A/N: fml... this chapter... it earned its damn name -.-
i was debating about spliting this up back in december, but decided against it since i thought the figths were short... cut to right before my school starts up again and its nearly 30k and i'm banging my head on the keyboard... damn holidays... so i've officially dubed this an OVA as its like the 45min eps compared to regular 30min eps of anime, and plan to leave it at that...
beta'd by wishstone, who is perfectly within her rights to hit me if i make another chap over 20k... i tried editing it first, but ffn decided it would be funner to kick me off and erase all that~ and lots of formatting issues between the two of us sending it back... so a few days later then expected...
troublesome...
The next three days passed by relatively quickly and without incident.
At least for Konoha's number one spontaneous ninja…
Naruto spent most of it alone. Apparently the Kumo trio had locked themselves up in their room. Remaining silent and resting as far as he knew. He found Yorihi outside the room only once and she told him they'd basically slept the whole day after they got to the tower and were planning to remain there and rest before the next phase, as he should be. Then stole about a ton of food from the cafeteria and disappeared for another two days.
While wandering around Naruto found that Team 8 had passed. Apparently they'd made it into the tower around midnight before his team and the Kumo genin, making them the second into the tower.
Gaara's team was the first.
The day after Team 7 and the Kumo genin had made it another team came in; the one with Neji and Bushy-brows on it. None of them really paid the blonde any mind and he wondered how they'd react to finding out Yorihi and her team made it as well.
The fourth day Team 10 showed up. They didn't bother saying 'hi' to him, just walking into a room and locking the door.
It seemed most of the teams wanted some down time after the Forest of Death, only Naruto was still basically by himself as his teammates were in the medical wing. Sakura had gotten up the day after the incident with Xiao and the med-nin, but remained in the medical wing where Kakashi had brought Sasuke who seemed to remain unconscious and wouldn't wake up despite all his grunting and groaning. Naruto decided to let them be. He was partially disappointed no one bothered to ask how he was…
And he never got his jacket back. Kakashi brought Sasuke and Sakura a change of clothes but seemed to conveniently forget him, and the med-nins had apparently thrown away the jacket Sakura had been wearing. It was his favorite jacket… well really the only one he had.
On the fifth day Naruto woke up with a sigh, staring at the blank ceiling of the stone room he'd mostly spent by himself in…
Something flicked his nose…
He snorted, "Huh?"
In fact, now that he thought about it, why did his body feel heavy? Like something was on it… pinning him…
Slowly Naruto turned to look down… and instead of what he expected he found dark blue hair…
He blinked, "Eh?"
He knew it was early, and his brain took a while to start up… but… this… wasn't… right… right?
Something moved, pale limbs stretching out, up his body to the point they snaked around his shoulders… in fact it could be an attack!
That got his mind working a bit faster and he realized there was a body on him…
In fact, it appeared to be naked…
And as the slim arms wound up around his neck the person's head popped up and he recognized those cyan tattoos over slim dark blue brows and the cute face that followed.
It was at this point Naruto's brain crashed as his first thoughts of the naked girl with tattooed brows and closed eyes was Yorihi… but that wasn't… that didn't… that… errr….
Those eyes opened to reveal vibrant slitted blue eyes and soon she was smirking at him in a way Yorihi would never look at him. The arms around his neck tightened, pushing him closer and he could have sworn she grew cat ears and maybe those were tails swaying in his vision behind her, but she was too damn close for him to see anything or his brain to function properly and what were those things pressing into his chest-?
SLAM!
"BACHIKO!" suddenly the door to his room slammed open and a very angry, very familiar voice came in yelling something that sounded vaguely familiar…
Then the 'girl' on his chest gave a winning Cheshire grin before poof!ing and in her place was a blue-black tabby that was hiss giggling.
"YOU SONUVABITCH!" the familiar voice roared and out of the corner of his eye Naruto noticed something darkly attired move swiftly towards him, probably reaching for the cat.
Bachiko only smirked more devilishly, leaping up and narrowly being missed by his master's grasp as he first landed on her hand, pushing it further down, turning his head enough to slyly smirk at him before leaping up in a backflip and landing on the back of her head, the momentum pushing her forward and the inevitable happened…
Yorihi fell on top of Naruto… who was very confused and not wearing a shirt.
"Oof!" she landed with her face in his chest, arm outstretched over his shoulder and halfway on top of him.
Naruto was trying his best to remain perfectly still, eye twitching as he had no idea what the hell was going on.
Yorihi pushed herself up on her one arm, seemed to 'look' down at him for a second, one hand grasping his shoulder, one tattooed brow up confused, and tilted her head, "Naruto-kun?"
The poor boy gave the only response he could think of, "… dattebayou?" it came out something of a squeak.
For a long second Yorihi seemed to 'stare' at him… then she swiftly turned her head and seemed to growl, getting up and running out his door, "YOU GODDAMN CAT I WILL CASTRATE YOU!"
Reflexively the poor boy's hands went to his crotch. He knew that word simply because some of the Konoichi he used to watch to perfect his Sexy no Justu used very colorful language and weren't above explaining everything, in gruesome detail…
A pitiful 'eep!' may have also been uttered.
Suddenly there was the sound of something hitting his door and when he dared to look he noticed Xiao and Oku leaning inside, staring at him rather confused.
"Uh, hey Na-chan," a smirk started to form on the older medic girl's face, "You wouldn't happen to have seen the Princess this bright and sunny morning, would you?"
Naruto decided there was something evil about the smug look on the dusky-pink haired girl's face and only answered in a terrified nod.
Those red eyes pierced him with something viciously smug, "I see…"
Oku, seeming out of the loop, gave his partner a look, then Naruto, before scratching his head, "Ne, Xiao-chan, Naruto-kun looks like he's hurt, don't you think you should check him out?"
"I'm sure Yorihi-chan already has~" there was something terrifying about the sing-song in her voice, before she turned around, grabbing her partner and pulling him out, "also, Shut up, Oku! We have a Princess to catch, hehehe!"
Now that he was left alone Naruto rolled over and wished today would end, "What the hell just happened, dattebayou?"
… Then he realized it was the final day of the Forest of Death, meaning the next test was bound to start soon!
"DAMNIT!" with a rush the boy grabbed his things and ran out the door.
The meeting was set to begin at noon, not exactly a full five days for the Forest of Death test but Yorihi felt it was appropriate.
There were already too many weaklings passing this test.
6 teams. 18 genin. All of them lined up in their teams, side by side and by village orientation.
She was standing in the front of the column for Kumo with Xiao then Oku behind her, keeping her stance as calm if threatening as possible.
Next to her was Gaara, who honestly looked asleep with his arms crossed and head tilted down with his eyes closed. He was being unusually still, hell everything about him felt dimmed, was he thinking about something? -And if so, what?- Temari was behind him was giving her younger brother a strange look while Kakurou was behind her scoping out the other teams to their left.
The rest were all from Konoha, and aside from the team with that irritating Hyuuga, the rest were the rookies. They were lined up in ascending order making it Neji's team, who was in front, Team 7 with Naruto frowning, arms crossed and grumbling under his breath about eyes all over him for not having his shirt, Team 8 with the bat-bastard in front looking sour, and next to him was the loud blonde girl from Team 10.
"Naruto! Put a damn shirt on!" the blonde Yamanaka heiress growled, pushing Hitomaru out of the way as if he didn't matter.
Naruto continued grumbling with that pouty fox face, "Wanna give me yours?" he turned slowly to 'glare' at the other blonde with tightly closed eyes, "You got those wraps underneath to cover you up…"
Behind Yorihi, Xiao snickered loudly into her hand.
Ino turned an interesting shade of angry red, but whatever her retort would have been was halted as a screech blared through the entire room.
"Okay, this thing on?" Anko stepped in front of the gathered jounin instructors, sporting a head-mic and tapped the end a few times, most likely to piss everyone off as her smile only grew with their groans, "ALRIGHT!" she clapped her hands together deviously, "Welp! I'm tired of waiting! Anyone else makes it here past this point FAILS!" her hands came out wide, "CONGRADULATIONS! YOU 18 LITTLE BASTARDS NOT ONLY SURVIVED BUT PASSED!" She made a little mocking clap, "yay!"
Her response was only a room full of groans.
That seemed to do absolutely nothing to hinder her eerily cheery mood, "Alright, quiet down!" if one listened closely enough they might be able to hear those goat-sized crickets, "Since this test is done, I have nothing to do with you, for now~" Anko winked, making a few of the rookies shudder, "So I'll be handing over explaining the third test to the Hokage!" she waved her hand as if to present the old man then quickly left to the edge of the gathered jounin.
Yorihi was probably the only one to notice she didn't look at the old man directly the entire time.
"I'll make this brief," the Third Hokage's grizzly voice permeated the entire room, demanding all of their attention even if it was relatively low, "Before the next test I'll explain to you the real purpose of this exam."
A few of the Konoha genin questioned their leader's words. Neither the Kumo nor Suna team batted an eye.
"Why do we have all the allied countries taking the exam together?" the old man lowered his head, covering his eyes with the brim of his ceremonial hat, "Even open it up to neutral countries?" there may have been a shift towards the Kumo team, " 'to promote friendship between nations'? 'To raise the rank of shinobi'?" he raised his head just enough to show hardened brown eyes, "I don't want to confuse you so I'll be blunt: the true reason for this exam is a replacement for war."
"W-war?" "W-what?" "What do you mean…?" were some of the questions from the Konoha genin.
"If you look back far enough, it's obvious that those we call allies now were once enemies," there was no mistaking it, this time he wasn't subtle as the Hokage looked directly at Yorihi at the last word.
She didn't move, telling herself she wasn't afraid of an old monkey.
Those stern brown eyes shifted back to his genin, as they seemed to be the ones that needed to hear this the most, "Wars were fought over power, land, any natural amenity that humans could fight over," his fist clinched at his side, "Among allies and neutral nations in this day and age all-out war is costly and typically easier to decide in a competition like this," with a wave of his pipe holding hand he gestured the arena they were in, "This, is the basis for the Chuunin Exams." Those stern eyes bore into his genin, ashamed some flinched, "A place where able bodied shinobi can compete for the prestige of their nation and show their abilities to the world, attracting the needed resources and business of those lords that rule the various nations attending this event." Swiftly he pointed at the genin before him, "You are representing your villages, it falls on you to show your best and gain as much attention and prestige for your village as possible!"
"Hmp," Yorihi couldn't help but snort. The old bastard wasn't subtle at all, directing his commands to do well to his own genin while ignoring the foreigners. Not that she could really blame him, her Father would expect the same from them.
"Man, why do we care about any of that crap!" a brash voice spoke from the center of the crowd. Yorihi didn't know if she wanted to praise Naruto for calling the old man out or shake her head at his foolishness, "I mean c'mon, old man! This is about who gets to be chuunin right?!"
While many of his peers reprimanded the blonde under their breaths, it was obvious most of them wanted to ask the same question.
The Hokage took a long drag from his pipe, deciding long and hard how to word his next phrase while also appearing to not care for the boy's obvious disrespect, "It is true, this testis about deciding who among you can advance to the rank of chuunin," those sharp eyes glanced at the crowd under the brim of the Hokage's hat, "But that isn't everything; the better you compete, the better chance you have of reaching that goal, but much more importantly the better you represent your village, and the better the showing the more business for the resulting village," his voice and eyes grew darker, "the more power that village has…"
The low voice silenced any further questions.
In Yorihi's opinion they'd have to figure it out on their own or accept they didn't have what it took to be more than a foot soldier, "There was no need to explain that Hokage-sama," the collected jounin, genin and Hokage faced the blind girl and she steeled under the weight of their gaze, "Any shinobi worth their breath understands what this is truly about from the start…"
There was a cold, long stare from underneath the Hokage's hat but Yorihi took it as the old man understanding her words. –It seems he's not bothering to put up the mask anymore…- she gripped her sword tighter, wishing that gaze didn't scare her so much, knowing she'd have to be insane for it not to.
"I don't care about any of that," the slow gravelly voice of Gaara next to Yorihi snapped everyone out of the tension. The pale Suna boy seemed to slowly open his eyes as if waking up, looking directly at the Hokage in what she could only call a drowsy manner, "When are you going to explain the next test… Mother's hungry…"
The Hokage breathed out smoke, "Very well, but first…"
"Let me explain, Hokage-sama," in a wisp of smoke another shinobi appeared wearing the standard jounin attire for Konoha and a bandana style head band. With a nod from the Hokage he stood from his crouch, turning around to reveal a sickly looking man with bags under his dark eyes and chin length brown hair, "My name's Gekkou Hayate," cough, "and I'm here to inform you that prior to the third exam we will be holding a preliminary round to see who," cough, "will get to participate in the final exam," cough.
"WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTT?!" was the main response.
The Kumo genin just groaned, expecting something like this, voiced best by Xiao, "It figures… can't have anything easy can we? It's always got to be something…"
Yorihi snickered, "We wouldn't be Kumo otherwise~"
It got a chuckle from her comrades and glares from everyone else.
Another cough, "Basically too many of you passed," the man droned with another cough, "The fights for the finals can take a while, so we need to limit the number happening in one day," cough, "the dignitaries travel far for this and don't want to be bored by too many drawn out fights for multiple days…"
"I think everyone back home would disagree," Yorihi crossed her arms and spoke dryly under her breath. The number of times she'd heard her Father go on about tournaments and full-on brawls for entertainment to rake in extra cash from the bored dignitaries from neighboring countries would bolster not only their reputation, presence but also funds was more then she could count. So were the number of times her Teacher put down such a, as she put it, ludicrous idea. In Yorihi's opinion they should probably be limited to once a month or quarterly to allow for suspense and desire for the brawls to build, but that was an argument for when she was older.
The comment earned her another glare from the referee. He only really coughed. "As I was saying…" he turned to face the rest of the genin with another cough, "We'll be doing a preliminary round, as we have even numbers that's good, but if any of you want to drop out now, do so." When no one spoke up or stepped forward he just nodded, with another cough, "Very well, we'll start right now," cough, as his arm gestured to an electric board on the wall, "When your name appears come to the center of the arena, otherwise stay up on the balconies until your name is called," he pointed to the balconies on both sides of the room, accented by another cough, when the board lit up showing two names, "Alright, first up… Yamanaka Ino vs. Sabaku no Gaara…"
The Kumo genin stilled.
"Oh that is a terrible match up," Xiao rubbed her neck, wincing as she glanced to the mouthy blonde Konoha girl.
"Hrm," Oku looked from Gaara to the pale blonde, "Guess it's best to get him out of the way first, then none of us have to face him…"
"Agreed," Yorihi just nodded, directing her team to the balcony on the opposite side, where the other foreigners were headed.
As they made it up to the spot where Yugito was waving with a mild grin there was something else waiting for them.
"SEEEEEEEPPPPAAAAAAAIIIIII!" immediately Xiao was glomped by something light purple and red, the two toppling to the grated ground with a mild 'oof!'
A tattooed brow rose, "Karin?" Yoribi moved to face her Aunt, "What's she doing here?"
Yugito just grinned, all of them generally ignoring as Xiao futilely tried to remove her rabid-fan, "Oh, well I couldn't leave her by herself in a dangerous foreign village," there was something wicked about that Cheshire grin, "Besides, got her a change of clothes and it'd just be cruel of me to not let her show it off to her seeennnpaaaii~"
There may or may not have been a snort from the blind girl.
"Shut up, Princess!" a dark hand pointed from the ground as Xiao tried to correct herself, Karin still wrapped around her waist, "What does it take to remove her?"
"I could try something, Xiao-chan," Oku offered with his normal careless grin, "Though it may also result in her locking on tighter, so we'll just have to see…"
"Shut up, Oku," the bar gripped between the Kumo medic's hands groaned, "Let's just watch this damn fight…" her brow did not twitch, it did not!
"So… happy… senpai!" Karin just nuzzled further into her 'senpai's' side, not caring for anything else going on around them.
The remaining three Kumo-nin tried to keep their snickering to a bare minimum.
Back in the arena while that was going on…
"Oh great! I get the creepy guy with no-brows first! WHY ME!" Ino yelled down on the arena floor while the others were already filing out.
Shikamaru tried to put his hand on her shoulder and calm her down, "Listen to me Ino, this isn't a guy you want to fight, it'd be best if you just gave up…"
She smacked his hand away, "HELL NO!" there was a fire in her eyes, "I have to show Sasuke-kun I'm the best! To win his affections~" there were terrible hearts in her eyes, "And what better way than beating this guy! Yea! Billboard-brow can't do that!"
"You're going to get yourself killed-" Shikamaru tried one last time…
"Anyone not participating in the fight, leave the arena now or be disqualified!" Hayate shouted, with another cough.
"Shikamaru we have to go," Chouji grabbed his buddy by the arm and started dragging him, looking over his shoulder and giving Ino a sympathetic look, "Do your best, but quit if it gets too hard…"
Ino's very ladylike response was to stick out her tongue at her teammates while pulling down one of her eyelids with her middle finger.
"Damnit, Ino!" Shikamaru actually struggled against Chouji's grip, "Troublesome woman, you're going to get yourself killed!"
"Screw you too, Shikamaru!" she shouted as they finally left the field, turning to face her creepy opponent. –I can do this… he's just a creep with no eyebrows… and freaky tattoo… and from Suna… and scares the hell out of everyone else, whatthehelldoIthinkI'mdoing!- She took a calming breath, stepping up to the referee, barely a foot away from Gaara of the Sand. –I can do this!-
"Fighters ready?" Hayate looked between the two, Ino nodding shakily while Gaara just stared, "Then begin!" and he disappeared.
Ino's first move was to jump back and let loose a volley of shuriken and kunai. Gaara's sand simply reacted and deflected them.
With a squeak the blonde dodged her own tools reflected at her and started running. –Okay, that failed… to do anything?!- She threw another kunai, sand only came out and smacked it away.
Gaara's extremely bored eyes just followed her as she ran around, keeping her distance.
-What the hell?! Is he going to do anything?!- Another volley of shuriken, deflected, he still didn't move. Quirking a blonde brow Ino stopped moving and just stared at the guy, "HEY! ARE YOU GOING TO ATTACK ME OR WHAT?!"
His response was a stream of sand coming right at her.
"EEP!" with a squeak Ino dodged, bending back and flipping a few paces to create some distance. Already she could feel her breath catching, not because she was necessarily winded but because –WHAT-THE-FUCK-WAS-THAT?!- she may have been slightly freaked out.
Another stream of sand went her way and she dodged again, rolling along the ground to make a quick turn and run the opposite way. –Okay! Note to self! His sand has a mind of its own and he's not even moving or…- comically she skidded to a halt, ducking as the tendril of sand went over her head and she made a quick turn. –Wait, he's not moving?- a quick glance and she noticed Gaara hadn't moved a muscle since the match started. –Well… if he doesn't want to go anywhere... fufufu…-
Running towards the flat back wall she drew the sand towards her, grinning the last second as she jumped, disappearing as the sand crashed into the wall with the force of a truck.
Gaara raised a non-existent brow. This prey wasn't exactly enticing so he wasn't putting forth much effort, even if he had been told by his sensei to tone things down. Mother was complaining about her being too boring to splatter all over the pavement or something anyway…
But now that she disappeared?
Black rimmed teal eyes moved to behind him and he caught a glimpse of the girl charging his way, fist back and a wide grin on her face.
Instinctively the sand reacted… only for her to disappear again.
His non-existent brow went higher.
Then another blonde popped up to his side… again she disappeared before his sand touched her… on the left, again… the right, behind, front… what the hell was going on!
"Hmp," Xiao rubbed her chin, leaning on the bar in front of them, ignoring Karin still nuzzling her waist, "Not a bad way to employ the regular bushin…"
Next to her Oku nodded, "It seems he can't tell it's just an illusion," the silly hat wearing boy took on a musing pose, "She's lasting longer then I thought…"
"Gaara hasn't caught her yet because he's bored," Yorihi spoke up grimly, "Once she catches his attention, he will…" there was something wrong. According to the fight she had had with the crazed Jinchuuriki he wasn't prone to this level of ignorance. The only thing that made sense was he was holding back, but why? He showed no effort or ability to care that much about his opponents before now this strange bout of either extreme apathy on his part or actual restraint? -What are you waiting for Gaara…-
-Fufufu… almost done…- Ino praised herself for learning that trick with repetitive bushins phasing in and out from watching Asuma-sensei's waifu-Kurenai! It seemed to be a good enough distraction to keep this no-brows jerk's attention away from her as she hid under her camouflage tarp and prepped her signature technique! –Prepare to lose you no-brows freak!-
She directed a bushin to catch Gaara's attention one way, the guy was really slow with his turning so she needed to time this correctly to fall right into his blind spot and hit him point blank!
Releasing her chakra, and the camo-tarp, both dropped, Gaara seeming to catch on last second as his sand threw away the tarp but not before she was in perfect range, holding up her family's special hand-seal and blasted the technique right in his face! "Shintenshin no jutsu!"
There was a momentary lapse as the technique took hold, Gaara's light teal eyes going wide and hers going blank. Then 'Gaara' did the unthinkable and gently caught the falling girl's body, holding it in one hand, raising a fist with the other and releasing an almost girlish squeal, "MIND-BODY TRANSFER SUCCESS! HAHAHAHA!"
"YEA! GO INO!" "AWESOME!" "Troublesome I can't believe she got it off…" "YEA GET HIM PIG!"
On the arena floor, 'Gaara' pointed and yelled at the pink haired Konoha girl, "SCREW YOU BILLBOARD BROW!"
For the sand team there was something particularly disturbing about Gaara pointing and shouting girlishly at one of the Konoha genin.
"Did… did she just…" Temari was gripping the bar in front of her tightly, as suddenly she couldn't feel her little brother's chakra… like it was masked… but that could only mean one thing…
"Oh, she is about to get royally fucked," a creepy grin spread on Kankurou's face, "hehe, Shukaku won't be happy at all…"
Baki and Temari shared a look, this was about to go horribly wrong…
"Alright!" Ino!Gaara pumped his fist, lightly setting her body down, not realizing the sand swirling about.
Inside the red-head's mind the blonde was still savoring her obvious victory, "Fufufu… now all I have to do is raise my hand, as Gaara of the Sand~ hehe, and announce my forfeit!"she pumped her fists, "it's perfect!"
"Ya know… I was going to just ignore you little bug…" a sudden wash of overpowering EVIL intent swam over Ino's mental form, "But now that you've knocked my adorable jailer out…"
Fear ran down Ino's mental spine at the voice. As she turned around she spotted a massive Tanuki with tan fur and blue jagged stripes, "uuuh… wha…?"
Shukaku the great demon Tanuki of the Desert leaned down, grinning wide at the girl that was barely the size of his iris, "Do you know how long it's been since I've seen a human female…" he licked his lips, "faaaaaaaaaaar toooooooo loooooonnngggg…"
Outside in the real world Gaara screamed bloody murder before grabbing his head and it suddenly shifted to an evil cackle…
"That stupid girl!" as if Gaara's sudden 'transformation' wasn't bad enough, the Kumo jounin shouted with a dark voice none of them had heard before. Yugito's eyes were now a glowing copper and a black-purple shade rose over her body. She tightened her fist and snarled, "Yorihi!"
The blind girl next to her nodded, pulling out one of her swords, "Hai!"
Suddenly the two were gone.
And 'Gaara' threw his hand back, a wave of gold tinted sand following his wicked smile as Yorihi was thrown against the back wall, the girl snarling despite it crushing her. With a demented grin 'Gaara' slowly squeezed his hand, "You silly mortals think you can do anything against ME? KAHHAHAHAHAHA!"
Before anyone else could move there was a strike against the back of his head, ignoring his sand barrier as a black flamed hand knocked him to the ground. Sand started swirling around them both, not that 'Yugito' cared as she held 'Gaara' down, "Let her go you fucking Tanuki!"
A golden eye looked at the twin-tailed container, "Or you'll what? Neko-chaaaaaaaaaaan~? Going to scratch my eyes out?" 'Gaara' gave a taunting grin over his shoulder, seeming to not care about his predicament, "That'll only make me-GHAAAHHHHHHHHH! YOU BITCH!"
"FUCK YOU TANUKI, YOU BALL-LESS BASTARD!" She punched him again for good measure, then got a good grip on his head.
There was another unholy scream from the red haired boy.
Inside Gaara's head…
There was a titanic battle of a MONSTEROUSLY GIANT TWIN-TAILED CAT AND THE SANDY TANUKI!
Ino was stuck on the ground next to an 'unconscious' Gaara, mouth wide open and staring, "Wha-?" the Tanuki had grabbed her and… well… suggested things she never wanted to repeat or remember, while squeezing the mental-life out of her. Then all of a sudden this big purple-black cat appeared, biting its paw, releasing her and off they went brawling. The poor stunned girl could only watch, mentally numb from having no idea what was going on, "I-?!"
"GIRL!" The HUGE purple-black twin-tail with the copper eyes growled out momentarily, pushing the Tanuki down with one paw and subduing it with its tails before yelling back, "UNDO THE TECHNIQUE AND GET OUT OF HERE!"
Ino could only dumbly nod, her mental hands trembling as she put them together, forming the release seal, "R-right! RELEASE!"
As her consciousness was being thrown out she could have sworn she heard the Tanuki screaming and the cat yelling about throwing him back in his cage…
Ino popped up off the floor with a deep gasp, eyes wide and shaking all over. Then she started waving her hands vehemently and yelled, "I QUIT! I'M DONE! FUCK THIS!" She turned just enough to look over and see the Kumo Jounin standing over Gaara's prone body. The boy was completely unconscious even if he didn't seem to have a scratch on him. The blonde Kumo jounin seemed to notice she was up, turning to look at her with those creepy glowing copper eyes. Ino squeaked, backing away and waving her hands, "I-I-I'm d-done! I-I-I-" the older blonde seemed to ignore Gaara and stalk over to her, causing Ino to curl up in a ball and squeaked, "EEP!"
'Yugito' frowned down at the girl… then punched her on top of her head, more as a warning then meant to actually damage, "NEVER, I repeat, NEVER use that technique against someone with a demon sealed inside them!" at the girl's pitiful squeak, 'Yugito' crouched down to look at the girl directly, glowing eyes stern but oddly sympathetic, "We demons have spent a looooong time alone inside these cages, it's not safe for someone like you to try facing us, understand?"
Tearstained eyes dared to look up at the other blonde woman only to nod pitifully. Ino didn't even care what the scary woman said just that she wouldn't hit her again.
With a flat look 'Yugito' reached out and poked the girl on the forehead, "Good," with a small push of chakra the frightened girl dropped, unconscious and the copper left Yugito's eyes, "Now sleep, and forget this ever happened…"
Another presence appeared behind Yugito as she set the girl down comfortably on the ground, "Thank you," Asuma crouched down to pick up his student, "For saving her like that…"
Yugito just gave a snort, "Don't thank me," she got up stiffly and turned towards where Yorihi was pulling herself out of the wall, "Just react sooner, or better yet, don't send such children against demons like us," iron black eyes cut into the bearded man sharply, making sure he got the message.
"INTERFERENCE!" up on the balcony Baki slammed his hand on the bar, "Is this how this is handled! Anyone can jump in and disrupt these proceedings!" the dark skinned man yelled, pointing at Yugito as she and her student moved to return to their spot on the balcony, "I demand her team be removed!"
That got him four sets of glares, not to mention a few more from the balcony on the other side.
Then there was a sweet chuckle, "I'm sorry, maybe if your student had a better handle of his demon, I wouldn't have had to intervene and none of this would be a problem!" the delightful smile Yugito sent the half-masked man was somehow more terrifying then the glowing eyes a minute ago.
Baki's fury dissipated as it slowly slipped into his brain just how this woman stopped his 'student'.
There was a cough from the center of the arena, "Seeing as there was interference on Yamanaka Ino's part, and the girl did forfeit," cough, "I'm ruling in Gaara's favor," Hayate turned around to face the Hokage, "Any objections, Hokage-sama?"
The grizzled old man shook his head, "None, though," he turned to look over at the Kumo shinobi, "Another interruption like that and I will dismiss your team, is that understood, Nii-san?"
"Puuuurrrfectly, Hokage-sama," the blonde bowed graciously, not even arguing.
Next to her Yorihi just grunted, rolling her shoulder. Being thrown into the wall had hurt more then she thought, "Ne, Xiao-chan, mind looking me over?"
"Sure, Princess," the red eyed medic merely nodded and went to look the blind girl over, dragging something along "Karin, you mind?"
The persistent hanger-on surprisingly let go and gave a salute, "Of course Senpai!" Xiao may have meant for the red-head to just remove herself, but instead she got back up as they had Yorihi sit down on the grated floor, both checking her over to make sure there was no serious damage from the impromptu decoy-ploy.
Gaara was eventually catered off by Med-nins, Baki following to keep an eye on his student, and to get as far away from the Kumo Jounin as possible.
"Alright," another cough from Hayate, "Now that that's done with, the next match will be…" they waited a few seconds as the names ran across the board then came to a stop, "Akamichi Chouji vs. Aburame Shino," cough, "Get down here now."
From Team 8, Aburame Shino moved quickly down to the arena with barely a word from his team.
Team 10 on the other hand…
"Uh, Sensei," Chouji scratched the back of his head, uncomfortable about facing off against a former classmate, "Do I r-really have to…"
"Yes you do!" Asuma slapped his hand down on the chubby boy's shoulder, trying to be encouraging without showing just how relieved he was by this turn of events. –With someone else from their graduating class he actually has a chance! Score!- "It's a former classmate, so you should know how he fights that's an advantage!"
"The same can be said about Shino, Asuma-sensei," Shikamaru yawned from the bar he was leaning on.
The bearded man glared at his 'smartass' student, before turning a charming smile to his chubby one, "C'mon! don't you want to avenge Ino!" who was 'gracefully' asleep behind them.
Chouji just scratched his cheek, "Sensei, how's fighting Shino avenging Ino…?"
Asuma's hand may have come down a bit harder than normal, "Its defending the pride of Team 10!" he glanced down to the other end of the balcony, where Kurenai gave him a look. The part of him that was a man with man-pride was raving about how she was giving him a smug look! –I will not be beaten by my girlfriend! –er, I mean comrade! Yea!- they had something of a bet going on with whose students would do better in the exams! He would not fail now! He crouched down to Chouji's level and looked the boy in the eye, "This is between men, right! You have to show that Team 10 is not one to mess with!" he poked the boy in the chest, "Show them the pride of not only yourself, but your clan, your team, this village!"
"Tch, Sensei just doesn't want to get beat by his woman," the Nara heir groaned, "How troublesome…"
That was a mighty blow coming from a Nara, "It has nothing to do with that!" even if in his mind he was raving about how it had EVERYTHING to do with that! Turning Chouji to look the boy in the eye Asuma pulled out his trump card, "You beat him, and it'll be all you can eat bar-b-que!"
"BAR-B-QUE!" that got the Akamichi boy fired up, as he hoped the bar and charged towards the center of the arena.
Shikamaru could only groan, putting his head in his hand.
"Hey, Xiao-chan," Oku chimed in from the other balcony to his partner, "Isn't that the guy you fought in the forest?" he pointed idly at the quiet boy.
"Hmm?" red eyes blinked as the young medic decided Yorihi was fine enough to leave to Karin. Standing up she leaned on the bar and looked down at the arena floor, smirking when she spotted someone familiar, "Shino-kuuuuuuuuuunnnnnn~~!"
Now, it was a generally held belief in Konoha that the Aburame clan, being one of the most closed off and mysterious clans, was comprised of people with little to no emotions. The clan members were generally covered head to toe, and often spoke with deep flat voices. So it was a particularly strange thing to see the heir to the quiet Aburame stiffen, quite visibly, and turn to actually look behind him when the Kumo girl called out his name.
Several brows of note rose.
Xiao was almost bouncing, pumping one fist and waving vigorously with the other, grinning widely, "YOU BETTER KICK HIS ASS SHINO-KUN!" then she winked.
It almost looked like steam was coming off the Aburame heir.
From her seat, tattooed brows rolled, "Don't break him before his fight, Xiao-chan…"
"Shut up, Princess," Xiao replied without missing a beat, genuinely glad to see the quiet bug user there, "He was fun to fight," she punched one hand into the other and a few sparks released, "I wouldn't mind fighting him again in the finals!"
"Heh," Yorihi just smirked from her seated position, "Already so sure you'll be in the finals huh?"
"You know it, Princess!" the dark skinned medic just kept grinning, cheering for the bug boy.
On the other side of Yorihi, Oku had a certain pout on his face, one the blind girl could easily recognize as the look he got when faced with a potential new rival for Xiao's wayward attention. The blind girl had to bite her lower lip to stop herself from snickering.
"He wasn't that impressive when you were fighting him in the forest, Xiao-chan…" yep, the badger tamer was definitely pouting.
"Shut up, Oku," Xiao didn't even miss a beat, blatantly ignoring the boy's pouting.
"Ew," Karin on the other hand, who'd been relatively quiet, retreated from looking Yorihi over as she seemed fine now, to somewhat hiding behind the dusky-pinkette, "He feels creepy…" she shuddered, grabbing onto the older girl's frock, "like a million little things moving about, all creepy-crawly…"
Xiao just put her hands on her hips, smirking with a kind of odd pride, "Yep, the Aburame clan, human-hives with thousands, if not millions of insects at their beck and call," the grin spread, "This match is in the bag!"
"BAR-B-QUE!" that is until they heard the unmistakable battle cry of the Akamichi clan…
The three Kumo genin watched as Chouji charged to the center of the room, fired up and ready to earn his food!
Oku may have smiled a bit more sinisterly, "An Akamichi, masters of physical arts and body manipulation," he rubbed his chin as if innocently in thought, "Considering that bug guy was having problems fighting you hand-to-hand, Xiao-chan, he'll likely be at a severe disadvantage against a taijutsu specialist like him-"
The red eyed medic just snapped at him, "SHUT UP, OKU!"
Yorihi just grumbled from her seat, "Sometimes I wish you two would just settle this and get it over with…"
The two above her distinctly blushed, Karin pushed up her glasses sharply eyeing Oku as a rival, and Yugito just started hiss-giggling behind the four of them. Sometimes nothing needed to be said, these kids entertained her better than anything any day.
On the arena floor, Shino was twitching. It was bad enough to get called out by that Kumo girl he fought in the forest, Utsurabon Xiao, but to be so easily dismissed by her comrade was almost insulting. Why? He was an Aburame, he trained quite hard in his family's arts to master what he knew now. True, it was nothing comparable to what he'd seen them display, but that glimpse to the power of those only a few years older them encouraged him to try harder.
Plus, academically he did fairly well in the Academy, at least compared to most of those here from Konoha, and considering while beaten his team still managed to acquire two scrolls and beat the Kumo trio to this tower before them they were commendable shinobi in their own right. Why? Because…
"Hey," cough, "I asked if you were ready, Aburame?"
"Yes." Was the bug user's quick response. Across from him Chouji was already punching one fist into the other and seeming to breath out steam from his nose, obviously 'fired up' for this fight. –Or the proposition of food afterwards…- Why? There was only one way to bribe an Akamichi into combat and that was with food.
"Alright," Hayate gave both fighters one last look, coughed, and threw up his hand, "Begin!" and disappeared.
"Baika no jutsu!" immediately Chouji started with his clan's Multi-Sized Technique, expanding his body outward to resemble a large boulder.
Shino simply raised a black brow at this.
Then the large boy tucked his head and limbs, further resembling a large rock, as chakra started spewing out of his body, "Konoha Ryuu Taijutsu: Nikudan Sen-Ack!"
That was until Shino suddenly moved like lightning, thrusting an open palm into the center of Chouji's large exposed mass, "Pardon, Chouji-san, but I have been recently informed I tend to act too slow in these situations, I intend to correct this," he gripped part of the boy's flesh, twisting and causing him to squeal somewhat, instructing his insects to invade the new territory, to bite and absorb all the chakra they could from their new conquest. "Why?" the Aburame heir's sunglasses shined, "I have a debt to pay."
"Aggh!" with a strangled yelp Chouji's body spewed out more chakra, intent to either remove Shino, his bugs, or get enough momentum to roll, "I got Bar-B-Que riding on this! I won't lose so quickly!"
Tilting the edge of his brow down, Shino reached out with both hands, covered in his bugs, spreading them on his opponent and planting his feet firmly to the ground, sticking them with chakra for extra support, "I do not plan to lose here." He would not let Chouji start rolling, he would not let him gain momentum.
A girl from another village had succinctly pointed out a detrimental flaw in their clan style of shinobi training. While indeed it allowed for quicker knowledge of certain 'clan techniques' it created a sort of blanket understanding of all clan member's abilities. Applying that now he knew exactly what Chouji was trying to do, one of the signature, if basic, techniques of the Akamichi clan; Nikudan Sensha or Human Bullet Tank, a technique that basically made the body into a large spinning boulder. He could have dodged it, yes, but that would have just created a game of cat and mouse and he had no idea if his insects could hold onto the boy once he got rolling so his normal tactics of waiting out his enemy would not be valid here.
And that girl had cheered him on. For some reason he felt a comradery to her, a former enemy, and he did not want to disappoint. Why? She taught him something valuable, he deserved to pay such a debt back by applying that knowledge.
That's when he felt the force of the normally shorter boy press further, trying to roll, and Aburame Shino decided on what would probably be considered a more amusing tactic. Indeed, he even smiled a small bit behind his high collar as with a great shift of chakra, and structural support from his insects, he let Chouji roll forward the slightest bit…
Just so he could lift him into the air and hold him without any means of escape.
There was some kind of squeal from the Akamichi boy, "What the-EEEEEHHHHH!?"
By now the Kikaichu had spread to most of Chouji's body and were biting and pinching all over, sucking up his chakra, while Shino held his opponent almost proudly, "I believe, this is the part where you surrender, Chouji-san."
"N-n-noooo! NEVER!" the human ball tried to bounce but Shino held him with a good grip and most likely chakra. Worst yet, Chouji was feeling his own reserves slip away. The Multi-Sized Technique had its own cost, but every time he tried to move cost him even more as normally the Nikudan Sensha could be maintained with momentum, only needing a burst to start. But Shino wasn't letting him move, anywhere, meaning no momentum, no pick up, and worst no power in the technique. He was a proverbial sitting duck, now more so being held aloft. Adding the pinching and biting of the bugs… "Noooo! Bar-b-que!"
With a poof! Chouji released his Multi-Sized Technique, still being held at the chest up in the air by the taller boy. Instead of letting anything get in the way between him and Korean cooked meats, or Shino retaliating, Chouji slugged the Aburame across the face.
But he didn't leave it there, coming from a clan dedicated to a certain kind of Taijutsu, he let his weight drop normally, planting his feet hard on the ground and grabbed the taller boy's collar hard and threw him across the field in what would be a winning ring out if they were in a sumo match.
Of course, they weren't, and Shino rolled across the ground twice before stabilizing his position, grabbing two kunai and tossing them at his opponent.
Even breathing hard from the bugs zapping his chakra, Chouji pulled out his own kunai, deflecting Shino's and charging at the boy. Throwing his hands through a series of seals he threw out his arm, hoping this technique would work as frankly he'd not tried it before in combat, "Bubun Baika no jutsu!" with the Partial Multi-Sized Technique Chouji's arm grew several times its normal size and with the sudden growth easily erased the distance between him and his opponent, smashing an over-large fist where the Aburame stood.
Of course as the dust settled it was revealed that had only been a bug clone, which quickly dispersed and swarmed around the new large, chakra-infused appendage.
"Urgh!" Chouji gripped his large hand, feeling the strain from the incomplete technique and now the bugs biting and draining it, he couldn't help but drop to one knee biting his lip.
"You did well," suddenly there was a shadow looming over Chouji and he only had a chance to look back before something hit his neck and he was out cold.
Shino waited a moment to ensure his opponent was unconscious before calling his insects back into himself, glancing over the boy quietly from behind his shades.
Then there was a cough at his side and his arm was being raised, "Winner by knockout, Aburame Shino!"
"Ah!" Up on the far side of the Konoha balcony, Sarutobi Asuma dropped to his knees, leaning over on his hands rather dramatically, "He failed his sensei…"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his sensei's reaction. In all honesty he knew his best friend was going to lose, Chouji just didn't have it in him normally to be aggressive enough in a fight, especially when fighting for himself. –And Shino's always been calculating in a fight…- Sure the tall boy was generally a good tactician, but something about the way he fought seemed off. Never before had he pushed from the beginning like that, it was weird, but his main tactic still seemed the same: swarm his opponent with his insects until they couldn't move anymore then go in for the kill.
"He actually pulled it off," a shallow voice spoke up from behind the other two members of Team 10.
Lazy black eyes glanced back, ignoring their sensei still lamenting, to notice Ino had woken up and looked… oddly calm, "You caught that, huh?"
The blonde nodded, "Yea, thought he said he couldn't do it?"
Shikamaru just shrugged, turning back as medics came to collect his friend, "Its troublesome, guess he thought he had no choice if Shino wasn't going to let him use his normal techniques…" with a great sigh the Nara heir turned to his pouting sensei, "Hey, sensei, it's troublesome but he deserves something for that, right?"
Asuma got up enough on his knees to fist the boy's vest, "So long as you maintain the sanctity of your sensei's manhood!"
"Tch," Shikamaru grunted, "What a drag…"
On the other end of the Konoha balcony…
Shino made his way back, trying to ignore the rather… vibrant cheering he was getting from the Utsurabon girl.
Kurenai gave her student a muted smile, proud of his victory and maybe only slightly enjoying it more as it was one of Asuma's students, "Congratulations, Shino."
"Mh," the quiet boy only gave a quiet nod.
"Man, that Kumo girl is all over you!" That is until Kiba decided to open his mouth and hang off his buddy's shoulder, "The hell did you guys do during that fight to get a reaction like that?!" and he pointed with his thumb.
Xiao was across the way animatedly cheering and pumping her fists, obviously to the annoyance of her own teammates.
It brought a slight amused smile to the shades wearing boy's face, luckily hidden by his high collar, "We merely came to an… understanding, as combatants."
"Tch, whatever man!" Kiba happily shoved his buddy, to the Inuzuka that was the proper way to congratulate someone, "Makes me kinda wish I'd fought her instead! Hehe! Maybe in the finals!"
"Indeed," The Aburame boy just pushed up his shades, not feeling rankled by the suggestion.
"Feh," Hitomaru on the other hand nearly spat, "Such a shameful display…"
Kurenai watched her students carefully. She knew they faced off against the Kumo genin in the forest and she was thankful none of them got seriously hurt, but even she felt they shouldn't let their guards down. She'd yet to have a positive experience with a Kumo-nin, and the abrupt meeting with their jounin had been disturbing enough, she didn't want her students to be bothered by them as well.
Though seeing the three different reactions, not only from her students but the ones across the arena was… odd to say the least. The Genjutsu Mistress decided she'd need to keep an eye out for these foreigners.
Xiao just turned around with a wide grin on her face, "See! Told you he'd win!" her enthusiasm got distinct eye rolls from her two teammates.
"S-senpai, h-has…" Karin gulped, clinging closer to her senior, "Has some… strange friends…"
"Hehe," Xiao was utterly pumped, both fists still up and ready to cheer some more, "He's actually pretty cool once you get past the bugs! Also fairly sturdy…" then she snapped her fingers and short sparks of lightning came out, "But the little buggers scatter with enough of this, so I'm fairly okay fighting him!"
Yorihi just rolled her brows, "You do realize he could just come up with a breed of bug that isn't affected by lightning, then you'd be screwed."
The dusky pink haired girl just snorted, "Shut up, Princess, don't ruin this for me."
The blind girl just shrugged.
Once again, Oku pointed down at the arena, "Hey, it looks like it's someone else you're fairly fond of up next, Xiao-chan…"
"Shut up, Oku," the girl lightly threw back at him before they all looked at the board, "Well damn, didn't think they'd throw him out so quickly…"
Yorihi decided to stand up now, sensing how the others were acting and glancing at the board. She'd want to pay attention to this fight, just in case something went wrong. –I told him that seal was a bad idea, and I'll help fix it when it becomes a problem…- unconsciously Yorihi gripped her sword, ready for a fight.
"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Rock Lee," cough, "Get down here now!"
"PRESENT!" springy as usual, Rock Lee literally bounced down to the arena floor eager to show off his Taijutsu prowess, even if it was against someone he'd faced before.
Sasuke on the other hand frowned, deciding to take the long way.
"You remember our deal right, Sasuke?" Kakashi's calm voice made the boy pause in front of his sensei.
"Hn," giving the scarecrow a dark look before shrugging his shoulder and walking casually down to the arena floor.
"OOOOOOOHHHH! YOU GET HIM SASUKE-KUN!" of course his fangirl was squealing, drowning out anyone else's comments.
The Uchiha couldn't help but scowl more as he descended the stairs. He'd woken up that morning feeling nauseous, in a place he didn't recognize and apparently been unconscious, mostly, since the fight with the freaky snake guy. His last solid memories were of that red eyed Kumo chick chewing him out, the pain in his shoulder and… if it weren't for the damn Sharingan he wouldn't have a perfect image of Sakura, broken, covered in blood and halfway in a tree, and he wouldn't feel this clinching guilt every time he looked at her.
So the fact she was always by his side, since he woke up to now, was infuriating. She'd managed to fill him in, somewhat, about what happened in the forest to now. He wasn't sure how much was tinged with her rose colored glasses but she made the Kumo-nin out to be monsters even though the short bit he managed to speak, Naruto claimed they were the reason they got to the tower at all.
His damn pride as an Uchiha wouldn't let him be indebted to anyone, so he needed to figure out a way to fix that, find out the truth and settle it.
Of course he happened to wake up just before the end of the second test, only now it was a preliminary and felt like such a waste of time. Worse, he had to fight that green clad taijutsu freak, again.
"Are the participants ready?" cough.
"Yosh!" Rock Lee clinched one fist in front of himself, smirking down at the younger boy with his bushy eyebrows raised excitedly, "I am ready to do battle with you once again, Sasuke-kun!"
"Hn," Sasuke just groaned. Unlike the others he hadn't had time to process anything, but since when was that new in his life? He hadn't had a chance to practice with his new Sharingan and worse his chakra felt all weird because some seal Kakashi-sensei put on him. 'To counteract the one Orochimaru put on you' he says, feh.
"I need an actual response," Hayate stared at the shorter boy and coughed.
Sasuke just glared, "Yes."
"Alright," he nodded, hand out, cough, "Then begin!" rose it and disappeared.
"Hmp!" Lee gave an odd smirk as he took up his starting stance, standing tall with one hand behind his back and one held out forward with the palm facing him, "It seems fate is most kind, allowing me yet another chance to fight a worthy Genius of the Hidden Leaf Village. I beat you once before, Sasuke-kun, I shall do so again, and earn my spot to challenge my rival!"
"Hn," Sasuke slowly dipped lower in his loose stance, hands near his kunai and shuriken pouches. He knew from the last time they fought this guy had freakish speed and strength, all super taijutsu according to his data card but seemingly no other skills. –If I can keep him at a distance…-
The smirk continued as Lee closed his eyes, giving a slight nod, "I see, if you will not come at me, then-" in a lightning fast move the boy erased the distance, appearing below Sasuke and kicking him under the chin, throwing him into the air, "-I will have to come after you."
Up on the balcony nearly every genin unfamiliar with Rock Lee blinked.
"That guy is fast," Xiao held the bar in front of her, keeping her eyes wide to try and catch his movements as he kicked the Uchiha up and down the arena floor.
Not far down Oku just nodded, both he and Lior trying to follow the weird looking green guy's movements.
Between them Yorihi had a neutral look on her face, following the taijutsu specialist more with her chakra than anything else, even if it was difficult, "Xiao-chan," crossing her arms she nodded to her female friend, "You have your Chakra Field on too, right?"
"Yea," the medic idly nodded, gripping her fist tighter when the Uchiha took a nose dive into the dirt, "C'mon you stupid fake eyed bastard-STOP LETTING HIM KICK YOUR ASS SO MUCH!"
The other Kumo-nin tried to hide their snickering as Xiao got slowly riled up.
But Yorihi continued her earlier comment, "Then you feel it too don't you?"
"Yea," the dusky pinkette hit the bar with her fist, nearly leaning over it, "That guy isn't using any chakra to bolster his movements, that's all pure muscle power and strength," they all winced as Sasuke tried to use a wire trap, only to get a fist in the face and sent half way across the field, "damn… I didn't think anyone could fight like that except Ruri-sensei…"
Both Yorihi and Oku nodded. The Taijutsu Master of Kumo's Academy was no push over, the only time they'd seriously seen her use chakra was when she'd summoned an army of armor and weapons to terrorize them during their final test, otherwise the woman used various forms of martial fighting, with and without weapons, in various combinations to great effect using only her raw strength. It was terrifying. And Yorihi had more experience with the woman as her crash course had demanded, and learning the hard way just how closely she and her Father were related. The blood of the Oni was not something to trifle with, and terrifying.
Eventually, in a lull as the Uchiha was on his hands and knees, Oku smirked, leaning over the bar, "I think Ruri-sensei would be happy to see this, someone having this much power with Taijutsu alone, its inspiring!"
Yorihi was scratching her chin, confused by the fight, "There's something wrong, the Uchiha was more of a challenge when we fought him…"
Oku and Xiao gave their comrade a look before glancing at each other than looking down in the arena.
"The Princess is right," Xiao scowled, "Where's all his damn fire and fancy knife tricks? It can't just be because this guy is fast?"
Now Oku was rubbing his chin, "Maybe it's because he doesn't have those special eyes of his active?" when the others turned to look at him he nearly jumped, "Er, what? Did I say something weird?"
Then they looked back down at the arena…
Sasuke got to sent into the ground, hard.
And Xiao growled, slamming her fist on the bar and setting off a few sparks, "No goddamn way did we get held off by a chump like that!" her growling increased as she got angry, and it was never a good thing for an Utsurabon to get angry…
Sasuke coughed up blood from the impact, feeling that he'd made a body print about an inch deep. –This green bastard isn't holding back…-
Lee stood a few feet away, staring down at his opponent, "Sasuke-kun, you were more formidable in our previous bout, so far you've yet to land a hit on me…"
The Uchiha wanted to growl. –I didn't land a hit on you before, dumbass!- Everything just hurt. His bones, his muscles, his joints, his brain, his eyes… everything was just searing pain. The second he tried anything the jerk hit him so hard he felt like something was going to break. Just one instant and BAM! He was struck across the arena.
There were a couple people yelling, namely Sakura and Naruto he was sure, but more irritatingly there were a few words from that damn Kumo girl…
"YOU CHEAP FAKE-RED EYED SON-OF-A-BITCH!" speaking of which…
Cracking open his eyes enough, Sasuke could see her glaring, those vibrant distinct red eyes of hers looking right at him.
"WHERE THE HELL IS YOUR GODDAMN PRIDE! UCHIHA!" she pointed vehemently at him, her hand seeming to spark lightning adding to her furious look, "YOU STOLE MY BROTHER'S STYLE FROM ME AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO USE IT! WHAT KIND OF FAKE-RED-EYED-BASTARD ARE YOU!"
-Fake red eyed…- He had to blink. That's right, when they fought momentarily in the forest she'd said something similar, how he was a faker and took offense to him having 'red eyes' like her. –The Sharingan!- He hadn't even thought about it. Well, he had but he had no idea how he'd activated it during that fight and certainly hadn't had the chance to figure it out since…
And what the hell was she talking about 'stealing her brother's style'? A vague image of the taijutsu she used popped into his head and how he'd dodged Orochimaru's initial bite…
Rock Lee seemed to animatedly rub his ears, "My word, that young woman is quite loud, and saying such un-youthful words…"
"I HEARD THAT GREEN MAN!" there was some scuffle up on the Kumo side of the foreigner's balcony as the two other genin and the red haired girl were pulling Xiao back from jumping over the edge.
Thankfully the distraction left Lee very confused, scratching the back of his head and blinking…
It gave Sasuke enough time to pull himself up out of his hole and concentrate hard on his eyes. He had to win here, he HAD to! He was a goddamn Uchiha for Kami's sake! The last member of the strongest clan Konoha had! He had to make this work!
"Hmm, Sasuke-kun?" Lee finally turned back to his opponent, noticing he was concentrating really hard on… something. The proud green beast simply took up his formal fighting stance, waiting to see what the Uchiha pulled out this time. –So far I have prevented him from using his shuriken and wire tricks as well as his fire… perhaps he's finally deciding to pull out something else? -
Sasuke kept his eyes closed, searching his chakra, his mind, his memories, anything that would tell him how his eyes worked.
"Feh, you should know in Kumo the only good Uchiha is Itachi…" that girl's voice, the blind one, "He's the only good one because he killed the rest…"
Clinching his fist hard Sasuke grabbed onto that memory. Not only had that blind bitch insulted him, his family, but she mocked their deaths… and praised his… THAT BASTARD for killing them!
When Sasuke opened his eyes they were red, two tomoe in each eye, and for a moment he took up a completely new stance compared to the interceptor fist he'd used previously: fists curled under his chin and bouncing light on his feet. With his rage, and the new fire in his eyes he zeroed in on his old nemesis. –I'll show you- then his eyes went up to the Kumo trio, spotting with perfect clarity the small frown that formed on the blind girl's face. –Then you're next!-
In an instant Sasuke shot forth, and for the first time in the whole match he dodged Lee's initial counter maneuver, then another, as he got close enough to strike him for the first time right in the face.
Everyone in the stands could hear that blow, as it sent Lee halfway to the ground before the taijutsu expert merely adjusted, hands on the ground and using the new position to hit the Uchiha under the jaw with his foot and send him flying.
While the others on the Konoha side were gasping, then cheering, mostly the pink haired girl, as a new level seemed to be added to this fight.
On the other side the foreigners seemed to watch that much more closely.
"So he finally turned them on…" Xiao said oddly calm, watching as the boy used a partial form of her brother's style to now dodge about half the blows coming from the green kid. It wasn't a major advantage but it certainly made the fight less one-sided, though even she knew he shouldn't be able to up his abilities this much simply by using her brother's style. Without thinking she'd taken on a thinking pose, watching his form closely. –It's almost… backwards…- then he did a sweep dodge she swore she'd seen Yorihi do with her swords, only he tried with a kunai making it completely ineffectual.
"You've noticed as well, Xiao-chan?" speaking of the blind girl…
"Yea," the dusky-pink haired medic absently nodded, "He's… trying to use what he got from us, but it seems backwards and because he relies so much on his eyes it's not as effective," then he seemed to pull a goken maneuver this green clad boy had been using, "And he's trying to copy his moves as well…" she had to put a hand over her mouth when he fumbled because he missed a sweep Lee did, resulting in him going back onto the ground.
Yorihi just absently nodded, "You know how the Sharingan works?" the medic shook her head in the negative, and Yorihi could feel the others around he perk up in interest, "I don't know everything, just what R&D surmised and what we in Company 5 were told, but basically," she nodded her chin down to the boy still struggling, if better, to dodge his opponent, and at least now getting a fireball or two off, "From their research it basically has three parts, first," she held up her finger, "it adds pupils that allow for more motion to be registered, meaning they likely perceive time slower than the rest of us when those are active, allowing them an extra few seconds to process what's happening and allow them to react quicker to it…"
As it was Lee made an obvious punch, only this time Sasuke did a mix of deflecting it and dodging, seemingly very quickly.
"Like that," she pointed out, "before that blow would have connected, now that his Sharingan is active its allowing him an extra moment to prepare for attacks…"
"So that's why when we fought him he seemed suddenly faster," Red eyes narrowed as she watched the fight closely.
With a nod Yorihi held up two fingers, "Precisely, leading me to affect number two, photographic memory," she placed her hands on her swords, to be more comfortable, "R&D has no idea why it is, but when active the Sharingan seems to allow its user perfect perception and memory, so every instance they see is recorded," her head tilted with a slight frown, "But from what we've been shown by this Uchiha, I'm almost willing to bet he can't access that information without activating the eyes themselves, some kind of safety mechanism maybe?"
The medic nodded next to her friend, "That much information, in an altered perception, it wouldn't translate properly to normal senses or memory, so that sorta makes sense…" with a quirked brow she watched the boy. –Is that why he didn't pull my brother's style out before?- then she noticed he was about to move, reacting wrong for the blow that was coming. Slamming her fist down she couldn't help but yell, "LEFT!" then he got slugged anyway and she yelled louder, "YOUR OTHER LEFT!"
Comically, at least to them, the angry Uchiha seemed to growl down on the arena floor as he picked himself up and oddly yelled back at her, "THERE IS NO OTHER LEFT!" only to pick himself up and go back in, this time trying fire.
The other Kumo-nin were snickering.
"Shut up, all of you," Xiao simply growled to herself.
"Xiao-chan," Oku leaned over the bar to glance at his partner, "Why're you trying to help him?" it wasn't outside their realm of reason that the medic would try to encourage others, but to blatantly help? That was just too much for the badger tamer to understand.
Pushing a hand through dusky-pink bangs Xiao just continued to frown, watching the display, "I can't abide anyone, even a thief, to use my brother's style so poorly…" the small huff was a sign they should just drop it.
Next to her Yorihi simply nodded, storing that away for later, "As I was saying, the copying feature of their eyes comes from this perfect memory and perception, since they can copy it and remember it perfectly, the next logical step is to simply recreate what they see…"
There was a low grunt from the medic, "So that's why everything seems… mirrored, huh…"
"Most likely," Yorihi nodded, leaning on the bar now but not bothering to hold up three fingers, "And finally there's a hypnotic ability, likely from the marks in the eye spinning, resulting in their opponents to act slower so they can use the previous two abilities more efficiently."
"Heh," a light smirk may have picked at the darker skinned girl's lips, "Didn't seem to work on us…" though she had to admit, this green guy didn't seem to be moving any slower…
Yorihi just idly nodded, "For one, it's harder to utilize in a group as to hypnotize requires direct line of sight and I'm blind," there was so a smug smirk as she tapped the plate covering her eyes.
"Yea, and Xiao-chan," the boy in the silly hat chimed in, "You're not watching peoples' faces when you fight them, you watch their body, and even then it's not fully focused…"
"Shut up, Oku!" red eyes glared at the boy, and maybe a bit of a blush. She knew they were close but she didn't think he'd picked up that about her fighting style from their spars.
Now Yorihi really snorted, "Wow, if that's true," another snicker, "No wonder he can't get a good lock on the green guy…"
Finally, Sasuke got uppercutted into the air by Lee, who figured it was time to end this fight, using the shadow dance to appear beneath Sasuke in the air, preform an aerial combo and send him rocketing to the ground.
All three Kumo genin and Karin winced at the severe impact.
Yorihi decided to end her comment, "While good for dodging, your style is probably the worst thing someone like him could ever use…"
"Shut up, Princess," and Xiao trotted off behind them heading down to the arena floor.
"Winner, Rock Lee!" Hayate announced as he reappeared with a cough.
Lee on the other hand wasn't even paying attention, looking over the deep crater he'd caused by his last blow and trying to fish out his opponent. With a groan the now black eyed Uchiha barely moved an inch as Lee grabbed his hand and tugged, "Come my friend, you fought well!" Lee was genuinely smiling, having enjoyed the fight as it had been much more than he expected from the Uchiha, "Let's get you out of this hole and to the medical team!"
"WAIT!" a voice called out behind them and a dark skinned girl in a dusky pink frock jumped down, kneeling next to the Uchiha. She seemed to look him over a bit before slapping Lee's hand away from trying to pull the boy out, only to fiercely glare at him with burning red eyes, "Don't you know you never move someone this severely injured if they can be treated on the spot! Look how many fractures you put in him! His entire skeletal structure might as well be paste! Not to mention his chakra exhaustion from using his eyes or the muscular damage from using moves his body isn't used to!"
"Eeep!" Lee jumped a foot back, pulling his hands to himself… then oddly bowed repeatedly, "My apologies I had no idea I had inflicted such injuries on a comrade! Fellow member of the Leaf! For this I shall do 3000 full-body lifts to feel his pain! And if I can't to do that 6000 push-ups! And if I can't-" he was only stopped by the red eyed Kumo girl placing a hand on his mouth. Of course, he blushed.
Xiao, being oblivious to this reaction, just stared at him appalled, "Are you serious?" when he eagerly nodded his head she leaned back further, looking more stricken, "Do you have ANY IDEA how detrimental that much work is for the human body?!"
Lee just blinked, confused, "Huh?"
Before a certain debate could ensue, Hayate walked to the edge and coughed down at them, "Can you two move so the medics can get him, properly…"
"Er, RIGHT!" Lee gave a little salute and immediately jumped out of the hole.
Xiao glared for all of a second, not being particularly angry at the ref, he didn't seem to mean anything by it, but in general that the medical staff was going to 'care' for another one of her former patients. Crouching down she grabbed a cylinder from her pouch, gently tilting Sasuke's head back and opening his mouth, "Eat this, it should help with the pain and the blood loss…"
Cloudy black eyes stared up into those oddly familiar red ones again, not sure what to make of it but everything hurt so he was fine with anything that made it stop.
When he ate the pill she just gently smiled at him, petting back his black hair almost affectionately, "You did good Sasuke! I'm proud of you!" then flicked him in the head, making him wince, "But don't think I'll let someone like you continue to use my brother's style improperly, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it right!"
"Hn," it took the last of his strength to scowl at the foreign girl and look away. -That gesture… it had almost been like…- but before he could grasp it he was out like a light.
Xiao continued smiling… until the actual Konoha-medics arrived and glared at her, nearly shoving her out of the way. She scowled back, watching as they took another one of her patients, standing up and glaring all the way till they were out.
Hayate just stared down at the foreign girl, she was weird. He coughed, "You gotta vacate the area too, unless you're in the next match…"
Red eyes turned to the constantly sick man, and before either even noticed she'd grabbed something else from her pack and hopped up to him, "Here," she pushed it in his hand, "You should really get that cough looked at!" then glanced behind the stunned Special Jounin at the board, "And doesn't seem I'm that lucky," before trotting off back to her pervious spot.
Hayate looked down at what she'd put in his hand. It looked like a hard candy. Blinking for a second, then coughing again, he just shrugged and popped it in his mouth figuring she wouldn't be ballsy enough to poison him in front of everyone. It tasted lemony and had a weird feeling going down. With a shrug he turned enough to glance at the board, "Next up is Inuzuka Kiba vs. Nara Shikamaru," he moved the lozenge to the other side of his mouth, it actually wasn't that bad, "Get down here!"
At the announcement Kiba whooped.
"HELL YEA!" the Inuzuka heir pumped one fist, crossing his arm and putting his hand on his bicep, showing how pumped he was, "Thank you gods of luck!" idly he elbowed Shino next to him, "One more in the bag, eh buddy? You got the fatass, I get the lazy prick, and Team 10 is down for the count!"
If Shino were anyone else he would have rolled his eyes. As it was he was Aburame Shino and even if such a sign of obvious annoyance was visible on him he would do it, why? Because he was an Aburame… they had standards! "Kiba-kun," the taller dark boy pushed up his glasses, "It is unwise to underestimate your opponent so thoroughly, why-"
"Yea, yea," Kiba patted Shino's should and turned away from him towards their sensei, obviously ignoring the bug boy, "Hey, Sensei, is it okay if I kick your boyfriend's teams' ass?" by now Kiba had his hands on his hips, staring at the taller red eyed Genjutsu mistress. He was being serious, he knew from experience listening to his sister and mom complain about guys that little things like this could mess with a relationship, and Inuzuka Kiba wasn't going to be responsible for his Sensei getting dumped or turning her bad mood on them!
The calm jounin woman was leaning on the wall with her arms crossed and just stared at her student. He randomly did things like this, almost like in some way to him it was considerate. She'd tried a million times to subtly inform her students there was ABOSOLUTELY NOTHING going on between her and Sarutobi Asuma. They obviously didn't believe her or didn't notice her hints, she often had the feeling if she had a female student she would keep the boys in line and convince them of her sincerity… even if it was a boldfaced lie, but they didn't need to know that. With a slight smirk she nodded to Kiba's boisterous nature, "Just don't hurt him too much…" adding a wink that likely meant 'crush him!'.
"Yea!" Kiba pumped his arms and flexed again before turning quick and jumping over the bar.
Hitomaru just rolled his eyes with a grunt, "What a dumbass…"
Red eyes glared at his back while the bug user next to him simply pushed up black shades.
"Troublesome," on the other side of the Konoha balcony Shikamaru rolled his eyes lazily. He just had to be called didn't he? And against another member of Team 8? -Man… if it were anyone else… troublesome…- the poor boy didn't even have to turn to see the stupidly grinning and praying form of his sensei.
Sarutobi Asuma had his hands together and looking at his last student with hope. Shikamaru may have been lazy but he could do this! -Otherwise I'm screwed!!-
Ino chuckled from her position sitting behind them. She still felt worn out, mentally from her fight, but was awake enough to at least encourage her lazy bastard of a teammate, "Knock 'em dead, Shika-kun~"
As Shikamaru turned to walk down the path slowly he paused at that to give his teammate a disturbed look, "Don't do that, Ino…" the blonde just giggled to herself and shooed him off. With a deep sigh the black-haired boy just rolled his eyes, putting his hands in his pockets and walking down the balcony slowly, "Troublesome…"
As he walked by Team 7 the poor boy got bombarded by the two loud colorful members left on the balcony.
"Yea! You can do it Shikamaru!" Sakura pumped one fist, giving him a less than convincing grin of her sincerity.
Naruto on the other hand…
"YEA! KICK THAT JERK'S ASS SHIKAMARU!" was overly enthusiastic, patting his shoulder probably hard enough to bruise.
The poor Nara heir just groaned.
"HEY I HEARD THAT YOU BASTARD, NARUTO!" Kiba was also shouting from down in the middle of the arena, holding up his fist again, "GET DOWN HERE SHIKAMARU! I KNOW YOU'RE A LAZY PRICK BUT HURRY IT UP! I GOT THAT BLONDE BASTARD'S ASS TO KICK NEXT!"
This got several shouts from all the blondes in the room, "HEY!"
The Kumo team slid down slightly as Oku and Yugito both did their own displays of glaring down at the Inuzuka boy. At the other end of the foreigner's balcony Temari flat out yelled at him, while across the way Ino had jumped up and was growling as well.
Down in arena Hayate sighed, moving the lozenge to the other side of his mouth, "Can the competitors get down here so we can begin…" hmm, he'd have to get another one of these.
"YOU HEARD HIM SHIKAMARU!" again the mouthy blonde in orange shouted at the poor boy… also inadvertently patting him on the shoulder hard enough to push him over the railing, but details.
Shikamaru hit the ground with a loud thud, landing on his back and for a good long second he just stayed there staring at the ceiling wishing it was clouds.
Most of the other participants winced as that didn't sound good, especially before a match.
"NARUTO YOU IDIOT!" a certain pink haired girl shouted while her teammate apologized profusely.
"AH! SHIKAMARU!" Naruto rushed to lean over the railing, looking legitimately worried, "Sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry!" he put his hands together in a praying motion, "I didn't mean it, I swear! Dattebayou!"
Shikamaru's head tilted slightly to look at the blonde apologizing above him and wondering if he could use this as an excuse to forfeit the match.
"Nara Shikamaru, are you still able to fight?" came the proctor's voice.
One glance down the way at his sensei told Shikamaru he couldn't forfeit now. -A grown man shouldn't cry… let alone bet his pride on a fight between kids…- with a sigh, "Troublesome…" the Nara heir grumbled and slowly sat up, rolling his shoulder and pulling himself up, "Yea, I'm good to fight…"
Hayate nodded, turning to face the other participant, "How about you?"
"Feh," Kiba crossed his arms, ready to get this done and over with, "I got here first, of course I'm ready!" then he noticed Shikamaru had yet to move from his position of sitting up, back towards him and the proctor, "Hey, ref," a claw pointed at the sitting boy, "Can you just call it, he's obviously not taking this seriously!"
On the contrary, Nara Shikamaru was taking this very seriously. To those that knew him, namely his teammate and sensei, the pose he took, while sitting instead of kneeling like normal, meant he was already planning the quickest way to end this match before it even began. Shikamaru had the tips of his fingers touching the one on the opposite hand, thumbs up, and forming a circle around stomach level with his eyes closed.
The proctor took an extra second, sucking on the lozenge, before clearing his throat, "Nara Shikamaru, if you don't come here to start I'll have to assume you forfeit…"
Slowly narrow black eyes opened and Shikamaru looked at the wall across from him. Turning to look over his shoulder he noticed Kiba being as impatient as ever and the proctor looking bored. Behind his opponent was the foreigner's balcony, all of them staring with various levels of confusion and curiosity, while everyone on the Konoha side, he noticed as he turned back, were either rowdily shouting or already proclaiming his loss.
There was a heavy sigh, "What a drag…" before Shikamaru put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up like an old man, turning around and taking the few steps to the starting position.
Now that the two were in the center of the arena, Hayate looked them both in the eye, "Alright," he had his hand out before raising it, "Begin!" and disappeared.
Kiba jumped back, setting Akamaru down, "Alright buddy, you stay here, I won't need you-!" was his little pep talk, putting his hands together for a technique, before a kunai came zooming at his head, "Shit!" leaning to the side Kiba barely dodged the thrown knife, jumping back and taking on a more feral fighting stance, "The hell, man?!"
Bored, Shikamaru lowered his hand, putting it in his pocket and slowly walking forward, "Thought this was a fight," a yawn, "You should expect an attack dumbass…"
Kiba growled, putting his hands back and gathering chakra, "Shik-!" Another kunai, another dodge and now he had matching cuts on both his cheeks and jumped another step back, "Stop that!"
Shikamaru just grunted, cleaning one ear with his pinky, "Make me…" he replied in an overly bored tone.
Gripping his hands Kiba growled, "Fine!" screw using the Down-on-all-fours technique! He'd just beat the smug bastard with his fists. -Shikamaru's always sucked at taijutsu, this is in the bag- with a sneer the Inuzuka charged at his opponent, ready to beat that attitude out of him.
Akamaru barked.
"Huh?" causing Kiba to halt and turn to his puppy, "What'd you say boy?"
"Kagemane no jutsu success." Shikamaru lazily called out.
Suddenly Kiba felt his body move without his accord, "WHAT THE HELL?!" he turned to face Shikamaru, who started to do a bit of dumb posing, forcing Kiba's body to do the same, "What the fuck's going on!"
Shikamaru scratched his head like a monkey, garnering a few laughs from others, "Kagemane no Jutsu, the shadow imitation technique," he changed his position like that of a gorilla and Kiba's body mirrored him, "while you charged at me I had my shadow connect to yours, now your body is under my control," he stopped fooling around, standing normally and looked down, forcing Kiba to do the same, showing his opponent the black line on the ground that connected their shadows.
"Tch," Kiba growled, futilely trying to move his body, "Akamaru!"
The little white puppy barked and charged at his master's opponent.
"Sorry, I don't think so," Shikamaru held out his hand closest to Akamaru. It looked like he was trying to deflect the puppy but the real reason was to extend his shadow and grab the puppy's, forcing the dog under his control as well.
Now just as stiff and stunned as his master, Akamaru whined.
Kiba roared, "You bastard! You hurt him and I'll-!"
Shikamaru just went back to cleaning his ear, forcing his captives to do the same, "Yea, no," putting his hand back in his pocket he looked at the two, "I don't have a lot of time, so I'll make this quick," and with that he quickly turned around, the others mimicking him.
Several brows rose when all he did was start to walk forward, Kiba and Akamaru doing the same much to the former's griping.
Shikamaru stopped after a few paces, stretched his hands over his head, "Okay," cracked his neck, lowering his hands and put them at his side, "And bow," and performed a normal at the waist bow.
Somewhere behind him there was a loud crack as Kiba just hit himself face first into a wall, hard.
"OOOOOOHHHHH..." was the collective response.
Shikamaru turned around to make sure his opponent was down for the count then released his technique, letting Akamaru run after Kiba and start licking his bloody face. The black haired boy scratched the back of his head, "Troublesome…"
Hayate appeared out of thin air and pulled Shikamaru's hand up, "Winner, Nara Shikamaru!"
The Kumo genin that could see leaned over the railing to get a look at the down and unconscious Inuzuka.
Xiao sucked in her teeth, "Oh, that sounded bad but it looks even worse…"
Oku shrugged, "I think it's an improvement."
That earned him a punch to the shoulder, "Shut up, Oku!"
On the other side of Xiao, Karin pushed up her glasses looking at the poor Konoha boy as the medics quickly grabbed him off the field, "Senpai, you think he'll be alright?"
Red eyes narrowly watched as the all cream-clad medics ran out of the room with their new patient. With a huff Xiao crossed her arms, "Hopefully, otherwise he's going to have to live with that face…"
There was a snort from their quiet blind companion, "So who's next?"
They all heard the board stop and glanced over, Xiao and Oku brightening up significantly.
"Senpai?" the red head tugged on the older girl's smock.
Xiao just let her grin spread, nudging her female teammate with her elbow, "Hey, it's your buddy, Princess~"
The dark haired girl's only proper response was to growl.
They all got a chuckle from her response, even Oku grinned, "This should be fun to watch!"
And Xiao couldn't help but snipe behind her hand, "Too bad, the Princess here can't…"
"XAIO!" Yorihi growled.
"Uzumaki Naruto vs. Tenten," Hayate's voice boomed out through the arena.
"FINALLY!" Naruto of course was as vocal as ever, hyping himself up, jumping in the air excited and after a scuffle with Sakura telling him to quiet down, wound up on the arena floor. Whether he was pushed or not was anyone's guess.
A bit further down at the end of Konoha balcony Tenten smirked at the hyperactive boy, "Alright!" she pumped her fists, prepping herself for battle, ticking off a mental checklist of what weapons she had on her right now…
"YOSH!" of course, next to her Lee shouted, "It seems another youthful bout is about to take place!" he held up a fist with fire and tears in his eyes, "The beautiful flower of Team Gai now has the chance to show her Flames of Youth!"
"Ugh, Lee…" whatever psyche up she had or her place in her list of weapons went out the window. Slinking on the railing the bun haired girl deflated with a groan, "Why do you have to ruin everything with Sensei's weirdness…"
A large hand landed on her opposite shoulder, "Don't worry my precious student!" oh GOD! Gai-sensei was doing the ping! Smile! Completely ignoring his student's horrified expression, Gai continued, "That Naruto while the most youthful on my eternal rival's team, will be no match for you!"
Tenten deflated and groaned further. -Why do they have to ruin everything…- at this point her headband was clicking on the railing as she seriously considered giving herself a concussion to get away from this…
"Don't worry about it," a cold voice called from behind them.
"Neji!" part of her perked up with sparkles at her flippant teammate's inclusion into the conversation. -Maybe today I'll get an actual compliment from lord stick-up-his-as-
"Lee already won his match," the stuffy Hyuuga just crossed his arms and turned to look down at the arena, ignoring his sparring partner, "This one doesn't matter," his fist gripped outside his teammate's view, "And if fate is kind, I will beat my opponent…"
If anything Tenten sulked more than after Lee and Gai combined, "Great, yay, thanks Neji you pretty-boy jerk…" she grumbled a few more 'un-youthful' things under her breath about her sparring partner before hopping up onto the railing, remaining standing effortlessly, fists pumped and a smirk on her face, "Whatever, I'm going to have some fun!" twirling around on her toe, she put her hands behind her back and gave her teammates an adorable smile, "Wish me luck!" and before any of them could say anything flipped off the railing, summersaulted twice, twirled and landed on her feet and skipped off to the center of the arena.
While Gai and Lee were marveling about their team 'flower', Neji just sulked to himself. He wasn't bothered by the display at all…
As Tenten made it to the center of the arena Naruto couldn't help but point at her aggressively, "Hey! I'm not gonna go easy on you 'cause you're a girl and on gejimayu's team, dattebayou!"
Tenten passed the younger boy a wry smile, "I wouldn't expect any less!"
At her cheerful response Naruto perked up, "Eh?" with a fox face he tilted his head, "You got no problem with that?"
The bun haired girl blinked at him curiously, "Why would I?" she got down in a stance, smirking, "We're here to fight aren't we?"
A wide grin spread on Naruto's face as he too got into a ready stance, "Yeah!"
Hayate, who'd just been watching the two, looked between them and sighed thankfully, "Finally, a pair that know how to just get ready for a fight," he didn't even bother asking the two, just set his hand between them, and brought it up with a quick, "BEGIN!" before disappearing.
Without any prompting Naruto put his hand into his familiar sign, "Kagebushin no jutsu!" and created a handful of clones that charged at Tenten ready for a fight.
The brunette simply blinked before showing a wide grin, pulling out a kunai and twirling it in her hand before holding it in a reverse grip and seeming to wait for the Naruto clones to come closer. With a smirk she threw the knife, and seemed to toss several more, equal in number to the other clones, and quickly the room was full of poof!s and clangs as metal hit the floor.
That didn't stop Naruto as he charged forward, jumping to try and wail on her before the cloud of smoke disappeared. Instead of hitting his target, the girl just hopped out of the way, backflipped effortlessly several times and made some distance between them, releasing a few shuriken with each flip to which Naruto responded by calling more clones to soak up the damage.
"HEY!" the boy yelled as he grumbled, trying to get close to her.
"Hey yourself," Tenten chuckled, stopping on her feet and looking down at the boy with her hands on her hips and a wry grin on her face.
Naruto skidded to a halt, twitching slightly, confused by the sudden shift, "Er… dattebayou?"
"Mind if I ask you something?" the tan girl asked him innocently.
A suspicious fox face answered her, "Uh, what?"
A wide grin spread on the older girl's face, "You're that genin that passed the Academy test by learning Kagebushin no jutsu, right?" at the blonde boy's slow nod her hands came together in a somewhat prayer, "Can I ask a favor? Something I always wanted to try?" she added an adorable wink.
Now Naruto was very suspicious, "Uh, sure, dattebayou?" his right hand slowly inched closer to his weapon pouch, waiting for her to pull something out.
"Yes!" completely ignoring as the boy got more tense, Tenten pumped her fists before rubbing her hands together, "Can you make, like, a hundred clones?"
The blonde boy's head tilted to the side, "Eh? Sure, that's easy, but…" at her smiling insistent face his lit up with a blush, and quickly he just made his signature handsign, "Taijuu Kagebushin no jutsu!" with an explosion of poof!s the arena was filled with a hundred Narutos.
"This good?" they all asked at once.
Tenten's grin just grew wider as her hand grabbed two scrolls, "Perfect," tossing one scroll each into both hands she knelt on the ground, sitting the scrolls up in either hand before launching herself up, opening the scrolls along the way and spinning, making them appear like two ribbons spinning around her.
It was as the scrolls spun around her several of the onlookers noticed they held TONS of seals.
"NARUTO!" "NA-CHAN!" Sakura and Xiao shouted, realizing the ploy.
Yorihi was the one to roar, "GET OUT OF THERE!"
"Eh?" all the Narutos looked at the various people shouting.
"Soushouryu!" Tenten's voice came out over all the rest, as seals began popping around her, and with an unparalleled accuracy and speed the one hundred Narutos were demolished down to one.
"ACK!" the original had a sword in his arm, and once the dust settled realized all his clones were gone and there were weapons scattered all around the field.
Tenten landed with a smirk, hands behind her back, "I've been dying to try that out!"
With a growl Naruto put his hands in his signature sign, creating a dozen more clones. With a grunt he pulled the sword out of his arm, same with the rest of his clones, and pointed it at his opponent, "Get her!"
With a mighty roar the Narutos charged, swords in hand and clumsily swinging away.
Tenten just had her wide smile on, unsealing a bo staff behind her and twirled it around. She easily slid between the fumbling clones, hitting them in the sternum or other critical spots and made them poof! Out of existence. As she went she grabbed her scattered weapons and flung them where appropriate to knock out clones long distance.
But it seemed no matter how many she blew up, more appeared, not that it dampened her spirits any. -This is so much fun!- for once she could use her one-hundred-percent-accuracy to its fullest and not worry, sort of, about hurting anyone!
So using twirls, flips, and several unconventional acrobatics with the help of her bo staff she cleared out a good section of clones.
One Naruto just growled, stomping his foot and calling out more. The second he was done he poof!ed out of existence when a kunai went through his head, but his five new clones charged into the fray anyway.
Eventually using a wide sweep Tenten created a clear space, thrusting her bo staff flat down on the ground and hopped on top of it, balancing on one foot with her other leg crossed over and semi-sitting, putting her hands together in a seal to summon chakra. The army of Narutos halted, many stricken and holding bolder versions back as they warned about her using some freaky new technique!
Tenten just grinned, spreading her hands out, fingers wide and flicked her hands up.
Invisible wires attached to all her weapons came to life and they all shot up from the ground, in a chorus of curses the Naruto army was wiped out.
Once that was done, Tenten flipped off her bo staff, letting it lean into her hand and propping it on her shoulder, "Hmm, I wonder where he went?" she scratched her head as she didn't see the original blonde anywhere in sight, "I still feel him, so he has to be around here somewhere?"
"GOT'CHA!" suddenly several bits of floor and debris all around Tenten exploded as more Narutos tried to jump her.
With a grin the older genin did a sweep with her staff, twirling it and flipping back onto one hand, effectively getting rid of all the clones and kicking the original right in the face. As he fell, now nursing his nose, she righted her stance and held the end of her staff to his face.
Still rubbing his nose, Naruto shot her a one eyed glare, "What, now you gonna ask I give up?" his eye closed and he glared at her with his indignant fox face, throwing up his fists, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I never give up!"
Tenten just grinned, "Yea, I figured," she put her staff down, "That's why I'm giving up!"
"WHAT?!" the entire arena was filled with shouts and people being floored.
The older girl just chuckled, leaning on her staff, "You and I fight with the same style Naruto, your clones and my arsenal of weapon summons, so I can tell in the long run it'd come down to a battle of attrition where your large chakra reserves would eventually win out, so instead of fighting for hours, I'm giving up now," she held out her hand to him, "I had a lot of fun!"
Surprised, Naruto looked at her then her hand a few times before giving a similar grin, "Heh, I had fun too!"
As Tenten helped Naruto to his feet Hayate called the match, "Winner by forfeit, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Despite the confused complaints, cries from Gai and Lee, and a few callous remarks, the two down in the arena just continued to give each other a smile.
"Oh, hey!" Tenten patted Naruto's shoulder, "Mind doing me a small favor?"
"Hmm?" Naruto tilted his head, "Yea, sure?"
With an awkward chuckle she pointed out at the arena floor… now covered in her weapons, "Mind helping me out with this?"
The blonde just gave a wide grin, pumping his fists, "Sure!" with a shout of his signature technique a hundred or so Narutos appeared, each grabbing a weapon and in a matter of seconds Tenten had them all sealed.
The older girl had sparkles in her eyes, "Can you be my new training partner?" she turned to the blonde boy, "Neji never helps me pick anything up…"
"Feh, what a dick!" Naruto shouted, sure that everyone could hear, as the two made their way up the balcony, "But yea, sure, if it means you can teach me some of those cool moves you were using!"
Tenten just put her arm over his shoulder and pumped her other fist, "Yea! This'll be awesome!" her mind running rampant with the kinds of target practice she could use the boy's clones for, and without any worry whether they hit anything vital or not! "It'll be the best training EVER!"
On the Kumo side…
There was NOT growling, most certainly not, and especially not from a certain Raikage's Daughter.
Xiao had one hand up trying futilely to cover her snicker, "Well that was… unexpected… to say the least," more snickering.
The blind girl's shoulders seemed to hunch higher…
"Kind of disappointing," Oku cut in, rubbing his chin, "From the way she moved its obvious she was the better fighter, all of her moves were on purpose and with remarkable accuracy," he tilted his head to the side and scratched under his hat, "Never thought I'd see someone use basic weapons in such a potentially deadly way…"
"Mmhmm," Xiao nodded on the other side of Yorihi, now tapping her chin too, "It looked like she was going for headshots on the clones but somehow always managed to avoid anything vital on the original," now she tilted her head in pondering, "Wonder how she knew to do that?"
"Hmp," the girl between them grunted, "She was right though," Yorihi placed her hand on one of her swords, "Even if she had greater skill to start with, every time she eliminated a wave of Naruto-kun's clones they came back better, in the long run not only would her own stamina fail long before his but his own skill would increase exponentially…"
Red eyes gave the girl a sly look, "Uh-huh," Xiao crossed her arms and faced her teammate more, "For supposedly being a compliment that sounded like a big insult…"
Yorihi may or may not have growled.
"Oh hey!" the boy in the silly hat's voice spoke up, "Seems I'm up next!"
At his mention they all turned to the board and saw he was right… and down the way his opponent saw it too.
When Xiao saw who it was her grin spread before turning to her partner, "You better knock him out!"
With a wide grin of his own, and a mock salute, the badger tamer leaned over the railing, "Anything for you, Xiao-chan!" and hopped over.
"SHUT UP, OKU!" the medic's voice called over, sounding angry, but the smirk on her face said she was anything but.
Oku landed on his feet on the arena floor and a second later he heard his opponent hit the ground as well.
"Kankurou vs. Shitemon Oku," Hayate's voice called out, though it was obviously unnecessary.
The silly hat wearing boy smirked as he crossed one hand over to his shoulder and started waving around his arm as if stretching, "Present!" he called cheerily as he walked past the ref to take a starting position facing his teammates.
This allowed Kankurou to take the positon facing the Konoha side, the makeup wearing boy scoffing, "Heh, guess I am kind of lucky," his thin eyes glared at the dumb looking boy, "I can pay you back for the forest," his smirk grew more sinister, "Then when I'm done with you I'll handle that pink haired bitch in the finals, heh."
Oku's face remained the disarming smile, seeming to not register his opponent's words, "Okay!" his head tilted slightly.
The boy honestly gave Kankurou the creeps. Where Gaara was a kind of menacing fear, this guy had something disturbing hidden by that stupid smile he always had on. The black clad boy took a stance, ready to fight this guy for real if he had to. -With what he pulled in the forest he'll likely try to stay distant to set up traps… so I'll have to keep him on the move and box him in…- He grinned, that'd be all too easy with Karasu.
Hayate got a seriously deadly feel from both the foreign genin. They seemed ready, even if the Suna kid was prepared in a stance and the other guy was just standing there with a dumb grin his face, "Both fighters ready?" they both gave their ascent and he raised his hand, "BEGIN!"
Kankurou tensed, waiting for him to make the first move…
Oku just gave a kind of lopsided smile… then disappeared, reappearing with his knee in Kankurou's face.
-What the fu-!-
The badger tamer grabbed the boy's shoulders, keeping his position from the knee, and leaned back, using momentum and gravity to spin and flip the both of them, sending Kankurou to the ground head first, then hitting hard on the mummy wrapped puppet on his back.
There was a clicking sound and Karasu's arms shot out of the wrapping, aiming to hit Oku before he could let go of his opponent.
The Kumo boy had a kunai out and deflected two arms before jumping away, throwing out three more kunai that landed around Kankurou.
A familiar hissing sound was the only warning the Suna boy had of the explosive notes attached to them.
BOOM!
After the explosion Oku landed, two kunai in each hand and was prepared for the puppet parts that came flying at him out of the smoke. Two were deflected by the kunai he threw and he dodged and repelled another part, sending another into the ground.
As the smoke cleared Kankurou stepped out from the cloak of Karasu, having used his puppet's body to blunt the damage from the explosion. The makeup faced boy was seething, holding up one hand and wiggling his fingers, having Karasu's parts follow the boy and keep him on guard. He'd cut the bastard eventually, then it'd just be a matter of how long he could suffer Karasu's poison!
Oku dodged and deflected the blades as he could, retreating with spritely acrobatics none had expected from the seemingly so dopey boy. Reaching into his pouch Oku withdrew three pellets, holding them between his fingers in one hand as he defended with his kunai in the other.
Jump, dodge, deflect, he threw down one pellet. It burst into a cloud of blue smoke.
Kankurou covered his mouth with his arm, not sure if the smoke was poisonous of not. -You can't hide from me with that…- he held out his other hand, directing Karasu's limbs to the edge of the cloud. -I'll get you when you come out…-
After a second the green clad boy darted out of the blue smoke, seemingly aiming to charge at Kankurou. The Suna boy just smirked, directing his puppet parts to attack from behind.
Oku slid, dodged and threw out several more Kunai, one with a sparkler, another with a noise maker and the final being another explosive.
Kankurou dodged all three, landing far enough away to not be hurt by any of whatever they were, only to have Oku charge him right in the face and throw down another pellet.
The thing cracked directly on the Suna boy's headband, spewing out a red cloud that burned his eyes.
Having no other choice Kankurou ran to the side, any side he didn't care, just to get out of the smoke. He had held his breath the second he saw the pellet coming and gasped as he rushed out of the red smoke. Coughing several times, he managed to open his eyes enough to look down… and noticed the red cloud had left red powder all over his outfit, "What the hell-?"
That's when he noticed a shadow coming from above and thanks to the immobile lighting in the room recognized it as the boy. Kankurou swiftly dodged to the side, just in time to watch his opponent slam his fist into the ground. hell, the boy didn't just hit the ground, his fist went through it all the way up to the shoulder.
-The fuck?!- Kankurou slid back more, taking the opportunity to make some distance and try to make sense of what the hell he was seeing. -In the forest this guy barely moved! All he did was point on a scroll and traps went off!- this up close and personal bullshit he was pulling now made no freaking sense!
"Tch," the Suna genin growled, moving both hands to direct Karasu's parts, "Bad move," he tried to sound confident, but something in the back of his mind was itching wrong about this guy, even if his hand was stuck in the ground. -Fuck it, I have to try…- he needed to win this, get to the finals and be done with this stupid match, the plan depended on it!
With the rampant clicking from parts the Kumo boy knew what was coming, and grinned back at the black clad boy with disturbingly sharp teeth.
Kankurou had a second to look surprised before a wall of earth rose in front of him, several of his puppet parts hitting and getting stuck in the wall, "Fuck!" he growled, pulling his hands back and yanking out most of the blades. Running along the side of the wall he needed to get a visual on his target, now!
"Ahenkou!" suddenly a voice called out.
Kankurou looked up and saw the Kumo boy sitting cross-legged on the top of the wall, hands together in a sign.
Then three other walls popped up around Kankurou and he realized he was in his trap.
"Shimaru!" and Oku made a motion of one hand, palm flat, pushing down.
And a large triangular segment of each of the four walls rose up and slowly closed on top, leaving Kankurou in complete darkness.
The first thing Kankurou noticed was the sound of his own panicked breathing. He needed to stop it or he'd hyperventilate, but this blackness was far too similar to Gaara's Desert Coffin. He put his hands over his mouth and dropped to his knees trying to calm down. -It's not the same it's not the same it's not the sameITSNOTTHESAME!- There may have been a squeak as he tried to calm down. The box was large comparatively but it was just the absolute lack of light…
Then he heard a shuffle, like the ground was moving.
Futilely he turned towards it but couldn't see a thing… just hear something break, then a sweet smell and slowly his mind went blank.
Oku stood outside the box of earth, arms crossed, head tilted and waited.
Everyone else was silent, not sure what to think of the dopey Kumo boy showing such strange techniques and prowess.
Up with Team 7 though Sakura rubbed her arms, felling a chill as she watched the badger tamer down on the arena floor. This was nothing compared to what he did to those Oto-nin but it still gave her the creeps.
Even Naruto was quiet next to her gripping the railing tightly, "Oraka-bou…" He bit his lip. Out of anyone from Konoha, Naruto had a feeling he knew this guy the best. He'd seen in the forest how quickly he'd reasoned they kill his teammates, hadn't even batted an eye at the suggestion to do the same to his own teammates if needed, then what he did to the Oto team… -Is that box gonna open up and that kabuki dude's body all that's left?-
There was a shift next to the Kumo boy and the arena floor cracked and gave way to large claws as Lior, his badger, shuffled his way out. The badger quickly climbed up the boy's clothes without him moving a muscle and dived into the knapsack on his back. A moment later the angry white, black and grey creature popped back out and held out a black rod to his master.
Wordlessly Oku reached up to grab it, put it between his hands and preform several seals before holding it up against the earth box and tapped it, causing a familiar vibrating ringing, then thrust the bar into the side of the structure.
After a moment spiderweb cracks formed all over the earth box and it crumbled a second later into fine dust.
Handing the rod back to Lior to put away, Oku walked forward casually with his hands in his pockets. He stopped at the unconscious body of Kankurou, turning the boy over with his foot and looked down at him flatly, "I hope this teaches you some manners…" then turned to leave, not even hearing as the proctor called the match.
"Winner, Shitemon Oku."
No one cheered, they were all too stunned by what just happened to fully register it was over.
"Damnit," Temari hit her hand on the railing, watching as the Konoha medics moved in to retrieve her unconscious brother. This was not going according to plan, not at all! Already Gaara had shown how unstable he was with his demon, hell if that Kumo jounin hadn't interfered he'd probably be dead with the rest of them and Konoha would have another demon under their control.
-Damnit!- she hit the bar again, closing her eyes trying to calm down just the slightest. She needed to win her match, the plan didn't really require both of them to be there in the finals with Gaara to keep an eye on him, but on her own it would be harder. -Why did you have to lose Kankurou!- her damn brother had faced that guy in the forest! He hadn't been that hard! Why the hell did he lose!
Now she was all alone up here and judging by who was left… she started praying she got one of the Konoha genin, she could handle them. -Not the Kumo bastards, not on my own…- Not with her fan still broken and without backup from her brother. She needed to win, needed to be lucky in this one instance, so she could be in the finals and watch over her baby brother…
The image of his gold eyes and that mad laugh from earlier shook her to her very core. -But I have to!-
"Temari vs. Koumori Hitomaru!" the proctor's voice called out, "Get down here!"
Temari's eyes snapped open, looking to the board then across the way noticing one of the Konoha genin moving. -Thank you!-
Suddenly a hand came down on her shoulder causing the girl to jump. Snapping her eyes to the side they widened as Temari came face-to-face with the Kumo jounin.
"Hey, hey, no need for that face!" Yugito smiled at the girl, patting her shoulder, "I figured since the rest of your team is out I'd slide over and give you a pep-talk!"
A sandy blonde brow twitch as Temari's hand lashed out before she could think, removing the strange jounin's hand, "I'll be fine on my own…" reaching over she pulled out her fan, opening it a third and jumped on, floating down with ease.
"YOU CAN DO IT! HE'S EASY!" despite the dismissal Yugito still cheered for the Suna girl.
It made Temari nervous as she landed, flipping her fan closed. Momentarily she glanced at the woman over her shoulder. -What the hell does she think she's doing?- when the jounin only waved despite her glare, Temari quickly turned forward, walking to the center of the arena with purposeful steps.
She had a mission to do, she couldn't afford to be distracted right now.
"So what do you think, Princess?" Xiao crossed her arms and tilted her head watching the two opponents make their way to the center of the arena.
Yorihi just scoffed, "A minute, at most."
The dusky pinkette winced, "Ouch, the wind girl or bat boy?"
There was that motion like the blind girl was rolling her eyes, "Do you even need to ask?"
A chuckle was the medic's response, that was all any of them needed to hear.
By the time Temari was standing across from him in front of the ref, Hitomaru had sized her up and decided on his tactic. -She seems to only have that fan as her weapon, meaning she likely uses wind… I'll just have to distract her and have my bats take her out from behind…- he had a vicious smile on his face. After seeing that Kumo boy pass, and seeing who was left, he knew at least that blind bitch would make it to the finals. -If an idiot like Naruto can win, so can I- he gripped his fist tightly in his pocket. -And this time I'll get my revenge…-
Temari was leaning on her fan now, sizing up the pipsqueak all in black. -I have to make this quick, ensure he can't pull out any bullshit moves like these Konoha-nin like to…- she gave a wry smirk back, noticing him grinning. -Sorry, kid, I'm winning here…-
Hayate looked between the two, "Participants ready?" they both gave an affirmative and he raised his hand, "BEGIN!"
Hitomaru jumped back, throwing out two hidden blades.
Temari merely repelled them with a wave of her fan, spinning with it opening up showing two of the purple moons and hiding the broken part, "Sorry kid," she smirked as he seemed to reach for something else, "BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" with a swift and powerful wave up with her fan, a gust of chakra infused wind shot out with the force of a hurricane.
Hitomaru had absolutely no defense, his bats could not fly in the torrential winds and it was so quick and full of cutting chakra he was stunned.
With the up-current he was thrown into the ceiling with the force of a meteor, held up and cut by the mini-tornado, and left to drop like a rock…
Temari had leisurely walked forward, enough to hold out her now closed fan and watch as the kid fell on it, sounding like he might have broken his spine and cough up blood. Cold dark teal eyes looked at him, "Sorry," she said roughly before throwing him to the ground and walking back to the foreigner's balcony.
"YEA! GO SUNA GIRL!" the wilily Kumo Jounin jumped with a fist.
Temari could only roll her eyes, what the hell was wrong with Kumo-nin?
Hayate checked Hitomaru, but when the boy didn't even twitch but still had an erratic pulse he waved the medics over before standing up, "Winner, Temari!"
Another whoop from Yugito, but nothing else more than a groan. It seemed the Konoha-nin weren't too happy about one of their own going down so quickly.
Temari didn't care, she just wanted this to be over with so she could go check on her brother.
"Hey, that was pretty cool!" a voice caught her attention as she tried to pass the Kumo genin. With a glance she noticed it was the loud girl on their team, giving her a weirdly cheery smile. Xiao held up a thumbs up, "Didn't realize you could still get that much power out of that thing despite it being damaged!"
Dark teal eyes just narrowed and Temari grunted, continuing on her way. It'd be best if she associated with them as little as possible.
Then a hand came down on her shoulder again nearly causing the blonde to jump out of her skin, "Great job!" Yugito gave her a charming smile, patting her shoulder again as they passed, "Told you he was easy~"
For a second Temari just stood there, watching as the woman moved back to her own team. She couldn't help but blink, watching them interact, smiles and physical gestures, it was nothing like her own team. -What hell is wrong with them?- they were in foreign territory, hell they were considered more of a threat to Konoha then her team with how many glares they got, not to mention her own sensei grumbling about how their presence might interfere with the plan.
But none of that seemed to bother them. They just banded together and smirked at whatever threat came their way.
Shaking her head Temari just continued further down, the more distance she had between herself and them the better. -There should only be two more fights- out of the corner of her eye she glanced back at the Kumo team. -And hopefully at least one of those girls will be eliminated…- part of her laughed, saying she used up all her luck not fighting them.
Yorihi silently watched as the medics moved the bat boy's body, "Heh," she smirked, "Told you."
Xiao turned back to her friend with a flat look, "Guess he was kinda screwed with that set up…"
"Hmp," the blind girl grunted.
On the other side of her Oku looked up surprised, reaching over Yorihi who was leaning on the railing to tap his partner. When a raised dusky pink brow was his response the badger tamer pointed to the board.
Slowly two sets of red eyes followed the boy's hand, as Karin was curious what had the pale boy looking somewhat spooked. When they noticed the electronic board Xiao stilled, while Karin looked confused, "Hey, isn't that the guy she-" a dark hand came up and was placed over Karin's mouth, causing the girl to squeak and blush.
Xiao turned to dark haired girl next to her, staring down at her sternly.
"What is it?" Yorihi said flatly, already knowing what she was about to say.
"You're next…"
"Hyuuga Neji vs. Tenkyuu Yorihi," Hayate's voice called out and the temperature of the room seemed to drop.
Team Gai turned around to look at their quiet member was the aloof Hyuuga slowly open his pale white eyes, a devious smirk spreading along his face, "Seems fate is kind today…" he pushed off the wall and turned to head down to the arena.
Gai had that disappointed look on his face, having hoped his student wouldn't face one of the Kumo-nin, hoped the boy wouldn't let his hatred control him like this, but that was apparently too much to ask. Lee had nothing to say, he like everyone else saw what the boy on the Kumo team did, and he'd seemed the weakest amongst them. The blind girl came off as the most deadly.
"Neji," Tenten was apparently the only one willing to call him out, "Don't do this…"
"Hmp," the boy grunted, his back to his team, "A loser has no right to speak to me…"
The tan girl's hand gripped on the railing but she pushed the outrage down, "There's no shame in admitting defeat," she looked down, knowing that would mean nothing to any of them. She had fun in her fight with Naruto, but she was smart enough to know in the long run she'd lose, so she swallowed her pride and bowed out, her opponent seemed grateful and they left the arena floor on amicable terms.
But looking across the way, she could see that wasn't how this fight was going to end.
It was going to end badly for Neji, just like how the girl overpowered him before the first test. -He'll be lucky to make it out alive…- swallowing hard she forced herself to look at her partner, he was an ass, but he was still her ass of a sparring partner, "Be careful…"
"Hmp," he made that dismissive grunt again and continued walking.
Gai put his hand on her shoulder and part of Tenten hoped he got his face punched in…
… at least, so long as he was still breathing afterwards.
At the announcement the Kumo-nin witnessed something very strange…
Yorihi was smiling.
Not a nice smile, not a snide smile, not a smirk or something condescending with an ulterior humor underneath it.
No, this was the smile of a monster about to destroy its prey.
It actually scared Xiao, who unconsciously moved over a bit, moving her hand on Karin to cover the girl's eyes as that creepy smile wasn't something the poor deranged girl needed to see. Oku didn't move but was just as weirded out, Lior's animal instincts told him a MUCH larger and deadly predator was in the area, so hid in his master's knapsack until the presence went away.
"Yorihi," a flat voice with a growl called out behind them. Yugito was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and her hard iron black eyes on the blind girl's head, "We don't need an incident, you can't kill him…"
That wasn't enough to deter the wicked grin as the girl finally stood up, turning to leave, "Oh, I won't kill him, Nee-chan," as she walked further down her hands gripped into tight fists and her voice grew dark, "Just beat him until he's begging for me to do so…"
With the blind girl gone, Xiao shuddered, finally breathing and trying to reform her carefree demeanor, "And I thought you were bad," red eyes glanced to Oku who just shrugged. The dusky pinkette let go of her weird hanger-on and leaned on the railing, watching her female friend, "She wasn't kidding when she said she didn't like the Hyuuga…"
"She told you about that?" Yugito asked behind them, her tone neutral and presence strangely flat.
Xiao couldn't help but find it intimidating, swallowing hard and lightly nodding, "Y-yea," she turned back to the arena floor, "Mentioned something that happened when she was a kid dealing with them…"
The blonde woman nodded, even if neither of her students were looking, "I was there," there was a slight growl in her voice, "She has every right to be angry."
If anything that comment added to the oppressive atmosphere, making Xiao shudder.
"Senpai?" Karin rubbed her back, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she growled out, but Xiao's voice didn't hold any of its normal bite.
Oku slid down and rubbed the other side of her back, ignoring when the former Kusa girl glared at him, "Ya sure about that Xiao-chan?" he gave her one of his dopey grins, "You're shaking, are ya cold, I can help warm you up-"
Her elbow went into his ribs, the fire back in those red eyes, "Shut up, Oku."
Despite the cold temperature and odd building tension, the two combatants walked calmly down the stairs on opposite sides and actually made their way to the arena center in a nearly mirrored fashion. Staying about five feet apart they walked in parallel from the back of the room still sporting the crack from where Gaara had thrown Yorihi earlier.
"Is your back well enough to handle a fight," Neji sneered.
"How's your neck," Yorihi just smirked back with a wicked grin.
White eyes slowly shifted into the Byakuugan as Neji tried to reign in his snarl, "This won't be like last time, you won't find me so easily caught off guard…"
"Funny," the blind girl's voice got darker, "I thought real shinobi knew better then to ever drop their guard…"
Neji was the first to turn his head and glare at her with his pulsing bloodline trait. How he wished she could see it, just so he could see the fear in her eyes.
She only seemed to smirk more, sensing his unease.
When the two finally stood on opposite sides of Hayate the special jounin had to suppress a chill, coughing to get the lump out of his throat, "Are the fighters ready?"
Swiftly Yorihi took out her beat rods, extending them with a swift flick and stood menacingly across from her opponent as he slowly lowered himself into the familiar Jyuuken stance.
Hayate figured that was the closest he'd get to a response. Holding his hand out between them he glanced from one tense genin to the other, realizing this fight had far more behind it then any one before, "Begin!"
"Come get me Hyuuga," Yorihi taunted, spreading her feet wide, bracing, ready to spring with her weapons wide, "Or are you too afraid…"
The vein that appeared above Neji's active white eyes had nothing to do with his doujutsu, as he tried hard to keep focus over his rage, "You first, worthless scum…"
"Takes one to know one," the blind girl spoke cryptically, before launching at the boy, holding one arm across her chest as if to strike with the rod.
Neji prepared, waiting for the moment she'd flick out and hit him…
Only it never came and she hit him square in the chest with her elbow, then extending her arm and locking the rod behind his head and pulling his body forward into her knee before tossing him to the side, spinning with the motion and hitting him in the kidney with her other knee before extending her leg and throwing him across the field.
"Tch," she twirled one of her rods, "That all the famous Jyuuken has to it? Leaving you wide open like that?"
Neji spit blood on the ground, both from a cut lip and just how hard she hit him in the stomach. -I didn't anticipate that…- glaring through his Byakuugan at her, even if no one else could see due to his hair, he got up and remade his stance, "I'll not be taken lightly."
"Oh really?" again with the demonic grin as the girl disappeared, only to reappear on his side bearing down with one rod and aiming another knee at his chest.
Moving quickly and fluidly thanks to his all-seeing eyes, Neji didn't even have to turn his head to see her, deflecting both the knee and the rod with flat palms, sending chakra into her knee and ignoring the rod. Following through with the kata he pushed forward, speeding up his movements and sending swift palm thrusts where he could.
Yorihi dodged, using her momentum to spin around the boy, blocking with rods and avoiding where necessary. Her move style was unconventional compared to the solid stance of the Jyuuken and while Neji's moves were impeccable they were rigid and fairly easy to read.
Sliding under one arm on his opposite side, her back was to him as she locked the arm under one of her own, pinning it to her chest and elbowed him in the face with the other, moving her leg back to break his stance and flipping him.
Neji coughed up blood as he hit the ground, infuriated by the girl's taijutsu. -Just a little more…ack!- she pulled his captive arm up with her own, nearly popping it out of the joint while dropping hard with her knee on his throat.
"You can give up any time," her grin spread, "I may even consider not breaking every bone in your body," slowly, almost sadistically she twisted his captive arm.
Neji's body moved on its own, not caring about form right now as he did a crunch kneed her right in the face. It was atypical for Hyuuga to bother using their feet as normally they weren't dominated in taijutsu, but this girl just ignored all his defenses and attacks so he had to do something.
Apparently the hit pissed her off, as it jarred her headband, making it somewhat crooked and the metal cut her cheek. She growled, twisting his arm and there was a loud pop! As everyone heard his arm get pulled out of its joint.
"AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" Neji was seeing red, again he kneed her in the face, only this time reaching out with both legs and catching her around the head, quickly throwing her before anything else.
Yorihi hit the ground in a roll before correcting herself and sliding in a crouch. She glared at the damn bastard that dared-
Clang!
The sound of metal hitting near her caused everyone but the combatants' eyes to dart to it…
It was Yorihi's headband.
While everyone else was distracted, Neji with his own Byakuugan active was probably the only one to notice her eyes were white.
No, they weren't just white, they were a distinct shade of pale lavender, large expanded irises with the shadow indent of a pupil that wasn't there. But what was stranger to the Hyuuga boy was they didn't seem to move at all… and there were no expanded veins around her head, just these purple lines like something dead.
"You…" the girl's voice was dark, as she slowly stood up, reaching up, touching her eyes and again Neji was the only one in position to see that she wasn't wiping them or anything, but closing them… like she couldn't do it normally… like she was checking to make sure they couldn't be seen…
His mouth moved to say something that never left his throat as the killing intent she sent his way absolutely floored him. It was so strong, so potent, so full of pure unrelenting hatehe couldn't even breath.
"Stand up, Hyuuga…" there was a distinct growl as she stalked towards her prey, fists gripped tightly around her rods and her chakra near visible around her body.
Neji's mind was still too stunned by what he saw to register what was going on. -That couldn't be… she couldn't be…-
Finally, she stalked right next to him, planting her foot hard on his open chest, "Unless you want me to crush your lungs right now, get up…"
Instinctively Neji grabbed the girl's leg guard, seeming to try and push it off but at the same time pushing chakra into it. He wasn't going to go down… not yet!
When she realized what he was doing she growled, thrusting her foot down harder making the floor crack with the force.
"Agh!" Neji did an open palm strike, thrusting her leg off his chest and turned slightly push himself up while kicking her in the abdomen.
All she did was growl more and lock his leg between her arms, pulling him out of the cracks in the floor and spinning around, gaining momentum then letting go as he gets thrown into one of the side walls.
"NEJI!" one of his teammates yelled.
Yorihi didn't care, simply stalking towards her prey, "Get up, Hyuuga," she raised her fists around chest level and cracked her knuckles, "I'm not done with you yet…"
As Neji slid off the wall he planted his feet. Jyuuken required a strong base and it had been his fault for previously not taking her taijutsu skills seriously, thinking she was only fast and strong. -She's not…- with a groan he used the moment she was giving him to slam his shoulder into the wall next to him, painfully popping his arm back into place, and with a few jabs to his chakra system, nullified it completely, for now. -She's a skilled fighter, in absurdly close range…- he slid into his stance now, ready to truly face her. -Momentum is her key, and using every part of her body as a weapon…- he clinched his jaw. -Stopping her is the only chance I have…-
With his back literally to the wall he tried to focus on his opponent, on his enemy… not her bare eyes, not what he saw underneath those still lids… not the sight that practically crushed all his resolve!
Yorihi charged at him, bringing one rod down, aiming for his shoulder.
He dodged to the left, letting the rod slam into the wall… only instead of being repelled it broke into it with the force it was using.
"Tch," she simply growled, twisting to the side as he thrust a palm at her, heavily laced with chakra. She dropped her other rod, grabbed his extended hand and letting go of the one in the wall slugged him right in the face.
Neji turned with the hit, dampening it as much as he could, and kicked out aiming for her knee.
She hopped back, dragging his arm with her, forcing him into her range in an attempted to knee him in the gut.
Instead he parried, thrusting his free palm down, burning the top of her knee with chakra.
With a growl she firmly planted the leg, leaning in and delivering a powerful headbutt to his face.
Neji was seeing stars for a moment before he felt his arm jerked again and he was spun around and slammed hard into the wall.
But it didn't end there, as she put her forearm over his throat and pressed down hard.
She was too close for him to kick, one arm pinned and his other could do very little as she seemed to just ignore all his chakra strikes. -What the hell is wrong with this girl?!-
Yorihi's low tattooed brows and scarred face were the only thing he could focus on as the edges of his Byakuugan started turning black, the pressure of her arm on his throat not letting him breathe and slowly his strikes lost all power.
Just as he was about to fade, her arm left, he gasped on instinct, only for her to grab his collar tightly, and lean in to him, "You're not going out that easily…" and with a heave she threw him back to the center of the arena where his limp body rolled and skidded across the ground.
No one could say a word.
The considered strongest genin Konoha had, in this room, was literally getting thrown around like a ragdoll.
And several of them knew she hadn't even started trying.
All of them up on the balconies watched as Yorihi idly took her time, retrieving her weapons, even her headband and putting it back before sheathing her rods and stalking to the boy crumpled on the floor trying hard to breathe.
"Please… stop…" a quiet voice called out, but in the silence everyone could hear it. It wasn't from the boy on the ground but his teammate Tenten as she was on the verge of tears gripping the railing in front of her hard, "Stop it… stop the match!"
"Tenten," Lee tried to console her, tried to calm her by putting his hand on her shoulder. He didn't like seeing his Eternal Rival getting beaten in such a way, it was unyouthful to say the least, but to stop the match…
She hit the metal hard, "I DON'T CARE! BETTER HE'S ALIVE THEN A PRIDEFUL CORPSE!"
"Ah," Yorihi paused, hearing the girl yell. -What the hell am I doing?- facing down she had Neji propped up, his collar in one hand and her other back in a fist with enough chakra she knew if she hit him it would knock his head clean off.
He was seething through bloody teeth, one white eye half closed while the other glared up at her, almost begging her to do it.
Fire licked at the edges of her mind, memories of a past she tried so hard to deny, to erase, to throw away and never consider again. Her lips pulled back, showing teeth as her fist shook.
-What the hell am I doing?!-
Images of all the people she'd killed flashed before her. Not one of them this weak, this stupid, pulled this much hate out of her… only she knew she'd be lying if she truly thought that. The prisoner in Tougemichi's cave had been weak, the assassin when she was young had been stupid, and no one brought as much HATE out of her as the Kiri bastards that killed her partner and their former 'sensei'. Compared to them… Neji's only crime was he was an arrogant asshole that reminded her of a time she wasn't 'Tenkyuu Yorihi' and the girl she was now couldn't stand that.
He simply pissed her off.
Opening her hand, she dropped him to the ground.
She killed people because she was ordered to, because it was to defend her home, out of revenge for those she lost…
Lowering her fist, she growled at herself, ashamed of her actions, "I don't kill people for pissing me off…" with a swift kick she knocked him out, "Be grateful…" then headed for the stairs. They could call it however they wanted, she was done.
"NEJI!" before the proctor could even call the match Tenten and Lee were over the railing and rushing to the downed Hyuuga's side. The weapon specialist was on her knees in an instant, checking the boy to make sure he was still breathing. Ripping open his shirt she put her ear to his chest. His heart was still beating but erratically and at least one of his lungs seemed to still be fine but she couldn't tell about the other.
He was still warm. He was still alive.
Tenten rest her forehead on her teammate's chest, slightly hitting it with her fist, "You stupid idiot…"
Lee watched the whole thing, grateful his rival was alive, but at the same time conflicted. He'd never seen Neji lose. The Hyuuga prodigy was his guide post, his goal, sure he could beat the younger Uchiha who was also hailed as a prodigy and a genius, but it meant nothing as the boy didn't have the experience or ability his rival did.
And he just got beat, badly.
Looking up, the black bowl cut boy spotted the blind girl still walking away, "Tenkyuu-san…"
"Hm?" She paused momentarily but didn't bother to turn around.
Lee bowed, "Thank you, for sparing my Eternal Rival's life…"
"Tch," the grunted, "I didn't do it for you…"
"All the same," the green clad boy rose from his bow, staring at that back of his new opponent, "I pray that we face off in the finals," he held up a fist, "For I must avenge my comrade."
This time Yorihi bothered to turn, half facing him and nodded, "I look forward to it…" with that she turned back at continued heading for the stairs.
Just as Hayate called the match and waved over the medics, "Winner, Tenkyuu Yorihi…"
As Yorihi gradually walked up the walk her teammates and Karin looked her over. For all intents and purposes she seemed… drained.
Slowly the Raikage's daughter made it to where they were, ignoring as her comrades all gave her worried looks, and just collapsed down onto the grated floor, "Karin, c'mere," she waved the foreign redhead down to her level, "I need someone to look at where the Hyuuga struck me," stiffly and with an obvious grimace she stretched out both her legs, dangling them over the edge and all of them could now see the angry red chakra burn on her knees, "Bastard hit harder then I realized…"
"R-right," the glasses wearing girl immediately crouched down to examine her new 'patient', slightly worried and terrified why she was called and not her senpai.
Glowering down with blood red eyes, Xiao crossed her arms at her 'friend', "What the hell did you expect fighting a Hyuuga in close combat?" She was too pissed about her 'friend's' recklessness to care why she wasn't asked to look her over. -Probably knows I'll do it anyway after I'm done chewing her ass out!-
"Tch," Yorihi's pale face turned to the side, showing where her headband had slid cutting her, "Here," idly one hand reached into her pouch and pulled out a medicinal jar, handing it to Karin, "That should help…"
"Ah… uh, r-right!" the off redhead gave a nervous smile, taking the jar, opening it and realizing it was a medicinal paste, "Oh wow," she sniffed it, taking some and rubbing it on her hand to examine it, "Where did you get this?" there was a strange tingly with the stuff and it seemed to react to her chakra…
"An old man in a cave," she said dryly. Actually she had made it herself from ingredients from the caves so there were some unconventional properties to the stuff. Occasionally Kemui would leave a scroll for her with ingredients for more if she ran out as she'd yet to have a chance to return to the caves. -Not that I'd know the way…-
"Yorihi," Xiao's voice was stern, staring down at her comrade harshly.
The blind girl turned in her direction, face neutral, "Don't you have a fight to get started?"
The older konoichi obviously bristled as her lips formed a tight frown, "Don't change the subject-"
"She's right Xiao-chan," Oku chimed in, pointing behind the dusky-pinkette at the board.
Swiftly Xiao turned around and glanced at the board, at first confused, then frustrated, then pissed. Her hands became fists as clinched her jaw, turning sharply to her comrade and pointing down at her with her patented 'mom' glare, "this isn't over!"
Yorihi rolled her brows.
"Hold still," Karin chimed as she moved to get the cut on the girl's face.
Xiao growled as she moved behind them, pointing without looking at Oku as she passed, "And shut up, Oku!"
The dirty blonde boy just gave a funny grin, always amused she had to get the last word in and it was always at him.
"Haruno Sakura vs. Utsurabon Xiao" Hayate called out, coughing into his hand, "Get down here…"
The Kumo girl was the first one down and she had a strangely neutral look on her face compared to the feisty one he'd seen earlier. The second he coughed she raised a brow looking at him, before reaching into her pouch and pulling out another lozenge and tossing it him, showing a more lively scowl, "You really need to get that looked at…"
Hayate just gave her a blank look, having caught the lozenge, looked at it, and without a second thought tossed it in his mouth. Ooh, this one tasted like cherry!
Xiao continued to glare at his continued ambiguousness.
Sakura made it down by the time the two were in something of a stare off, vibrant scowling red eyes versus placid baggy black ones, "Er… are we going to fight?" green eyes went from the proctor to her opponent. If Sakura were being honest with herself, she felt she had a decent chance. -The blind girl is their major hitter and the guy used heavy traps, and with how mouthy this girl is she's probably like their Naruto…- she hadn't seen anyone other than the boy in the funny hat 'fight'… and that had been too graphic for her tastes, but the blind girl had been the one to handle those enemy ninja before they got to the tower and that was before any of them even noticed, plus with the display she just did it was obvious why she was the one in command. -She's kind of like their Sasuke-kun…-
The girl in front of her? So far she'd only seen her be loud and laughing at most things or making lewd comments. -That trick she pulled with the sand boy before the test was probably nothing… after all he wasn't that impressive…-
Xiao's scowl became flatter as she watched the pink haired Konoha girl take a basic stance, she crossed her arms, "Are you seriously going to fight me?" -I wouldn't care so much if she weren't so obviously leading with her bad arm… stupid girl!-
"Hmp," Sakura got into a flawless stance, ready to punch that look right off the girl's face, "Of course I am! After getting proper treatment I'm fit to fight!"
If Sakura had been a more empathic person she would have noticed the glint that entered Xiao's eyes, more observant and she would have noticed how her red eyes narrowed just the slightest and all the muscles in her face tensed, trying to prevent her from frowning more or openly baring her teeth at the foolish girl. Of course, if she had been more of a proper shinobi she would have noticed the sparks of lightning along her shoulders and around her frame and realized that was a legitimate threat and not some 'silly light show'.
But Sakura was the 'Top Konoichi' of her year and a proud member of a civilized village that gave birth to legendary shinobi and real medical ninjutsu. In her mind, all the Kumo-nin had were power and intimidation.
Up on the balconies people on both sides were face palming.
"Sakura-chan~" Naruto whined over the railing, "Don't piss Xi-nee-chan off!" he shrunk down to where his nose was just above the bar, "She can be really scary when she wants to be, dattebayou…" flashes of all the encounters he'd had with the older Kumo Konoichi flashed into the bright blonde's head. Sure, she never intentionally hurt him like Sakura did on occasion, and she taught him a lot and seemed to warm up to him fairly quickly, but she could yell like no one else, even Sakura, and managed to hold off Sasuke and helped Yorihi take on that snake dude. She was no joke not someone to mess with.
Behind him, Kakashi gave his usually so boisterous student a raised, if hidden, brow, "Naruto?"
"Indeed," a deep voice called from not far down from Team 7 where Shino and Kurenai stood. The tall Aburame pushed up his black shades, knowing well how this was going to end, "Having fought her in the forest, Xiao-san is not someone to trifle with. She may be an honorable fighter, but it is unlikely she will hold back, why?" he nodded down to the floor, feeling the static along his skin as he remembered her lightning, "It seems Sakura-san has truly offended her."
Naruto nodded to the bug boy's words, "Yup, she healed her, but Sakura-chan's been insulting that ever since waking up," he shuddered, "She didn't see what Xi-Nee went through to do that, or any of the other stuff," he shook his head, standing up and holding a fist, "Damnit! STOP INSULTING HER AND JUST FIGHT! DATTEBAYOU!"
"Hmp!" Sakura smirked, thinking that was for her.
But red eyes looked up into the stands behind the girl and saw the blue eyed boy looking at her seriously, probably meaning what he said but at the same time trying to not incur anyone's wrath.
His simplicity brought a slight smirk to Xiao's lips and she stopped throwing out lightning chakra, "Fine," she cracked her neck, looking bored at the proctor who seemed content to just suck on the lozenge she gave him, "Let's get this over with…"
At her words Hayate seemed to snap to, assuming that was confirmation both were ready. One was in a flawless Academy Basic stance while the other was still standing with her arms crossed and scowling. He shrugged, better than nothing, "Begin!" and disappeared.
Sakura's first move was to jump back and throw two kunai, darting off to the side.
Almost boredly Xiao dodged one and caught the other midair, flicking it back and landing right in front of the girl forcing her to stop.
The kunai landing directly in front of her caused Sakura to squeak, luckily stopping before it hit her and not realizing Xiao had aimed for it to land there. Taking the second Sakura turned back to the Kumo girl, thinking her aim was off, Sakura threw two shuriken, charging as her hands went through a series of seals.
Xiao's head tilted, "Seriously," her voice was flat as she charged one hand with lightning chakra, holding it out and seemed to 'catch' the shuriken in the static, spun on her heel and threw then right back at the Konoha girl… who disappeared in a poof! The two shuriken hitting a log. Red eyes rolled as as Xiao easily leaned to the side, avoiding what would be considered a flawless punch… if it weren't from a stupid basic style.
Blinking, surprised that the Kumo girl dodged without even looking, Sakura followed up with a kick. Xiao just twisted to the side, now glancing at her with bored red eyes and her arms back to being crossed. Angry, Sakura brought the kick over, hoping for a head sweep, Xiao merely ducked, taking a step back instead of bothering with a counter sweep, now nearly facing the girl.
It took Sakura to realize her over extension… and further that the red eyed girl was looking right at her so had to have known she did it. -Why isn't she taking advantage of it?!- she couldn't get any counters off if the girl didn't even bother fighting back! -The hell kind of fight is this!- her 'other' part yelled, annoyed as every more the dark skinned girl made was with as little effort as possible and she seemed to be purposely ignoring any obvious retaliation.
Xiao slid back and stood up straight, allowing Sakura to return to her basic stance, "Is that it?"
Sakura growled, "Of course not!" her hands went through a set of seals and two perfect Bushin appeared beside her, each of them brandishing a kunai, "I was the top Konoichi in my class! I won't lose to you!"
If anything Xiao's expression got even flatter. She didn't even move as the clones came at her. In a second all three charged her only for all three to faze right through her and the girl to only move by turning to the side when the real Sakura came charging at her from behind. Xiao lifted her foot and the poor girl tripped over herself onto the ground.
"Top Konoichi of your class huh?" Xiao's voice sounded bored as she stood over the girl, watching passively as she got up, "I was ranked number one for my entire graduating class, out of close to two hundred students from assorted classes and graduating levels that managed to pass," she nodded her chin over her shoulder to her comrades, "I beat both of them, and that was a year and a half ago," her eyes burned, brows finally lowering enough to show her fury, "You're a rookie, so you only graduated six months ago, and only the top Konoichi in your class? Feh," she almost spit, "I'd hate to see the rest of them if you're the best they got…"
Sakura growled, jumping up and attempting to lash out at the Kumo girl.
Xiao simply caught her fist, kunai and all, in one hand, "I'm disappointed," without trying she pushed the girl's hand back, her right hand, "I sacrificed one of my summons to save your life in the forest, and this is as hard as you're willing to fight for it?" her voice was flat as she clinched her hand around the girl's fist, forcing her to drop the kunai, "Then to add insult to injury, you blatantly disrespect that sacrifice by not only allowing those bastards to strip my work from you and quick 'heal' your shoulder, and then you don't even try to get the muscle back into fighting shape with the time you had?"
By this point Sakura was trying to remove the Kumo girl's hand, her fingers wouldn't budge from the iron grip, "L-let go!"
Red eyes seemed to glow as she stared down at the girl, "You will never be able to work this arm the same as the other, never gain the kind of power out of it you would have if you had just been patient and let it heal properly," her grip tightened, "I should just save you the trouble and break your hand now in such a way no matter how many times they 'heal' it, you'd never be able to pick up a weapon or make a fist with it again."
That gave Sakura pause, the dark tone in the Kumo konoichi's voice promising everything she spoke up. Frightened green eyes turned to stare into those burning red pools and all her efforts to escape stopped. She was afraid, pure and unequivocally afraid of what this Kumo Konoichi was going to do next.
Suddenly there was a swift punch in her face and the girl was knocked out.
She was very lucky she was fighting Utsurabon Xiao, for anyone else in her family, after being so grievously insulted, would have cut off her whole arm.
Xiao let go of her captive fist and let the girl drop, glaring down at her for a second before crouching down and checking the damage. A sweat drop appeared when she realized her nose was broken and her left zygomatic arch and surrounding bones were fractured. -Oops… probably should have held back…-
She tried to open the girl's eyes to check for any possible brain injury but the proctor Hayate had grabbed her arm, standing her up and holding it up in a victory pose, "Winner, Utsurabon Xiao!"
Red eyes just blinked, confused, before a second later she realized it must have been a ploy as those damn medics appeared, scooping up the girl and thanks to Hayate holding her wrist up she couldn't argue with them. When her glare turned to the proctor she swore there was an extra raise on the side of his lips, almost like he was smirking.
Hayate finally let the dark girl's fist go and ignored as she crossed her arms and scowled at him, "That concludes the preliminary rounds, all winners report to the center of the arena so we can explain the next test…" when he turned around Xiao was still glaring at him, he just sucked on the lozenge she gave him and walked away.
It didn't take long for the other winners to come down, and Naruto was the first to make it to Xiao, grabbing her hand and shaking it excitedly, "Wow, Xi-nee! That was awesome!" he made a hitting gesture, "Just one punch and BAM!" then he frowned, "Well, I mean, it's bad Sakura-chan lost an' all… dattebayou… but…"
Freeing her hand Xiao just reached out and ruffled the silly boy's hair, "S'all good, Na-chan," a wide, somewhat obviously fake grin spread on her face, "You can yell at me all you want for beating up your teammate!"
Blue eyes seemed to water as the boy was at a loss for what to say. He was conflicted, he'd saw what Xi-nee did for his teammates, what she tried to do specifically for Sakura for what he figured were good reasons… but Sakura was his teammate, and he should side with her right?
"I'm surprised you held back to one punch, Xiao-chan," Yorihi's flat voice signaled she and Oku had made their way down.
Red eyes quickly moved to flatly glare at the blind girl, not caring if she could see it or not, "Unlike you who beat her opponent within an inch of his life using raw strength in a stupid competition of taijutsu just to what? Prove a point?"
Yorihi gave a shrug, obviously having no answer she was willing to give right now to her teammate.
Naruto happened to turn to the blind girl at that moment, scratching the back of his head and opening his mouth as if to comment-
"XIAO-CHAN!" that is until a blur of green rushed right past the two of them as Oku grabbed his partner around the waist and literally lifted her up in the air and did a twirl, "THAT WAS AWESOME!"
"DAMNIT! PUT ME DOWN OKU!" the girl growled and the two seemed to devolve into some manner of scuffle.
Anyone present, as in all the winners, the Hokage, gathered jounin and proctors, all stared and shared a sweatdrop.
That is until Hayate cleared his throat, forcing the two to halt their scuffle, even if Xiao got in one last punch and her trademark line, "Congratulations, you nine competitors have passed to the final round of the Chuunin Exams…"
In the middle of the group Naruto was counting off the people standing on either side of him with his fingers, "Shikamaru, that creep from Kiba's team, Gejimayu, Me, Yorihi, Xi-nee, Oraka-bou-teme, that Suna chick…" when all he had left were the pinky and thumb of one hand up he looked side to side again before giving a disgruntled fox-face to the Procter, "Hey, coughing dude," who narrowly looked at him, "There're only eight of us here, Dattebayou!"
More than one person groaned and all tried their best not to face palm.
"Gaara," a rough voice called from the other side of the Kumo genin. Temari was leaning on her fan and trying to be as nonchalant as possible, "He got knocked out by that Kumo jounin, so he's still in the infirmary with Baki-sensei…" of course she knew the only reason her sensei was there was to make sure none of the Konoha staff tried anything while her little brother was, oddly, unconscious.
"Oooooh," the bright blonde in a mesh shirt perked up, "There was him, huh?" he completely missed the dark teal glare Temari was sending his way as he crossed his arms and pouted, "Then why don't they call wake him up and tell him to get down here! This is an important meeting! Dattebayou!"
There were more groans from the Konoha side and Temari kept glaring at the idiot that was likely the source of all 'dumb blonde' jokes throughout the Elemental Nations. The Kumo genin tried very hard to not let their snickering be too obvious, really, they tried.
Putting his head in his hand Hayate groaned, "I'm not paid enough for this," lowering it he turned to the side, signaling to a white board with numbers and lines on it being presented by Anko, "As previously said, the final exam is a tournament designed to showcase your abilities," he turned back and glared mildly as the blonde in the middle tried to speak up again, "Winning the tournament does not ensure promotion," he cleared his throat, gaining their attention, "The point is to show off your abilities, your skills, your tactics, anything that gives you an edge in a fight and a reason you should be promoted," without looking he pointed at the board, "Even if you lose your first match, if you are shown competent enough there's a chance to be promoted," his hand trailed up the line, "And for those that advance, they gain more opportunities to appeal to the judges they deserve to be promoted…"
"Who will be the judges?" on the other side of Lee from Naruto, Aburame Shino asked in his deep voice.
At this question the Hokage stepped forward, "I will be one of them," he looked along the line of Chuunin potentials, proud of those that showed the worth of his village, but as he got down to the end his face noticeably soured at the number of foreign participants left, "Seeing as genin from Kumo and Suna have also passed, missives shall be sent inviting dignitaries of your villages, likely the Raikage and Kazekage will also attend to judge your performances…"
Strangely Yorihi paled, though it was hard to notice, "T-The Raikage will be invited to come…?" her mind was running a mile a minute, if her Father showed up and something went wrong with one of her fights… -Crap!-
Next to her Xiao, Oku and Naruto raised their brows, though likely for different reasons.
"Ne, Yorihi-hime, wouldn't it be a good thing for your-" halfway through his question a dark hand rose to silence the badger tamer.
As it was at that moment Xiao realized why the girl paled in the first place, turning she growled at her partner, "Shut Up, Oku!" he just continued to look confused.
On the other side of Yorihi, Naruto tilted his head too, "Eh, Yorihi? Wouldn't it be cool to show off for your Kage?" the blonde was scratching his head confused. He knew this was a great way to show off how awesome he'd become! -And in front of the old man too? Hehe! I can prove to him I'm one step closer to becoming the greatest shinobi EVER! Dattebayou!-
Yorihi just remained cryptically silent, facing forward and seeming to ignore everyone else.
Hayate and the Hokage shared a look, but the old man nodded to the special jounin to continue.
"Anyway," Hayate's flat voice called all the genin's attention back to him, "We'll decide the match ups by lots, if you get number 9 you'll have a pass until the second round…"
Anko came around with a box and each genin grabbed slip of paper out of it.
"Alright, starting from the end, call out your number…"
"8," Shikamaru flatly said, turning his paper over to show the number.
"9," Shino next did the same, though if anyone knew him they would notice there was a slight hitch in his monotone voice.
"YOSH! 3!" Lee pumped his fist with a wide sparkling grin, showing his number.
"Ha! Beat ya Gejimayu! 2!" Naruto turned over his paper with a just as winning grin.
Yorihi rather obviously rubbed her thumb along the paper, a slight frown showing on her face, "One," and turned it over to show to the proctor.
"5!" Xiao cheerily showed hers.
"6!" Oku held his slip up, just as cheery, the partners apparently finding nothing wrong with facing each other.
While at the end Temari scowled, looking at her paper, "7," she flipped it over so the proctor could verify.
"Alright," Hayate nodded to Anko who was writing down the names, "That leaves Gaara with 4, so," once the T&I special jounin was done, she moved to the side holding her arms out as if to present the board while Hayate continued, "The fights will be: Tenkyuu Yorihi vs. Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee vs. Sabaku no Gaara, Utsurabon Xiao vs. Shitemon Oku, Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru, and the winner of that match will immediately face off against Aburame Shino."
The genin had varying responses, from grins to scowls but that was it, the Chuunin Final matches were chosen.
Hayate held a seal in front of his chest, fore and middle finger up, and bowed to the genin, "You have one month to prepare for your matches, otherwise, you are dismissed!" and as soon as the word was out of his mouth, the sickly looking man was gone.
Shintenshin no jutsu – mind-body transfer technique
Baika no Jutsu – multi-sized technique, Bubun Baika no Justsu – Partial Multi-sized technique
Konoha Ryuu Taijutsu: Nikudan Sensha – Konoha secret Taijutsu: Human Bullet Tank Technique (Prefered: Meat Tank!)
Kagemane no Jutsu – Shadow Imitation Technique
Soushouryu – Rising Twin Dragons
Ahen – opium, Kou – box, Ahenkou – Opium box
Shimaru – to be closed
Mendokuse - troublesome
A/N: this damn thing is 55pgs... i've also decided its the interlude between the second and third arcs of part 2 (as my initial calculations did not account for the forest of death turning into its own damn arc!) which leaves the first part as a small intro arc~ woo~ formatting -.-
I'M SORRY! to all you guys waiting (and Wishstone for being my guinea pig)
love all of you, i'm gonna go read 3 chapters on greek myths... (yay back to school~)
Till next -salute-waves- Sayounara, Mina!
-Ikasury
