Chapter Fifty-Three: The Finals For The Chuunin Exams Begin

The day had finally come, the day of the chuunin exam finals. People were filling up the stadium and the participating genin were getting in place. Security was put in place and Naruto was occupied with visitors, primarily the visiting kage.

"Welcome visiting kage to my village. Kind of nice being able to see each other for reasons beyond a summit isn't it?" Naruto asked. As usual in kage meetings he had two guards, Kiba and Hinata, who was more company than a guard given her delicate condition. Jiraiya was currently being watched over by Tsunade since he couldn't be with his parents in the kage box.

"That it is old friend." Gaara said with a smile. Accompanying him was his heavily pregnant wife Matsuri with their four year old son Kazuma, and Kankuro acting as guard. Temari wasn't with them because she was with Shikamaru, and off duty thanks to her pregnancy.

'If Gaara's having his pregnant wife stick close to him, then no one can complain by mine being close by.' Naruto thought.

"Glad I could make it." Mei said, escorted by Ao and Chojuro. "Thanks for inviting me Hokage-sama, even though none of my ninja made it to the finals."

"Well, with four kages already going to be in one place and no war going on, there didn't seem to be a good reason not to at least invite the fifth one." He said.

"I gotta say, I'm particularly interesting in this exam." A mentioned, accompanied by Darui and C.

"I believe we all are Raikage-sama." Kurotsuchi said, accompanied by Akatsuchi and another Iwa jounin.

"I must admit, I'm surprised neither of my 'special girls' made it into the finals." Mei commented.

"Heh, guess that means Kiri is the weakest village." A joked, earning him a glare from the mizukage that he was not intimidated by.

"Raikage-sama, I didn't invite you to my village to start problems with another." Naruto warned. "We're here to see how well the next generation is doing. Let's not use them as an excuse to show how strong we think we ourselves are."

"That's kind of the whole point of these exams Hokage-sama." Kurotsuchi told him. "Proving to other villages how strong our own is."

"Take it however you want, just don't take it vicariously. Surely you're all professional enough to know these kids are representing your villages instead of you personally." Naruto clarified.

"Though to be fair Naruto, when it comes to your daughter and mine, that's kind of hard not to do." Gaara warned.

Naruto grinned. "Our daughters are their own people. Speaking of which, how have you been handling not seeing them this past month?"

"Difficult, but Kazuma and the new one have kept me busy." Matsuri answered, rubbing her swollen stomach. By Naruto's guess, she was further along than Hinata was.

"Let's sit down and chat more there. It's been a long journey." Kurotsuchi requested.

"What do you care? You probably flew for most of it." Gaara reprimanded.

"Oh, and you didn't use your sand cloud?" She reprimanded back.


Down in the arena, all the qualifying genin were gathering to have their matches, while those that didn't qualify but were still in the village sat in the stands.

Akane, who made sure to show up on time given Naruto's stance on tardiness, was leaning against a wall cleaning the inside of her fingernails with a kunai. 'My family will be watching, after this I can finally go home. I better do my best for them if nothing else. Otherwise this past month will have been a waste, even if I do make chuunin.'

Her nose caught a familiar scent, making her perk up. 'He's here!' She thought happily, and turned to the entry way for the genin. There, moving at a slow pace, was Noburo.

She immediately went up to her recovering teammate. "Noburo-kun, I'm glad to see you here."

"Almost wasn't. Doctors recommended I back out but hey, I had to beat one of your cousins to get it, I deserve to be here."

"You and Ichi-kun both." She agreed.

"Hey there Noburo-kun." Sayo greeted, coming up from behind and putting her arm around him. "I heard what you went thru. That had to be rough."

Akane frowned. "You never hear of a time surgery isn't rough?"

"I'm just glad he's here. Especially in time to see my match."

"Who are you fighting?" He asked.

"A girl from Iwa with a fetish for gold." Sayo answered. "I've spent the past month preparing the perfect strategy against her."

"Poison vs gold, gotta admit this should be a tough one for you." Akane said. "But I would like to see how you intend to win."

"And what do you plan to do against your opponent?" Sayo asked, having forgotten who Akane was selected to fight first.

"You'll see. I've been strategizing too." The redhead said, then hugged Noburo. "What have you been doing all this time Noburo-kun? I hope missing me was one of them."

The blue-haired boy blushed, not just from the fact Akane was hugging him for once, but because he could feel her beasts pressed against him.

"Hey!" Sayo said, pushing Akane off of Noburo. "He may be your teammate but you can't hog him like that!"

"Careful Flat chest, you wouldn't want to do anything that gets you disqualified before you get to compete now." Akane warned in a teasing tone.

Sayo huffed. "Well, you just better make it Slacker. If you're as good as you claim to be, I want to face you most of all."

Akane grinned. "Yes, that would be fun."


"Hokage-sama?" One of the Anbu said, coming up to the Kage Box.

"Yes?" Naruto asked.

"There is someone here wishing to see both you and your wife. She says she's family and wishes to tell you something."

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other. "I'll go, it would be improper for you to leave now." Hinata told him.

"Alright, don't take too long." He told her.

"I won't, I'll be back in time for our girl's fight." She reassured with a quick kiss, then left with the Anbu.

Hinata was taken to a hallway, where she saw someone familiar to her seated by the wall. "Wow, I did not expect this."

"Hi Hinata-san. Where's Naruto-kun?"

"He's with the other kage. It would have been insulting for him to leave them like that. What brings you here Shion?"

Shion stood up, holding her daughter Kushina in her arms. "I thought it would be best for Naruto-kun to spend some time with Kushina. And since this is a public occasion, no one back home really had a reason to complain about me coming."

Hinata nodded. "Are you okay? You don't look so good." Shion was looking a little paler than Hinata remembered, and truth be told, a little thinner too. Though since the last time Hinata saw the priestess she had just given birth, so it was only natural she was thinner.

Shion smiled. "I'm okay, I'm just tired from the long journey." She coughed for a moment. "Anyway, I wanted to say hi, and if you want you can take Kushina to Naruto so he can spend some time with her."

Hinata thought about it. "That is probably best saved for later. A baby might be too distracting for the kage, who need to judge the matches." She subconsciously rubbed her stomach while she said it.

"That's okay, I'll wait. And I must say you're looking rather radiant." Shion complimented.

"Yes, I hear pregnancy and motherhood suits me."

"I'm glad to hear it." Shion said with a soft smile. "It makes me feel better."

"Umm... okay." Hinata replied, confused by that response but feeling calling attention to it would be inappropriate. "Anything you want me to tell Naruto?"

"Just that I'm here and his daughter would like to see her daddy. We can wait until after the show, but don't make us wait too long."

Hinata nodded. "Will do. Enjoy the matches. Akane-chan will be in them."

"That I would like to see." Shion said, looking to Kushina who grasped one of her fingers and began sucking on it.

With the priestess breaking eye contact, Hinata took a chance to use her byakugan on her, sensing something wasn't right. To her shock, she saw something she didn't like, and deactivated her eyes. "Shion, you shouldn't have come in your condition."

"Hinata-san, it's because of my condition I am here in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't tell Naruto-kun, not when he has more important things to think about."


"Hello everyone, and welcome to the Chuunin Exam Finals." Sakura announced from the arena once it was time. "This should be quite a show, as we have ninja from four villages gathered here today to compete and see who is worthy of becoming chuunin. I'm your host, Sakura Haruno. Our first match will be Sayo Shicho of Konoha against Mida Sudachi of Iwa. Everyone else, please leave the arena."

The other genin left, taking some stairs to one of the viewing areas separate from the main crowd as to keep them from interfering or being secretly helped. Sayo and Mida stepped forward and were encouraged by Sakura to stand several meters apart. Neither of the two girls had anything to say to the other.

"Ready? Begin!"

Sayo rushed at Mida, kunai drawn and pre-coated with a thin layer of poison. Mida smirked knowingly, and put her hands on the ground, forcing a earth wall to appear before her.

Sayo didn't change her course and walked up it, moving quickly in case the Iwa kunoichi changed its shape on her. She reached the top and jumped over, throwing the kunai at her. But Mida had a golden shield up on her arm to deflect the kunai.

Sayo landed and smiled, able to regrab one of the kunai that were deflected. "Ninja Art Sickening Stream Jutsu." She backed her head then quickly sent it forward, a gush of dark-colored liquid burst out at Mida like a water jutsu.

'Poison.' Mida noted, already aware of her natural weapon from seeing her fight in the prelims. She held her shield out in front and made it larger to cover more area though this made it thinner. The attack hit the shield and did little but soak it, leaving Mida unharmed.

"Your poison isn't going to do you any good if you can't get any on me." Mida taunted, throwing some golden kunai at her, which Sayo dodged with ease.

"Oh, I've already won." Sayo replied with a smirk, heading in for a punch. Mida blocked with her shield, but Sayo hit it anyway, and to Mida's shock, she managed to break thru it and hit her directly. The shock of the attack made her fall on the ground.


"Whoa, did that girl just punch thru solid metal?" Kurenai asked, then turned to Kakashi who was next to her. "Did you teach her that?"

He shook his head. "No, I did help her with her speed and taijutsu, but nothing to make her that strong. Even Sakura at her age couldn't have punched a hole in a golden shield. She must be doing something else here."


Her shield compromised, Mida sculpted it back into a fully repaired chain and held it with both hands defensively. Though what she was actually doing was inspecting it.

'That jutsu, did she use acid or something to damage the integrity of my gold?'

Sayo smirked. "Ah, wondering what I did, are you? Well, you'll have to find out." She went in for some direct hand-to-hand combat, but Mida was ready and sent her chain out to ensnare her. Yet Sayo looked like she wanted this to happen. "Ninja Art Poison Fog Jutsu." She exhaled a purple cloud of toxic gases, this one with yellow sparkles mixed into the cloud, and it expanded to cover her and spread out to Mida.

The Iwa kunoichi had to back away, but she kept Sayo chained up by morphing it into a spiral bar wrapped around her before backing away. The fog stayed around Sayo, spreading out a bit but not fast enough to endanger Mida.

'What is she doing? Making it hard for me to attack her directly?' Mida asked. 'Doesn't matter, I can make any weapon I want.' She then put her hands on the earth beneath her and pumped her alchemic chakra into the soil, turning it into metal and sculpting it into a weapon. More specifically, a golden staff easily longer than her whole body. She swung the bar at where Sayo's head would be in the smokescreen, but to her surprise she missed.

'Did I misjudge her height?' Mida asked, then swung again from a lower angle just to be sure. Again she missed. 'She's not there. How did she escape? The smoke screen is still here, is she hiding in it? But how did she escape my trap?'

From out of the cloud emerged a large fire ball aimed right at Mida, which she wasn't able to evade since she hadn't seen it coming. Once hit, she rolled on the ground and encouraged the dirt to put the fire out on her. Luckily her clothes were only singed and her skin red like a sun burn.

The cloud dissipated and Sayo stood in it's place, holding a few pieces of crumbling gold in her hands while at her feet were the decaying remains of the gold bar that had been wrapped around her. "Your gold's not going to work on me. I've prepared for it."

"How? How can poison beat the perfect element?" Mida asked.

"My guess is you don't know as much about gold as you think you do. There's more to a metal than how pretty it is." Sayo said before throwing one of her chunks like a rock.

Mida caught it and inspected its integrity. 'The compositions been corrupted, almost like it's been exposed to a strong acid. But poisons aren't acids, and even then most don't affect hard metals like gold this quickly. What did she do?'

Sayo did some hand signs. "Ninja Art Cyanide Shot." She spat out a liquid bullet of dark poison at Mida, who had to dodge, but Sayo was able to shoot out more. Mida put her hands on the ground and created another wall, this one made of obsidian stone.

'If she can damage gold, then let's give her a different mineral.' Mida decided.

Sayo arched an eyebrow. 'She's adapting, I figured she would, though I hoped I could get this over before she did. Gold was the only weapon I could count on her using, so now my poisons are unreliable.'

Knowing Mida's preferred element, Sayo had spent the entire month preparing the perfect counter. Poisons in general couldn't hurt metal, but there was one chemical in particular that was harmful to gold, potassium cyanide. And as Sayo had said before, she ate cyanide all the time. She consumed enough to make her poison practically acidic to Mida's weapons, but once Mida stopped using gold this cyanide wouldn't be as effective anymore.

Fortunately, Sayo hadn't been working on just that one approach for here. Kakashi had taught her a few things and now was the time to use them. "I had a feeling you'd stop using gold at some point." She started doing hand signs. "But you still won't stop using earth."


"Kakashi, you didn't teach her that did you?" Kurenai asked.

"You mean the Chidori? No, not that. I did consider that, but after some careful thought I decided not to. So I taught her something else along those lines, a raiton jutsu specifically designed to counter doton jutsu. This one is..."


"Ishikiri!" Sayo declared, running up to Mida with what looked like an electric shortsword in her right hand. The wall was only two meters across and clearly meant to slow down any poison-based attacks long enough for Mida to escape their reach, but it didn't stop Sayo from getting around it.

Once she was around the wall, a long bronze pole shot out at her, hitting the poison-wielder in the gut and knocking her against the wall of the stadium. Mida stood on the other head holding the pole, as if to pin her opponent down.

"You can't beat me girl." Mida said, pushing the pole strongly to keep Sayo pinned to the wall, adding chakra to morph the end to trap her there too. "I'm the most adaptable kuniochi you'll ever see. What can a one-trick-pony like you do against me, someone who can make any weapon she wants?" To prove her point, she broke off a piece of the pole behind her and morphed it into a bronze kunai, which she spun in her fingers for a moment before throwing it at Sayo, missing her head but cutting her left ear a bit.

Sayo reacted in pain but unfortunately could move one of her hands to stem the bleeding. In her other hand the Ishikiri was dying down but not gone yet, she just couldn't get it into position yet.

Mida came closer and broke another chunk off the pole, making another bronze kunai and threw it, this time hitting Sayo's upper right arm, earning a more pronounced yell of pain. "Tell you what, I'm going to be nice. You can either surrender now, or I turn this pole into something that leaves the referee with no choice but to call the match in my favor. What's it going to be?"

Sayo managed to touch the bronze pole extensions with a finger using her Ishikiri. The metal was apparently non-conductive, but it was still reinforced by doton chakra, and that was the problem. The Ishikiri was specifically designed to destroy anything inorganic that was empowered by earth-nature chakra. Right now, due to limited contact, the jutsu wasn't doing the intended amount of damage, but it was destroying Mida's hold on her.

Sayo burst free and flexed her arms. 'I think I've got her overall fighting style figured out, she likes to get her defenses up and strike from a distance, relying on her ability to make metal to cover any attack at her and undermine any tactic in her opponent. All I have to do is get in close, past her defenses, and the fight is mine.'

Sayo dashed to the Iwa kunoichi, who swung her pole at her but Sayo jumped over it and grabbed the pole to increase her momentum. A flipkick helped her get close and hit Mida, knocking her on her back. Standing above her, Sayo brushed her fingers at her bleeding ear, and held her blood above Mida's face.

"Call it quits, or I give you a taste of poisonous blood."

Mida grabbed a hand of dirt, but it didn't seem to change into anything this time. Nonetheless she threw it at Sayo, getting in her eyes and mouth. The poison user backed up, but the distraction wasn't long enough for Mida to ready something better. Ignoring the burn in her eyes, Sayo threw a hard punch at Mida, hitting her in the back of the head and knocking her back on the ground.

Some time went by and Mida didn't get back up, while Sayo was strongly coughing and rubbing her eyes.

"Winner, Sayo Shichou." Sakura announced, and cheers came from the stands.