Chapter 5

Naruto vs Izumi

Both combatants stared at each other as the arena was silent not even the crowd made a sound. Up in the kage booth, the kages were all gazing down in interest awaiting the signal for the attack to begin. Suddenly both Naruto and Izumi had atwitch in their finger and they took it as an invite to attack. They each threw one kunai which collided with each other with a loud CLANG echoing in the stadium. Pushing off the ground, both chunin hopefuls met each other at the centre of the arena and began their clash of taijutsu.

Izumi went for an uppercut which was dodged by Naruto as he stepped back so she attempted to sweep his legs out from under him. In response, Naruto jumped up and attacked her head with his right leg which Izumi blocked with her left elbow. Moving forward, Izumi grabbed onto her opponent's shoulder and flipped over him, in an attempt to throw him. As he was thrown, Naruto somersaulted and made a clone to throw him back down where he shoulder barged Izumi forcing her to take a couple steps backwards.

Izumi narrowed her eyes and her sharingan activated. Seeing this, Naruto immediately averted his gaze so that he wouldn't look into her eyes. Drawing his blade, Naruto swiped it horizontally and let out a blast of air which sped towards Izumi. Seeing the attack with her eyes allowed her to narrowly dodge the attack which just blasted past her into the stadium wall.

Not wanting to give Naruto another chance to attack, she quickly made hand signs and used 'fire style: fire ball jutsu' which was countered with Naruto using the same technique which caused both to be cancelled out. Taking the opportunity, Izumi threw ten kunai at him with some paper bombs attached. At seeing the kunai heading towards him Naruto threw his own kunai to deflect the ones thrown. He hit nine of them and the last one, which was hidden from sight, appeared next to him and he saw the tag light up and suddenly exploded right there.

"Naru-chan!" yelled out kushina from the stands in concern for her baby boy.

Landing on the ground and looking around to see where Naruto had gone, she was surprised to see him high up coming crashing down towards her with a straight right which she blocked with her forearm. Jumping back, Naruto sighed in relief and looked towards his opponent, ensuring that he did not look her in the eyes.

Dashing forward to keep the pressure on, they engaged in another taijutsu bout with the sharingan giving Izumi an edge and Naruto not landing as much hits as before. Becoming a bit frustrated at this, he thought to himself she has increased her speed so I will have to slow her down. Suddenly an idea popped into his head and a wicked smirk graced his face. He swung his blade at her, with the sharingan easily following the movement but did not pick up on Naruto's other hand reaching into his hip pouch and retrieving his brush that he uses for drawing seals with.

With his sword strike being blocked by a kunai, he quickly moved to draw the seal onto her forearm. The sensation caused izumi to jump back and look at her hand where she saw the black markings of a seal on it. Meanwhile, Naruto made a handseal and exclaimed FUIN!

In the stands, kushina grinned smugly as she looked at Mikoto who was still enamoured by the display of skill by her child and her student.

Down in the sands, as Naruto made his exclamation, Izumi's hand dropped down towards the ground and dropped to one knee. With too much weight pressing on her hand, she couldn't stand up so she settled for giving Naruto a patented uchiha glare.

Speaking up, she stated "good move, but you forgot one thing."

Confused, Naruto asked what was it he forgot.

"You looked into my sharingan eyes" was the only response he got before he was pulled into a genjutsu.

Having no time to ponder exactly when he looked into the eyes of his opponent, he immediately started to build up his energy so that he could break out of the illusion that he was currently trapped in.

As he gathered sufficient energy to break the illusion, he immediately released it resulting in the genjutsu being broken and the stadium walls and under his feet being riddled with spider cracks.

Looking towards his opponent, it seemed as though she had just broken through his seal as well so they both knew that they were on their last legs and that the next attack would probably be their last strike.

"One last move, winner take all?" questioned Izumi as she knew that both of them did not have much left in the reserves. Nodding in agreement, they both stepped back and began to prepare their final attack to see who is better.

Closing his eyes, Naruto took the time to remember his birth parents and what he inherited from his mother, venelana. The Power of Destruction, the highly valued power of the Bael clan that he got from his mother. As he took his trip through memory lane, his power flared up on his left hand as a coating. Naruto remembered his secret training to develop his inherited abilities and how he came up with two techniques beyond the most conventional usage of the Power of Destruction. One where he uses his ability and shapes it in the form of a blade which erases everything from creation which he dubbed his 'BLADE OF EXTINCTION' and the other is a simple coating on his hands for that extra power in his punches which, although not fully developed yet, would still give him an edge in today's final clash.

On the other side of the arena, Izumi was also powering up her last move. It was a fire attack which moves out as a punch [A.N. SIMILAR TO FIRE FIST ACE ATTACK FROM ONE PIECE. I DON'T OWN THAT I JUST USED IT AS AN ATTACK HERE]

Once both attacks were charged up sufficiently, they each push their arms out in the motion of throwing a punch with each yelling out the name of their attacks.

"FIRE FIST!" exclaimed Izumi as she pushed her arm out and the fire raced out in a massive stream towards Naruto.

"DESTRUCTIVE FIST" called Naruto as he let his attack loose which moved out in a massive wave towards the other attack.

As both attacks met each other, there was a struggle for dominance for a bit but Naruto's attack gained the edge relatively quickly and overtook the fire attack which forced Izumi to push more chakra into her attack which caused both attacks to go up in an explosion and displace the sands from the arena floor all around them.

Up in the spectator stands, kushina and Mikoto stood up and looked down into the stadium arena for their respective children with the hope that they were not injured gravely. The other members of the crowd were shocked silent as they too gazed onto the field hoping to get a glimpse of which one of the two young warriors would emerge victorious.

In the kage booth, each kage were surprised at the level of skill displayed by both Konoha genin with the kages of the other nations wondering just how talented the uchiha had to be to develop her attack. Similarly, all of the kages, hokage included, were dumbfounded by Naruto's attack and wondered just what the hell that was and if it was a new kekkei genkai as he was an Uzumaki to their knowledge and that clan always had secrets.

Down in the arena, the sand finally cleared and everyone saw that both combatants were on their knees panting as that last attack clearly took almost everything they had remaining in the tank. Soon Izumi looked at Naruto, smiled and said "you got me" before she drifted into unconsciousness and fell on her back on the sands. Meanwhile, Naruto just scoffed and responded "heh it seems that it was a close call" before he joined her in unconscious bliss.

Jumping back into the arena, Pakura gazed at both competitors and shook her head. Turning to the crowd, she declared the match over and the winner being Naruto Uzumaki from Konoha. At this announcement, the entire crowd erupted into cheers in appreciation of the spectacle of the match they had just bore witness to.

Mikoto and kushina both looked at each other before moving to the field to retrieve their children and take them to the infirmary. As they left the field, the feeling of pride washed over them since they were at least partially responsible for the display of skill shown here today, especially Mikoto. Pakura then announced the exams to be over with the final address from the kazekage stating that the respective kages would be handing out the promotions in their own village to those who have earned them. He then dismissed the crowd and nodded to his fellow kages before disappearing in a swirl of sand.

To be continued