Hi, here is, one week late, the next chapter. I simply wanted to make the fights good ones and not a copy of canon (Shika vs. Temari) and still believeable regarding the current levels of the fighters. I think I got it the way I wanted. Enjoy.
A Much Expected Fight
You could nearly cut the air with a knife. The villagers of Konoha had waited to see this fight for the last month. Nearly none of them had seen one of the competitors in this one since the start of the chunin exams. Many were torn in their feelings. They had hated the boy for years and now, suddenly, he was revealed to be the son of the man they revered more than nearly any other ninja in their village's history. The only one holding the same amount of positive feelings in their minds was the Shodai Hokage. Naruto Namikaze, formerly known as Naruto Uzumaki, was the container of the Kyubi, a secret that they couldn't talk about under pain of death. Nearly nobody knew really that much about him.
His team had certainly not been around a lot in the village. While those interested in the finalists had looked up the mission history of the teams, there was little to say what kind of missions they had done. Anything beyond C-ranks and their number was qualified under orders of the Sandaime Hokage. So while they knew that Team Seven had taken a surprisingly large number of C and D-ranked missions, they didn't know much about the abilities of the team that had been trained by the Godaime. The other two members of the team had shown impressive skills and creativity. Of course many thought that even if Naruto was the son of their beloved Yondaime he couldn't be that strong, their dislike for him was simply too big. Others reasoned that the dead-last of his class couldn't be that impressive.
The only ones really interested in seeing how strong the boy really was were the ones from ninja families. Especially the clan ninjas knew that Naruto had hidden his abilities during his time at the academy and had only stopped doing so after he had graduated completely. Those whose children were part of the training group of the three rookie teams were really looking forward to seeing his true level.
Naruto stood calmly opposite Shino. He knew that Shino would have come up with some creative tricks, but it would still not be his most difficult opponent. He had after all researched all the clans of Konoha and knew that for their bugs to pose a real danger to him they needed to make contact with his skin first. And Shino knew that Naruto knew that point. In their previous spars Shino had never managed to win against Naruto, but he had been one of the stronger ones. And Shino was very smart, just a bit less than Shikamaru. So this would be interesting.
Shino watched Naruto closely. He didn't show an ounce of nervousness. He didn't expect him to do so. Naruto was the strongest of their group, but it would be foolish to expect him to be overconfident. Naruto never messed around in a fight. He even took all their spars in training serious. He was the most difficult opponent in the finals. Not even that psycho Gaara could change anything about that. After all, getting hits on a mentally insane person was easier than a smart opponent that was fully in control over his impressive set of skills. And Shino seriously doubted that Gaara would stand a chance against Naruto.
The proctor gave them the signal to start. Shino had already sent a good number of his bugs through the ground. He needed to set the location to have a chance. He saw Naruto taking his stance. That was the faster of his two styles. That would be a problem. Shino let a flurry of shuriken fly to not let Naruto get into his rhythm too fast. Naruto as expected sped to the right and quickly set to closing the distance between them. Shino just hadn't expected him to be this fast. He must have deactivated at least two levels of his resistance seals. And nobody truly knew which level they were normally at, only that Naruto's were years older than theirs and that he had his some levels over them.
Shino barely got his defence up before the first hit from Naruto connected. Shino tried blocking and dodging. Sometimes he succeeded, but many hits got through as Shino wasn't the best at taijutsu. Still, he let his bugs use the contact to go over to Naruto. After a fast exchange Naruto jumped back and to Shino's surprise he grinned.
"Nice try getting your bugs on me, Shino, but I have prepared for this." Naruto said and activated something that looked like a layer of lightning on his body.
Shino saw how his bugs got zapped by the lightning.
"I would advise you to find a better way in weakening me. I can zap your bugs easily all day without tiring out." Naruto stated.
Shino knew that to be true. Naruto had exceptional chakra reserves. So he had to change tactics. He went through some handseals.
"Earth style, earth spikes." Shino exclaimed and kicked the ground with his foot.
Naruto had to jump up to avoid getting hit. He dodged the spikes for a while.
"Good try, Shino." Naruto complemented when he dodged the last one. "Last time you didn't have this much control over this jutsu."
"Thanks, Naruto, but this isn't all I worked on during the last month." Shino said and gave a mental command which made his bugs break out from the spikes that surrounded Naruto.
He had planned to combine two attacks for a while now. To be precise since Naruto had told him that as an Aburame people that knew a bit about Konoha's clans would expect his insect based attacks. So he had decided to work on some surprise tactics. Earth spikes was a C-ranked jutsu and didn't take too much chakra from him, which was always a problem for an Aburame. But instead of combining his bugs with a weapon like Naruto had once suggested, he had trained them to flow with his earth jutsus. They knew his chakra perfectly after all, so it was no difficulty to make themselves part of his jutsu. So now Naruto was suddenly surrounded by a sphere of Shino's bugs. Still, he was on guard. If there was one opponent that could get out of that attack it was Naruto. And indeed he soon found himself attacked again by the fast blond.
"Impressive, Shino, if I didn't create some clones before my first taijutsu attack on you, your trick would have cost me a lot of chakra." Naruto said after kicking Shino towards the wall of the arena, which Shino just prevented hitting by turning around in the air.
"So you mastered your shadow clones without a handsign now. That's something I'll have to keep in mind from now on." Shino analysed. "Not to mention the same seems to hold true for substitution."
"Very good analysis, Shino, I didn't expect anything less from you." Naruto said before going through a few handsigns of his own. "Wind style: Tornado prison."
Shino suddenly found himself dodging tornadoes coming from all sides. He had to dodge because the one time he tried passing it he got his sleeve shredded. After a few seconds he saw that he was trapped inside of eight roaring tornadoes. And Naruto wasn't done.
"Water style: Sea of puddles." Naruto said and spit countless water bullets out of his mouth all around him that turned the ground of the arena into a landscape full of countless puddles. Shino wondered what Naruto could have planned with this manoeuvre.
In the Kage box Kakashi was really impressed with the level the two showed. And not only him.
"That's really impressive." The Sandaime commented. "To hold up one high-level jutsu while performing another."
"Indeed. That's not something you normally find in a genin, not even a chunin. The most many can do is keeping up a basic jutsu like transformation while doing another jutsu. Anything beyond a D-rank jutsu is nearly impossible for most." The Kazekage commented.
"He's worked a long time to master that." Kakashi said. "But Shino also showed some impressive tactics. I think he's also a good candidate for chunin."
"True. He has a good mind and isn't taking unnecessary risks while still doing his best to hit his clearly stronger opponent." The Sandaime stated. "Though I think that the fight will soon be over. Naruto has set the stage for his deciding technique."
Shino seemed to have come to the same conclusion as the Sandaime and raised his hand inside the wind prison.
"Proctor, I forfeit. I know that with the way the arena looks now, the only thing Naruto has to do is performing one lightning jutsu, which I know he is capable of, to shock me and my bugs into unconsciousness." Shino called out.
"Winner by forfeit: Naruto Namikaze." Hayate declared.
First the audience was silent, then loud applause and cheers erupted. The fight had been great and they had seen two very capable boys. While Naruto had clearly been the stronger one, it had looked as if Shino had had him once with his trap. Naruto deactivated his tornado prison and walked over to Shino to shake his hand.
"Good fight, Shino." He complimented while Shino took his hand.
"Likewise, Naruto. It seems I'll have to do a lot more work to catch up to you." Shino stated.
Naruto nodded. It wasn't necessary to point out how much training Naruto had done over the years.
"Damn, he was definitely the dominating one. I've never seen him show off that much in a fight." Sakura commented.
"True, I wonder how we would do against him." Sasuke mentioned.
"I fear it would be a really hard fight." Sakura said. "While I know that we have grown a lot stronger since the academy, he has done the same and he was leagues ahead of us then."
Sasuke hated admitting that, but it was true. He knew that he by now had the strength and skill of a solid chunin, perhaps some of his skills were scratching low jonin level, but with Naruto he was mostly solid jonin and in some areas high jonin level. And don't get him started on fuinjutsu, Naruto was a demon with them.
"So only one fight left in this round." Sakura said. "Do you think Shikamaru will fight properly?"
"Yes, since that simulated mission against Naruto he has seen what can happen if he doesn't. I wouldn't have thought that slacker had it in him." Sasuke replied.
Down in the arena Shikamaru was now facing Temari for the last fight of this round. He could deduct that she was probably using wind jutsus from the war fan on her back. He had asked his Dad about known specialisations from Suna and had found out that those that had wind element often used suitable weapons to enhance their abilities. War fans required a powerful affinity and one of the most famous war fan users had been Temari's mother Karura when she had still been an active kunoichi. So Shikamaru had to be on guard.
"The last fight of the first round of the chunin exam finals: Shikamaru Nara of Konoha versus Temari Sabaku of Suna. Begin." Hayate declared and cleared the arena.
Temari didn't waste any time and opened her fan fully and swung it with power, creating a massive gust of wind. Shikamaru quickly took cover behind a tree.
"Is that all you can do? Hiding? Man you Konoha ninjas don't seem all that great." Temari taunted.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled.
He really didn't want a long fight. He wanted to get this over with and preferably without getting hit too much. He had a plan, but it would take some time to implement it. Well, time to start. He made the standard seal used for the shadow possession jutsu and hoped that Temari hadn't done as much research as he had. Sadly it seemed she had and she was running away from his shadow, trying to get enough distance between her and the shadow. Shikamaru decided to use that and pretended that his shadow couldn't reach farther than ten metres. She even drew a line onto the ground, measuring the distance. Perfect.
"So that is the limit of your shadow. As long as I stay out of it I don't have to worry too much." Temari said.
Shikamaru kept his poker face. He started throwing a flurry of weapons, which were all reflected by Temari with weaker wind boosts. They now lay around her with perhaps a metre distance for the closest ones.
"Throwing weapons at a wind user is useless. You don't seem too bright not realising that." Temari taunted again.
But Shikamaru knew that he had as good as won. His kunai were special and he had got them specifically for fighting long-range fighters. His shadow jutsus were mostly middle-ranged right now and he first needed to increase his chakra reserves before he could use them more efficiently. He calculated the distance of the closest kunai and was satisfied. His plan could start. He sent his shadow off again and unnoticed by Temari he had it connect with each of the special kunais. When his shadow reached the line she had drawn it barely crossed it at first, making up the distance he had stepped forward and she retreated by that much, then he struck, letting his shadow race forward quickly and connect with hers.
"Finally, the shadow possession jutsu is complete." Shikamaru commented.
"But how? Even with the lesser distance I should have been far enough away." She asked shocked.
"A true ninja never reveals his secrets and while our villages may be allied, it's better to not reveal secret techniques, especially not at the beginning of a competition where I have to face the toughest opponent out of the whole group next." Shikamaru stated.
"You think you've already won?" Temari asked angrily.
"I don't think so, I know." Shikamaru said and lifted his hands, which made Temari lift hers in the same fashion, still holding her fan in one of them. "Now, you see I can make you mimic my movements thanks to my jutsu. If I have you hit yourself over the head with your war fan, you'll get a bad headache and pass out. So if you want to avoid that, give up."
Temari was clearly trying to break out of his jutsu, but it was impossible for her.
"Urgh, shit." She cursed. "Fine, I can think of better things to do than nursing a headache. Proctor, I forfeit."
"Winner by forfeit: Shikamaru Nara." Hayate declared.
The audience clapped. This had been a short fight, but it had been a good one with the winner outsmarting his opponent. The ninjas in the audience, especially Asuma, were very impressed with the display of Shikamaru. He had quickly and efficiently taken out his opponent and if he had been tasked to capture his opponent for interrogation he would have done perfectly.
The kages were really pleased with the last fight. While the Kazekage was disappointed by how quickly Shikamaru had caught Temari, at least she wasn't really injured and could still play her part in the planned invasion. The two Hokages would have wished that Shikamaru had gone through with the finishing move, but he hadn't been informed about the upcoming invasion, so he didn't know that they needed to take their opponents from Suna out.
"A good fight. The boy has a good head on his shoulders and knows how to use his jutsus. Too bad that Temari was too sure of herself." The Kazekage therefore commented.
"Yes, but I don't think she'll make that mistake again in the future. Sometimes a defeat that you survive can teach you much more than a victory." The Sandaime said wisely.
Kakashi only nodded.
"Alright, what do you think, should we make things a bit more interesting or let them all continue with the fights like they were planned?" Kakashi asked, giving the Sandaime the previously agreed signal.
"Oh and what kind of change to you have in mind?" The Kazekage asked suspiciously.
"Well, the chunin exam finals are all about fighting an opponent you don't have much information about first. But now they have seen what their opponents can do. I'm sure the six that got into the semi-finals are already planning how to fight the next one based on this. We could enter a random choice. Like we would do in preliminaries if they were necessary." Kakashi explained.
"I like the idea. A ninja has to be ready to face unknown obstacles all the time on missions. This would tell us much better which of the remaining finalists are ready to be chunin as they would have to find counter strategies on missions they get to lead as well." The Sandaime said.
In truth they wanted to mess around with any previously arranged plans of the invaders. They were sure that Gaara was their trump card as Suna's jinchuriki. So if they had planned something involving him, it would be best if they arranged for him to fight Naruto.
"Why not. I agree that it would be a good way to test the finalists and I'm absolutely sure that Gaara can take on any of your genin, no matter if he knows who it is beforehand or not. So, you want to draw each pairing directly before the fight?" He asked.
"Yes, otherwise those in the later fights would have an unfair advantage." The Sandaime said.
Kakashi stood to announce the terms of the next round.
"We have seen some very good fight in the first round of the finals. Now I want to announce the stipulations of the next round, the semi-finals. We will choose the pairings randomly. That means that none of the finalists will know beforehand whom he has to face, which shortens the preparation time immensely. As our six semi-finalists have had a fight already, we will wait with the second round until in thirty minutes so our competitors have a chance to get injuries treated or rest from a strenuous fight." Kakashi told the audience.
Most were excited to get this mode of choosing the competitors. What nobody knew was that Naruto and Gaara wouldn't be in the pool for the first two fights, they would get the last one as the Hokages were sure that Orochimaru wouldn't hold his invasion off for much longer.
So how do you like my surprise with the 'random' matches for the second round? Till next time; hopefully not late ;)
