Chapter 12
Sorry for the delay, I've been getting ready for finals and all. Oh, and just so you know, starting in this chapter, I'm going to be messing with the traditional Naruto plot some. Not majorly, just to make the story flow better. Thanks for reading!
I look out at the city from my rooftop perch. I don't know why, I'm still sore from training with Kiba and Akamaru earlier. They preformed the Piercing Fang today for the first time. I felt a presence appear behind me.
"Whoever you are, I don't..." I felt to arms wrap around me.
"Stop..." A soft voice behind me said.
"What's wrong, Temari-chan?" I asked, looking ahead of me.
"Don't...sniff...go to the...sniff...finals..." She held me tighter.
"Why not?" I turned around. I saw dry and wet tears on her face. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been crying for a while. "Temari- chan, what's wrong?"
"I...sniff...can't say...Just...don't go..." I held her closer.
"You know that won't stop me..."
"...sniff...I know...I just...had to try..." I wiped some of the tears from her cheek. She raised her eyes up to look in mine. She then leaned over and kissed me. Not on the cheek like the first time, but on the lips. I returned it. After a few minutes, she reluctantly backed away. "Janus-kun, forgive me." With that, she vanished into the night.
I yawned and opened my eyes. I had the dream again. I've had that same dream for the last two weeks, ever since it happened. In that time I hadn't seen Temari or anyone else from the Sand team. It was understandable because I had stepped up my training routine. The first two weeks were spent learning a couple of Genjutsu techniques from Kurenai in the morning and fighting Kiba blindfolded in the afternoons. However, the very day I last saw Temari, my morning training was spent on the Hokage's jutsu and the after noon I was fighting Kiba and Akamaru's Piercing Fang. The last week, I was fighting Kiba and Akamaru blindfolded again, no holds bared. Hinata came and watched us train after she got out of the hospital. She looks more alive then she did but she doesn't look like she's completely recovered. I decided that the last day before the tournament I'd spend in the hospital with my brother who mysteriously showed up there a day ago. So, after eating breakfast, I made my way to the hospital. I walked into Naruto's room and I saw Shikamaru there playing shogi with him.
"I might be a little rusty, but you want an opponent?" He turned around.
"Long time, Janus."
"You to, Shikamaru. I never expected you to be here." At that moment, Naruto opened his eyes.
"Shikamaru, Janus? What are you doing here?"
"Ah, so the sleeper awakes." Shikamaru replied, I laughed. Naruto looked confused.
"What's so funny?"
"You've been asleep for three days strait, bro." His eyes widened in shock.
"No way! When are the finals, have I missed them!"
"No, you haven't. If you must know, how troublesome, they are tomorrow." Naruto jumped up and started looking around for the rest of his clothes. I casually walked over and plucked him up by his collar. Wow, fighting against Kiba and Akamaru has really increased my strength.
"Let me go! I need to go train more!"
"Naruto, one more day won't make a difference. Besides, resting is also good for training, if for nothing else than being at your best for the competition."
"Hey, Naruto," We both looked over at Shikamaru. "You hungry? I know it's not ramen..." He put a fruit basket on his bed.
"You got me a fruit basket?"
"No, my mother got me it for Chouji but he can't eat it. The doctors say he broke his stomach by eating too much barbeque." I chuckled. That's Chouji for you. Naruto picked up an apple while I grabbed a banana. Fresh fruit is never something to pass up.
"Hey, let's go eat this in front of Chouji! It will be great!" Naruto got up, took the basket and ran out the door, waving for us to follow.
"How troublesome..." Shikamaru said, following. I laughed. We arrived at Chouji's room and started to eat until Naruto perked his head up.
"Hey, who's next door?" Shikamaru looked back from his cloud gazing.
"Lee, I think."
"I think we need to check in on him, Chouji, we'll be right back." We walked next door to see Gaara standing over the sleeping form of Lee, his sand flowing around him. Shikamaru instantly started in a series of seals, his Shadow Clone skill.
"Just in time." Gaara turned and looked at us just in time to get punched in the face by Naruto. I opened one of my scroll pouches, taking out my level 7 Earth Seal scroll. Gaara then started going into a long monologue about his reason for living is to kill others because no one was there to support him and that he has a demon inside of him. I glanced over at Naruto. Fear was radiating around him. I was just about to say something when I watched the Shadow Copy run out. I froze in place but Gaara just recalled his sand and recapped his gourd. He started walking away.
"I will kill all three of you." He walked out of the hospital. The three of us all collectively let out a sigh of relief. We checked to make sure no sand was left behind around Lee. There was none, so we turned to finish our visit with Chouji when we ran into Sakura outside. After a couple minutes of Sakura hitting Naruto the four of us finished tormenting Chouji with food. After all the fruit was gone Chouji was a quivering ball of tears, we left. Sakura went home, Shikamaru left to go play shogi with Asuma, and Naruto and I left to go look at the arena.
"Wow, look at the size of the place."
"No kidding, Naruto. It's like a big bowl."
"I bet you a billion yen that I could eat a bowl this size of ramen!" I looked at Naruto for five seconds before we both broke out laughing so hard we nearly fell off the rim of the arena.
"Speaking of which," I said when we had mostly regained our sanity. "How 'bout I go buy you a bowl, to wish you good luck, ok?" He jumped to hug me, but I conveniently sidestepped so that he missed me. I've been getting good at that. I walked down to the bottom of the arena and helped him up and we headed to the Ichiraku.
We opened the door and were greeted by the owner and his daughter. We sat down on our usual barstools. We hadn't said a word on the trip over here. I was contemplating the possible outcomes of the fights tomorrow. I looked over at Naruto and saw his face covered in fear and worry. I was about to say something when two stuffed bowls of ramen were placed in front of us. We looked at each other and looked at the owner.
"Just eat it." He said, shushing us. That brought a small smile to my face as I took a pair of chopsticks and started eating.
I walked into the arena. A couple of chuunin guards greeted me and showed me inside to the center of the arena. It appeared that I was the fourth to last one here. Naruto and Sasuke still had yet to arrive. I glanced over at Temari. She appeared to be purposefully avoiding my gaze. So I walked over and stood by Shikamaru. I looked into the audience. So this was what a Chuunin Finals was like... I saw an unknown examiner standing near us. What happened to Hayate? Oh well, it will probably be explained in time.
"So, where is Naruto?" I looked over at Shikamaru. "I thought the two of you would show up at the same time."
"No, he wanted to stop off somewhere first, he was still feeling kinda upset about yesterday. He'll be here." And at that moment, the number one loudest ninja in question came flying into the arena. After sliding on the ground for fifteen feet or so, he stood up.
"Troublesome..." I looked over and laughed. I shut up quickly after feeling a stare of death coming from Temari. Opps. I saw Naruto look around.
"Hey, where is Sasuke?" I shrugged. I saw the examiner look at his watch. Suddenly, a jounin appeared behind him and whispered in his ear. After the jounin vanished, the examiner turned to look at us.
"I've been informed that we won't be waiting for the Uchiha. We need to get this started. Oh and there have been some changes to the order of fights, so look it over so you know who you are fighting." I looked at the list. It looked like for some reason Dosu had gotten eliminated for some reason. Lucky Shikamaru, he has one less fight to go through. But his first fight is against Temari and with the mood she is in I don't even want to fight her.
"The first fight is going to be Neji against Naruto. Everyone else, please wait in the contestant's box. I walked to the stairwell that led to our private waiting area. I took my place next to the wall, sitting on the railing.
"Come on, Naruto. Let's see what your training has done for you." The fight started. Naruto started by running at Neji from the front. Let's see how well Naruto's taijutsu skills are... He was quickly knocked away. His next move was making a collection of clones to attack Neji with. I smiled. He was playing it smart now. I watched as Neji tried to attack the real Naruto only to have it go poof on him. This was almost an even fight. I was impressed. Then Neji preformed the Holy Whirl. My jaw dropped.
"The Holy Whirl! Hyuuga tradition forbids him from being taught that. The only way he could learn it is by hard work! I misjudged his capabilities. He truly is a genius." I watched in awe as Neji preformed the Divinitation Circle on Naruto. "I think Naruto might lose this fight." After completely cutting Naruto off from his chakra, I listened as he talked about his struggle to avenge his father. I had already heard a similar story form Hinata, but his side of the story was quite different. He finished his talk and explained to the examiner he intended to kill Naruto. I was just about to leap at him if Shikamaru hadn't stopped me. I was brought back to the fight by my brother's next words.
"...Because you called me a dropout." This brilliant red orange chakra started to surround him. I watched it form what could only be called tails as they waved around him. One, two three....nine! Naruto could call on the chakra of the Kyubi and use it as his own! I never thought he'd actually be able to do it. I barely kept track of the next thirty second of the fight. All I knew after was that there was this huge cloud of dust billowing from where Neji's whirl and Naruto's charge collided and they were both slammed down into the ground. The smoke cleared revealing two large craters. Was this the power at Naruto's disposal! Incredible! A hand shot out of one of southern hole and Neji came crawling out, very injured and drained. He walked over to the other hole. I could see a hit of orange in the whole. It was intense, but in the end...Naruto shot out of the ground and his fist collided with Neji's jaw. Naruto landed on his feet, blood dripping from his fingers as Neji landed on his back and couldn't get up. Naruto had won!
I started cheering. The rest of the arena followed. Naruto looked around as medics came in to get Neji. He started jumping around yelling and cheering just as heard.
"After all that and he still has energy, what a guy." I looked over at Shikamaru.
"Again, another uncharacteristic thing for you to say. Shikamaru, what's wrong with you?" He just shrugged and looked back at the clouds. I chuckled slightly. When Naruto walked up into the waiting booth, I turned to look at him.
"Good job, bro." I said, giving him a pat on the back.
"Thanks but where is Sasuke? He's still not here and his fight is next." The examiner then spoke up to the arena.
"It has been discussed that we will postpone the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara of the Sand until later. We will then move on to the next fight, Uzumaki Janus vs. Kankuro." I looked over at Kankuro, a look of surprise appeared. Did he not expect to have to fight? Hmm.
"Puk...puk...pukaka!" I said, just as Kankuro was about to speak. I turned and glared at me. I just smiled and waved as Naruto started mimicking me, dancing around like a chicken.
"Fine, you're going down, worm." Did I piss him off that much? I just smiled and leaped down in to the arena. I walked towards the middle. Kankuro followed. I closed my eyes and listened. Focus on the sound, the sound... Thousands of faint heartbeats appeared. I focused on the ones in the arena near me. There is the examiner and...Good, Kankuro hasn't switched places with his puppet. I opened my eyes and grinned.
"Examiner, force him to resign, he can't win." Kankuro glared at me.
"Don't you think it's a little early for that?" I took up a defensive position. "Don't blink, you'll miss it." I grinned.
"Ready...GO!" I quickly formed a reverse Ram sign. Kankuro revealed his puppet. Come on, break, break...."
"Initial Gate, Open!" I opened the first gate and charged. I easily dodged the puppet's attempt to grapple me. I got up immediately underneath Kankuro and gave him a good kick to the chest with my right foot. I jumped of the ground with my other foot. I brought my right foot back around and kicked him again while reaching into my back right note pouch taking out the note I had prepared for this fight. I brought my left leg around and kicked him again as I threw the note at the puppet. Looking back at Kankuro, I grabbed his shoulders and brought him down under me, my knee on his sternum. We landed on the ground, his chest taking the full force of my fall. My legs were in hurting, but I kept the Initial gate open just in case he had any tricks up his sleeve.
"So, Kankuro, give up?" Gasps were heard around the arena as the puppet fell to the ground lifeless. I saw Kankuro moving his fingers. "Don't even try. Currently, the note I put on Kankuro has gone into effect. I call it a reverse seal. It makes the inanimate object it connects with immune to weak chakra effects, like your threads." Kankuro glared at me as he stopped moving his fingers and sighed.
"Winner, Uzumaki Janus." The crowd cheered, not quite sure what they had just seen. I closed the Initial Gate and stood up. I started walking back to the stairwell, rubbing my sore legs. I looked up at the participant's box. Shikamaru was looking at me interested, Naruto was jumping up and down, cheering; Temari was glaring at me along with Gaara. I chuckled to myself. He he, I caught Gaara's attention, now that's something to be proud of. I returned my gaze to my brother.
"Naruto! Let's make it an Uzumaki Finals, alright!"
"You better believe it, Janus!" I walked up the stairs back to the room.
"Janus, how did you do that? You were moving so fast I couldn't keep up! You beat him in less than fifteen seconds!"
"Fifteen! Man, I need to be faster..." Naruto's eyes widened. "What, you know me. I spent the first day I was better in a planning session on the best ways to defeat everyone in the tournament. I just got lucky that Kankuro wasn't disguising himself as his puppet." Shikamaru looked down from the clouds.
"How did you know?"
"Hey, I didn't train against Kiba and Akamaru blindfolded for nothing." Shikamaru smiled.
"Good plan, learning how to dodge two teamwork oriented fighters without relying on sight, good plan."
"Yeah, but as you can tell, even opening the first gate doesn't make me fast enough."
"You opened the first gate?"
"Yeah, you know, like Lee did. And don't ask me how I figured it out, I just did. Man are my legs sore though." I looked back into the arena where they ad just finished cleaning up after my fight. They were helping Kankuro back to the booth seeing as there was no major damage.
"Next fight, Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru." I looked over at Shikamaru.
"Can I just quit?" Naruto then pushed him into the arena.
"Go Shikamaru!"
"How troublesome." I watched as Temari used her fan as a glider as she made her way into the arena. After a little bit of watching the fight, the slow fight it was, I realized Shikamaru's plan. He was luring Temari towards Naruto's tunnel! I watched as he lured her into his trap and as he resigned due to lack of chakra.
"You know, he really needs to work on that..." I said as Naruto jumped down into the arena to yell at him.
"Winner, Temari." She walked back up to the box. I smiled as she entered with her head down to the ground. She glanced up when she saw me and quickly turned away. I tilted my head curiously. I looked back in the arena. So we're waiting for a half-hour for Sasuke to show up, like we haven't wasted enough time for them already. Time started ticking, the audience started to get restless. I glanced over at the Sand trio periodically. Temari and Kankuro seemed slightly agitated. Hmm. I looked back into the field and saw leaves start to swirl around. Suddenly, Sasuke and Kakashi appeared in the center of the arena.
"Just in time, only a couple hours late." I smirked. I suddenly felt a jolt of fear down my spine. I glanced over at Gaara. Uh oh, I'm glad I'm not in Sasuke's shoes right now. I watched him walk down the stairs as his siblings shuddered. They felt it to. I turned my eyes back to the fight. Now let's see why Sasuke was so late...
"Begin!" Sasuke jumped back as Gaara's sand started to pour out of his gourd. I watched as Sasuke started fighting faster and faster, penetrating Gaara's sand shield. This must be how Lee was fighting. But Kakashi isn't stupid, so why did he only train Sasuke to be faster... Gaara started to collect his sand around him in a sphere. Hmm...
"Not that technique!" I heard Temari whisper. "He won't be able to see the signal!" I glanced raised my left eyebrow slightly. Hmm. I looked back at the fight. Sasuke was trying to penetrate the sphere of sand while dodging the spikes that came out of it. It was as hard as concrete. Hmmm, it's probably just as strong if not stronger from under the ground, but that's the best place to attack it from because of that eye thing. Sasuke jumped up and landed high up on the wall. What's he planning...? I saw him perform some hand signs. I couldn't tell which ones. Suddenly, a bright glow formed around him. I started hear a high- pitched chirping sound. I opened my eyes. Kurenai was right! Kakashi did teach him the Chidori! The sound started getting larger as Sasuke started running down the wall and along the ground.
"Here it comes..." I said, trying to figure out a way to counter that move. I watched closely as the Chidori impacted and penetrated the shell. I heard Temari and Kankuro gasp.
"Blood, my blood!" Gaara was screaming from inside his shell, almost inhumanly. What? Sasuke withdrew his arm as this huge mass of brown...flesh or something tried to keep hold of it. I opened my eyes as Temari gasped louder. I looked over, pure fear on their faces. Something is wrong with Gaara and they aren't sharing. The shell of sand disintegrated revealing Gaara holding his right shoulder, bleeding. So, the Chidori is just as powerful as Kurenai said it was. That's a devastating move Sasuke has now.
I saw feathers start to fall around the field. Genjutsu? I quickly dispelled it. Suddenly, I heard an explosion. I looked up at where it came from. The Kage's box? What? I quickly saw Temari and Kankuro leap down next to Gaara and leap off. I then saw Sasuke following them. Even Sasuke can't handle three on one. I quickly opened the Initial Gate so I could make the jump to the rim of the arena. As soon as I reached it I closed the gate and took off after them. Temari, what are you doing? Please don't be part of this battle, not on the other side...
Sorry for the delay, I've been getting ready for finals and all. Oh, and just so you know, starting in this chapter, I'm going to be messing with the traditional Naruto plot some. Not majorly, just to make the story flow better. Thanks for reading!
I look out at the city from my rooftop perch. I don't know why, I'm still sore from training with Kiba and Akamaru earlier. They preformed the Piercing Fang today for the first time. I felt a presence appear behind me.
"Whoever you are, I don't..." I felt to arms wrap around me.
"Stop..." A soft voice behind me said.
"What's wrong, Temari-chan?" I asked, looking ahead of me.
"Don't...sniff...go to the...sniff...finals..." She held me tighter.
"Why not?" I turned around. I saw dry and wet tears on her face. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been crying for a while. "Temari- chan, what's wrong?"
"I...sniff...can't say...Just...don't go..." I held her closer.
"You know that won't stop me..."
"...sniff...I know...I just...had to try..." I wiped some of the tears from her cheek. She raised her eyes up to look in mine. She then leaned over and kissed me. Not on the cheek like the first time, but on the lips. I returned it. After a few minutes, she reluctantly backed away. "Janus-kun, forgive me." With that, she vanished into the night.
I yawned and opened my eyes. I had the dream again. I've had that same dream for the last two weeks, ever since it happened. In that time I hadn't seen Temari or anyone else from the Sand team. It was understandable because I had stepped up my training routine. The first two weeks were spent learning a couple of Genjutsu techniques from Kurenai in the morning and fighting Kiba blindfolded in the afternoons. However, the very day I last saw Temari, my morning training was spent on the Hokage's jutsu and the after noon I was fighting Kiba and Akamaru's Piercing Fang. The last week, I was fighting Kiba and Akamaru blindfolded again, no holds bared. Hinata came and watched us train after she got out of the hospital. She looks more alive then she did but she doesn't look like she's completely recovered. I decided that the last day before the tournament I'd spend in the hospital with my brother who mysteriously showed up there a day ago. So, after eating breakfast, I made my way to the hospital. I walked into Naruto's room and I saw Shikamaru there playing shogi with him.
"I might be a little rusty, but you want an opponent?" He turned around.
"Long time, Janus."
"You to, Shikamaru. I never expected you to be here." At that moment, Naruto opened his eyes.
"Shikamaru, Janus? What are you doing here?"
"Ah, so the sleeper awakes." Shikamaru replied, I laughed. Naruto looked confused.
"What's so funny?"
"You've been asleep for three days strait, bro." His eyes widened in shock.
"No way! When are the finals, have I missed them!"
"No, you haven't. If you must know, how troublesome, they are tomorrow." Naruto jumped up and started looking around for the rest of his clothes. I casually walked over and plucked him up by his collar. Wow, fighting against Kiba and Akamaru has really increased my strength.
"Let me go! I need to go train more!"
"Naruto, one more day won't make a difference. Besides, resting is also good for training, if for nothing else than being at your best for the competition."
"Hey, Naruto," We both looked over at Shikamaru. "You hungry? I know it's not ramen..." He put a fruit basket on his bed.
"You got me a fruit basket?"
"No, my mother got me it for Chouji but he can't eat it. The doctors say he broke his stomach by eating too much barbeque." I chuckled. That's Chouji for you. Naruto picked up an apple while I grabbed a banana. Fresh fruit is never something to pass up.
"Hey, let's go eat this in front of Chouji! It will be great!" Naruto got up, took the basket and ran out the door, waving for us to follow.
"How troublesome..." Shikamaru said, following. I laughed. We arrived at Chouji's room and started to eat until Naruto perked his head up.
"Hey, who's next door?" Shikamaru looked back from his cloud gazing.
"Lee, I think."
"I think we need to check in on him, Chouji, we'll be right back." We walked next door to see Gaara standing over the sleeping form of Lee, his sand flowing around him. Shikamaru instantly started in a series of seals, his Shadow Clone skill.
"Just in time." Gaara turned and looked at us just in time to get punched in the face by Naruto. I opened one of my scroll pouches, taking out my level 7 Earth Seal scroll. Gaara then started going into a long monologue about his reason for living is to kill others because no one was there to support him and that he has a demon inside of him. I glanced over at Naruto. Fear was radiating around him. I was just about to say something when I watched the Shadow Copy run out. I froze in place but Gaara just recalled his sand and recapped his gourd. He started walking away.
"I will kill all three of you." He walked out of the hospital. The three of us all collectively let out a sigh of relief. We checked to make sure no sand was left behind around Lee. There was none, so we turned to finish our visit with Chouji when we ran into Sakura outside. After a couple minutes of Sakura hitting Naruto the four of us finished tormenting Chouji with food. After all the fruit was gone Chouji was a quivering ball of tears, we left. Sakura went home, Shikamaru left to go play shogi with Asuma, and Naruto and I left to go look at the arena.
"Wow, look at the size of the place."
"No kidding, Naruto. It's like a big bowl."
"I bet you a billion yen that I could eat a bowl this size of ramen!" I looked at Naruto for five seconds before we both broke out laughing so hard we nearly fell off the rim of the arena.
"Speaking of which," I said when we had mostly regained our sanity. "How 'bout I go buy you a bowl, to wish you good luck, ok?" He jumped to hug me, but I conveniently sidestepped so that he missed me. I've been getting good at that. I walked down to the bottom of the arena and helped him up and we headed to the Ichiraku.
We opened the door and were greeted by the owner and his daughter. We sat down on our usual barstools. We hadn't said a word on the trip over here. I was contemplating the possible outcomes of the fights tomorrow. I looked over at Naruto and saw his face covered in fear and worry. I was about to say something when two stuffed bowls of ramen were placed in front of us. We looked at each other and looked at the owner.
"Just eat it." He said, shushing us. That brought a small smile to my face as I took a pair of chopsticks and started eating.
I walked into the arena. A couple of chuunin guards greeted me and showed me inside to the center of the arena. It appeared that I was the fourth to last one here. Naruto and Sasuke still had yet to arrive. I glanced over at Temari. She appeared to be purposefully avoiding my gaze. So I walked over and stood by Shikamaru. I looked into the audience. So this was what a Chuunin Finals was like... I saw an unknown examiner standing near us. What happened to Hayate? Oh well, it will probably be explained in time.
"So, where is Naruto?" I looked over at Shikamaru. "I thought the two of you would show up at the same time."
"No, he wanted to stop off somewhere first, he was still feeling kinda upset about yesterday. He'll be here." And at that moment, the number one loudest ninja in question came flying into the arena. After sliding on the ground for fifteen feet or so, he stood up.
"Troublesome..." I looked over and laughed. I shut up quickly after feeling a stare of death coming from Temari. Opps. I saw Naruto look around.
"Hey, where is Sasuke?" I shrugged. I saw the examiner look at his watch. Suddenly, a jounin appeared behind him and whispered in his ear. After the jounin vanished, the examiner turned to look at us.
"I've been informed that we won't be waiting for the Uchiha. We need to get this started. Oh and there have been some changes to the order of fights, so look it over so you know who you are fighting." I looked at the list. It looked like for some reason Dosu had gotten eliminated for some reason. Lucky Shikamaru, he has one less fight to go through. But his first fight is against Temari and with the mood she is in I don't even want to fight her.
"The first fight is going to be Neji against Naruto. Everyone else, please wait in the contestant's box. I walked to the stairwell that led to our private waiting area. I took my place next to the wall, sitting on the railing.
"Come on, Naruto. Let's see what your training has done for you." The fight started. Naruto started by running at Neji from the front. Let's see how well Naruto's taijutsu skills are... He was quickly knocked away. His next move was making a collection of clones to attack Neji with. I smiled. He was playing it smart now. I watched as Neji tried to attack the real Naruto only to have it go poof on him. This was almost an even fight. I was impressed. Then Neji preformed the Holy Whirl. My jaw dropped.
"The Holy Whirl! Hyuuga tradition forbids him from being taught that. The only way he could learn it is by hard work! I misjudged his capabilities. He truly is a genius." I watched in awe as Neji preformed the Divinitation Circle on Naruto. "I think Naruto might lose this fight." After completely cutting Naruto off from his chakra, I listened as he talked about his struggle to avenge his father. I had already heard a similar story form Hinata, but his side of the story was quite different. He finished his talk and explained to the examiner he intended to kill Naruto. I was just about to leap at him if Shikamaru hadn't stopped me. I was brought back to the fight by my brother's next words.
"...Because you called me a dropout." This brilliant red orange chakra started to surround him. I watched it form what could only be called tails as they waved around him. One, two three....nine! Naruto could call on the chakra of the Kyubi and use it as his own! I never thought he'd actually be able to do it. I barely kept track of the next thirty second of the fight. All I knew after was that there was this huge cloud of dust billowing from where Neji's whirl and Naruto's charge collided and they were both slammed down into the ground. The smoke cleared revealing two large craters. Was this the power at Naruto's disposal! Incredible! A hand shot out of one of southern hole and Neji came crawling out, very injured and drained. He walked over to the other hole. I could see a hit of orange in the whole. It was intense, but in the end...Naruto shot out of the ground and his fist collided with Neji's jaw. Naruto landed on his feet, blood dripping from his fingers as Neji landed on his back and couldn't get up. Naruto had won!
I started cheering. The rest of the arena followed. Naruto looked around as medics came in to get Neji. He started jumping around yelling and cheering just as heard.
"After all that and he still has energy, what a guy." I looked over at Shikamaru.
"Again, another uncharacteristic thing for you to say. Shikamaru, what's wrong with you?" He just shrugged and looked back at the clouds. I chuckled slightly. When Naruto walked up into the waiting booth, I turned to look at him.
"Good job, bro." I said, giving him a pat on the back.
"Thanks but where is Sasuke? He's still not here and his fight is next." The examiner then spoke up to the arena.
"It has been discussed that we will postpone the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara of the Sand until later. We will then move on to the next fight, Uzumaki Janus vs. Kankuro." I looked over at Kankuro, a look of surprise appeared. Did he not expect to have to fight? Hmm.
"Puk...puk...pukaka!" I said, just as Kankuro was about to speak. I turned and glared at me. I just smiled and waved as Naruto started mimicking me, dancing around like a chicken.
"Fine, you're going down, worm." Did I piss him off that much? I just smiled and leaped down in to the arena. I walked towards the middle. Kankuro followed. I closed my eyes and listened. Focus on the sound, the sound... Thousands of faint heartbeats appeared. I focused on the ones in the arena near me. There is the examiner and...Good, Kankuro hasn't switched places with his puppet. I opened my eyes and grinned.
"Examiner, force him to resign, he can't win." Kankuro glared at me.
"Don't you think it's a little early for that?" I took up a defensive position. "Don't blink, you'll miss it." I grinned.
"Ready...GO!" I quickly formed a reverse Ram sign. Kankuro revealed his puppet. Come on, break, break...."
"Initial Gate, Open!" I opened the first gate and charged. I easily dodged the puppet's attempt to grapple me. I got up immediately underneath Kankuro and gave him a good kick to the chest with my right foot. I jumped of the ground with my other foot. I brought my right foot back around and kicked him again while reaching into my back right note pouch taking out the note I had prepared for this fight. I brought my left leg around and kicked him again as I threw the note at the puppet. Looking back at Kankuro, I grabbed his shoulders and brought him down under me, my knee on his sternum. We landed on the ground, his chest taking the full force of my fall. My legs were in hurting, but I kept the Initial gate open just in case he had any tricks up his sleeve.
"So, Kankuro, give up?" Gasps were heard around the arena as the puppet fell to the ground lifeless. I saw Kankuro moving his fingers. "Don't even try. Currently, the note I put on Kankuro has gone into effect. I call it a reverse seal. It makes the inanimate object it connects with immune to weak chakra effects, like your threads." Kankuro glared at me as he stopped moving his fingers and sighed.
"Winner, Uzumaki Janus." The crowd cheered, not quite sure what they had just seen. I closed the Initial Gate and stood up. I started walking back to the stairwell, rubbing my sore legs. I looked up at the participant's box. Shikamaru was looking at me interested, Naruto was jumping up and down, cheering; Temari was glaring at me along with Gaara. I chuckled to myself. He he, I caught Gaara's attention, now that's something to be proud of. I returned my gaze to my brother.
"Naruto! Let's make it an Uzumaki Finals, alright!"
"You better believe it, Janus!" I walked up the stairs back to the room.
"Janus, how did you do that? You were moving so fast I couldn't keep up! You beat him in less than fifteen seconds!"
"Fifteen! Man, I need to be faster..." Naruto's eyes widened. "What, you know me. I spent the first day I was better in a planning session on the best ways to defeat everyone in the tournament. I just got lucky that Kankuro wasn't disguising himself as his puppet." Shikamaru looked down from the clouds.
"How did you know?"
"Hey, I didn't train against Kiba and Akamaru blindfolded for nothing." Shikamaru smiled.
"Good plan, learning how to dodge two teamwork oriented fighters without relying on sight, good plan."
"Yeah, but as you can tell, even opening the first gate doesn't make me fast enough."
"You opened the first gate?"
"Yeah, you know, like Lee did. And don't ask me how I figured it out, I just did. Man are my legs sore though." I looked back into the arena where they ad just finished cleaning up after my fight. They were helping Kankuro back to the booth seeing as there was no major damage.
"Next fight, Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru." I looked over at Shikamaru.
"Can I just quit?" Naruto then pushed him into the arena.
"Go Shikamaru!"
"How troublesome." I watched as Temari used her fan as a glider as she made her way into the arena. After a little bit of watching the fight, the slow fight it was, I realized Shikamaru's plan. He was luring Temari towards Naruto's tunnel! I watched as he lured her into his trap and as he resigned due to lack of chakra.
"You know, he really needs to work on that..." I said as Naruto jumped down into the arena to yell at him.
"Winner, Temari." She walked back up to the box. I smiled as she entered with her head down to the ground. She glanced up when she saw me and quickly turned away. I tilted my head curiously. I looked back in the arena. So we're waiting for a half-hour for Sasuke to show up, like we haven't wasted enough time for them already. Time started ticking, the audience started to get restless. I glanced over at the Sand trio periodically. Temari and Kankuro seemed slightly agitated. Hmm. I looked back into the field and saw leaves start to swirl around. Suddenly, Sasuke and Kakashi appeared in the center of the arena.
"Just in time, only a couple hours late." I smirked. I suddenly felt a jolt of fear down my spine. I glanced over at Gaara. Uh oh, I'm glad I'm not in Sasuke's shoes right now. I watched him walk down the stairs as his siblings shuddered. They felt it to. I turned my eyes back to the fight. Now let's see why Sasuke was so late...
"Begin!" Sasuke jumped back as Gaara's sand started to pour out of his gourd. I watched as Sasuke started fighting faster and faster, penetrating Gaara's sand shield. This must be how Lee was fighting. But Kakashi isn't stupid, so why did he only train Sasuke to be faster... Gaara started to collect his sand around him in a sphere. Hmm...
"Not that technique!" I heard Temari whisper. "He won't be able to see the signal!" I glanced raised my left eyebrow slightly. Hmm. I looked back at the fight. Sasuke was trying to penetrate the sphere of sand while dodging the spikes that came out of it. It was as hard as concrete. Hmmm, it's probably just as strong if not stronger from under the ground, but that's the best place to attack it from because of that eye thing. Sasuke jumped up and landed high up on the wall. What's he planning...? I saw him perform some hand signs. I couldn't tell which ones. Suddenly, a bright glow formed around him. I started hear a high- pitched chirping sound. I opened my eyes. Kurenai was right! Kakashi did teach him the Chidori! The sound started getting larger as Sasuke started running down the wall and along the ground.
"Here it comes..." I said, trying to figure out a way to counter that move. I watched closely as the Chidori impacted and penetrated the shell. I heard Temari and Kankuro gasp.
"Blood, my blood!" Gaara was screaming from inside his shell, almost inhumanly. What? Sasuke withdrew his arm as this huge mass of brown...flesh or something tried to keep hold of it. I opened my eyes as Temari gasped louder. I looked over, pure fear on their faces. Something is wrong with Gaara and they aren't sharing. The shell of sand disintegrated revealing Gaara holding his right shoulder, bleeding. So, the Chidori is just as powerful as Kurenai said it was. That's a devastating move Sasuke has now.
I saw feathers start to fall around the field. Genjutsu? I quickly dispelled it. Suddenly, I heard an explosion. I looked up at where it came from. The Kage's box? What? I quickly saw Temari and Kankuro leap down next to Gaara and leap off. I then saw Sasuke following them. Even Sasuke can't handle three on one. I quickly opened the Initial Gate so I could make the jump to the rim of the arena. As soon as I reached it I closed the gate and took off after them. Temari, what are you doing? Please don't be part of this battle, not on the other side...