Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the manga or the anime. I'm FREE! I needed to say that. My last exam was on Wednesday, and now it's officially summer (or at least the holidays).
Anyway… Wow, I got such varied reactions from the battles last chapter. Some people want Hanabi to win, others want Sho to win. In a similar difference of opinion, some people think Hanabi will take it and others think Sho will. We also had differences of opinion from various people over favourite fights. I'm quite pleased to be honest.
Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter 36: End of the Preliminary's and Kiba's Situation
Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly as he took in the sight of Hanabi's opponent.
The small brown haired girl was a little surprised when the blonde turned quickly with a confident grin on his face.
"Don't worry! The bigger they are the harder they fall right?" he encouraged her, whatever doubt that had crossed his features seemingly gone.
"Mm." she nodded calmly in reply. Strangely, Hanabi found the blue eyed boy's encouragement increased her confidence slightly.
Maybe this was what her sister and that Konohamaru boy were talking about when they said they admired him she told herself. She turned at the sound of her sister's voice.
"Good luck." Hinata offered.
Hanabi nodded again before confidently setting off for the stairs.
But as she passed the two Rain ninja standing a little further up the walkway the white eyed girl picked up a snippet of their conversation.
"-think she has a chance? She is a Hyuuga." the boy said to the girl who had just won. She snorted derisively, barely lowering her voice.
"No. You caught his name didn't you? Don't you know what his family can do?" she asked incredulously.
"And she's tiny, look at her-" the Ame kunoichi stopped suddenly as her team mate gestured towards the approaching girl.
Hanabi passed the two of them without a word, and though they thought she missed it, the pair of Rain shinobi shared a self-satisfied look.
Had they seen the brown haired girl's face, they might have been surprised.
"Thanks," Hanabi thought to herself, the ghost of a smile on her face.
"Now I know there's something special to look out for." she thought, reaching the bottom of the stairs and giving the smug pair a neutral stare.
"And I have a few surprises of my own." she reflected, allowing her gaze to shift from the pair of now uncomfortable ninja to her opponent.
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As her sister's back turned Hinata's expression grew a great deal more worried. Despite the small girl's calm expression the older indigo haired kunoichi had little idea of what her sister was actually feeling. In fact, the calmness her little sister was projecting only heightened the concern she felt.
"She'll be fine." Naruto assured her, reading her anxieties with a smile on his face.
"…B-But Shikamaru-san said he got past Temari-san…" she replied quietly, unconsciously fidgeting. Naruto nodded.
"Don't worry, she's strong." he insisted. Hinata felt her hopes rise, as they always did in his presence.
"You've only been around her for a few days, and you're already so confident in her" she thought happily, wishing she could be the same. But try as she might, she couldn't silence the small voice of doubt in the back of her mind.
"How do you know?" she asked, silently requesting the blue eyed boy to eradicate the last of her fears.
His warm and genuine smile almost melted her heart.
"You're her sister, and you're strong. One of the strongest people I know. So she must be strong too." he reasoned.
Hinata found herself blushing at the compliment. And even though her level of confidence didn't allow her to quite believe she was actually one of the strongest people he knew, the combination of the compliment and Naruto's belief allowed her to watch the match without any preconceived ideas about the result.
"…Thank you…" she managed, the reddish tint still evident on her cheeks.
"It's true" he laughed as they both turned back towards the match. Naruto leant forward on the railings while Hinata remained upright, still fidgeting slightly, though more out of habit than actual nervousness.
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Though she was still annoyed at and worried about her sister, Mihoto wished she had said more to the tall brown haired boy before he had left for his fight. In fact, she wished she had talked to him after she had got back from talking to the blonde boy. But the unusual and uncomfortable atmosphere that had formed between the two twins had stopped the male member of the team from speaking, and he had resorted to taking his backup stance of trying not to get involved. He had obviously sensed that this argument went beyond any of the others they had had before, which admittedly it did.
Maybe that's why she had talked to the blonde, she considered. He knew nothing of her past, and surprisingly little of his own village's history as well.
"History…" she mused, her mind tracing the various events that had brought them here.
"…It's all in the past…" she finished, before almost laughing at the ridiculous obviousness of the thought.
"Why can't you see that though?" she silently asked her sister, her thoughts sobering.
She mentally shook herself, telling herself to concentrate on what was in front of her. She almost laughed again.
"That's my entire life story I guess." she considered, finally looking between her friend and his opponent.
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Shikamaru looked between the two before starting. The height difference between the two shinobi was almost criminal. Hanabi stood about two feet shorter than her opponent.
Despite that though, as well as the blatant age difference, the Rock ninja didn't seem to hold his opponent in any sort of disregard. The look he was giving the brown haired girl opposite him was that of detached acknowledgement, with the prospect of underestimation obviously not an issue.
It was this evident experience that the Rock ninja had, among other reasons, that the genius found himself interested in this foreign ninja.
In fact a good portion of his thoughts that hadn't been wrapped up in Temari's upcoming revenge had been focused on the enigma that was the team from the Land of Earth, and their lone male member in particular. If anything, the earlier fight with one of the two twins had only increased his interest in the three of them. But it was this guy who Shikamaru found himself returning to each time.
Of course, the first instance in which he had suspected that this boy was something strange was when he had gotten past Temari. That alone would make him interesting and incidentally place him at least at Chuunin rank, but on top of that, the lazy pineapple haired boy had learned via Chouji that Hanabi's opponent was about seventeen years old.
Wheels had stopped turning, and started spinning rapidly when he had heard that. Being the standard he was, had he purposefully ignored Chuunin exams? And if so, for how long? And if he had, had his team mates done it as well? And for what reason?
Unfortunately, these were questions that really couldn't be answered. The dark eyed boy only wished he could take a look at the mission completion files of the three Rock shinobi. That would tell him all he needed to know.
He actually wished he had known the name of the guy before now. Then he could have at least done some research.
Well, there were other things to get on with first. He had to stop himself from voicing the taxing nature of it all.
"Begin."
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Only those who were paying their absolute attention managed to catch Sho's sleight of hand as his right hand reached up to grab his hammer while his left drew and threw a triple round of shuriken towards his opponent, their launch initially concealed by the loose open jacket.
But Hanabi had already activated her Byakugan and saw through the attack, leaping backwards and watching the three spinning missiles thud into the ground before her. Looking upwards, she noticed the boy in front of her holding the hammer just above the head, effectively turning the heavy weapon into a pole. Breathing deeply, Hanabi lowered herself into the Jyuuken stance and raised her hands in preparation to attack.
"I have to avoid those hands." Sho told himself, perfectly aware of the famous Hyuuga clan's doujutsu and their special brand of taijutsu. It was times like this he thanked his lucky stars for his upbringing.
Unfortunately, he didn't want to show his full hand this early. Though he had been chastised by both of his team mates for doing it before, this time he had made the conscious decision and though he was confident of victory, he had not made it because he underestimated his opponent. In fact, it was more the opposite, he respected his future opponents and didn't want to give anything away.
"So I won't use my bloodline…yet." he reiterated.
The two ninja spent the briefest of moments looking at each other, before each of them launched themselves forwards.
Striking out with the flat of her palms, Hanabi suddenly realised why he had drawn his weapon so early as first her right hand was blocked and deflected, followed by her left one missing his body as he sidestepped away and lashed out with the weapon he had just blocked with.
Leaning back slightly, the leather bound tip of the weapon brushed some of her hair to the side as it made its progress. Hanabi had little time to consider that though, as the moment the weapon had passed she unleashed the energy she had stored in her spine and sprung forward, her hands once again striking out at the taller ninja's body.
Surprised at the ferocity of the little girl's strikes, Sho manoeuvred the head of the hammer to block the incoming left handed chakra powered strike then launched himself into the air to dodge the second, executing a sweeping roundhouse kick at the head of the Konoha kunoichi with a long right leg.
With little hope of blocking or parrying the powerful strike with Jyuuken without being dealt a shattering blow, Hanabi had to resort to dodging and ducked down, rolling forwards and ending up behind the landing Iwagakure shinobi.
Seizing an opportunity, the brown haired girl twisted herself and whipped out a palm towards the unprotected back of her opponent. However to her surprise, from underneath the arm of the Rock ninja the shaft of the hammer whipped out and batted her hand away, causing her to temporarily lose her balance.
Taking advantage of the situation, Sho turned quickly and executed a number of quick stabbing motions with the butt of the hammer that forced the unbalanced girl to stay that way, dodging his attacks and unable to retaliate.
He was understandably surprised then when suddenly the Leaf shinobi seemed to find her feet as she inadvertently stepped into one of the forms of Jyuuken in her attempts to dodge.
Her movements flowing now, Sho found that his next two jabs were dodged easily and then he was abruptly on the defensive again.
Collectively holding its breath, there was little to no noise from the crowd as the minute form of Hanabi forced the towering figure of Sho backwards across the room with each fluid striking movement almost too fast for the eye to follow.
"The attacks are as fast as lightning, there's almost no opening." he told himself as his mind whirred through his options, glad that he was at least able to force her to keep her distance as he retreated due to the long staff-like end of the hammer.
Opposite him, Hanabi was getting slightly frustrated with the weapon in his hands. As yet, she had been totally unsuccessful in her attempts to close even one tenketsu on the Rock shinobi's body, and hadn't even managed to land one blow due to the annoying way he had adapted the use of the hammer.
Ducking under a jab from said weapon she aimed a two fingered Jyuuken strike at his upper arm, her eyes narrowing as he leaned away again, the butt of the hammer coming up and threatening to strike her wrist in an attempt to break it.
Catching the tip of the weapon in the palm of her hand, she had neither the time nor the strength to wrestle it from his grasp and so resorted to pushing on the metal shaft.
To her surprise, the push knocked her opponent off balance and Hanabi took immediate advantage, leaping forward and striking the Rock ninja in the right shoulder tenketsu, disabling his weapon arm as a loud crack coincided with her strike.
"Yes! She got him!" Naruto celebrated. But beside him Hinata shook her head slowly.
Not realising she had hit her opponent that hard, Hanabi's eyes widened as the shoulder she had just hit literally fractured right in front of her, before his entire right arm fell away in a shower of split rock.
"Rock replacement." she cursed inwardly as she leapt into the air. Courtesy of her doujutsu, she had looked through her own body and saw the Iwa shinobi finally using the hammer for its intended purpose, swinging it towards her unprotected back and side.
The remnant of the replacement exploded into millions of pieces as the hammer impacted, small shards hitting the flying girl and giving her a number of painful, though superficial, cuts and bruises.
Landing lithely, the Hyuuga girl immediately jumped again to avoid the flurry of kunai her opponent had released in midair, releasing her own kunai as she did so to buy herself time to land.
Blocking the incoming projectiles with the shaft of his weapon, Sho made no other move towards the girl as she landed and only returned her subsequent intense veiny stare with a calm one of his own.
He gave her another nod of acknowledgement before once again throwing himself forward to attack the now heavily breathing girl before him, not giving her chance to rest.
Dropping back into Jyuuken position, Hanabi utilised the space she had to dodge the incoming short swing and then pushed aside the subsequent jab at her face, moving forward herself in an attempt to get inside the reach of her far larger opponent.
Sho stepped back in response, calmly reading her attempt and countering it with a swing at the kunoichi's midriff.
Stepping back herself, Hanabi tried to conserve some energy, realising that he was able to read her attacks while she was on the offensive.
Trying not to let her rest Sho jabbed forward again and again as she looked for an opening while she dodged nimbly away from the large boy's attacks.
Losing patience with the agile girl Sho charged forwards, swinging the hammer wildly.
Smiling inwardly, Hanabi read the move, turning and back flipping away from the advancing real Sho and over the cumbersome rock clone. She then struck powerfully down at its head, causing the rest of the copy to collapse into rubble at her feet as she landed, and then regarded Sho with her level gaze, masking her amazement that he could create and replace himself with a clone that quickly.
"That's what I get for trying to fool the Byakugan." he conceded inwardly. Though it had worked against higher ranked shinobi he reminded himself.
Jumping back into battle again, Hanabi found the bruises she had been receiving since the beginning of the battle were beginning to affect her strikes. The end of the hammer may have been covered in leather but the hardness of the strikes and the repetition was starting to tell to the point where, despite herself, she was trying to avoid the hits.
Finally getting the girl on the defensive through sheer attrition, Sho pressed his advantage. Striking out at the smaller girl, her agility finally faltered and Sho lashed out quickly, jabbing at her shoulder.
To his astonishment, the small girl pulled off an incredible feat of alertness and swivelled from the blow, lashing out with an attack of her own and forcing the tall boy to recoil away.
However, Sho was not willing to give up the initiative so easily. Shifting his grip on his hammer, and allowing the shaft to slip through his hand until it reached the end, he swung the weapon in his right hand towards the now slightly unbalanced kunoichi's neck area, leaving her no option but to duck and face the left footed kick the brown haired boy had planned.
Or so he thought.
Realising the desperate nature of her situation, and identifying this opportunity as her only chance, Hanabi drew on all the training she had recently done with her father and concentrated her chakra as she began to spin, praying her gamble would work.
On the balcony with her own Byakugan activated, Hinata prayed too.
Recognising that his opponent was not going to duck, Sho braced himself for the horrible impact of metal on bone, not expecting what was to come.
"Kaiten!" Hanabi shouted as chakra burst from her body and stopped the swinging weapon mere centimetres from her neck.
Time seemed to slow for the Iwa-nin, his eyes widening as the girl began to spin faster and throw out more chakra from her petite body. He gasped as his weapon was torn from his grasp, the force of his swing rebounding off the expanding dome of chakra the Hyuuga girl was projecting.
Quickly leaping backwards to avoid the encroaching attack, Sho hardly noticed his weapon spin away and smash through one of the balconies above, barely missing the two Rain shinobi as it showered them in splinters and buried itself head first deeply into the wall.
Weapon less and with a jarring sensation all the way along his right arm, Sho had little time to think before the small Konoha girl dismissed the dome of chakra around her and followed up on her advantage.
Striking out with each hand at the glowing parts of Sho's body, she continued to press the tall boy backward as he barely managed to escape; knowing that trying to block the Jyuuken powered blows would only result in his eventual incapacitation.
He had expected a great deal from the young Hyuuga girl, but this? His mind was in overdrive, but each thought came up with the same conclusion:
"I have to use It." he thought to himself, concentrating.
Still moving fluidly through her strokes, Hanabi stopped mid-flow and back flipped away as her enhanced eyes caught her opponent suddenly beginning to concentrate chakra throughout his entire body.
His stance had changed too. He had spread himself out a little more and was tapping one heel on the ground, almost as sort of nervous reaction. His eyes told a different story though.
"This is it." the brown haired girl told herself, thinking back to the two Rain ninja. She might not know what it was that was going to happen, but she was prepared for something surprising.
Once again the two ninja stood opposite each other, in a still tableau, save for the rapid movements of the tall boy's foot.
Until, mid-tap, the brown haired boy launched himself forward.
Not quite expecting her opponent's sudden move, Hanabi moved very little herself, planting her feet and readying herself to meet the charge of the tall Iwa-nin. But to her surprise he did not cut his speed as he approached and merely threw a right handed punch towards her face.
Neatly dodging the blow, she sent her own palm towards Sho's exposed midriff.
But as his chakra flared her hand passed straight through and before her very eyes the chakra that had so briefly flared went muted and shadowy, almost as if it was not there.
Hanabi had little time to worry about that though because, as their bodies continued to pass through each other, he had twisted around and the fist that she had so recently dodged was now swinging towards the back of her head.
Continuing the momentum that her own strike had generated, the small girl rolled forward and ducked under the blow, her Byakugan scanning the fist and deciding that the chakra it had contained was of the type she had originally been fighting.
"That was solid?" she asked herself, hand springing back towards the outstretched fist in an attempt to catch it between her feet.
But that too disappeared in front of her eyes just as she was about to make contact, and this time his left arm's chakra seemed to spring into life, swinging down toward her unprotected stomach.
Bringing her own hands down, Hanabi thrust her palms at the outstretched limb, aiming to hit the exposed tenketsu and gain leverage at the same time.
As the second limb evaporated from her sight, leaving his entire body seemingly incorporeal, Hanabi found herself sliding on her back away from the boy.
"No…" Hinata murmured, almost unable to watch her sister down below. True to character, one hand was in front of the indigo haired girl's mouth, but her other was now mimicking both of Naruto's as she gripped the railing in front of her in concern.
"I need to end this quickly." Sho told himself, turning on his heel and charging as Hanabi pulled herself back onto her feet.
Somewhat expecting the surprise that brown haired boy had in store; the brown haired girl raised her hands in defence and concentrated her vision as the tall boy leapt forwards and threw a number of missiles.
His body parallel to the ground Sho span himself in the air, aiming for the chest of the small girl. The missiles he had thrown were blocked by the kunoichi, and she even managed to direct one back, though it passed straight through him.
But the thrown weapons had done their job. Rooted to the spot, Hanabi saw him pass through her chest, his entire body intangible.
Until suddenly, when their chests were intertwined, his limbs seemed to spring to life.
From the right knee downwards and from the elbows to the fists, Sho's chakra reappeared, each body part aiming for a different spot on the small girl's body. Her world seemingly in slow motion, she still only had time to knock his incoming right arm down with a strike before she instinctively raised her other hand to protect her face from the knee about to strike it.
It was Sho's left fist, however, that made full contact with the shocked Konoha kunoichi. The accurate finishing blow to her left temple didn't even give her enough time to scream as Sho quickly reactivated his bloodline and allowed her to fly straight through him.
Watching from the balcony, Naruto grimaced at the sight of Hanabi's small body coming to a juddering halt across the floor. At the same time he heard a small sound from the girl next to him and felt a hand clench onto his, silently asking for support.
Now looking at the indigo haired girl, Naruto realised that she hadn't even been looking at him when her hand had found his. In fact, her gaze was still fixed on her prone younger sister while her hand shook slightly as it lay on top of his.
For once, the blonde boy couldn't think of a thing to say.
"The winner is: Ishikawa Sho." Shikamaru announced. He had already requested another team of medics.
But the words had barely left his mouth before both Hinata and Naruto had jumped the railing to join their unconscious team mate. The two ninja reached Hanabi seconds after the medical team and Hinata immediately questioned them.
"Is she going to be okay?" she asked breathlessly.
One of the medics raised his head and was about to tell her that compared to the injuries of some of the other examinees, including one who was currently fighting for his life, this girl had got off scot free.
That is, until he saw the look in the pale lavender eyes and realised the two girls were sisters. He smiled reassuringly.
"She's going to be fine." he comforted Hinata, eliciting a massive sigh of relief from the older girl.
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Having deactivated his family technique again and landed one handedly, Sho slowly pushed himself to his feet. He quickly checked that his opponent was being tended to by the medics and then tried to work out the feeling of wrongness that seemed to be permeating his mind.
Raising his arm he looked at a red welt that had formed in the area he had been struck by the Hyuuga girl.
"She hit me." he thought distractedly, before a second thought suddenly hit him.
Concentrating his chakra, Sho tried to make the affected area of his arm incorporeal. His eyes widened as the attempt failed and directed more chakra to the affected area to no avail.
"That's not good…" he thought slowly, his eyes catching a metallic glint from the wall away to his left. There was also an unfamiliar lightness to his back that took a while to pinpoint.
"Ah!" he realised as he fished around behind his back. Taking a few quick steps forward before leaping up and onto the balcony above to retrieve his weapon, it was only now he actually recognised the damage it had done after it had been pulled from his hands.
Nodding amicably to the two Rain ninja as he pulled the hammer out through the rubble the wall had become, seemingly without effort, the Rock ninja absent mindedly reattached it to its strapping's on his back and then made his way over to the other balcony and his team, his mind still going over the fight.
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"Interesting…" Shikamaru thought to himself, watching the tall shinobi rejoin his team mates. Unfortunately, there were still other things to attend to, and among those things was the last match.
The stretcher bearing the younger of the two Hyuuga sisters was already gone, and Hinata exchanged a quiet word with the blonde who nodded in response as they both returned to their positions above the fighting area.
Now that her sister's safety had been assured, Hinata seemed a great deal more relaxed, though still slightly concerned about her own possible match up. Beside her, the blonde had returned to his energetic persona, pleased that his young team mate was not hurt badly as well as itching to see the last match.
Looking around as the electric board whirred through the last of the names; Shikamaru could see that the only remaining examinees available for the last match were Hinata, the other twin from the Land of Earth and the last Rain ninja.
All the attention in the room was focused on one small corner of it.
XXXXXXXXXX
Hinata sagged slightly.
"Oh…" Naruto sighed.
Stepping away from her team mates, Eri allowed a ghost of a smile to graze her features. Not the pairing she had hoped, but still something.
"Back in a sec." she muttered, getting a 'sure thing' from the male member of the team and a slightly muted 'good luck' from her sister.
"They can't all be that strong can they?" the male Rain ninja asked his team mate.
"I don't know." she replied, looking up at the match up again.
'MURAKAMI ERI vs FUJIMORI YOHEI' it read.
"But you're going to have to go down there regardless." she finished, nudging him slightly.
A little further up the balcony, Hinata was torn between relief and disappointment.
Though she was slightly relieved that she didn't have to fight, the indigo haired girl had wanted to prove herself to Naruto, and herself, that the incident in the forest wouldn't be repeated. She had wanted…
"I wanted him to cheer for me. To wish me luck and believe in me." She told herself forlornly. She knew it was pathetically self centred, but she couldn't describe the feeling when Naruto was actively rooting for her.
She was shaken out of her reverie by the sound of said blonde's voice.
"-worry Hinata, this just means you're through to the next exam right?" he enthused, a wide grin on his face that managed to spread a comfortable warmth across her entire body, as well as her cheeks.
XXXXXXXXXX
Standing opposite her opponent and in direct contrast to the blushing Konoha girl, Eri regarded the boy in front of her with a dispassionate gaze as the exam proctor checked everything was in order.
So Sho had taken longer than he needed to. Again. She honestly doubted his abilities sometimes.
"Not that it seems to matter now." she thought to herself a little bitterly, letting her chakra seep out into the ground once again.
"Can't they see its appropriate justice?" she asked herself for the hundredth time.
"Still, I have a lot of work to do before then. Whether they help or not." she told herself, increasing the flow of chakra out of her body as she observed the proctor seem to decide everything was ready and opened his mouth to begin the match.
Eri smiled inwardly.
The word 'start' was followed almost instantaneously by the sound of fracturing rock, and as he shifted his gaze from the cold green eyes of his opponent upwards to the source of the noise, the Rain ninja almost knew it was too late.
He only managed to raise his arms to protect his head before he was buried in the falling rubble from the ceiling above.
The match had lasted barely more than a second.
"Winner: Murakami Eri." Shikamaru stated slowly, the surprise evident even in his bored tone. The winner herself was already moving back toward the stairs though, unfazed even as the main doors into the arena burst open and yet another set of medics ran through.
Up on the balcony Hinata was already scanning the room with her doujutsu in an attempt to answer the question Naruto had just put to her: how had she done it?
It took her about a minute or so, but the lavender eyed girl finally found the faint and fading line of chakra that ran from where the auburn haired girl had been standing, up the wall and then eventually to a large spot on the ceiling where the collapse had started.
Relaying the information to the blonde next to her, Hinata found herself impressed at the situational awareness and use of the environment that the second twin had demonstrated.
But there was one thing that definitely differentiated between the two girls now. Their compassion.
And when she informed Naruto of this, she found that he thought the same.
"Yeah…" he agreed.
"That first girl allowed her opponent to get away with no injuries at all. But her twin buried her opponent under a load of rock." He surmised. But their conversation jogged his memory, reminding him of what he wanted to tell the indigo haired girl earlier. The blonde turned back from the medics carefully lifting the broken Rain ninja and towards the Hyuuga beside him.
"Actually do you remember-" he began, before the voice of the Hokage called them all down.
The blue eyed boy flashed the pigtailed woman a dirty look before returning to the inquisitive girl in front of him.
"Y'know I talked to one of those girls?" he asked. Hinata nodded.
"I think it might have been the first one" he told her, before noting the black look he was getting from the Godaime.
"But I'll tell you about it all later" he said quickly, grabbing her hand and leading her away fearfully.
XXXXXXXXXX
Tsunade looked over the line of ninja assorted before her. There were two Konoha ninja, a trio of Iwagakure shinobi and one each from the Cloud, Rain and Grass villages.
It was an interesting bunch.
The golden eyed woman cleared her throat and began her speech.
"Congratulations! Those who are standing here have progressed to the final stage of the Chuunin exam." she paused for a moment and then continued.
"The final part of the exam will be a knockout tournament that will start in two weeks. The delay will be for two reasons. The first is that your matches will be watched by all the other countries and this time will be required for their arrival. The second reason for the extra time is to give you all time to prepare. You have now seen each other fight, to a greater or lesser degree. To reflect this..." the blonde woman motioned for Shikamaru, who appeared with a small box in his hand.
She had not given any time so far for questions, and her fierce golden gaze scanned the line, keeping them silent as the lazy Chuunin shuffled forward.
"…you will all find out who your next opponent will be now, to give you chance to fully prepare against them." she motioned again and Shikamaru held out the box to Naruto on the end of the line.
"Seven!" he called out, flourishing his paper.
"One." Hinata said softly, praying that her number meant she was on the other side of the draw to the blue eyed boy next to her.
"Six." the Rain kunoichi with the meteor hammer read out.
"Three." the Cloud ninja stated flatly, his grey eyes expressionless.
"Two!" the Grass shinobi called out.
"Five." Mihoto announced.
"Four." Sho declared confidently.
"Eight." Eri read out.
Tsunade nodded to Shikamaru, who withdrew. Anko stepped forward and passed the newly created tournament roster to the village leader, who held it out for all to see.
Match One: Hyuuga Hinata (Leaf) vs Yabuki Reaji (Grass).
Match Two: Nakano Kenta (Cloud) vs Ishikawa Sho (Rock).
Match Three: Murakami Mihoto (Rock) vs Itou Haruna (Rain).
Match Four: Uzumaki Naruto (Leaf) vs Murakami Eri (Rock).
Semi Final One: Winner of Match One vs Winner of Match Two.
Semi Final Two: Winner of Match Three vs Winner of Match Four.
Final: Winner of Semi Final One vs Winner of Semi Final Two.
"I'm going to be fighting that Grass-nin again." Hinata thought to herself. It seemed the fact that she hadn't fought in the preliminaries would be barely any advantage at all.
Despite the fact he had been slightly distracted; the fact that he had been paired against the slightly unhinged Cloud had managed to get through loud and clear. Beyond that though, he had also noted that the following round he could well be placed against the other Hyuuga.
It was looking like these next two weeks would need to be spent doing more than just resting.
For her part, Mihoto was less worried about her match than her sister's. A fight between the Fourth Hokage's lookalike and Eri was not likely to end well, and Mihoto did not like the glint in the eye her sister had gained at finding out who her first match would be against.
Her blonde adversary was also fired up. But there were still a number of doubts in the back of his mind, one of the highest among those being the conversation he had had with his new opponent's sister.
What overrode those doubts was the memory of the look of hatred he had been given by his new opponent. It had felt so much like the stares he had been given, and in some places still continued to get, by the villagers for so much of his life that it was almost scary.
It was a stare that hated him for what he was rather than actually who he was, and even these days, Naruto still dealt with hatred towards him in the same way.
He would have to prove himself, and prove that whatever had happened in the past he was his own person. Even if he had a demon inside him or if he idolised the Fourth Hokage, he was still Uzumaki Naruto. Not some faceless hate figure.
And he would prove that to everyone.
Wrapped up in those thoughts, the blonde boy managed to miss Tsunade's call that dismissed them, only focusing as a small voice said his name. He turned towards the voice.
"Sorry Hinata, what?" he asked.
"Er… We can go now. I think." she informed him. He looked around and noticed the other examinees leaving.
"Oh, right. Let go!" he announced. Hinata nodded shyly in response as he led the way.
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"So we've got two weeks to prepare huh?" Naruto asked rhetorically as they made their way down the passageway that led under training area forty four.
"We've got some serious training to do then!" he enthused, looking to Hinata to get her reaction.
The indigo haired girl merely nodded and smiled, the prospect of spending yet more time with the blue eyed boy filling her with an odd mixture of pleasurable warmth and a knot of nervousness.
Beside her, at his own mention of training, Naruto's memory threw up something he had asked during the second exam and being himself, he immediately voiced it.
"Hey Hinata, could you show me some of those first aid techniques you used?" he asked. The girl looked a little surprised.
"…Now?" she said eventually. The blonde smiled good-naturedly.
"Sure, we should start as soon as possible right?" he paused as the girl beside him seemed torn and wondered what she was thinking.
"…Well… I'd love to, but…" Naruto waited for her continue, resisting his natural urge to press her for answers.
"…I should go see Hanabi-imouto in the hospital." she finished, upset that she couldn't spend the rest of the day with the boy. Fortunately, he understood.
"Sure! We'll train together tomorrow twice as hard!" he enthused, before giving her an appraising look.
"Y'know, you're a good sister." He told her, thinking of the small conversation the two of them had had in the woods. To the blonde boy, it seemed that Hinata had everyone's interests at heart.
But to the lavender eyed girl, the praise was slightly embarrassing.
"I'm not that great." she mumbled. To her, it was just the way she was. She didn't feel she could take credit for that.
She looked up at the boy beside her, taking note of his focused eyes, her hair covering her face to conceal her blush.
"…Are you going to train now? Alone?" she wondered. Naruto shrugged.
"Yeah, gotta use every hour of the day!" he noticed the look in her eyes and continued quickly.
"But don't worry, I'm used to it. Ero-sennin ain't the most one-to-one of teachers." he joked, adding "he's always too busy peeking" within his own mind.
Unfortunately, to Hinata, this explanation came under the heading of 'Naruto-kun hiding his feelings'. And in fact, she was pretty much on the money. Though Naruto acted upbeat as they made their way back to the village, as they parted ways on Konoha's main street Naruto had to admit that the mere loss of the nervous girl's presence made him feel a great deal lonelier.
On top of that problem, the fading need for bravado finally allowed many of the thoughts that had come up during the second test to at last begin to resurface.
Of course, Naruto thought to himself, that was one of the good results of really hard training. If you worked hard enough, you didn't even dream.
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A long, long way outside Konoha, someone else was also working very hard.
There was very little evidence of this work though, and it was being kept this way since the two of them, despite their assets, had little to no idea of where they actually were.
Even reaching this stage had been hard for the two of them though. In fact, that last few things Kiba remembered while he was still with his two other human team mates was falling, being hit incredibly hard on the head by something, and then a large explosion.
After that, he had been woken up at the side of a river by his furry companion and while tending to other business, had slowly pieced together what had happened.
The first thing he had found, but had also been told about by Akamaru, was that the two of them had been wrapped almost head to toe in strong, and yet buoyant, tether and it was this substance that had apparently allowed them to travel downriver to such a degree that the terrain that they now occupied was not just different from the surroundings they had been in, but completely unrecognisable.
After the two of them had discussed the issue, of course after having agreed neither of them knew where they were, they had also both agreed that whatever Kakashi had been doing down the sides of the crevasse, it had probably involved the bindings that had allowed them to travel downriver. After all, they had been planning to capture the spy, not kill them.
However, that whole debate had lasted all of two minutes once Kiba had realised the actual predicament they were in.
For a start that other business had been the fact that one of Akamaru's legs had been broken by the fall and in fact that had created a small argument once Kiba had realised it, chastising his friend for not mentioning it sooner.
Once a rudimentary splint had been created, they had then run into their second immediate problem.
Kiba couldn't use chakra properly.
It had taken them a while to work out the probable cause, but once the link between the cut on his cheek that the brown haired boy had gained from the animated corpse and the comments of the glasses freak had been made, everything became a lot clearer.
He only had to hope that it was a debilitating poison at most, rather than a fatal one.
Since that first day of piecing everything together, it had then become about survival. Akamaru was nowhere near fit enough to carry the animalistic boy, and since the white haired dog had grown so much over the years Kiba was blatantly unable to carry his friend. Compounding the problem was the fact that even had they been able to move, they had little idea of where they were, or how far they had travelled before waking.
Staying by the river, the two of them had quickly reached the point where they had run out of the food they had brought with them and though they were starting to live off what food they could find in the area, with the river nearby, this was not overly difficult.
By now, the main problem on both of their minds was: Would they be found?
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Another seven thousand worder. I'm pleased with the fight, I think. Sorry about the delay, moved out of uni and am now packing to go to America for two weeks. Yes, unfortunately that also means there will be at least a two week break.
I you haven't already looked it over and are just looking for something else to read in the meantime, I'd suggest any of the author's in my favourites. My favourite story in there? L:O:V:E, by the Dreamers of Dreams. I know I've plugged it before but hey, it's good stuff.
Gonna go now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See ya in two weeks (ish).
Later.