Let's just get on with this!
A/N: The "Vortex Shield" is a jutsu created by Naruto that is based upon the principles of the Rasengan, only instead of a ball, the user creates a shield of spinning chakra. This is easier to control than the rasengan, but has no real offensive use because the chakra grows weaker on the edge of the shield. It also takes a lot of chakra, making Naruto one of the only people who could actually use it. I didn't explain this jutsu in the Kiba fight, so I might as well now.
Minato stood up. A team of medical ninja came to tell him that the two contestants who were in the finale wouldn't be able to fight for today. Minato sighed. He was going to get roasted for this...
"Ladies and gentlemen! I hope you all enjoyed the battles today! Our genin gave it their all, and now we have come to the final stage of these chunin exams! However, our two finalists are tired and wounded, and can't continue today. That is why we decided to hold the finale tomorrow. We hope to see you all then for the grand finale!" Minato said cheerfully, hoping that the people would just accept things as they are. Most people just grunted, although some boo's where heard from the stadium. Minato's honorable guests also looked at him with sneering eyes. Couldn't they just give him a break? He didn't want to wait either, but they had little choice when both Naruto and Sasuke were knocked out. Speaking of which...
"I have something important to do, so I'll be taking my leave now. Gentlemen, I hope to see you tomorrow!" Minato said as he walked out of the booth towards the infirmary.
Guy had no idea what was going on anymore. That red-haired ninja from the sand village had woken up and was attacking Naruto, wreaking havoc upon everybody in the infirmary. Neji was trying to subdue him while Naruto managed to dodge and shield himself from Gaara's attacks. In the middle stood Rin, who was looking around, not certain what to do.
"Everyone, please calm down! Everyone, please!" She started, but to no avail.
"YOU WILL TASTE MY VENGEANCE UZUMAKI!" Gaara shouted as he blocked himself from Neji's attacks and kept attacking Naruto with bullets of sand.
"STOP THIS ALREADY YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" Naruto shouted as he formed another "Vortex Shield" to protect himself from the incoming barrage.
In the meantime, Rin had lost her patience. "I said, CUT IT OUT!"
Red chakra engulfed Rin's body, and formed three tails that pushed Naruto, Neji and Gaara against the walls. Gaara and Neji were too shocked to say anything, but Naruto had a face that said "I didn't do anything, I swear!" Rin released the boys, who fell to the ground. It seemed that everybody had finally calmed down. She sighed, and gave Gaara a menacing look.
"Pull something like that again, and you won't reach your village alive!" She threatened him.
She threatened him. Nobody had ever done that before. People were too afraid to even get near him, and those that came to assassinate him tried to do so from the shadows. But Gaara knew full-well why. He looked from Rin to Naruto, and acknowledged that he was outmatched. He grunted and left the infirmary without looking back.
Naruto let out a sigh of relief. He truly hoped he'd never have to cross paths with that guy again. Though there was still something familiar about Gaara. Especially after Naruto saw the guy transform into a monster, he got some idea about what was going on. He looked at Rin. She had calmed down, and there was no sign of her ever using the three-tails. She looked back at Naruto, and confirmed his unspoken question with a nod. Now Naruto knew for certain.
"Gaara is a jinchuuriki..." Naruto muttered.
"Yes, and he has had the worst treatment out of all of us. That's why I..."
"Sorry, Rin. But could you please look at Lee for me?" Guy interrupted in a tone of voice very uncommon for him. The Jonin had no idea what happened, but the situation seemed to be resolved, so he decided to get Lee the help he needed.
"Yes, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, we had a... Situation going on" Rin replied.
"Just... Please make sure he's okay!" Guy said with a worried tone of voice. Now Rin was getting worried too, this wasn't like Guy at all. Rin and Guy put Lee on one of the beds, and Rin used her senses to scan Lee for injuries. She gasped. She had never seen someone like this.
"He has muscle tears all over his body. It's as if he was torn apart from the inside. What happened to him?" Rin asked. Naruto glanced at Lee. He had bruises all over his body and some minor burns, but it didn't seem to be too bad. Was Lee really that hurt?
"Lee got overzealous and used a technique he wasn't ready for yet" Guy replied. Rin looked at the man. It was clear he blamed himself for pushing Lee this far. The Jonin had seen himself in Lee. While it was true that he himself could use some ninjutsu, his level of control over them was so minor that even Genin fresh from the academy would laugh. He only barely managed to graduate himself, so Lee was like a carbon copy of him. He wanted Lee to do better, to be a better man than he was. But by pushing too hard, Lee had been left completely broken. He should have never thought Lee the fourth gate when the third was already such a big risk. He should have...
"Guy, it's not your fault. These things happen. Now I need you to listen. Lee won't be able to move for the next few days. And after that, it could still take months before he can start training again, let alone go on missions. You need to tell him this. He needs to hear this from you" Rin said. If she knew Guy, he couldn't refuse.
"I understand. I'll tell Lee when he wakes up" Guy replied. The jonin took a chair and seated himself next to Lee. Rin decided to let the man be for a while.
"Naruto, come with me for a minute" Rin said to the young blonde. Naruto nodded and followed her to the doors of the infirmary, where they saw Obito, carrying Sasuke on his back. The Uchiha had already woken up but was too tired to stand on his feet.
"Obito-sensei! Sasuke! How did the match go? You and Lee both don't seem to be alright, who won?" Naruto bombarded the two with questions. Sasuke had no idea how Naruto did it. The blonde's fight hadn't ended that long ago, and Naruto was extremely worn out himself. Yet here he stood, almost entirely healed up and filled with energy.
"Sasuke won the match, but they both took a lot of damage. The finals are delayed until tomorrow, so both of you should go get some rest" Obito said. His gaze went from Naruto to Rin. They both blushed a bit, but carried on without the two genin around them noticing anything. (Naruto was too stupid to realize what was going on and Sasuke was too tired).
"Alright Sasuke, take a seat on the bed and tell me where it hurts the most" Rin ordered. Sasuke did as told. He pulled up his shirt and motioned his stomach where Lee's last hit had struck. To his surprise, there wasn't any blood there, though it did feel swollen and painful. Right in the middle, a red-tinted spot was visible where Lee's fist had hit him.
"That doesn't look so good. There aren't any exterior signs of damage, but judging by this red spot you are bleeding internally. There aren't many ways to deal with these kinds of wounds, but I have a little secret up my sleeve" Rin said. She pushed Sasuke to lie on his back and flashed through a few hand signs. A red coat of chakra formed around her hand, which she pushed onto Sasuke's stomach. All of a sudden, Sasuke's pain intensified. It felt as if someone had cut open his stomach and pushed a hand inside. He could feel something squirming inside of him, and had it not been for the fact that he could barely move anymore, he would have pushed Rin off of him (or at least tried to).
His grunts of pain almost became screams when Rin pulled of her hand and the red chakra dissapeared. Suddenly, the pain was gone, replaced by a slight tickly feeling. He looked at his stomach. The red spot was gone.
"Usually I don't do this, but you two have a match tomorrow. So rest up, and be sure to give us a show!" Rin said. Obito smiled and grabbed Sasuke's arm so that the young Uchiha could lean on his shoulder. Now that the pain was gone, Sasuke took his time to look around the infirmary. He saw Neji, who seemed oddly afraid of Rin and had hidden himself in the corner of the room. Maybe it had to do with the hassle that happened before he and Obito got here? He also noticed a lot of sand in the room for some reason. On the other side of the room he saw Guy, who hadn't really been paying attention and seemed lost in thought. Behind him laid Lee, still unconscious, with a few bleeding cuts and bruises.
"Well then, I'll be taking this guy home then. I'm sure Itachi will have a lot of questions and complaints before Sasuke gets any rest, so best to get this over with!" Obito whined as he and Sasuke walked out of the infirmary. Quickly making sure that Naruto wasn't looking, she threw Obito a kiss, which the jonin almost missed. He winked in reply before turning around and leaving.
"Well now, that should be all the contestants. Let's go, Naruto!" Rin said. Naruto followed happily. It had been a while since he saw Rin.
"Did you see the matches? What did you think? I did pretty good huh!" Naruto asked excitedly.
Rin smiled. "You did wonderful. I bet Minato is proud of you. We all are!" she said.
"Hee hee!" Naruto grinned.
"Now Naruto, do you already know what you are going to do tomorrow? Sasuke might prove to be your toughest opponent yet!" Rin asked playfully serious. She enjoyed Naruto's hyperactive personality. It reminded her of his mother.
"Well, I know I'm not gonna lose, that's for sure! I'll show Sasuke everything I learned!" Naruto proclaimed.
"Well I wish you the best of luck!" Rin said with a radiant smile. "Oh that's right, I heard Jiraiya stole you from Obito for a while. What did you two do together?" Rin asked.
"That's a secret! Oji-san told me not to tell anybody!" Naruto answered, bur Rin knew enough. There were only two things Jiraiya really wanted to teach Naruto, and the boy was too young and hyperactive for sage-mode. Rin wanted to ask about his training with Obito, but was interrupted by a golden flash of light.
"Well now, I believe congratulations are in order, huh?" Minato said.
"Dad! Naruto cheered as he ran into his father's arms.
At the edge of the village, two people had taken refuge in an abandoned house. Nobody had entered the house in years. Not since the terrible atrocities that had happened there. The old folk called the place cursed, the younger generation called it a place of crime, and the children called it the scariest part of the village.
But to Orochimaru, it was his old home.
He and his pupil, Kabuto, had based themselves there together with a few sound ninja. While Kabuto was babysitting them, Orochimaru was in a deep conversation with another person. It was a tall man, with a large, black cloak with red clouds on it. His hair was long and black, reaching all the way down his back, and he wore a blank, white mask with two eyeholes, through which the sharingan was visible.
"So it seems that the finals will be held tomorrow" the sanin said to the cloaked figure.
"That's perfect. The more commotion we cause, the better. It will distract all the shinobi in the village, including the Hokage. Then we will strike" the man said in a deep voice.
"Yes. However, the three-tails jinchuuriki might pose more of a problem than you'd think. She's not just some medical ninja, she's also one of the fiercest combatants in the village. How do you plan to fight her?" Orochimaru asked.
The man snapped his fingers. On command, black zetsu stepped out of the shadows.
"This guy will"
"Why do you have so much confidence in it? He's just a synthetic being, right?"
"Artificial humans can show far more potential than natural ones. They can be made in any image to serve any purpose. And most importantly...!" the man stopped at once when sounds of screaming could be heard from downstairs. Both him and Orochimaru jumped to their feet and rushed downstairs.
What they saw was a bloodbath. All of Orochimaru's sound ninja had been brutally eliminated. Kabuto lied at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding but breathing. When Orochimaru and his guest reached the end of the stairs, they saw a man standing in the middle of the corpses. He was taller than Orochimaru and wore a black armor. His hair was long and black, just like Orochimaru's guest's hair but not quite as long. Instead, it reached to halfway across the man's back. But it were the man's eyes that piqued Orochimaru's interest. One eye depicted an eternal mangekyou sharingan, while the other eye was the rinnegan.
"Orochimaru's guest looked in awe at the new guest. "That's impossible, it can't be! Who are you?" the man's voice sounded old and panicking.
"My name, is Madara Uchiha"
Hey, last chapter did well, let's start with the next one immediatly! 2 pages later. Welp time to go to bed, let's finish this tomorrow! 1 month later *checks mail, sees someone reviewing this story* oh yeah I'm writing a story, completely forgot about that!
To be honest though, I just finished my year-long school project a few weeks ago, which was one of the major parts of my grades this year, and my final exams in high school are starting on monday, so I was really busy! (I also just returned from a school trip to Barcelona, so that was fun!)
Anyways, my schedule isn't clearing up anytime soon. See you guy's later!
Ps: I'm surprised nobody mentioned this before, but I think I made it clear now:
Obito got the puddin' a few chapters back. Go my man!