Chapter Ten

Final Rounds Pt. Two

Nearly every other Genin took a step back from Tanpopo, suddenly very wary of the blonde pixyish looking girl, who stood there seething with rage. Her fists were clenched and her breathing was harsh and ragged, yet it was the coldness in her eyes that had even her remaining teammate discreetly move to the side, especially when they met the equally green eyes of Kanja, who stared back at her calmly. The chiming of the board caught their attention and two of the Leaf Genin winced when they saw the match-up.

Tanpopo Mizukusaharano vs. Yasumichi Yuuhi

Green eyes sought out the unhappy red of Yasumichi Yuuhi's as she began her descent into the arena.

Harusame glanced anxiously at her laid back teammate and Sabiru whined.

"You think so too girl?" She asked the red, wolf hybrid.

Then she turned and murmured in his ear. "I think you should sit this one out, Sabiru says that girl means killing and she doesn't care who it is either."

"You should listen to Harusame." Asami chimed in, fuchsia locks swaying in the early morning breeze. "They've both got a good sense about people."

Yasumichi shook his head,

"I can't back down just because of that, I wouldn't be given that option on the battlefield without good reason." He said wisely, making them frown.

Asami shook her head. "Just promise us you'll be careful than kay?"

"I promise." He said.

On her way down Tanpopo saw that loony Sand girl who had been tormenting them since day one, snoozing blissfully on the stairwell. Needing to let off a little steam before her match began, she kicked her hard in the ribs, taking satisfaction in the startled yelp of pain. Stupid girl, if she was dumb enough to fall asleep in enemy territory than she deserved to get kicked and a whole lot more.

"There are you Tsuru." Jiraiya said.

Tsuru walked up the stairs rubbing her side.

"What's wrong, that Mist boy get in a good shot?" Jashin asked.

"No. That blonde girl kicked me on the way down." She looked sheepish. "I guess that was payback for giving her a hard time."

Usagi looked furious. Jashin and Jiraiya looked disturbed.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"She's upset because I killed her teammate." A cold female voice said from behind her.

Tsuru jumped and blinked at the tall Waterfall girl behind her.

Much to Kanja's annoyance, the rowdy little Sand girl didn't seem intimidated at all.

"Well yeah, anybody would be pretty upset about that." She said.

Kanja and Kappa rolled their eyes.

"So anyway what I miss?" She asked, though her voice was subdued.

"Umm…well, Zets-chan fought that green haired Falls kid and lost and uh Yasumichi's up against that Mist girl who kicked you." Jiraiya muttered.

"Oh." She shifted uncomfortably and turned towards Yugasa.

"Hey, sorry about your teammate." She said,

Yugasa blinked at her in surprise.

"What are you sorry for?" She snapped angrily.

Usagi opened to snap back, but Tsuru shook her head no and peered down at the arena.

Yugasa shook her head. That kid would be lucky to survive, Tanpopo got annoyed pretty easy, but when it came to serious wrongs, whoever ran afoul of her wrath seldom lived to tell about it and Tanpopo and Fukuro had been very close friends. Well, better some Leaf nin she didn't know than fighting her teammate herself. She thought, clutching the hilt of her sword nervously.

Yasumichi took in deep steady breaths to calm himself, though he was feeling shaky inside when he looked into her eyes, she knew he was frightened of her and like a predator that had sensed fear in it's prey, it only seemed to add fuel to her already blazing fire.

He should have taken Harusame's advice, in fact it wasn't too late, but the look on her face warned him that if he forfeited, she'd kill him anyways and they both knew Mist would do nothing to stop it, this wasn't Leaf. Alright, so he'd have to stand and fight and hoped to the Kami he survived.

Tanpopo had a short, boyish, pixie hair cut that was spiked up to keep her bright blonde hair out of her grass green eyes. She came up to just a little under his cheek and her body was slim. His sharp eyes caught the telltale scars of someone who worked a lot with senbon on her fingers.

Tanpopo eyed the black-haired, red-eyed boy with disdain, he was muscular and observant and he looked like the type to keep a cool head. She'd heard about the Yuuhi clan before, they were rumored to be one of the forerunners of the Uchiha clan who had started blending up Hyuuga with the Yuuhi who were genjutsu masters and inherited a mutated version of their red eyes and illusion's abilities.

At any other given time, she would have said he was good looking, but all she wanted was to see someone dead and since she couldn't get at the Falls girl who had killed Fukuro just yet and she would soon, she would kill the Leaf kid first.

Her fingers flew, sending out a spray of senbon that pierced through nothing. Tanpopo blinked. When the hell had this kid had time to create an illusion?

He reappeared next to her and kicked her in the head. Tanpopo sent another flurry of senbon and stuck him with at least half a dozen.

Kakashi sighed with relief as a log appeared in Yasumichi's place.

Three clones charged at Tanpopo and her fist smashed into the first one, than she twisted her body into a round off, flipped over the head of the second clone and kicked the third one behind it. The second clone grabbed her leg and flung her into space, but she twisted her body like a cat and managed to land on all fours.

Vines came out of the ground and it seemed as though Yasumichi came out with them and they wrapped around her.

Hotaru watched the fight with critical eyes. Of the two Genin teams she'd trained, Tanpopo was the one she had to worry about least when her emotions caught hold of her, because the angrier she got the more focused she became in a frighteningly insane way.

She was not happy about the loss of Fukuro, besides being a member of her clan, she had been a tactical genius in the making and had kept the peace between Tanpopo and Yugasa with the grace born of a diplomat, unless they got someone of a similar disposition, her team would fall into chaos and drama.

Tanpopo managed to shake herself loose from the very realistic illusion and moved out of the way as a hand shot up from the ground.

"Headhunter Jutsu huh?" She said. So this guy had an elemental affinity for earth.

Several kunai flew at her and she dodged again. This boy had just made his last mistake. She thought viciously as she began forming seals.

"Mud Clone Release! Dance of the Dandelions!"

All at once seven clones rose from the ground each one holding dozens of senbon that surrounded them like a dandelion puff and released them all at once.

Yasumichi made several clones and illusions on clones to try and dodge them, they poofed away and he forced himself to use Substitution, but there were too many and he tried desperately to block his eyes and his vitals before falling to the ground and landing on his shoulder.

"The winner is Tanpopo Mizukusaharano."

Asami's lip trembled, her teammate looked like a human porcupine. Was he even…she couldn't bear to finish the thought.

Harusame's fists were clenched angrily. Sabiru whimpered and sniffed the air tentatively. She looked relieved and related what she knew to Harusame with pants and whuffs.

"What did she say?" Asami asked.

"He's still alive, but he needs medical assistance ASAP." Harusame said.

Sabiru yipped.

"Look. Your mom is on it." Said Harusame happily.

Yasumichi definitely stands a chance now with mom on the job. Asami thought.

"Your teammate is very smart." Came a smooth male voice next to them. A Waterfall Genin stood beside them, his long turquoise hair falling around his shoulders.

"What do you mean?" Asked Harusame.

"My mother and grandmother are both acupressurists. If he had fallen on his back or stomach it would have either killed or paralyzed him. Falling on his shoulder and holding his torso away from the ground was the best thing he could have done."

They smiled at him gratefully.

Crisis averted, nearly all the girls allowed themselves to stare at him in dreamy wonder.

Kappa huffed irritably. "Leave it to Kazuki to walk in and have every girl drooling over him."

Kanja shot him a look.

"What?" He asked. "I'm just as good looking as he is."

"Be quiet, the next match is going to start soon." She told him.

Tanpopo stomped up the stairs, irritated that she hadn't killed him. At least not yet, perhaps there was still a chance and if nothing else she'd messed him up pretty good. He definitely wouldn't be able to do much of anything for a while except lay in bed.

Usagi vs. Tadashi Nara

Jiraiya groaned when he saw the names. Not only had he lost the bet, but he had no idea who to cheer for. Should he cheer for his teammate? Or the girl of his dreams? Well, at least he knew that Usagi definitely wouldn't kill him or mess him up for life, cause Tadashi-kun was his teammate and one of his best friends in Leaf and she knew that.

Hidan grinned at Temari.

"Finally. It's about time one of our kids got a chance, but why the hell is she fighting him?"

Temari smiled. It certainly was interesting.

"Maybe it's a family thing."

"Huh?" He asked.

"Shikamaru was my opponent during my first Chunin exams." And now here was her daughter, who much to Temari's dismay wasn't known for using her wits, about to fight someone who used almost nothing but. Under other circumstances, Usagi was likely to lose.

However, she hadn't been expecting her niece to win either, so perhaps Kakuzu had worked some miracles with Usagi. She just hoped that Hidan wouldn't find out about it just yet, because even though she'd forced him to smarten up over the years, she was pretty sure he would explode into one of his infamous tantrums in the middle of the exams if he found out just who was training his children.

She was also grateful that Shikamaru was too sick to come to the exams this year, because he was bound to recognize her daughter's moves and put two and two together.

Kakuzu sighed, fog or not the Nara kid was the worst possible match-up for Usagi. Jashin would have been a better match now that his Taijutsu was up to par, hell Tsuru would have had a decent chance of beating the kid. All those long lessons and the ex Falls nin had to wonder if any of them had gotten through the girl's thick skull. Well he'd find out soon enough.

Tadashi already knew she was a troublesome-pain-in-the-ass. Why Jiraiya liked her, he didn't know. But he knew he did not like her at all. Just another bully behind a pretty face, he thought rolling his dark blue eyes.

He wasn't sure he could win. There was too much fog which rendered his Shadow Possession jutsu useless and she was a lot stronger than he was and Tadashi had never been very confident of his own abilities anyways. He wasn't his father and he sure as hell wasn't his grandfather.

"Whatcha waitin forFreckles?" She said.

Tadashi snorted.

"You don't call Jiraiya Freckles." He pointed out.

She shrugged. " He's not you."

She unstrapped her scythe and slashed it down on him, forcing him to leap out of the way, she jumped in the air, balled up and kicked him hard, causing him to land on the ground and brought the scythe down towards his head.

Using the scythe for leverage she back flipped and tried to stomp on his arm. He rolled out of her way and she swung the scythe towards his torso. She wasn't gonna kill him or anything since Jiraiya'd never speak to her again, but that didn't mean she couldn't scare the crap out of him.

He blocked the scythe with a kunai and flung a handful of shuriken at her. But she dodged with ease and let out the chain so that her scythe flew and he had to drop to the ground to avoid getting sliced.

"Umm…Tsu-chan. She's not gonna-you know…" Jiraiya trailed off.

"Nah! This is Usagi we're talkin about here." Tsuru reassured him heartily. "Don't worry Raiya-kun, he might get banged up a little, but he'll be fine."

"That's good." Jiraiya nodded.

"Or he'll get banged up a lot." Jashin suggested.

"Yeah that too." Tsuru agreed.

Jiraiya gave him a nervous grin.

Tadashi stuck out a leg and tripped her up and he had to move fast to avoid taking a spill into the now muddy field. Traction was getting iffy and it took a lot more leg power than he would like.

Usagi smirked to herself, she knew it may have looked as though she were attacking randomly, but she had a plan. From what she knew, Tadashi was a shadow user and came from a whole clan of tactical geniuses. All she had to do was keep him on his toes and wear him down with her superior Taijutsu. She knew it wasn't the smartest plan and she knew there was a good chance Tadashi would see right through it, but with the heavy sea fog blocking the sun and his pitiful Taijutsu skills, it seemed like the best course of action.

She twirled the scythe around and butted him hard in the gut, forcing him to backpedal. Then hooked the chain around his leg and left him plopped in the mud.

As soon as he got up, she showed him no mercy and slammed him up against the wall via her scythe.

He struggled to break free, his hand inched towards a kunai and he stabbed her hard in the arm.

She yelped in pain and let go and he kicked her in the shin, then in the face, she went down in pain and he kicked her again in the gut, causing her to gasp and scramble back. When he came after her again she punched him hard in the face, got back up and moved a few feet back to catch her breath before going back on the attack.

Usagi's strategy was basic and obvious to everyone else which caused several people to comment about Sand's lowered standards. But to Temari who only saw her daughter either act first and occasionally think later, or allow Tsuru to do most of the thinking, it was a good step forward.

She rushed him.

Tadashi was getting worn out, his physical skills weren't much and he was beginning to think he should do endurance training with Lee-sensei more often.

Usagi was constantly on the attack, never giving him a moment to breathe let alone think. Plus the sea fog was getting thicker by the minute so there were still no shadows for him to manipulate. He frowned, he would have to take a risky move and create his own shadows with a flash bomb.

The obvious drawback was that if he didn't shield his eyes in time he would be blinded. But it was the only thing he felt he could do, so he took out the flash bomb and at that moment, Tadashi's plan went all to hell because several things happened at once.

The moment the bomb was in his hands, Usagi slipped in a pile of wet sand causing her to fall forward and drive her scythe right into his leg, in his pain and shock his chakra spiked, activating the flash bomb, the audience as a whole covered their eyes and when they looked down at the arena the two Genin were on the ground, groaning in pain.

"Fuck!" Usagi cursed, eyes burning horribly, she already knew she couldn't see. She just hoped it wasn't permanent.

"Fuck!" She growled again, "If you've blinded me permanently Tadashi Nara, I swear I'll kick your ass!"

Tadashi was holding one hand over his eyes and was trying to remove the scythe that had pinned his leg to the ground.

"That'll be pretty hard to do if you're blind." He groaned.

"Oh shut up!" She hissed.

"This match is a draw." They heard the proctor say as footsteps marched in and lifted them onto stretchers.

Hidan groaned.

"Well that didn't go well." Kisame remarked. "Didn't you teach those kids how to use their chakra to stick on slippery surfaces?"

Kakuzu drummed his fingers against the roof in agitation. He hadn't had a lot of time to teach them properly since he'd had to focus on their weaknesses. But all that was out of his hands as soon as the exams were over.

He should have been glad to be freed from those little monsters, but he found himself wondering if he could sneak around as their private sensei. After all the man he was impersonating was a retired clan member, dead actually, not that anyone knew that, and short of conspiring against their home village, retired shinobi could pretty much do as they pleased.

Temari was wondering the same thing, Kakuzu had done a world of good with the girls so far, he was doing things not even Baki-sensei, who was an excellent and well reputed teacher in his own right had done, it was very possible that he was the teacher they needed. After all, she and her brothers had gone through several teachers before they had Baki.

She wondered if there was a way to discreetly work things out, especially considering that she'd found out that she had several long missions which meant a lot of pay, which meant she might be able to convince him to stay a little longer.

"Great! Just great! I just know that Usagi-chan's gonna take it all out on me, just cause I'm his teammate." Jiraiya groaned.

"That's a very accurate assumption." Jashin muttered.

"And what's worse is I lost the stinkin bet!" He pounded his fist on the railing, clearly in agony.

Tsuru's ears perked up.

"Ooh. A bet. What bet?" She asked him.

"Jiraiya bet Usagi that if he fought his match before hers, she would have to go out on a date with him." Jashin supplied.

Tsuru snickered. Wouldn't that have been a disaster?

"Usagi bet him that if she fought before he did, he would have to be her slave either the next time we came to Leaf or he came to Sand."

Not as much of a disaster, but it still had the potential to be one. She thought with a silly grin.

"Geeze Raiya-kun. You based a bet on something as flimsy as that? You totally suck at gambling."

"Do you have to add insult to injury?" He growled.

She threw her hands up in a placatory gesture.

"Hey! I'm just sayin!"

He glared at her.

"Ok fine I'll drop it."

Asami watched the spinning names, she desperately hoped she wouldn't be next, but the heavy feeling in her gut, which Kakashi sensei had once told her was her instincts, only got stronger.

Kazuki Noren vs. Asami Lee

"Ah damn!" She muttered under her breath.

Harusame gave her a reassuring look.

"Hey! Have a little more confidence in yourself girl. You'll do alright."

"It'll be a pleasure battling you Asami-chan." Said Kazuki smiling at her.

Asami blushed a little.

Up in the stands where he had a decent view of the Genin, Lee scowled.

"Is that suave rogue flirting with my Asami?" He asked in outrage.

"Oh pipe down." Tenten told her teammate. "Besides weren't you always going on about how youthful young love was when we were kids?"

"Uh…err…well…yes." Lee began hesitantly, torn between following the youthful teachings of his still youthful sensei and following his protective fatherly instincts. Were such instincts youthful or unyouthful? He would have to ask Gai-sensei as soon as he got back to Leaf.

Harusame briefly wondered if Kazuki used his charm on female opponents so that he would win.

"Dirty cheater!" She grumbled to herself while admiring the guy from behind. With his turquoise hair and eyes, that nice physique and his serene attitude, she was beginning to think she might not be able to resist him either.

"Begin."

Kazuki was as levelheaded as Asami was jittery.

She dodged an attack as Kazuki moved forward, perfectly balanced, eyes scanning for weaknesses. He came from a merchanting family, his mother and grandmother were both Acupressurists and knew the human body fairly well. He had turned his own hard won knowledge of it to his advantage. Able to strike just the right pressure points to either do his own form of healing, which made him the team medic of sorts, to being able to send an opponent down.

"Calm down Asami." Kakashi murmured, as he watched his other girl do more dodging than actual fighting.

He sighed, she was so much like Sakura was at twelve. Though Asami had already gotten an head start on medical training, even learning how to fight using medical ninjutsu. She just lacked confidence in her battling skills.

Kakashi, presented with a second chance to do better after being stuck on and off with Sakura, Naruto and Sai over the years, paid equal attention to all three of his new subordinates. Particularly since he had the privilege of training a child of one of his former students.

He had worked particularly hard to make sure she was more rounded out then Sakura had been at the time. At least she wasn't a slouch like Yasumichi was, who according to Sakura would definitely make it and be fighting fit in a couple of weeks.

A few jabbed fingers and Asami's arm was loose and floppy.

"How dare he flirt with her and than humiliate her!" Lee howled shaking his fist at the boy.

"Boo! Shame on you! You heartbreaker!"

Tenten slunk down in her seat in embarrassment.

Asami backpedaled, firing up her healing chakra and worked on her arm. Than she tried to kick him, but he dodged swiftly and his fingers came towards her again.

She used a chakra scalpel and slashed his arm.

"Well met Asami-chan."

"Same to you." She smiled.

Keeping her chakra sharp at her fingertips she tried to take in several deep breaths and tried to steady her nerves. Wait, could she really bring herself to try and carve him up? Nope, but she could try and anesthetize him. She let him get close and injected some chakra until he started to droop a little, than he did rapid punches until she was staggering.

Man this guy was tough! She thought unhappily. If only she could lift her arm than she could heal herself-was he healing himself? Oh damn! Wait! What if she could bring the chakra to the area that needed it? It was worth a shot. She began to concentrate, imagining it flowing to certain spots than pushing her actual chakra along. Almost there! She couldn't believe it!

"It worked! It really worked!"

"Ok, now to put this guy down for a nap." She said to herself.

"Way to go Asami! Woo hoo!" Her father yelled.

"What did she do?" Sakura wondered. She had just sat back down to watch the match.

Kazuki had managed to heal himself just enough to reach for a soldier pill.

Kazuki and Asami eyed each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

They moved at the same time, she went to punch him in the gut and he blocked it by grabbing her arm, panicking, she twisted away and tried to strike his chest, but he knelt down and she went over his back. At the last moment, she managed to land on her hands and foot and kicked him hard in the chin. Forcing herself to stand upright proved to be a mistake, because he began jabbing her pressure points until she ended up as a crumpled heap on the floor.

"And the winner is Kazuki Noren."