Chapter 14:
A Paradigm Shift (Or: Mortal Kombat!)
Zaku appeared suitably nervous when he was called up to deal with Gaara. This was no time for deception; if he didn't use all of his power from the start, he'd be dead before he hit the ground. Slipping his arms from their slings and ignoring the pain that lanced through his nerves, The Sound nin stared at his opponent.
Gaara uncorked the massive gourd on his back, grinning like a madman. Not LIKE a madman…he IS a madman, thought Zaku. A column of sand rose from the gourd, surging straight for the teen with the spiky black hair. Zaku pointed his arms at Gaara and fired off both of his wind cannons at once. The air waves sliced through the free sand, pushing it back until a solid yellow-brown shield absorbed the physical blow. Gaara frowned. This prey was proving to be a tad more difficult than he'd expected. His mother did not enjoy lower-class meals with the audacity to fight back.
Zaku leapt to the side and released another dual blast of his wind attack, very nearly reaching his opponent. Although his Slicing Sound Waves technique left deep scars in Gaara's shield, Zaku had yet to deal any real damage to his enemy.
For his part, Gaara merely stood there, still as a statue, as his sand did all the work. Zaku was forced to tapdance around the writhing grains, not willing to waste precious chakra on an attack to push back the sand. He launched another shot at Gaara, with precisely the same results. Finally, Zaku let out a yell of frustration. This was getting him nowhere! Throwing away all caution, he rushed at the smaller redhead, being exceptionally careful to watch his footing. When he came within six feet of the Kazekage's son, that familiar sand shield rose up. Zaku grinned and pressed his hands to the shield, releasing a twin blast of deadly wind blades. The assault burst through Gaara's defenses, biting into his sand armor and sending him spiraling through the air, his body flailing like a ragdoll, until he finally collided throat-first with the wall. Zaku's eye twitched, and then he did a little dance. "Ha! Take that, shorty!"
Gaara stood, touching his shoulder. He felt an unfamiliar sensation, and an odd sticky, wet heat. Bringing his fingers to eye level, Gaara saw a red substance coating them, and let out a terrified scream. "It's…it's my…my…BLOOD!!!!" His sand suddenly lashed out in all directions, cutting deep into the walls and floor.
Zaku began taking steps back. "Uh… I think I should be going…" He raised his hand to surrender.
And then it was all over. As Zaku opened his mouth to cede defeat, sand encased him, crushing his body into nothing but a sack of meat. The sand began to tint red as it greedily drank Kirikaze's blood.
Gaara turned and left the tower, seeking out more things to kill. Baki looked to his fellow jounin. "Leave him be. Nothing good will come of trying to reason with him right now."
Gekkou shuddered. "Now that the bloodbath's –*cough*– over with, let's have the next match, shall we?"
Naruto Uzumaki
vs.
Shino Aburame
Naruto looked across the balcony at one of the few people he counted as a friend. "Ready, Shino?" The quiet genin nodded imperceptibly. "Yes, I believe I am." The pair leapt down into the arena, waiting for Hayate to give the signal. As soon as the sickly jounin dropped his hand, the pair rushed one another.
The duel began as a match purely of taijutsu, neither able to gain the advantage. Naruto was faster and had a better knowledge of stealthy riposte techniques, but Shino had a good six inches on Naruto, and his added weight and strength made for a dangerous attacker.
Shino swept Naruto's feet out from beneath him, and the blonde retaliated by grabbing the Aburame's knees and flipping his heels into Shino's face. The bug nin barely managed to deflect the kicks to either side of his head, planting an open-fist strike into Naruto's abdomen. Naruto's lower body flipped down onto the ground, and as he righted himself he managed to lift up Shino, slamming him into a nearby crater left over from Shigeru and Lee's fight. Shino managed to free one of his legs, driving the ball of his foot between Naruto's eyes. The blonde slid back from the force of the blow, involuntarily releasing Shino's other leg. Uzumaki immediately hurled three kunai, intending not to cut Shino but to root him to the wall. One of the kunai found its mark, biting into the black-haired genin's jacket and pinning him to the spot. Shino quickly shed his jacket to reveal his pale upper body clad only in a sleeveless tee. The small kikai beetles crawled in and out of his flesh through his pores. "Shall we continue, Naruto?" The blonde grinned. "You know it! This is fun!"
Shino launched his insects at Naruto, who retaliated with twelve shadow clones. The beetles latched onto Naruto and his clones, quickly draining the copies of chakra.
Naruto growled, staring at Shino. "If we're going to keep fighting, I'll have to stop holding back. You willing to keep at this, even though most of your bugs will probably die?" Shino nodded, a veritable swarm flowing out of his to coat his limbs.
The blonde smirked, drawing up his hands. Horse! Tiger! Fire style: Grand Fireball technique! A massive sphere of flame erupted from Naruto's mouth, forcing Shino to dive for cover. A small trail of kikai bugs snuck up the shorter genin's pant leg, stealthily biting him and devouring his chakra bit by bit. Naruto swung his head around, chasing Shino with the fireball. A thick line of ash now coated the walls as Uzumaki made several full revolutions.
Shino threw several shuriken, aiming for nonlethal but damaging areas of the body. One of them struck true, sinking into the flesh of Naruto's thigh. The blonde's breath faltered, and the fireball dissipated. At that moment, a veritable sea of kikai beetles leapt upon Yasuo's student, coating him in black carapaces. Naruto flopped onto the ground, clawing for freedom. He tried to perform any jutsu he could think of, from replacement to blade clone, but couldn't focus his chakra. The young nin's eyes began to glaze over as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.
A voice spiked through the darkness of his abating thoughts. "I have watched over you for too long to have you lose now, boy," it spat. "I have far greater plans for you, and none of them include loss to a wretched genin!"
The beetles coating Naruto all exploded as a massive spike of chakra shot through the blonde. Shino actually raised an eyebrow when his opponent staggered to his feet, shedding the scattered corpses. "I warned you they'd die, Shino." Now, use what that maniac has! Bend his power to your will! Naruto scratched a kunai across the floor until a spark was stuck, at which point thin ropes of fire rose up to meet Naruto's fingers. He whipped them up, revealing ten flaming threads of chakra. Without another word, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki threw forth his hands, encasing Shino in ten loops of flame. "No getting your bugs to eat through these, and no getting loose without second-degree burns at least," Naruto smirked. "What's your move, Shino?"
The Aburame thought for a moment, before biting his thumb and cycling through hand signs. He slammed his bloodied hand against the floor, and in a column of smoke arose a titanic praying mantis. Naruto grinned. "Nice move, man." He pulled back the burning threads from Shino, lashing them at the mantis. The creature slashed wildly at Naruto, aiming for his vital areas.
The blonde wrapped his chakra threads around the beast's joints, pulling them tight. The thing screeched in agony, but did not give in. Instead, it bum-rushed Naruto, biting like, well, like a feral beast. It tore a chunk out of his shoulder, and slid its claws around his back, lifting Naruto's head to its jaws. The blonde pulled taut the chakra threads, slicing the beast into pieces. Through the cloud of gore flew Shino, driving a knee into Naruto's chin, driving the shorter genin headfirst into the wall. The Aburame hauled back and began to hammer his fists into Naruto's skull, pounding his head against the wall again and again.
Well, it seems that our opponent was no mere genin, thought the voice before Naruto slid into unconsciousness.
Yasuo stared at the scene below him. "Well…damn."
Hayate helped the medics clean up the bug bodies. "The winner: Shino Aburame." He pointed at the screen. "Next match!"
Ino Yamanaka
vs.
Kiba Inuzuka
"You're going down, dog-boy!" The platinum blonde girl practically oozed confidence; whether or not it was warranted would soon be revealed. Kiba simply growled at her in reply.
A/N: I've received several interesting critiques of my work. Legendary Chikyuu-Jin, the reason that Hinata could overcome Neji with those techniques is not that he didn't see it coming, but that he was expecting something else. Think of it this way: they've sparred ever since they were little kids, and every time it was Jyuuken against Jyuuken. Suddenly, she throws him a curveball and hits him with something different. It completely threw off his cadence, catching him off-guard. And that visceral reaction of surprise was all she needed to gain an edge over her cousin. His arrogance and overconfidence only helped her tactics. Also, in my version of canon, Hinata is actually quite talented with Jyuuken, knowing its strengths and weaknesses. The only reason she fails to earn her family's approval is that her compassion keeps her from hurting her family members. At least, it DID, until she realized how much she was getting screwed over. This familiarity with the Gentle Fist style allows Hinata to maneuver around Neji's strikes as she did in the previous chapter. Even though Neji is better than her, she is still competent enough to know how to dodge or to force him to overextend a strike.
As for Naruto against Neji, remember that one of the reasons Naruto had such a hard time is that he really had no taijutsu training, other than the basic academy style. His teachers all hated him except for Iruka, and they all shunned him. If Naruto had the training he has here, the fight against Neji might have gone more smoothly. After all, during the Chuunin Exams in canon, Naruto's concept of taiutsu was simply punching and kicking until the other guy went down.
Basically, from here on out, we will be slowly deviating from canon more and more. The invasion of Konoha will have quite a different outcome with Yasuo and Team Three in the lists.
And, for anybody waiting to flame me for having Naruto lose, just wait, guys. I'm not gonna let you down after this long.