Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: And, another really massive chapter. I'm afraid I may anger you readers a bit, since this chapter switches away from Neji for a moment (and with his team in a rather bad situation too) to go back to the other dragon ninja. There's a reason I did that though, and there's plenty in this chapter anyways. I'd urge people to pay attention to things that Xi is thinking, cause there's some hints about his past in here.
Reviewers: Orlha: apologies on the minor cliffhanger here, but I won't do this very often.
Hattuteline: there's not a lot of detail behind what Shiren and Neji have been practicing because it would be rather boring to describe. They have just been working together every night rather extensively. Sort of like how Kakashi and Sasuke trained for a month and we only saw one shot of it. Hmm...about that spoiler. I did try to reduce it somewhat when I rewrote the summary, but I think it would be kind of impossible to not mention such things entirely, and plenty of other stories here have had manga spoilers in the summaries. Still, I'll think about it.
Within the Ice
The snow swirled around Draci Xi, and the wind whipped up his short hair as he stood atop one of the few tall buildings in Hidden Stone, looking to the north, and the tall peak that was Mt. Kemigari. The Second Exam was now onto day two, though it had as yet been only perhaps eighteen hours since everything began. They did not make it through yesterday, Xi recalled sourly. I would have been notified.
It was not a pleasant thought, even though Xi knew that no team had likely made it through given the conditions of their start the day before. There would have been less than three hours before darkness fell, and in a blizzard. The record for blizzard conditions is six hours, and that team had two ninja whose eyes could see through pure darkness. So, they could still get there first.
It did not calm Xi's mind, or keep him from staring off toward that mountain. He was confident in the team, surprisingly confident, far more than he had ever expected to be of this mismatched group of genin he had cobbled together. They are a true team, something I would not have expected. It was a surprise to Xi, and equally surprising was his concern over their fate. All three ninja, even Gosain, a man would ought to have no connection to him, were someone he wanted to succeed. He knew their talents, and their ability to work together, if they failed it would be a chronic unfairness. Surely their luck is not this bad?
It was more than just concern for luck that had Xi worried; things were not as they should be here in the village of stone. There were dark currents in the town, and he had learned many things since yesterday. The Stone ninja were marshalling, though he could not say where they intended to go. They will launch no winter attacks, but this is a village that stands on the edge of a war. Why? Stone is strong, it could not be threatened now, certainly not in winter. Unless, and this was the thing that made Xi fearful. Unless the Akatsuki do something. A tiny rivulet of fear wrapped itself deep in the coils of Xi's gut. Nine ninja, and only two had been positively identified; though he was sure he knew the identity of a third. It would not be those two though, or her, but it could be any of the others. No one knows who commands that organization. It is surely not Uchiha Itachi. He is simply too young to have gathered such a group together. Besides, she is stronger than him, and she is not the leader, if it were she, I would have found her. There was some hidden mastermind in charge of the nine s-level criminals that represented the gravest threat to the ninja world, and Xi had no idea who it was. This disturbed him to no end.
The hand of that mastermind moves here in Stone, and some plot of the Akatsuki manipulates this exam. Some plot involving Hidden Waterfall. Xi shivered in the air, though the cold did not touch him.
Then he sensed a presence behind him, but did not bother to turn.
"Looking for your intrepid genin? How unlike you." The voice was jovial, but mocking.
"First Examiner, Special Jounin Chi Kiri, leader of the ultra-hostile environment reconnaissance and rescue squad. Teamwork specialist." Xi stated the list without inflection. "And a gossip whose come to bother a ninja better left in peace. You really should know better." He turned around and gave her a characteristic half smile, genuinely amused.
"To think that my presence would brighten your mood." Kiri laughed at him. "To find the legendary Draci Xi so openly in my village was a shock, to find him sponsoring a team of genin heart-stopping. I think Tsuchikage almost swallowed his tongue when he received the news."
"He certainly wasn't pleased to see me." Of course, Xi amended his words inside, that rocky old bastard never likes to see anyone.
"You know," Kiri came to stand next to Xi at the railing as she spoke. "I never thought you'd be the one to send a team of students here, and I certainly didn't think I'd have to modify my exam because of it."
"Modify your exam?" Xi raised an eyebrow.
"Where did you dredge up those three Xi?" Kiri asked him. "They're so strange and suspicious I had to except them as answers on my test. The one who leads them especially." She stared deeply into Xi's eyes, but Xi gave no obvious reaction. "He didn't move for over fifteen minutes during the exam, and got no information from his teammates, but he found the buried team of ANBU. Who the hell is this Draci Neji?"
He discovered the ANBU? Xi wondered. I'm impressed Neji, you're beginning to learn the full capability of those eyes you have. Xi mulled a bit before answering Kiri, not wanting to reveal too much. "He's a dragon ninja Kiri, did you think I would pick a weakling? I sponsored no genin for this exam, I sent you a team of chuunin who lack only the name portion of the rank."
"Sponsored no genin?" Kiri repeated. "I suppose you might be right, but we'll see. The hardest part is still going on. There were some real talented ones in the mix this time, I wouldn't be surprised if they had trouble."
Instead of instilling doubt, Kiri's words only strengthened Xi's belief in the team he had brought together. It's not my team, he knew, it is Neji's, and he is proving more and more competent. It was not simply luck that I found him clinging to life in the woods that day. I think the dragons had this in mind. He won't fail now. Xi gave Kiri a calm and quiet look, turning away from the mountain in the distance. "They will succeed, no simple test would stop any of those."
"I hope you're correct Xi." She answered.
What? The words fell onto the field of Xi's worry and the dragon ninja spun to stare into Kiri's eyes. "What?" He repeated out loud. "What is wrong with this exam? What do you know?"
Kiri hesitated and fell silent, her mouth clamping shut. No, you will not avoid answering so easily. Xi put two fingers to Kiri's side. "Answer me before I blow open a hole in your side, Chi Kiri. I'm not going to be toyed with."
"Fine Xi, have it your way." She spat at him and gave him a cold smile that conveyed every ounce of her anger. "Maybe this won't be just a test, there's something happening all right. All seven teams from Hidden Waterfall passed the first exam. They're out there now with your team. Waterfall is our ally, but certainly not yours, and I've heard you killed some of them not long ago. Those seven teams are out there with your team right now. Suspect something?" She laughed coldly into Xi's ear, dark and angry in her fury.
Xi let her go silently. "Apologies." He said without even thinking about it. Seven teams from Waterfall? Twenty-one genin? Neji. This is very, very bad. "You may have made a terrible mistake in allowing this to happen, examiner." Xi said, his voice terrible and frozen, his speech formalized.
"Why do you say that?" Kiri mocked.
"Twenty-one Waterfall genin versus my three, you have caused a bloodbath on that mountain I'm certain. Waterfall is your ally, I'm sure it will go badly with them if you let seven teams of their genin get themselves killed."
"You're confident." Kiri mocked him.
No, I'm not confident, that's simply one possibility, and likely a slim one. "Or, if it turns out you have allowed some conspiracy to kill my fellow dragon ninja." Xi said in a voice like naked steel. "I will have to pay the debt back to Hidden Stone in full."
Kiri blanched, and stepped back several steps, hardly able to control herself. "You wouldn't dare oppose us!" She managed, but it was weak.
Xi replied with a half-smile, his eyes were still cold.
"Regardless," Kiri began to croak out the words. "Regardless," She continued more steadily. "You will not interfere in the exam, no matter what happens."
The dragon ninja's head dipped just the slightest amount, but his eyes burned.
Kiri retreated from the rooftop.
For long minutes Xi stood staring at where she had gone, contemplating the deaths of three genin. I dragged them here in the snow, brought them out of their homes and safe places to this dangerous realm. Have I brought them to die? For eight long years Xi had traveled without companions, without anyone to fight with him. His decisions had affected no one but himself, whether in battle, in espionage, or in training. That had all changed when he became Neji's sensei, he now realized. I am now responsible for more than myself. He knew that the rash statement he had made to Kiri was the truth. Should they die out on that far mountain of some Waterfall and Stone conspiracy he would set all his strength to tearing apart both villages, and to finding the Akatsuki mind he knew was behind it. That is the price of having companions; you must accept what happens to them as your responsibility, Xi remembered the words now, those words that had dictated eight years of his existence. Once more he swore to uphold them even as the snow fell steadily about him.
"Worrying about your students?" A voice came from above. "You should worry about yourself."
Xi spun, and dodged right, but no attack came. Instead, he felt and then saw new arrivals.
Four figures took their place atop the roof with him. Four figures in the blue and brown garb of hidden waterfall, and brazenly bearing the forehead protectors of that village. They were three men and one woman, each with different weapons and a different stance, a full platoon of four ninja. Their eyes looked at Xi as if he were already dead.
"Four jounin from Waterfall, those who came with the seven teams from that village." Xi muttered, looking at them. He raised his head and spoke to the one who stood openly in the center, a tall man. "Isn't four jounin a little excessive?"
"It was determined that we should make absolutely sure neither you nor your measly little 'team' made it out alive." The man said openly. "You have quite the reputation, but no matter how strong you are you can't beat the four of us at once."
"What about my team?" Xi asked, not bothering to reply to the threat.
"It's seven on one. No matter how good they are there's no way to beat those odds, and in the snow nothing can match the Mizuho." The man laughed brutally. "Those genin are probably already dead."
Xi clenched his jaw shut tightly. No way to know. No way to do anything about it. Still, you're underestimating Neji you Waterfall ninja. You might know about Ryukin, but I doubt you know about Kidomaru. You don't know what lengths Neji will go to accomplish his mission. Another thing occurred to Xi then, and a half-smile crept back into his face as he stared at the man. "Wusashu." He said, loud enough for only himself to here.
A spasm of anger crossed the other ninja's face. "But you team doesn't matter." He said. "Since you won't survive another hour."
Xi looked down the line of four ninja. He began with the far right. "Hmm... ranged combat specialist," He noted the easily reached shuriken and lack of large weapons. "Genjutsu specialist." That was the next one, a shorter man with cold eyes and less physical development than the others. "Ninjutsu specialist," the woman on the far left who held a double-bladed kunai. Finally, the man Xi had been speaking with, a man with a long sword strapped to his back. "Taijutsu specialist. A pretty good platoon, no medical ninja, but that was a good choice on your part. You're right, four jounin is too much for me to fight at one time, too much even for a Kage. So I won't fight you at once." Xi's hands flashed though seals at an unbelievable speed. "Dragon's eye no jutsu!"
The dragon ninja's world went red, and the tendrils of fear became visible as those red-on-red eyes became his own. He saw the fear and projected it, wielding the otherworldly terror that a dragon, a spirit from beyond the minds of men, brings forth. For a second he injected the fear into the four jounin, only a second. He didn't have the chakra to use the jutsu to kill them, or even stun them all for long. They were too well trained. Yet for an instant they were stunned.
Twelve shuriken passed through Xi's body an instant later, when movement returned to the four jounin.
The body fell smoothly to the snow, and landed with a soft noise, blood leaking out.
Then it dissipated in a puff of smoke, to be replaced with a large rock.
"Damn you Xi!" The taijutsu specialist called. "But what does this buy you? We aren't foolish enough to separate, and there's no where to run except through snow and stone, our battlefields!"
Xi did not reply. He was already a great distance away and continuing to run. He heard the words though, and he knew his answer. You underestimate me, Waterfall ninja. Eight years alone had taught Xi excellent tactics, and in any place he stayed for one night he always found a place that would serve as his battlefield of maximum advantage. He knew that place now, here in Stone. He had scouted it that first night, before returning exhausted from avoiding one of these same jounin, he now recognized, and the cold. Yet you didn't prevent me, I have a battlefield, and you will discover what it means to make me your opponent. He was not confident of victory by any means, indeed Xi's heart pounded with adrenalin and fear. This will be my most dangerous fight in a long, long time. He recognized that. I may not have been in this much danger for eight years. His mouth grew set at that point. I survived those eight years, and I will survive this.
The jounin followed Xi, and the dragon ninja did not try to lose them. Instead his anger grew moment by moment as he dashed ahead of them through the village of stone and up into the mountains that abutted the city. The Tsuchikage has betrayed my team and me, he has allowed Waterfall to manipulate us and now he has sold our deaths to the Waterfall ninja for some unknown price. Damn you old man! I can do nothing but stop you now, and I will leave the bodies of four Waterfall jounin lying on the ice and snow as a lesson to those who try and toy with dragon ninja. Then I will hunt down the Akatsuki bastard who is causing on all this and he can face my wrath! Xi swore that to himself, the fury of his anger demanded it. His chakra was all gathered now, the killing force of a tremendous ninja. He knew what his strategy would be already, how he would deal with these enemies, so he sped ahead of them. If I arrive with enough time to spare then I can win, if not, it is hopeless. Xi's eyes narrowed, his vision still the red world of fear of the dragon's eye, a world he would not dismiss.
He leapt past the walls of Stone, to the shocked glimpses of several chuunin guards. For a moment Xi's hand dropped to the broken hunter-nin mask on his right leg. Do I put that on again? He wondered. For a long moment he considered it, but then he recalled the faces of Neji, Shiren, and Gosain. No, I'll beat them without that, since this is not simply my own struggle.
The dragon ninja moved with great swiftness up into the steep hillside, his footprints in the snow easily traceable by the pursuing jounin, who moved after him easily. Let him burn his chakra running like this, they thought. It only makes it easier when he stops.
Where is it? Xi looked about trying to remember the site he had marked upon arriving in Stone, the battlefield he would need for this fight. He eyes darted about the red ice world of his vision. There! He saw the hole in the mountainside then, and shot inside it.
It was an ice cave.
This mountainside was covered by a great glacier that stood above the village of stone on these high peaks. Here Xi had found a hole in the glacier, a cavern of tubes and runnels in the ice, a place of nothing but frozen water, this was his battlefield, behind the mirrored and confusing walls that made vision tell lies and on the surface where a strong grip of chakra was necessary to avoid the long plunge.
Swiftly Xi moved deep within, to a large open space in the lee of a great boulder that even the glacier had not removed. He recalled every turn and twist of the passage, knowing that to get lost in here meant death, that every twitch and motion of the glacier could close these passages and kill everyone within. A lethal place, for a lethal fight, let the Waterfall come, Xi grimaced.
Standing there he took in a deep breath, and then his hands formed the needed seal pattern swiftly. Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle they went, and then he bit into his left hand, through the gloves he wore and spread his hands upon the ice. "A debt I call! Dragon summoning no jutsu!" The icy cavern howled with a slashing wind then, the force of a river running through grand rapids, forcing the eyes shut against the summons appearance.
The dragon that floated before Xi was a glorious creature, thirty five feet long, with blue and green scales the color of the deepest lakes, his limbs were short, but they were webbed and strong, and a grand wavy fin ran the length of his body, to end in a fish's tail. The face was great and glorious, white horns stretched from the forehead above the wise and dark eyes, which shined like pearls from the depths. The whiskered maw above a multicolored beard was huge, with the grasping and gulping form of a great eel or shark, a jaw that could consume the better part of a man in a single motion. This was a Chiang Lung, a river dragon.
The dragon stared at Xi for the barest instant before not even bothering to try and intimidate him. Xi's anger burned with lethal fury behind his own dragon's eyes, and fear was useless against him. "All honor to thee Chiang Lung Klishir, I require your aid against four jounin of Hidden Waterfall who have betrayed the Chuunin exam and seek my life. Use your powers to scatter them and hold back the own who wields the sword. I will deal with the rest." Xi was quick and cold with his speech, making his demands utterly clear.
"I am bound by debt," The Chiang Lung replied. "Yet I would help you regardless, this is a heinous thing for the Waterfall to have done, and to think that it is the village I had long thought honored my kind the most. They shall be taught that a river does not leap from its course to defy the sky!" With that Klishir was gone, a streak of blue heading for the entrance of the caves. As he moved a cloud of storming water gathered about him, detaching from the ice and forming into a river that flew through the air about the dragon. The floodwaters were coming, freezing with the chill of the coldest ice, and with the flood lord at their head, thus the river dragon went to teach the errant ninja.
Silently Xi wished Klishir luck, for he had sent the dragon into grave danger. Silently now he sped into a tunnel of ice, drawing the nekode over his hands, his gloves discarded as a hindrance. With perfection he channeled the continuous chakra through his legs to attach himself to the slippery ice and move. This was a frozen place, but the dragon ninja was not cold, indeed his footsteps left tiny puddles of water in his wake.
The Chiang Lung's wrath came with a force that shook the glacier with its power, and the sound of breakwaters came from every direction at once, as all about the caves the ice seized the image of crashing waves and projected it a thousand times through the mirror of its endless surfaces.
Now come the Waterfall jounin. Xi waited. Xi closed away his human vision, useless now in this place of darkness, and ice, where the flashes of movement revealed nothing but lies. Instead he relied on his other senses, and on the vision of the dragon, the red tendrils of creeping fear that could not be hidden nor quenched, for no human could move through these passages without fear.
A sound in the darkness, and Xi sensed it, the scrape of a kunai against the ice. The ranged specialist. So Klishir succeeded in separating them. Now, I must act quickly.
Xi dashed back through one tunnel, feeling the walls around him by the sound of moving ice and vibration as his chakra hit the floor, his mind perfectly focused, nothing touched him but his tracking, and he pinpointed his foe immediately.
I have you! Xi opened his eyes.
They stood at opposite ends of a long and thin tunnel, the Waterfall ninja looked down that passage, past the twisted and refracted image of a thousand Xi's upon the ice to see the dragon ninja staring up at him.
Weapons flew, shuriken after shuriken, kunai after kunai, a seemingly endless supply, as the ranged specialist's jutsu conjured weapons from ice, air, water, and even dust. Some were illusory, some were real, but it didn't matter to Xi, he was already charging.
Except, to call his motion a charge would have been a lie. Xi took a single step forward, and from there he took no more. Chakra channeled through his feet, suspending him upon the ice in a way that was devoid of friction. He slid forward at shocking speed, even as the endless torrent of missiles came back toward him. It would have seemed impossible to dodge, but Xi knew this battlefield, and his opponent did not.
With a simple motion of his chakra Xi was sliding along the ceiling, then the right side of the passage, and more, circling round in defiance of gravity as the missiles flew harmlessly past in the center or to one side, meant to dodge a foe as if they moved inside a building, not one who skated like water flowing over the ice.
The jounin's eyes went wide. "Impossible!" He sputtered, not understanding how Xi could control his chakra.
It was too late. "Rend!"
Draci Xi's motion did not even slow as he spent his outstretched arms past his opponent. The pattern of those wove a strange motion across the jounin's body, but it was still just as lethal.
Even as the unfortunate jounin fell, Xi was proceeding past, distancing himself from the site of this encounter. One done, three remain.
Xi looked around, closing his human vision off once again, relying on the dragon's eyes. Where, where? He wondered, searching.
Then the walls moved.
Shit! Xi skidded away on his belly, moving frictionless across the ice once more, as copies of a ninja detached themselves from the icy walls and moved toward him. Even as these icy clones formed together, Xi was tracking the source, tracking the fear, a thing truly absent from the clones. Of course, just because they aren't human doesn't mean they can't hurt me. He reminded himself.
Bits and pieces of ice hurtled through the air at Xi, had he been looking with his own he would have seen shuriken, but now, his eyes closed, he could hear the difference. Like most genjutsu a technique like this was primarily visual, and the auditory portion could be broken apart and recognized for what it was.
Too many ice shards though, I'll have to get rid of them. "Dragon wind!" Chakra coiled, knotted, and released in Xi's hands, and he shot the terrible blast of air down the hallway, blowing back a thousand icy shards and dissipating the clones. Damn! Wasted chakra, was all he thought as he did the move. Still, that little trick revealed your presence, and I've got you now.
Xi opened his eyes again. He was standing in front of a wall of ice, one only perhaps a few inches thick. On the other side was the genjutsu specialist.
The man had a cruel grin on his face. "It looks like I have you," He said, and Xi read the words on his lips. "Since my jutsu can work through this wall, while preventing you from breaking through."
"Idiot." Xi replied. "You still don't understand why I chose this battlefield."
The dragon ninja surged forward, throwing his body at the wall of ice. He impacted it, and then he felt the ice dissipate into water as he focused a source of energy within. Even as the wall suddenly melted around him and flooded the hall with steam Xi lashed out with his nekode, slicing into the jounin in front of him.
The man fell back bleeding, as Xi stepped through a man shaped hole in the ice wall, water pooled at his feet.
"How?" The Waterfall ninja croaked. "How can you do that?"
"The Heart of the Dragon." Xi answered. "One of the artifacts the dragon ninja. It projects the endless heat of a dragon through the user. In this place no wall is a barrier to me."
The man brought up a kunai, ready to fight. They closed.
Xi spun a line in the ice with his foot, turning it to water instantly, then spun and maneuvered his foe over it. The jounin stepped into that cut in the ice and stumbled for a second, just long enough to open his guard and let Xi cut his throat open.
The waterfall ninja fell, life swiftly leaking out of him, but even so, he was still forming seals. "I won't let it be that easy!" The man croaked.
The dragon ninja ran.
As he leapt back through the hole in the wall of ice a copy of a ninja formed up around him, formed of refracted light and floating crystallized water. Xi crashed through the image, but it burst into a thousand cutting stings upon his skin, and slashed into his clothes. Cuts opened on his skin, and he started bleeding in several places.
"Shit!" Xi muttered. "I don't need this," he said as he ran hands over his limbs, scouring the ice shards off with chakra. "I can't waste the energy, there's two of them left, and those are the most dangerous ones."
At least, I can let the dragon's eye go now; none of the others will bother with Genjutsu. Xi let the redness fade from his vision, returning to the pale and dark world under the ice that human sight, even one as well trained for darkness as his own, revealed. He started to walk slowly back to the large cavern. That's where the next one will be I'm sure. Xi recalled. Gah, using dragon's eye that much was exhausting, and I still have to fights to go. Less chakra, no dragon ally perhaps, and the two most dangerous of my opponents. This is not a good situation. I can't afford to get wounded during the next fight.
There was no time to wait for his chakra to recover; Xi knew that much, or he'd end up trapped in the ice caves. That ninjutsu user will probably seal the entrance using Sunder once they realize their fellows are dead. I won't freeze while I have the Heart of the Dragon, he fingered the small redstone statuette under his flak jacket, but I could still easily die in here. So Xi put away his nekode, knowing the time for tricks with taijutsu was passed, and readied to fight ninjutsu on ninjutsu against the female ninja from waterfall. It will be her, he knew. The taijutsu user won't be through Klishir yet; hopefully he won't get through him at all.
Suddenly the tunnel of ice opened up, revealing the cavern once again. Flickers of light came into this place, enough to just barely see by, though Xi still relied heavily on his other senses.
The moment the tunnel opened Xi rushed forward and tucked into a roll that carried him clear across the cavern.
He was barely in time. "Sunder!" A succession of blasts burst the tunnel he had come from and followed him around the cavern. Xi ended his roll and leapt up into the air, even as twin blasts of water surged down from the ceiling. The dragon ninja dodged aside, but got clipped by one of the blasts, and slammed into the wall. He hit only lightly, and grabbed the wall with his chakra so he hung there, finally having located his opponent.
The Waterfall ninja stood with her back to the ice on the far side of the cavern, her fist clenched. "So you made it through the other two." She said with burning anger. "That's two more deaths the waterfall will get back when I kill you here."
She's fast! Xi thought as he dodged aside again, blasts of water and sunder following him as he ran along the wall of ice, skidding and leaping about to avoid the assault. The Waterfall ninja's hands were a blur as she formed seals, bringing out jutsu after jutsu. Still, she can't keep this up, and until she tries something else, I'll just keep dodging. In this room my ability to move along the ice means she won't possibly hit me again with these tricks. Xi's arm hurt slightly from the attack he had received, but it wasn't major, and certainly not enough to slow him down.
This back and forth went on for a few moments, before the jounin from waterfall ran out of breath. "How...can...you...do...that?" She wheezed. "There's no way you should be able to dodge my jutsu!"
"I don't need to explain things to the dead." Xi answered.
"Don't...think I'm beaten yet." The lady ninja breathed. Her hands formed a careful sequence of seals.
Bad! Xi knew. That jutsu will blow this cavern apart. I have to stop her now!
He leapt off from the wall.
She completed her jutsu. "Waterfall Element: Torrent Blast no Jutsu!"
The ice all about the waterfall jounin exploded in an outward burst of power, flung into the air as it broke apart and shattered, filling the air of the cavern with water and ice shards, all screaming upward and outward, set to impale Xi on a thousand icy razors. The power of a waterfall in flood striking the earth made more powerful by striking ice instead, an ultimate destruction move.
But one that will fail! Xi's own hands flashed through seals, and the final one came quickly Breath. He brought his hands to his face, thumb touching thumb, index and center finger touching, and extended beyond them, the last two fingers, an open spread pattern. He breathed in, and felt the power gather deep in his lungs and stomach, and then burst outward in his own most powerful dragon ninjutsu. "Dragon breath no jutsu!" The words slid from Xi's mouth in a voice not his own, the voice of a dragon, and they were followed by a single great bolt of lightning, a shaped and focused blast to rip and burst and burn. It leapt outward through the ice, and then sped up, leaping from ice shard to ice shard, even as the lady jounin screamed in shock. For by filling the air with ice the dragon breath surged toward her faster than her own jutsu rose to meet Xi.
The first jutsu to impact was the one that slew. Lightning poured into the jounin, a focused burst of power of tremendous destructiveness. Her lungs burst apart, her brain surged and burnt, and her heart stopped dead, even as flesh charred. Life vanished in a single instant of lightning.
A thousand shards of ice lost their impetus and dropped from the sky. Some nevertheless made it to Xi from their momentum, but though they slapped him and some even penetrated his skin, nothing made it through his flack jacket.
Xi dropped to the ground, winching. I didn't want to do that. Most of my chakra is gone now. I probably can't sustain many more moves, the dragon breath always kills when it strikes, but the power it demands... I simply can barely continue. That means I have little choice but to fight that taijutsu wielder with taijutsu. That is not what I hoped for. Xi pulled shards of ice out of his flesh and bandaged the wounds simply, enough to cover and mask where he had been most seriously damaged, and little more. Then he began another slow walk, one opponent remained, and that one was the most dangerous of all.
Out on the mountainside the snow had stopped, and the village of Hidden Stone awakened below. The clouds streamed by overhead, as this, the second day of the Chuunin exam second stage, continued.
Draci Xi emerged into the blank flat light of this day from the ice. Before him he saw a scene of destruction.
Ice and stone lay scattered all about, broken and bloody in places. In others, smoking, or splashed with great torrents of water. Great claw marks had rended portions of the stone mountainside, and it looked as if two demons had fought here.
Perhaps they did. Xi thought, as he stepped outward to see this devastation. In the center of his vision was a single thing, the body of the Chiang Lung, Klishir. The dragon's body had not lost its majesty in death, even though great cuts and gashes rent its side, and the eyes were dimmed. Even now the body was slowly fading back into the world of spirits, and would be gone in hours, seemingly having never been in this world. Atop that body, desecrating the memory of it was the Taijutsu specialist from Hidden Waterfall, his body and long sword covered in the thick blood of a dragon.
"Damn you forever!" Xi spat at the man, seeing that. Klishir, I am sorry, so terribly sorry to have brought this on you. I will pay the debt back right now, with this one's life. "What is your name?" Xi bit the words with fury and agony, chakra burning behind every pore.
"Tanamke Geshen." The Waterfall Jounin said levelly. "You have killed three of my comrades Draci Xi, and all I have to show for it is this dead beast that fades away. I'll need your head to even come close to settling the score."
"Really?" Xi mocked, the anger a seeing a dragon dead surged in him. This marked only the fourth time in his life Xi had seen a dragon die, the creatures were mighty and powerful. Klishir had been fully adult, as powerful a dragon as Xi could reasonably call and still fight fully himself. That this jounin had killed the dragon without being wounded, even if Klishir had been forced to fight all four for some moments, it spoke to the man's power and cruelty. I will kill you, even should we both die, there is no way you will live through this. There is only one person who has ever killed a dragon before my sight and lived, and there will not be a second. Xi swore the words violently inside, and drew forth his nekode once again. "You have declared war upon the Dragon Ninja Tanamke Geshen, you and whomever sent you. I do not know that person, but I will kill you here, by the debt I owe to the one I summoned, I will see it done."
"You are weakened, wounded, your dragon is dead and your chakra is gone. I am among the best of Waterfall's jounin." Geshen answered. "Come to me and die yourself."
"We shall see." Xi said. His eyes narrowed to slits.
A long moment passed as neither ninja moved, and then the soft wind blew some snow off a rock above. It stuck the ground with a soft and gentle sound.
The two ninja charged.
Sword met nekode with the ring of steel on steel. They split apart, and then again, and a third strike. Then both men stood steady upon the snow.
Geshen fell into a crouch, taking his katana in both hands, setting it forward, edge curling upward, to charge. "Waterfall Crashing Assault." He whispered.
Xi dropped backward, bringing his left leg back, and both knees bent. His hands extended, left arm bent, right arm reaching forward. "Jinnen." He spoke to the wind.
They charged again.
Xi's strikes came in quick and fast, and his left hand cut in, slashing deep through his enemy's flak jacket, scoring a vulnerable line, and drawing blood.
Geshen brought his katana up at Xi's right. The dragon ninja blocked, and the jounin twisted the blade, severing the tines of the nekode and sending them spinning down the cliffside.
Xi leapt backward in surprise.
"The breaking force of water can grind down any obstacle should it strike it correctly." Geshen looked into Xi's eyes. "But you cut me, I dislike being cut. Now you will feel my ultimate attack."
His sword swept downward through the snow, and came up trailing a stream of water, sharpened to a mirrored pointed edge. "Waterfall's Razor Edge!" Geshen attacked.
Damn! Xi leapt backward, and the edge of water curled around to follow him. He rolled over the ground in a desperate avoidance, stones jutting painfully into him, bruising his muscles. I can't get close enough to kill him without a weapon! Xi grimaced, and then launched himself upward on the slope. To stand breathing hard on an outcropping some distance away.
Water danced in a circle around Geshen. "What good does it do to fall back?" He laughed. "You haven't the strength left to run away and avoid me. Come down here and die, those nekode of yours will never penetrate my guard."
"They might not, but you are a fool to think I have no other weapons." Xi returned.
"I see no sword or whip or spear upon your garb, Draci Xi." He mocked. "But if you won't come down, I'll come up after you!"
Geshen leapt.
I haven't much chakra left, Xi knew, but it will have to be enough. His hands went through a pattern of seals, and then he brought them together, palm to palm.
"What's this?" Geshen laughed. "Do you have enough chakra to try and kill me?"
"Lightning Style: Lightning Swords no Justsu!" Xi brought his hands apart, linking forefinger and middle, ring and pinky, and the thumbs alone, forming a triangle of his hand. As he peeled his hands apart, sparks flashed and arced between them, and then between the triangles of his hands. Then they thrashed outward to a point in the distance, where the three streams of electricity met, and leapt back and forth, sparks playing in the air. From each hand then extended a cackling blade of electricity, two and a half feet long, the Lightning Swords.
Geshen's blade of water extended out ten feet or more to strike at Xi, and then met the lightning swords.
Bolts of power arched up that watery blade and down the steel one beyond, to surge into Geshen.
The Waterfall jounin reacted instantly as the first tendril of pain touched him, his watery blade fell away and he altered the attack to come in with only the steel edge.
Xi placed his lightning swords up to block him.
Geshen dared not touch the blades, and so they went back and forth, until the Waterfall jounin leapt off the outcrop again. "Impressive." He commented. "I never knew lightning had such a technique. But it must draw tremendous chakra, and you can't maintain it for long." He raised his blade to guard. "When it is gone, I'll run you through."
He's right, damn him. Xi thought, and his taijutsu is too good, I'll never get a good attack in. I have only seconds left to maintain this technique. A pity. Xi decided. He looked out toward Mt. Kemigari in the distance. It seems we both truly do have to fight the same way, Neji.
Xi launched himself at Geshen.
The Waterfall jounin brought his blade in through a simple, lethal cut, intending to force Xi away, taking the angle of any attack by the lightning sword out of consideration.
Except he made two mistakes, the same ones Xi knew he would make. First, he assumed the lightning sword was like a material weapon, and when Xi brought his right hand over the Geshen's sword itself, his crackling weapon passing around and through it, he saw the revelation dawn in the jounin's eyes. The other mistake was that Xi was a dragon ninja, and that he would not accept the bite to his side. Xi's right leg came up and out, and Geshen's weapon sliced through the flesh terribly, scouring down to the bone, a stinging cold sensation that was doused in heat moments later as blood splashed out.
Xi's lightning sword connected with Geshen's flesh.
The Waterfall ninja's muscles spasmed first, and then his nerves burned, and his blood boiled, Xi held the weapon of electricity and chakra in place, many long, long seconds, as the surging power burned its way inward and turned the connections that hold the body together to dust. Geshen's eyes went completely white, as everything was burned away, and then Xi let the lightning sword go, and the jounin fell to the ground, dead.
Four, all four, done.
Xi's right hand reached down, grabbing bandages out of his flak jacket, both hands moving to his leg, the movement automatic, binding the brutal cut. He did it without thinking, for his thoughts were elsewhere. Klishir, the debt is repaid, and I am still sorry, terribly sorry. Neji, it seems that you will have to fight your war with only your teammates. I have been stopped here. Looking up into the sky Xi made another decision. Whoever you are, you Akatsuki bastards, I had to kill four jounin because of you today. Don't think I won't seek to pay that debt back as well.
Slowly the dragon ninja began the long painful trek down to Hidden Stone and medical care, while the chuunin exam went on.
Author's Notes: And, another really massive chapter. I'm afraid I may anger you readers a bit, since this chapter switches away from Neji for a moment (and with his team in a rather bad situation too) to go back to the other dragon ninja. There's a reason I did that though, and there's plenty in this chapter anyways. I'd urge people to pay attention to things that Xi is thinking, cause there's some hints about his past in here.
Reviewers: Orlha: apologies on the minor cliffhanger here, but I won't do this very often.
Hattuteline: there's not a lot of detail behind what Shiren and Neji have been practicing because it would be rather boring to describe. They have just been working together every night rather extensively. Sort of like how Kakashi and Sasuke trained for a month and we only saw one shot of it. Hmm...about that spoiler. I did try to reduce it somewhat when I rewrote the summary, but I think it would be kind of impossible to not mention such things entirely, and plenty of other stories here have had manga spoilers in the summaries. Still, I'll think about it.
Within the Ice
The snow swirled around Draci Xi, and the wind whipped up his short hair as he stood atop one of the few tall buildings in Hidden Stone, looking to the north, and the tall peak that was Mt. Kemigari. The Second Exam was now onto day two, though it had as yet been only perhaps eighteen hours since everything began. They did not make it through yesterday, Xi recalled sourly. I would have been notified.
It was not a pleasant thought, even though Xi knew that no team had likely made it through given the conditions of their start the day before. There would have been less than three hours before darkness fell, and in a blizzard. The record for blizzard conditions is six hours, and that team had two ninja whose eyes could see through pure darkness. So, they could still get there first.
It did not calm Xi's mind, or keep him from staring off toward that mountain. He was confident in the team, surprisingly confident, far more than he had ever expected to be of this mismatched group of genin he had cobbled together. They are a true team, something I would not have expected. It was a surprise to Xi, and equally surprising was his concern over their fate. All three ninja, even Gosain, a man would ought to have no connection to him, were someone he wanted to succeed. He knew their talents, and their ability to work together, if they failed it would be a chronic unfairness. Surely their luck is not this bad?
It was more than just concern for luck that had Xi worried; things were not as they should be here in the village of stone. There were dark currents in the town, and he had learned many things since yesterday. The Stone ninja were marshalling, though he could not say where they intended to go. They will launch no winter attacks, but this is a village that stands on the edge of a war. Why? Stone is strong, it could not be threatened now, certainly not in winter. Unless, and this was the thing that made Xi fearful. Unless the Akatsuki do something. A tiny rivulet of fear wrapped itself deep in the coils of Xi's gut. Nine ninja, and only two had been positively identified; though he was sure he knew the identity of a third. It would not be those two though, or her, but it could be any of the others. No one knows who commands that organization. It is surely not Uchiha Itachi. He is simply too young to have gathered such a group together. Besides, she is stronger than him, and she is not the leader, if it were she, I would have found her. There was some hidden mastermind in charge of the nine s-level criminals that represented the gravest threat to the ninja world, and Xi had no idea who it was. This disturbed him to no end.
The hand of that mastermind moves here in Stone, and some plot of the Akatsuki manipulates this exam. Some plot involving Hidden Waterfall. Xi shivered in the air, though the cold did not touch him.
Then he sensed a presence behind him, but did not bother to turn.
"Looking for your intrepid genin? How unlike you." The voice was jovial, but mocking.
"First Examiner, Special Jounin Chi Kiri, leader of the ultra-hostile environment reconnaissance and rescue squad. Teamwork specialist." Xi stated the list without inflection. "And a gossip whose come to bother a ninja better left in peace. You really should know better." He turned around and gave her a characteristic half smile, genuinely amused.
"To think that my presence would brighten your mood." Kiri laughed at him. "To find the legendary Draci Xi so openly in my village was a shock, to find him sponsoring a team of genin heart-stopping. I think Tsuchikage almost swallowed his tongue when he received the news."
"He certainly wasn't pleased to see me." Of course, Xi amended his words inside, that rocky old bastard never likes to see anyone.
"You know," Kiri came to stand next to Xi at the railing as she spoke. "I never thought you'd be the one to send a team of students here, and I certainly didn't think I'd have to modify my exam because of it."
"Modify your exam?" Xi raised an eyebrow.
"Where did you dredge up those three Xi?" Kiri asked him. "They're so strange and suspicious I had to except them as answers on my test. The one who leads them especially." She stared deeply into Xi's eyes, but Xi gave no obvious reaction. "He didn't move for over fifteen minutes during the exam, and got no information from his teammates, but he found the buried team of ANBU. Who the hell is this Draci Neji?"
He discovered the ANBU? Xi wondered. I'm impressed Neji, you're beginning to learn the full capability of those eyes you have. Xi mulled a bit before answering Kiri, not wanting to reveal too much. "He's a dragon ninja Kiri, did you think I would pick a weakling? I sponsored no genin for this exam, I sent you a team of chuunin who lack only the name portion of the rank."
"Sponsored no genin?" Kiri repeated. "I suppose you might be right, but we'll see. The hardest part is still going on. There were some real talented ones in the mix this time, I wouldn't be surprised if they had trouble."
Instead of instilling doubt, Kiri's words only strengthened Xi's belief in the team he had brought together. It's not my team, he knew, it is Neji's, and he is proving more and more competent. It was not simply luck that I found him clinging to life in the woods that day. I think the dragons had this in mind. He won't fail now. Xi gave Kiri a calm and quiet look, turning away from the mountain in the distance. "They will succeed, no simple test would stop any of those."
"I hope you're correct Xi." She answered.
What? The words fell onto the field of Xi's worry and the dragon ninja spun to stare into Kiri's eyes. "What?" He repeated out loud. "What is wrong with this exam? What do you know?"
Kiri hesitated and fell silent, her mouth clamping shut. No, you will not avoid answering so easily. Xi put two fingers to Kiri's side. "Answer me before I blow open a hole in your side, Chi Kiri. I'm not going to be toyed with."
"Fine Xi, have it your way." She spat at him and gave him a cold smile that conveyed every ounce of her anger. "Maybe this won't be just a test, there's something happening all right. All seven teams from Hidden Waterfall passed the first exam. They're out there now with your team. Waterfall is our ally, but certainly not yours, and I've heard you killed some of them not long ago. Those seven teams are out there with your team right now. Suspect something?" She laughed coldly into Xi's ear, dark and angry in her fury.
Xi let her go silently. "Apologies." He said without even thinking about it. Seven teams from Waterfall? Twenty-one genin? Neji. This is very, very bad. "You may have made a terrible mistake in allowing this to happen, examiner." Xi said, his voice terrible and frozen, his speech formalized.
"Why do you say that?" Kiri mocked.
"Twenty-one Waterfall genin versus my three, you have caused a bloodbath on that mountain I'm certain. Waterfall is your ally, I'm sure it will go badly with them if you let seven teams of their genin get themselves killed."
"You're confident." Kiri mocked him.
No, I'm not confident, that's simply one possibility, and likely a slim one. "Or, if it turns out you have allowed some conspiracy to kill my fellow dragon ninja." Xi said in a voice like naked steel. "I will have to pay the debt back to Hidden Stone in full."
Kiri blanched, and stepped back several steps, hardly able to control herself. "You wouldn't dare oppose us!" She managed, but it was weak.
Xi replied with a half-smile, his eyes were still cold.
"Regardless," Kiri began to croak out the words. "Regardless," She continued more steadily. "You will not interfere in the exam, no matter what happens."
The dragon ninja's head dipped just the slightest amount, but his eyes burned.
Kiri retreated from the rooftop.
For long minutes Xi stood staring at where she had gone, contemplating the deaths of three genin. I dragged them here in the snow, brought them out of their homes and safe places to this dangerous realm. Have I brought them to die? For eight long years Xi had traveled without companions, without anyone to fight with him. His decisions had affected no one but himself, whether in battle, in espionage, or in training. That had all changed when he became Neji's sensei, he now realized. I am now responsible for more than myself. He knew that the rash statement he had made to Kiri was the truth. Should they die out on that far mountain of some Waterfall and Stone conspiracy he would set all his strength to tearing apart both villages, and to finding the Akatsuki mind he knew was behind it. That is the price of having companions; you must accept what happens to them as your responsibility, Xi remembered the words now, those words that had dictated eight years of his existence. Once more he swore to uphold them even as the snow fell steadily about him.
"Worrying about your students?" A voice came from above. "You should worry about yourself."
Xi spun, and dodged right, but no attack came. Instead, he felt and then saw new arrivals.
Four figures took their place atop the roof with him. Four figures in the blue and brown garb of hidden waterfall, and brazenly bearing the forehead protectors of that village. They were three men and one woman, each with different weapons and a different stance, a full platoon of four ninja. Their eyes looked at Xi as if he were already dead.
"Four jounin from Waterfall, those who came with the seven teams from that village." Xi muttered, looking at them. He raised his head and spoke to the one who stood openly in the center, a tall man. "Isn't four jounin a little excessive?"
"It was determined that we should make absolutely sure neither you nor your measly little 'team' made it out alive." The man said openly. "You have quite the reputation, but no matter how strong you are you can't beat the four of us at once."
"What about my team?" Xi asked, not bothering to reply to the threat.
"It's seven on one. No matter how good they are there's no way to beat those odds, and in the snow nothing can match the Mizuho." The man laughed brutally. "Those genin are probably already dead."
Xi clenched his jaw shut tightly. No way to know. No way to do anything about it. Still, you're underestimating Neji you Waterfall ninja. You might know about Ryukin, but I doubt you know about Kidomaru. You don't know what lengths Neji will go to accomplish his mission. Another thing occurred to Xi then, and a half-smile crept back into his face as he stared at the man. "Wusashu." He said, loud enough for only himself to here.
A spasm of anger crossed the other ninja's face. "But you team doesn't matter." He said. "Since you won't survive another hour."
Xi looked down the line of four ninja. He began with the far right. "Hmm... ranged combat specialist," He noted the easily reached shuriken and lack of large weapons. "Genjutsu specialist." That was the next one, a shorter man with cold eyes and less physical development than the others. "Ninjutsu specialist," the woman on the far left who held a double-bladed kunai. Finally, the man Xi had been speaking with, a man with a long sword strapped to his back. "Taijutsu specialist. A pretty good platoon, no medical ninja, but that was a good choice on your part. You're right, four jounin is too much for me to fight at one time, too much even for a Kage. So I won't fight you at once." Xi's hands flashed though seals at an unbelievable speed. "Dragon's eye no jutsu!"
The dragon ninja's world went red, and the tendrils of fear became visible as those red-on-red eyes became his own. He saw the fear and projected it, wielding the otherworldly terror that a dragon, a spirit from beyond the minds of men, brings forth. For a second he injected the fear into the four jounin, only a second. He didn't have the chakra to use the jutsu to kill them, or even stun them all for long. They were too well trained. Yet for an instant they were stunned.
Twelve shuriken passed through Xi's body an instant later, when movement returned to the four jounin.
The body fell smoothly to the snow, and landed with a soft noise, blood leaking out.
Then it dissipated in a puff of smoke, to be replaced with a large rock.
"Damn you Xi!" The taijutsu specialist called. "But what does this buy you? We aren't foolish enough to separate, and there's no where to run except through snow and stone, our battlefields!"
Xi did not reply. He was already a great distance away and continuing to run. He heard the words though, and he knew his answer. You underestimate me, Waterfall ninja. Eight years alone had taught Xi excellent tactics, and in any place he stayed for one night he always found a place that would serve as his battlefield of maximum advantage. He knew that place now, here in Stone. He had scouted it that first night, before returning exhausted from avoiding one of these same jounin, he now recognized, and the cold. Yet you didn't prevent me, I have a battlefield, and you will discover what it means to make me your opponent. He was not confident of victory by any means, indeed Xi's heart pounded with adrenalin and fear. This will be my most dangerous fight in a long, long time. He recognized that. I may not have been in this much danger for eight years. His mouth grew set at that point. I survived those eight years, and I will survive this.
The jounin followed Xi, and the dragon ninja did not try to lose them. Instead his anger grew moment by moment as he dashed ahead of them through the village of stone and up into the mountains that abutted the city. The Tsuchikage has betrayed my team and me, he has allowed Waterfall to manipulate us and now he has sold our deaths to the Waterfall ninja for some unknown price. Damn you old man! I can do nothing but stop you now, and I will leave the bodies of four Waterfall jounin lying on the ice and snow as a lesson to those who try and toy with dragon ninja. Then I will hunt down the Akatsuki bastard who is causing on all this and he can face my wrath! Xi swore that to himself, the fury of his anger demanded it. His chakra was all gathered now, the killing force of a tremendous ninja. He knew what his strategy would be already, how he would deal with these enemies, so he sped ahead of them. If I arrive with enough time to spare then I can win, if not, it is hopeless. Xi's eyes narrowed, his vision still the red world of fear of the dragon's eye, a world he would not dismiss.
He leapt past the walls of Stone, to the shocked glimpses of several chuunin guards. For a moment Xi's hand dropped to the broken hunter-nin mask on his right leg. Do I put that on again? He wondered. For a long moment he considered it, but then he recalled the faces of Neji, Shiren, and Gosain. No, I'll beat them without that, since this is not simply my own struggle.
The dragon ninja moved with great swiftness up into the steep hillside, his footprints in the snow easily traceable by the pursuing jounin, who moved after him easily. Let him burn his chakra running like this, they thought. It only makes it easier when he stops.
Where is it? Xi looked about trying to remember the site he had marked upon arriving in Stone, the battlefield he would need for this fight. He eyes darted about the red ice world of his vision. There! He saw the hole in the mountainside then, and shot inside it.
It was an ice cave.
This mountainside was covered by a great glacier that stood above the village of stone on these high peaks. Here Xi had found a hole in the glacier, a cavern of tubes and runnels in the ice, a place of nothing but frozen water, this was his battlefield, behind the mirrored and confusing walls that made vision tell lies and on the surface where a strong grip of chakra was necessary to avoid the long plunge.
Swiftly Xi moved deep within, to a large open space in the lee of a great boulder that even the glacier had not removed. He recalled every turn and twist of the passage, knowing that to get lost in here meant death, that every twitch and motion of the glacier could close these passages and kill everyone within. A lethal place, for a lethal fight, let the Waterfall come, Xi grimaced.
Standing there he took in a deep breath, and then his hands formed the needed seal pattern swiftly. Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle they went, and then he bit into his left hand, through the gloves he wore and spread his hands upon the ice. "A debt I call! Dragon summoning no jutsu!" The icy cavern howled with a slashing wind then, the force of a river running through grand rapids, forcing the eyes shut against the summons appearance.
The dragon that floated before Xi was a glorious creature, thirty five feet long, with blue and green scales the color of the deepest lakes, his limbs were short, but they were webbed and strong, and a grand wavy fin ran the length of his body, to end in a fish's tail. The face was great and glorious, white horns stretched from the forehead above the wise and dark eyes, which shined like pearls from the depths. The whiskered maw above a multicolored beard was huge, with the grasping and gulping form of a great eel or shark, a jaw that could consume the better part of a man in a single motion. This was a Chiang Lung, a river dragon.
The dragon stared at Xi for the barest instant before not even bothering to try and intimidate him. Xi's anger burned with lethal fury behind his own dragon's eyes, and fear was useless against him. "All honor to thee Chiang Lung Klishir, I require your aid against four jounin of Hidden Waterfall who have betrayed the Chuunin exam and seek my life. Use your powers to scatter them and hold back the own who wields the sword. I will deal with the rest." Xi was quick and cold with his speech, making his demands utterly clear.
"I am bound by debt," The Chiang Lung replied. "Yet I would help you regardless, this is a heinous thing for the Waterfall to have done, and to think that it is the village I had long thought honored my kind the most. They shall be taught that a river does not leap from its course to defy the sky!" With that Klishir was gone, a streak of blue heading for the entrance of the caves. As he moved a cloud of storming water gathered about him, detaching from the ice and forming into a river that flew through the air about the dragon. The floodwaters were coming, freezing with the chill of the coldest ice, and with the flood lord at their head, thus the river dragon went to teach the errant ninja.
Silently Xi wished Klishir luck, for he had sent the dragon into grave danger. Silently now he sped into a tunnel of ice, drawing the nekode over his hands, his gloves discarded as a hindrance. With perfection he channeled the continuous chakra through his legs to attach himself to the slippery ice and move. This was a frozen place, but the dragon ninja was not cold, indeed his footsteps left tiny puddles of water in his wake.
The Chiang Lung's wrath came with a force that shook the glacier with its power, and the sound of breakwaters came from every direction at once, as all about the caves the ice seized the image of crashing waves and projected it a thousand times through the mirror of its endless surfaces.
Now come the Waterfall jounin. Xi waited. Xi closed away his human vision, useless now in this place of darkness, and ice, where the flashes of movement revealed nothing but lies. Instead he relied on his other senses, and on the vision of the dragon, the red tendrils of creeping fear that could not be hidden nor quenched, for no human could move through these passages without fear.
A sound in the darkness, and Xi sensed it, the scrape of a kunai against the ice. The ranged specialist. So Klishir succeeded in separating them. Now, I must act quickly.
Xi dashed back through one tunnel, feeling the walls around him by the sound of moving ice and vibration as his chakra hit the floor, his mind perfectly focused, nothing touched him but his tracking, and he pinpointed his foe immediately.
I have you! Xi opened his eyes.
They stood at opposite ends of a long and thin tunnel, the Waterfall ninja looked down that passage, past the twisted and refracted image of a thousand Xi's upon the ice to see the dragon ninja staring up at him.
Weapons flew, shuriken after shuriken, kunai after kunai, a seemingly endless supply, as the ranged specialist's jutsu conjured weapons from ice, air, water, and even dust. Some were illusory, some were real, but it didn't matter to Xi, he was already charging.
Except, to call his motion a charge would have been a lie. Xi took a single step forward, and from there he took no more. Chakra channeled through his feet, suspending him upon the ice in a way that was devoid of friction. He slid forward at shocking speed, even as the endless torrent of missiles came back toward him. It would have seemed impossible to dodge, but Xi knew this battlefield, and his opponent did not.
With a simple motion of his chakra Xi was sliding along the ceiling, then the right side of the passage, and more, circling round in defiance of gravity as the missiles flew harmlessly past in the center or to one side, meant to dodge a foe as if they moved inside a building, not one who skated like water flowing over the ice.
The jounin's eyes went wide. "Impossible!" He sputtered, not understanding how Xi could control his chakra.
It was too late. "Rend!"
Draci Xi's motion did not even slow as he spent his outstretched arms past his opponent. The pattern of those wove a strange motion across the jounin's body, but it was still just as lethal.
Even as the unfortunate jounin fell, Xi was proceeding past, distancing himself from the site of this encounter. One done, three remain.
Xi looked around, closing his human vision off once again, relying on the dragon's eyes. Where, where? He wondered, searching.
Then the walls moved.
Shit! Xi skidded away on his belly, moving frictionless across the ice once more, as copies of a ninja detached themselves from the icy walls and moved toward him. Even as these icy clones formed together, Xi was tracking the source, tracking the fear, a thing truly absent from the clones. Of course, just because they aren't human doesn't mean they can't hurt me. He reminded himself.
Bits and pieces of ice hurtled through the air at Xi, had he been looking with his own he would have seen shuriken, but now, his eyes closed, he could hear the difference. Like most genjutsu a technique like this was primarily visual, and the auditory portion could be broken apart and recognized for what it was.
Too many ice shards though, I'll have to get rid of them. "Dragon wind!" Chakra coiled, knotted, and released in Xi's hands, and he shot the terrible blast of air down the hallway, blowing back a thousand icy shards and dissipating the clones. Damn! Wasted chakra, was all he thought as he did the move. Still, that little trick revealed your presence, and I've got you now.
Xi opened his eyes again. He was standing in front of a wall of ice, one only perhaps a few inches thick. On the other side was the genjutsu specialist.
The man had a cruel grin on his face. "It looks like I have you," He said, and Xi read the words on his lips. "Since my jutsu can work through this wall, while preventing you from breaking through."
"Idiot." Xi replied. "You still don't understand why I chose this battlefield."
The dragon ninja surged forward, throwing his body at the wall of ice. He impacted it, and then he felt the ice dissipate into water as he focused a source of energy within. Even as the wall suddenly melted around him and flooded the hall with steam Xi lashed out with his nekode, slicing into the jounin in front of him.
The man fell back bleeding, as Xi stepped through a man shaped hole in the ice wall, water pooled at his feet.
"How?" The Waterfall ninja croaked. "How can you do that?"
"The Heart of the Dragon." Xi answered. "One of the artifacts the dragon ninja. It projects the endless heat of a dragon through the user. In this place no wall is a barrier to me."
The man brought up a kunai, ready to fight. They closed.
Xi spun a line in the ice with his foot, turning it to water instantly, then spun and maneuvered his foe over it. The jounin stepped into that cut in the ice and stumbled for a second, just long enough to open his guard and let Xi cut his throat open.
The waterfall ninja fell, life swiftly leaking out of him, but even so, he was still forming seals. "I won't let it be that easy!" The man croaked.
The dragon ninja ran.
As he leapt back through the hole in the wall of ice a copy of a ninja formed up around him, formed of refracted light and floating crystallized water. Xi crashed through the image, but it burst into a thousand cutting stings upon his skin, and slashed into his clothes. Cuts opened on his skin, and he started bleeding in several places.
"Shit!" Xi muttered. "I don't need this," he said as he ran hands over his limbs, scouring the ice shards off with chakra. "I can't waste the energy, there's two of them left, and those are the most dangerous ones."
At least, I can let the dragon's eye go now; none of the others will bother with Genjutsu. Xi let the redness fade from his vision, returning to the pale and dark world under the ice that human sight, even one as well trained for darkness as his own, revealed. He started to walk slowly back to the large cavern. That's where the next one will be I'm sure. Xi recalled. Gah, using dragon's eye that much was exhausting, and I still have to fights to go. Less chakra, no dragon ally perhaps, and the two most dangerous of my opponents. This is not a good situation. I can't afford to get wounded during the next fight.
There was no time to wait for his chakra to recover; Xi knew that much, or he'd end up trapped in the ice caves. That ninjutsu user will probably seal the entrance using Sunder once they realize their fellows are dead. I won't freeze while I have the Heart of the Dragon, he fingered the small redstone statuette under his flak jacket, but I could still easily die in here. So Xi put away his nekode, knowing the time for tricks with taijutsu was passed, and readied to fight ninjutsu on ninjutsu against the female ninja from waterfall. It will be her, he knew. The taijutsu user won't be through Klishir yet; hopefully he won't get through him at all.
Suddenly the tunnel of ice opened up, revealing the cavern once again. Flickers of light came into this place, enough to just barely see by, though Xi still relied heavily on his other senses.
The moment the tunnel opened Xi rushed forward and tucked into a roll that carried him clear across the cavern.
He was barely in time. "Sunder!" A succession of blasts burst the tunnel he had come from and followed him around the cavern. Xi ended his roll and leapt up into the air, even as twin blasts of water surged down from the ceiling. The dragon ninja dodged aside, but got clipped by one of the blasts, and slammed into the wall. He hit only lightly, and grabbed the wall with his chakra so he hung there, finally having located his opponent.
The Waterfall ninja stood with her back to the ice on the far side of the cavern, her fist clenched. "So you made it through the other two." She said with burning anger. "That's two more deaths the waterfall will get back when I kill you here."
She's fast! Xi thought as he dodged aside again, blasts of water and sunder following him as he ran along the wall of ice, skidding and leaping about to avoid the assault. The Waterfall ninja's hands were a blur as she formed seals, bringing out jutsu after jutsu. Still, she can't keep this up, and until she tries something else, I'll just keep dodging. In this room my ability to move along the ice means she won't possibly hit me again with these tricks. Xi's arm hurt slightly from the attack he had received, but it wasn't major, and certainly not enough to slow him down.
This back and forth went on for a few moments, before the jounin from waterfall ran out of breath. "How...can...you...do...that?" She wheezed. "There's no way you should be able to dodge my jutsu!"
"I don't need to explain things to the dead." Xi answered.
"Don't...think I'm beaten yet." The lady ninja breathed. Her hands formed a careful sequence of seals.
Bad! Xi knew. That jutsu will blow this cavern apart. I have to stop her now!
He leapt off from the wall.
She completed her jutsu. "Waterfall Element: Torrent Blast no Jutsu!"
The ice all about the waterfall jounin exploded in an outward burst of power, flung into the air as it broke apart and shattered, filling the air of the cavern with water and ice shards, all screaming upward and outward, set to impale Xi on a thousand icy razors. The power of a waterfall in flood striking the earth made more powerful by striking ice instead, an ultimate destruction move.
But one that will fail! Xi's own hands flashed through seals, and the final one came quickly Breath. He brought his hands to his face, thumb touching thumb, index and center finger touching, and extended beyond them, the last two fingers, an open spread pattern. He breathed in, and felt the power gather deep in his lungs and stomach, and then burst outward in his own most powerful dragon ninjutsu. "Dragon breath no jutsu!" The words slid from Xi's mouth in a voice not his own, the voice of a dragon, and they were followed by a single great bolt of lightning, a shaped and focused blast to rip and burst and burn. It leapt outward through the ice, and then sped up, leaping from ice shard to ice shard, even as the lady jounin screamed in shock. For by filling the air with ice the dragon breath surged toward her faster than her own jutsu rose to meet Xi.
The first jutsu to impact was the one that slew. Lightning poured into the jounin, a focused burst of power of tremendous destructiveness. Her lungs burst apart, her brain surged and burnt, and her heart stopped dead, even as flesh charred. Life vanished in a single instant of lightning.
A thousand shards of ice lost their impetus and dropped from the sky. Some nevertheless made it to Xi from their momentum, but though they slapped him and some even penetrated his skin, nothing made it through his flack jacket.
Xi dropped to the ground, winching. I didn't want to do that. Most of my chakra is gone now. I probably can't sustain many more moves, the dragon breath always kills when it strikes, but the power it demands... I simply can barely continue. That means I have little choice but to fight that taijutsu wielder with taijutsu. That is not what I hoped for. Xi pulled shards of ice out of his flesh and bandaged the wounds simply, enough to cover and mask where he had been most seriously damaged, and little more. Then he began another slow walk, one opponent remained, and that one was the most dangerous of all.
Out on the mountainside the snow had stopped, and the village of Hidden Stone awakened below. The clouds streamed by overhead, as this, the second day of the Chuunin exam second stage, continued.
Draci Xi emerged into the blank flat light of this day from the ice. Before him he saw a scene of destruction.
Ice and stone lay scattered all about, broken and bloody in places. In others, smoking, or splashed with great torrents of water. Great claw marks had rended portions of the stone mountainside, and it looked as if two demons had fought here.
Perhaps they did. Xi thought, as he stepped outward to see this devastation. In the center of his vision was a single thing, the body of the Chiang Lung, Klishir. The dragon's body had not lost its majesty in death, even though great cuts and gashes rent its side, and the eyes were dimmed. Even now the body was slowly fading back into the world of spirits, and would be gone in hours, seemingly having never been in this world. Atop that body, desecrating the memory of it was the Taijutsu specialist from Hidden Waterfall, his body and long sword covered in the thick blood of a dragon.
"Damn you forever!" Xi spat at the man, seeing that. Klishir, I am sorry, so terribly sorry to have brought this on you. I will pay the debt back right now, with this one's life. "What is your name?" Xi bit the words with fury and agony, chakra burning behind every pore.
"Tanamke Geshen." The Waterfall Jounin said levelly. "You have killed three of my comrades Draci Xi, and all I have to show for it is this dead beast that fades away. I'll need your head to even come close to settling the score."
"Really?" Xi mocked, the anger a seeing a dragon dead surged in him. This marked only the fourth time in his life Xi had seen a dragon die, the creatures were mighty and powerful. Klishir had been fully adult, as powerful a dragon as Xi could reasonably call and still fight fully himself. That this jounin had killed the dragon without being wounded, even if Klishir had been forced to fight all four for some moments, it spoke to the man's power and cruelty. I will kill you, even should we both die, there is no way you will live through this. There is only one person who has ever killed a dragon before my sight and lived, and there will not be a second. Xi swore the words violently inside, and drew forth his nekode once again. "You have declared war upon the Dragon Ninja Tanamke Geshen, you and whomever sent you. I do not know that person, but I will kill you here, by the debt I owe to the one I summoned, I will see it done."
"You are weakened, wounded, your dragon is dead and your chakra is gone. I am among the best of Waterfall's jounin." Geshen answered. "Come to me and die yourself."
"We shall see." Xi said. His eyes narrowed to slits.
A long moment passed as neither ninja moved, and then the soft wind blew some snow off a rock above. It stuck the ground with a soft and gentle sound.
The two ninja charged.
Sword met nekode with the ring of steel on steel. They split apart, and then again, and a third strike. Then both men stood steady upon the snow.
Geshen fell into a crouch, taking his katana in both hands, setting it forward, edge curling upward, to charge. "Waterfall Crashing Assault." He whispered.
Xi dropped backward, bringing his left leg back, and both knees bent. His hands extended, left arm bent, right arm reaching forward. "Jinnen." He spoke to the wind.
They charged again.
Xi's strikes came in quick and fast, and his left hand cut in, slashing deep through his enemy's flak jacket, scoring a vulnerable line, and drawing blood.
Geshen brought his katana up at Xi's right. The dragon ninja blocked, and the jounin twisted the blade, severing the tines of the nekode and sending them spinning down the cliffside.
Xi leapt backward in surprise.
"The breaking force of water can grind down any obstacle should it strike it correctly." Geshen looked into Xi's eyes. "But you cut me, I dislike being cut. Now you will feel my ultimate attack."
His sword swept downward through the snow, and came up trailing a stream of water, sharpened to a mirrored pointed edge. "Waterfall's Razor Edge!" Geshen attacked.
Damn! Xi leapt backward, and the edge of water curled around to follow him. He rolled over the ground in a desperate avoidance, stones jutting painfully into him, bruising his muscles. I can't get close enough to kill him without a weapon! Xi grimaced, and then launched himself upward on the slope. To stand breathing hard on an outcropping some distance away.
Water danced in a circle around Geshen. "What good does it do to fall back?" He laughed. "You haven't the strength left to run away and avoid me. Come down here and die, those nekode of yours will never penetrate my guard."
"They might not, but you are a fool to think I have no other weapons." Xi returned.
"I see no sword or whip or spear upon your garb, Draci Xi." He mocked. "But if you won't come down, I'll come up after you!"
Geshen leapt.
I haven't much chakra left, Xi knew, but it will have to be enough. His hands went through a pattern of seals, and then he brought them together, palm to palm.
"What's this?" Geshen laughed. "Do you have enough chakra to try and kill me?"
"Lightning Style: Lightning Swords no Justsu!" Xi brought his hands apart, linking forefinger and middle, ring and pinky, and the thumbs alone, forming a triangle of his hand. As he peeled his hands apart, sparks flashed and arced between them, and then between the triangles of his hands. Then they thrashed outward to a point in the distance, where the three streams of electricity met, and leapt back and forth, sparks playing in the air. From each hand then extended a cackling blade of electricity, two and a half feet long, the Lightning Swords.
Geshen's blade of water extended out ten feet or more to strike at Xi, and then met the lightning swords.
Bolts of power arched up that watery blade and down the steel one beyond, to surge into Geshen.
The Waterfall jounin reacted instantly as the first tendril of pain touched him, his watery blade fell away and he altered the attack to come in with only the steel edge.
Xi placed his lightning swords up to block him.
Geshen dared not touch the blades, and so they went back and forth, until the Waterfall jounin leapt off the outcrop again. "Impressive." He commented. "I never knew lightning had such a technique. But it must draw tremendous chakra, and you can't maintain it for long." He raised his blade to guard. "When it is gone, I'll run you through."
He's right, damn him. Xi thought, and his taijutsu is too good, I'll never get a good attack in. I have only seconds left to maintain this technique. A pity. Xi decided. He looked out toward Mt. Kemigari in the distance. It seems we both truly do have to fight the same way, Neji.
Xi launched himself at Geshen.
The Waterfall jounin brought his blade in through a simple, lethal cut, intending to force Xi away, taking the angle of any attack by the lightning sword out of consideration.
Except he made two mistakes, the same ones Xi knew he would make. First, he assumed the lightning sword was like a material weapon, and when Xi brought his right hand over the Geshen's sword itself, his crackling weapon passing around and through it, he saw the revelation dawn in the jounin's eyes. The other mistake was that Xi was a dragon ninja, and that he would not accept the bite to his side. Xi's right leg came up and out, and Geshen's weapon sliced through the flesh terribly, scouring down to the bone, a stinging cold sensation that was doused in heat moments later as blood splashed out.
Xi's lightning sword connected with Geshen's flesh.
The Waterfall ninja's muscles spasmed first, and then his nerves burned, and his blood boiled, Xi held the weapon of electricity and chakra in place, many long, long seconds, as the surging power burned its way inward and turned the connections that hold the body together to dust. Geshen's eyes went completely white, as everything was burned away, and then Xi let the lightning sword go, and the jounin fell to the ground, dead.
Four, all four, done.
Xi's right hand reached down, grabbing bandages out of his flak jacket, both hands moving to his leg, the movement automatic, binding the brutal cut. He did it without thinking, for his thoughts were elsewhere. Klishir, the debt is repaid, and I am still sorry, terribly sorry. Neji, it seems that you will have to fight your war with only your teammates. I have been stopped here. Looking up into the sky Xi made another decision. Whoever you are, you Akatsuki bastards, I had to kill four jounin because of you today. Don't think I won't seek to pay that debt back as well.
Slowly the dragon ninja began the long painful trek down to Hidden Stone and medical care, while the chuunin exam went on.