Naruto the 4th Reborn
Chapter 14: Genius no more
Utakata and Ino at the moment were in their battle stances. Many people expect the jinchuuriki to win and the odds for betting are 500:1.
"Hajime!" Genma shouted being heard throughtout the entire arena.
Utakata backed up to start his game of bubbles. The jinchuuriki's specialty is long drawn out battles as he can set up a lot of bubbles so a long drawn out fight would be much more helpful for him.
Ino knew she couldn't do genjutsu or her mind transfer as told by Kurenai so all she could do was taijutsu and ninjutsu but if Lee at 5 gates opened cant beat him in taijutsu then there was no way she could.
She had all but mastered her earth style so that was all she could do so she did have a way of fighting Utakata in taijutsu. "Earth style:Stone fist jutsu!" Ino exclaimed her hand turning into a large fist of stone.
The genjutsu mistress told the Yamanaka that Utakata's bubbles were water style so her earth style would be very effective against it.
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Kage Box
"It seems wise to use earth style, definitely the thought was put into that" the Hokage said to the silent 'Kazekage'
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Arena
Ino was now charging full speed towards Utakata who was surprised at how fast she was moving since she was moving at him as fast as Lee was with his weights.
She moved past all the bubbles relatively quickly by smashing her fists into the bubbles or dodging them.
Utakata now dodging the onslaught of attacks from the Yamanaka trying to get away. As he got away he started his handsigns for one of the stronger water style jutsu. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" a large dragon with blue color dashed towards Ino.
The Yamanaka did her own handsigns and called her jutsu "Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!" she said amazing the audience at her mastery of Earth style at such a young age.
In a beautiful battle both dragons collided water and rocks of the earth dragon going everywhere. Eventually both dragons died out and came Ino again not letting Utakata get any rest.
Ino was getting tired fast at the fact she had to keep her hands stone for such a long time and she only landed 3 clean hits. She pulled back and started her next jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu" the blond shouted smacking her hand on the ground in a puff of smoke appeared Ino's summon an Eagle.
"Hey Washichikyū, I need some help on this guy since he is real tough" Ino asked her eagle friend.
"Sure thing Ino-sama" the eagle said then soon dashed towards Utakata. "Earth Style: Earth Beak Barrage" Washichikyū exclaimed firing its beaks at the jinchuuriki now having to dodge them and Ino's rampage.
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The Audience stands.
Kakashi just arrived in a shunshin with Sasuke in hand. "Hey Sensei" a pinkette said. "So did you train Sasuke to be stronger than Naruto?" she asked making the masked man wince slightly.
"Sakura I am meant to make my students stronger not to make them stronger to beat 1 person." He said calmly with a slight edge to it that Sakura didn't notice.
"Sasuke-kun" she said in a fangirlish tone. "Naruto has to fight Kiba who should be easy but I bet if you fought him again he would get destroyed"
"Shut up!" He exclaimed making a few of the people near by gaze at him then turn back to the fight.
"Well anyway how is Ino doing?" Kakashi said trying to break the tension.
"Um she is doing fine against that Utakata guy but I think she will lose since she hasn't landed a critical blow and she is running out of chakra fast" Sakura said explaining the match soon after.
"Ino is impressive holding her own against a jinchuuriki" the jonin said happy the next generation was gonna be strong.
"A jin-chu-riki?" Sakura asked interested what that might be as she wanted to make Sasuke a jinchuuriki if he could be as strong as that Utakata guy.
Kakashi just waved her off not answering her questions about jinchuuriki but just watched the fight intently.
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Arena
"I must admit I wasn't expecting this much of a challenge. I applaud you since you actually pushed me quite a bit but long drawn out battles like this are great for me and im pretty sure you know about my status since you havent used your clan technique" Utakata said as he was now at a safe distance from Ino.
"I can tell your exhausted since your panting heavily and I have more than a quarter of my chakra left" this left Ino wide eyed wondering how someone could have so much chakra. "I truly think you are a strong opponent but please just forfeit since we both know you will lose" Ino closed her eyes and raised her hand.
"I-I f-forf-feit" she said reluctantly. Utakata soon appeared infront of her using a water shunshin.
"You were one of the most strongest people I ever faced. Lets do it again sometime!" Utakata said with a smile, a real happy smile as he extended his hand towards the blond. Ino could only smile back and take his hand as they both disappeared with a water shunshin to the contestant stands.
"WINNER: UTAKATA, will contestants Neji Hyuuga and Shikamaru Nara come to the arena" Both contestants appeared rather quickly on the stage glaring at each other.
"What you did to Hinata was wrong and I know all about your hatred for the main branch but its not fair to Hinata as she has done nothing wrong." Shikamaru stated in a serious voice while leaking killer intent.
Many of the civillians in the audience shivered at the killing intent both contestants leaked showing this fight was going to be a strong one. Genma could see there was bad blood and started the match not wanting to prolong it any longer.
As the match started Shika charged in using the same jutsu Ino did to make her fists stone. It was one of the only jutsu both of them learnt since Kurenai thought it might help him. Neji was caught of guard and he had to use his jutsu he wanted to save for earlier.
"Kaiten(Rotation)" The prodigy stated spinning in a 360 degrees sending chakra out of all his tenketsu (chakra points) as Shikamaru's fist collided the shards of his fist started bursting. Shikamaru saw the Kaiten was going to win and backed up starting to strategize in his mind of all the possible jutsu Neji might know since he did know Kaiten.
Shikamaru decided it would probably be best if he stayed out of Neji's taijutsu range since he might have the main branch offensive technique. Shikamaru started his jutsu handsigns and roared "Fire style:Fireball jutsu" a massive fireball launched at the Hyuuga.
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Stands
Asuma and Kurenai were sitting together shocked at how determined Shikamaru was at beating Neji. They never saw the Nara passionate about anything since he was known for being lazy.
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Kage Box
"Hokage-dono it seems that one knows when to back off and what to do as for his plans for me I think he would be a very strong chuunin" the 'Kazekage' stated.
"I think you are right Kazekage-dono" Hiruzen said nodding.
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Arena
The Fireball was closing in towards Neji who started his rotation breaking the fireball. His mistake was stopping his rotation as once the old fireball dispersed another came right at him. He got a few burn marks but stopped it. Until he couldn't move. He started struggling to move but he couldn't.
"Don't even bother I have you under shadow possesion" the Nara said now back to his lazy tone.
"When!" Neji demanded an explanation
"The fireball created a shadow. I knew you would use your Kaiten to block the first one since you were so proud of showing it off. So I made 2 and they both extended my shadow long enough to reach you, Its really simple when I break it down like that and im pretty surprised you fell for it since you're a so called 'prodigy'" Shikamaru said infuriating the prodigy. "Proctor call the match I got him, it can only go down hill from here." Genma nodded in understanding.
"Winner: Shikamaru Nara. We will take a 10 minute break to rest up then continue on with the second bracket." The crowd applauded Shikamaru and cheered for him at how he defeated the Hyuuga prodigy.
"I cant believe I lost, it was fate for me to win" Neji mumbled to himself.
"Neji, don't believe in fate. The only fate we all have is death everything else you can change and make into what you want" Shikamaru said. "Then again, Naruto changed his fate so if he can I assume you can since you're a prodigy" the Nara said chuckling while walking away.
'Can I really change my fate and be free' Neji wondered as he looked up to the sky and saw the birds.
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Meanwhile in Konoha
Naruto's clones were telling all the Shinobi they could find about the invasion and most did not believe him until he showed them the Hokage's signature and started preparing for the war that was coming in minutes. A lot of the civillians such as children and elderly were already moved to the shelters
Shinobi were at the walls prepared for an attack but not showing it off as they wanted the element of surprise of being ready.
Naruto had also sent a clone to Jiraiya who he heard was coming home soon, if he knew Jiraiya right then he would probably be on the way home at a walking pace but they needed him home fast.
The lives that were going to be lost were going to be significantly reduced thanks to the blond. The original was still at the stadium slowing getting reports from his clones. Naruto had told most of the Shinobi out of the stadium but he couldn't do it in the stadium without arising suspicion.
The blond told his sensei's about the invasion and hoped they could spread the news without alerting enemy Shinobi.
"Hey Anbu" Genma whispered towards a Anbu in a cloak. "Theres going to be an invasion so tell all the Shinobi you can but make sure you don't alert the enemy" Genma said soon jumping towards another Anbu
'They found out, I guess we will have to speed up the invasion towards the end of the first round during the break' Kabuto thought smirking under his mask at the blunder the leaf just made.
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Yea sorry for the late update, school is making my life so troublesome with homework. Next chapter last 3 battles of the preliminaries then invasion. Thanks for all the support and until next time bye!