Naruto: Uchiha no Densetsu
Chapter 26: The Prelims begins
The time of night seemed like an eternity for the members of team seven. They had made camp inside a cave that was surrounded by trees from all sides, providing a sort of natural cover. While Hinata had set up traps on all sides throughout the night, Sakura stayed beside Sasuke, who was still unconscious. Although, he was wasn't shaking uncontrollably like earlier, his body temperature kept fluctuating the entire night. Sakura had also placed a wet cloth above his forehead to regulate his fever and also used medical ninjutsu on him every half an hour. It was sufficed to say that none of the girls got any sleep and the tiredness was evident from the abysmal look on their faces.
"Is he getting any better, Sakura?" Hinata questioned. She was laying back against the wall beside Sakura with half lidded eyes.
"I don't really know. I can't tell for certain. His chakra has been acting up constantly the past few hours. It looks to be undergoing some sort of change." Sakura replied tiredly. She wasn't faring much better than Hinata too. The two girls had hardly eaten anything since last evening. Sakura and Hinata were suddenly jerked out of their thoughts when they heard sounds coming from outside the cave. Hinata glanced towards Sakura briefly with prudence.
"Shh… stay here while I go out and check, alright?" Hinata whispered. Sakura nodded quietly and moved closer to Sasuke.
As soon as Hinata stepped outside the cave, her senses went on alert upon feeling that something wasn't right. Most of the traps she had set up were thrashed and she could also hear low rustling sounds around her. Activating her byakugan at once, she threw three kunais to her ten o' clock. She composed herself when three Otogakure genins suddenly jumped out of hiding and now stood in front of her.
"What do you want?" Hinata asked firmly and gripped another kunai in her hand. She was clearly not in the mood to entertain these Otogakure genins. If memory served her right, she remembered one of the Oto genins to be the person who threw the kunai towards Kabuto before the start of written part of the chunin exams.
"Look at her act so bravely. Let me take her down Dosu." Stated the genin with spiky, black hair and dark eyes. Dosu merely grunted in reply and that was all the confirmation Zaku needed. "We are here to kill Sasuke Uchiha." He stated out loud. Hinata's eyes widened for a while on hearing that proclamation but narrowed her eyes soon after.
"You'll have to get past me first." Hinata replied sharply and rushed towards her opponent without further ado. Zaku smirked at the foolishness of the girl and raised his arm to point it towards Hinata. As soon as Hinata was in striking distance of her opponent, she attempted a diagonal upward slash with her kunai. A little surprised at her speed, Zaku quickly side stepped the attack and released a blast of compressed air pressure from his hand. Hinata suddenly found herself thrown back several feet but managed to regain her footing. A second later, she suddenly found herself feeling wobbly and clutched her left ear in pain.
'What was that?' Hinata thought with caution. Observing his arm carefully, her byakugan noticed there were several hollow tube-like structures implanted inside of his arm. 'So, that's it! He's manipulating chakra inside those tubes to release pressurized air from his hands.' Hinata thought, as she managed to regain her composure. However, she had to jump away immediately when Zaku lunged towards her.
'I'll need to maintain distance from his hand. If I'm hit with one of those again, I may not be able to stand properly.' Hinata thought strategically. Taking out several more kunais, she coated them with raiton chakra and expertly threw them towards Zaku, each kunai aimed at a vital spot. The few seconds that Zaku took to deflect the kunais, he suddenly lost sight of Hinata, before him. Quickly turning back, he once again pointed his arm as he saw her within an arm's distance with her finger stretched towards him. He smirked when his hand was right beside her face.
'I got her…' Zaku thought with a smirk. However, to his surprise, Hinata suddenly ducked down and gave swift strikes to his arm, successfully closing down several tenketsu points on his arms. By the time Zaku realized what had happened, Hinata swatted him off the ground that made him lose his balance.
"Hakke Kusho" Hinata said and gave a high-speed palm thrust to Zaku's chest at point blank, while he was still in air. Zaku hit the ground with a resounding thud and coughed up blood as a result. He groaned in pain, not expecting to be outdone like this and cursed out loud at not able to feel a thing on his left arm. He could barely manage to lift it. Just as Hinata was about to jump away and focus on the others, Zaku quickly caught her leg with his right arm, intending to throw her away with his remaining strength. However, before he could even summon any further strength, Hinata swiftly turned around to crouch and planted a kunai in his head. As Zaku's hand loosened around her ankles, Hinata immediately jumped away when she heard clattering sounds behind her.
Getting her focus back after realizing what she had done, she noticed that Sakura had joined the fight and was fighting against the other two members of Zaku's team, who looked extremely displeased by their teammate's death. As Hinata took another step forward, she suddenly fell on one knee as she her body succumbed to the tiredness. 'Damn it… Damn it! Why now!?' Hinata thought in desperation.
While Hinata was down on the ground, Sakura was trying her best to fend off the constant attacks of the shinobi whose face was mostly covered in bandages. Dosu was highly surprised on seeing the Hyuga girl make a sport out of Zaku and for some reason he felt angered on seeing his teammate die. Even though he and Zaku were not really close, he had spent the past six years with him. Getting back to the matter at hand, he kept pressuring the pink-haired girl with a barrage of swift punches, but the girl simply kept dodging all of them. He was irked that none of his attacks were even getting close to the girl. On his next move, he expertly performed a feint hook to her left and subsequently followed it up with a quick punch with his right arm. Sakura flipped over Dosu and attempted a roundhouse kick, but Dosu blocked her kick with a single arm. Catching her ankle with his left arm, he swirled her around a couple of times, before throwing her away. Sakura hit one of the trees roughly but still got up. She composed herself by taking a deep breath and quickly made a few hand seals.
"Suiton: Mizu no Muchi" Sakura uttered as she created several water whips that quickly proceeded towards Dosu. Jumping over the water whips, Dosu was surprised that the whips were following him around. Glancing towards the pink-haired girl, he noticed that Sakura was controlling the whips with her hands. Quickly thinking on his feet, Dosu once again flipped above another few water whips and lunged towards Sakura who hadn't moved from her place.
'Shit, I won't be able to redirect my attack towards him in time.' Sakura thought with wide eyes. However, everyone in the area was surprised when a genin wearing complete green colored clothing appeared in front of Sakura and before their eyes could follow, kicked Dosu in the chest making him fly back.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Lee asked as he kept his eyes focused in front of him. Sakura sighed in relief and cancelled her jutsu to calm her breathing. "I am really grateful Lee. You saved me there…" Sakura replied in relief. Even Hinata breathed a sigh of relief on noticing Lee's arrival. However, before she could think of anything else, her attention moved towards the third member of the Otogakure genin squad. While Hinata was down and Sakura kept Dosu busy, Kin had sneaked past all the traps outside the cave was heading towards Sasuke with the intent to kill him.
Just as she was about to enter the cave, Kin found her body frozen on the spot and was unable to move at all. Looking down, she noticed that her shadow was outstretched. Following it, she cursed on seeing another Konoha shinobi at the other end. Shikamaru was standing behind one of the trees with his hands in the snake seal, as he held the Oto genin in her place with his Kagemane no Jutsu. Ino and Choji were standing a few feet behind their teammate and were observing the events unfold with worried eyes. Although, Shikamaru had a serious look after seeing Hinata kill that Oto genin.
By this time, Dosu had regained his footing and was nursing his chest a little. The strength behind that kick was certainly greater than he had expected. Observing the battle field, he cursed his luck on seeing several Konoha genins around him. He couldn't understand how the situation had turned against them. Orochimaru had informed them that the Konoha genins were not all that strong and could be dealt with easily. But, the Hyuga and the pink-haired girl were anything but weak. Losing his cool, he rushed towards the green-clad shinobi in front of him and aimed a kick to his face. Lee ducked under the kick and aimed for an uppercut which was swiftly dodged by Dosu. With quick reflexes, Dosu threw yet another punch towards Lee that he blocked with his arm. But this time Dosu smirked and molded his chakra to redirect high intensity sound waves to his opponent's ears. Lee immediately felt himself getting sick as his stance loosened up quite a bit and he stumbled back a little. Taking advantage of Lee's lack of concentration, Dosu aimed another punch, but to his surprise Lee still managed to block his punch, albeit sloppily. However, this time Dosu released a much higher concentration of sound waves that directly hit Lee. As Lee stumbled back and lost his footing, Dosu kicked him in the sternum harshly that made the green-clad genin fall onto the ground.
'I need to get up and fight. I can't let Lee take all the damage.' Both Sakura and Hinata thought simultaneously. However, before the two could move, everyone in the area froze when they felt an ominous feeling suddenly surround them. Looking towards the source, everyone was surprised to see Sasuke standing beside Kin. But the strange part was that the right side of his body was covered in black markings and a dark violet color chakra swirled around him. Just looking at Sasuke, gave everyone a cold feeling.
'Why does he have Orochimaru-sama's curse mark?' Dosu thought as bit of sweat formed on his face. This just further complicated things. Hinata and Sakura had highly worried expressions on noticing the cold look appear on Sasuke's face. They had never seen such a dead look on him. And that smirk sent chills through their entire body.
"This… this is true power…" Sasuke whispered as he looked down at his hands. He didn't know what exactly had happened, but he could feel an incredible amount of power dwelling inside of him and wanted to test it out as soon possible. That's when his gaze fell upon two shinobi who wore the headband of another village. His smirk widened even more as he found his targets. Within a blink of an eye, Sasuke appeared behind Dosu and the Oto genin's eyes widened as he couldn't even track Sasuke's movements. Before Dosu could react, Sasuke gave a hard kick to his face that made Dosu fly to the side and crash through several tree with immense force. Dosu immediately fell unconscious upon impact and his body limply fell on the ground.
"This is it… with this power, I can finally kill him…" Sasuke whispered under his breath as he clenched his fists with a grin. Hinata and Sakura cautiously approached their teammate. They were apprehensive to see Sasuke act so strange.
"Sasuke-kun? You need to calm down and take a deep breath. You're not yourself right now." Hinata called out to him with concern. Sasuke glanced towards her and quirked an eyebrow.
"Don't stand in my way, Hinata. This doesn't concern you." Sasuke replied with a scoff.
"Sasuke! Do you hear yourself? You don't know what you're saying. You are to one who needs to stand down. You were unconscious the whole night and were burning up with fever. Both of us took care of you!" Sakura yelled with misty eyes. She couldn't understand why he was acting this way. However, as soon as the words left her mouth, realization dawned on her as she wondered if it was due to the seal that was on his neck. Hinata glanced towards Sakura and both the girls understood each other's trail of thoughts. Thereafter, Sakura promptly moved towards Sasuke with a kunai in her hand. Sasuke senselessly laughed and caught Sakura's wrist before she could do anything. However, in that split second, Hinata mustered her remaining strength and rushed behind Sasuke and struck a few tenketsu points on his neck that made the Uchiha fall unconscious yet again. Once Sasuke fell on the ground and the black markings covering his body also receded back into the seal. Both the girls sighed in relief as they were able to subdue Sasuke for the time being.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru approached Kin who was still trapped under his jutsu and placed a kunai on her throat. "Take your teammate and leave. We don't want anymore trouble here." The young Nara stated with narrowed eyes. For once, even he was confused as to what was happening here and couldn't come to any conclusion of sorts. He felt it was best if his team grouped up with the remaining Konoha rookie genin teams and proceeded towards the tower. Maybe then he could get some answers. He may not like the Uchiha much but Sasuke was still one of them.
Seeing that one of her teammate was killed and the other one unconscious, Kin knew that she had no chance in completing the mission and raised her arms in defeat. "All right. I will take my teammate and leave the area quietly." She replied a bit irritatingly. She was annoyed that none of her teammates had listened to her about scouting their targets beforehand and gauging their strength. She was also worried about what Orochimaru would do. She turned around and walked towards her knocked out teammate. Picking up Dosu, she once again glanced towards all the Konoha genins and without saying anything further, ran in the opposite direction. Seeing that everything was quiet, Ino and Choji rushed towards Sakura and Hinata who were picking up Sasuke from the ground while Shikamaru moved towards Lee, who was beginning to wake up.
"Sakura, Hinata, what the hell happened to you guys and what was with Sasuke? He appeared to be… different than usual." Ino asked the two girls urgently. Yet again, Sakura and Hinata exchanged a subtle glance and decided not to indulge much until they knew everything.
"Uhm… I don't really know Ino. We were resting over here when those Otogakure genins showed up. And I really don't know what happened with Sasuke. This is the first time we saw him like this too." Sakura replied with a straight face.
"Sasuke did look really different and those black patterns around his body… It seemed strange to be honest." Choji commented. Hinata and Sakura nodded as they supported Sasuke from either sides. They just wanted to get to the tower and meet up with Kakashi and Naruto. Those two would definitely know what was happening to Sasuke. "Have you gotten both the scrolls?" Hinata questioned, hoping to divert the topic. Ino gave a weak smile and quickly took out two scrolls from her pouch with a wide smile. Hinata assumed that Ino and Choji had not seen her kill the Oto genin, otherwise she was certain Ino would have bombarded her with questions.
"Yeah, we got it a few hours ago from one of the Kumogakure teams. Although, Shikamaru and Choji did most of the work…" Ino stated sheepishly. A few seconds later, Hinata turned her attention to her left when she saw Lee approaching them. "Oh, Lee-kun, how are you feeling? I'm really sorry that you got involved in this fight." Hinata said apologetically. Even Sakura lowered her gaze a little but was surprised when she heard Lee's voice.
"It's no problem, Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan! Although, I must return to my team now. Let's show our flames of youth in the third round of the chunin exams!" Lee replied enthusiastically. He felt a lot better than before as the nauseated feeling had almost faded. Hinata and Sakura chuckled and then gave a grateful smile to the green-clad genin. Shortly after that, Lee too left the area and ran towards his team.
"Do you want to go to the tower together? I assume your team has also acquired both the scrolls?" Shikamaru questioned. He kept glancing towards Sasuke, especially at the black seal that was visible on his neck. He had a bunch of questions that he wanted to ask but knew it wasn't the right time. "Oh yeah! That's perfect. Both of our teams can join up for the time being, then we can fend off the adversaries much easily." Ino added cheerfully.
"Thanks, Shikamaru. I think that'll be good. The three of us are not in a good condition to fight another team." Hinata replied frankly. Shikamaru simply nodded and a few minutes later team ten and seven immediately left for the tower after gathering all of their belongings.
Two days later
Two days had quickly passed by since team seven and ten had arrived at the tower. Upon reaching the tower earlier, Sakura and Hinata had immediately rushed Sasuke to a room and made him rest on a bed. Since the jounin sensei were not allowed inside the building until the end of the exam, they couldn't get any word out. Although, much to their relief, Sasuke's condition had improved relatively over the course of two days. His fever had dwindled and even his grumpy mood had become slightly better. Those teams that had failed to collect both the heaven and earth scrolls were immediately escorted off the premises by the end of the fifth day. Currently, all the teams that had passed the second round were grouped in a large hall within the tower. The hall had a large statue of a pair of hands forming the Hitsuji/Ram hand seal on one end along with standings on two sides of the hall for the spectators to stand. From Konoha, team seven, eight, nine, ten and Kabuto's squad had qualified while from Kumogakure it was Samui's team and from Sunagakure, it was Gaara and his siblings. The hall was filled with chatter and whispers among the genins as they waited for their sensei and the Hokage to arrive.
Sasuke shifted in his place a bit uncomfortably as he suddenly placed his hand above the seal on his neck. The action wasn't unnoticed by his teammates as Hinata and Sakura promptly stepped beside him.
"Is it acting up again?" Sakura asked worriedly. She was genuinely worried about his health. Even though he appeared to be fine, she could tell that the seal was interfering with his chakra network. "I… will be fine. Don't worry about me." Sasuke grumbled, trying to keep a calm face.
Few moments later, Minato, Hayate, Anko and Naruto entered followed by the jounin sensei for each of the teams that were gathered. All the genin participants focused their attention in front of them as Minato stepped forward and gazed over all of them with keen eyes.
"Congratulations to all who have passed the second round of the chunin exams. While it may have been easy for some of you, I'm sure there were teams who had quite a hard time too. But, at the end all that matter is that you managed to complete the objective that was given to you. The chunin exams is not only held to gauge the strength of the individual shinobi from each village for promotion…" Minato stated and everyone in the room paid absolute attention to the man who was regarded as the strongest kage in the Elemental Nations. Even the team from Kumogakure listened to each word carefully. A, the current Raikage of Kumogakure had openly admitted his inferiority towards his rival, the Yondaime Hokage. And respecting strength was a common tradition taught in Kumo.
"… but it is also held as a substitute for war and to analyze the strength of the respective nation. The third part of the chunin exams is witnessed by the official delegators of different nation. Depending on the genin's performance, the nation also attracts more business and tourists which augments the economy. Now, as for the third part…" Minato was suddenly interrupted by Hayate, who stepped beside him.
"Hokage-sama, if I may?" Hayate asked and coughed lightly into his hand. Minato simply nodded and stepped back to let the jounin continue further.
"My name is Hayate Gekko and I'll be the proctor for the third part of the chunin exams. However, before we proceed, we will need to hold preliminaries since there are too many participants still remaining." Hayate announced. Most of the genins were unsettled at that prospect and the displeasure was clearly evident on their faces.
"Hey! What the hell? Some of us came back from the forest just a few hours ago!" It was Kiba who voiced his thoughts and several others nodded, agreeing with the young Inuzuka.
"You can't do that. Won't we be given any time to rest or prepare for the preliminary?" Kankuro questioned as he stared at the proctor with an annoyed expression. Even though, his team had finished the second part on the first day itself, it was necessary for him to be among the finalists for the third part.
"I'm afraid the preliminaries will be held right now and cannot be postponed any further. As you were told, the finals of the chunin exams will host several officials which will also include the daimyos of participating nations. Hence, we cannot afford to stretch the finals for too long. However, if anyone wants to quit now, you may do so. The preliminaries will be one on one fights between the participants." Hayate stated firmly, completely ignoring Kiba and Kankuro's rants. Most of the genins became quiet for a few seconds until they heard someone take a step forward.
"I would like quit right now. I'm quite tired from the time spent in the Forest of Death and don't have much chakra left to partake in a fight." Kabuto stated out loud. A lot of the people were surprised on hearing Kabuto's words, especially the genins from Konoha since they knew the number of times Kabuto had failed the chunin exams. Even Naruto found it a little odd since he couldn't exactly ascertain what Kabuto was thinking based on his facial expression. The blond discreetly looked over Kabuto's chakra coils with his rinnegan and narrowed his eyes immediately. Kabuto's chakra reserves were almost on par with Kakashi's and were well developed too. Also, based on how smooth the chakra flow was, Naruto was certain that Kabuto had extremely proficient control over his chakra.
"Alright, please move to the back of the hall and you'll be escorted outside training ground 44 shortly." Hayate replied. He once again asked if anyone wished to leave and then continued to explain the rules of the battle when no one else replied. Meanwhile, Kabuto walked outside the hall where he met up with a chunin and moved towards the exit of training ground 44.
'Something's not right…' Naruto thought. His gaze then suddenly fell upon Sasuke and quirked an eyebrow when Naruto saw him clutch his neck uncomfortably.
"Did you notice? There's a seal on Sasuke's neck…" Naruto nodded when he heard Kakashi whisper to him. "Do you think it was him?" Kakashi asked seriously.
"I can't say anything for certain now. After the encounter, I was certain that Orochimaru had left the area since I couldn't feel his chakra. But the man is known to be elusive. You should definitely check up on him. I don't have much experience with fuinjutsu." Naruto replied, keeping a straight face.
"After his match get's over. I will take him aside and inspect the seal." Kakashi said.
"Alright. You do that. I will go talk to tou-san about this." Naruto said in a hushed voice. Unaware to the two, Anko heard the brief conversation between Naruto and Kakashi. She was informed that Orochimaru had come to Konoha and snuck into the Forest of Death while the genins were there. After hearing Naruto and Kakashi's words, it became clear to her for what reason. Unconsciously, she too clutched her neck where her former sensei had given her the seal, years ago. Before she could walk towards the Hokage and talk to him about this matter, she noticed that Naruto had already moved next to Minato. She decided to stand back and keep a close eye on Sasuke, in case the situation got out of hand. While she was surprised that Sasuke managed to survive Orochimaru's cursed seal, she also knew the dangers it brought.
"Tou-san, there's something you need to know about. I think I know why Orochimaru had come back to the village…" Naruto spoke quietly. Minato kept a calm look and simply looked ahead. Although, he nodded, indicating Naruto to continue. Shortly after that, the jounin sensei walked to the standing above, with their respective teams. While team seven, eight and nine stood on the left standings, team ten and the ones from Kumo and Suna stood on the other side.
"The screen on top will display the names of two genin at random and only those two are required to come down for the fight." Hayate said out loud and pointed towards the large screen just beside the statue.
"Sasuke, what happened back in the forest?" Kakashi asked genuinely. For a moment, Sasuke was surprised that Kakashi already knew about it but he simply sighed knowing, he couldn't have hidden it anyway.
"We have no clue how it happened, Kakashi-sensei. We were sleeping at night under a tree and then suddenly we heard Sasuke scream and he fell unconscious after that. That's when we saw that mark on his neck." Hinata said. Thereafter, Kakashi observed the seal on Sasuke's neck and at first glance he knew what it was. He glanced towards Naruto who was standing beside Minato and nodded.
"Is he going to be okay, sensei?" Sakura questioned. Kakashi turned towards the pink-haired girl gave a comforting smile under his mask. "Don't worry, Sakura." He then turned towards Sasuke and his voice turned a tad bit serious. "I will advise you not to use much chakra in your fight. This seal on your neck is not an ordinary one. The more chakra you use, the more influence the mark will have on you. After your match, I will put a seal on top of this cursed mark to inhibit it's influence on you. Then we'll see if it can be removed or not." Kakashi stated.
"What if I don't want it to be sealed?" Sasuke retorted quite adamantly. He still remembered the overwhelming power coursing through his body when he had used the cursed mark. Kakashi kept his calm at Sasuke's remark and for some reason, he wasn't entirely surprised on hearing that too. Sasuke had always been a little obsessive when it came to obtain more power for the sake of avenging his clan. Even though he could relate to his situation, he didn't wish for his student to walk down the wrong path.
"Sasuke, listen to me. This is one of Orochimaru's modified curse mark. Nothing good will come out of it. I'm sure you have noticed the ill effects it will have on your body. Moreover, this is not a request. I will apply a seal on top of that curse mark." Kakashi stated rigidly. Before Sasuke could reply, he heard his name being called for the first match.
"The first match will be between Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado. Will the contestants come down?" Hayate announced. Sasuke merely scoffed and walked below to the arena and stood opposite to his opponent. Yoroi's face was greatly concealed by the mask he wore around his mouth that hung to around his neck, sunglasses that obscured his eyes and forehead protector which he wore like a bandana. He also wore the standard attire of his team consisting of a high-collared, sleeveless, purple shirt with a short sleeved, white one underneath, a simple obi around his waist, purple pants, blue sandals and purple fingerless gloves.
"Both of you, ready?" Hayate asked as he looked towards both the contestants. Upon receiving a nod from both, he put his hand down and jumped back, signifying the start of the match. All the people spectating from the standings above intently watched the two to learn more about their fighting styles and abilities.
As soon as Hayate jumped back, both the shinobi stared at each other for a few moments, keen to see who would make the first move. Sasuke settled in his traditional taijutsu kata of the Uchiha Clan. As a few seconds passed, it was Yoroi who made the first move and rushed towards the Uchiha. Sasuke too rushed towards Yoroi, matching his opponent's speed. As the two were at arm's length, Sasuke immediately ducked and attempted to swat him. Yoroi swiftly jumped above Sasuke's legs and aimed a kick to his head. Blocking the kick with his right arm, Sasuke took the opportunity of Yoroi being midair and quickly got up to give a harsh punch to his opponent's torso. Upon contact, Yoroi flew back and hit the wall behind him with a resounding thud.
However, Sasuke immediately fell on one knee as he suddenly felt low on chakra. "What did you do?" Sasuke asked heatedly with narrowed eyes. Once Yoroi got up from the ground, he smirked at the look on Sasuke's face.
"Oh? Don't be so surprised. You aren't the only special one here. I have the ability to absorb chakra. All I need is a mere contact with my hand to absorb your chakra. A few more times and you'll be completely out of chakra and will be rendered immobile." Yoroi boasted as he stepped confidently towards Sasuke. However, he stopped midway when he saw Sasuke get up with a smirk on his face.
"I thought you'd be challenge. Sadly, I was mistaken…" Sasuke commented with a sigh. Yoroi's eyes suddenly widened when everything around him shattered like pieces of glass and he found himself standing in the place before the match started. He gasped and took a step back when he saw Sasuke staring at him with his sharingan.
"Wh… what?" stuttered Yoroi with a horrific look on his face. Capitalizing on the moment, Sasuke immediately rushed behind Yoroi with quick speed and kicked him high into the air. He then jumped too, to appear behind Yoroi hoping to kick him down onto the ground when the cursed seal suddenly became active and started spreading across his body.
Everyone's eyes widened on seeing the seal spread on Sasuke's neck. Anko immediately made a run towards the area to put a stop to the match but was abruptly stopped by Naruto.
"The match needs to be stopped right now! Let me go, Naruto!" Anko more or less yelled with anger but Naruto's grip on her wrist simply became tighter. "You need to calm down. Look back, will you? Sasuke is stronger than you think." Naruto replied calmly. Upon turning back, Anko was utterly shocked to see that Sasuke had managed to stop the seal from spreading further with sheer willpower. She couldn't even begin to understand how he did that. In her younger age, she had struggled a lot in keeping the cursed seal under control and knew how hard it could be.
As Sasuke managed to regain his bearings, he momentarily covered his entire body with raiton chakra. And with speed unseen by the naked eyes, he aimed a brutal kick to Yoroi's shoulder which made him stumble down speedily. As Yoroi fell down, a small crater was formed below and he immediately lost consciousness. A second later when Sasuke landed on the ground, he too fell on th ground with heavy breaths. Kakashi promptly landed beside Sasuke and turned to look at Hayate who was checking up on Yoroi.
"Sasuke Uchiha wins the match!" Hayate announced. Kakashi then picked up Sasuke despite his struggles and shunshined out of the area.
"You should go and see if you can help, Naruto." Minato suggested. Without saying another word, Naruto also shunshined out of the area.
"He's strong…" Karui stated as she folded her arms over her chest. She was impressed with his use of the sharingan along with brief raiton manipulation he had showed.
"Agreed. He's a strong shinobi. And the way he manipulated raiton chakra is similar to the Raikage. Although not on the same level, it was certainly impressive. Still, I doubt if that's all he can do." Samui also commented. Similar chatter was also going among the genin squads. Everyone was greatly impressed with Sasuke's level of raiton manipulation and his use of sharingan. But, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai were also worried about the mark they had seen on Sasuke's neck. All three of them knew about the similar mark on Anko and could only speculate as to how Orochimaru managed to come in contact with Sasuke.
"Would Sakura Haruno and Samui come down?" Hayate announced again.
"Good luck, Sakura-chan. I am sure you'll do well. But, still be careful. She looks to be strong." Hinata said. Sakura smiled on hearing Hinata's words. "Thanks, Hinata. I'll try my best." Sakura replied before heading down. Even Ino, Fu, Kiba and Shikamaru whished her luck on her way down. Once Sakura and Samui were ready, Hayate once again moved back to a safe distance.
Sakura took out a kunai and held it steadily in her right arm while Samui took out her tanto. As Sakura took a step forward, Samui swiftly moved towards Sakura at an impressive speed.
'She's fast.' Sakura thought but kept her cool. Taking out three more kunais, she immediately threw them towards Samui and promptly jumped into the air and began making hand seals. Samui abruptly stopped and deflected all the kunais with her tanto in her left hand while her free arm took out a couple of shurikens from her pouch and flung it towards Sakura.
"Suiton: Mizurappa" Sakura said as she expelled a large jet of water from her mouth, aimed at Samui. The force behind the jet of water easily deflected the shurikens and it proceeded towards Samui speedily. Instead of jumping back, Samui too jumped into the air and pointed a beam of electricity from her fingers towards the water. With a look of panic, Sakura quickly stopped her jutsu in fear of being electrocuted. As soon as the two kunoichi landed on the ground, they propelled themselves towards each other as Sakura's kunai clashed against Samui's tanto. The two battled in strength for a few seconds but soon enough Samui began overpowering Sakura. Seeing as she was being pushed back, Sakura let go of her kunai and ducked down to aim a punch to Samui's torso. Sakura's fist barely grazed her when Samui graciously jumped back to avoid a fatal blow.
Upon landing back, even though Samui's face showed no emotion whatsoever, she was greatly intrigued. She had felt the amount of chakra that was coated around her opponent's fist. She would have been in serious trouble had she taken that hit.
"You have impressive reflexes, Samui-san." Sakura stated with a small smile as she took a deep breath. She had been working on accumulating chakra around her fists the past few weeks. Though she hadn't managed to perfect it, she was somewhat getting the hang of it.
"Wow… Look at those two. I didn't think Sakura had become so good…" Ino said, mesmerized by watching the two kunoichi fight. And she wasn't the only one. Even Hinata, Kurenai, Anko, Temari and Karui were greatly impressed by the fight. In several parts of the shinobi world, a kunoichi's strength was often deemed to be lower than that of a man. But watching Sakura and Samui's fight, made them proud to call themselves kunoichi.
"This is seriously troublesome… if anyone of us were to fight those two, I don't think we could win." Shikamaru commented as he leaned on the railings. Choji and Ino merely nodded while keeping their eyes glued to the arena.
"Yosh, Sakura-chan! You can do this! Anything is possible when you're in the springtime of your youth!" Lee cheered loudly, making everyone else look at the green-clad genin dumbly. "That's the spirit, Lee! If you cheer your fellow shinobi more, her confidence will increase even further." Gai also yelled as he patted Lee on the back with a sparkling smile. Tenten chuckled awkwardly when she found several people looking in their team's direction and at this moment, she just wished to escape form everyone's prying gaze.
"Ugh… are those two for real?" Kankuro whispered to his sister quietly. Temari shook her head as she sighed. She couldn't even stand to look at those two's ridiculous outfits.
"You have… interesting friends." Samui commented with a blank expression. Even Sakura laughed with an awkward look. "Ah yes… I sure do." Sakura replied, unsure what to say exactly.
"But I believe we have played for long enough…" Samui replied as she made a quick set of hand seals, most of which were unknown to Sakura. In any case, she stood her ground and prepared herself.
"Ranton: Reizaa Saakasu" Samui said out loud. Manipulating raiton and suiton chakra at the same time, she released several threads of lightning from her hand which swiftly moved towards the pink-haired girl. With quick feet, Sakura jumped away but was surprised when the beam of lightning bent fluidly and followed after her. Unable to outrun the beams, she acrobatically managed to dodge some of them with great agility but with sheer number of lightning beams, some of them soon landed a hit and she was pushed back roughly. The very next second, she hit the wall behind her with enough force to make several cracks in it. Soon enough, she slid down and fell on the ground, completely knocked out from the earlier hit.
"Samui from Kumogakure wins the match!" Hayate announced as he checked on Sakura's condition. She had some minor burns on her arms along with some bruises on her back. The medical team shortly came by and took her out of the arena for immediate treatment.
'Ranton? What else have you been hiding A?' Minato thought with a chuckle. He had clashed with the Yondaime Raikage on several occasions during the third shinobi war and he greatly respected the man for his strength. He also knew that the Ranton kekkei genkai was an extremely rare one, even in Kumogakure. He only knew of one other shinobi from Kumo who could use the Ranton kekkei genkai.
"Did you really have to use it?" Omoi asked lazily, whilst still sucking on a lollipop in his mouth. Even Karui was surprised to see her teammate use her kekkei genkai.
"She was strong. I did not wish to indulge her in taijutsu. It would have been dangerous." That was all Samui stated as she walked past them and stood at the side. She would not admit it openly, but till now she was pleasantly surprised by the skills of team seven from Konoha.
"Damn. That's not a kekkei genkai you see very often. It's my first time seeing a user of Ranton kekkei genkai." Asuma commented in appreciation. He thoroughly enjoyed the fight and was certain it would have been a close match, if Sakura had more information regarding her opponent.
"Do you know about that jutsu, Asuma sensei?" Ino asked curiously. Watching Sakura and Samui fight, Ino had suddenly felt a little skeptical of her own skills. Frankly, since graduating from the academy, she hadn't worked on improving her skills greatly. And it made her feel worried about her match. As if sensing her worry, Asuma placed a comforting hand on Ino's shoulder.
"Don't worry too much about your match. Winning right now is not important. Even if you do lose, you get to learn where you can improve upon in the future. What's important is that you fight to your full capability." Asuma said gently. Ino smiled a little on hearing those words as she felt a bit more confident. She knew she had slacked off in her training up till now. So, she couldn't afford to be sad if things didn't go her way. However, she was extremely proud of Sakura. Watching her improvement gave her motivation to improve further.
"And to answer your question, I don't necessarily know about that particular jutsu. But I do know that girl has the Ranton kekkei genkai. It's generally common in Kaminari no Kuni. Even then, it's an exceedingly rare kekkei genkai." Asuma stated.
"That's amazing. I never knew about that." Ino replied as she unknowingly glanced towards Samui. A lot of the Konoha genins were surprised on hearing that fact. Hinata wanted to go down and check up on her teammate but knew she couldn't do that. She was also worried about Sasuke, since Kakashi and Naruto still hadn't returned with him. But she kept herself composed. She couldn't afford to lose in the preliminary. And judging by the skill displayed by Samui, she could only assume that her teammates were most likely on the same level. Plus, the fact that she might have to face a jinchuriki was quite unsettling. Even though, she had practiced with Naruto on several occasions, he had never used bijuu chakra against her. Essentially, she had never fought against a jinchuriki who used their bijuu's chakra. Hinata then shifted her attention towards the arena again, when Shikamaru and Karui's name was called.
"Shikamaru, stop acting lazy for this match at least! You can do this!" Ino cheered him which only made the young Nara sigh. 'Troublesome woman…' Shikamaru thought. He'd rather be sitting at home playing shogi or lying under the sun. But his mother would never let him rest if she knew he failed the chunin exams on purpose. He dreaded what his mother might do if she learnt that he took the exams too lightly.
While the preliminaries were going on in the arena at the ground floor of the tower, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke were in a closed room on the second floor. After inspecting the seal with his rinnegan, Naruto had concluded that Orochimaru had transfused a part of his own soul mixed with sage chakra to form the seal. But the intriguing part was that, the seal burst into small tendrils inside Sasuke's body which connected to each of his chakra pathway. In essence, Orochimaru's cursed seal acted like a parasite which clung to Sasuke's chakra network for support. For the time being, Kakashi had put a suppressing seal on top of the cursed seal which put it in a dormant state. While the suppression seal did not completely block the cursed seal, it would reduce the activity of the seal and the influence it would normally have on Sasuke.
"Do you think it can be removed?" Naruto asked as he sat beside the unconscious form of Sasuke. The application of applying the suppression seal on Sasuke had taken a lot of energy from him, which rendered him exhausted for a few hours.
"I'm not really sure. Minato-sensei has been working on a seal to counteract this particular seal developed by Orochimaru for a few years. But he hasn't had much success." Kakashi replied tiredly.
"Really? Who else has it?" Naruto asked curiously. He was surprised as well as angry at the fact that Orochimaru had applied the seal someone else too.
"Anko Mitarashi. I'm not surprised that you don't know about it. In fact, majority of the Konoha populace don't know about it. Before Orochimaru defected Konoha, he had taken Anko as his student. Orochimaru had taken her outside the village stating it was for training. But, days later we learnt that he had deserted the village and Anko was found in one of his laboratories locked in a room with that seal. It's a very complex seal and I hoped to never see it again." Kakashi revealed somberly. Even Naruto felt saddened on hearing that. He never expected Anko to have gone through such pain and looking at her now, it was quite frankly, hard to believe.
"That bastard… I should have made sure to kill him in Takigakure…" cursed Naruto as he punched the ground beside him in frustration.
"Why didn't you finish him off in the forest? I assumed you would have done so." Kakashi asked as he got up from the ground. They had been away from the arena for quite some time. And he really did not wish to miss his students' matches.
"He had sent a clone of some sort. I can't exactly say what, but the one in the forest did not have the same amount of chakra as Orochimaru. Plus, the chakra I sensed from his clone was somewhat different and it felt much denser than the one I felt from him in Takigakure." Naruto answered with a sigh. He did not wish to reveal the truth to Kakashi right now and thus had to bend the truth a little. Still, he was honestly tired of Orochimaru. The snake sannin's existence only brought misery to Konohagakure. But the information he learnt from him few days ago was mind boggling. To know that there's another rinnegan user was alarming indeed. He would certainly need to talk to Jiraiya about this matter. He was the only one who knew Orochimaru better than anyone else.
"Anyway, let's head back. I'll drop Sasuke off at the infirmary and then meet you at the arena." Kakashi stated and the two shortly left the room.
Author Notes: Sadly, I could not extend this chapter much to accommodate rest of the fights in the preliminary. I will not be show casing all the matches in detail. There are twenty people in the prelims, so, I will be writing five out of the ten matches in detail. None of the genins will be showing their entire strength during these prelims, since those who do qualify will want to keep a few tricks for the finals. I will also display Hinata's relation with Neji in the next chapter and how it has developed for the better or worse since Naruto had left the academy. The next chapter will conclude the preliminary and will be about the one month time period before the finals begin. Also, Naruto will meet with Jiraiya and talk to him about his conversation with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. Sasuke will also approach Naruto and talk to him about the strange feelings that have been surfacing within him. Shisui will finally make an appearence again next chapter. Since Jiraiya and he do most of the heavy reconnaissance for the village, they will bring up the topic of Konoha being most likely attacked by Orochimaru and Danzo during the Chunin exam finals.
But, I do believe, Naruto will have a plan to use Orochimaru for his own plan. Whether he will kill Orochimaru or not, will depend. That particular aspect hasn't been decided yet. However, Danzo's motives will be clearly revealed once the attack on Konoha commences. I have to say regrettably, that one or two important people may perish during the attack on Konoha. Well, that's all the spoilers for the upcoming chapters.
I had decided to take a two week break, hence, I hadn't updated the story. Hopefully, I will get the flow back again. Do follow, favorite and review the story! And please let me know your opinions, so, I may try my best to steer the story in a direction which the readers would enjoy.
Until next time!