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[Chunin Exam Arc] [Chunin Exam: Race Sub-arc]

Chapter 36: Power of Two Clans

Tsunade sat down at her desk and sighed. The chunin exams were exhausting and was glad they came to Konoha once every four years. The hokage unlocked a bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a bottle of sake and poured it into a small cup. She placed the bottle back into the drawer and locked it. She took a sip from her cup as she stared at the window. The sun was setting and tomorrow she would be announcing the squad's that were moving on to the final round of the chunin exams. She turned back to her desk to see the pile of scrolls that she needed to go through to find the top four squads with the fastest times returning from Nami no Kuni. Tsunade sighed, it was going to be a long evening.

The Chunin Exam stadium where many final exams had taken place over the years and Shizune was there in charge of getting the stadium ready for the final exam in the coming months. She gave out the orders and watched the lower ranked shinobi do their work, but what was on her mind was what Tsunade had told her yesterday.

Yesterday

"And you figured this all out by the last name of that girl from Kusagakure?" Shizune asked.

"I guess I need to tell you the story," Tsunade said.

My grandfather told me during the times of waring clans, there were another two clans that had continuous war. It was far north in what today we call Yuki no Kuni but the two clans were the Hikari and the Kurosaki clans but it didn't start out that way.

The Hikari had a special jutsu known as Hiton, which they could control the power of sunlight. The Kurosaki had a special jutsu known as Tsukiton, which they could control the power of darkness.

The Hikari clan's leader was a female named Hikari Hinode, she was gracious, kind and loving to her clan and really didn't like confrontation and tried her very best to end conflicts by holding talks.

The Kurosaki clan's leader was Kurosaki Tsukiakari, he was older than Hinode, as she had just took control of the clan from her father who passed away, but he too, was kind and the two clans were friendly with each other.

Of course there was darkness lurking, Tsukiakari's son Kurosaki Gekkou didn't approve of sharing the land with the Hikari clan and managed to gather some followers that agreed with him. For months Gekkou planned and planned and when he finally got his father alone, her murdered him in cold blood. The next day Tsukiakari's advisor found his body and when he told Gekkou, he pretended to be upset and angry and sadly, he managed to convince the entire clan that the Hikari clan were responsible for his father's death.

The Hikari clan were foriegner's to the land, they had been nomads for as long as the clan had formed. So when they reached this land, they were welcomed by younger Tsukiakari. It still isn't known why Gekkou had such a hate for the Hikari clan as he had no reason to. The Hikari clan were thankful to have a place to stay without having to move on and they kept to themselves.

After Gekkou was named the Kurosaki's new clan head and getting the rest of the clan convinced Tsukiakari's death was caused by the Hikari clan, Gekkou launched an attack on the village the Hikari clan were allowed to build. This began the war between the two clans.

When the village was attacked, many Hikari were killed including Hinode, who was trying desperately to prove her clan did not kill Tsukiakari after Gekkou accused her and her clan but it had fallen on deaf ears and she was killed by Gekkou himself and destroyed the entire village with a jutsu he had just invented, Tsukiton: Gekkou Sanryōkyō no Jutsu. The jutsu took light from the moon and amplified it into a powerful destructive beam and unfortunately, the night the Kurosaki clan attacked the Hikari clan's village, it was a full moon.

After the village was attacked and destroyed, the rest of the Hikari clan disappeared and hid in the mountain range on the northern edge of the country. Hinode's younger brother Hinoiri was named clan head and was determine to eradicate Gekkou and prove the Hikari clan was not responsible for Tsukiakari's death.

A couple of months after the Kurosaki's attack on their village, the Hikari launched an attack of their own on the Kurosaki's village. Thinking they had eliminated all of the Hikari clan, they were not prepared for the attack. The big downfall of the Kurosaki's jutsu is that it could only work at night so they tried to their best to fight back with jutsu they had learned to use at anytime. The Hikari clan's jutsu had a big weakness as well, they could only attack during the day. After onslaughting the village and burning it down, the Kurosaki were forced to go into hiding and Hinoiri was upset with the fact that Gekkou had escaped.

During that time, the two clans began battling each other, when the Hikari clan came across a hideout of the Kurosaki, they attacked. Same went for Kurosaki, who at night would attack the Hikari.

Over the years, the Kurosaki and the Hikari clans' numbers began to thin as the war between the two seemed like there would be no end. Gekkou would keep his distance from the Hikari while Hinoiri desperately hunted him down. During the years of war, Hinoiri began developing his own jutsu in hopes of eradicating all of the Kurosaki clan.

After the years of constant war, the two clans ranks were severly thinned and they were not he great clans they used to be so Gekkou invited the Hikari clan to one last final fight where the one of the two parts of the day they could both use their jutsu at the same time, at sunset.

Hinoiri agreed to it. Unbeknownst to Gekkou, Hinoiri's new jutsu he had been developing was ready for use.

Just before sunset, when both clans arrived in an open field they had chosen for the final battle, Hinoiri and the Hikari clan attacked the Kurosaki clan before the time both sides had agreed on. Without being able to defend themselves very well, Gekkou tried to flee the area

but Hinoiri stayed on his trail.

Once Hinoiri cornered Gekkou, he unleashed his new sealing jutsu, Fūinjutsu: Hiton: Hinode Fūin no Jutsu.

This jutsu absorbed what was left of the sunlight and turned it into a beam that sealed Gekkou's soul and turned his body into a stone statue with his soul sealed inside of it.

Hinoiri dragged the statue of Gekkou to the battlefield where the rest of the Hikari and Kurosaki clan's were fighting. The fighting ceased when the Kurosaki clan saw the fate of their leader. Without their leader, they decided to stop fighting. The two clans had been fighting for nearly ten years and with Gekkou sealed away, the two clans finally made peace and agreed to seal Gekkou's statued body inside Mount Sōsetsu.

After the two clans witnessed this sealing, the Hikari and Kurosaki clan left the land and became spread out across the world.

Shizune was in awe at the story she was just told. At first she couldn't believe it was true. Then a quetion came to her mind.

"How was it the Hikari girl that triggered the memory and not Hiroshi and his family?" asked Shizune.

"To be honest, I have no idea why that is," Tsunade said. "I don't know what Kami is planning, but he had to have found out about his heritage and is planning on trying to unseal Gekkou."

"Wouldn't a Hikari be the only person to be able to do that if they wanted to?" asked Shizune.

"That's exactly why all this make sense now," Tsunade began. "Now I remember this story and I remember Kami's grandmother was actually a Hikari."

"So you're thinking he'll have the ability to unseal Gekkou?" asked Shizune.

"It's possible, that's why I sent Kakashi, Kiba and Lee to Yuki no Kuni to stop him from doing so," replied Tsunade.

Present

"Shizune-san?" said a Konoha-nin. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Shizune said, realizing she was deep in thought. "Uh, yeah I'm fine."

Tsunade began opening the scrolls and began recording the times that were written in the scrolls. Before long, it was night and the hokage wasn't even half way through examining the scrolls.

"I hate doing this," Tsunade said to herself.

Hiroshi was staring at the running water below him on the bridge he was standing on. The moonlight was reflecting off it. He sighed as he was anxious about if they had passed to the final exam or not. He would find out in the morning so his mind was on overdrive and Hiroshi knew he wasn't going to sleep tonight.

"I'm surprised you are here," a female voice said from behind him.

Hiroshi turned to find Himawari had joined him on the bridge.

"Yeah, I don't think I can sleep," Hiroshi said. "I'm just anxious about tomorrow."

"If we don't pass, there is always next year," Himawari said.

"Yeah I know, but I need to prove to myself I am growing stronger if I am ever going to go after my uncle," Hiroshi said.

"I believe you're getting stronger Hiroshi and I believe we will make it to the final exam," Himawari.

Hiroshi smiled, "Thanks Himawari."

Hiroshi ran off as Himawari stayed behind watching as he ran into the distance, blushing and smiling.

Translations:

Tsukiton: Gekkou Sanryōkyō no Jutsu: Lunar Release: Moonlight Prism Technique
Fūinjutsu: Hiton: Hinode Fūin no Jutsu: Sealing Art: Solar Release: Sunrise Sealing Technique

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