage addressed them directly of what was going on. In stunning news, the exams purpose was a kind of war deterrent amongst all the villages. With it, they would be representing there village as a show of their power and competency. But as things went the final third exam could not allow them all to participate. So to thin them down even further, preliminary matches were set up so that only half of them would make it.
Just then a sickly looking chunin appeared as he continued to explain the conditions of the third exam.
But as this was going on a particular sound chunin was staring down below at all the examinees. Looking around the undercover Orochimaru looked to Kabuto giving him a slight nod in recognition to continue with his plan as the leaf spy soon conceded from the test followed by a few others as their purpose was complete for the time being. He then looked to Sasuke as his face showed irritation with how his perfectly laid plan was ruined in a much unexpected way to which his eyes soon laid upon the blond jinchuriki.
Now Orochimaru knew he was the jinchuriki and he was also aware he was the lost son of the fourth Hokage. But as intriguing as these facts were, he was more interested with acquiring the Uchiha bloodline as it was more enticing by comparison. But seeing the encounter he had with the young blond, ". . . . I must know his secret". In whatever he did, he was sent several miles outside of Konoha. Seeing the time he had, he had no choice but to race back as to not arouse any kind of suspicion about his sound chunin persona. So finally getting back he had no time to re-tune his plan to infect Sasuke with his heaven seal. So it now had to wait for another time. But thinking back to Naruto, his eyes could only twitch at this. "How could this child possibly have Minato's secrets? All of it should have been destroyed or sealed away". As he continued to focus his eyes on him his interest began to stir. " . . . . I wonder what else he is hiding".
"Now let's begin the preliminaries" said Hayate, the chunin referee as he watched over all the test takers. "This preliminary will consist of one on one fights to which you will be fighting like your lives depended on it". He then looked around, "since there are exactly twenty-two of you, we will have eleven matches. Winners will advance to the third test". As he continued, Hayate discussed the rules of the test to which simply there were no rules as everyone was allowed to do anything they wanted in order to win to which furthermore victory is achieved through fainting, death, or surrendering. Then momentarily a screen appeared to which it would randomly pair them against each other to decide the order of who would fight who.
As the first names began to appear, "looks like I get to go first". Sasuke was pumped to get some butt kicking done. As his opponent stepped forward, it was some unknown Konoha ninja none of the rookie nine knew. As the two squared off in the center floor, it was an easy win for the young Uchiha as his Sharingan eyes perfectly saw what was coming at him. With a few quick moves it was over with Sasuke's victory. "Too easy" as he somewhat smirked arrogantly to the watching crowd above.
"Show off" said Naruto. As the young Uchiha jumped back up to them, "I'll show you how it's really done when it comes to my turn".
". . . . We'll see about that".
At watching the match below, there was a mixture of opinions amongst them.
"He's pretty good" thought Lee. "I can see now why people renounce him as a genius".
"He's nothing special" thought Neji. Even with the Sharingan eyes, he knew Sasuke was no match for him physically. As noted by Lee's little scuffle, it doesn't do the user much good if they aren't capable of keeping up with their opponent.
"Hmm, someone interesting to kill" thought Gaara sadistically. He wasn't certain let alone really cared what got his blood boiling. Whether it was his personal interest or the bijuu inside of him, spilling Sasuke's blood would grant him much pleasure.
As for everyone else, they were either impressed or uncaring towards the opening standard to how everyone was going to perform here on out.
The next name then appeared, Shino was up against Zaku a boy from the newly formed village hidden in the sound. Now being such a new village no one really knew what kind of techniques they had. But taking a clue from the name it definitely had something to do with sound. After a few tradeoffs and minor observations, the bug ninja easily ended the fight by plugging up his hands literally popping his arms off causing some of the faint of heart audience to squirm at the grotesque sight. But after janitor/medic collected what was left of Zaku they then continued on with the matches.
Kankuro and another unknown grass ninja stepped into the ring only for the sand puppet master to beat his opponent almost effortlessly.
As the board revealed the next names, "Alright!" as Naruto punched his fist into his palm. "It's time to show everyone how it's done".
"Looks like I'm up against Naruto huh?" said Kiba feeling the anticipation.
The boys then jumped down making a flashy entrance as they squared off on the bottom floor as everyone watched in anticipation to how things would turn out.
As Kiba stood his ground with Akamaru by his side, cold sweat began to form as he was uncertain how things would turn out. For simply, "man! Why couldn't my opponent be someone else?" In recently discovering the kind of practice he did, he could only assume how strong and fast he was to which he gave a deep gulp. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained right?" to which he charged in as Naruto did the same.
Kurenai, leader of team eight was watching this match with uncertainty at how this would turn out. "Kiba is strong and I know he'll do great, but Naruto . . . . " as the genjutsu expert was at a loss for words. She was vaguely aware of the feats the young blond had accomplished, and if they weren't just exaggerations then . . . . well "You did well Kiba, but you're no match for Naruto".
"Interesting, I wonder how this will turn out" said Asuma, leader of team ten as he watched on with interest.
Kakashi who was also present smiled softly as he was proud of his student's accomplishments. It wasn't as bad as it appeared. His worst fear was that Naruto had become so dependant of the watch that he had completely neglected his own personal ninja skills in favor of piggybacking off his father's work. At seeing the match thus far, his worries were lessened. But still he would keep watch over him to make sure he progressed in the right way.
The dog ninja was getting exhausted from using his fang technique so much. At first crushing a few bunshins, he believed there was a chance at victory. But now . . . . he was uncertain.
"Come on Kiba, don't tell me you're done already" as the young blond seemed to be having too much fun bantering Kiba. For early in the match, Naruto's bunshins were crushed by Kiba's and Akamaru's combination technique. In doing so he now understood the angles and ranges of his technique. After a few more tries, dodging wasn't too much trouble as he easily squeezed passed him by paper thin margins as he was always behind him from each pass. Just to mix things up, his bunshins assisted in tiring Kiba out faster.
"Like this is fair" as Kiba started to breath harder to which Akamaru gave a bark too.
"Sorry Kiba, but I'm going to have to end this now" as all the Naruto's prepared themselves to finish it.
The dog ninja simply scoffed at this. "There's no need for that . . . . I admit defeat . . . ." as he looked down quite disappointed.
With that Naruto's bunshins dispersed as he walked up to Kiba lending him a hand to pick him up. "You put up a great fight. I hope we can do this another time".
"Yeah right you stamina freak" thus concluding their match.
The next name to appear was Sakura against Ino. For anyone who knew them, it was going to be a grudge match between the two best friends.
As they jumped down below, the two friends readied themselves to fight.
"Looks like we'll see once and for all who the better between us is" said Sakura as she re-tied her headband to her forehead. "I won't hold back, so you better prepare yourself" as she tied her hair up into a bun with a ninja needle.
Ino smirked as she re-did her headband. "Trying to show off for Sasuke-kun are we? I'll definitely outdo you".
However the pink kunoichi simply shook her head as her gaze became a bit more serious. "No . . . . I'm not doing this for Sasuke-kun alone . . . . I'm doing this for myself".
"What?"
Sakura closed her eyes as she reminisced the week she spent with Sasuke.
~ Flashback ~
The pink kunoichi was breathing heavily as she looked as if she was going to fall apart at any moment. At this time, Sasuke was tutoring her in all the ninja skills she knew and teaching a few she could learn. However the young Uchiha was running her ragged because of his perfectionist view in getting things exactly right. But after a few hours or so Sakura could barely stand which forced Sasuke to end the session to allow her to rest. So finding a tree to rest at, a slight conversation then sparked.
"Sasuke-kun . . . ."
"What?" he asked stoically as he looked blankly to nowhere in particular.
". . . . Why do you want power for? For what purpose do you need it?"
"I told you" as his eyes became sharper from anger. ". . . . Revenge. I need power to make the one who did this to me to pay. So I need as much power as I can get".
Sakura looked to him in concern. "Sasuke-kun, you can't let your life be run like this. It will only lead to more misfortune".
"I don't care!" he then snapped. "So long as I have power I don't care for anything else!"
". . . . Then why don't you let us help you?"
"What? I don't need anyone's help. I can pick myself up just fine".
Sakura's expression then turned to a more serious one while also trying to be cheerful. "Now don't be like that. When you fall", as she then jumped off her seat extending her hand to Sasuke. "We'll be there for you with a hand". She then mustered the best smile she could. "So please don't slap our hand away because there's nothing wrong with asking for help once in a while you know".
The young Uchiha looked slightly bashful at this response as he soon closed his eyes in thought before letting out a bit of a smirk. He then extended his hand taking hers as she pulled him to his feet. "Just don't regret your offer".
~ End Flashback ~
Sakura did not understand the torment her crush suffered from nor did he wish to talk about it. However she did understand that by the path he was choosing, he was going to sooner or later crash and burn underneath his torment. If this was going to be the case, she needed to make herself stronger so that when the day came that he needed help she would be there for him to pull him back out. Although to some it may have seemed to be a rather foolish reason, it was enough of a reason for her to be stronger to pull him back if he were to ever find himself buried in his anguish.
"If that's what you believe" smirked Ino. But at looking at her best friend, she felt . . . . inspired by her determination. In her eyes they reflected strength she had never seen before. From this alone she knew how serious Sakura was.
For all those who were watching, this battle was nothing too interesting as both kunoichis used extremely basic techniques and tactics any beginner ninja would use. However they could tell the pride that was being emitted from this clash. They could feel that in this match both girls were fighting as if they had something to prove to everyone. As the battle continued it almost appeared that Ino had won with a clever use of genjutsu in conjunction with her mind transfer technique. But through willpower alone Sakura broke through it.
As the battle came to a close, both fighters were completely chakra exhausted as it soon became a pure fist fight. As the two clashed fists once again, the winner was named.
"You did good Sakura. I guess you're not the same cry baby forehead girl you used to be all those years ago" heavily breathed Ino as she soon could not endure anymore as she then fainted.
But before she fell, the pink knuoichi caught her laying her gently on the floor. "Thanks Ino-pig" softly smiled Sakura, "for always pushing me along the way". She then got up stumbling back a few feet only to fall back from exhaustion. ". . . . I guess I got more training to do also". She then raised her hand up as she closed it into a fist in front of her. "But I'm getting stronger. I just need to keep moving".
Then came Neji's fight with some ninja from the village hidden in the grass; however the poor guy had not a chance in hell as he was easily crushed and was forced to be taken away by the medics.
Up next was, "ehh this is going to be troublesome" as Shikamaru looked to the board to see he was fighting that Kin girl from the hidden sound village. Simply he was an old school guy and believed that hitting a girl was wrong. But seeing his circumstance he didn't want to get hurt either.
"What wrong? Fight me or are you scared of a girl" taunted Kin as she stepped out into her fighting stance.
Now watching Shino's match, the shadow ninja had a fair idea of what he was up against in addition to the showing off they did in the prior exam. "So I better be careful about this" as he contemplated his next move. For he knew the girl could use sound based techniques and the fact she could move at the speed of sound was not to be underestimated either. So thinking quickly of what he had in addition to his speculation of Kin's abilities, he had the perfect plan in mind to beat her without actually hitting her.
"If you're not going to go then I will!" as the sound kunoichi soon blasted him with sound.
Shikamaru narrowly dive rolled out of the way as he clenched at the intensity of the attack. "Man this sucks, why did I have to fight this crazy chick".
Kin was being careful as she didn't know much about her opponent. So distance attacks were the best way to gauge her adversary.
Now seeing the situation in front of him, Shikamaru knew better not to use his shadow mimic out right as his opponent could move at the speed of sound. At seeing even the slightest oddity, she would easily escape him. So what he needed was some sort of distraction to catch her off guard and he had just the thing to do it as he pulled out some wire and a kunai. As he threw it, Kin easily caught it to which he tried to give the best surprised look he could. "No way! She caught it!"
"Fool! With my abilities I can make the wire oscillate allowing me to cut off your hand. So I hope you . . . ." but before she could utter another word she felt herself become stiff as she looked back to the shadow ninja giving her a smirk.
"Shadow mimic successful" as Shikamaru now stood up to which Kin had no choice but to copy. Using the wires shadow as a cover, he guided his shadow mimic technique along it without his opponent noticing it.
But after a quick deduction, the sound kunoichi understood the mechanics of this jutsu as she was confident no possible harm could come to her unless Shikamaru purposely decided to injure himself.
Taking into account of the psychological portion, dealing the best damage occurred when dealing an unsuspected attack. Shikamaru threw a shuriken as a form of a distraction as he bent back to dodge. Then quickly canceling his move, this allowed Kin to knock herself out by hitting her head against the wall. At that finishing Shikamaru sighed, ". . . . how troublesome" as he soon rejoined the observing group above.
It was then Temari against Tenten, and in a rather brutal defeat the weapon mistress lost as she was completely crushed by her opponent's advantage over her. Seeing this brutality, it almost forced Lee's disqualification when he attempted to intervene. But was stopped by his sensei, and after a brief talking to, the matches continued.
It was then Hinata's turn against another ninja from the hidden grass village.
"Good luck Hinata-chan" cheered Naruto.
"Thank you Naruto-kun".
As she dueled off against her opponent, it was an easy win as she skillfully disabled her opponent's limbs rendering them unable to fight anymore.
Then finally came Lee's battle to which his opponent was none other than Gaara of the sand. Just like the battle with Temari, it was brutal. No, it was atrocious. The green beast put up an incredible fight even using moves that impressed everyone including the chunin and jounin that were watching. But not only was he defeated, he was broken as the sand jinchuriki was angry at being pushed this hard in battle. At seeing how things were turning out, Gai stepped in breaking up the fight as Lee was taken away by the medic declaring Gaara the winner.
At seeing the match before them everyone had differing opinions at what they saw.
". . . .What a monster" as Naruto shook with rage and fear at what he saw. It was one thing to beat your opponent, but going as far as to break them was just too much.
"Looks like he'll be trouble" thought Sasuke as he shivered in a strange sense of excitement.
"How horrible" thought Sakura as she cupped her mouth in shock at seeing the sadistic display.
"Damn, that's messed up" said Kiba.
"Yeah" as Ino simply shook her head as she was still stunned at what just happened.
Shino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Chouji just remained silent as they had nothing more to add for either being indifferent or really lacking an actual opinion to contribute.
Kankuro and Temari could only shiver at what they saw. For they knew it could have been worse, a lot worse as Lee was probably lucky enough to get out of there alive.
Now in the final preliminary it was Chouji against Dosu the last of the sound trio.
Now the husky ninja knew no one had much expectation out of him as making it this far into the exam was already pretty good for him as a beginner ninja. Although people mocked him about his weight and lack of skill, his teacher and his team still believed in him. That was a good enough reason for him to try to the very end.
Dosu couldn't believe he was the only one of his team still standing. When his group first entered this exam they had the full confidence that no ninja there could possibly compete with the kind of skills they had. In their full hardiness they honestly thought a village that's only been around for a few years could have possibly competed against a village with decades of history with the accumulation of many powerful clans and techniques.
As the two squared off in the center arena, Dosu was confident he could easily crush his opponent. "He doesn't look like much, probably could run circles around him and he'd never know what hit him". As he took aim with his arm, "prepare to die fat ass!" However just at that statement alone he knew it enraged him, but he was soon going to be sorry for doing so.
"I'm not fat! I'm just heavy boned!" Chouji started weaving a few seals and at finishing, "human bullet tank no jutsu!" Upon calling its name he began to rollout in amazing speed towards his opponent.
"Fool! Nothing can beat my sound!" as he shoot out a wave of sound towards him. But upon impact his attack dispersed as he realized too late why it didn't work. "No way! He's spinning too fast for my attack to work!" But in thinking this over it was too late to do anything else like evade as his opponent was already right on top of him. In seeing the inevitable, Dosu was imprinted into the wall along with Chouji's technique. Slowly as he rolled out, ". . . . Oww" was the only thing he could say as he soon fell out of the indenture thriving in pain to which he had to be scooped up by the medics.
"Wow . . . . I won".
With that finish the winners were gathered to the center floor as Hayate addressed them all.
"Well with this, the preliminary trials for the round three tests have been completed. To all those who won the right to compete in the third round test in the chunnin exam" cough, "congratulations to you all". He then looked to the Hokage, "now if you may Hokage-sama".
Hiruzen nodded as he stepped forward looking through the competitors. "Hmm, eight Konoha and three sand . . . . ", "Well now I would like to explain the main test . . . ."
~ Konoha (else where) ~
"Kabuto . . . ."
"Yes Orochimaru-sama?" as the leaf spy kneeled before his master.
"Tell me more about that nine tails brat? What do you know of him?"
Kabuto looked up in slight confusion. "My apologies Orochimaru-sama. You only tasked me with looking into Sasuke's data so I don't have much information of his teammate". He then pulled his card as he revealed it. "His physical parameters are impressive as well as his stamina, but his other statistics are roughly a bit better than average . . . . Why do you ask?"
"That boy . . . . ruined my plans in putting the curse on Sasuke. He used some kind of jutsu I have never seen before and I want to know what it is".
Kabuto was slightly intrigued now. All this time his master would constantly talk excessively about Sasuke and his omnipotent bloodline. In discovering that he was 'the last Uchiha', nothing else ever really impressed him to pursue it. But then came Naruto and whatever he did which now interested his master enough to actively want to pursue it. "Then what do you want me to do about Sasuke? What about the curse?"
"We can do that in the process, but I'm now interested in knowing more about that boy. If my assumptions are right . . . . I might get something promising from it".
" . . . . And will we have enough time for the other plan?"
Orochimaru gave a creepy smirk to this. "We have one month to get this all done . . . ."
~ Forest of Death (central tower) ~
"Wait! What do you mean the third exam is going to be a month later? We're not going to finish this now?"
"Well this break you can say will be for your preparations".
"Preparations? What does that mean?"
"In other words in addition to informing all the various lords and shinobi leaders, this is the time needed to gather them all for this event to which this is also preparation time for the examinee students".
"I don't understand! What does that mean?"
"Basically it's preparation to know your enemy and yourself. It's a time period you will use to calculate your chances in winning by using the data you accumulated through the trial competition. For the battles up till now had you all fighting as if it were a live battle situation with the assumption of a unknown ninja opponent".
Everyone then looked around as they agreed as they recalled the unique powers and skills they were all witness too.
Hiruzen then went on to explain how this time period would not only be used to rest but also to get stronger if they felt the need to do so. Then planning the order for the upcoming tournament, each of them drew numbers to decide who would fight who.
As the names fell into place, "Looks like me Neji will be starting things off" as Naruto looked to the elder Hyuga as he looked back to him in indifference.
Garra gave a crazed look to Sasuke as he gave his usual overconfident smirk.
Kankuro and Shino remained silent and inanimated as they didn't have much to say or do towards each other.
Shikamaru scratched his head in boredom as Temari smirked at the kind of opponent she would be facing.
Hinata gave a polite bow to Chouji as he did the same wishing each other the best to their upcoming clash.
This then left Sakura to fight whoever won between Chouji and Hinata. "Well . . . . it looks like I'll have to wait for a while".
At further explaining the tournament, there was a chance all of the could become chunnins or none of them as the entire event is to be used as an evaluation of their skills and abilities. At noting that, they were all then excused until one month later where they would begin the final showdown.
To be continued . . . .
Author's notes: Now I have a good idea what some of you are thinking which is why not the Hinata vs Neji battle? And I also know I stuck really close to canon on certain parts, but I assure you I have my reasons to why I did this. After the first battle with Naruto vs. Neji, it will then lead into some answers some have been asking which will tie in the previous chapters and hopefully some future ones as that chapter will be guest starring two more characters who will be crashing the chunin tournament which I hope will be very exciting.
So I thank everyone for taking the time in reading this fic and further extend my gratitude if you can review it as well.
