Previously on Path of Shadows, Path of Lights...
The sound of cheering alerted the four Kage (and village representative) to the beginning of festivities. The crowd was loud as a Bijuudama's blast, as eleven contestants made their way out onto the field. Naruto, Lee, Suigetsu and Karui couldn't resist the temptation to wave to the crowd, while Gaara, Kankuro, Neji, Omoi, Haku, Shino and Shikamaru remained stoic.
"Welcome, one and all, to the Konohagakure Chuunin Exam finals!"
Shikamaru squinted at the exam proctor. He wore a bandanna-style forehead protector like Hayate had, but chewed a senbon needle in his mouth instead, and looked significantly less bedraggled. "My name is Genma Shiranui, and I'm the proctor for the exam finals today" the man said.
"What happened to the last exam proctor?" asked Naruto.
Genma's expression briefly darkened. "That's classified. Now then, let us consult the bracket again."
Pulling out the scroll with the tournament bracket on it, Genma took his senbon and briefly crossed out Kin's name. "Kin Tsuchi appears to be missing, and we don't know where she went" he said, giving the cover-up story for the two former Sound Genin's absences. "Satsuki Uchiha has a bye, so she does not have to be here just yet. According to this bracket, all other matches are the same. Suigetsu Hozuki has a bye to the next round-" the Hozuki groaned "-and the first matchup is Kongou no Karui against Neji Hyuuga. All other competitors can return to their seating area."
Karui gulped as she faced the cold, white-eyed Hyuuga. Neji remained impassive, but internally he had been looking forward to this moment for at least the past month, possibly the better part of his life. "Perfect, both Hiashi-sama and the Raikage are watching. This will make it all the more fulfilling when I end this girl in front of them, humiliating both of my father's murderers at the same time." The Hyuuga resisted the urge to smirk.
Up in the Kage's box, the Raikage squinted at the Hyuuga on the field. "A Hyuuga, eh?" he asked, sighing slightly.
"The son of Hizashi Hyuuga at that" Hiruzen added, watching as a shadow briefly passed across the Raikage's face.
"Great. He's got a grudge to settle then" A snorted, before leaning back in his seat.
"His sensei has often complained about his rather fatalist outlook and grudge against both your village and the Main House of the Hyuuga Clan for his father's death in the Hyuuga Affair. He attempted to kill the clan's heiress last month in the preliminaries over it" the wizened old Hokage noted.
A snorted again. "Kid's got some serious balls to try that shit."
"The rules are simple" Genma began, lecturing both the two combatants and the other competitors in the stands. "The match ends when I say it ends. No jutsu or physical combat is allowed outside of the ring. And, no matter what, no unnecessary killing." At this, Suigetsu audibly groaned, while Neji's smirk faltered and Gaara stared impassively despite his irritation. "Otherwise, anything goes."
Neji stared at Karui, letting the smirk from before slowly creep back onto his face. "Don't surrender yet. I will enjoy this" the Hyuuga prodigy said, an edge of bloodlust creeping into his tone.
Karui's eyes widened. "Oh fuck...he's actually going to try to kill me. I can't hold anything back or let up for even a second, otherwise I could die or be permanently disabled" the redhead thought, before slapping her cheeks a few times, her face steeling in determination again.
"First match...begin!"
Karui's first move was to put as much damn distance as possible between her and Neji, because fighting a Hyuuga in hand-to-hand was just plain lunacy, lobbing a handful of shuriken at Neji in an attempt to do ranged damage to the Hyuuga prodigy. Unfortunately for her, the white-eyed boy sidestepped all the attacks and started towards her again. "Crap, crap, crap, crap!" Neji then threw a kunai just in front of Karui's feet using the visual acuity of the Byakugan to just how she would move.
The redheaded Kumo girl, distracted by the Hyuuga's advance, tripped over the kunai and faceplanted quite forcefully on the floor of the arena. In the stands, the Raikage and Yugito facepalmed in unison as Karui groaned. "Owwwwwwwww" she muttered, getting back to her feet while rubbing her head. Turning around, the redhead found herself staring into Neji's blank white eyes. Without saying anything, the Hyuuga thrust his right hand forward and plunged a single finger into a tenketsu point on Karui's left arm, sealing off all chakra flow to that hand.
"Shit!" the redhead shouted, leaping backwards as Neji launched several quick Gentle Fist strikes, the Kumo girl narrowly avoiding being incapacitated right then and there. Running into the trees, Karui barely kept her composure. "He's stronger than me, faster than me, and can negate my ability to attack. My only hope is to lure him into attacking me, then chain him up!"
Neji followed Karui at a leisurely pace, his Byakugan tracking every twitch of her muscles and the flow of chakra through her body. After a few minutes of hide-and-seek, Karui dashed back into the clear part of the arena floor, out of the protective cover of the trees. "Hopefully this will be enticing enough an opportunity for him..." The redhead came to a stop, making a show of panting in exhaustion. Several chakra chains had been spread out in thin strings around the forested area, allowing Karui to track Neji's movements.
"Here he comes!"
The redheaded Kumo Genin spun around towards where Neji leapt from the treetops and launched a single chain on a collision course with his right arm. "If I can immobilize his arms, this match will be as good as over!" the girl thought, as the chain extended closer and closer to Neji's right hand...and then cleaved neatly in half as his hand caused the chain to dissipate in its' wake. "Wait, what?!"
In the blink of an eye, Neji had landed on the arena floor and blocked the tenketsu point in the redhead's right arm too. "Surprised?" he asked coldly.
"But...how?!" Karui gasped.
"I could see the buildup of chakra in your arm, and noticed all the wires you had spread across the forest floor. Given the heightened electrical activity in your brain when I made contact with the wires, I knew you were tracking me...and that allowed me to turn your trap back on you."
"T-That still doesn't explain how you destroyed my chain!" the redhead sputtered.
"Doesn't it though? The Gentle Fist can be used to destroy any chakra-based constructs Sharpening the chakra from my hand into a blade to cleave your chains like butter was child's play...and now, you are within my range of divination." In the stands, the other competitors watched wide-eyed.
"This is bad...he's about to use that" Lee muttered.
"EIGHT TRIGRAMS STYLE" Neji began. "TWO PALMS! FOUR PALMS! EIGHT PALMS! SIXTEEN PALMS! THIRTY-TWO PALMS! SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!" The barrage of chakra-laden strikes sealed Karui's chakra points while delivering not inconsequential amounts of blunt force trauma to almost every part of her body.
As Karui collapsed to the ground, slowly going into shock, Genma rushed over. "The match has ended! Neji Hyuuga is victorious! Medics, now!"
As the medics carted Karui off to stabilize her, Neji glared at the Kage box. The Raikage glared right back, as the Hyuuga left the field to the seating area for the contestants. Upon arriving, everyone outright refused to talk to him, even his own teammate.
"Naruto Uzumaki, Haku Yuki, please come to the ring!" Genma called as the crowd started to quiet down. Naruto glanced at the dark-haired Kiri kunoichi, who simply smiled at him.
"It appears to be our turn, Naruto-san" Haku said politely, before appearing in the ring in a Body Flicker while Naruto simply launched himself over the edge of the stands into the ring like a madman, landing to mixed applause from the crowd - many of whom were still familiar with his status as Kurama's container.
"Let us have an enjoyable and honorable match, Naruto-san" the girl said politely, bowing to Naruto.
"Uhhhhh...r-right" Naruto said, slightly flustered. "Oh god, I think she's cute. Oh fuck, I have a crush. Fuck, I'm about to fight my first crush" the poor orange-clad boy's brain recited at a thousand miles a minute. Slapping his cheeks, the Uzumaki got his brain back in gear. "Focus, Uzumaki! She may be cute, but I have to defeat her to be able to beat Neji's ass in the next round!"
"Begin!" Genma shouted, and Haku immediately drew a dozen senbon out of the sleeves of her haori.
"No hard feelings, Naruto-san?" she asked, before launching the needles at Naruto.
"Holy crap!" the boy thought, leaping to the side to avoid the shower of needles. "She's not holding back, is she?" Another hail of senbon shot at Naruto...and another...and yet another.
"Having fun yet, Naruto-san?" Haku asked, her cool, polite smile staying fixed on her face.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto responded, as nearly two dozen copies of the Orange Menace appeared in the ring, causing several civilians and seasoned ANBU hidden in the stands to nearly faint from trauma involving the boy in his younger years.
A watched the match with a little more interest at that point. "That boy...is he perchance the village's...?" he asked, trailing off with the underlying message still obvious to the other Kage.
"He is" the old Hokage responded affirmatively, lighting his pipe with a small fire jutsu.
"I figured as much. Multi Shadow Clone as a rookie Genin is no small feat" Mei said, a little sweetness creeping into her voice. "I wonder if he's taken?" she said after a moment, pondering the possibility out loud. Nearby, her retainer "Byakugan Killer" Ao sighed and facepalmed.
"Mei-sama, I must implore you, please do not make advances on foreign rookie Genin" he said, a tone of resignation in his voice.
"You're no fun at all" the redheaded Mizukage pouted.
In the furthest seat in the box, Orochimaru struggled to maintain his composure. "No, bad Hebi! If you laugh, not only will your cover be blown, but so will your evil overlord image in front of young, impressionable Kimimaro-san!" The noise of the crowd drew the rogue Sannin's attention back to the arena.
Haku had formed a unique hand seal, and now a dome of dozens of floating ice mirrors was suspended in the ring. Inside, the kunoichi peppered the defenseless blonde with hundreds of senbon from all angles. "What...an insane...jutsu, dattebayo" Naruto groaned.
In the mirrors, all of Haku's reflections blushed slightly. "Like it? This is my signature technique...Hyoton: Demonic Ice Mirrors."
The blonde snorted. "I'd like it a little better if you weren't putting holes in me every two seconds."
Peering outside, the Kiri kunoichi looked to her Mizukage and formed an inverted half-Tiger seal. Mei noticed and closed her left eye in response. Leaping back out of the mirrors as they began to melt, Haku smiled slightly at Naruto. "Alright then. Shiranui-san, I surrender."
"...Eh?"
"Those mirrors hold a significant chakra cost for me, and I am beginning to run low" Haku said, before leaning close to Naruto. "Good luck against the Hyuuga...Naruto-kun" she said, before giving the blonde a peck on the cheek.
Naruto immediately turned bright red. "Wh-what the hell was that, dattebayo?!" Kiba, Suigetsu and Kankuro all scowled at Naruto, while in the section for non-competitors, Ino and Hinata both began radiating killing intent towards the girl from Kiri.
"Harlot" the Hyuuga growled internally.
Speaking of the non-competitor section, Zabuza began sharpening Kubikiribocho with what looked vaguely like a dragon's claw. "That blonde runt had better run..."
A few moments later, in a puff of smoke from a Body Flicker, Satsuki and Kakashi arrived in the competitor and non-competitor sections. The Uchiha looked around and noticed her red-faced teammate. "Why do I get the feeling that I should be very irritated about something right now?" she wondered.
Up in the Kage's box, Orochimaru once again came dangerously close to losing his shit. "Okay, that was actually hilarious." Hiruzen chuckled, A unabashedly began laughing his ass off, and Mei smirked. "Attagirl, Haku! I taught you well...maybe I won't be the one to seduce the blonde over to our village's side after all."
Genma chuckled slightly at the proceedings, before looking to the competitors' section again. "Rock Lee, Mikazuki no Omoi, your match begins in two minutes. Please come to the ring!"
Author's Notes:
Finals are finally over, so I can write again! Yay! Any bets on what Mei Terumi and the Kiri contingent are up to?
As always, reviews give me LIFE, so review away! Stay tuned for the next chapter!