Chapter Twenty-Four
The next twenty-seven days passed in a blur of training, preparation, and rest for those fighting in the Chunin Exams Tournament. All of them were anywhere between concerned and nervous about various match-ups, especially higher in the brackets, and had worked to cover as many weaknesses as they could.
Finally, the chosen date arrived, and it found the ten potential chunin waiting in a line to the cheers, boos, and other sundry noises of a crowd out for action. Ken briefly wondered if the Hidden Grass, or any minor village for that matter, had more business opportunities than when hosting a Chunin Exam. There had to be several thousand people in this arena that had apparently been built for this exact purpose, quite a few of them obviously wealthy. It seems acting as the host village for the exams had benefits other than home-field advantage.
As the time for the tournament drew closer, the heads of the other participating villages or higher delegates arrived in the leaders' box, along with various bodyguards. Lord Hiruzen, accompanied by Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy, took his seat along with the leader of Kusa, the Fourth Raikage A, delegates from Kiri and Ame, and young Shibuki of Taki — as well as all of their bodyguards.
"Ah, Midori," Hiruzen greeted the village leader, "it is good to see you again."
"Lord Hokage," Kusa's village head, Midori, grunted semi-politely. He nodded to each of the other village heads and delegates who mostly ignored him, or in A's case tightened his lips in silent irritation at sitting with those he considered of lesser station. Shibuki at his age of sixteen, was the only one who nodded back.
"Welcome and salutations to all!" Midori cried as he stood and addressed the crowd. He gave a short speech explaining the Exam before gesturing to the center of the arena where the participants stood, handing it off to the proctor.
"You all know the rules," the proctor said gruffly, "but I suppose a refresher couldn't hurt. The matches will go on until one fighter forfeits or is rendered unable to fight. Should that happen I will call the match, in which case the fight is over. Any who try to keep going after that will be automatically disqualified," he smirked a bit, "and their village shamed."
As the participants squirmed under that thought, the proctor ordered those who were not fighting first to make their way to the participants' box, leaving the first pair of contestants: Hotaru Hyuga and Niko Saisentan. After the others had made their way to the box, the kunoichi from the Leaf and Cloud stood before each other, each sizing the other up.
Hotaru narrowed her eyes at the second member of Hidden Cloud that she would be facing, as if the universe was trying to remind her of the village's crime against her clan that had led to the death of Hizashi Hyuga in place of his older brother, Lord Hiashi. The thought of such an injustice, of the head of the branch family being forced to take his elder twin's place, made her curl her fingers in fury. Fury that she compressed into a ball in the pit of her stomach to use during the match.
Niko, as it turned out, was thinking along similar lines. She vividly recalled her teammate's genjutsu being dismantled by this white-eyed girl, a member of the clan her village had gone out of its way to obtain. Personally, she thought the scheme the Lord Raikage had devised was foolish to the extreme. But seeing this Hotaru Hyuga and her all-seeing eyes at work had shown her a glimpse of why they had done so.
"Fighters ready?" the proctor asked, to which they both nodded. "Hajime! Fight!"
Niko drew both of her swords in a flash, channeling Lightning chakra down and through them as easily as breathing. She closed the distance to Hotaru and wheeled through katas and combinations of sweeping and whirling hacks and slashes, interspersed with jabs, that kept Hotaru from being able to attack back.
Hotaru, on the other hand, backpedaled, bobbed, and wove to evade Niko's offensive. She recalled Hoheto's words of advice for the beginning of the match: "Though I am a learned swordsman, I do not know everything. Your opponent likely uses a style very different from mine, and so you must learn to anticipate that style. So take your time and observe. You are a sharp child, you will find her flaw."
Hotaru carefully timed Niko's attacks, searching for predictable patterns or the briefest openings. She hissed as she flubbed a dodge, the electrified blade of Niko's wakizashi passing close enough for her to feel the tingle of the current. Hotaru hissed and leapt back to get some distance, mind racing.
'This isn't working,' she thought. She couldn't strike with the Gentle Fist or else lose a limb to those sweeping strikes. On a whim, Hotaru palmed some shuriken from her weapons pouch and threw them, but Niko swept her swords and sliced them out of the air, the Lightning chakra coursing through them shearing through the steel like soft wood.
'She's got too much coverage,' Hotaru rationalized. 'If I could only get behind her, I-' Her thoughts immediately latched onto that idea and she came up with a quick plan. Reaching for her weapons pouch again, she tossed a smoke bomb. When the bomb detonated and covered the arena with its grey screen, Niko was blinded … but Hotaru's all-seeing eyes were not. It was a fairly common use of their eyes, but this was about more than blinding Niko.
It was about how she approached the swordswoman.
Hotaru darted to the side as silently as she could and palmed another shuriken. When she drew level with Niko's back, who had been slowly rotating to be ready for a ranged attack, she tossed her shuriken. As expected, Niko spun at the sound of the metal stars whistling through the air and struck them out of the air again on sheer reflex. Hotaru took note of the fact that Niko had clearly practiced her chakra flow to the point she could get that current going within an instant to preserve her chakra reserves, which she had to admit was impressive.
"Nice try, Hyuga!" she called out, even as the smokescreen began to fade. "But going for the back is so predictable!"
Though the words were bold and confident, Hotaru's eyes could see the truth. Sweat was beading on Niko's brow, her expression twisted with tense dread. And if that weren't obvious enough, she could see her opponent's chakra system and its flow. Her chakra network was agitated; not the obvious fluctuations of a genjutsu, but the subtle agitation of fear. Niko was afraid of her.
With that in mind, Hotaru hardened her gaze and tossed another smoke bomb to renew her cover. This next part was a bit of a gamble. She prepared some more shuriken in one hand and a kunai in the other. Drawing level with Niko's front, she tossed the shuriken at her while throwing the kunai in an arc over her. The whistling of the steel stars drew Niko's attention and she once again cut them away.
Then the kunai landed a few feet behind her and, through those honed reflexes, she spun to deflect an incoming attack. She seemed to realize her mistake within a moment, but by then it was too late. Hotaru had started moving the moment the knife hit the ground.
Hotaru, with full view of her opponent, struck out at Niko's exposed back with a flurry of palm strikes that crippled her chakra network from behind. With the last decisive strike, the force sent Niko reeling out of the fading smoke screen and tumbling across the ground to stop in a heap.
Hotaru stayed where she was and watched as Niko tried to stand, using her katana as a makeshift cane, but her muscles were trembling and she collapsed back to the ground with a pained grunt. "Ow," she groused.
The proctor landed beside her and checked her vitals. "Niko Saisentan is unable to continue! The winner is Hotaru Hyuga!"
Hotaru took a moment to bask in her victory with a faint smile before resuming her clan's trademark aloofness and returned to the participant's box.
"A remarkable showing," Midori commented tersely.
"I agree wholeheartedly," Hiruzen said with a smile. "The Niko girl showed true aptitude for chakra flow. And if I am not mistaken, she altered a typical Cloud sword style to adapt to a famed taijutsu style."
"Spare your hollow praises, Hokage," A growled, his hands trembling with suppressed anger. "She failed, plain and simple." His lips tightened again as he focused on the Hyuga who had defeated one of his villagers. "It seems the white eyes of the Leaf remain as perceptive as ever."
Hiruzen's expression turned cool as he glanced at the towering man beside him, a small analytical part of him running simulations of conflict between them. "Yes they do. The Hyuga have always been skilled at using their gifts wisely." Hiruzen recalled the roster and looked back to the arena with another smile, this one more chilly than warm. "And if that match brought some old memories to mind … I fear the next will drudge up ghosts."
"Get ready, Kit," Tomoko said close to Naruto's ear. "Red's coming up next."
Naruto looked ready to explode with excitement as he held in his urge to scream and shout support to his cousin. Tomoko had suggested he save his cheering for the end of Ken's first match for maximum surprise. Or, if he seemed in serious trouble, she told him to cheer Ken on to show he wasn't alone in the match.
Tomoko smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, though the sight of his cheeks free of his whisker streaks, carefully hidden under a layer of makeup, made the expression fade a bit. Danzo had apparently demanded they take some precautions, and Uncle Hiruzen had begrudgingly agreed that Naruto's cheek marks were too unique and too easy to hide to let them be shown. Tomoko brushed aside her faint annoyance at the politics and focused on the upcoming match.
Unbeknownst to both of them, someone else across the way was just as focused on the next match. Little Karin opened her mind's eye and expanded her perception to get another look at the so-called Ken Uzumaki. She gasped at the familiar sense of his chakra, so similar to hers and her mother's. Then, at the edge of the arena near the Kage booth, she blinked at the feeling of yet another familiar chakra.
Could there be more …?
Ken took his place before the swordswoman of Kikigakure, keeping a carefully straight face in opposition to her cruel and confident sneer. He felt the familiar stirring of anger and injustice in his belly at the thought of the aptly named, in his opinion, "Bloody Mist" village. He glanced up at the Kage box at the ambassador who had come in place of Yagura. It didn't matter, really, as it had been the Third Mizukage, Kozui the Floodgate, who had led his village's part of the assault on Uzushiogakure.
Brushing that aside, Ken refocused on the match as the proctor readied them. "Fighters ready? Hajime! Fight!"
Asashi cackled madly as she drew her sword, the seal at Hiru's hilt releasing a wave of water that she slashed Hiru through, the water swirling and coalescing into a much larger blade than the preliminaries. This blade of water was more in line with the blades of the Swordsmen of the Mist.
"You didn't think I'd give my all against that sissy, did you?" Asashi asked. "Not that I think you'll be any better, Leaf boy. I just want to make sure we put on a good show before you say nighty night!" With that, she lunged and swung her sword, clearly meaning to cleave Ken in half.
Ken, however, had drawn his own sword, the black wakizashi engraved with sealing formulae he always used. And rather than merely stop the blade cold, Ken's sword slid along the edge of Hiru's water sheath, taking a swath of the water with it and narrowing her sword. Asashi narrowed her eyes before screeching a battle cry and whirling through katas, Ken keeping up but visibly struggling a bit against a sword specialist. But with every clash of their swords, another splash of water fell from Hiru's sheath until there was little left.
Asashi disengaged and leapt back, mind whirling. What was happening? She'd never seen a technique do this to Hiru, except-! Her eyes widened in realization and then narrowed in outrage at the dark coloration of Ken's sword.
"Earth nature," she spat. "Your sword is reinforced with Earth chakra flow."
"Indeed it is," Ken replied levelly. "It gives it greater weight and thus force behind my sword strikes," he explained, "but more important is its defensive properties. Flowing Earth chakra reinforces the steel to the hardness of diamonds." He smirked. "And it's advantageous against the Water nature."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ken lunged with deceptive speed and swung his wakizashi in a downward arc. Asashi instinctively parried head on, always having been confident in her sword's resilience. And the Earth nature flowing through his sword cut straight through the water sheath to break the sword cleanly in half at the hilt.
But he didn't stop there. In a move he had practiced with Aoba, Ken flicked a kunai carved with sealing script and slashed it through the water sheath, the sealing matrix absorbing the water in a flash before he disengaged and leapt backward for distance.
Asashi stared at the broken remains of Hiru in shock before it melted into fury. She cast the hilt of the sword away and drew a backup katana, its weight and balance comforting. But rather than reengage with swordplay, Asashi removed a scroll from her gear pouch and tossed it spinning into the air. The scroll, marked with a seal of its own, released a torrent of water to rain down upon the arena. Asashi flicked through a chain of one-handed seals that brought the water swirling around her before pouring at Ken in a massive wave of death.
So it turned out that sealing the water for her water sheath hadn't really helped.
But Ken hadn't been idle. He clapped his hands and wove his fingers into the Snake seal before slapping his hands to the ground and erecting a wall of stone, patterned like brick and carved with the Uzumaki swirl, as he liked to do. The deluge crashed against his Earth-Style Wall and was halted. And before the water had finished flowing back from the wall, Ken was leaping from the top of it and soaring through the air with his wakizashi.
Asashi gave ground for the first few attacks before channeling her rage and focusing it into force. She stopped giving ground, stopped playing defensively, and began pushing him back. She had realized during their first clash that she was the superior swordsman, and so she just had to capitalize on that. She screeched with determination as Ken slowly began to give ground of his own, his defense good but not good enough to avoid a half dozen shallow cuts.
Finally, Ken used a move he had also been practicing and twisted their swords together to lock them in place. Asashi cackled at a move of desperation and began the movement to disengage, but the feeling of cold steel at her throat gave her pause.
She glanced to the side to find a duplicate of Ken standing to her side, holding the point of a kunai at her throat. Several more points of pressure touched across her neck and torso. Wait a moment …
Ten points.
"Throat," one clone intoned.
"Spinal column," another said.
"Lungs," said a third. "Liver, jugular vein, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart." All five clones said a different very vulnerable part of the body in a list that Asashi knew all too well. A list of targets for the Hidden Mist Village's assassination technique of Silent Killing.
"You dare …?" Asashi spat, furiously wondering how he knew that list.
"I do, actually," Ken said. "I did my research growing up, just in case I was ever confronted by an assassin of the Hidden Mist." As one, the shadow clones pressed just a bit harder, the message clear. Even if she dispersed one of them, she would be fatally wounded before she could do anything else.
"Surrender, now," Ken said, his voice harder than the steel of his weapons.
Asashi's cheeks bloomed red with rage and humiliation. She looked for the briefest moment as if she would lash out from sheer denial and stubbornness, but just like after the preliminary match, her mad bloodlust seemed to drain away into cold disappointment. "I forfeit the match," she called bitterly.
"Ken Uzumaki wins the match!" the proctor called.
Ken released his shadow clones and nodded to Asashi before making his way back to the participants' box. All the while, he felt Asahi's cold glare on his back as she was escorted to the infirmary for a cursory inspection.
Naruto had stars in his eyes as Ken walked away from his opponent, who was escorted toward a different staircase. "Yeah! Go Ken Uzumaki!" he shouted, jumping to his feet. His cheers were drowned out by the spectators around him, but he saw Ken's head twitch in their direction as he climbed back to the participant's box.
"You think I should wait until the end of the tourney thing before I show him I'm here?" Naruto asked with a mischievous grin.
"I think he'd totally freak out," Tomoko grinned right back, ruffling his hair. "Now get ready, 'cause my baby brother is about to go on next."
Across the arena, Karin had her mouth covered with intermingled shock and joy. She'd been right! There was another Uzumaki! And a powerful one at that, given how well he did against that crazed Kiri kunoichi. She thought for a moment about rushing to tell her mother, but decided against it.
She wanted to see more of what her clansman could do, first.
And in the leaders' box, the Raikage's face had turned red with the fury he was barely holding back. A single report and a name were one thing, but that red hair was unmistakable. He recalled the stories his father had told him of the feared clan of redheaded sealmasters from the island surrounded by whirlpools, the one that A the Third had participated in the destruction of alongside scores of Hidden Cloud troops.
Perhaps it was foolish to think that the clan his father had once likened to cockroaches for their stubborn refusal to die on the battlefield could be so easily squashed by a mere invasion. He let the burning, comforting fury drain away and began to think about ways to contain this.
As Tomoko had predicted, the next match had Kato standing squared against Ren of Amegakure. Kato had a confident grin on his lips and his fingers were curling inward and back out, itching to grab his escrima sticks and begin. Ren's expression was harder to read with his goggles on and half of his face hidden behind the hem of his poncho, but his fingers danced in a similar way to Kato's, clearly itching for his own weapon.
"Hajime! Fight!"
In a flash, Ren had his umbrella out and was swinging the closed device in a sharp arc that sent a wave of hardened wind with a razor edge hurtling at Kato. Kato's grin only grew wider as he clapped his hands into a Tiger seal and spat a sheet of flames to intercept the wind, the flames feeding upon the wind and growing more powerful as they hurtled toward Ren.
Ren formed a chain of hand seals and spat a current of wind that formed a vortex to shoot him upward — a redirected use of the Wind Release: Breakthrough — just soon enough to avoid the sheet of raging flames. At the peak of his flight, Ren opened his umbrella and coursed Wind Release chakra through its ribs and gently spun it to allow him to hover above the battlefield.
Kato smiled at this clever tactic and folded his arms in a simple ready stance. Ren narrowed his eyes behind his goggles and thought over these actions, considering everything he knew about his opponent. Kato had seemed honorable enough during the prelims, and it seemed in-character for him to wait for him to land. And from what he knew of the Sarutobi clan, which was admittedly little, it was consistent with their clan-wide reputation, too. Ren glanced at the Kage box at the most famed and feared member of that very clan, dressed in the white-and-red robes of Hokage.
As he slowly descended, Ren sighed and closed his umbrella to plummet back to the ground, cushioning his impact with chakra. He frowned a bit before speaking. "You could have blasted me out of the air at any time, couldn't you?" he said.
"Honestly? Yeah, probably," Kato replied with a shrug. "But where's the sportsmanship in that? Or the fun? Or the show for the crowd?" He chuckled and pulled out his escrima sticks. "If we both put on a good show, there's no reason we can't both be promoted. So let's kick some ass!"
He rushed forward and Ren charged to meet him. They spent a few minutes engaged in close combat, Kato's iron kali sticks against Ren's reinforced umbrella. Kato had to admit that the Ame nin was no slouch in close quarters, using the longer reach and razor point of his umbrella like a spear to keep some distance with sweeping elbows and stabbing thrusts.
After a while, though, Kato worried that it might be getting boring for the audience and jumped backward to disengage. He palmed a handful of shuriken and threw them, flicking through the seal combination for the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique to multiply them into a hail storm of razor steel. On sheer instinct, Ren opened his umbrella and swung upward, creating a razor wind that divided the rain of steel stars like an opening curtain.
Ren gaped for a moment at the pillar of flames hurtling toward him as the curtain parted, barely regaining his senses soon enough to leap to the side with a bad singe for his troubles. And like the prelims, the flames that hit the ground didn't stop burning, like a puddle of lit oil.
Ren's mind raced as he tried to figure out any counter to Kato's arsenal, all the while darting and dodging away from his continued barrage of semi-solid flames. Wind Release was out of the question, as it would no doubt just literally feed the flames of the Sarutobi's technique. He couldn't rush the Leaf nin, as he would be roasted before he could draw close. Wait a minute …
In a desperate gambit, Ren opened his umbrella and swept it along the ground, kicking up a curtain of dust for cover. He darted to his left and then toward Kato, readying his umbrella to jab like a spear. He saw a shape in the dust and struck-
But Kato had crossed his kali sticks and used them to knock Ren's jab upward and leave him wide open for a boot to the chest. The kick sent the Ame nin reeling and even more vulnerable to a quick combination of strikes to the wrist, jaw and chin. Ren collapsed into the dust, breathing heavily and barely keeping from curling up in pain.
"Well met, Ren of the Rain Village," Kato said. "If it makes you feel better, I think you'll be a great chunin."
The proctor called out for Ren's forfeit, which he answered with a silent and jerky wave of his arm. "Winner, Kato Sarutobi!"
"Well done, young Kato," Hiruzen said quietly to himself, with a warm smile.
"It would seem your famed talent was not a mere fluke, Lord Hokage," A growled reluctantly.
"We keep our children to high standards, I will admit," Hiruzen said. "But it is not just the clan name that makes a fine shinobi. Kato works hard and it is a joy to see that recognized."
A could only grunt in sullen acknowledgement.
The last round of the first bracket had finally arrived, pitting Yui Doi of Hidden Grass against Atsuen Raiun of Hidden Cloud.
The kunoichi had added a pair of leather gauntlets to her attire, clearly visible as she moved her goggles over her eyes with obvious determination. Atsuen sneered as he prepared his tekko knuckle dusters, casting a glance up to the leaders' box at Lord A before popping his knuckles.
"Fighters ready?" the proctor called. "Hajime! Fight!"
No sooner had the proctor started the match than Yui flicked through hand seals and sank into the ground with the Hiding Like a Mole Technique. Atsuen sneered and centered his stance, slowly turning in a circle as he awaited her next move. 'Just like the frigging prelims,' he thought. He had to admit it was a sound strategy; use the earth itself as your shield and drag your adversary into the rock where they would be helpless. It was simple and effective, something he could almost respect.
Almost.
Atsuen's instincts screamed at him and he leapt into the air to avoid Yui's lunge from beneath him. His tight flip brought him spinning down to deliver a devastating haymaker to his opponent — one that smashed her to pieces of compact mud.
'Mud clone,' he thought idly.
As he landed, Atsuen spun and punched another emerging mud clone into paste before pivoting and destroying another. He leapt back for room and watched as a few more mud clones rose out of the ground and the rest reformed themselves. He noted that the reforming clones were more blotchy and malformed than the others; they must have only a set amount of chakra put into their creation.
"Alright, let's go," he taunted with a wide, toothy grin.
The mud clones all screamed in challenge as they rushed him. Had they been a bit more defensive, they would have been able to stop themselves in the face of a new facet to Atsuen's style: his tekko began to glow and flicker with electricity. Atusen laughed as he battled the half-dozen mud clones. Unlike before, his punches were backed by Lightning chakra that disrupted the clones and prevented them from reforming.
When the last clone was left a pile of muck, Atusen's sneer had barely dimmed. "As much fun as it's been, I guess, I think it's time we end this." He flicked through a few hand seals before his right tekko began to flare with painful blue-white light and electrical buzzing. He jumped and swung his fist to the ground of the arena — and the stone exploded in a shockwave around him. Chunks of earth and stone were flung upward by the technique's impact, and among them were the ragdolled shape of Yui, who was screaming in agony.
Yui rolled along the ground as stones fell around her, twitching as sparks licked along her skin and whimpering like a wounded animal. Atsuen strode toward her with a swagger and placed his boot upon her chest, adding just enough pressure to make her gasp in agony. He flicked his purple scarf and glanced at the proctor.
"Yui Doi can no longer fight," he said. "The winner is Atsuen Raiun. There will be a ten minute recess until the next round of matches!"
"And how did you appreciate that, Lord Hokage?" A asked with a smirk.
"The boy has talent, clearly," Hiruzen relented. "But his methods seem … excessive. And the girl's showing was impressive enough in both skill and tactics. I do hope she earns a promotion."
"Whether or not the weakling is promoted, I will tell you this," A replied. "Atsuen is a member of one of the great clans of Kumogakure. The Raiun clan: the great thunderheads of the Hidden Cloud. And he is one of the best of his generation. There is no doubt he will be the victor of these Exams."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at A's implicit approval of the Raiun boy's brutality and clear arrogance. "We will see," he merely said.
Welcome back to Spirals, everyone! Hope the opening of the tournament was satisfactory - it was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting to write. If you have a favorite match, let me know in a review.
*I don't know if the idea of spectators being a huge business uptake in villages hosting Chunin Exams were addressed in canon, but it crossed my mind and so it's canon here.
*The leader of Kusa's name, midori, means "green". I thought it was appropriate.
*Hotaru's grudge against the main branch based on Hizashi's sacrifice is based upon my head canon that the majority of the entire clan believes that Hizashi was forced to take Hiashi's place. Only Hiashi himself, their father, and a select few other know otherwise. They don't go public because they are certain they will not be believed - just like with Neji.
*The time of Yagura's death was left incredibly vague in the manga, though the anime hinted it had been very recent in the Chunin Exam Arc. I'm working under the assumtion that he is still alive when Naruto is eight, but will not live much longer.
*The Third Mizukage has little to no real data in canon, not even a name - so I filled in the gaps myself. "Kozui" means "flood" or "flooding" and his title "The Floodgate" comes from masterful use of the Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave technique.
*Finally i get to reveal why Ken's black sword is unique! The seals engraved store and circulate Earth nature chakra so he doesn't have to consciously flow it while fighting. And, like all great fictional swords, it makes the blade virtually indestructible to anything except Lightning Release.
*The points are pulled directly from Zabuza's monologue in the Land of Waves arc. I thought it was delightfully ironic.
As always, I hope you enjoyed it and please, oh please, leave a review! May your inspiration ever flow freely!