Oy, I really don't wanna do anything about when they are in the forest. Here's the jist, nothing big happened to them like when they took it the first time.
Preliminaries
"KUSO!" Naruto yelled as he sat down. They had three days left. Three days left to get one more clue.
"What now Naruto?" Sakura sighed as she wiped away grim from her forehead.
"I'm tired. I wish this would be over soon."
Setsuko flipped in mid air. She landed in a deep stance before flipping back into the air. When she landed again, her arms were spread out. Her left arm was in front of her and her right behind her as she leaned back in the stance. She shifted in her stance before kicking herself up into the air. Setsuko spun once and brought her hands in. She landed on her left hand and held her other hand close to her heart in a simple half tiger sign. Setsuko pushed off the ground and landed in a crouched stance. She leap t up into the air once more before beginning a complex series of seals. As she came down to the ground once more, Setsuko finished her jutsu. She slammed her open hand into the earth. Black fire erupted from the ground and began to swirl around her. Setsuko quickly leapt back to her feet. She pulled her arms close to her body and held out her fists. Setsuko closed her eyes as she tried to force the fire around her hands. The fire started to soar up into the air and around her hands before breaking free of her hold and scattering. Setsuko sighed before canceling the jutsu.
"What were you trying to do?" Setsuko glared at Kakashi from the corner of her eye.
"Do you always have to sneak up on me?" She shook her head and spoke again before he could answer. "The Myou Hinote no Jutsu, I'm trying to improve it."
"Dark Fire?" Setsuko nodded.
"Hai. I can create it without having to spit it from my mouth. I create it from nothing. One of the reasons the fire is black. Another is because it is from my family's jutsu scrolls."
"How can you improve it?" Setsuko smiled at him.
"If I can force the fire to surround only my hands, it would be more effective. I could use it in hand to hand combat and I wouldn't have to let it run lose. And I believe that focusing it into a more compact form would carry more power into a hit because it would be more power in a smaller spot than when it runs wild." Setsuko felt proud of herself for the idea.
"And the acrobatics?" Setsuko laughed and closed her eyes as she thought back to the moments of her training.
"Kakashi-kun, probably the only thing that can truly help me focus is doing complex movements that force me to have complete and total control over my body. It helps me clear my thoughts. I don't know why, but it does, ever since I was little. Besides," Setsuko looked at her fists with a grin. "I believe that if I can focus my body enough, then improving the Myou Hinote will become much easier." She turned her smile to Kakashi. "Not only that, but I am trying to learn more of my family jutsu."
"Have you learned anything more?" Setsuko nodded enthusiastically.
"Hai! I found a jutsu that is perfect for me Kakashi!!!" Kakashi raised an eyebrow as Setsuko sighed and shook her head before she smiled brightly at him. "Gomen, I must seem childish to you, but learning all these things! It is like being taught more about my family!" Kakashi stared at Setsuko. After a few minutes, Setsuko noticed.
"Nani?" She blinked in confusion several times. Kakashi shook his head. For a moment, it seemed like he had seen her a long time ago. Lately, he had been feeling like that a lot. Ever since he saw her memories, she seemed very familiar to him. However, he couldn't pinpoint when he had met her before Konoha.
"Perhaps it would be good to spar. There's nothing else to do since our teams are being tested and the others will be gone." Setsuko smirked.
"If you think you can keep up with me!!" She boasted.
Robin stared at the group in front of her. Her blood began to boil as they threatened her team. She grabbed the naginata and threw it up into the air. As it was unclothed, she dropped into a stance and caught it as it came back down.
"We will take the clue we need from you." Robin dashed forehead and twirled the weapon above her.
Setsuko knelt on the ground, panting from exhaustion. She forced herself back up and punched at Kakashi. Kakashi was barely able to dodged and gained a small cut across his cheek. He spun and kicked her in the stomach. Setsuko landed on the ground and she rolled onto her side.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to sleep. I'm too tired to move." She yawned. As Kakashi stared at her, he didn't see her leg swing out before it was too late. Setsuko successfully kicked his feet out from under him and Kakashi fell to the ground. Setsuko smirked lightly. "Ha." Was all she said before dozing off.
Three days passed in a blur. Soon enough, Setsuko and Kakashi had gotten word that the preliminaries would begin. Kakashi had mentioned that it was the same place that it was last time. At the moment, Setsuko waited silently next to Kakashi behind Tsunade as the genin teams lined up. Nine teams had made it to the finals. Setsuko let her mind drift as Tsunade explained a few things. The Head Uzumaki never truly cared for such reasons. She tried not to scratch her ear or arm. It seemed like that was a nervous habit she had. She recognized a few teams. Hers, Kakashi's, Kurenai's, Asuma's, Gai's, and the sand triplets. There was one stone team, and two mist.
"Now, everyone, please go to the upper levels as we begin the preliminaries." Tsunade commanded as the board to her right started to randomly chose names.
Hyuga Hinata vs. Ichida Kusuo
Setsuko watched as the shy girl stood with the judge and her opponent, a stone-nin.
"Setsuko-sensei!!" Setsuko looked over at a worn yet energetic Seung. "We made it!" Setsuko smiled at her.
"This isn't over yet. You could easily be disqualified." Seung sighed and nodded.
"I know, I know. No need to rain on my parade." Setsuko chuckled before turning back to the field. She glanced at Robin out of the corner of her eye to see the girl resting with her back against the wall. Hinata dropped into the familiar stance she was taught since birth. Setsuko watched at Hinata charged in and finished off her opponent easily.
"That was quick." Janghoon muttered as the scoreboard lit up with new names. Sasuke and some stone-nin. Once more the fight was quick with Sasuke winning. Setsuko sighed and looked at her students.
"These fights are boring." She shook her head in boredom as Seung and Riki agreed. The next match was Tenten and Choji. Once again the match ended quickly with Choji becoming dizzy from rolling around. Tenten won as Choji had to get some help to get the needles out. Seung jabbed Riki in the stomach.
"HEY! What was that for?!" Seung pointed, annoyed, at the scoreboard. He was in the next fight. Riki smirked and began to make his way to the arena. He stopped when Setsuko put her hand on his shoulder.
"Riki-chan, you will not get much respect from me if this fight was not worth the fight that I had to go through to get the three of you into this exam." She commented as if she spoke of the weather. Riki stared at her for a moment before he nodded.
"Hai, Setsuko-sensei." Riki entered the arena and faced his opponent, a mist-nin. The second they were told to begin, Riki started to attack without mercy. She threw several shuriken at the mist-nin. The ninja dodged a few only to discover the technique being used.
"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!!!" Shuriken hidden in the shadows of another shuriken. His opponent had to jump against the ground in order to avoid begin hit.
"Kirigakure no Jutsu!!!" A heavy mist blanketed the field. Setsuko narrowed her eyes and then closed them while Kakashi uncovered his left eye to see the battle. Setsuko listened to the battle taking place. The wind relayed every movement made to her. It spoke to her, telling her about everything they did. She listened as a voice told her the seals being performed.
"Katon Karyuu Endan!!!!!!" A large dragon of fire emerged from the mist, evaporating the mist as it circled the field, searching for its prey. Setsuko smirked as she opened her eyes while Kakashi covered his eye again.
"Suiton Suijinheki!!!!!!" A wall of water came up in time to stop the dragon. Steam was the only thing left of the jutsu the two had used. Riki smirked as he looked at the mist-nin.
"It seems our jutsu are evenly matched. I use fire, you counter with water. However, I'd like to know where you're getting the water." The genin representing the Mist smirked smugly.
"There is water all around us. In the air, on the walls, ceilings, floor, it's in our bodies and comes out in sweat. It was easy to gather enough to fight. I can even take it from the steam." A kunai was held to Riki's throat. "Giving me the ability to make clones." Riki smirked and burst into smoke. "Bunshin?!" The mist nin was struck from behind and fell to the ground. He glared up at Riki.
"Do you really think that Setsuko-sensei would ever let me get away with losing? The woman beat my team black and blue just to get it into our thick skulls that we needed to work as a team. She'd kill me if I blew my chance at the final exam after all she went through to get our team qualified."
"Winner, Riki." Riki smiled as he looked up into the observation level. He caught Setsuko's proud smirk and gave her a thumbs up.
Robin looked up suddenly as Tenshi appeared next to her.
"What?" Tenshi smiled brightly at her and pointed to the board. Kankuro was her opponent. ". . . thank you." Robin got up off the ground and jumped down into the arena as Tenshi skipped over to Setsuko.
"Oy! Cousin, how ya been?!" Tenshi beamed. Setsuko stared at her before turning back to the fighting arena.
". . . will Robin be alright?" Tenshi smiled and nodded.
"Hai! If anything gets bad, she will use her jutsu! If that doesn't work, she will use our blood limit!" Setsuko looked at Tenshi.
". . . demo, isn't our blood limit the ability to absorb demons into ourselves?" Tenshi grinned as she shook her head.
"Iie! That's only the highest form of it. The Uzumaki bloodline was blessed with unlimited adaptability." Seung stared at Tenshi.
"Ano . . . how is that so special?" Tenshi sighed and held her own hand. She grimaced before breaking her wrist, forcing her palm to face another direction. She bit back any cries of agony and smiled painfully. The Uzumaki Branch member held up her other hand and made a simple one handed tiger seal.
"HHAAA!" She smiled and moved her fingers of the twisted hand as if to wave at them. Tenshi quickly corrected her hand back into its proper place and healed the break. "See? Our bodies will adjust quickly to our needs. So broken bones or missing limbs can not limit us in battle. Our bodies will quickly find a way to be able to do things as well as a normal body. Not only that, but our bodies adapt to using a type of chakra. Like walking on water. Once we know how to do that, our body will adjust to that whenever we want to walk on water we truly don't have to think about it." She smiled as the pain faded. "Setsuko and Naruto were not of the same upbringing so they are not able to adapt as well as the rest of us until they have learned how to activate this special ability. But they are able to do so naturally, however it is not to the same degree as us." Setsuko stared at Tenshi's hand in shock. "Such as, after awhile, they will be able to do simple jutsu, such as henge, without seals because their bodies adjusted to the jutsu. However, that might take awhile." Tenshi smiled after her long explanation and felt proud as Setsuko looked slightly disturbed at her hand.
". . . Tenshi-chan . . ."
"Hai?"
"Don't ever do that again."
Robin swung at Kankuro with her naginata. Surprisingly, Kankuro let it slice into him. Robin stared at the body, slightly shocked at the lack of defense. Surprise was bluntly written on her face when the limb body creaked as it grabbed the naginata and ripped it our of her hands. The body looked up at her with its face breaking off. Robin narrowed her eyes in realization before releasing the naginata and jumping away from the doll.
". . . I see." Robin watched as Kankuro unwrapped himself from the doll's back. Robin smirked. "Then, I must cut its strings." Robin's hands flew through the seals quickly before a white glow appeared by her arms. Her favorite summoning. Robin raced forward as Kankuro smirked.
"Blades can't cut through-" He stared in horror as Robin sliced apart the strings. She kicked the doll away from her and glared at him.
"Do you really think I'd be stupid enough to summon a useless item when I knew the trick? Use substitution art to switch yourself with the doll and control it with strings of chakra." She pointed a long blade towards him as the other flipped back to be used in a defensive manner. "These are not my favorite summons for no reason. I can use them for both offense and defense. Not only that, but cutting through chakra is possible with these. Actually, these don't cut through chakra, they absorb it." Robin smirked and charged at him. Kankuro had to roll away from her deadly blades. The doll lifted itself off of the ground and began to attack her. Robin cut through the strings, forcing the doll to fall to the ground, lifeless once more. "You puppet is useless. You will use up all of your chakra creating and cutting strings of chakra. While it is no effort for me to cut the strings. The match has been won." Robin sighed before she cut the chakra strings as the puppet passed her in a missed attack. Robin glared at him. "Very well. I will have to dispose of your puppet then." The blades flipped back and rested against her arms. Her hands formed several different seals. Rabbit, dog, horse, dragon, dog, bird, hog, rabbit. "Cage of Earth no Jutsu!!!!!!!" The ground had large spikes shot out of them. They surrounded the puppet and cut off any interference it might offer. Robin turned to Kankuro.
"Damn you!" Robin glared at him.
". . . without a puppet, you will lose. I excel at hand to hand combat and blade fighting. Your puppet has been the one to fight all this time. You've used us a large amount with all the strings created and absorbed. The match is over." Robin appeared in front of him and delivered a swift punch to the gut. Kankuro fell to the ground, out cold. Robin let the blades fade away before picking her naginata up and wrapping it up tightly. She leapt up to the observation level with ease and turned to Asuma. "Asuma-sensei, will I be needed anymore?" Asuma nodded.
"To get your number for your fight." He grumbled. Robin nodded before sitting on the ground and began to meditate.
Setsuko cast a glance to her left to watch the scoreboard. The next two names that appeared were from the same team. Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji. She watched as Lee ran down to the arena with a huge grin and Neji made his way down there with no worry. He sent a glance in Robin's direction before he dropped into the Gentle Fist stance. Setsuko looked at Robin. The girl seemed to be meditating. He never truly understood why she would always meditate.
"Setsuko-sensei . . ." Setsuko turned to Seung.
"Hai?"
"Ano . . . I can't see it." Setsuko looked in the direction Seung was looking, the arena. Setsuko stared at it for a few minutes. It was all blurs to her. Both were moving fast, fast enough to become only shadows to the eyes.
". . . I can't see it either . . . however . . . Lee is not doing so well." Seung and Riki looked back up at her, startled by her words.
"Nani?!" Janghoon sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Setsuko-sensei is the Uindo Bensha. She is able to understand and speak to the wind." Setsuko sent a proud smirk over to Janghoon.
"Janghoon-kun, if you weren't so stubborn about doing things your own way, you'd be a jounin by now." As Seung and Riki made fun of their teammate, Setsuko's eyes drifted over to a familiar jounin. Kakashi stood behind his three students. Naruto was leaning on the rail, with his arms draped over it, Sakura stood next to Sasuke with a faint blush, and Sasuke watched with his clan's famous eyes. Kakashi looked up, sensing someone watching him, and turned his head in her direction. Setsuko jerked her eyes and head back to the battle and watched. Setsuko shook her head and looked down at her team. A sad smile crossed her face before she looked towards the arena. Lee fell to the ground, out cold. Setsuko looked to the board, waiting. Gaara and a mist-nin. The mist-nin stuttered as he gave up in fear of Gaara. Two new names appeared.
Sohn Seung vs Uzumaki Naruto
Seung turned to Setsuko.
"Setsuko-sensei . . . I'm not going to fight Na-" Setsuko cut her off with a slap to the face.
"How dare you! Do you really think that I care about what my relationship with your opponent is? Get your butt down there and fight. Do not hold back. If you do, so help me god I will kill you. I did not enter a weakling that allows such things. I entered a ninja. Act like it." Seung held her red cheek. The girl stared into her angry sensei's eyes. She nodded and smiled.
"Arigatou, Setsuko-sensei." The girl jumped over the railing and landed softly on the ground.
"Begin!" Naruto created his clones and sent them in a fury towards Seung. Seung pulled out the wakizashis out and ran through the Narutos, destroying as many as she could. The girl jumped into the air, after hitting one of the last Narutos, as her hands began to fly through hand seals.
"Nightshade no Jutsu!!!" Seung disappeared from sight. The Uzumaki boy looked around, confused. Before he realized it, he was flying through the air and landing face first. Before Seung could preform any jutsu, Naruto launched himself at her, flinging kicks and punches. Up in the stands, Setsuko and Kakashi sweatdropped. Seung was able to knock him away from her while she jumped away herself, adding even more distance between the two. Naruto was able to land on his feet and bite his thumb. Both began to perform a jutsu. "Petal Dance no-" Seung was cut off by a large frog being summoned to the field. It spat slime at her feet, trapping her. Seung hacked away at the slime, but it was no use. She looked up in time to see Naruto's fist coming towards her face.
Setsuko watched grimly as Seung was carried off the field. Naruto ran by her with a grin on his face before a hand shot out and grabbed the back of his jacket. Naruto fell back alittle and looked up at Setsuko.
"Naruto . . ." She growled out and Naruto smiled at her.
"Setsuko-neesan!!!" Setsuko bonked him on the head.
"Do you ever think during a fight?????!!!!!!" She yelled. "Flying at her with punches and kicks?! What kind of plan is that?! You didn't even make sure she was real, or that there were no traps!!!!!!!" Naruto smiled at her broadly and held his hands behind his head.
"Oy, I great ninja like me doesn't need to do that! I can handle whatever is thrown at me!" Setsuko felt her eyebrow twitch.
"HANDLE THIS!!!!!!!" Setsuko yelled as she sent the poor boy flying towards his team.
Robin opened her eyes to look at her teammate. Ino was silent, which was rare in the short time span that Robin knew her. Ino's name was up on the board. Along with the boy, Shino.
"What's wrong?" Ino looked back at her.
". . . Shino is pretty good. With his bugs . . ." Robin closed her eyes.
"Do you want to win?"
"Of course!" Ino snapped.
"Then go out there and win. One way or another, get this match over with." Ino nodded before leaving for her match. The Emotionless Executioner stood up and walked to the rail to watch Ino. Unfortunately, the battle was short. While Ino threw several kunai and shuriken at Shino, the boy released his bugs. She was able to destroy his a clone of his before she was completely surrounded by bugs and forced to give up. When Ino returned to her team, she looked down in shame.
". . ." Robin stared at her a minute before lifting her face up gentle with her left hand with a faint and comforting smile.
". . . perhaps Asuma-sensei will teach you some new jutsu. I doubt that you will not succeed." Ino smiled at Robin and hugged the girl. Robin stared ahead in shock before patting her awkwardly on the back.
Setsuko yawned while a stone-nin and a mist-nin fought. She didn't pay attention, it didn't matter. She quickly ran through the matches before sighing. Janghoon, Temari, Sakura, Kiba, and three mist-nin. Not a lot of fun. Setsuko stared at the ceiling for a moment as she contemplated things. 14 people should advance to the final test. That would be a longer tournament than most would favor. However . . . if the fights were good enough, then there shouldn't be any angry crowds afterwards because of the time. Setsuko looked back to the fight in time to see the stone-nin standing over an unconscious mist-nin. The next people to fight were Temari and Kiba.
Sakura watched carefully as the two contestants made their way down.
'Temari-san seems alittle irritated. From her last fights . . . she'll end this fast. Kiba . . . he'll overestimate her. He'll use his dog but that won't work if she fills the arena with those tornado winds . . .'
"Sakura," She looked up to her sensei. "Who do you think will win?" Sakura smiled before turning back to the field.
"Temari has the advantage. All she has to do is use her fan to make that tornado she beat Tenten with." It was as Sakura said. Temari, seemingly angry at something, unleashed her fan's tornado. Sakura sighed before staring back up at the board. She smiled slightly as her name appeared next to a mist-nin.
Sakura dodged a kunai before several clones appeared around her. The mist-nin appeared in front of her and performed an familiar jutsu for a long time ago. A bubble of water captured Sakura, forcing her to lose the match.
Setsuko forced back a yawn. It seemed as though all the matches would be boring. Finally, the last match was called. Two mist-nin. Setsuko looked over to Janghoon as the mist-nin duked it out.
"Oy, you're not disappointed are you?" Janghoon looked up at her.
"Nani?" Setsuko smiled.
"This just means that you didn't have to worry about getting beat. Also, you don't need to waste a month coming up with new techniques because everyone saw your favorite." Janghoon took a moment to think before smiling.
"Hai!" The two looked down to see the end of the match. Setsuko sighed in relief as she and her two students jumped down to the ground, waiting to get their number for the matches. The others soon joined them.
"Congratulations on making it to the third and final test. As you may or may not know, the next test will be a tournament held in one month. In this tournament, high ranking officials will be watching and deciding who will receive the rank of chuunin." Tsunade smiled at all of them. "Please, step forward and draw a number. This will allow us to set up your match for the tournament." Setsuko watched as Robin stepped forward and pulled out a white ball with the number 3 on it. She showed it to the ninja marking down numbers before crushing it in her hand and stepping back. A mist-nin stepped up and drew 8 while a stone-nin drew 14. Gaara drew 5, Temari 13, and another mist-nin drew six. Tenten drew 4 before Neji pulled out 1. Riki drew 12, Shino drew 7. Setsuko and Kakashi both sighed when Naruto strolled up to the box and yanked out 10. Hinata came up and timidly took a 2, with horror etched on her face once she realized who her opponent would be. When Janghoon drew a 11, Setsuko looked worried and shocked as she looked between both her students. Sasuke drew a 9, causing Kakashi to look slightly worried. "Good! Now, you will be free to leave and train." Tsunade beamed before disappearing. The ninja who had recorded the numbers finished writing them on a board.
"Hinata will face Neji." Robin muttered for making her way to the shy girl.
"Tenten and Robin." Neji mussed.
"Sasuke! I'll beat you!!!!!" Naruto yelled while a poor mist-nin trembled in fear of Gaara. Shino didn't glance at the mist-nin he would face, he merely left. Temari smirked as she looked over the stone-nin she would battle. Setsuko stared sadly at her students while they glared at each other.
Oy, sorry about those battles. This chapter has been a pain to write. I hated it. Grrr . . . well, next time will be much better because there won't be so many! Ja ne!
Neji vs. Hinata
Robin vs. Tenten
Gaara vs. mist-nin
Shino vs. mist-nin
Sasuke vs. Naruto
Janghoon vs. Riki
Temari vs. stone-nin