Jack squatted down by a bonfire and hummed while waiting for the time to pass. The remains of a giant skinned tiger laid next to them as they ate their fill of its flesh.
It had been his duty that night, as in every other, to hunt for their meals. Zaku, who still harbored some suspicion toward him, had offered to do it instead, but Jack had been firm in denying him.
He believed that it was a leader's duty to provide for their people, and like it or not, for the time being, Jack was their leader.
'I wonder how long that's going to last.' The man thought just as he felt something approach them from below.
"You're late," He near-whispered as Orochimaru seeped out of the floor.
Zaku and Kin didn't move, but he could tell they were shocked at how casually he addressed the sannin.
Any insult directed toward their leader was seen as sacrilege in Otokagure, especially when the man could possibly be within earshot.
Jack had never heard of any soldier being 'disciplined' by the man, but knowing what truly happened inside of his laboratories, it wasn't difficult to puzzle out where those fears came from.
Jack didn't care about any of that, though. As horrible of a man as Orochimaru was, there was no one else in the world who could help him achieve his goals like the elusive sannin.
"Well, there have been some complications." Orochimaru rebutted as he finished emerging into the clearing. "I've had to side-step at least three ANBU squads when coming here, and as incompetent as they are, keeping track of a target just so happens to be one of their specialties. How are things on your end?"
"All solid. We have this already," Jack threw the scroll they had taken off of the men who attacked Uzumaki's team, waiting until it neared the ground before snatching it back up. "And had been waiting on your orders before finishing the mission."
"Being too early could raise suspicion. Although that doesn't seem to have been such an issue this year. You're really dealing with some hard competition, aren't you?"
The edge of humor in Orochimaru's voice did nothing to dilute the real message that sentence was meant to convey. Kin and Zaku didn't seem to notice, but Jack's face gave way to a frown. Even still, he didn't respond or move, simply staring at the sannin while waiting for him to be finished.
"Ah, you're never any fun, Jack-kun," Orochimaru lamented. "Very well, keep to your initial orders. Make it as far as you can, and you'll be greatly rewarded once everything is finished," The man began to turn around, paused, and turned back to look at Jack with a smirk.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I've come across quite the interesting creature around here in these past few days. One I believe you've been hunting for quite a while, to no success, of course."
This time, he did react. Violently. Jack jumped up from where he had been sitting by the fire and neared Orochimaru until they were standing right in front of each other, glaring into the shorter man's eyes.
"You've met her," He growled while clenching his fists, veins popping out of his arms. He wasn't asking him. "Did you kill her?"
The two of them maintained that stand-off for a couple of seconds as Zaku and Kin nervously shifted, split between their need to defend their master and knowing that their intervention would amount to nothing but their death.
Suddenly, Orochimaru's lips broke in a grin. "No, of course not. She's your target, after all. And she's close." His grin widened. "Maybe you'll have your chance before this assignment is over. I do look forward to your results, assuming you can produce any, of course."
Jack maintained his glare, only giving the smallest of movements that could have possibly been taken for a nod a few seconds later. "I will."
"I knew you would," Orochimaru said before starting to melt into the floor again. "And I'm looking forward to seeing it, Jack-kun."
Kin fell to the ground, shaking, and Zaku let out a deep breath of air he had been holding back as soon as Orochimaru disappeared from the clearing. Jack gave them about five seconds to regroup before turning toward the tower.
"You're insane." The girl said, shaking her head. "You're actually insane. And that shit is going to get you killed. Going to get us killed."
Jack turned back to her. "Do you want to live forever?"
They were already moving again before she could answer him.
Choji Akimichi sat on a couch, mindlessly staring at one of the room's grey walls.
He scratched his arm, trying to get the dirt out of his sleeves. Of course, they had long since showered, changed their clothes, eaten, and slept after arriving at the tower, but even still, despite knowing better, Choji felt dirty, and no amount of scrubbing would be changing that any time soon.
"Today's the big day," Ino said from her room while stepping out of the shower and drying her hair. "After that, we'll be done. I'll go back to my house, sleep on an actual bed with an actual mattress, not this shit," Choji heard her kick one of the hard mattresses they had been given as beds.
"And I'll smell the flowers and run the shops for a few days. Maybe go out and eat with Sakura again, if she wants to. Haven't talked to her in a while, actually."
"Just like that?" He said loudly enough for her to hear.
"Just like what?" She peaked at him from the door. "You got an issue with hanging back now or something?"
He chuckled. "Nah, you know I don't. Better lose on purpose, though." She stepped out of the room, moving toward the armor pieces next to him on the couch. "Or else we'll all become chunnin."
And chunnin didn't have time to kick back and sit at home. No, they'd only be sent on dangerous mission after dangerous mission. Sometimes leading a squad, sometimes being led by others. Always in danger. Always risking coming across someone like Gaara.
Choji shivered and hoped the girl didn't notice.
Ino paused before moving on to strap on the armor to her clothes. "True. Or maybe they'll decide we aren't ready yet and just send us back home, even if we win. That's how it goes, remember? Shika said so."
Choji sighed. "Where is he anyway? It won't be long now before-"
A click came from the intercom placed on the back of their room, shortly followed by what sounded like a male's voice. "All competitors, please make your way to the tower's entrance. You have five minutes."
"I don't know where that egghead is," She said, motioning for him to follow her out of the makeshift apartment. He did. "But he'll wish he was dead if we end up being disqualified because he wanted to stare at some clouds."
He cracked up, laughing despite the morbid nature of her joke, and Ino was quick to do the same.
Choji had almost forgotten about how sweet that was. All it took was a week spent in some gods-forsaken forest for him to find memories of his everyday life slipping away like water.
It was hard to picture himself back at the academy after everything they had been through. And if it was hard to believe he was the same kid who ignored Iruka's lectures and skipped class to hang out with Shikamaru, it was near impossible to see himself as the overweight kid who cried when the others would mock him.
Choji doubted he could cry at all with the gaping hole he now found in himself. Every night the cries of the men they had seen dying in the forbidden forest came back to haunt him, making even trying to sleep a wasted effort. Not even food was appetizing to him anymore, a near sacrilegious thought for any member of his family.
He wondered if that void would ever go away.
'Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight,' Lee counted in his head while supporting a headstand on nothing but his left thumb. Neji sat by the windows watching the grey skies outside with crossed arms while Tenten sharpened some of her weapons by their beds.
"One-footed pheasant." She said after a minute-long pause. Lee laughed while continuing to count on his mind. "Bare-fanged tiger."
Neji turned to look at them for half a second before scoffing and returning to staring at the forest's landscape. "I can't believe you two are still doing this mere hours before the next stage begins."
"What, so we're just supposed to sit around in silence contemplating our lives right up to the last second?" Tenten asked with a raised eyebrow before putting the sword down and moving on to cleaning her Senbon collection. "Diving dragon."
Lee hummed in agreement with her. "Flowing Koi."
"Because going through some mental sparring minutes before we have to fight again will be so useful." The Hyuga said, supporting his head on the windowsill. "Those who are fated to win will pass, and those who aren't won't. That's as simple as it gets. Trying to remedy it with all of this is useless."
"Yeah?" Lee asked, rolling his eyes. Neji could be almost pleasant to be around sometimes, but he couldn't stand the boy whenever he got started on one of his fatalistic speeches. "And what if you're fated to lose Neji? What then?"
He saw the Hyuga's blank eyes narrow when Neji turned to glare at him. "In that case, you better pray you don't have to fight against whoever beats me, Lee, because the gods know you can't."
Lee had just barely leaped up to his feet when he began to march toward Neji. Tenten was quick to place herself between the two, face split between concern for their wellbeing and impatience after having to repeat their routine for the thousandth time.
"Alright, let's all calm down now. It's just like Neji said, we'll have to fight against the others today, no reason to waste our energy on this now."
But Lee was too heated to ignore her. "I've lost to you before, Neji, but not this time!" He reached out to undo the bandages surrounding his wrists while the boy dropped his knees and spread out his arms.
"Guys, come on-"
"That's what you say every time." Neji retorted as the veins around his eyes bulged out. "And what do you have to show for it? Nothing. How many times do I have to beat you down until you learn your place?"
"I'll show you-!"
"All competitors, please make your way to the tower's entrance. You have five minutes."
The three genin looked at the intercom for a moment before going back to staring at each other.
"Guy-sensei will be upset if we miss the exams because of our fighting." Lee decided, dropping his stance before the others. "But I'll promise you this, Neji. As soon as these are over, I'll show you just how wrong you really are."
"It'll be a cold day in hell." The boy said before turning away and leaving the room, not even waiting to see if the other two followed him.
Tenten watched him leave before turning back to admonish Lee, but the boy was already bowing before she could complete the movement. "I'm sorry, Tenten-chan. I know that I shouldn't let him bait me into it, but..."
She sighed and shook her head. "I know Neji can be... difficult, but you need to let go of this grudge, Lee. I didn't want to say it, but we both know it's going nowhere."
"That's not true, Tenten-chan! I-"
"Have been training hard, I know." She put both hands on his shoulders. "But you could be using that time to prepare against the others, not someone from our team. You'll have plenty of time to challenge Neji in the future, but maybe it'd be better to focus on what we can do right now, don't you think?"
'She doesn't think I can do it.' Lee realized while looking at Tenten's expectant face. 'She really doesn't think I can beat him.'
He forced himself to give her a sheepish smile. "Yeah, you're right."
They both hurried to catch up with Neji afterward, but Lee's mind was still stuck in that room. 'I'll show her,' He decided, clutching his fists. 'I'll show them all, Guy-sensei!'
'Thud.'
Kiba groggily opened an eye, hissed at the exposure to the sun, and then forced himself to open the other, just in time to hear another thud hit the wall next to him, which was briefly followed by the hurrying of four paws on the hardwood floor.
"Akamaru?" He muttered while moving to sit up on his bed. The thudding stopped when he turned around to see three shocked faces staring at him, two of them human. "Oh, hey. You guys are already up, huh?"
"Kiba!" Hinata, who had been sitting on the edge of Naruto's bed, quickly rushed over to his side. Akamaru followed, jumping up at his bed and making Kiba groan as the puppy walked over his body.
Naruto, however, stayed in his bed looking at three of them from a distance. "Hey, dude." He said, waving at Kiba as if he had just woken up from a nap and not a temporary, toxin-induced coma. "Good morning."
"Hey," He answered with a long yawn while stretching his arms, moving on to rub the sleep off of his eyes with one hand and petting Akamaru with the other. "How long has it been since I passed out?"
"Four days. Right at the deadline." Naruto informed him, throwing the ball he had been using to play with Akamaru at the wall and grabbing it when it bounced back. "You cut it close, that's for sure."
"Yeah, well, I wasn't really concerned about that when I was sleeping." He retorted, gratefully accepting the plate of food Hinata handed over to him. "How about you two, been alright so far? Any trouble with the other teams?" He asked, chewing on a somewhat raw piece of meat.
"We haven't had any trouble with the others." Hinata quickly assured him, but Kiba saw her eyes dart over to Naruto when the boy wasn't looking. "If anything, we haven't even seen them yet. They gave each team their own floor and made it clear that it was strictly prohibited for us to attack each other before the exams continued."
"We still kept a lookout though," Naruto explained. "No one's stepped close to that door since I woke up. We don't know if everyone's arrived yet, but the Suna trio's on the other side of the building. Sometimes they come close, but the redhead kid with the tattoo on his face stays in their room twenty-four seven. Thank the gods for that."
"He could have been injured like Kiba-kun."
"Doubt it." Another throw. Kiba quickly moved into another topic, since neither Naruto nor Hinata seemed to be particularly talkative when it came to the Suna nin. "What about Kurenai-sensei? You guys seen her since getting here?"
"I did, once," Hinata began. "But well, she disappeared after that. From what I know, none of the other team leaders showed up yet either, so it's probably another test or something." She shrugged.
Kiba's nose scrunched up when he smelled something horrible in the room, only to blush in shame once he realized the smell was coming off of his clothes. He sat up and threw his blanket aside, but Hinata was quick to try and stop him.
"Kiba-kun, you shouldn't get up! We should call a medic here to make sure you're okay and..."
"I'm just going to go take a shower," He said, trying to placate her. "Where's the storage scroll?"
"It's by the kitchen counter. It wasn't very useful, all things considered, but the clothes are still there." Naruto threw the ball over to Akamaru and jumped off of his bed. "There's something I have to do. I'll see you guys later."
"You sure we should be separating right now? What if-" But Kiba's protests were in vain. Naruto was already out of the room before he could finish speaking. "Nevermind, I guess."
Hinata sighed. "Yeah, there's... there's a lot we need to talk about. You should go ahead and take your shower, though." She grinned at him. "No offense, but I'd rather stay here with a wet Akamaru."
Kiba huffed. "Yeah, yeah, nice to see you too."
Her giggling followed him as Kiba entered the shower, and he was somewhat comforted by seeing Hinata laugh again. Still, the feeble attempts at humor did nothing to detract from Naruto's strange behavior.
Those troubles were momentarily pushed out of his mind when Kiba managed to experience one of life's great pleasures - a hot shower to blast every last particle of dirt away from his body after a tremendous amount of physical exercise.
"Oh, man." He breathed out while leaning in to allow the liquid to run down his back. "That's the stuff."
He stepped out, shook off any of the excess water, and got a change of clothes from the sealing scroll.
Hinata was sitting on her bed when he stepped out, still scratching the back of Akamaru's head with a soft smile on her face. For a moment, he felt regret at what he was about to do, but he needed some answers, even if that would destroy the room's otherwise jovial atmosphere.
"So," He began, stepping closer to her. "Mind telling me what's up with Naruto?"
She looked over to him before removing her hand from Akamaru's head and lying down with a sigh. "It's a long story, but it basically all started when..."
Naruto shifted on his seat, looking for the most comfortable position possible before deciding it was a wasted effort.
The impressively sized library only had hard chairs and tables so short he couldn't even lean on them to alleviate the pain in his back. 'I guess comfort's not part of being a ninja, huh?' He scoffed. 'Would it kill them to add some cushions to this place or something?'
There were three books in front of him, a collection of myths and legends from all over the world, a historical account of every significant conflict dating back to the warring clans period, and a selection of simple children's tales and poems from Kumo. As pitiful as it was, the latter was the most suited for his reading level at the time.
'Everyone's got to start somewhere, right? At least Kiba doesn't know about this. I don't think he'd ever stop making fun of me if he did.'
Despite his physical discomfort, there was a certain relief to Naruto ever since he separated from the others.
That wasn't to say he didn't care for Hinata or Kiba's company. On the contrary, he was beginning to realize the two had become the most cherished people in his life, but that did nothing to change that every single moment he spent with them ever since his talk with Sarutobi had become a living nightmare.
Each second felt like an endless loop of questions and answers in his own mind. Naruto considered telling them about everything - his newfound desire for a peaceful retirement, the realizations he had about himself, his mother's words when they last met - only to come up with dozens of half-assed excuses as to why he should keep his mouth shut.
Despite knowing he was being ridiculous, those excuses kept him from saying anything, and Naruto was beginning to hate himself for it.
After all, did he really have a right to quit now? After they had been through so much together and he had exposed them to so much danger? Naruto gripped one hand against the other.
How in the world could he stop feeling like such a massive coward?
'I should stop thinking about this shit,' He told himself, pushing the first book open and starting from where he had left off. 'What's the point of leaving that place if I can't stop thinking about it here, either?'
"Naruto?" A familiar voice called. "Is that you?"
Surprised didn't come close to describing how he felt. Sitting there, a table removed from him, was Shikamaru Nara.
The boy's appearance had radically changed since the few days they had last seen each other.
His skin was pale and sickly, eyes bagged and deep-set, as if he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep in the last five days. Naruto could see his nails had been bitten short and were troubled with the occasional fit of shaking, even as he held a volume of ambushing tactics underneath his arms.
"Oh, Shikamaru." He motioned for the boy to join him. "I didn't know your team had arrived here already. How's it been? You look..."
"Like shit?" The Nara said while sitting in front of him. Naruto clicked his tongue. "Well, I was going to say something else, but yeah, like shit."
"Well, it's been hard to sleep lately." Shikamaru rubbed his eyes while setting the book he had grabbed on the table. "Naruto, I..." He looked around before settling his eyes back on him. "You were right. About everything, I mean. The stuff we saw back there..." He absent-mindedly rubbed one of his shoulders. "We weren't ready."
Naruto felt weird. There was a particular... not distaste, but distance between him and Shikamaru since they had first met. A gap he made sure to further, afraid that the other genin would be able to decipher something about his past through nothing but casual conversation.
Still, no amount of estrangement could stop him from feeling bad at seeing one of his comrades in such a sorry state.
"You shouldn't feel too bad about that. No one's really ready when shit hits the fan. The others and I just happened to see all of that earlier than you, that's all. That being said, I shouldn't have said what I did when we met up the other day. I just... had a lot on my mind, I guess, and I decided to take it out on you after Ino said what she did. I'm sorry."
"Well... like I said, you weren't wrong or anything, so it's fine. I don't mind, and I'm sure Ino doesn't either."
A beat of silence passed between the two.
"So, I didn't really expect to find you here," Shikamaru continued before things got too awkward. "Trying to check out some taijutsu scrolls or something?"
"Well, no, actually," He picked the book he had meant to read and flipped it around so that Shikamaru could see the cover.
"You're...reading about history?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"Is it really that surprising?"
"Well, no. I mean, yeah, actually. I didn't know you really cared about stuff like that, to be honest."
"Well, I've been trying to expand my horizons, I suppose."
Another beat of silence. Naruto coughed into his hand, just to make some noise.
He opened his voice to speak, but another voice cut him off. "All competitors, please make your way to the tower's entrance. You have five minutes."
"Welp, there you go." Naruto cracked his back while standing from the table. "Couldn't get any reading done, but I suppose there'll always be tomorrow. Want to come to the entrance together?"
"Since we're already going the same way." Shikamaru shrugged. "What were you reading about? Maybe I could fill in a little bit. Used to read those when I was a kid. It was the only thing my dad let me see from his studies."
"Oh, sure. I was just getting to the chapter where they describe how Madara and Hashirama fell apart after founding Konoha."
"Ah. Well, there was a lot of surrounding context to that, but from what we know, it all began when..."
"...And that's about it." Hinata finished as the two of them neared the tower's entrance. Kiba had listened to most of her explanation in silence, but now that it was finally over, he allowed himself to stop walking.
She paused a few seconds later after realizing what he had done and turned to him with a confused expression.
"Dear gods," He finally said, Akamaru looking up at him from the gap in his clothes. "Of course, his fucking mother showed up. Why wouldn't she? That explains why he's acting weird," He cursed. "I wish we had the time to talk to him before this shit continued. You think he's going to be okay?"
"I don't know." She pressed her fingers together. "We've talked about all sorts of things in this past couple of days. Flowers, history, paintings, movies, but he never mentioned her again. Or the exam, for that matter. I think there's something he isn't telling me still, but... I was too afraid to ask what it was."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it." He comforted her. "I don't know if I could have asked either. Hell, I don't know if I can right now. Listen, he'll be there, at the entrance, I mean. We'll talk to him about this stuff as soon as we can, okay?"
They walked through the door leading them to their destination after she nodded at his words.
They were far from the first participants to have arrived. Ino and Choji were already there, grouped together in a corner while suspiciously staring at everyone else. Kiba saw them whispering about something and concluded that their discussion was almost certainly connected to Shikamaru's absence.
Neji and his team didn't speak a single word to each other and barely looked at anyone else in the room. That was until the kid with the bushy eyebrows noticed Hinata and sent them a friendly wave. He raised an eyebrow when the girl smiled and waved back to him. 'Something happened there, huh? Gotta ask her about it later.'
Kabuto leaned against the wall next to the entrance and quickly nodded at them after noticing their presence. Kiba didn't recognize either of the impostor's teammates. They didn't look like much, but then again, neither did Kabuto, and Kiba couldn't sense how strong they were on a whim like Naruto.
'Gotta keep an eye on them, that's for sure. Actually, didn't Naruto tell that crazy proctor lady about them? When the hell are they going to do something about that?'
Sasuke, Sakura, and Shino were standing on another corner by the entrance, more solemn than he had ever seen them before. Sakura sent him a small, polite smile when their eyes met, but that lasted less than a second before she turned away and went back to staring at the ceiling, waiting for the time to pass.
Like everyone else, the Suna trio tried to maintain their distance from the other competitors, although Kiba figured they wouldn't have to try particularly hard. The single glare he received from the boy with the tattoo on his forehead had been enough to chill his blood, and for a moment, he felt the urge to bare his teeth at him or run out of the room as fast as he could, whichever came first.
'Naruto and Shika aren't here either,' He noted, crossing his arms by Hinata's side as the girl continued to inspect the room on her own. 'But at least Jack's missing too. If there's a god in this world, please let that guy be disqualified before the time's up.'
A man with a chunnin vest was standing next to a pair of iron doors. He gave the two of them a sidelong glance before checking his watch. "Those who are missing have two more minutes to get here. Failing to appear counts as an immediate disqualification."
'We shouldn't have let you leave,' Kiba thought, shaking his head. 'I really hope you know what you're doing, Naruto, because I don't want to retake these exams, not four years from now, not ever.'
Time passed slowly when the stakes were that high. Thirty seconds felt like half an hour to Kiba, and the clock was still ticking. 'Did you get lost or something, dude?' He looked around for the tenth time, hoping to see something different, but the same old faces stared back at him. 'Hurry up!'
Kiba doubted that Shikamaru and Naruto had gotten into a fight, but the two of them disappearing at the same time couldn't bode well for either team.
Jack's absence could mean one of two things. Either he hadn't arrived in the tower yet, or he had, and his team was now ambushing Naruto. That matched perfectly with what he knew of the giant so far and made the waiting all the more unbearable, although he couldn't smell any traces on him in the room.
'That doesn't mean shit. The dude could have arrived here days ago for all we know. Naruto wouldn't be able to sense someone like him when they weren't in the same room, and I can't just ask any of the others. Fuck!'
He couldn't hold it in anymore by the one-minute mark. Kiba turned around and made to leave the room. Maybe he could find Naruto's scent and bring him back in time, as unlikely as that would be.
A kunai lodged himself on the wall next to the door before he could take another step. Startled, he turned around to see the chunnin's outstretched arm.
"Leaving after your arrival is prohibited as well." He explained. "Basic navigational skills are required of every ninja, let alone a chunnin. If your comrades can't find their way here by themselves, then they aren't worthy of the rank. Settle down."
Kiba growled and clenched his fists until his knuckles grew white. 'Naruto, I don't know what the hell's going on with you right now, or if you really are fighting that guy, but whatever it is, hurry up!'
But despite his internal pleading, time passed as it always did. By the thirty-second mark, Kiba was thinking about making a run for the door to look for Naruto, consequences be damned. Being disqualified couldn't be worse than losing his friend, and if he was fighting Jack, chances were even someone like Naruto could use all of the help he could get.
That was when the tower's main doors were slammed open, and everyone present, except for Neji and Gaara, turned to see the man himself walk through the door, circled by each of his teammates. All three of them looked in perfect condition, save for some dirtiness in their clothes.
When his light-green eyes met Kiba's together with a quiet smirk, the Inuzuka was ashamed to look away first, memories of what had happened outside of the tunnel coming back to haunt his mind.
"Do you have your scrolls?" The proctor asked. Jack nodded and presented them, clearly displaying the matching symbols. "Very well, you're admitted into the next stage. Now we have..." He raised his wrist to check. "Twenty seconds until the others get here."
"Wait," Kiba whispered, turning to look at Hinata. "If Naruto's not fighting him, then... where is he?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE LOST?!"
"I MEAN JUST THAT!" Naruto yelled back as he and Shikamaru ran through the second floor's hallways. "There were three fucking staircases in this place last I checked, Shika, and I can't find a single goddamned one of them!"
"Okay, okay," Shikamaru closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "I remember seeing a map for this place's layout a while ago. There's got to be more than we haven't checked. Follow me!"
"How much time do we have left?" He asked while they reached the tail end of the corridor. "About one minute, I think-"
Shikamaru's voice was abruptly cut off when they came face to face with a solid concrete wall where the staircases should have been.
"But... how is that..." The Nara began, stumbling back into the corridor.
"It's another test," Naruto said. "Has to be. Using ingenuity and ninja-skills to get past a barrier and all of that shit." He turned back to see where they came from. "I'd bet all of them were sealed up like this. You don't have any explosive tags right now, do you?"
"No, I left it with my team," Shikamaru said, some panic seeping into his voice. "Wait, if we fail to arrive, we'll be disqualified, but... what about our teammates?"
'Good question,' Naruto looked at one of his own hands. 'If it were just us, I'd be glad to finish things right here and now, but if this means Kiba and Hinata will be kicked out as well...'
He abruptly turned and began running back the way they came from. "Shikamaru, come on!"
"Wait, where are we going?!" The dark-haired boy shouted back as they ran. "How are we going to get down there?!"
But Naruto wasn't listening. He zeroed in on the Suna Jinchuuriki's chakra signature, as unmistakable as it was, and tried to feel out the area around him. Surely enough, Kiba, Hinata, and everyone else who had advanced to that level was there.
"Fifty seconds..." He muttered. "We'll make it!"
"Naruto, what's our plan here?!" Shikamaru shouted from behind him, hurrying to follow. "Do you know some secret pathway or something?!"
"No clue!" He shouted back. They were getting closer to his team. He activated the seals covering his body, feeling the sudden influx of power. Using it all in one burst would do more damage to him than he could handle, so he carefully built up his energy while running. 'Fifty percent.' A blue hue covered his body. 'Thirty seconds.'
"Shikamaru!" He turned back to shout at the boy. "Jump when I say GO!"
"What the hell are you going to-!"
"Do you want to make it?!" He yelled over him, continuing when Shikamaru answered the question with a startled nod. "Then do it! And stay right behind me!"
"Alright! Fine! You better know what the hell you're doing, Naruto!"
'Ninety percent.' The blue hue began to shift, from covering his entire body to concentrating solely on his fist, leaving the rest unprotected. The sheer concentration of energy made it feel as if his right hand was burning, and Naruto could tell they were less than ten steps away from their goal. 'Ten seconds!'
"GO!"
Naruto didn't have time to turn back around and see if Shikamaru had followed his orders, already in mid-air by the time he uttered the last word. He pulled his arm all the way back.
'Five seconds.'
"ONE HUNDRED PERCENT-!"
"Five," The chunnin instructor continued with his countdown. Kiba felt a pang of sweat fall from his brow. "Four,"
Something happened. Kiba saw Akamaru and the boy from Suna look up to the ceiling at the same time. He did as well, but saw nothing but the same old grey staring back at him.
"Gaara, what is it?" The yellow-haired girl next to the boy asked. "Three,"
Suddenly, Kiba saw a crack form right above them.
Then the ceiling exploded.
Massive blocks of stone followed by dust rained down on everyone in the room. It was hard to process how many things happened at once.
Acting out of instinct, Kiba grabbed Hinata and jumped to safety, Akamaru yelping all the while.
The bowel-haired boy from Neji's team moved with a level of speed Kiba hadn't ever seen before, kicking every shard of stone heading their way until they were reduced to nothing but dust before comfortably settling himself back at his team's side.
Choji jumped in front of Ino and used his clan's bloodline technique to expand into a massive, human-shaped ball that cushioned the blow in their area. From what Kiba saw, neither of them were seriously injured by any of it, minus a few scratches on the Akimichi's belly.
A cloud of bugs seeped out of Shino's sleeves, larger than any Kiba had ever wanted to see, and they rapidly wrapped themselves around the falling debris before gently guiding it to the floor, like a gathering of harmless feathers dropping from the sky. Neither Sakura nor Sasuke moved, fully confident in the Aburame's ability to handle things.
Kiba couldn't even see what Kabuto did, but by the time he was finished, the parts of the ceiling that had been falling toward him were on the ground, perfectly cut to form a small circle around him and his comrades. The silver-haired boy looked around the room, eyes settling on Kiba's before he pushed up his glasses with a slight smirk on his face.
A cloud of sand, very similar to Shino's own, poured out of the gourd on Gaara's back and formed a dome around him and his siblings that shielded them from the damage. If Kiba thought the glares the boy had been sending him before were bad, they were nothing compared to the crazed mix of bloodlust, rage, and curiosity he now saw in his eyes.
Jack opted for punching the ceiling out of his way rather than trying to avoid it in any way, but his movements were nothing like Lee's. Slow and deliberate, the man never seemed uncomfortable or pressed by the assault. If anything, he looked mildly bothered at the worst and morbidly amused at best.
But Kiba's eyes quickly focused on the two distinct shapes lying by the proctor's feet.
When the dust settled, every ninja in the room gaped at Naruto and Shikamaru. The Nara seemed stunned, staring at the now open ceiling with an open mouth while Naruto looked around, shot a sheepish look at everyone, and then finally refocused on the chunnin. "So, did we make it?" He asked eagerly.
"…One." The man said, clearly unsure of how he was supposed to react to what had just happened. "C-congratulations. You've all been qualified for the next stage of the exams."
"Oh man, that's a relief." The boy said, leaning back with a sigh. "I really thought we missed the mark there. Hey, how come you guys blocked the entrances to the staircases? Was that an earth jutsu or something?"
"I-well-we put a genjutsu around them when we noticed some of the applicants were still scattered around the building t-to test your decision-making and s-situational awareness."
"A… genjutsu," Naruto repeated. "Well, don't I feel stupid right about now."
"H-how," Sakura began to ask before nervously swallowing and forcing herself to continue. "How did you do that? If you had used tags, there should have been an explosion, but…"
"He punched it," Shikamaru answered before Naruto could. "You're a fucking madman, Naruto. Did I ever tell you that?"
"Hey," Naruto said while flicking his right hand. That was when Kiba noticed that it had been damaged – or perhaps it'd be more apt to say destroyed, with flesh dangling off of his knuckles and blood dripping to the ground. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed, rushing to his side while taking out medical supplies from the storage scroll hidden in her coat. "You should be more careful! Look at what you've done to yourself!"
"Haha, sorry, sorry." He said, hissing in pain when she applied the anti-septic to it.
"Man," The genin from Suna with the painted face exhaled. "No one told me you Konoha ninja were this fucking crazy before."
Jack chuckled. "You do know how to put up quite the show, don't you?"
"ALRIGHT!" Lee suddenly exclaimed, making some of the more unaware ninja around him jump. "Uzumaki-san, I've decided to make you my eternal rival from now on!"
"I thought Neji was your eternal rival?" The girl next to him asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Tenten-chan, there's nothing wrong with having more than one rival!"
"Lee, that's… not what the phrase 'eternal rival' implies."
The chunnin proctor awkwardly cleared his throat. "If you'll please follow me to the next area," He said, turning around and opening the metal doors behind him. Kiba saw that his knees were still shaking when they began to follow him.
"Dude," Kiba began while stepping behind Naruto, making him turn to face him. "You really have a talent for doing some crazy shit when you're in front of everyone, huh? First Iruka-sensei, and now this. Not to mention that sting with…" He stopped himself before he could say Jiraya's name. "You know who."
"Ha, sorry." Naruto shrugged. "Guess I just can't help myself. Probably took it from, you know," The boy rolled his eyes. "That place."
"Try to injure yourself like this again and see if you'll have an opportunity to 'help yourself' again." Hinata threatened while tightening his bandages. Naruto could only continue to laugh nervously in response.
'Seems like the mood lightened around here,' Kiba thought while chuckling at their interaction. He had even forgotten about the whole business with Naruto's mom for a couple of minutes. 'Maybe you doing all of this crazy shit isn't so bad after all, huh?'
"I can't believe you," A shrill voice said from behind them. Kiba turned around as they followed the proctor to see Ino shouting and pointing at a dazed Shikamaru's face while Choji watched from behind them.
"Disappearing on the last day! I swear if it wasn't for Naruto doing whatever the hell he did, we'd all have been disqualified by your stupidity! How about you put those brains you're so proud of to use sometimes, huh?! You fucking moron!"
Kiba snickered while sharing a look with his teammates. Hinata had paused her inspection of Naruto's wounds to giggle at the sight, and the boy himself wasn't even trying to hide his chuckling.
"Trouble in paradise, huh?" He whispered to them, which only served to intensify their laughter. "WHAT WAS THAT, INUZUKA?!" Ino yelled from behind them, forcing Team 8 to hurry up their pace and cut the line until they were right behind the chunnin.
He noticed that Gaara, as the yellow-haired girl had called him, was glaring at them from further back into their gathering. Kiba bared his teeth and glared right back at him. "Just try it," He mouthed at him. "See what happens."
The smile he got in return chilled him to the bone.
Naruto took a moment to look around the room they had been corralled into. It was a large arena with an empty second floor made for spectators separated from the others by metal railings. There was an elevated platform in the middle of the room that housed a gargantuan statue demonstrating two hands forming the Ram hand-seal, larger than any Naruto had ever seen besides the Hokage monument back at home.
Speaking of which, Sarutobi himself graced them with his presence, standing together with a small escort of hand-picked chunnin aides as well as the jonin instructors responsible for every team that had passed up to that point.
His eyes narrowed after setting themselves on Jack's teacher. All of the jonin in the room were powerful, that went without saying, but none as strong as that man. Naruto's dominant hand approached the tanto sheathed by his hip, despite knowing it would be a failed effort if things escalated to the point of battle.
Seeing someone who gave off a similar aura to his mother hadn't been something Naruto was expecting when he woke up that morning, and it was fair to say it shook him a fair bit.
His focus on that matter was so intense that he had almost missed the smile and nod Kurenai sent at his way.
Now that he focused on the fact, Naruto could see that every team leader seemed to be showing some hidden gestures for their students behind the old man's back. Asuma, in particular, seemed to be getting a cold reception from his students, minus the downright hateful glare Ino was beaming at him.
Still, the cigarette-smoking man turned to Naruto and gave him a wink before nudging toward the short-sword sheathed by his hip. He responded with a smirk. 'Haven't thanked you for the training yet, huh?' He thought. 'Shame that's not going to happen any time soon. If there's one guy I still want to beat up…'
"Congratulations on getting this far," Sarutobi began, tipping his sizeable hat. "The road we all follow is devious and complicated. To succeed in it, sacrifices and hardship are often necessary. I'm sure that most of you here have already gone through much of that by now. That is why, before we begin, I would like to make sure everyone here is well aware of the true purpose behind these tests."
Hiruzen went on to explain what Naruto and his team were already well aware of. That the exam served as nothing but a deterrent for war between the major villages, and how their skills would be put on display on a global level. Naruto thought a much more effective way to do that would be to arrange for a tournament between the Kage themselves, but that was neither here nor there.
"Now, as for the rules of the second stage-"
"Hokage-sama." One of the chunnin that stood by his side interrupted, quickly kneeling by the old man's feet. "If I may, as the proctor of the third stage, I'd like to explain the rules myself, if you please."
Sarutobi hummed. "Go ahead, Hayate."
Hayate turned toward the gathered genin, giving them ample view of the single senbon needle stuck between his teeth. He began with his explanation after a few rough coughs.
"Simply put, as some of you may have guessed after hearing Hokage-sama's explanation, the third stage will be modeled after a tournament where you will be competing for your village's honor. However, there has been a complication," Hayate coughed into his hand again. "Too many of you have passed this year, so we'll be holding a preliminary round."
'That figures,' Naruto thought rather bitterly. 'Get rid of your baggage here, while the public can't see it. That way, the Daimyos and civilian contractors only see the cream of the top.' He scowled after remembering Matsuda and his son. 'Nothing more than a bunch of Kunai you can throw away at the earliest convenience, isn't that right?'
"There are very few rules," Hayate continued. "Number one," He raised his indicator finger. "My word is law. If I say the match is over, then it's over. Any attacks after that point will be considered a breakage of the rules, and you'll be disqualified immediately—two," His middle finger. "The match will continue until either one of the participants is unable to fight. If any of you wish to forfeit, now is the time to do it."
Naruto raised a hand. "A question, sir."
"Go ahead."
"If we forfeit right now, will that affect our team as well?"
Hayate shook his head. "From now on, every decision you make is your own. Your qualification or disqualification will be on an entirely individual basis, and you may even be forced to fight members of your team."
'So there's no reason for me to continue, huh? Well, good luck, Kiba, Hinata.' He kept his hand in the air. "In that case, I-"
Naruto's eyes widened, and he quickly turned to look around him. It wasn't Kiba and Hinata's palpable shock that stopped him, but five other emotional spikes that reached their apex as soon as he began to speak.
Sarutobi was concerned but resigned. The old man's eyes stared back at him from where he stood in the podium, looking straight at him, but still seeming eternally distant.
Kurenai was confused and worried, momentarily breaking her otherwise impeccable composure. He saw her soundlessly mouth something that looked like 'What are you doing?' at him from behind the Hokage.
Gaara oozed contempt and fury from behind Naruto, the likes of which he had never seen before. He could feel the boy's chakra wildly fluctuating as if ready to lash out at him and his friends, most of it concentrating inside of the gourd he kept on his back.
But by far, the one thing that made Naruto pause the most was the disappointment he felt surrounding Jack and Lee.
Naruto had told himself that he would no longer care about his reputation after the epiphany he had after fighting Kushina. He would never stand up to the woman herself, so what use was it in pretending that he was better than anyone else? He still believed it, which was why he couldn't explain his reasoning for putting his hand down and stepping back in line. "Nevermind, sir."
He was still grappling with those feelings when Hayate nodded. "Very well," He turned to some of his coworkers. "If you please?"
They removed a large board that had been placed above the statue and revealed a sizeable electronic panel.
"From now on, your matches will be decided with that," Hayate said, pointing at the object. "By picking two random numbers from everyone who's gathered here. As I said before, your team allegiances will no longer matter. Anyone in this room right now could be the enemy you're fighting next, even your closest friends. Now, do any of you want to forfeit?"
No one spoke up, although he felt a flash of sentiment from Choji, very similar to his own mere moments ago.
"Let's begin then."
The panel quickly began to spin through the list of various names. Naruto saw his own, as well as his teammates' appear several times.
He almost jumped when something brushed against his hand, relaxing once he saw it was only Hinata's grabbing onto his own. He gave her a smile, unsure if the gesture was meant to calm her or him.
Finally, the first match of the preliminaries was decided.
ROCK LEE VS NARUTO UZUMAKI
"YEAH!" Lee yelled out. "This is fate, Uzumaki-san! And right after we were declared eternal rivals too! The flames of youth are burning brightly today!"
"Weren't you the one who declared himself his eternal rival, Lee?" Tenten asked with a raised eyebrow. Neji scoffed before turning away from them. "Finish this quickly."
"How about that?" Naruto said. "First to go. Just my luck."
"Everyone else, please go to the second floor with your teachers," Hayate said.
Hinata tightened her hold on his hand for a moment before letting go. "Good luck, Naruto-kun," She whispered before hesitating for a moment. "We'll talk after you've won."
And with a smile, she was gone.
Kiba was the next one to approach him with a firm pat on his back. "I'll be cheering for you all the way, dude. Go get him." It looked as if the boy wanted to say something else but left before he could push it out.
'Guess they noticed something was off, huh?' He shifted on his feet. 'Oh well. I'll deal with that after beating him.' He thought, eyes moving over to his opponent, who was now doing his stretches in the middle of the arena. A man with a very similar haircut and jumpsuit was cheering him on from the second floor. 'His teacher, then, I suppose.'
Kurenai approached with a scowl. "I'm sorry that we won't be able to talk before this begins, but as long as you remember what you know, everything will be fine."
"Don't worry," Naruto said with a smile. "I'll see you after this, one way or the other."
Soon, only the two genin and the proctor were standing in the arena. Naruto gave Lee a long look for the first time since seeing him. 'No visible weapons, although those leg and arm warmers could be hiding something. Well developed muscles, especially in his lower body. A kick specialist, then.'
Making his choice, Naruto grabbed his sheathed tanto and threw it over to a baffled Kiba. Lee looked at him in confusion. "Why are you giving your weapon away, Uzumaki-san?"
"You don't use any, right?" Naruto shrugged. "This match's a bit… special, to me, I guess. I'll fight you in even terms. That's all there is to it."
"I'm honored!" Lee fell into his stance – widened legs, a lowered right hand, and an extended left pointed toward him. "As for not using any weapons, that won't be an issue. I'll prove that someone can become a great ninja even if they can only use Taijutsu!"
"You… can't use jutsu?" Naruto felt oddly indignified. Someone like that had actually been disappointed when he considered forfeiting his match? Maybe it wasn't too late to turn that decision around. Every second he spent thinking about it gave him more reason to cop out of the fight, but things were moving too fast for him to second guess himself by that point.
Lee gave him a grin, but Naruto could see there was something else behind his eyes as well. Something very familiar to him - an urge to prove himself to whoever he was fighting against. "You'll see, Uzumaki-san."
"Take your stance." Hayate instructed.
Naruto took a moment to slack his body, getting rid of any and all excessive tension. He lowered both of his arms so that they were hanging loosely by his side and didn't even bother to separate his feet. "I'm ready."
He could sense Lee's teacher approaching Kurenai and the others on the second floor. "Would you like to make a wager, Kurenai-sensei?"
"Are you sure you can afford those losses, Guy-sensei?"
Hayate raised an arm. "I don't think I need to repeat myself. I say stop, you stop. Ready?" He turned to Lee, who gave him a nod. "Ready?" Naruto responded in the same way. The proctor dropped the arm with a swing before jumping back. "Then begin!"
Lee moved as soon as the older man said the word, kicking off of the ground while aiming to poke out Naruto's eyes with two of his fingers. The boy didn't even flinch while waiting for the digits to approach. That was when Lee suddenly halted his movement and twisted his upper-body, throwing a roundhouse kick aimed at Naruto's temple.
The attack was never completed. Naruto's right leg lashed out from underneath him, blurring into a whip-like shape before intercepting Lee's strike, hitting him in the groin as soon as the genin's lead foot left the ground.
The boy crumbled to the ground, writhing in pain while clutching at the affected area with both hands. Naruto took the opportunity to look around. Kiba was laughing, Hinata and Kurenai were mortified, most others were shocked, and Sarutobi forced himself to hide some suspicious sounding coughs behind his hand. Naruto grinned at him before refocusing on the fight.
"No matter how hard you condition your body, that's always going to hurt." He said. "You shouldn't open with such a wide attack, Lee-kun."
"How did you know... it was a feint?" The boy whined while beginning to stand. Naruto shrugged.
"You seem like the honorable type from what I've seen of you. I suppose you could say I've fought against people who would start something like this by poking out someone's eyes, and you aren't one of them. That's all there is to it, really."
"I'm…" Lee bowed his head, eyes being hidden by his hair. Suddenly, he jerked forward, seeming even more enthusiastic than before. "So happy, Uzumaki-san!"
Naruto shifted back on the balls of his feet as soon as he saw the first twitch of movement from Lee's part, and even then, his maneuver was barely quick enough to avoid the sweeping kick that had been aimed for his chest. The first strike was succinctly followed by two more just like it before the boy threw himself into a headstand, quickly rotating his body while sweeping at Naruto's midsection.
Even still, Naruto didn't try to assume a defensive position of any sort, making use of his body's flexibility and looseness to side-step, weave under and step into every single one of Lee's kicks.
Naruto finally decided to counter-attack after another kick missed, grabbing the boy's lead leg before twisting him to the side, exposing the right side of his body to a devastating side-kick that impacted against his ribs. Lee stumbled back afterward, managing to free his left leg from Naruto's hold.
"What was that about a wager?" He heard Kurenai ask.
"Ha, you've got quite the sharp tongue on you today," Guy answered. "But I think you should keep watching."
'Keep watching?' Naruto thought, twisting over to look at them. 'What is there to watch? There's no way he'll be getting back up from something like-'
Naruto's body involuntarily tensed for the first time since the fight began. He quickly jumped back to create some distance from his previous location, turning to look back at Lee with visible panic.
The boy was just now starting to stand from where he had landed, and there was nothing different about his chakra flow – the same mediocre, mid-genin level strength Naruto had noticed before. 'If that's the case,' He swept some sweat from his brow. 'Then why the hell do I feel like this?!'
"Uzumaki-san, I know I've already said this," Lee began speaking while wiping off some of the dust that had settled on his jumpsuit. "But I really am glad to have picked you as my eternal rival," Their eyes met, and Lee's grin was confronted with Naruto's scowl. "It's been a long time since I've wanted to go all out on a fight."
"You-!" He began to growl, closing his eyes to calm himself before he could say anything else. 'It doesn't matter. I'm quitting after this anyway.' He told himself, opening them again. "Fine. Then show me what you have while you still can."
"One second!" Lee announced, turning to the side and jumping up at the hand-shaped statue. Every eye in the room was on him at that moment, while he crouched down on top of the Ram sign and began to fiddle with his clothes, taking out what seemed to be weighted vests from underneath his warmers.
'That's it?' Naruto thought. 'His master plan to take back the fight was taking out what, twenty kilos of weights? Man, I really should have forfeited.' He sighed. 'Fine, I'll end this quickly, and then after Kiba and Hinata have their matches, I'll have a talk with the old man. What the hell was I thinking?'
"Ah, thanks for waiting, Uzumaki-san," Lee said, standing straighter while holding the weights with one hand. "I feel much better now."
"Yeah, whatever you-"
His sentence was interrupted when Lee let go of the weights.
A massive dust storm was kicked off once they hit the ground, more violent than when Naruto had destroyed the ceiling, and once it cleared off, everyone got a good look at the crater that had been formed as a result.
Naruto would have been staring at it, wondering just how the hell a human body could handle such weight in the first place if he hadn't sensed Lee moving toward him.
Quickly.
Not having the time to dodge, Naruto widened his stance to gain a greater sense of balance, shifted most of his chakra to his arms, and raised them both in a high-guard to protect his head, where Lee's trajectory was taking him.
It would have been a successful block if the boy hadn't suddenly kicked at the ground to redirect himself while in mid-air. Before Naruto could even process what had just happened, the full brunt of his opponent's attack crashed against his stomach. Naruto was sent skidding across the arena before he managed to dig his feet on the ground to slow down his advance.
But Lee was already upon him again by that point, returning the favor for the earlier strike with a side-kick of his own. Naruto felt at least two of his rib-cages give way to the impact. 'Holy shit!'
"Get him, Lee!" Tenten shouted from the stands.
"Naruto-kun!" and "Naruto!" Came from where he knew Hinata and Kiba were, shortly followed by Jack's drawn-out "Oh?"
"What the-!" Kurenai exclaimed, leaning in to see what was happening while Naruto hastily moved to defend himself, always one step behind Lee's ruthless assault. "How could he-?!"
"It's quite simple," Guy answered just as Naruto failed to block another attack. He made a quick feint toward his solar plexus, one that Naruto couldn't ignore, before pulling his fist back and dealing out a devastating uppercut that slammed against his chin. "Naruto-kun is quite talented. From what I've seen, he could even be called a prodigy of Taijutsu. But Lee's a genius of the rarest order - one made out of hard work and effort."
There was no pause for Lee's chain of attacks. Every strike Naruto managed to block was answered with three that he couldn't as they darted across the arena with inhuman levels of speed.
'Yeah, he's a genius alright!' He thought, tasting the blood that was building inside of his mouth. 'How the hell do I get out of this?! he's made me into a fucking pinball!'
That was when an idea came into his head. A move he hadn't really practiced before but was based on something he had done earlier out of instinct. He didn't know if it would work as he intended, but anything was worth considering when he was losing that badly. 'Twenty percent!'
Lee's next attack - a straight punch headed toward Naruto's chin - was stopped when the boy raised one of his legs in a knee-guard to protect himself. Before he - or any of the other spectators - could even register what had just happened, Naruto twisted his ankle, aiming his toes at Lee's throat before firing off a straight-kick toward it.
"Woah-!" Lee exclaimed before throwing his upper-body back to avoid getting his trachea destroyed. A poor choice on his part, as Naruto quickly brought down his foot in an ax-kick aimed yet again at the other boy's groin. Lee rolled out of the way and tried to sweep out Naruto's legs from underneath him, but the redhead had already jumped over his attack.
Lee moved before he could hit the ground, propping his body up with both hands behind his back while lashing out with one of his feet to kick him in the head. Naruto dodged the attack by swirling his head, setting off with a soccer kick aimed at Lee's liver as soon as one of his feet touched a solid surface again. Thinking quickly, Lee used his hands to do a back-flip, landing a few feet away from Naruto while raising his guard.
Naruto never felt as fast in his entire life. His solution to Lee's increased speed had been to redirect forty percent of his chakra to his legs, twenty for each limb. While that would leave the rest of his body unprotected, it more than leveled their playing field.
"Holy shit!" He heard Choji exclaim.
"Keep at it, Naruto!" Kiba yelled with everything he had.
The boy's shouting was mirrored by Hinata's own, and Naruto was surprised to hear a slow series of claps coming from where Jack was standing.
"Alright, I'll admit," Naruto said, reaching to undo the bandages on his right hand. "You're pretty good."
A grin from Lee was the only response he got.
One second passed before they re-engaged. Naruto was the one to start, sharply kicking at Lee's left knee once they were close enough to touch each other. The boy shifted his stance, making it so that his right leg was in front and making Naruto miss before setting out on a straight kick aimed at the underside of Naruto's chest. He weaved underneath it, throwing out a left-hook at Lee's chin while he did.
And so their battle continued, each boy going for sharp, precise strikes while dancing out of each other's attacks. Small cuts appeared on their bodies, where their skin brushed against each other.
Lee had been about to step in with a headbutt that would have broken Naruto's foot when something white appeared in his vision. The genin wasted no time in swatting it away, only to have something wet cover his eyes instead; blood that Naruto had flicked at his way from his now uncovered hand.
'NOW!' He thought. 'FIFTY PERCENT!'
Directing five percent of his chakra toward both of his hands, Naruto reached out to grab Lee by his collar, pulling the boy toward him while kneeling his stomach. Maintaining his hold on the boy's clothes even as he bent inward to vomit out a mixture of blood and bile, Naruto went on to finish his sequence; two hooks to his sides, another kick to the groin, a rising elbow to Lee's chin, a headbutt to his nose, and finally, a long sweep at his legs.
Lee fell to the ground, gasping for air, and Naruto quickly followed, rearing back a punch while launching himself off of the floor.
Being quick to recover seemed to be something the two boys had in common, though, and Lee had already been wiping off the blood from his eyes with one hand while using the other to throw himself at Naruto with both feet to keep him away.
In one succinct movement, Naruto used Lee's feet as a platform and flipped himself out of the attack's way, landing a few feet away while cautiously watching his opponent.
"Hey, come on!" Tenten shouted from above. "Didn't you want to have a fair fight?! What the hell was that?!"
"He's got blood too, doesn't he?!" He shouted back just as Lee once again began to stand from the ground. Their momentary stalemate had finally been broken as the boy showed some of the first signs of external damage - bruises and cuts that covered his face and everywhere else Naruto had hit him.
"It's fine, Tenten-chan!" The boy said while spitting out what seemed to be a tooth. He turned to grin at her. "I'm just getting started!"
"Oh?" Naruto asked. "Don't get cocky now."
"I promise I'm not." Lee turned to his teacher. "Guy-sensei, I'm going to use that."
Guy laughed. "It doesn't sound like you're asking me for permission, Lee."
"I'm not!" He replied while undoing the bandages surrounding his wrists. Naruto knew he should have been attacking the boy right there and then, while he was defenseless, but a large part of him wanted to see what he was about to do. He settled for lowering his center of gravity and leaning forward while facing Lee just as the boy continued to speak. "Because if I don't use that against someone like Uzumaki-san, there's no way I'll be able to win!"
'Wait, I thought he couldn't use Ninjutsu?!' Naruto's mind raced as he saw all of Lee's chakra gather on the right side of his head. "What the hell are you-?!"
"Here I go, Uzumaki-san!"
It took him a good while to understand what had happened. One second, Lee was standing there in front of him, chakra swirling around his body like a whirlwind.
And in the next, Naruto's body was being sent flying through the arena with what felt like an enormous weight slamming itself against his stomach.
'Not...weight...!' His mind struggled to work with the pain assaulting his body. 'His...foot!'
Just as he was going to hit the wall, Naruto felt another spike of chakra behind him, briefly followed by a hit to the back of his head. His vision had just begun to blur when Lee shook him awake with a kick that hit the bottom of his chin and sent his body flying upward.
Kick after kick followed, targeting different parts of Naruto's body, from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, all the way until he and Lee were about to hit the ceiling. That was when the boy used his unwrapped bandages to wrap Naruto's body into a cocoon.
Naruto only realized what the boy meant to do once his body was angled to hit the ground like a dart.
"Take THIS!" Lee yelled while beginning to spin him, forcing their bodies to acquire a bullet-like trajectory while rapidly accelerating toward the ground. Naruto tried to break free, but it was a wasted effort. "Initial..."
Finally, he managed to push his hands together just as Lee finished calling his attack.
"LOTUS!"
Lee and his 'package' crashed on the arena floor, creating yet another crater on its already ruined surface. At the same time, Kiba and Hinata let out horrified gasps.
It was only when the dust settled again that everyone in the arena noticed nothing was being held by the bandages but already destroyed rocks.
"EIGHTY-!" Naruto called from behind Lee. The boy turned, movement more sluggish than before, but his opponent had already thrown his punch. "PERCENT!"
Naruto's knuckles crashed against the boy's arms, briefly intercepted by his desperate attempt at defense, but the effort was in vain. A horrified shriek came from the audience - Naruto couldn't tell from who - as both of Lee's arms were bent inward with an audible 'crack.'
The boy was sent crashing into one of the walls, body being hidden by the crater that was formed as a result.
But Naruto wouldn't dare put his guard down. He could feel Lee's energy from inside of the hole. That was why he knew that the boy wasn't finished with their fight just yet.
His suspicions were proven right when the boy stumbled out, displaying an exposed fracture to their audience. Lee grunted before kneeling on the ground and hastily fixing his own arms in a gruesome display of will.
"Why didn't you... follow up on your attack... Uzumaki-san?" He asked between some heavy panting.
"Simple," Naruto answered, raising a finger. "First, I thought I had you pegged after the fight began, but you got a whole lot faster after that kick. Then you took off those weights, and I couldn't even see you for a bit. And now I don't even know what you did, but it took everything I had to get that hit in." He pointed the finger at Lee. "You're still holding back, aren't you? There's still more from where that came from."
Naruto lowered his knees and extended his arms, as if inviting Lee for a hug. A grin settled in his face, and he could feel every single muscle in his body tensing. "Show me everything you have, Lee-san!"
Lee blinked at him before rearing his head back with laughter. "Oh, Uzumaki-san, you're the best." He said, wiping off a tear from his eye before settling on an odd stance. "I can honestly say I've never fought someone like you before in my entire life," His stare gained a sharp edge to it. "Prepare yourself."
Up in the stands, Kakashi Hatake's exposed eye widened as he turned to his comrade in shock. "Guy, did you-?!"
Lee's teacher crossed his arms and nodded. "That's right, Kakashi."
Kurenai looked between them, clearly confused. "Did what?"
Kakashi ignored her. "How many?"
"Five."
"FIVE?! To a genin?! Guy, that's-"
"Keep your eyes on the fight, Kakashi, Kurenai." Guy admonished with a smirk. "Or else you'll miss it."
Naruto heard those voices, but none of their words registered with him. Lee crossed both arms on top of his head and was now generating an absurd amount of chakra that surrounded his body. To Naruto, it felt just like standing in front of a titanic waterfall, and he felt every single hair on his body stand on end as his grin widened. 'Come on... don't keep me waiting!'
"Watch this, Uzumaki-san!" Lee shouted at the top of his lungs, just as the chakra vortex around him reached its peak. Naruto didn't even think about what he was doing when he shouted out, "ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!" and felt his own power surface around him. The strain it took on his body was diminished by the sheer adrenaline and exhilaration running through his veins. "LET'S GO, LEE!"
Suddenly, for a brief moment that lasted less than one-tenth of a second, Lee's chakra was reduced to a single point, smaller than a needle's head, right beneath his throat. Then it exploded outward, twice as strong.
"THE THIRD GATE - THE GATE OF LIFE... OPEN!"
Naruto felt as if he was being blown back by the combination of energy and wind that escaped Lee's body. The boy's skin had reddened beyond recognition, veins threatening to escape his head while his eyes were reduced to pure white.
"THE FOURTH GATE - THE GATE OF HARM... OPEN!"
He felt nothing but pure awe when Lee's body repeated the same process again, only the chakra gathered around his solar plexus rather than his throat before his power quadrupled in size.
The first thing he felt was the punch to his stomach. Then the world exploded around him as the arena's floor was kicked up from Lee's movement. Everything but the statue was immediately destroyed, and the burst of wind and dust was so strong that almost every single audience member was thrown off of their feet.
The trail of blood he vomited he could just barely keep up with his flying body. By the time Naruto blinked once, Lee had already hit him over five times. If he could have looked down on his own body, Naruto would have seen the imprint of his fists spread across his flesh and clothes.
'Fast!' The thought surged just as Lee punched him in the cheek. Naruto felt several of his teeth break while his body was launched to the side. 'I can't even-!' Another blow made him lose his consciousness for four seconds before he was awakened by a kick. '-see him!'
Lee's body slowed down for a minuscule amount of time as the two genin fell through the air, and Naruto got a good look at his face. Angry and focused, but also hiding a tremendous amount of pain behind it. 'I guess that attack has some real blow-back to it, huh?' He thought with startling calmness. 'What a guy. Wait, didn't I do something like that too? Yeah, I remember now...'
He was grabbed by the collar and pulled into a headbutt. Naruto didn't even have time to yell out in pain after feeling his nose and both orbital bones being broken by the impact.
Naruto smiled. 'Man, I was being such a moron... of course what I liked was never the fighting itself...'
Only three people in the arena, using their bloodline-enhanced eyes, could see what was happening with Naruto's chakra system. First, he concentrated it all on the right side of his skull, feeling some odd feedback while Lee beat the living daylights out of him.
'What I liked was...'
It felt like a keyhole, and Naruto moved on to shape his energy after the matching key.
"It can't be!" Kakashi yelled. His fellow Jonin turned toward him, startled by the rare display of emotion.
'What I liked was...'
He pushed the key in. Lee reared back his arm.
'Was...'
Lee threw his punch. Naruto turned the key.
'WINNING!'
Another explosion of power rocked the arena, only this time, it was coming directly from Naruto's body. A surprised Lee ceased his assault on instinct as Naruto recomposed himself.
"This is the first gate, huh?" He muttered, almost too low for anyone else to hear. He raised his bloodshot eyes to meet Lee's white ones with a grin. "That means the second one would be... here."
Locating the second point was much easier, and soon the key had been turned again. Naruto's full output - which was already larger than what most ninja could accomplish in their entire lives - doubled.
"And now..." He crossed his arms on top of his head. Lee was already running toward him, destroying even more of the arena as he did. In the stands, Guy stared at the scene with frightened awe. "I can't believe this..."
"Can't believe what?!" Kurenai demanded, turning toward him. "Guy, what's happening?!"
"I... was wrong... Naruto Uzumaki..."
Lee's fist was less than an inch away from his body. Naruto located the third point and put his entire being into opening it. "The third gate - the gate of life..."
"...Is a genius of hard work as well."
"OPEN!"
It felt as if every single cell in his body was about to explode. The wave of chakra that came out of Naruto's body was almost big enough to fill in the entire room, and it continued to swirl around him like a never-ending vortex, clashing against Lee's own and destroying everything around them while doing so.
Naruto didn't even think about what he was doing while stepping forward and sending out his fist to meet his opponent's. Cracks began to appear in the arena's walls once they met.
"HOKAGE-SAMA, WE NEED TO GET YOU TO SAFETY!" One of the chunnin exclaimed to Sarutobi as he continued to watch the match with a gaping mouth.
"So, Lee..." Naruto said as he and the boy threw a punch with their spare hands. Once again, they met in mid-air, and the impact was strong enough to make their heels dig into the concrete floor. His grin widened. "Let's dance!"
"WHAT - HOW - WHAT IS HE DOING?" Hinata yelled out as she began to be escorted out of the building by Kurenai.
"WHO CARES?" Kiba countered while struggling to free himself from the Jonin's hold. "SHOW HIM HELL, NARUTO!"
Both of the boys reared their heads back.
The building's walls finally crumbled under the pressure.
They head-butted each other at the same time, eyes meeting and refusing to move from each other.
That moment was all that they needed to take the fight to the next level. The world became a blur around Naruto as he and Lee darted across the air while the ceiling collapsed down at them. Once again, he was barely aware of what he was doing, besides trying to punch Lee before he was punched - to kick him before he was kicked, to hit him before he was hit. Every time their strikes connected, all of the debris falling toward them was immediately destroyed until nothing was left but dust.
"LEE!"
"NARUTO!"
Their screams coincided with a straight punch from each boy hitting their faces at the same time, arms crossing over each other while their heads were sent back. Naruto felt every single muscle in his right arm be destroyed at the same time, and saw that Lee's body was undergoing the same amount of damage.
The two boys were sent away from each other by the impact of their own punch, and a quiet moment passed between the two before they launched themselves at each other again. 'My right arm's gone... but that doesn't matter...!' Naruto thought, rearing his left back. 'BECAUSE I STILL HAVE THIS!'
Once again, they hit each other's faces at the exact same time, and once again, Naruto felt a tremendous amount of pain as his body was torn apart by his own power. Lee underwent the same, and yet again, they threw themselves back into the fight.
Naruto felt white begin to cover his vision as their kicks met in mid-air, shattering each other's shins.
'I'M NOT DONE YET!' Naruto screamed in his own mind, grasping onto his consciousness with every last fiber of strength he could muster. 'IF I PASS OUT NOW, I'LL FORGET EVERYTHING! I NEED TO KEEP MY EYES ON HIM!'
Standing there, in the ruined remains of the arena, exposed to the forest of death's grey skies while fighting for his life, Naruto realized he had never felt so happy in his entire life. Supporting his weight on a broken leg, he never took his eyes off of Lee's own, and the boy was courteous enough to return the favor.
'If this is my last fight...!' The boy thought when he finally made the final jump, Lee following in his stead. 'If I die after this...!'
There was no semblance of defense to either of them. Both genin knew it wouldn't matter in the least.
"THEN I'D BE GLAD YOU WERE MY LAST OPPONENT!"
The whiteness overcame him in the very same second their last hit connected.
Gone was the ruined landscape around them. Naruto saw himself and Lee stand in the middle of a white vastness, all signs of damage completely gone from their bodies. The boy said something to him, and Naruto knew he had replied to him in some way, but all he could hear was silence. Then Lee extended a hand toward him, and he shook it with a smile. Out of the entire exchange, there were only two words he ended up hearing.
"Friends?"
"Friends."
The back of his foot hit Lee's chin at the exact same time the black-haired boy's impacted against his temple.
That was when all of the power he had been feeling was cut off, like a puppet without its strings, and all Naruto was left with was the never-ending pain. He fell face-first to the ground, and could feel both of his eyes closing against his will.
"No..." He muttered, planting one of his feet on the ground. "No..." He punched the floor, using the momentum to pull his body up. "Lee's not done yet...!" Another punch. He spat out what felt like a gallon of blood, just as he raised his head. "I'm not done yet!"
But he saw nothing but Lee's motionless body lying by the floor a few feet away from him. Naruto blinked at the sight, confused. Weren't they just having a fight? Hadn't Lee just pushed him to his most extreme limits?
"..Inner...U...Maki!" He heard a familiar sounding voice say from behind him. Naruto turned, surprised to see Hayate looking back at him.
"What...did you say?"
He saw a flurry of movement. A team of white-robed ninja rushed out from the tower and gathered around Lee's body before putting him in a stretcher. The boy's teacher, as well as his two teammates, were quick to follow. "Wait..." He protested weakly, extending a hand toward him. "We're not... done! Lee hasn't... lost yet!"
That was when he felt something hit him in his back. Naruto turned around, ready to deal with an attack, but saw nothing but Hinata's face pressed against his body, tears running down her eyes. She looked up at him, the brightest smile he had ever seen in her face.
"Ou've...On...Kun!"
Kiba was next to approach him, wildly gesturing with his arms and seemingly shouting at the top of his lungs. He had never seen the boy seem so excited, not even the most blood-pumping action movies their local theater had to offer.
Kurenai followed shortly behind him. The woman's face seemed to be locked in an expression of pure shock, alternating between Naruto and the ruined building around them. He saw Kiba turn toward her, shouting about something or another before pointing at Naruto with a big, dumb smile on his face.
But then he felt something settle on his shoulder. Naruto turned around to see Sarutobi standing behind him, a lit pipe on his mouth.
"Congratulations on your victory, Naruto-kun. I must say, I've never seen anything quite like it."
"I've...won?" He repeated before the realization of what had just happened finally hit him. Naruto threw both arms above his head while shouting at the sky.
"I'VE WOOOOOOOOOOON!"
A/N: And that's that! I've been looking forward to writing this fight ever since this fic began, and I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
As for my promise of getting this chapter out sooner than the last one - I honestly didn't expect it to be this large, and my internet was down for the last week, so I couldn't upload it. Some grammatical errors might have gotten through my proof-reading, and if they did I'm sincerely sorry. If anything is too jarring for you, please let me know in the reviews and I'll try to edit it out as soon as I can.
Thank you for the favorites, follows, and reviews. We've finally broken the one-hundred mark for the followers of this fic and that's absolutely insane to me. The story's just getting started, so I'll see you next time!