Lost Chapter 27


The sunlight shone off of Minato's golden hair, only magnifying the effect of his appearance upon the arena. The silence was deafening to Harry, Naruto, and Neville, who had all gotten used to the cheering and just general noise of the crowd. Nobody was making any sounds, and it was a tough call to tell if anyone was even breathing.

As Minato stepped up to the podium, he smiled down at the four left in the arena, his eyes lingering upon his team.

"Good afternoon to all citizens and visitors of Konoha. It is with great expectation that I return here today. Not only is it the final round of the Chunin Exam, I am also getting to see all three of my boys participate!" Any noise that had been generated, ceased again. People were sharing shocked expressions among the crowd, either still reeling from the revelation that the Yondaime was alive, or the newest that the Yondaime had three sons and they were all participating.

This shock died faster though and soon the murmurs began. Team Arashi shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the crowd. Even the proctor was looking at them strangely.

Harry sighed and fought the urge to whisper to the other two. The famous thing was really getting old. It was fun for when they actually earned the fame, but this was different. This was fame for Minato's achievements, not their own.

"I finally understood why you hated your fame so much…" Neville had cracked a little under the stress and was whispering to his partners. Naruto nodded and Harry's head twitched slightly.

Up in the Kage booth, Minato smiled as he saw the reactions of his team. They were uncomfortable, but handling the reactions well. Of course, he had prepared them for this, but…

"I will be releasing a press statement in three days, over what has happened since the attack just under twelve years ago. Until then, I wish to settle back into my role and I hope that you all enjoy the rest of the matches." With that as his closing statement, the Yondaime stepped into the Kage booth with the Sandaime.

Minato tried not to smile as he saw the reaction of the Kazekage toward him. He was also slightly suspicious, he knew that the Kazekage was not doing that great in his own country, but outright fear and anger towards himself was not exactly expected. He resolved to keep a closer eye on the Kazekage as he sat in the chair that had been placed for him by one of the more knowledgeable ANBU.

Down below, the proctor had to be shaken just slightly by Naruto to get him to do his job. The speech was slightly shakier than any of them had expected, but it was short and soon, Harry and the redhead were headed up to the spectator's box for their wait.

/

"You ready?" Naruto assumed a starting kata in the style that Minato had taught them all. Neville just smirked in response before sliding into his own mirror stance of his pseudo-brother. They nodded to the proctor as one and the boys became a flurry of motion.

Not many words were exchanged as the pair began to exchange hits and jutus. The pace was so fast, that many of the audience did not have any hope of following the pair.

Finally, Naruto got a lucky hit in and Neville was slammed into a wall. Instead of being unconscious or even dazed, Neville smirked. Then, he exploded and Naruto was sent flying across the arena grounds.

"Ugh!" Naruto coughed. "Who taught you the exploding clones?" Neville's laugh echoed out of the trees.

"You can blame sensei for that one." Naruto frowned and didn't go any closer as Neville stepped out of the trees; he didn't dare glance up at the Kage box to glare at his dad.

"He didn't…" Neville grinned, but didn't answer. Naruto stepped back as his teammate got closer.

"Awwww… Afraid just a little bit?" Naruto shook his head but kept stepping back as Neville advanced upon him.

"You can't tell if I'm a clone or not, so you aren't going to risk it? Are you?" Neville taunted Naruto as he grew closer and closer.

Naruto growled and tried to step back again, but found that he couldn't. He couldn't move at all.

"Finally." Neville grinned. "That took longer than I expected. The poison on that clone was supposed to have taken effect five minutes ago. Do you concede Naruto, or should I really keep going?" Naruto growled and tried to struggle against the poison. Neville sighed, the grin disappearing from his face.

"Fine." As Neville pulled another pod off of his belt, Naruto fought harder and managed to move one hand. It was too slow though, and the pod exploded in Naruto's face. Naruto quickly fell to the ground under the effects of both a paralysis poison and a sleeping poison.

"Naruto is unable to continue. The win goes to his teammate, Nev!" Neville sighed again and fished something else out of his belt pouch as Harry and Minato watched carefully. He broke open another capsule and sprinkled it over Naruto's face. The proctor looked at Neville curiously, but Neville just shrugged. Before the proctor could say anything, Naruto sneezed and sat up.

"Darn." He frowned at Neville, who shrugged again.

"Why did you have to drug me?" Naruto whined as Neville helped him to his feet.

"You wouldn't concede." Naruto pouted.

"But you didn't have to drug me!" Neville smiled, Naruto was perfectly fine if he was already moving and talking like he was.

"I did-" Before Neville could continue, the proctor interrupted.

"Thank you for a decent fight, now it is time for the other semifinal." Neville nodded and grabbed a hold of Naruto. As Naruto felt Neville tug on his arm, he sighed.

"Fine… Nev, I'm gonna go sit by the Kage box, I'll see you after you lose to Harry." Neville let out a short exclamation as Naruto disappeared in his own swirl of yellow light.

"I'm not gonna lose!" Neville yelped and vanished in his dark green light just as Harry appeared right next to him. Harry's opponent appeared next in a swirl of sand.

/

"That was a good fight your students put on Yondaime." The Kazekage's voice was the first to break the quiet in the Kage booth. Minato almost glowed with pride at the compliment.

"Thank you Kazekage-san." Minato mused over the skills of Neville and Naruto.

"It seems I have been going too easy on them. I was unaware that either of them was that fast." The Sandaime snorted into his drink.

"Going easy, Minato?" Minato nodded to the Third's query.

"Yes. They can each last for five minutes against me going by themselves with me going about Jounin level." The Kazekage sucked in a sharp breath at Minato's assessment of his team.

"Five minutes against a Jounin?" Minato smirked, but it was slightly dulled. The Kazekage was still throwing him off just slightly. There was something wrong that he could not put a finger on.

"Yes. It seems I need to start pushing at least those two more. I don't know how Hari is doing. Of course, those two also had an extra trainer this month. I couldn't find one for Hari, so he mostly worked out of books. He is easily the smartest of the three. I believe he could give the best Nara a run for his money." The Sandaime turned and stared at Minato.

"Seriously?!" Minato nodded and the former Hokage turned in his seat and stared, wide-eyed, into the floor of the arena. The Kazekage said nothing. Minato smirked and turned his attention back to his other son.

"Your son is the other one, right, Kazekage-san?" The Kazekage made an odd sound, and Minato sighed. Apparently, neither wanted to speak again. Fortunately for Minato, the match also appeared to be starting anyways.

/

Harry didn't banter with his opponent. Something told him it wouldn't be worth it. The proctor began the match very quickly upon seeing the looks on the faces of the two competitors. Immediately, Harry was forced to start dodging sand as it shot after him in waves. Unable to form hand seals and unable to get away, Harry kept up his speed. Intuition (and how the Sand boy had acted to the other competitors) told him that if he failed to dodge, it would be fatal.

Harry forced back a sigh. He was going to be forced to use it. With a whisper, Harry vanished in a sigh of leaves.

The opponent paused with his sand as he looked for Harry. Unable to find Harry immediately, he waited. Eventually, Harry would reveal himself.

A low whistling sound was the only warning of the incoming projectiles. Audience members watched as two lone kunai came rushing out of the trees. Instantly, the sand genin attacked the battered copse in hopes of driving his opponent out.

There was a shout and the battered form of Harry landed on the ground just outside of the trees. He appeared to scramble a little before the sand genin's sand engulfed him.

/

Minato leapt to his feet the moment he saw Harry fall from the trees. Dread clenched his stomach as he watched the sand genin's ability consume his younger son.

"No…" Behind Minato, the third Hokage gasped and joined him at the viewing window. Cries began to filter in from the stadium.

/would it be evil if I ended it here?:D\

Down in the stadium, the red-haired boy smirked. The son of the Yondaime hadn't stood a chance. There was nothing in the challenge that had been presented him.

Before the Suna kid could do more than process a few thoughts, however, something began to change in his sand. It was slowly turning to glass…

Above him, there were gasps from the audience as they began to realize this too.

A sizzling sound disrupted the Suna genin's concentration and he glanced up just in time to see a bomb made of explosion tags go off in his face. Due to most of his sand being focused on changing the rest back to glass, it didn't react in time and blew the Suna kid off his feet. As he shakily rose, he heard a voice echo out of the dust cloud.

"Thought you killed me?" Harry emerged from the cloud to many shrieks and cheers from the audience (and probably readers too!). His hair was dusty and he had a scratch down one arm, but otherwise, he was unharmed.

"Did you know, that exploding clones can turn sand into glass? That's how hot their explosions are." The Suna kid scrambled back just in time to avoid a seal laced kunai. What he didn't realize was the other three kunai that were thrown in conjunction to the one he avoided.

"Congratulations. You are the first I have ever tried this on. Sealing Art: Inferno." As the chakra laced command left Harry's mouth, the Suna competitor pulled as much of his sand to him and feathers began to fall from the ceiling. Harry's net ignited and began to quickly turn the surrounding sand into glass. Harry didn't wait around, almost oblivious to the sounds of battle beginning around him, Harry pressed on the offensive and began to trap the other competitor in a prison of seals, one of his strongest and meant to entrap people for up to thirty days.

"Harry!" Neville landed beside his teammate from one side as Naruto landed from the other.

"It's an invasion!" Harry looked up in surprise, scooping his trapped scroll off the ground, his prisoner sealed inside.

"By whom?" Naruto looked around quickly.

"It looks like Suna and the musical note village. I don't know the name of it." Neville looked up and confirmed Naruto's analysis.

"Where's sensei?" The three all looked up at the Kage box in time to see it enveloped in smoke. Before they could head up to help, they were stopped by attacking shinobi. It was a quick battle, but long enough for them to realize that there was no way they could get up there without sustaining massive casualties on behalf of the village.

"We need to get out into the village proper. There will be more civilians out there." Naruto and Neville followed Harry's command without question. Harry was the strategist of the group. As one, the group began mowing a path through the stadium, cutting down every single enemy that got in their way and helping a few leaf shinobi that were also that direction.

The village was a war zone.

Civilians were everywhere, screaming and shouting. Within them all, there were shinobi, enemies, cutting and hacking at the people around them. As the team drew more flash kunai, seven more people died, dead before they hit the ground, joining the myriad of bodies already there.

As one, the trio threw, hitting their targets accurately and killing before flashing to the targets beside the dead. All around them, civilians gaped at the sight of their beloved's jutsu.

"Get to the evacuation points! Now!" It took a few minute of shoving, but the trio managed to get the people moving away from the stadium and towards the Hokage mountain.

"I guess Dad's doomsday briefings were really handy!" Naruto shouted to Harry over the chaos of the civilian shuffle. Harry fought a chuckle, it really wasn't appropriate, and Neville looked between them confused.

"Not the time Naru! We need to keep movin-!" An earth shaking crash interrupted Harry as smoke billowed from the stadium.

"DAD!" Harry and Neville grabbed Naruto as the blond tried to get back to the stadium.

"No! Naruto!" Harry grabbed his brother's shoulder and forced the blond to look at him. "We don't have time for this Naruto! You know that I want to go and help him too, but think of how disappointed Dad would be if we just let the village be destroyed. This is an invasion Naruto! We have to do our duty!" Neville looked between Harry and Naruto worriedly as Naruto looked like he wanted to take a swing at Harry. Then Naruto sighed.

"You're right. Where to?"