=Chapter 9-The Graduation Exams Part5=

==The Next Day==

Sasuke

Day 6 of the Graduation Exams: Obito. My team: Sakura and Shikamaru. Obito led us out to one of the training grounds, set up a timer and turned to us holding two bells. Obito grinned, "The test is simple, all you have to do is get these two bells away from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get them by the time this timer goes off at noon, I'll tie you to a tree and eat my lunch in front of you." "Why are there only two?" Sakura asked. Obito grinned, "Because there are three of you. Someone's going without lunch because they won't be able to take a bell from me, and that person will fail."

Sakura and Shikamaru flinched, but I grinned, I knew that trick. Obito smiled, "You all seem raring and ready to go, so get ready. And..." We all settled into fighting stances and then... "Begin!" Sakura pounced, Shikamaru activated his Shadow Possession jutsu, and I watched. Obito didn't even bother with his Kamui, he just sprang out of the way and let Sakura get caught in Shikamaru's Shadow Possession. He kicked Sakura square in the keester and sent her and Shikamaru both flying. Sakura's transformation flickered as she landed and she and Shikamaru both looked very irritated.

Obito looked at me, "Aren't you going to try?" I shrugged, "That Kamui is hard to beat." Obito grinned, "Don't worry about it. That would be just mean. I won't use my Sharingan if you don't use yours." I grinned, "Sounds good." I Body Flickered and swiped at him with a burning fist. He backed up and Sakura almost tripped him. He hopped over her sweep and right into Shikamaru's Shadow Possession. Obito's face twitched a bit in confusion and surprise, I could almost hear him think, Did I just get beaten by three genin in less than five minutes?

Sakura smiled, plucked one of the bells from his belt and tossed it to me. Then she grabbed the other one and tossed it to Shikamaru who released the Shadow Possession as he caught it. Obito looked deeply humiliated as he hung his head and pressed the stop button on the timer, "Three minutes and fifty seven seconds. You all pass. Have a good day." He picked up his timer and walked off.

I looked at Sakura and Shikamaru, then I called after him, "Uncle Obito! You want some ice cream?" Obito looked over his shoulder, "I'm about to go home and eat a gallon of it." Then he walked off. I looked at Sakura and Shikamaru, "I feel kinda terrible now." Shikamaru shrugged, "Your plan worked perfectly though." I nodded, "It did." Obito froze, "Plan?!"

He spun, "You three planned that?! HOW?!" We all shrank a little, "Well since every teacher does the same test for everybody we were able to cook up strategies for everyone in our group to win." Obito opened his mouth with a stunned expression, closed it, opened it back, closed it again. His eye twitched, "Was Naruko in on this?" I grinned, "Yeah. It was her idea." Obito sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "That explains a lot." He sighed again, "Ok. New test." We all flinched, "New test?"

Obito grinned evilly at us out the corner of his eye as he reset his timer, "Yeah. New test. You've got the bells, now you have to keep me from having them at the end of five minutes. Time starts now!" He Body Flickered, set the timer down and managed to launch all three of us in an instant. I felt my Sharingan go active and I was able to flip and skid a landing. I saw Obito toss the bells in his hand and then tie them back onto his belt before looking around with his own Sharingan to assess which of us was the biggest threat. I saw all that before I landed, then just as my feet were hitting the ground, Obito spun and disappeared.

An instant later his foot connected with the back of my head as he dropped a massive axe kick out of his teleport. Before I could even start to get up he jumped and was hurling Shikamaru across the clearing an instant later. Shinrai's voice echoed through my mind, Sasuke, switch. Now. You don't stand a chance against his Kamui. I nodded and made the sign, "Seal of the Four Gates Release!"

Shinrai

"West!" I declared as I took over, "Transform!" I turned back into my old self and sprang at Obito, my Mangekyo wrenching open and allowing me to phase the wind blades I whipped into existence around me into the Kamui's dimension as I whirled into Tunneling Fang, "Tasmanian Devil!" Obito tried to go intangible and learned the hard way that I can use the Kamui too as my wind blades tore into him.

Obito's shock at losing the advantage he'd held for decades wouldn't slow him down long, so I didn't let up. I spun midair and landed horizontal on a tree before Body Flickering back at him as I lashed out with half a dozen massive wind blades, "Wolverine!" Obito's quick on the uptake, I have to give him that. He teleported that time and dodged my attack. I teleported too as he reappeared above me and launched a massive Dragon Flame jutsu at me. I reappeared by Sakura and Shikamaru and dropped the prize next to them before Body Flickering at Obito as he teleported back to the ground.

I almost got him with my Cyclone Drill (a gauntlet of whirling wind blades) but then he sprang aside and blew out another burst of flames, forcing me to teleport again to avoid getting roasted. I teleported behind him and almost got him in the back, but he teleported before I could get him and I had to teleport again to avoid flying right into the flames I had been trying to avoid. This time I teleported to high above the clearing where my Sharingan picked out the fainted ripple in the air as Obito started to reappear.

I spun into my teleport and lashed out with a blast of wind chakra as I whirled out of my teleport above where Obito had just appeared. My wind blast was enough to send him rocketing towards the ground. I teleported again before gravity even took hold and reappeared on the ground, spinning two Rasengans into existence and forcing them into the shape I preferred to use it in, twin javelins. Then I waited for Obito to land. As I had predicted, he teleported behind me, just in time to catch both of my Rasen-Javelins upside the head. One was in the Kamui world and one wasn't, so only one connected with him, but even that was enough to send him flying.

Before he could stop rolling I threw one of my Rasen-Javelins after him. As they always do, the javelin splintered a foot or two from my hand and became a storm of chakra needles. Obito managed to teleport out of the way and my chakra needles dissipated just in time for him to reappear behind me mid air and body slam me. I went intangible as I felt him connect and let him phase through me. He had adapted fast, but this was still the first time he'd ever been on the receiving end of that trick. I immediately punched him in the head, still intangible, so even though he went intangible as he landed in anticipation of my strike, I still connected because our intangibility phasing took us to the same dimension.

Kabuto

I watched through Minato's crystal ball as Shinrai and Obito exchanged an absolute hurricane of jutsu. "Giving Obito one hell of a workout isn't he?" Anko asked. "Obito will win," Rin said confidently. "Against Sasuke, I wouldn't doubt that," Kakashi replied, "But that's not Sasuke. This is someone completely different, and Obito's trump card, his Kamui, is apparently useless." Before Rin could chew him up one side and down the other for doubting Obito I stepped in, "Whether or not Shinrai can defeat Obito is immaterial. If he can keep Obito distracted for the next two minutes, he and his team will pass."

Everyone looked at me and I pointed to the crystal ball, "Look closely, notice anything missing from this fight?" It took them a minute but then Anko started laughing, "Oh he's good!" "What?" Rin asked, "What is it?" "Shinrai's already sent the bells scampering with Shikamaru and Sakura," Minato declared as he watched the fight intently, "His first wind attack cut Obito's belt. When it fell off, Shinrai grabbed it and passed it to Shikamaru and Sakura between blows. This entire fight has been to keep Obito from noticing that they've already run for it with the bells. Obito should've given himself more time. Now even if he does win he'll have to hunt down Sakura and Shikamaru in what's left of his five minutes."

"And Obito's way too into it to notice his belt missing," Kakashi added before crossing his arms, "Are we sure this Shinrai character wasn't a shinobi?" Anko shook her head, "I'll interrogate him more thoroughly tomorrow. He's got my test all by himself. If he's got any secrets, I'll know them by tomorrow evening," she declared with a grin. "Whoa!" Minato suddenly exclaimed as he stood up and leaned down almost pressing his nose to the crystal ball.

The ball suddenly flashed and Minato reared back rubbing his eyes, "Somebody look! Is Obito okay?" Everyone leaned in and then Rin nodded, "He's fine, but Shinrai looks like he just took a seriously major jutsu point blank. What happened?" Minato finally managed to blink the last of the stars from his eyes, "Shinrai pulled off a wind imbued Rasengan and threw it like a shadow windmill shuriken." "Obito must've redirected it with his Kamui then," Kakashi said as he saw Obito poking Shinrai's unconscious body and then leaping up with his hands in the air as he determined that Shinrai was indeed unconscious and doing a victory dance that he certainly wouldn't have done if he had known they were watching. Then he froze, eyes wide and Sakura appeared behind him and knocked him out.

"Think we should go check on them?" Kabuto asked as his medic instincts kicked in. Minato nodded, "Find out how Shinrai pulled that Wind Rasengan off while you're there. Kakashi don't tease Obito too much about his premature victory dance, or the fact that he did a victory dance after beating one genin, or that he lost in less than fifteen minutes." Kakashi sighed, "Ok, I won't tease him, much." Minato's mouth quirked in a slight smile as he made a hand sign and pulled a Space-Time Barrier into existence linked to the training field. I stepped through with Kakashi and Rin right behind me.

Shinrai

I came to and found Kabuto patching me up, the cool sensation of his medical jutsu zipping the raw sensitive slashes all over my body shut. I didn't fail to notice that the arm I had thrown my Rasen-Shuriken with was healing much slower than the rest of me. Why the hell did I use that without a shadow clone? I asked myself. We didn't have time, Suki replied, Obito would've broken a shadow clone and that would've been our opening out the window. Relax, Kabuto's patching us up. Sasuke grinned, And surely we passed. No way would they fail us after a fight like that!"

I sighed aloud, "So doc, how's the arm looking?" "Not good," Kabuto replied bluntly, "I don't know what you did to it, but it's internally shredded along the chakra pathways from your elbow down. Do yourself a favor and never do that again." I grimaced, "The Rasen-shuriken, actually any elementally imbued Rasengan based technique, requires imbuing the chakra with the desired element before using it to fuel the technique. I can have my shadow clones use it and be alright. Then it just hurts like hell, but this was one of those fights where you just haven't got time for a shadow clone. Is everyone else alright?"

Kabuto nodded, "Obito's got a slight concussion. Sakura and Shikamaru finished him off mid-victory dance." I started to laugh and immediately decided I shouldn't as pain lanced through my chest and gut, "Good for them. I take it we passed?" Kabuto nodded, "Yes. In record time no less." I grinned, "Sweet."