Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto


A PUNK'S LIFE

BY: ADOREDRA FAL'NAELRA

CHAPTER NINE: THE GAMES

WEAKEST LINK IN THE CHAIN


Naruto stared unimpressed across the field with the same Uchiha at his side as the Game when he met his on-going girlfriend who sucked his soul in all the right ways. To finish the three-man team, they had the Hyuga heiress of all people. Now, Naruto knew some cold-hearted bitches in his life like the Headmistress, but this girl could freeze an Uchiha wildfire with her gaze.

She performed the highest of all Kunoichi hence her presence on the last Game of the 7th grade season, which Naruto squeaked into by, due to an incredible upset in the match of his best friend Kiba Inuzuka, some bug boy and the Hyuga heiress against the latest Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Shikamaru managed a plan that actually won, but none of his teammates and himself had the stamina to make the last few moves to actually win the match.

While everyone received high scores, the first place score went to the Hyuga heiress compared to Ino whose previous matches under different teams didn't net enough points to move into the next round. Fortunately, none of the four boys made enough points to defeat Naruto's standing, which already netted him fourth place in the overall standings.

First and second place tied with the Uchiha and the Senju, of course, with the third place going to a Sarutobi. The second place kunoichi went to a girl hailing from the Hatake clan who created the fight between the same Sarutobi and the Akimichi that Naruto enjoyed watching. Apparently, her father had her out of wedlock or something but considered her his own child nonetheless. There was something about an elopement, too, but Naruto didn't care much for clan politics or family trees.

As the natural black sheep of the family due to her technical illegitimacy, she carried a heavy chip on her shoulder, but she used her mother's and father's good looks and natural talents to make things work. Her father descended from the main family line and a direct descendent from the White Fang of the Leaf himself. Her mother descended, on the other hand, from a very successful Kunoichi from the Land of Wind. They met at a diplomatic meeting during the reign of the late Minato Namikaze, where the Kunoichi, according to the Leaf clans, seduced Hatake.

As the final match for their grade and tradition dictates, the Headmistress reserved the Leaf Stadium for their match. Due to the prestigious nature of all the contenders except for Naruto, the Officer of the Games had no trouble filling up the first tier of seats and even sold extra tickets for non-Shinobi interested in watching this set of Games. Naruto didn't care that the eyes didn't gravitate towards him naturally, but he took what he could get.

He even convinced JiJi to show up and watch it to get him away from his boring paperwork. Also, Naruto totally wanted to show off how far he had improved. The fact that the opposing team had a Sarutobi member only made it slightly awkward in Naruto's opinion.

Even better, his girlfriend promised to pamper him with a day of rest and relaxation should he not make a complete fool of himself. In other words, they would be doing it like rabbits without the penetration, but still Naruto bought a whole box of condoms in preparation. Nonetheless, she imposed a rather tough task for him to complete taking into account his nature to frequently make a fool of himself, especially given the circumstances.

Despite all of this, Naruto stated unimpressed across the field. The heiress of the Hyuga clan apparently felt too high and mighty to take the defensive position. The Uchiha didn't even entertain the idea of not dueling with his arch-nemesis of the Senju clan. Thus, he stood by the sealing container making it at least three times more difficult not to make a fool of himself.

He really needed to apologize to Sakura again because he finally understood what it felt like to be the defensive chump. He might as well do it right now since he didn't have anything better to do.

Placing his hands around his mouth, he shouted, "I'd just like to make an apology to Sakura Haruno for the comments I made a few months back. I realize how much it sucks to be the defender now!"

He took the general laughter of the crowd as a good sign although he didn't really care about they thought on the matter. Eventually finding the girl in the crowd by the direction of everyone else's eyes, he turned and gave an apologetic bow to girl who mimicked a turtle hiding in its shell. Finding his girlfriend sitting with her civilian-turned-Shinobi clan, he gave her a thumbs up to the girl who palmed her face and shook her head in the negative. Did he already fuck up?

"Anyone else have any extremely late announcements to make?" the Officer of the Games and head proctor for this match asked the six contenders. "No? Good. The match will begin in 3, 2, 1, Fight!"

While the Uchiha and Senju fought using Naruto's nicknamed Burning Wood technique, the Hyuga heiress engaged the Sarutobi. The Hyuga's world famous Gentle Fist fighting style clashed in sparks of pure chakra against the Sarutobi's staff made from Hashirama wood. Naruto felt the urge to pick his nose and scratch his ass in boredom but decided to think like Sakura by taking advantage of the quickest opening.

Luckily, Naruto's orphan upbringing instilled him with an opportunistic mindset. If his weighted Kunai helped Sakura, then surely they would help him. With that mind, he thanked his girlfriend's advice to bring a dozen pre-sealed Kunai. Activating the hidden seals in his jacket, Naruto threw a flurry of his weighted Kunai across their half of the field. Looking back on it, he should have probably asked the offensive members of his team to carry some to throw out.

With a shrug, he jotted the mental note down for later use and watched the two fights ensue. Unlike his fights that frequently bogged down into a fight stamina, the clan fights bogged down until someone made an error. If a ninja from a clan made an error, then the enemy would capitalize on the error and effectively win the match assuming he or she didn't make an equally bad or worse error themselves.

This effect resulted from the clan's techniques revolving around flawless form perfected over countless generations of practitioners. Thus, a complete novice could spot a mistake, and the performer of the technique could not easily rectify the mistake in the next move and usually took three or four moves to regain equilibrium of form.

Naruto, on the other hand, opened himself up to all sorts of faults in his form when his opponent outmatched him with the reasonable expectation the enemy to capitalize on it. When the enemy did, Naruto sprung the trap and hopefully ensured his own win by taking advantage of the hubris of the enemy. While simple in theory, having an adequate trap and pulling it off developed a whole web of potential errors. Hence, Plans A through K existed.

To be honest, Naruto knew his team would win without trouble. The Uchiha and the Senju would fight to a standstill increasing both of their fighting skills dramatically. The Hyuga, on the other hand, would defeat her Sarutobi opponent after a decent bout that allowed the boy to show some skill with the staff. Unfortunately, the Hyuga's special Eye Prowess couldn't be defeated without serious misstep on the part of the practitioner, massively outnumbering the Hyuga or simply waiting for chakra exhaustion despite the Hyuga's strong chakra reserves and light drain of chakra in their Gentle Fist and Eye Prowess.

Thus, the only way Naruto could get a good showing would be to just trap their side of the field to the teeth with everything Naruto could. He had a new seal combination to try out that he couldn't in his latest matches. The mere thought of showing it off in front of everyone had Naruto's blood running through his veins and heart beating at an accelerated pace.

He tried to keep his calm and dilly away the time on their side of the field, but he couldn't stop the feeling. The feeling became a little overwhelming, and Naruto felt sweat dripping down his brow. He frowned in consternation. He didn't realize how hard waiting would be because the Sarutobi managed to continue halting the Hyuga's endless assault of hand strikes.

He tried to get more aware of his surroundings and actually think, but he started getting dizzy. He felt different. He felt unusual. He felt wrong. He felt off.

Coming to a realization he brought his hands together and expelled chakra through his chakra points and yelling, "Kai!"

His surroundings changed slightly, and his senses returned to normal. He brought his hands up to perform a Substitution technique, but a Kunai blade flirted with his Adam's apple.

"The reports were right," a female voice from behind him said. "You are atrocious at genjutsu."

Naruto frowned. He had been caught and defeated by the enemy simply doing a little research and exploiting his weakness, which was odd considering his spot on the totem pole. Then again, exploiting the weakest link the chain wasn't a revolutionary tactic either. Regardless, the fact infuriated Naruto that all of his work could mean nothing. He couldn't make hand signs for a Substitution, and he couldn't perform a Substitution without hand signs like the more advanced ninja.

"If you think a Kunai to the throat is enough to stop me, then you didn't finish your reports," Naruto growled through his elongating canines.

"That's what the poison is for," she whispered as she titled the Kunai up below his chin and forcing him to lift his chin up to avoid being punctured.

He tapped his finger against the nearest piece of fabric and let his chakra flow across the hidden pathways of seals. In case of emergency, he linked all of the seals on his jacket and pants with a script of kanji. This would trigger all of the seals that littered his jacket and pants. Nonetheless, he still had plenty of smoke and container seals littered throughout his outerwear.

"I only let my girlfriend talk to me like that," he said while fully tilting his head up and sinking to the ground by collapsing his knees after activating the myriad of seals. Smoke, Kunai and shuriken of all types shot out from his person like a mythical porcupine. The Hatake immediately disengaged, while Naruto tried to touch her to apply his gravity seal.

He failed in the touch, but he didn't let up and followed her in his own ball of smoke. Her genjutsu forced him to just release all of the tricks in his arsenal on to the grassy field, and he planned on making it count for as much as he could. The smoke would make him stick out like a sore thumb, but if he kept her in it, then he could impair her senses.

Naruto rained blows down on her, but she continued to backpedal and evade the strikes with only minimal blocks and parries. He couldn't win a match like this. As the smoke in his seals ran out, he felt more sluggish. In the opening, she jumped with the aid of chakra backwards to create a ten-meter gap.

With harsh breathing unnatural for him so early into a fight, he brought his hands up into the proper seal and dispersed his chakra through his system. Feeling slightly better, he took a better look at his opponent who had shuriken and Kunai slash marks scattered across her body with little trickles of blood escaping from some of the wounds.

He grinned, "Despite your genjutsus, I got first blood."

"Oh really now," she replied unfazed and tapping underneath her chin once, "I wouldn't be too sure about that."

Naruto frowned and felt underneath his chin to feel a droplet of blood hit his fingertip, "I stand corrected."

"You can already feel the poison running through your veins. Can't you?" she asked with a light smirk.

His breath stuttered in realization. He felt abnormally tired and weak of breath due to the poison and not a genjutsu. He brought his palm up to the bottom of his chin and focused his chakra to the wound. While an individual's body's chakra could act as a healing mechanism, Naruto's body's chakra did so to significantly higher degree similar to actual Uzumaki. He of course disregarded the implications about his parentage.

He tried to remember what he could about poisoning in one of his survival classes. He could only remember warnings against sucking the venom out, seeking immediate treatment and bringing a sample of the poison, living or otherwise. Unfortunately, Naruto didn't have any of those options in the heat of battle. In fact, his accelerated heart rate from the taijutsu exchange spread the poison through his veins.

While a medical ninja could separate the poison and bad blood from the rest of the body, Naruto could not. Giving up on that idea, he released his chakra into the inside of his body unable to differentiate between veins and organs. Chakra had naturally healing effects and his especially, so he felt like he should make the most of his absurd reserves. Flooding his body, the chakra acted like a weak antibody to help identify and neutralize the poison.

Not allowing her opponent the time to either recover or worsen, she began her own assault marked by the traditional salvo of shuriken. With his sluggish response and internal chakra system in shambles, she passed by his weak defenses and started an uninterrupted chain of blows against his body. Fortunately, she didn't seem to have another poison Kunai as she left it during her flight and currently lay in a pile of his own weapons.

Pushing back, he took all of the excess chakra in his body and exploded it out of his chakra points creating a fine cloud of visible blue chakra. She backed away in caution before showing slight sign of visible shock of Naruto's latest stunt. Naruto stood on the other side heaving his chest at the vast feeling of emptiness and wellness from the neutralized poison.

He had never expended such massive quantities of chakra at once. He felt in his navel a strong powerful flame usually silent in the ocean of his chakra, but now it became apparent to Naruto. Assuming it to be his core chakra point as it was in his stomach, he pulled on the power to renew his reserves and strength with fresh chakra. The euphoric feeling he received sent him lumbering back with dilated pupils.

Looking around with a crazed look in his eyes, he stared down at his clawed hands. He didn't remember activating those. His mouth felt full with teeth, which was odd because his mouth was always full with teeth. Bringing them up to his face carefully, he pricked his finger against a protruding fang laying against the bottom of his lip. He stared down at the crimson droplet oozing from his pricked finger in a perfect vividness of the image surprised Naruto. He had never seen reds so red or his own skin or blood in such clear detail. He could see his skin healing underneath the wound. He had never healed that quickly.

He looked up and around the battlefield and stands again seeing everything differently. The grass swaying from the concussive blows of the Hyuga and the Sarutobi. The grass swaying away from the air displacements caused by the elemental releases of the Uchiha and Senju battling. Oddly enough, he couldn't hear any of the chaos surrounding him including the girl across from him making some comment.

He sent some chakra to his ears in an attempt to reawaken his ears or something. The moment his chakra hit his eardrums surrounding sounds flooded his ears in a cacophony of noise. He couldn't handle all the noise. He couldn't. Grabbing the sides of his head in pain, his claws left bloody scratches in his scalp, but the pain in his head numbed the pain he caused inside his head. He couldn't help the scream that ripped out of his throat from the sheer unending agony of it all.