Chapter 11 - The Chunin Exams part four
Dante couldn't believe it when he saw it, three titanic arms descending from a massive rift in the sky. The black night sky was clear with the full moon illuminating everything, the three white as bone arms scooped up the Land of Snow's capital city like it was all made of paper mache.
Dante had been sitting atop his vacation house roof when it started, he saw a dragon fly away to a nearby mountain and linger there before disappearing itself. Dante ran to the capital city from the trail only to see a massive crater, then things started to climb out.
At first they were little black creatures, they swarmed toward Dante, but with a few volleys of his chakra arrows they dropped like flies. The whole night Dante fought off shadow creatures and was slowly joined by the guards patrolling the lands who weren't taken, Dante worked with them to contain the crater as more and more guards came, but then the first shadow beast came.
A giant boar, dubbed Hogzilla by Dante, rampaged through the crater and busted down their defences. It took all that they had at the time to take it down, they seriously needed help.
Dante spent the next three weeks mobilizing the surrounding lands to action setting up military outposts around making an impenetrable defence, all the while Dante couldn't stop worrying for his sister's safety, but he had full confidence that Yukirei would protect her.
The guy was an asshole, sure, but he wasn't the type of person to leave people behind to get hurt. Or at least that's what Dante had originally thought, then one day while he was resting he saw the chunin exams program as they were introducing the participants of the Chunin Exams. He loved watching it, seeing the action motivated his archery training, then he noticed something off.
The Land of Snow was participating! He got closer to see three names: Sosetsu Fujikaze, Sayomi Tora, and Hiro Miyamoto. The last two names escaped him, but Dante wasn't fooled for a second. He knew Sosetsu was his grandfather, he also knew Fujikaze was his mother's pen name when she was a teenage actress.
He immediately suited up and left for the Leaf since the Land of Snow's crater portal was now secure and safe, the entire solo journey his hatred for Yukirei grew, at first he wanted to yell at him, then punch him in the face, but when he found the prince pretending to be a ninja he couldn't stop himself. After the first arrow was fired, there was no going back, but thankfully it worked out as a simple talk.
. . .
"So these creatures, they are not summons, and not made of chakra?" Naruto, the 7th Hokage asked.
Dante shook his head, he had just finished telling them his entire story. The entire time the chunin exams were played on a little television, he saw that Yukirei was the first team to arrive at the safe zone, to clear that massive swamp was impressive.
Most ninja had to fight their way through disaster zones, the poisonous, acidic, lava, and freezing zones were barriers in between the volatile zones. So they didn't have to deal with the shifting environment, it was probably for the best, Dante had seriously injured Yukirei with that arrow.
"I can understand wanting to take revenge for your sibling," Sasuke said grimacing. "Though you could have killed your only chance of getting her back, that was foolish-"
"-and impulsive. Blah blah blah, I know this, I'm very self aware. You don't have to tell me that," Dante said making his hand mimic a flapping mouth. The dark haired ninja must've hated him by now and that was just fine, "So none of you guys know anything about what's going on. Do I got that right?"
"We're conducting a meeting between the five kage when they arrive in a week," Sakura said annoyed with Dante's attitude. "Must you be so rude?"
"Hey, I'm not like Yukirei, I'm not polite, tactful, and I don't care. If that bothers you, then tough titty." Dante said getting up, "Until you got something I'm out, let me know if you learn anything worthwhile."
"Who says we're gonna tell you?" Sakura asked gritting her teeth.
"Prince Yukirei and his friends are currently earning their right to be included in the sharing of information, you havent done anything, but be a rude child. If you want any information you'll have to do something."
"Then don't tell me, I don't have time to run an errand for you three." Dante said walking out on them, he sighed as he walked though the halls. He held the enchanted prayed bead on his neck to his lips, Hey are you there?
There I am, Dante, polite you should have tried. The spirit of Yumi Magatama, he and his weapon were close. Close enough for her to open up to him and share her thoughts whenever he asked for them.
I'm not gonna let them look down on me, too many people do that already, these ninjas need to see me as an adult who's just as capable as them. I don't have anything to prove to them, the bead grew warm against his fingers.
I see, a shame it is, me and my sister Airisu no Tsurugi. Clash once more, we could not, the spirit of his bow also spoke in a very strange dialect. It was because she lived in a time before the advent of chakra so she spoke an ancient tongue, and was new to Dante's language. To show her the truth, I did hope, she refuses to speak to her wielder . . . alas. What to do, will Dante?
What will I do? Good question, he had a home here, so he could only wait for the second part of the exams to be over before he could speak to Yukirei again, he went to his vacation home to find that it was clean. He went around the back to find the hidden key inside of a fake rock, he went to the door and opened it.
"What the hell?"
~ Yukirei Kazahana ~
Yukirei was surprised to hear that they were the first people to make it to the safe central area, as it would turn out they exploited the area taking an "easy" approach to the second area almost completely skipping it by Yukirei burning them a path, they did not anticipate anybody to have the chakra capacity to do what he did.
Once they arrived Yukirei had completely passed out and woke up in the infirmary, they treated his injuries, and ran him through a detoxification session which involved him staying in a private room for an entire day next to a bucket where he couldn't stop throwing up. With him taking such deep breathes in a poisonous swamp he had ingested enough poison to kill a boss summon, but it was a carefully chosen slow acting poison that would have taken days to have any real effect.
Hiro and Sayomi at the time spent their time recovering as well, but not nearly as bad as Yukirei. They got to eat food and simply relax, they tried to stay near Yukirei, but with all the unpleasant things coming out of him he told them to stay away.
Since these second phase tests usually lasted three days and they had arrived on the first night, Yukirei had a whole day to recover, now it was the third day and the last of the ninja had entered the central area and now all sixteen ninja were now standing before the Hokage and many older leaf ninja including Shikamaru, he winked at them with a small smirk as Yukirei, Hiro, and Sayomi stood at the very front being the first to arrive.
"Standing before us is sixteen chunin hopefuls, however only eight of you may move on from this room and advance into the third final test." Sasuke said stepping forward, "If you look behind me you will see a display screen showing the order of these preliminary one on one duels. Be sure to keep them quick and clean," He said closing his eyes as the screen lit up.
The overhead screen showed all sixteen names and the duels match ups:
Okami Seishin (Land of Grass) vs Yobun Nana (Hidden Sand)
Sosetsu Fujikaze (Land of Snow) vs Hyun Li Onea (Hidden Stone)
Takeo Suikami (Hidden Mist) vs Randa Mumen (Hidden Sand)
Kaden Hikami (Hidden Mist) vs Ken Hanta (Hidden Leaf)
Endo Engetsu (Hidden Stone) vs Sayomi Tora (Land of Snow)
Hiro Miyamoto (Land of Snow) vs Aeda Konohana (Hidden Leaf)
Oroboro Farushion (Hidden Cloud) vs Yukas Gundan (Hidden Cloud)
Fuman Fumanson (Hidden Cloud) vs Ichi Happyaku (Hidden Cloud)
It looked like Yukirei would be in the second fight, Hiro and Sayomi would be in the fifth and sixth fight. Naruto dismissed them to the bleachers with the first two staying behind, one was a young man covered head to toe in a red hooded cloak with a silver mask that simply looked like two bird beaks overlapping one another. Over his shoulder was a ornate looking murakumo sword, the thing looked beautiful with ornate engravings, but the edge looked razor sharp.
The fight didn't last a minute. Yobun Na didn't stand a chance, just a sand genin with no real skill other than a few wind jutsu, one well placed swing of the curved greatsword and the genin was done with a deep cut in his side spilling blood like a faucet. He surrendered and the robed swordsman from the Hidden Grass Village walked away without saying anything, "Next up is Sosetsu Fujikaze and Hyun Li Onea!"
Yukirei got up and walked to the arena right behind Hyun who wore a dark blue body suit with a white cloud ninja jacket, skin light, and bright blue eyes and he appeared to be bald.
"Go Yukirei!" Sayomi shouted.
"You got this!" Hiro yelled soon after, Yukirei smirked as did Hyun.
"Cute friends you got there," He said as he pulled out a strange looking black rock. It looked like a yoyo? A chakra thread ran from his finger to the stone.
"Thanks," Yukirei said holding his sheath behind his back, left hand on the sheath, right on the handle. ". . ." He closed his eyes and focused taking a deep breath.
"Begin!" Yukirei dashed forward sprinting and unsheathing his blade in a sweeping strike, Hyun rolled away and spun throwing out the stone with the chakra thread on it. It struck Yukirei's blade with surprising force, it spun back into his hand. It was a Yoyo!
Yukirei kept pressing on the offensive repeatedly sheathing and unsheathing his blade aiming for Hyun's joints, vitals, or neck. Hyun kept dodging and countering his attacks, it was difficult to draw his blade in a reversed fashion, after all he wasn't aiming to kill Hyun. Just knock him out or something, as the fight persisted the lessons Mifune taught him started to come back to him.
When you attack you aim to kill or disable, you do not maim people, the most your target suffers the more blood lays on your hands. Your target mustn't suffer, you need to take down your adversary in one strike if possible, maybe two, but never three.
Never three, Yukirei thought as Hyun launched his first attack. Spinning his black stone yoyo it landed at Yukirei's feet and exploded? With a loud BANG the stone yoyo burst into stone shrapnel, Yukirei covered his face, but sharp stone shards into his legs, torso, and arms. None of them stuck inside of him, but they did leave tiny wounds all over. Damn, that hurt.
He was suffering, this was exactly what he needed to not do. Hyun pulled out a second yoyo and made the chakra link, ". . ." Yukirei stopped as did Hyun, he was only moving to counter Yukirei, this could afford him some time to think.
". . ." The two stared each other down, Yukirei made a one handed sign to channel his chakra1. An orange colored aura appeared on his palm, Yukirei unsheathed his blade and spread the aura accross the blade. It's metal now a fluorescent orange color, Hyun went on the offensive spinning his yoyo around him before bringing it down on Yukirei.
Yukirei sheathed his blade and drew it attacking the yoyo knocking it away at Hyun's feet. A bright flash or orange and it exploded in a burst of orange chakra sending the yoyo behind Hyun this time the yoyo exploding launching the same stone shrapnel at his back. That's one, Yukirei sheathed his sword and in vaulted his whole body over Hyun. One well place THWACK spelled the end with Hyun's eyes rolling up in the back of his head and falling unconscious, "And that's two."
"Winner: Sosetsu Fujikaze." Sasuke called out as Yukirei picked Hyun up on his shoulder and brought him to the the lead nurse Sakura whom quickly and easily treated them both. "Next up is Takeo Suikami vs Randa Mumen."
Just like the very first match this one was absolutely no contest, Takeo carried an O-katana paired with a Wakizashi, the odd pair of swords made his fighting style unpredictable. Aginast another basic sand genin it wasn't pretty, Takeo got behind him and with fast slash accros the back of his knees completely disabled his legs.
"Winner: Takeo Suikami." Sakura rushed to the arena to repair his legs before any permanent damage could set in, Takeo just wiped the blood of his sword on Randa's shirt before walking away.
"Looks like this is an exam full of swordsmen," Yukirei said looking at Okami and Takeo. They both gave him a look over their shoulders, "I don't know if that's good, or terrible." Sayomi and Hiro gave him a look, as if to say: are you serious?
"The next match is between Kaden Hikami and Ken Hanta," Sasuke called as a leaf boy jumped from the bleachers flipping off the railing. Kaden wore a classy looking gi with a deep green scarf with white vines on it, "Begin."
Kaden waited as Ken made the signs for fire technique, he put his fist to his lips, but instead of blowing he pulled his fist from his lips drawing a dagger made of fire. Yukirei's eyes widened as he watched the technique, it was so cool, he really wanted to know it.
And yet . . . for some reason he felt like he got it, he looked at his hand and made a fist. He was about to put his fist to his lips before he noticed a flash of blue, the two were in a fiery battle both using flames to try and defeat the other.
Ken had drawn two blades of fire and Kaden had two orbs of blue fire orbiting him, Kaden snapped his fingers as a third came to life. The three of them were attacking Ken just by moving around him, Kaden was leisurely walking to Ken as the orbs got closer and closer.
Ken tried to bat them away, but they just broke his blades. Ken grit his teeth and spun with the orbit getting in Kaden's guard, Ken grabbed his scarf and pulled his head down. Ken headbutted him hard and the orbiting blue fire disappeared, Kaden had been defeated by a good headbutt? Takeo stood up running to the rail looking confused.
"What happened?" He demanded, everyone was confused . . . except for Yukirei. Somehow it made sense to him; when Ken got him he aimed for the bridge of the nose, not many people know that's how you're supposed to do it. Most would just bash their skull into another one hoping theirs was thicker.
Ken held up his fist in glory as Kaden's nose dripped dark red. A quick fix from Sakura and Ken ran to Aeda looking ecstatic over his win, Takeo sat back down staring down the leaf genin.
"Winner Ken Hatan, next is Endo Engetsu vs Sayomi Tora." Sayomi got up and walked over giving Hiro and Yukirei a raised to the side fist with a confident smile, Hiro mirrored her gesture. Yukirei simply nodded to her, Endo ran to the rail and flipped to the stage. He took out four thick stone rods the connected to each other like two pairs of nunchaku, Sayomi and Endo watched each other closely. "Begin!"
Sayomi made the signs for a summoning, "Summon: Tira!" A little tiger cub appeared climbing up her shoulder and sitting on it digging its claws into her suit for a tight grip.
"Awwah!" Endo said jaw dropping, he shook his head. His nunchaku burst into flames as he rushed Sayomi swinging his flaming stone clubs with an unrelenting fighting style, Sayomi put a hand over Tira and rolled around to avoid the onslaught of fiery attacks, she wasn't attacking at all, but she held onto the tiger cub closely.
Yukirei watched wondering what was she planning exactly, Endo spun at her a halo of fire surrounding him. Sayomi rolled backwards, but Endo leaned forward so the flames would hit her. She rolled onto her upper back and using her hands only she pushed herself up catching Endo's head between her thighs.
She spun them both to the ground, "Tira do it! Tira Finisher!" The tiger cub jumped onto Endo's face scratching it making light cuts everywhere.
"Gah! Stop that it hurts! Ah! AHAAHAA!" He yelled in pain, Sayomi was still on top his chest holding his arms to the ground as the tiger cub used his face like a scratching post. "STOP I GIVE UP!"
"Winner Sayomi Tora," Sasuke said cringing not wanting to be in Endo's place. He quickly ran to the nurse who healed him up easily, he sat as far away from Sayomi as he possibly could. Sayomi ran up to them with a giant smile and complementing the tiger cub who'd claws were now bright red. "Next is Hiro Miyamoto vs Aeda Konohana."
Hiro got up walking to the arena with his naginata, the girl he was fighting was three years younger than him. She was so short, but despite this she pounded her fist into her hand. "Ready to lose?"
"Yes, I am also prepared to win." Hiro said drawing his naginata taking a stance, Yukirei couldn't see his face, but with how calm and collected he was being, Yukirei could tell he wasn't acting like himself.
The two of them fought, Aeda throwing everything she had at Hiro. From fire and wind jutsu, to ninja tools. Hiro just avoided them or knocked them away staying on the defensive. Aeda continued her assault this time going for a drop kick, Hiro simply blocked her and pushed her off. He helded his naginata far back behind him in one hand, just one swing and he'd have her.
It would be a one hit knocking her off her feet followed by successive brutal strikes, he would win, but he didn't. He swung and missed, on purpose no doubt. Aeda spun to her feet throwing out a kick, Hiro used his staff block and jumped back near the edge. She went to attack him again, "Why don't you fight back!"
"You're hiding something, I know it, a good ninja knows to watch for attacks." Hiro said with a very slight crack to his voice, he didn't want to do this. Yukirei could tell Hiro either didn't want to hurt her, or he didn't want to advance and become a ninja all together.
She looked surprised to hear this, but started to make the signs slowly.
"Hiro!" Yukirei yelled, Hiro turned back to look at him, a pained look on his face. "It's okay."
"A good ninja doesn't get distracted!" Aeda made the signs for a jutsu; "Wind and Fire Technique Burning Gale!" She blew a strong current of firey, Hiro stood his ground, but he flew back off the arena failing the duel. "Winner Aeda Konohana!"
Hiro got up while she jumped up and down happily, "Nice moves Leaf Ninja."
"You need to be less cautious, thinking defensively will only get you so far," She said smugly.
Hiro grinned, "I guess you're right. Next time I'll get you," after that he sat down next to Yukirei. "Thanks Sosetsu."
"No problem man," He said putting an arm on his shoulder, Sayomi nudged him a little.
"Ninja work isn't for everyone," She said with a light grin, Hiro nodded.
The next two battle were mind numbingly long, while the last fights lasted three minutes at most, the last two fights lasted a good nine to twelve minutes each. Somehow the four cloud ninja all got put against one another: first was Oroboro Furashion and Yukas Gundan where they both tried to finish each other as fast as they could with Oroboro using a short flat chakra blade infused with his power, Yukas would avoid and roll away the entire time trying to disarm him.
All of them had history it would appear because they were overly cautious with their punches, Oroboro barely scratched out a victory when the two of them were both ready to collapse. Fuman and Ichi were apparently twins, in combat at least, they used the exact same fighting style and equipment. The two of them danced and flipped around one another barely damaging each other, neither of them eager to throw out an attack.
It took them more than ten minutes to bring each other down little by until Fuman got a lucky hit in and Ichi collapsed. Everyone was pretty burnt out at this point, the adults had even taken seats after Oroboro and Yukas.
"Alright, this concludes the preliminaries for the finals. Take a good look at the screen people, because this is the battle roster for the finals in one week. You saw everybody's fighting style, everybody saw yours, you can plan around their styles, and tweak your own to make yourself less predictable. Follow the johnin for an easy route back to the leaf village please," Naruto said walking away with Sasuke and Sakura.
"This way people, god I need a smoke." Shikamaru said starting to walk with an unlit cigarette in his mouth. Yukirei focused on the screen:
Okami Seishin vs Sosetsu Fujikaze
Takeo Suikami vs Ken Hanta
Sayomi Tora vs Aeda Konohana
Oroboro Furashion vs Fuman Fumanson
His adversary was the red robed man with the silver beak mask, the robed man was facing him also starring at him eerily. "Let's go Yukirei, we got some training to do," Sayomi said with a grin. She was probably gonna have the easiest time here, Aeda wasn't anything special as far as Yukirei could tell.
"Yeah, let's go," Yukirei said walking with Sayomi and Hiro. He knew Dante would probably be in their temporary home and braced himself for the annoying rant that would inevitably follow.
Author's Notes:
Hello readers, I know this chapter is severely late and has been a long time coming, but fear not I'm not giving up just yet. I just had finals prep and finals this week, also I had an inner turmoil about how to write this chapter. I want to get to the plot developing chapters asap and I didn't want to make long detailed battles, I hope this doesn't disappoint, but I won't slack on the important battles. I promise ;)
Also bonus kudos if you recognize the four cloud ninja.