(I've done what I can with the translations if anyone has any corrections or has some translations for the techniques I could not translate, please leave them in your review and enjoy!)
Chapter 3: As the Mystery Unfolds
As Yamu and his lightning clones get into a defense position, Tenge smiles in excitement. The three clones create a triangle formation surrounding Yamu. With their kunai at the ready, the cloud nin and his clones look on in anticipation.
"All right then, let us get started!" Tenge exclaims.
Tenge speeds over to the formation and all clones immediately scatter, and Yamu begins to charge. Two of the clones begin to close in on Tenge from his sides, added to Yamu's direct charge, Tenge is on the defending end of a three pronged attack. Tenge increases his speed toward Yamu as to avoid a fight with one of the lightning clones.
As the two fighters continue their battle, Shin looks on with interest. "That's the way you do it Keinea. Use the cloud country's techniques, and the fight will go smoothly."
Tenge's teammate Sakamo looks on diligently from the fighters area. "Rai Bunshin no jutsu. A technique creating a clone out of compacted negatively charged electrons present in the air. Like a regular clone, it will disperse when given a direct hit, this clone however can still make successful attacks. The main difference is that when this clone disperses or attacks it leaves behind a field of compressed electricity equal to twelve thousand volts. Avoid hitting the clone's Tenge, or this match may be over quickly."
Yamu realizes that Tenge has moved closer then he would have anticipated, and Yamu stops dead in his tracks. As he ducks down, the third lightning clone leaps out from behind him and rockets toward Tenge. Tenge counters by leaping high into the air out of the reach of all three clones now all face to face. When Tenge lands, he runs toward the trees to the left side of the ring, and with the clones in pursuit, Tenge snaps off a large tree branch on his way into the wooded area. He grabs the severed branch and begins tearing off any smaller branches and leaves on it. He then hides in the trees hoping from branch to branch in an effort to lose the clones. The clones spread out and search the small area for the trail of their opponent. Tenge reveals his position to the clones and runs back into the open. The first clone charges toward Tenge, who has taken a defensive sword stance with the NOW, club-like branch.
"What are you doing, idiot?" Yamu ponders to himself. Are you going to bat my clones away with your little stick?"As Yamu laughs at his opponent's new strategy, the merit of Tenge's plan begins to dawn on Yamu. "Awe, crap."
The first clone rushes in fast on Tenge, who counters by laying a heavy strike to the clone's chest. The clone then disperses in a bright flash of lightning. When the bright light dissipates, Tenge remains unharmed, and drops his now burnt club.
The Raikage looks on with a pleased smile on his face. "Making Tenge the odds on favorite from our village to win this tournament was the right move if you ask me Shin. He countered Yamu's lightning clone, by using an item that would disperse the clone and drawing the electrons into it without conducting any of the electricity into himself." The raikage smiles in approval of his detailed analysis of the last few moments of the fight. He then adds, "If he had tried that with a sword or a kunai, he could have been shocked into a coma."
Shin responds, "Yes indeed Raikage-sama, a simply brilliant strategy if you ask me. Idiot"
"I see," Yamu announcesas he points to Tenge. "You used that stick to disperse the clones, and because it was made of wood you managed to avoid getting electrocuted. Well then let's see how you deal with twice the amount of voltage, and without your little stick."
The two remaining clones begin to charge at Tenge at highspeed. As they leap into the air with kunai drawn, Tenge drops to the ground on his back and throws two shuriken at the clones who disperse upon impact.
"Excellent. There is no way that he can dodge the electric wave at that range. This match is mine." Yamu smiles at the thought of his impending victory.
Before the wave of electricity can hit Tenge, he starts a jutsu with the hand seals, rat, monkey, ox, snake. He then separates his hands pulling them apart and creating a barrier made of a whitish blue like substance with the appearance of a fine mist. "Static Barrier no jutsu!" Tenge shouts as the electricity then disperses along with the barrier, and the sound of thousands of static shocks can be heard echoing throughout the arena. Tenge then rises to his feet, completely unharmed yet again.
"Wh-what?" Yamu screams in disbelief. "How did you do that? Why were you unaffected by that?"
Tenge takes a bow before the cheering crowd and then turns his attention to Yamu. "The lightning clones are created by using chakra to compact trillions of negatively charged electrons into the shape of a clone. When they disperse, the electrons jump to connect with the positively charged electrons. Since the clones are taking up all the negatively charged electrons, the electrons don't have to jump far to find a positive charge, and because there are so many the wave spreads out like an explosion. With my static barrier technique, I gathered all the positively charged electrons in the area and bind them with my chakra into a mist like barrier. When the clones are dispersed, the electrons simply jump and dissipate into the barrier and the two cancels each other out."
"Hmpf, brilliant strategy Tenge." Yamu responds with a disgusted glare on his face, "I wasn't expecting to have you pull a trick like that."
"Yamu, you have put up a great fight so far. But I am afraid that this fight must come to an end." Yamu then starts up a jutsu. Horse, dragon, monkey, rooster, ram. "Rai no Yaiba" (Lightning blade).
Electricity begins to gather around Tenge's hand and extends for about two and a half foot in front of his hand, creating a blade of solid electricity bound together by chakra.
Tenge then begins his offensive with a quick launch from his right foot, and begins a high speed sprint at Yamu. His arms jutted back behind him his blade at the ready Tenge lunges with a stab directed at Yamu's stomach. Yamu manages to scout the move and dodges the stab by jumping backward. Tenge follows up with an uppercut with his left hand that connects right under Yamu's jaw knocking him off balance and opening up Tenge's follow up attack. Tenge spins around in a full circle and smacks Yamu in the ribs with a backhand strike with the dull edge of the lightning blade. The shock from the blade sends Yamu flying as he screams in pain. He hits the ground hard and Tenge begins to stalk his opponent, laughing at Yamu's pain in the process. Yamu begins to recover to his hands and knees just as Tenge stands a few feet away from him.
"I bet that hurt didn't it Yamu. Don't worry though my friend, since this is a friendly exhibition match you can just give up now and I won't have to hurt you any more." As Tenge begins to smile at his own smugness, Yamu begins to laugh to himself. However, the voice is not. It is slightly higher pitched, but more menacing. "Y-you're not Yamu . . . who the hell are you? Why are you in this tournament, tell me now!" Tenge grabs the collar of Yamu's jacket and tries to see Yamu's face.
"Mind your own business Tenge. You know that you have never beaten me before, so why would you change your focus off the task at hand?" Yamu says as he looks into Tenge's eyes, his facial features mostly covered by his long brown hair.
"You? How are you? But you're, this makes no sense." Tenge then regains his composure as all of the clues begin to fall into place for him. "Keinea, I should have known it was you from your stance at the beginning of the match, it's just like your brothers. What are you doing here?" As Tenge questions Yamu intensely, Yamu pulls away and runs to the back of the ring, clutching his face to hide his appearance from the crowd. "W-wait get back here dammit" Tenge follows suit and charges after Yamu. Tenge's speed is much higher then Yamu's due to the injury Yamu received earlier. Yamu stops at the edge of the pool at the back of the arena, and he spins around just in time to see Tenge strike him with his blade sending Yamu tumbling into the pool behind him.
Meanwhile, Shin is looking on with disappointment. "Dammit Keinea, You couldn't maintain henge any longer. Now our cover will be broken. This couldn't get any worse."
Tenge looks on as Yamu begins to pull himself out of the pool, his face now back to normal and with two electric burns on his torso. When he gets to his feet, he draws a kunai but struggles to stay on his feet.
Tenge shakes his head and points to Yamu with his lightning blade, "I don't know why you are here Keinea, but whatever you are up to, I won't let you get away with it. Especially if Toshida is here as well."
Tenge lines up Yamu with his blade and strikes it directly into his chest. The crowd looks on in shock as all expression fades from Yamu's face. Tenge smiles as the blade surges electricity into Yamu's body. Then suddenly another Yamu jumps out of the pool. As Tenge looks to the other Yamu in disbelief, the one that resides on the end of his blade grabs Tenge's arm, looks at him in the eyes and smiles. The body then dissolves into a mass of water, sending all the electric currents of Tenge's lightning blade back into his body and electrocuting Tenge until he falls unconscious.
"Hmpf, to think that I would achieve victory with Mizu Bunshin no jutsu." Yamu says as he moves his wet hair away from his face. "Your blade uses electricity against your opponent, and your chakra contains it and keeps you from being electrocuted. But if you have an excellent conductor like water present, then your coup de gras becomes you undoing"
The crowd erupts in a cheer as the referee runs over to check on Tenge. When the medics arrive to take over and carry Tenge from the ring, the referee runs over to Yamu and raises his hand in the air.
"The winner of the 5th match: Yamu"
Yamu then makes his way back to the fighters area as Shin breathes a sigh of relief. "That should put Tenge out of commission for a while. If he had won that match, or even remained conscious, he definitely would have reported our attendance to the Raikage."
As the medical team transfers the almost comatose Tenge to the medical station, the referee moves to the center of the ring and begins to gather the crowd's attention in preparation for the next match. As Ino and the clouds mysterious Kumo make their way to the ring the referee takes a moment to update the crowd on Tenge's condition.
"Ladies and gentleman, I have been informed that Tenge has not regained consciousness yet, however his injuries are not serious." The referee turns to the two competitors now waiting in the center of the ring. "And now, without further delay, let the 6th match, Yamanaka Ino vs. Kumo," The referee raises her arm, ready to swiftly start the match to keep the crowd's momentum up after the previous match.
Kumo begins to talk trash to the young Leaf Genin. "Little one there is no room for a pretty girl like you in this tournament. I honestly do not want to hurt you, so please just forfeit this match."
"Don't worry at all about me. If I were you, I would be more worried about myself. If you get too confident fighting against me," Ino shakes her right index finger at her tall, skinny opponent and mocks him with an over confident smile, "you just might hurt yourself."
The referee swings her hand down and shouts the two fighters, "BEGIN!"
Ino starts the match off and throws a kunai straight for Kumo's face. The cloud shinobi easily parries the kunai with his own and starts to charge against Ino. When the two meet up, Ino does not back down from her strong opponent, and matches Kumo blow for blow with simple taijutsu and kunai attacks. The fight seems at a stalemate as neither competitor can gain the advantage over the other. As the two shinobi each take a leap away from one another, Kumo is the first to kick the fight into the next level and he begins to start the first jutsu of the match. Horse, Ox, Rooster, Dog, Monkey, Snake, Tiger, Ram.
"Fuuton: Renkuuha!" (Wind Element: Airwave Blast)
Kumo finishes with the ram seal, and gathers a lot of air and chakra in his stomach and chest and balloons up almost twice his size. As he raises two fingers to his mouth, he exhales and an enormous gust of wind shoots out of his mouth in a thick steady stream. Ino in shock, drastically attempts to avoid the gale force winds. She quickly runs as fast as she can to the walls of the ring, trying to out run the air wave and tire Kumo out. As She reaches the wall of the ring, with one leap she lands on the stadium walls and starts running along the walls. The wind blast remains close behind her, actually cracking the concrete stadium walls under its intense force. Ino continues running and makes the seal of the tiger. It's her turn to try a jutsu.
"Bunshin No jutsu" Ino screams as she desperately tries to out run Kumo's hurricane style wind. Ino successfully creates nine other clones and all of them spread out to try and divert Kumo's attention from the real Ino. The clones disperse, and run everywhere. Along the walls, into the crowd, and from one end of the ring to the other. Kumo finally runs out of breath and his attack is coming to a halt. He pauses to regain his breath and to gather some more chakra for his next technique.
"Phew, that was close. If I had been hit by those winds, I would have been finished." Ino predicts as she and all her clones begin to await Kumo's next move.
"Hmpf. If you think that using only ten clones is going to save you from my technique, you have got another thing coming lady. You are just giving me many large targets to hit, instead of just one small one." Kumo states, as he takes in another deep breath. "Renkuuha!"
"Hmm. Maybe your right," Ino says as she makes the seal of the tiger yet again. "Bunshin no jutsu. I guess I will just have to create even more targets for you then."
As ten more clones are created, Ino and her decoys begin to scatter across the ring. Kumo meanwhile takes in another deep breath and exhales an even larger gust of wind then before. This time he aims a little lower to the crowd and sends a storm of sand into the air clouding the vision of the referee and most of the spectators. Kumo watches intently as the clones run throughout the ring, and through the makeshift sand storm. Kumo tries to take out as many clones as possible in, strategic sweeps. He manages to dispel eight of the clones in one sweep, then aims low to kick more sand into the air. As the clones begin to spread out more to take the place of the dispelled copies, Kumo notices a clone running along the wall on his right side. The clone is blocking her eyes with her left arm but is still managing to run the strategic patterns that Ino has been developing on the fly. Kumo immediately stops his air wave blast and throws a kunai at the clone to his right.
"FOUND YOU!" Kumo exclaims, as the kunai slashes against the clones right arm. The clone shouts in pain and stops dead in its tracks. The rest of the clones all disappear, and the sand begins to settle, as the crowd then begins to realize that Kumo has found the real Ino.
Kumo turns to the injured Ino, "You got sloppy leaf genin! I may not have some special doujutsu (eye technique) that allows me to see through genjutsu, or see chakra patterns, but I can spot the work of a sloppy shinobi." Kumo then starts to remember the previous minutes of the battle, to explain to the crowd how he saw through Ino's diversion. "The problem with using regular clones, is that they have no substance both figuratively and literally. They don't act like a shinobi would unless controlled to do so by the user of the technique. However the user never thinks to make the clones do the little things that make a person real. With that much sand in the air all I had to do was watch and see which one of you was blocking their eyes from the sand, then it all became obvious."
"Damn it." Ino curses herself as she realizes the error of her strategy, and the cunning nature of her opponent. Ino hops off of the arena wall, doing a somersault on the way down. She lands roughly fifteen meters from Kumo and flicks her shoulder length blond hair back and reveals a confident smile. "I thought I told you already. With that kind of talk, you'll end up hurting yourself." Ino then readies her hands in the proper position signifying that she is preparing to use Shintenshin No Jutsu.
The focus turns to the first balcony with the hokage's entourage, where Sakura has been watching diligently, as her old friend prepares to make what she thinks is a big mistake. "Don't do it Ino! That technique moves too slowly, and from that distance you are almost sure to miss. Even if you do connect with shintenshin, what are you going to do next?"
Ino watches as her opponent is unwavering in his confident vigil. Ino then smiles and changes the position of her hands to form a picture frame. Kumo looks on with a more anxious and curious disposition, at this sudden change in hand seals. Ino aims her attack for Kumo, who is now readying his kunai in both hands.
"Shinranshin no jutsu!" (Mind confusion technique)
The sound of a successful use of shintenshin echoes in Ino's head as she knows that her newly debuted technique has hit its mark. Kumo seems confused by the turn of events and begins looking himself over and looking around the ring to see what affects, if any, the technique had against him. Ino then lowers her hands and closes her eyes with a confident smile on her face.
"What is this?" Questions a confused Kumo, "What kind of technique was that, to have no negative effect at all? Hmpf this is why you should have given up when this match started. You obviously have no idea of what you are doing."
"I warned you twice now." Ino says as she raises her index and middle finger to her chin. "YOU'RE going to hurt yourself."
With that said Kumo realizes that he cannot move his arms or legs. Ino is now in control of all of his movements. Ino's fathers technique, "mind confusion" was successful and working its magic. Kumo tries to lower his left hand that is now bending at the elbow and balling up a fist. However his attempts are in vein, as he then begins to violently bunch himself repeatedly in the face for more then ten times. Ino begins to laugh hysterically as the crowd is in stitches at the sight they are witnessing. Laughter can even be heard coming from the first and second balconies as all of the Kage's and their entourage' are finding the sight quite humorous. Kumo then grabs himself by the hair and begins to drag himself to the back of the ring where he runs head first into a tree. Ino then grins maniacally as Kumo begins to head for a pointy rock by the edge of the pool at the back of the arena. Kumo then leaps high into the air and lands on the pointy rock crotch first. A very loud groan can be heard coming from the entire audience.
On the first balcony Sakura holds her hand over her face at her fellow shinobi's childish actions. "Ok Ino-pig, I think that is going a little too far."
When the focus turns back to Kumo, who has thrown himself into the pool, when he leaps out of the water with his clothes tattered and torn, Ino uses the mind confusion skill to make Kumo remain in a ridiculous pose. His left leg supports his weight as his right is jutted out behind him perfectly straight. His hands are then placed at the sides of his head with his finger tips directed to the back of his ears, fanning his ears out and making for an extremely ridiculous scene. The crowd erupts in laughter yet again as the referee moves closer to the competitor to check and see if he wishes to give up. As she approaches the prone cloud shinobi, she struggles to maintain a straight face.
"Do you wish to give up?"
Kumo, now beat red in the face grinds his teeth as the embarrassment is almost too much for him to bare. "Yes. I give up."
Ino releases the technique, and Kumo falls to his knees, bleeding from his nose. The referee walks over to Ino as the medical team comes in to check on Kumo. Kumo angrily shoves the medical team aside and then returns to the fighters' area to rejoin his teammates. The referee raises Ino's hand and announces to the crowd;
"The winner of the 6th match: Yamanaka Ino."
The crowd cheers Ino and chants her name, as she has given them all the most entertaining fight of the day. Ino returns to her teammates where Chouji congratulates her diligently. The other two leaf shinobi can faintly be seen smiling at the unorthodox tactics of their teammate. Meanwhile, Kumo returns to Yukina and Yamu furious at his humiliating defeat.
Kumo turns to Yamu with fire in his eyes, "When the mission begins, remind me to kill that girl." As Kumo states his vengeful intentions, he has trouble maintaining his transformation.
"Keep your cool Toragai," Yamu says to his infuriated comrade. "You know that is not part of the mission. Now calm down and focus on maintaining that form for a little while longer. Besides when everything falls into place, you will be too busy to worry about that girl."
"The next and final match of the first round of this tournament will begin in five minutes." The referee shouts as the crowd begins to calm down.
Akimichi Chouji and the Cloud village's Sakamo both make their way to the center of the ring. Chouji seems to be in better shape since his fight with Jiroubou. He appears to have more of a build and less fat then before, and his expression is one of determinated zeal. The thought of all you can eat BBQ pork has lit a fire under the kind hearted shinobi.
"Now, after this match has concluded we will take a two-hour intermission to ready the ring for the quarter finals, and to prepare the fighters for the next round as well." The referee raises her had after both the competitors have shaken hands. "Let the 7th and final match of the first round, BEGIN!"
"Something is not right about Shin-Sensei's new students." Sakamo ponders to himself about the recent turn of events. "They seem more vicious then I remember them being, and a lot stronger. Yukina would never have been able to move that fast, Yamu never had the skill needed to beat Tenge, and Kumo has never been one to use wind element skills. Something is not adding up here. Something is wrong and I need to find out what it is."
Shin looks on from the first balcony as Sakamo is staring up at him rather than at his opponent. "Don't get any ideas, Sakamo. I don't want to have to deal with you when the fighting starts. If need be, I will kill you before the mission begins."
When Sakamo returns his attention to the fight that has already begun, he turns only to see an enormous rolling ball of Leaf village shinobi thundering toward him at high speed. The representative of the Akimichi clan spins and rolls at the distracted and absent-minded cloud nin. Before the thundering wall of shinobi collides with Sakamo, Chouji's only words can be heard amidst the spinning ball of humanity.
"BAR-BE-QUE, BAR-BE-QUE!" Chouji screams as his motivation for the match becomes evident to his opponent. "NIKUDAN SENSHA!"