Chapter 34
o
Even with his arms pinned at his sides and spinning at blinding speeds as he was hurtling headfirst towards the ground, Neji was not helpless. In fact, he actually had several things going for him. For one, his arms being pinned at his sides meant that shifting them forward or backward brought them in closer to his body and created a little bit of slack in his bindings. Since Lee was behind him, he went with that direction. The slack created by the movement wasn't much, but it was enough to curl his hands into fists and then quickly wiggle his fingers through the wrapping, bringing them into contact with Lee's stomach.
He was also helped by the fact that he was already spinning, so he didn't really have to exert himself to create the Kaiten, other than the effort it took to force chakra out of his body.
His fingers pressed into Lee's stomach, pushing chakra into the coils located there. Were they not in such a precarious position, Lee probably would have noticed the way his stomach muscles instantly cramped up. The effort of performing the Primary Lotus, coupled with the concentration that it took to keep it from being a lethal attack, were enough of a distraction, however, that he didn't react in time to realize the danger he was in.
Neji closed his eyes and began to force chakra out of every tenketsu in his body. He would not create a Kaiten that was anywhere near as powerful as the ones he'd used in the match so far because he did not want to kill his teammate. They were basically tied together and the bindings were not made of anything that this form of chakra would instantly cut through. Lee would be held against the expanding vortex of chakra for at least a moment before being pushed away. If Neji wasn't careful, he could do some very real, and very deadly, damage.
With his near 360 degree vision, Neji saw Lee's eyes widen in surprise and horror as he felt the chakra hit him.
"Neji-kun! Don't!" Lee yelled as his wrapping snapped and he was hurled away.
Neji was now only about two meters off the ground and he no longer had Lee to guide him to the ground in a way that would save his life. To a normal genin, it would have been a fatal turn of events, but Neji was not a normal genin.
With Lee safely away, Neji forced more chakra through his tenketsu, expanding the Kaiten as he started to flip in the air. Without Kaiten, he wouldn't have had the time to right himself, but the vortex dug into the ground, creating a small crater that gave him just enough room to complete his flip before he hit the ground.
Even though he landed on his feet, the force of the impact was enough that his whole body cried out in protest. A sharp pain shot up his left leg and he looked down to find a small fracture running along his tibia. As the pressure and pain of the impact faded away, he pushed his weight down on the slightly broken leg and found that, even though it hurt like hell, it was still usable.
Barely two meters away, Lee struggled to get back on his feet. He took two stumbling steps to the side and shook his head to clear the cobwebs. Without the benefit of knowing what Neji's plan was, his landing had not been nearly as graceful and he was paying for it now… in fact, it had cost him everything.
"You're within the field of my hakke," Neji whispered as he slid his left leg forward, bending forward and lowering his hand until it was almost touching his foot. His right arm rose as he extended it, palm up. "I'm sorry, but you will see that there are some walls too high to climb… Juuken Hakke Sixty-Four Palms."
It was unfortunate that Lee was too obstinate to see the truth. He aggravated Neji to no end, but the Hyuuga still didn't relish the thought of crushing his teammate's dream. In the end, however, fate was fate. It could not be denied.
And it was Lee's fate to lose to a person born to be better than him.
He leapt forward, his hands aiming for the tenketsu just above Lee's sternum and the one under his fourth rib. The first would slow the flow of oxygen and blood to the brain; the second would cause a constriction of the diaphragm which would make it even more difficult to breath. With these two points pressed and the coils beneath them injured by the chakra pushed into them, it would take a miracle for Lee to continue the fight much longer. When the following sixty-two strikes found their targets, Lee would be lucky to still be conscious, much less able to fight.
Even with Lee's superior speed – which had already been diminished significantly during the fight – Neji was too close for him to dodge.
Lee brought his body lower to the ground and for a moment, it actually looked like he was going to try to dodge anyway. And then Neji realized that Lee wasn't dodging at all, he was blocking.
Lee's hand slammed into the ground and then, just as Neji was about to land his first series of strikes, he pulled his arm up, bringing a large boulder with it. Neji almost didn't have time to break off his attack. Striking the hard rock earlier than he expected to make contact with anything would probably have broken a couple of his fingers, but at the last second he was able to pull back and spin on his heel, brining him around to the other side of the boulder.
Lee clearly wasn't expecting such a quick recovery and was caught flatfooted, his back completely exposed. Neji couldn't hit the spots he'd originally been aiming for, but the back had plenty of vital areas he could attack. The spine was literally covered in chakra coils and there were dozens of tenketsu to choose from.
"Hakke two palms!" Neji's fingers pressed against the nape of Lee's neck and a spot between the second and third lumbar in his spine. With those pressed Lee's legs would be significantly weakened and his head would suddenly feel five times heavier to his neck.
"Four palms!" Three more strikes against the back to further weaken him and a fourth to not only damage his shoulder joint, but turn him around so Neji could finish the job properly.
"Eight!" With his wide field of vision, Neji could see the pain and fear in Lee's face as he realized that the end was near.
"Sixteen!" Lee had fought hard, but fate was inevitable.
"Thirty-two!" Something wet struck Neji's face, a small tear from his teammate's eyes. Even as Lee's body recoiled in pain, his heart was already beginning to feel the weight of this latest defeat. Neji almost wished he could break off the attack and just leave it at that, but fate did not care about sparing a pawn's dignity. It did not care about hurt feelings or the unfairness of life.
Reality was harsh, but it could not be denied. It was going to slap Lee across the face and wake him from his hopeless dream even as Neji sent him into merciful unconsciousness.
"Sixty-Four," his voice was more of a whisper now as his fingers automatically sought out and pressed the last series of tenketsu to finish off the inevitable.
Neji stepped back and let out a slow breath as Lee was knocked back, striking the boulder that he'd ripped from the earth, and then falling face-first onto the dusty ground.
As Hayate stepped forward to check Lee and then announce the winner, Neji stepped forward. "Now you see," he whispered. "A dog can howl at the moon all he wants, but he'll never touch it. Fate is not subject to our—"
Before he could say another word, Lee was on his feet. One hand caught Neji by the shirt, the other reached way back to deliver a vicious punch. Neji tensed, he was too surprised and too tired to defend himself. Lee's tenketsu were closed, there shouldn't be any power behind his punch, but if there was…
The punch never landed. Lee's grip on his shirt relaxed and the bowl cut ninja slumped forward against his teammate, causing Neji to stumble back. Lee wasn't even awake enough to do anything but slide down Neji's body until he came to rest once more on the ground, his outstretched hand gently clutching at the Hyuuga's sandal.
Hayate waited a few seconds longer to see if there would be a second recovery and then pointed at Neji. "Winner: Hyuuga Neji!"
The crowd's applause was long and enthusiastic.
Neji barely even heard it as he continued to stare down at Lee's unconscious body.
ooo
"He was telling the truth," Sasuke noted, his voice taking on a strange tone. "He was stronger than Lee."
Naruto cast a sideways glance at his friend and frowned as a little shiver ran down his spine. There was a certain lustful quality in Sasuke's red eyes that reminded him an awful lot of a different Sasuke. He had a sinking suspicion that Sasuke would have taken Sakura's hesitation in their match as a chance to end things quickly had he seen Lee and Neji's fight first.
It had been so nice to see Sasuke set aside his own desires and allow a teammate to move on and have a chance to prove her worth, but at the first sign of real power, Sasuke hungered to taste it first hand. There was a good chance that Sasuke would be less inclined to take Orochimaru's offer, should it ever come, but he would probably still be sorely tempted.
"Are you wishing you hadn't forfeited?" Naruto asked, carefully watching Sasuke's face for his reaction.
It was about what he'd thought it would be. The young Uchiha's eyes widened slightly as the thought of himself down there fighting Neji drifted through his mind. For a long moment, he didn't say anything as they watched Neji follow the team of medic-nin carrying Lee's unconscious body back to the infirmary, but then he closed his eyes and sighed.
"Maybe a little," he admitted. When his eyes opened, the Sharingan was gone, taking the lustful look with it. "Still, I can fight them another time and I won't have to deal with them being beaten half to death when I do it. I wouldn't want anything tainting my victory."
Naruto was thankful for the truthfulness, though he could tell that the excuse had been a little halfhearted. It was true that if he challenged either of them to a sparring match, he could see them at full strength, but he could still have gotten them at close to their peak even if they met later in the tournament. A genin was allowed to receive minor medical treatment so long as they were ready to fight by the time their next match rolled around. The rule prevented something like dumb luck, or cheating, to decide the final outcome. If, through the luck of the draw, someone found himself in a difficult bracket, he wouldn't be at quite as much of a disadvantage should he meet someone in the finals who had a far easier road.
Naruto actually suspected that the rule was primarily in place for the sake of those gambling on the outcome. After all, it wouldn't do for some no-name to win it all because he was lucky enough to draw the easier bracket while all the favorites took each other out in the first and second round.
"Are you ready?" Sasuke asked Sakura, turning away from Naruto to look at the rather pale faced kunoichi.
"No," she whispered. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"You've still got a few minutes before they start the next round," Naruto said with a smile. "The bathrooms are just down the hall if you need them." He cast a surreptitious glance at Temari and Gaara who were standing at the opposite end of the opening; neither seemed to be paying much attention to the Leaf genin. "Plus," he whispered, "I can drag my match out a bit. Just say the word and I'll keep Temari on her feet until the sun goes down."
Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head. "She's strong; you can't just mess around this time."
"You'll be fine," Sasuke said, his eyes also darting towards the Suna genin. "Just do your best."
"She ought to just forfeit," Shikamaru grumbled from his spot near the stairs.
Naruto looked over at Shikamaru and rolled his eyes playfully. "Not all of us are lame asses like you… well, except for Sasuke." He started to duck on pure instinct, but Sakura couldn't reach him without pushing Sasuke out of the way and she didn't seem to have the strength or will to waste on pretend fighting anyway.
Shikamaru shrugged. "If you'd seen what he can do, you'd be telling her to forfeit too." There was a little look in his eyes that told Naruto he was digging for info.
"I've seen it."
"I don't mean in that fight against Kabuto; that was just him playing around."
Naruto grinned and winked knowingly at his friend. "I wasn't talking about that either."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and his head moved up and down just enough to be noticed for what it was, if a person knew what to look for. Naruto had seen the movement hundreds of times over the years; he definitely knew a "thank you" when he saw one. His reply nod was a little more obvious, but just as clear.
"I wish you'd both stop talking about it," Sakura hissed as she pushed away from the railing and began making her way towards the hall. Before anyone could say anything, Hayate announced that it was time for the next match.
"Well, that's my cue," Naruto said. "I'll see you guys shortly."
"Only if they visit you in the infirmary," Temari retorted. She opened her fan and leaped over the railing, riding the airwaves down to the ground next to Hayate.
Naruto watched her flight and shook his head. "You know, I think she might be planning on trying to kill me," he sighed as he shoved his fists in his pocket and began walking towards the stairs. "Tell Sakura-chan to give me a holler when she's feeling a little more ready for her fight."
"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata called out just before he reached the stairs.
Naruto looked over his shoulder and smiled at her.
"Be careful," she said with a shy smile of her own, "and d-do your best."
"Nah," the blond chuckled, his eyes shifting to meet the cold stare Gaara was giving him from behind the young Hyuuga, "where's the fun in ending it so quickly?" And then he continued on down to the arena floor.
ooo
"Just how many people do you owe money to?" Jiraiya asked as he handed Tsunade a chipped tin cup full of tea.
"I've never seen him before," she whispered as she took a sip, shivering despite the warmth of the day.
"He knew all about you," Jiraiya pointed out, "even the Hemophobia."
"It's not that big of a secret," Tsunade replied dejectedly. "He probably just worked for some petty crime lord."
"Or at least the owner of a gambling hall."
"But that doesn't explain how he knew that you were looking for Tsunade-sama," Shizune pointed out.
"Or how a gambling hall owner was able to afford someone who could hold his own against one of the Sannin for so long," Jiraiya agreed.
"You weren't exactly fighting all out," Tsunade said with a sigh as she took a deeper sip of the tea, slowly relaxing.
Jiraiya grinned. "I didn't want to kill him before he explained who he was and what he was after. Still, he fought weird. He never really attacked after cutting his arm – if that even counts as attacking – he just make it hard to pin him down and finish him off."
Tsunade shrugged. "So?"
Jiraiya glanced at her and lifted an eyebrow. "So? Why would he bother making himself known if he wasn't going to actually try to do anything? Why would he pick a fight with us if he knew who we were? What was the point?"
He looked down at the man who was bound and unconscious and shook his head. "If he was after money, he should have fought different. He knew a bunch of ninjutsu I'd never seen before, but none of them were offensive. He was just…" Jiraiya's eyes widened. "Finish your tea, we're leaving."
"What? What's wrong?" Shizune asked.
"He wasn't fighting to beat us," Jiraiya explained as he reached down and lifted the man onto his shoulder with relative ease. "He was just trying to slow us down. A few hours was all he cost us, but that might have been enough." He snatched the cup out of a Tsunade's hands and threw the tea out before tucking it into his bag. "We won't make it back to Konoha until tomorrow now."
Tsunade was following his thinking now and she quickly got to her feet. "And tomorrow might be too late," she whispered as all three took off at top speed down the winding dirt path.
ooo
Temari was not used to being weaker than any of her opponents. She was the daughter of the Kazekage; she'd been trained by the elite jounin and even her father since before she could even really walk or talk. It wasn't just her, of course. All of the Kazekage's children had started receiving instruction at a very young age.
Kankuro, who was a year younger than her, was arguably one of the greatest puppet users in the village. There were some in Suna who whispered that he might one day rival the great master Sasori, though Temari considered this to be overstated flattery. Given what Sasori was rumored to have been capable of, the only reason anyone would compare him to Kankuro was to heap praise on the son of the Kazekage. In Temari's opinion, Kankuro had a much better chance of surpassing crazy old Chiyo than he did of catching up with a legend like Sasori.
As the oldest child, Temari had always been the strongest. Kankuro tried to claim that they were nearly equal in power now that they were getting closer to reaching their adult height and strength, but it simply wasn't true. Kankuro was strong, but Temari could still beat him in a straight fight and – more importantly – she was smarter. She was always plotting several moves ahead, maneuvering her enemy into little traps that she'd set.
Her claim as the strongest came with a small disclaimer that could be summed up in one word: Gaara. Her youngest brother was different. With the One-Tailed Shukaku sealed inside of him, he was abnormally powerful and exceptionally unstable. As a child he would lash out at people for no apparent reason, sometimes without even seeming to realize what he was doing. Their father trained him personally, trying to give the power of the demon within him shape and control, but all it did was make Gaara more deadly. As he got older, what had started out as random or accidental killings became cold, intentional murders. Gaara seemed to stop caring about anyone but himself, and that made him even more frightening than he was when he was simply a little boy who couldn't control his actions.
Naruto didn't act like Gaara, thankfully, but there was something about him that began to unnerve her as their match progressed. He reminded her of Gaara in more ways than one, though she couldn't quite pin down what all those ways were. The one that she could see was the way that Naruto seemed so completely confident about the outcome of a fight… it was just "Gaara-ish" to her.
The first time she'd seen him in action was in the Forest of Death, though at that time she'd thought that perhaps one of Konoha's jounin was simply watching out for his students. There was no way that a genin could counter Gaara's sand so easily, let alone that three such genin could all be found on the same team. Then she watched him fight in the prelims and realized that he was a bit more than his boisterous antics let on. And finally, as she watched him fight against Kankuro, she'd seen still more of what he was capable of. She'd thought that there was a good chance that she'd actually have to use her full strength – or close to it, anyway – in order to defeat him, but she hadn't thought that she would have any real trouble beating him.
Temari knew that Gaara was obsessed with him. She'd seen the way her little brother's eyes tracked Naruto every time they were around each other. When Gaara wandered off to go looking for Naruto during the month between the second test and the finals, Temari had been the one to tell Baki that they needed to stop him before he caused an incident. It wasn't often that Gaara found anyone so riveting that he would wait over a month before killing him, but Naruto had definitely piqued his interest somehow.
The thought had occurred to her that it might be better to forfeit and let Gaara face Naruto in the next round, but after her defeat at the hands of Shikamaru – and it was a defeat in her eyes – she needed to redeem herself. Plus, it grated on her nerves the way he talked about prolonging the fight so that his little pink-haired girlfriend could work up the nerve to go out and lose to Gaara. It had probably been ten years since anyone other than Gaara had dared to take her so lightly.
If she could beat Naruto, Gaara would probably lose interest in him anyway, and then she would just have to forfeit rather than face her brother.
The problem was, she wasn't sure that she could beat Naruto. All his talk about dragging things out hadn't just been idle boasting, he was doing it. She'd realized that things might not go as smoothly as she'd planned when her first attack with her fan had simply been brushed aside as if it were nothing.
The wind the fan produced and her natural inclination towards wind element chakra worked in harmony to amplify each other. The gusts produced by the fan pushed her chakra farther and with greater force than she could achieve on her own and her chakra increased the damage done by the wind from the fan. She'd knocked down trees from almost fifty meters away with a really powerful attack, yet Naruto seemed to have no trouble stopping it.
Her first attack, from nearly point blank range, had been stopped by a swing of his hand. It was like he'd cut right through it or simply cancelled it out by using a gust of wind that equaled her own. At first, she hadn't believed it. She'd assumed it was some sort of trick, or fluke, or something, but after only a few experiments she was certain that he was a wind element user as well. Wind was supposed to be the rarest of elements. Even in the Wind Country, where Sunagakure was located, there existed very few wind chakra users. Her jounin, Baki, was the only other person she'd met who was naturally inclined towards wind. There were more, of course, but not many.
And Uzumaki Naruto might be the best she'd ever seen. There was something about the way that he fell into her traps with a knowing smile on his face, and then escaped them without any damage, that told her he was holding back even as she threw almost everything she had at him. Perhaps even more annoying than being toyed with as the fact that Naruto kept looking over at the waiting room, probably looking for the pink-haired girl to give him permission to start acting serious.
It was insulting that he apparently thought so little of her. And Temari hated being insulted.
"If you don't start taking this seriously," she growled after he glanced over his shoulder again. The fight had already been dragged out to nearly forty-five minutes, "I'm going to have to stop playing with you."
Naruto returned his attention to her and lifted an eyebrow as if to ask if she'd been paying attention to the "fight."
She'd definitely been paying attention and she was tired of dealing with it. After dealing with the frustration that was Shikamaru, Temari wasn't going to allow herself to look bad a second time. Naruto was obviously stronger than she was and his wind chakra abilities were at least equal to hers despite the fact that he seemed to be holding a lot back, but he was stupid for simply stalling. He was giving her a chance to see what weaknesses he might have and to deduce how much more power she needed to add to her arsenal to beat him.
It was a good thing that she'd maneuvered Naruto so that she had her back to the spectators…
"Your little girlfriend is going to die," Temari told him with a smile as she held her open fan in front of her. "Gaara doesn't like being denied a kill. After that last match, he'll probably kill her in one shot."
Naruto shrugged. "Sakura-chan can handle it. He won't have as easy of a time as you think."
"You don't know Gaara."
"You'd be surprised what I know," he informed her with a grin. "I probably know Gaara better than you ever will."
Temari found this to be a strange comment, given that Naruto had only met Gaara a month ago and that he was near the top of Gaara's list of people he'd like to kill. Were she not trying to win this match, she might have considered asking him to explain himself, but all she was really doing was trying to plant the idea in his head that he should look back towards Gaara and his pink-haired teammate.
And then he did it.
Temari's thumb was in her mouth before Naruto had even completely turned his head. If he noticed the movement, he gave no sign. A split second later, she wiped the blood across her fan and began to swing the fan as she said, "Kuchiyose: Kirikiri Mai!"
Naruto's head whipped around, but Temari knew his fate was already sealed. She'd only learned the summoning technique a few weeks before they'd left to come to Konoha for the Chuunin Exam and she'd been given explicit orders not to use it unless absolutely necessary. In her opinion, this was necessary. She couldn't take another defeat like the one she'd already suffered, especially not to someone like Uzumaki Naruto who seemed to be even more of a loser than Shikamaru. Shikamaru had been infuriatingly clever, staying two steps ahead of her – something no one else had ever managed – and then giving up right when he'd captured her, but he at least acted like he was taking her seriously for the most part. Naruto was treating her like someone he could hold off forever without worry… like a child he was just pretending to fight with.
For a brief second, Kamatari was visible within the gust of wind that her fan produced. The weasel's sleek white body clothed in a tight-fitting black vest looked almost comical with the enormous sickle in his paws and the large patch over his left eye, but there was nothing comical about what he could do.
"Get 'em," he whispered as the blade began to spin and he suddenly seemed to vanish as he moved faster than the human eye could see.
"Just the boy," she called out, not even sure if he could hear her with the speeds he was traveling. She didn't want to destroy half the arena, but at least it would be the half that didn't have any spectators sitting on it.
Naruto sprang back, apparently trying to put a little more space between himself and the death that was rushing at him, but it was already far too late for that. Kamatari could not be defeated.
The blond's fingers formed a quick series of seals and then he brought his hand to his mouth as he said, "Suiton: Mizzu Rappa!" An enormous spout of water erupted from his mouth, flying right at the oncoming wind and the weasel hidden within it.
It was a pointless technique; powerful, but completely incapable of stopping Kamatari, who would cut right through the water like it was nothing. Temari had seen Kamatari cut a sand dune in half; there was no way a level C ninjutsu like Mizzu Rappa would have any effect on him.
And it didn't. Just as she'd thought, the water parted almost instantly. The second it did, however, Naruto's hand made another one of his chopping motions that signaled his use of something similar to Baki's Kaze no Yaiba.
The wind struck him just after he made the movement. Temari waited for him to topple over, probably cut in half, but he remained standing. Instead, Kamatari reappeared just behind him, a very confused look on his face and the handle to his sickle between his paws. The blade of the sickle was stuck in the ground about half a meter in front of Naruto.
Kamatari looked at his broken weapon and then looked at Temari and shook his head. "I'll get 'em next time," he promised as he vanished in a puff of smoke, taking the sickle blade with him.
Naruto let out a deep breath that he'd apparently been holding and wiped the back of his hand across his brow. "That was close," he said with a nervous chuckle. "I didn't realize you could do something like that already."
Temari didn't have an answer. Normally she always had some comment to make – often times a sarcastic or annoyed one. People were stupid and they deserved to be told so. She had no answer for what she'd just seen. To her knowledge, no one had ever blocked Kamatari. She could see how he'd done it; the water showed him where the weasel was and then it was just a matter of hitting him with a wind blade, but to have come up with that so quickly when he'd never even seen the technique before…
She turned and looked up at Gaara who was watching the match with great interest, though she knew none of it had to do with her. Gaara was one of the most powerful people she knew. His sand could protect him and attack his enemies simultaneously with little more than a thought from him. The rest of their village was right to be afraid of him; he could be truly terrifying. And yet, as she looked up at him after having just witnessed what Naruto could truly do, Temari felt something for Gaara that she'd never felt before: fear.
She'd been afraid of Gaara more times than she cared to remember. He threatened to kill her almost once a week, sometimes more. Kankuro received the threat nearly daily. But this was the first time that she really thought that there was a chance, even if only a slim chance, that Gaara might have found something that could hurt him. Something that could kill him.
If that happened, she wasn't sure how she would feel. Would she weep for her little brother or rejoice over the death of a monster?
She supposed she wouldn't know until they got there.
"I forfeit," she told Hayate and then turned to walk away, ignoring Naruto's protests and the cheers that went up from the home crowd.
ooo
As they walked through the hall towards their destination, the tall man and the short girl he was walking with heard the roar from the crowd and stopped for just a second to listen.
"Naruto, do you think?" Tenten asked, looking up at her sensei.
Gai gave her a big, toothy grin. "It seems that Kakashi's student is unexpectedly full of the power of youth today."
Tenten rolled her eyes and the two of them continued down the hall. "Let's hope he's not as full of it as Lee and Neji. They're lucky they didn't kill each other out there."
Gai's large hand patted her on the shoulder. "Now, now, Tenten, you shouldn't fault them for throwing themselves wholeheartedly into their beautiful corrivalry. Young men, such as Lee and Neji, simply cannot hold back when the heat of the battle takes them."
"And if they'd killed each other then where would we be?" Tenten asked in an annoyed voice. She was exceptionally happy that it was only a hypothetical question so she could pretend that such a thing wouldn't completely crush her. The very thought of them really dying would made her stomach twist painfully. If she lost her two best friends, it would probably be the same as dying herself.
Gai didn't have a chance to respond as they reached the infirmary, but as he pushed them open he whispered, "Someday, Tenten, your passionate fires will be stoked and then you will understand."
Tenten seriously doubted that, but she could hardly say so as Neji looked up at them from his spot next to Lee's bed. Neji's shirt was off and his chest and stomach were tightly wrapped with bandages, as was his left leg. Around his neck hung several lose bandages that had probably been over his nose before he pulled them off. A broken nose wasn't something that could be fixed or treated all that well with bandages anyway, but without them the swelling around his face was far more apparent.
Kabuto and Kankuro were no where to be found. Apparently Kankuro had woken and left since he wasn't all that badly injured outside of the punishment he'd received from Naruto's fists, while Kabuto had been taken directly to the actual Konoha Hospital to have his serious wounds treated.
"Sensei," Neji said with a small bow of his head, though he didn't stand.
"You were victorious once again," Gai noted. Tenten thought he almost sounded disappointed.
"Of course," Neji replied, though the haughtiness that normally accompanied those words was strangely absent. "Fate is fate."
Gai sighed and shook his head. "Your next match will be against Hyuuga Hinata. Are you going to be able to make it?"
"Most of my injuries were minor and the rest won't cause me any trouble against her."
"Are you going to lose your head over this 'Main House' business?"
Neji was silent for a moment and then shook his head. "No."
Gai gave him a piercing look from under his thick eyebrows. "I want your word, a warm promise that you won't take this match personally."
Neji stared at him and then turned back to Lee. "Are you going to try to stop the match if I don't promise?" he asked softly.
"Yes."
"Then I promise."
Gai's seriousness vanished instantly and he gave his student a warm smile and lightly patted him on the head in a way that they all knew Neji hated. "Good. Why don't you get your shirt on and Tenten will walk with you to the waiting area? I will sit with Lee until he wakes."
Neji nodded, collected his things and followed Tenten to the door. Just before they left the room, Gai called out. "Neji… congratulations on your victory. Good luck in your next match. I know that you will warm my heart with your proud efforts."
Neji stopped, but didn't turn around or reply. After a moment, he continued out the door and Gai turned back to Lee. "Come now, Lee, we both know you are awake. There is no need to feel shame in your efforts."
Lee's eyes opened somewhat reluctantly, but they did not rise to meet Gai's. "Forgive me, Gai-sensei," he whispered, "I couldn't prove that hard work can overcome genius."
"You proved plenty, Lee," Gai told him gently, his eyes becoming glassy and his voice slightly choked. "You truly were the beautiful green beast of Konoha today."
"But I didn't win."
"Emerging victorious is not always the only way to win. Sometimes simply pushing yourself and your opponent farther than either of you has ever gone is a victory in and of itself. Neji will still pretend to feel superior to you, but I can see that the fires of your youth have ignited something within him as well." Gai smiled and carefully patted Lee on the shoulder. "I believe that he shall not reach the summer time of adulthood without tasting defeat at your hands."
"I do not know, Gai-sensei… every time I think that I am catching him, I find that I'm as far behind as ever."
"That is because Neji has to work hard to stay ahead of you," Gai whispered. "Even in defeating you to prove his superiority, he acknowledges that hard work is needed because he does not only rely on his genius. You taught him this… with my help, of course!"
Lee smiled and rubbed his finger under his nose as he sniffled. He let out a slow breath and sat up so that he could look his mentor in the eyes. "Thank you Gai-sensei. Next time, I shall push Neji-kun even farther! If I'd had the time to open more of the Hachimon, I could have beaten him for sure."
Gai smiled proudly, flashing his brilliant white teeth and giving Lee a thumbs up. "If I cannot teach you to open them faster so you can achieve your goal, I will run a thousand laps around Konoha on my fingertips!"
"And if I cannot learn to open them more quickly and open more of them by the end of next year, I will find a quarry and carry a day's worth of their rocks for them faster than they could do it on their own!"
The two nearly-identical ninja smiled at each other and then threw their arms around one another as they cried.
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
At that moment, medic-nin entered the room to check on his patients. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that greeted him, and then turned right around and walked out without a word.
ooo
"Sorry about that, Sakura-chan," Naruto said as he climbed the stairs. "I tried to give you some time to get ready, but Temari took it a little personal…"
Sakura shook her head and smiled in spite of her nerves. "You're a dork, Naruto," she said, "but I love you. Thanks for trying."
Truth be told, were it not for the fact that she was about to go up against one of the scarier genin in the tournament, she would have had a lot more to say to Naruto. Questions of how he'd done what he'd done in the few minutes of his match that she'd caught were creeping around the edges of her brain, but she couldn't entertain them while a match with Gaara was about to start.
From what Shikamaru and Hinata had told her when she and Sasuke returned, the whole match had gone about the same way that it ended. Naruto had totally dominated from start to finish. Sakura had expected him to win, easily even, but she'd almost thought that he'd played around too much when Temari used her summoning jutsu. For him to block something that no one else could even see…
Naruto nodded. "Good luck out there. You already know that he uses sand, so watch out for it. He'll probably try to end things quickly, so don't fall asleep waiting for Hayate-san to tell you to start. Water jutsu might slow the sand down a bit, but not a lot. He can make more from the ground anyway, but it's not as good as the stuff in his gourd. Genjutsu should work on him, but the sand will still protect him if you try to attack…"
"There were a lot of 'buts' in there," Sakura sighed. "Should I even bother?"
"You never know until you try," the blond said with a grin. "He's not unbeatable and he's not very fast. The sand slows him down a lot and his taijutsu isn't great if you can get past his defenses. You'll just have to figure out how to do it."
"That's a lot of information," Shikamaru noted curiously. "How do you know all that?"
Naruto's lower lip shifted slightly as if he were about to bite it, but then realized what he was doing. "I have my methods," he said with a sly smile, "and Gaara and I have an… interesting… relationship."
At that moment, the subject of their conversation walked past them on his way towards the stairs where Naruto was still standing. "This will be quick," he promised Sakura without looking at her.
He paused when he reached Naruto, his cold eyes glaring at the blond, but he didn't say anything. He simply nodded fractionally and then went down the stairs.
Sakura let out a slow breath. "Well, that doesn't sound good," she joked weakly.
"You'll be fine," Sasuke told her. He turned to look at Naruto, expecting the blond to offer similar words of encouragement, but Naruto was no longer there.
The four genin stepped closer to the stairs and looked down them. On the next landing down, Naruto had just reached out and grabbed Gaara by the elbow, turning the red head around. What followed next was a quick, whispered conversation that didn't seem to impress Gaara too much. In fact, even Naruto seemed unsettled by whatever it was that he was saying.
When Naruto finished saying his piece, Gaara looked down at his elbow and said, "If you don't want to die now instead of out there after I'm done with your friend, let go."
The blond released Gaara and watched silently as the red head walked out to the arena grounds.
"What was that about?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto looked up and smiled the stupid smile he used when he was trying to look innocent. "Just giving him some friendly advice."
Sakura didn't feel like talking anymore and she definitely didn't feel like wondering about the weirdness of Naruto yet again. She steeled herself for what was to come and marched resolutely down the stairs without saying goodbye to anyone. She'd trained hard for this day. Anko, Yugao, and Rin had all helped her in some way or another. She'd thought for sure that she'd lose to Sasuke and hadn't been able to convince herself that she could go all out against him.
Against Gaara, she would have to give it her all or she would die a very sad, pitiful death in front of a lot of people. Her mother and father were in the stands watching, she couldn't let be so cowardly as to fall apart before she even really got into a match.
"Good luck," Naruto whispered as she past him.
Sakura couldn't really hear him.
ooo
"Well, what do you think?" Rin asked Kakashi as they watched Sakura step out onto the battle grounds and walk to where Gaara and Hayate were already standing.
Kakashi scratched his head. "It will probably be a little rough for her, but you know more of what she can do than I do at this point."
Rin smiled. "She's strong, really strong, but that Gaara guy is still out of her league. Give her another year or so and you won't even recognize her, but after a month? Times are too peaceful for kids to be able to reach his level at this age… though Naruto seems to be more than he appears."
"Naruto's always been unpredictable," Kakashi agreed. "I think he's enjoying rubbing it in the faces of everyone who had a hand in his education over the years. He's probably hurting a few pocketbooks as well."
"What about you? Did you violate the third of the three sins?"
"It didn't seem fair, so I abstained this time around."
Rin giggled and punched him lightly in the arm. "Didn't want to bet against Naruto and Sakura?"
"Something like that, though I have to tell you, I could have made enough to retire."
Rin let out a low whistle and leaned in closer as she whispered, "You were going to bet on Naruto?"
"A hundred to one odds and he hasn't even broken a sweat while beating the Kazekage's oldest two children. I'm not saying I knew he was that good, but he's one of those people who just makes you want to believe in him. When he told me he was strong enough to win the whole thing, I believed him."
Rin nodded and looked back down at Sakura and Gaara as they prepared to face off. "Did you ever feel like the other villagers weren't so wrong in the way they treated Naruto?" she asked softly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm not saying it was his fault that the Fourth died, I know it wasn't, but he's got…" her voice trialed off and she sighed. "For a while I thought that it would be better for it to be gone from our lives even if it meant losing the last piece of sensei and Kushina."
Kakashi was quiet for a moment and then he sighed and lowered his eyes. "Yes," he admitted, "there were times when I thought it would be worth it just to be rid of that thing. But once you get to know Naruto, it's impossible to think like that anymore. He's not just a piece of sensei and Kushina; he's the best of both of them."
Rin smiled. "Then I'll have to make sure I spend some time getting to know him before I head back. The best of both of them must be quite the sight to behold."
ooo
Sakura was afraid of Gaara. She would have been perfectly willing to admit it openly, but that was unnecessary since it was clearly written across her face anyway. The way he acted, the power that she'd seen from him, the constant killer intent that seemed to roll off of him… it all combined to make him terrifying to her. The way he'd said that he would kill Naruto – and Sasuke too, if he got in the way – without batting an eye or giving any sign that it would be emotionally difficult for him to snuff out the lives of her friends chilled her to the bone.
There was just something wrong about him. His intense eyes staring out from those strange dark circles gave his face a slightly unhinged look to it.
People weren't supposed to be like that. They weren't supposed to be able to kill without qualm. Ninja were supposed to kill their emotions in order to complete their jobs, but Gaara had taken it to a level that was out of the norm. He seemed to relish the killing or the idea of it anyway.
As they waited for the fight to start, Gaara's eyes seemed to bore into her. She could feel the pressure of them, but she dared not meet them. Instead, her eyes remained on his feet, watching as his toes flexed and shifted in his sandals. They looked like any other feet, but they were holding up a monster.
What could she do against someone like him?
'Just wait for Naruto and Sasuke to save you,' a voice jeered at her. 'That's what you usually do anyway.'
Sakura shook her head, trying to deny the voices words, but she knew they were true. She did get saved a lot. She used to look down on Naruto, especially in the Academy and when they first became Team Seven. It had been one of the greatest disappointments of her life when he was placed in a team with her and Sasuke. Someone like Chouji or Shikamaru would have been much better. They were lazy, but they didn't talk as much and they certainly didn't make a habit of embarrassing her in front of everyone.
Now, she couldn't imagine anyone but Naruto on her team. He was always there to smile and encourage her, to offer a helping hand or a kind word. He just genuinely wanted to be her friend and she genuinely loved having him as one.
And Sasuke… she just genuinely loved Sasuke. It had started as a school girl crush that probably didn't mean anything. She didn't really know him back then and she felt bad for the way she'd acted. Now that she did know him, however, she found those feelings only magnified. Yes, he was handsome, talented, and still a bit mysterious, but he could also be kind in his own way. He didn't have to help her during their times training together after Kakashi had dismissed him. He didn't have to pick up the slack when she wasn't keeping up during their missions. He didn't have to give her that little half smile of his whenever they were talking. But he did all of those things and many more.
Naruto had once told her that if she wanted to be around to help Sasuke restore his clan she'd have to help him kill his brother. She did want to be around for the restoring the clan part – if Sasuke wanted her – but at the moment she wasn't sure how much help she'd be for the killing part. Sasuke's brother had wiped out the whole Uchiha clan, apparently, he'd have to have been a lot stronger than Gaara.
Sakura knew without a doubt that he and Sasuke would come to her rescue if they were needed, regardless of the consequences to themselves, but this time she didn't want them to. It wasn't quite the same as helping Sasuke with his brother, but it would be only her second real fight against someone who wasn't a member of her team where she couldn't just let Sasuke and Naruto do all the work. Her first fight had ended with her nearly unconscious; she was determined to make sure that this ended differently…
She just hoped that "differently" didn't mean it was ending with her dead.
Hayate coughed and then called out, "The second fight of the second round… Begin!"
The sand came at Sakura almost instantly, just as Naruto had told her it would. Sakura pushed chakra into her legs and flipped backwards, throwing a handful of kunai at Gaara at the height of her jump to discourage the sand from continuing to chase her. Her fingers were already together before she'd even landed, forming seals.
"Doton: Retsudo Tenshou!" Her hand slammed into the ground, shattering the earth between her and Gaara and causing it to slowly shift. Had anyone been using a jutsu to travel under the ground, they would have been killed instantly. With Gaara standing above the ground, the jutsu didn't really do much to him, but it did create a large number of boulders – though they were primarily made of dirt, rather than stone.
Retsudo Tenshou was one of the jutsu that Rin had taught her when they took a break from medical ninjutsu. It was something she'd learned during the war, though she wouldn't go into anymore detail than that. It was good for fighting enemies that liked to hide underground and, when it was coupled with a jutsu that Yugao had taught her, it made for an interesting combination.
"Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi!" The jutsu allowed Sakura to control the large rocks that she had just created. It was usually used for causing rocks to fall down on an opponent if they happened to be in a cave or canyon, but for a brief moment it could also be used to lift and throw them, though it was a very brief moment.
The rocks shot out of the ground at Gaara and came crashing down around him. They weren't that heavy and they weren't made totally of stone, so Sakura didn't think that she'd killed him, but she wasn't totally sure that she cared in this case. Gaara wanted to kill her friends and he'd get a shot at Naruto if she lost. Protecting her friends was probably the only way reason she could justify killing someone in a tournament like this, but it was reason enough.
"Sakura-chan, look out!" Naruto yelled from the waiting area.
Sakura dove to the side as what could only be described as a "sand spike" shot through the rocks and dirt covering Gaara and nearly took her head off. More spikes branched out from other areas of the pile of rubble and then the whole thing began to shake.
Sakura reached into her weapon pouch and retrieved an exploding tag and a kunai.
The pile was almost melting now as the dirt was converted to sand until finally Gaara appeared within it. He was completely unharmed. In fact, he didn't seem to have even uncrossed his arms yet!
Sakura through the kunai with the exploding tag at him, but the sand rose up and protected him from the explosion. There wasn't even much of a scorch mark to show for the tag's efforts.
So far, Sakura's best ninjutsu had proven to be ineffective against her opponent and exploding tags didn't seem to fair much better. She was handicapped by the fact that he was apparently naturally inclined towards the earth element as well and he seemed to be a lot better at it than she was, but it took a fair number of jutsu out of play for her. She wasn't even sure if she should be using Earth jutsu to protect herself if he could just turn it into sand. She might throw up a wall to block an attack and end up giving him more sand to use against her.
That left her with taijutsu, which did not seem to be a good idea, and genjutsu.
Sakura took a deep breath and began forming another set of seals. This would use up a lot of her chakra, but if it worked, it might be enough to win. "Kokuangyou Satsu no Jutsu."
This one got Gaara's attention. She couldn't see what he was seeing, of course, but she could gage his reaction to it. It was not what Sakura imagined she'd look like when Anko had cast it on her, but he at least seemed to be confused by the sudden blackness that he probably thought had surrounded him. If she'd done it right, he would be seeing some pretty gross images of mangled people reaching out to grab hold of him and drag him farther into the darkness.
According to Yugao – who had not been in favor of casting the jutsu on Sakura to "show her how it works" – a user of Kokuangyou Satsu could then approach their victims and choke them as the hands of the images were grabbing them. The illusion masked the attack. Sakura wasn't sure that she could choke the life out of anyone, even someone like Gaara, but it would give her a chance to do some other things while she considered the idea.
Grabbing a handful of exploding tags, she pushed them together into a wad and then wrapped a small wire around them, stringing it through the rings of several kunai in the process. This little trick was a Yugao specialty. The tags would explode and send the kunai flying in all directions. With any luck, none of those directions would take them into the stands or send them after Hayate or herself, but they should be unpredictable enough that Gaara wouldn't see them coming until it was too late. Naruto seemed to think that Gaara's sand would protect him no matter what, but there had to be a limit to it.
With enough speed and no warning, even an impenetrable defense could crumble.
Her work finished, Sakura ran at Gaara, throwing the little present so that it would land just behind and to the left of him – in clear view of Hayate so that he would know what was coming.
Sakura had no intention of choking Gaara, but she was going to give him as good a thrashing as she could manage in ten seconds and then she was going to run like hell.
Gaara was obviously seeing the images grabbing at him now, because his arms had uncrossed and were reaching out to push away things that didn't exist. Most people only accepted the image for a minute before their brains started catching on to the idea that the info being relayed by the five senses was false.
Sakura pulled back her fist and drove it up at Gaara's face.
The sand was most sluggish than it had been when she threw the first kunai, but it still moved fast enough to stop her punch. She stepped back and tried a kick, but was blocked once more. A quick five punch and kick combo that Anko had taught her was just as easily defeated.
She glanced at the little bomb she'd made and then back at Gaara. She only had a few more seconds before she needed to be gone. The sand was just so fast and hard.
There was one little trick, but it was a long shot. Rin had mentioned something about pinpoint chakra control being perfect for enhancing strength far beyond what a normal ninja would be capable of. She just had to have all that chakra explode into her fist the moment she made contact.
With only three or four seconds before the bomb would go off, she swung at his head once more. The sand rose up and blocked her punch just as the chakra in her fist was pushed out.
The sand exploded, and then she felt her fist make solid contact with flesh and bone.
Gaara's eyes widened and the slightly confused look was replaced with total shock that mirrored her own.
Before either could react farther, the exploding tags went off.
Sakura threw her hands up to shield herself from what she was certain was going to be an awfully painful reminder of how stupid it was to have stayed so close to the bomb when she knew it was going to go off soon. Gaara was mostly between her and the explosion, but his body would only shield her from so much.
After a second, nothing had happened. She'd been completely missed somehow!
She looked up and found that rather than being missed, she had been saved by the fact that the sand had indeed been up to the challenge of blocking the blast and the kunai that had been sent flying at supersonic speeds.
Gaara wasn't looking at the sand, however, or in the direction of the explosion, or at her, for that matter. Instead, his hand was up at his lip where a small trickle of blood was running down his face and dripping off his chin.
"Wha-what is this?" he asked through rapid gulps. "What… what is it?"
There was almost a childlike fear in his voice as he stared in horror at the blood on his fingertips. It was like he'd never seen his own blood before.
His wide, scared eyes slowly lifted from the blood on his hand to the one who had drawn it. "You hurt me," he whispered.
Gaara looked so distraught that Sakura almost wanted to apologize for punching him. She didn't, however, and the fear left his face only to be replaced with crazed rage.
"YOU HURT ME!" he yelled as his fist lashed out, striking her across the face and sending her to the ground. His eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth as he lifted his hand over his head. A wall of sand seemed to rise up behind him, preparing to spill down and crush her.
Instinct took over as Sakura rolled back onto her hands and pushed off the ground with everything she had. The sand came down, but like a wave of water seemed to flow forward even after crashing into the ground. By the time she landed, the sand was already beneath her, waiting.
Her feet slipped as the ground shifted under her, and she had to put a hand down to try to catch herself. The sand rose up to capture her, but she reached her free hand back into her weapon pouch, retrieved a kunai, and slashed through it before it managed to claim her. Swinging down at the sand around her other hand, she was able to pull free briefly. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get another kunai in her hand so that she could try to defend herself as well as possible.
Her feet were stuck now; she didn't even have to look down to confirm it. Gaara pretty much had her and he didn't look like he was in the mood to nicely request her to give up. She didn't think she had enough chakra to use any sort of genjutsu that would get her out of this situation. Even if she managed to catch him – and he would surely be looking for it – the sand seemed to have a mind of its own. It wouldn't really help her.
Sakura knew she had to think of some move that would get her out of this trap, but she couldn't think of anything. Her friends would have to jump in and save her after all… and that would only put them in danger.
She threw one of her kunai at Gaara. It was a useless effort, of course, and the sand easily blocked it without releasing her but it was about all she could think to do.
She reached back into the weapon pouch and found one last exploding tag with two more kunai. The exploding tags had proven just as useless against Gaara as the kunai and everything else. His sand was simply too perfect of a defense. It was something of a miracle that she'd even been able to punch through it.
That thought struck her as odd for some reason. She'd punched through it with considerable difficulty and been unable to damage it at all with exploding tags, but a kunai could slice through the sand when it tried to come after her. It obviously hardened when it was protecting Gaara… but not to protect itself. It was just sand if an attack was directed at the sand itself.
Sakura pulled the kunai and the tag from her pouch. It was an idiotic plan, but it was better than all of the other options she could come up with which seemed to mostly consist of dying, begging Naruto and Sasuke to save her, or some combination of those two. At least this way she'd go out with a bang.
Sakura hoped her mother wasn't watching too closely. Much as her mother could aggravate her with the constant worrying and thinly veiled suggestions that she enter a less dangerous career field, Sakura didn't really want to upset her… usually.
She wrapped the tag around the handle of the kunai, pushing a little chakra into the seal to activate it, and then tossed it into the sand about a meter and a half in front of her. As expected, the sand didn't react to the danger it was in. It was just sand.
Sakura took a deep breath and then dropped back into the sand, not even struggling as it enveloped her.
A second later, the exploding tag did what it did best. Sakura could feel the heat from the blast wash over her and the sand rubbed her skin raw as it was propelled away from her, but it was just enough to protect her from any real damage. Even as she was sent flying with the sand, she knew that she would come down free and clear… at least for the moment.
Twisting in the air, she managed to land mostly on her feet, gasping for breath. There was no time for breathing, however, as the Gaara's sand came back after its lost captive.
Sakura hadn't really thought about what she would do after she got free. She hadn't really been convinced that her little ploy would work. Now, tired and covered in burns and scrapes, she wasn't sure what else to do. She didn't have any weapons, her jutsu were useless, and Gaara was basically unharmed. She'd done her best…
"I surrender," she whispered dejectedly.
The sand didn't stop. Gaara seemed to have calmed slightly since she first punched him, but even when he was calm Gaara was a killer. Sakura closed her eyes and waited for whatever fate would befall her.
Even with her eyes closed, she noticed the sudden darkening of the world as a shadow fell across her. It wasn't a shadow, it was several.
"The match is over," Hayate said. On either side of him stood Yugao, Naruto, Sasuke, and – strangely – Anko.
Anko looked over her shoulder at the pink-haired genin and winked. "You've gotten all dirty, little princess," she noted. "Che, don't tell anyone I tried to train you, alright? I'd hate to have my name attached to a performance like that!"
Naruto elbowed the jounin in the side and added, "You did great, Sakura-chan. Listen."
Sakura did listen. She hadn't heard it at first, what with waiting to die and all, but now what she was paying attention, she could hear clapping and cheering. Her eyes shifted up to the stands and located the general location where her mother and father had said they would be sitting. Haruno Chiru wasn't hard to spot with her distinctive pink hair. From the distance it was hard to tell, but Sakura thought she might be smiling with pride and she clapped for the performance her daughter had put on.
A little farther down and more towards the center Sakura found Kakashi and Rin. Rin apparently realized that she was being looked at because she stopped clapping for a moment and waved enthusiastically to her student. Closer to the front a loud whistle rang out that had a distinct Ino-ring to it.
Sakura let out a slow breath and smiled weakly. "That wasn't so bad."
o
o
A/N: Okay, I have to say, the new Reader Traffic feature on this site is really cool. I get hits from people in Qatar, Japan, Iran, Latvia… it's just amazingly neat to see. Well, everyone around the world (now that I know you are reading), I hope are enjoying the story, I'm happy that you've all found it.
Anyway, it's coming out a bit late, but I still have an hour and a half before it officially becomes Saturday. Plenty of time if you ask me. Plus, this chapter was about 11K words and 9K of them were written just today. I think that excuses a little tardiness, don't you?
So, was that ending too cheesy? I kind of thought Sakura needed a little spotlight moment where everyone was cheering for her and she could see that all those people who trained her or were friends with her or whatever were proud of her even though she lost. Poor canonSakura never seems to win at anything. Even Sasori would have killed her and that was a two on one fight… sort of.
Well, we've gone through the end of Lee vs. Neji (setting up the Hyuuga match in the next chapter that seemed really obvious to me, but then I've known it was coming for a long, long time), all of Naruto vs. Temari, and all of Sakura vs. Gaara…. I'm beat…
Please review and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading and have a pleasant night, day, whatever.
Kuchiyose: Kirikiri Mai – "Summoning: Spinning Whirl" or "Summoning: Slash Slash Dance." I'm assuming that "Spinning Whirl" is literal, and "Slash Slash Dance" is the translation used in the English version of the anime… though I've never seen that episode in English, so I can't really say. Regardless, this is Temari's summoning technique with which she calls Kamatari, the sickle wielding weasel.
Kaze no Yaiba – "Blade of Wind" This is the attack Baki used to kill Hayate in canon between the second and third tests. It is also the basis behind Naruto's little wind jutsu that I've been having him use for a lot of the story. As near as I can tell, it's sort of the wind version of Sasuke's Chidori "blade" which he uses against Orochimaru (and several other people in part II of the series). There is some shaping going on, but nothing on the level of Rasengan, hence the greater ease to use this.
Hachimon – "Eight Gates" or "Eight Inner Gates" The Hachimon are chakra gates within the body's chakra system. Opening them increases the flow of chakra and allows the user to surpass their physical limitations, but at the cost of damaging their own bodies. Open all eight and you are nigh invincible… but you also die at the end.
Doton: Retsudo Tenshou – "Earth Release: Split Earth Force" or "Revolving Split Earth Palm" depending on where you look. I'm not sure if this should be "Retsudo Tenshou" or "Retsudotenshou"… the second seems really long, but the first could be wrong… well, whatever, someone who actually knows Japanese feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. This technique causes the ground to break up. The Iwagakure ninja used it to kill Obito (after he'd already been crushed by rocks falling down on him) during the Kakashi Gaiden.
Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi – "Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction" I have to admit, this one I might be using improperly. The jutsu's only been seen once and the rocks definitely fell during that instance… but I wanted a jutsu that got something into the air and I don't really know how to say "Throwing Rock Destruction" or whatever such a jutsu should be called. I don't ask this much, but just go with it, okay?
Kokuangyou Satsu no Jutsu – "Journey into the Darkness of Death"… I believe… The area around the affected is enveloped in darkness and they see terrifying images.