Chapter 2
The gates opened, and all twenty one teams ran in the forest of death. Oiyoba's team initiated their plan right away. Kiyuta sped around at ground level, Fuu took the underground, and Oiyoba flew the mossy sky. Daisuke and Korosu began sprinting throughout the forest.
"Hold up guys!" Saratobi called. Then, a huge claw on a chain shot down from the trees. The three looked up and saw two figures jump down. The one with his claw in the dirt flipped his hair out of his eyes.
"We're the Demon Brothers, from the village hidden in the mist." He said grimly. Daisuke and Korosu looked at eachother. Then they laughed. "What're you laughing at!" the other Demon Brother asked. Daisuke pointed his sword at them.
"We thought you guys would be more intimidating!" he yelled, grinning. Saratobi put her hand on his shoulder.
"Guys, don't push them! I heard they killed their girl teammate for kicks!" she said.
"That's right!" the first brother screamed, "And I'd like to have my claws rip through your flesh just to see what you had for dinner last night!" Korosu took out his needles.
"I'm sure." he said, throwing one. The first Demon jumped back and caught the needle.
"Ha-ha! Is this all!" he asked, viciously. Korosu grinned, and the needle turned into a cobra. The Demon threw it on the ground and jumped back. The other one picked it back up.
"Big deal. It's just an illusion." Korosu shook his head and made a hand sign. The cobra bit the Demon's hand, causing him to cry out in pain, and fall over from the poison.
"What the heck?" The other Demon yelled. Then he was knocked out by the hilt of Daisuke's sword.
"Wow Korosu! That was cool! How'd you do it?" Saratobi asked. Daisuke used the chained claws of the brothers to tie them to a tree.
"That was Henshin. The Kashime clan's ability." Korosu replied, quietly.
"Did you get their scroll, Daisuke?" Daisuke walked over disappointed.
"It was an earth scroll. Now we have two of them," he said, "At least we can make it look like we have both to bluff another team." They continued onward into the Forest of Death's darkness.
Meanwhile, Ryu, Hayate, and Hitomi had stolen a scroll from an unprepared Grass team.
"What kind is it?" Hayate asked, wiping blood from his mouth. Ryu looked at it and emitted smoke from his nostrils.
"Earth. Just what we needed." He said.
Hitomi put her boots back on to cover her clawed feet and giggled, "That was easy! But we still have four more days!"
Hayate stuck his nose in the air and sniffed, "Let's get moving. A team is closing in." Ryu nodded and they jumped away.
"Come on, Daisuke, when do we get to go to sleep? I'm exhausted." Saratobi complained. They'd been walking nonstop all evening. Daisuke was moving forward with speeds unable to obtain after so much walking.
"She's right for once, brother. We have four more days to obtain a scroll. Maybe resting isn't such a bad idea." Korosu said. Daisuke stopped and looked back at them, teary eyed.
"Oh, I'm so sad!" he cried sarcastically, "Your little footsies will explode if they don't get some rest, huh?" Saratobi nodded childishly. Daisuke grinned and kept on moving. Korosu sighed and followed his brother.
"Hey, that was mean!" Saratobi called. Daisuke stopped again.
"Did you hear that?" he asked, looking around. Korosu threw a shuriken into the trees, which returned as a hideous winged dog.
"What the heck is that thing?" Saratobi asked.
"Henshin." Korosu replied.
"We can't make living things with Henshin," explained Daisuke, "but we can make tracking devices disguised as living creatures." Korosu whispered something into the creature's ear. It flew into the air and set off. They waited patiently for a few minutes. "This'll be the most rest you get for a while." Daisuke said. Saratobi glared at him. The dog returned and landed by Korosu. It sent voices in his mind and turned back into a shuriken. Korosu stood up and put it away.
"Two teams are battling not too far ahead, and one of them is Zawato's group." He announced.
Saratobi gasped. "We gotta help them!"
"Just give us the scroll. We know you have the one with the heaven sign on it!" The masked ninja yelled.
"Shut up!" Zawato yelled back, blood gushing from his lip. Isshinta sat up against a tree, knocked out, and Fey was kneeled next to him. She was trying her healing arts, but to no prevail.
"Zawato!" Saratobi called as she ran into the battlefield. Daisuke and Korosu took stance in front of Zawato.
"Rei, look!" said the ninja with a staff to the masked one.
"I see, Bo. It looks like more snot-nosed punks entered the fray. It appears we're gunna have to take care of them too." Rei took out ten kunai knives and threw them all at Daisuke, who deflected them with his swords.
"Let's go, Korosu," he said. Korosu nodded, and they both jumped into the trees.
"Should we follow them?" Bo asked. Rei jumped up, with no answer. Bo looked back at a young girl in a skirt.
"You'll be okay alone, Elli?" The girl said nothing. In fact, Saratobi noticed, she hadn't blinked yet. Bo groaned and followed Rei into the trees.
Rei jumped at Daisuke, clanging a huge kunai against the dual blades. With Rei's free hand, he punched Daisuke in the face. Then, he grabbed the two swords and threw to the ground below. Daisuke jumped to the branch behind him and aimed his arm at Rei. Then a kunai on a chain shot out of Daisuke's sleeve.
'Concealed weapons!' Rei thought, right before his left shoulder was impaled. Then, Daisuke took out a wire from his shoe. It had a metal ball on the end for weight. He flung it around Rei's neck and pulled on both of his weapons, and, over his shoulder, Rei went falling to the ground. He landed right by Saratobi, causing her to scream. Meanwhile, Korosu was in pitched combat with Bo. Bo's staff was being blocked only by Korosu's poison needles. Out of nowhere, Bo became three.
"Annoying Ninjutsu," said Korosu, studying his new enemy. "But let's see how you fare against this…" Then, Korosu rolled down the tree and stood on the underside of a branch. The three Bos growled and did the same, only to find Korosu to be a twig. They looked back up, and got a needle to the forehead. Korosu stood on the tallest branch, and watched Bo become one and fall next to his partner. Daisuke and Korosu came down and gathered around Zawato, who was bleeding from his mouth all over the grass.
"How'd they do that to you? I beat the crap outta the one like nothing!" Daisuke asked. Zawato spit out more blood and turned his head.
"The girl…" he muttered. Everyone looked over at the motionless teammate of Rei and Bo. Daisuke found his swords and aimed one at her.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"…My name is Elli…" she replied robotically.
"What'd you do to Zawato?" Daisuke waited for an answer, but didn't get one. He threw a small orb from the back of his headband at her. It quietly exploded on contact and caused a ball of flame to consume Elli.
"Daisuke, how could you do that?" Saratobi asked.
"What, kill? It doesn't really bother me…" he started saying, but Saratobi slapped him.
"No, you idiot! Kill a little girl! How could you kill a little girl!" she screamed. Daisuke closed his eyes.
"She beat up Zawato. Besides, I thought the point was to eliminate the other teams." He said.
"Yeah, but you don't have to kill them!" Then Saratobi looked away. "I don't want to be your teammate anymore. You're so vicious! Maybe I should kill you!" Daisuke frowned.
"Now look who's vicious. Look, Saratobi. If it makes you feel any better…Korosu has killed more than I have." Korosu smacked Daisuke upside the head. Saratobi got up and flipped them off.
"Screw you guys!" she screamed, and walked off alone into the forest. Isshinta finally got up.
"Wh-what happened?" he asked. Fey smiled and hugged him.
"Well, we should get Saratobi. We need all our team members to pass." Daisuke said, getting up.
"Wait! Daisuke," Zawato pointed to Rei and Bo. "You guys take their scroll." Daisuke took out the two earth scrolls. "No, we have two." The first earth scroll was still disguised as a heaven scroll.
Zawato smiled and sat up. "Then I guess I'll see you in the tower."
Daisuke grinned. "I guess. C'mon, Korosu, let's get that crazy chick."
Inside the tower, four days later, a few teams had finished. The hours counted down (two) until the test was over. Zawato, Isshinta, and Fey had made it earlier the final day. Now they wonder where Daisuke's group is. Oiyoba, Kiyuta, and Fuu's plan was a success, because they collected four scrolls. Gaku, Jin, and Bijin used Bijin's body as bait for ambushes. Sasuma and Setsuko, being naturally good fighters, along with Satsuma, got their scroll. Ryu, Hayate, and Hitomi got a scroll, and they sat casually, searching for a new prey. Somehow, Rei, Bo, and even Elli made it.
"Don't tell me the cocky brat with two swords didn't make it." Oiyoba said, smiling.
"Saratobi!" Daisuke yelled. "Damn it. We're not gunna pass unless we get a scroll and that girl in less than two hours." Korosu lowered his head when a rat nibbled on his toe.
"This kunai tracking device didn't find her, either. Maybe she got out of the forest?" Korosu guessed. Daisuke shook his head.
"No, the rules clearly stated that you can't get out for five days." He replied. "Stupid girl. She shoved that loss right up our…" Then as he looked to the left, he saw Saratobi sleeping up against a tree. "There you are!" They ran over to her. Daisuke glared at her sleeping face and slapped it.
Saratobi squealed and jumped up. "Leave me alone you pervert!"
Daisuke sighed. "I didn't do anything…" he said. Saratobi looked at Korosu and Daisuke.
"You guys came to find me?" she asked, surprised.
"Sure. We couldn't pass without you." Korosu replied.
"So this is about passing? You guys, shinobi are not only skilled fighters and assassins, but also dedicated to their team." Saratobi said.
Daisuke shrugged. "I don't know where you learned that, but if you believe it, it may be true," he took out the two earth scrolls. "Anyway, we failed. No way could we get a heaven scroll in less than two hours."
Korosu's ears twitched. "Someone's coming." He whispered. A kid dragging his two teammates behind him made his way to Daisuke.
"Please, take our scroll." The kid said, exhausted.
"Uh, sure. Talk about a stroke of luck." Daisuke took the kids scroll, which, ironically, was a heaven scroll.
"Who did that to you?" Saratobi asked.
"The Waterfall team. They have perfect teamwork. Watch out for them." Then the kid collapsed.
"Okay, that was the best possible thing that could have happened." Daisuke said, putting the scroll away. Korosu took out a first aid kit he carried with him and set it by the three unconscious ninja.
"Let's get to that tower, on the double!" Saratobi cried, running away.
Anko appeared in the tower and looked over the group of survivors. "Wow. Way more of you got here than I figured. Well, none the less, you all passed." She said, disappointed. Just then, Daisuke, Korosu, and Saratobi ran in.
"Wait, we got here within the time limit!" Daisuke cried, pulling out the two scrolls of heaven and earth. Anko looked at the clock behind her.
"Well, although its last minute, you did get here in less than five days. Normally, you'd have to open those scrolls, but we're running later than expected, so don't bother." Daisuke sighed in relief. Kiyuta elbowed Oiyoba to get his attention, and pointed back. Oiyoba looked and growled at the three.
"So you runts made it. Lucky." He growled. Isshinta waved at Saratobi to come over. She did, and smiled at their cell.
"Glad you guys made it." She said. Zawato folded his arms. "There was an unsuspecting Sound team just waiting to be ambushed." Fey jumped happily.
"We didn't even have to fight them! They were sleeping!" she cried. Saratobi was confused.
"But couldn't a person from Sound hear you even if they were sleeping?" she asked, trying to get her facts straight.
"Not with Isshinta's ninja art." Zawato replied, patting his shy partner in the back. Soon Daisuke walked over to Setsuko.
"I thought you'd want to steal my heaven scroll." He joked.
"Funny, Daisuke," Setsuko said, not looking at him. "I figured out on the second day that you probably used Genjutsu to hide the real nature of it." Daisuke smiled and took out the two earth scrolls. "You sure I didn't just use one of these and a fake heaven scroll to get in?" Setsuko snatched the two earth scrolls. "These are both earth scrolls…" he muttered, opening them. "Did you cheat?" Daisuke whipped out the real heaven scroll.
"Nope! Got you!" Setsuko growled and threw the scrolls back in Daisuke's face. Korosu glanced at Rei, Bo, and Elli. "Huh? We killed them." He said to himself. Then he shrugged. "Maybe we'll get round two in the next test…" Then Anko took everyone in a bigger room, which had all the jonin teachers and the chunin teachers lined up on the opposite side of the room. Anko lined the teams up in seven lines of three. The ninja in the front of the lines were (from left to right), Setsuko, Ryu, Daisuke, Gaku, Oiyoba, Rei, and Zawato. Second were Sasuma, Hitomi, Korosu, Bijin, Kiyuta, Elli, and Isshinta. Last were Satsuma, Hayate, Saratobi, Jin, Fuu, Bo, and Fey. Isshinta looked at all the powerful, beat-up people, and practically fainted. Hayate licked his lips, his eyes darting back and forth. Saratobi felt a pulse of incompetence as she noticed all her new rivals.
"I can't wait to see what happens next." said Kiyuta, pushing his long hair out of his eyes. Rei and Bo were staring at Bijin, until she looked back at them.
"Take this seriously…" whispered their teammate, Elli, "All will end in a few moments." Daisuke and Korosu grinned.
"I really want to beat the crap outta some of these people." Daisuke said. Korosu nodded.
"Some of these people deserve it." He replied. Anko walked back to stand before the genin.
"I spoke with the Hokage," she yelled into a wireless mic. "And it seems we have a slight problem." The kids looked at eachother, paranoid. "There are twenty-one of you. It appears there are too many genin for this to go on. Now, don't get all up in a fuss. We've decided to have a set of preliminaries before the test." Then everyone grew silent. "Before that begins, though, I must explain two very important things. One: You may have to battle twice. Depending on how good you do… and two: Your team…you've stuck with them this far, but now…you're all against eachother." Isshinta gasped from out of the silence. "LET THE BLOODBATH BEGIN!" Anko yelled, pointing to an electronic screen. Two names appeared after a random scramble. It read: Hayate vs. Shimasu Sasuma. As the genin climbed the stairs for higher ground, Hayate grinned and walked out to the middle of the room.
"Where's my prey?" he asked, hunching his back out. Sasuma cracked his knuckles and crossed over opposite of Hayate.
"You're Hayate? I've heard of you. From the village hidden in the sand, right?" Hayate got in fighting position.
"Yeah, and if you've heard of me, then I'm sure you've also heard of how many people I've killed." He replied. Sasuma nodded and threw a kunai with great speed. Hayate caught it in his teeth and was impaled by a shuriken.
"How the hell…?" Sasuma jumped back and took out more shurikens. "Everyone has a blind spot, wolf boy, and by determining the person's height and eye size, I can find it." Hayate closed his eyes.
"Heh…I don't need to use my eyes at all. Good luck finding that blind spot again." Sasuma threw the weapons.
"How can you dodge what you can't see?" he stammered. Hayate evaded all the shuriken and threw two back.
"I have a nose, and, by the way, you should have washed your hands this morning. They smell like fish." Sasuma sneered and ran at Hayate.
"I don't have to use weapons to beat you!" he cried, throwing a punch. Hayate, eyes closed, caught the fist, spun Sasuma around, and threw him into the wall. The Hokage scratched his head.
'What's wrong with Sasuma? He's usually such a good fighter.' He thought. This old man is the Third Hokage, who is just filling in for the current Fifth Hokage, who took a vacation. As the fighting continued, the jonin teacher from the village hidden in the sand grinned.
"I never liked him." He said, looking at Hayate. "It may be his age advantage, but I think he's the best fighter here." Hayate slid under Sasuma's legs and grabbed his ankles. Then, using the art of the doppelganger, he turned into three. The original Hayate threw Sasuma up to another Hayate, who punched Sasuma back down, into the fist of another Hayate. Sasuma was then bit in the forearm by the big fangs of Sand's finest. The crowd of genin gasped.
"He bit 'im!" Daisuke yelled.
"Thanks you for pointing out the obvious, Daisuke," Korosu replied, "But what's the point in biting?" Hayate's teeth ripped through Sasuma's flesh, as he cried out in pain.
"HAYATE! STOP!" the Sand jonin commanded. Hayate dropped Sasuma and spit out a chunk of muscle from the boy's arm. Saratobi covered her mouth as she ran for a bathroom. The Hokage buried his face in his hand.
'My village is full of babies.' He thought, raising the other hand at Hayate, indicating he won. Hayate made his way upstairs and stood by Ryu and Hitomi. Everyone looked at the screen again. Now it read: Inouye Oiyoba vs. Tsuno Rei. Daisuke stared at the names for a while.
"Hey, Korosu, didn't I kill that Rei guy?" Korosu nodded. "Zombie!" Daisuke yelled as the two fighters walked downstairs.
"Why didn't you just fly down, buddy?" Rei teased. Oiyoba made no facial remark. "These wings'll be your downfall." He said. Rei got out his giant kunai.
"What they'll be is an easy target." Rei threw a lone shuriken at the left wing. As soon as it made contact, Oiyoba exploded. "Holy crap!" Rei cried. The Hokage was about to raise his hand at Rei, when the smoke cleared, revealing Oiyoba. "What was that?" Rei asked, confused.
"You won't touch these wings. The bombs I'm covered in will protect me." said Oiyoba. Rei leaned on his giant kunai.
"Yeah, but, how'd you survive your own explosion?" Oiyoba folded his arms.
"It's a trade secret." He replied.
"C'mon! Lemme in on that!" Then from the crowd, Bo threw some garbage down.
"Let's go! This isn't social hour!" he called.
"He's right," Oiyoba said, taking to the skies, "let's get this over with." Is must've been really cool to see a person fly, because Rei didn't get out of the way when a bomb was dropped. He was nicked by the explosion, and jumped to the side. He tried kunai and shuriken, but his bomb shield stopped any attack. He even tried physical blows, but then his giant kunai exploded.
After Oiyoba won that battle, Bijin beat Fey, and Hitomi beat Satsuma. All the other cells but Daisuke's had seen some action. When the screen had shown off the next two names, one of the three smiled. The screen now read: Kashime Daisuke vs. Watashi Gaku.
"Finally!" Daisuke cried, running down the steps. Gaku shoved his hands in his pockets and casually walked down. "I've always wanted to smash your face in, Gaku." Daisuke said, drawing his two swords.
"Why is that?" Gaku asked.
"You gel your hair back and wear leisure suits to class. It just annoyed me outta my mind." Daisuke ran up and slashed twice with each sword. Gaku, although tall, easily dodged all the strikes. Then, he kicked Daisuke in the jaw.
"Oooh, Daisuke. I heard you were a good fighter." Gaku said sarcastically. Daisuke recovered and got out a small sack from his sleeve. "What do you have there?" Gaku asked. Then Daisuke threw it and it exploded in a smog of toxins. Gaku coughed and fell to a knee.
"You shut up!" Daisuke said, jumping in the air. When he reached the ceiling, he grabbed hold of a wooden beam and got a bird's eye view of the room. The smog cleared, and Gaku stood back up.
"Alright, coward, that's it! Where are you!" he looked around and noticed his partner Jin pointing up. Gaku threw his head back and got smashed in the face by the hilt of one of Daisuke's swords. Then Daisuke kicked Gaku in the ribs.
"Get up," he said, "I haven't seen your moves yet." Gaku kipped up and brushed his hair back. Daisuke frowned in surprise. "You can take more than I expected." Gaku took out one shuriken.
"That's because I don't spend precious training time chasing girls! They come to me." He replied. Then he jumped back and threw the weapon. Right before the shuriken was deflected by Daisuke's sword, it turned to Gaku and punched him in the face. Daisuke slid back, bleeding from the lip. Before Daisuke could get up all the way, Gaku appeared behind him and got him in a hold. Saratobi gasped from the crowd.
"He's totally screwed now!" she yelled.
"Thanks!" Daisuke called back, struggling to escape. 'I can't use my hands, so I can't Henshin out of this…' he thought. Gaku tightened his grip.
"Give…up…" he said. Daisuke looked up at Korosu, who pointed to his own back.
"Oh, yeah!" Daisuke cried.
"What now?" Gaku asked, tightening his grip again. Daisuke started running backwards, slamming Gaku's back into the wall. That gave Daisuke one free hand. With it, he reached into the back of his shirt and pulled out two katars. He used one to impale Gaku's arm, pinning him to the wall. Gaku screamed at let go completely.
Then Daisuke turned around and was about to cut through Gaku's neck when Saratobi called out, "STOP!" He paused and looked up at her. "Don't kill anymore, Daisuke, please." She sobbed. Daisuke sighed and put the lone katar away.
"Fine, just don't go all moody on me…" The Hokage raised his hand at Daisuke.
"Kashime Daisuke is the winner!" he announced. As some medics handed back the other katar and rushed Gaku away, Daisuke went back upstairs. He stood next to his brother as the screen revealed two new names.
"Kusen Ryu vs. Hiroshima Kiyuta." Oiyoba patted Kiyuta on the back.
"Ryu is a name to hide weakness," he said. A gigantic boy with a mask over his mouth started walking downstairs. He wore a shirt with a flame design and had large biceps.
"You were saying?" Kiyuta asked, starting for the other stairs. Ryu closed his eyes and sat down.
"I wouldn't recommend using a kunai right away. There's no need to test my reflexes." He said, reading Kiyuta's mind. Kiyuta remained calm.
"Impressive." He replied. "So tell me…" he started again, "your friend Hayate was like a wolf. Your other friend Hitomi was like a bird. Would that mean you're like a dragon?" he asked. Ryu opened his eyes. Even sitting down, he was eye level with Kiyuta. "You know your legends, don't you?" Kiyuta ignored him and scratched his head. "But how can you claim to be part dragon? That is a mythological creature, and you're human." He said. Ryu closed his eyes again.
"I sense you'll find out soon…" Kiyuta lifted an eyebrow.
"Don't say you excel in fire jutsu," he said, "because any ninja could pull that off." Ryu finally got up. He stared down at Kiyuta with a huge smile behind his mask.
"There's more to it than that!" he cried, throwing a punch.
'Easily dodged…' Kiyuta thought, but when he sped behind Ryu, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Ryu's foot had been there and Kiyuta ran right into it. "You read my moves well." Kiyuta whispered. Ryu took his foot out of the boy's stomach.
"Like I said, there's more to it than that." He replied. Upstairs, Korosu watched with interest.
"I thought Kiyuta would win, but now I'm having second thoughts," he said. Daisuke leaned on the railing and watched over his shoulder.
"That guy from Sand is pretty good." Then they heard Hayate laugh evilly.
"What's so funny, cannibal?" Saratobi asked, angry at him for making her throw up earlier. Hayate glanced at her, and went back to checking out the action.
"I don't need to associate with skimpy brats like yourself." He growled.
"WHAT WAS THAT!" Saratobi cried. Daisuke and Korosu jumped in front of her to separate her from Hayate.
"Hey, there's no need to be such a dick! The truth hurts, after all." Daisuke said. Saratobi smacked him on the head.
"You shut up too!" she screamed. Hayate turned to face them, hunched over.
"Alright, tough guy. I saw your fight out there. Pathetic." He muttered. Korosu stepped forward.
"There's no need to make this into a big deal," he started, "but if you must persist on pestering us, then I'm prepared to fight you." Hayate grinned.
"You're the ones pestering me, but I never pass up a good snack." He said. Korosu slapped his palm to the ground. Everyone but Daisuke was confused. Then the railing shot out and wrapped around Hayate's legs.
"There. Now shut up." Korosu said. Hayate scrambled around, trying to free himself.
Five minutes after Ryu and Kiyuta began fighting, Oiyoba grew impatient. "Kiyuta!" he called, "Use your special jutsu!" Ryu, not a scratch on him, decided to take a look in the future. He saw Kiyuta stopping him in his tracks with some unknown technique. He cursed when he found out the skill had no obvious weakness.
"I'll just have to take it." He whispered.
Kiyuta made a hand sign and called out, "Air Baryta!" Then Ryu's legs were smashed together. "I just made a vacuum around your feet," Kiyuta said, dropping his guard, "so you can't move around anymore." Then he started running at Ryu with shuriken and kunai at hand. Right before Kiyuta reached Ryu, Ryu pulled down his mask to reveal a gigantic mouth, full of teeth. Kiyuta skidded to a stop, but didn't evade the oversized nova projecting from the boy's mouth.
"Kiyuta!" Fuu screamed from upstairs. Ryu's feet were released, and he sat down again.
"You were the most formidable foe I've had to fight yet, believe it. For that I hope you make it to heaven." He said quietly.
"Don't start praying yet!" an extremely familiar voice yelled from across the room. Everyone looked and saw Kiyuta, covered in smoke with his shirt burnt off. The Hokage sighed.
'These kids have so many surprises this year,' he thought. The jonin teacher from the village hidden behind the waterfall smiled. 'Thank goodness he survived. He's out best fighter.' He started clapping in the silence. Soon Fuu and Oiyoba joined in. Hayate looked around from the floor he was stuck to and sneered. Hitomi leaned over the railing and gasped.
"I didn't see him dodge that!" she said. Ryu looked at her.
'He didn't,' he told her telepathically, 'When I first made contact with the fire, he used up his chakra to freeze time. He's a master of movement.' Kiyuta breathed heavily, his glasses broken and smoky.
"Give up, I beg of you. You've almost run out of chakra and that would mean certain death." Ryu said, standing back up. Kiyuta fell to a knee.
"I'm not going to fail." He said.
"What reason do you have to fight till death?" Ryu asked, his oversized mouth agape. Kiyuta said nothing. "You haven't inflicted any harm on me yet," Ryu started, "so what makes you think you can still win?" Kiyuta was still silent. Ryu made his way to the boy and lifted him up by his ponytail, "Then this will end now." Being out of chakra, Kiyuta couldn't move. Ryu punched Kiyuta in the face and dropped him to the ground. The Hokage checked his watch.
"Well that took long enough. The winner is Kusen Ryu!" Ryu made his way back upstairs. Isshinta hid behind Zawato when he passed. Everyone stared at his mouth.
"Good job, Ryu!" Hitomi cried, quickly hugging him.
"Thanks…What happened to Hayate?" he asked, looking down.
"That kid with the glasses happened!" he roared, pointing to Korosu. Ryu merely laughed and sat against the wall, pulling his mask back up. "What the hell are you laughing at! Help me out, you large-mouthed idiot!" Hayate yelled.
Meanwhile, Oiyoba and Fuu made their way down to Kiyuta's body. "Is he…dead?" Fuu asked. Oiyoba checked his fallen comrade's pulse.
"I…think so." He replied, sadly. He took Fuu under his wing as she started crying.
"It's okay. He always said he'd want to go down in battle." He said, trying to calm her down.
"That Ryu boy must be a demon if he could just kill with no remorse!" she cried.
"Don't go holding anything personal on him. He prayed for Kiyuta. I'm sure he feels really bad." Then the same extremely familiar voice came out from next to them.
"Bad about what?" Kiyuta asked. Fuu looked up and tackled him.
"You're alive!" she screamed rapidity.
"Yes, actually, I have something to say. I never fought that battle at all." He said. Oiyoba tilted his head in confusion.
"Are you saying that was all a shadow clone, Kiyuta?"
Kiyuta nodded, "I was just testing my chakra. I guess it still needs some work."