I have summer classes these days so I won't be able to update until that's over, which is the 26th of July. This should give you guys an idea on how much time you'll be waiting. I'm really sorry about that, but these are intensive courses, so it's more than full-time... I still hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I'll see you towards the end of July!
Chapter 43: Preliminaries Part 7
Not many people are left now. Looking around, I'm pretty sure everyone's done their battles except for four people. Three of which are Gaara, Koji, and Ikki. The fourth is that Lee guy in the green jumpsuit. So there's inevitably going to be two of us Sunagakure shinobi that have to go up against each other. I look at Gaara. He seems unperturbed. That's so like him. He's just that confident. Ikki is being cheered on by Yukari. Koji also seems pretty normal. It's like he's not nervous at all. The display screen starts beeping. My attention is now completely focused on that.
"Let's get right back into it now."
The proctor coughs. The display screen stops beeping…
"Next match… Gaara vs Koji."
No! This is so not good. I have a really bad feeling about this. Those two don't exactly like each other… Koji looks at Gaara with an irritated look before heading down the stairs. I notice a frown on Gaara's face as he also heads down. I just hope none of them get badly hurt…
"Begin."
The proctor clears the arena. As soon as he does, Gaara strikes first. He chases Koji with his sand. Koji starts running from it, dodging the many attacks. He then gets closer to Gaara and throws a bunch of shuriken at him. Of course, the sand rushes back to protect him. Koji then seizes this opportunity to make a bunch of hand signs. He's going to cast one of his smoke jutsu!
"Take this!"
Koji shouts as he inhales and then releases a cloud of black smoke. Black smoke? That's the first time I see that jutsu… I then hear sizzling. Gaara jumps far back from the smoke. There's smoke stuck on his face! What is that?! The smoke then falls down on the ground along with some sand. Does Gaara always have a layer of sand over himself as extra protection? Well it's a good thing he had that now, though.
"Didn't think you'd cave from just one attack."
Koji smiled provokingly. Gaara doesn't answer him and mends the crack on his face with more sand. This smoke acts almost like acid. If Gaara didn't have the layer of sand, it would've probably burned his face! I intertwine my hands together, bringing them up to my lips, hoping with all my heart that none of them get hurt. Gaara's still going after Koji with his sand. Koji's dodging it, but barely, considering how fast the sand is. While he's running away, Koji takes out a smoke bomb and throws it, concealing his location. Gaara then immediately brings back his sand, protecting himself from any incoming attacks. The smoke bomb's smoke then starts to expand more. How's that possible? It's supposed to dissipate after a short time, not get larger. That's when it hit me. One of Koji's smoke jutsu is a grey smoke… Of the same colour as the smoke bomb's smoke! This is the smoke that consumes the oxygen in the area it touches! Gaara's in trouble if it gets to him! Koji's already out of the smoke on the other side, completely in Gaara's blindside.
Gaara seems to have noticed that the smoke is not normal. Now all that's left is to make sure he doesn't get in contact with it. Gaara then expands his sand, and starts waving it like a fan, pushing the smoke back. Koji can't even react! The smoke is already surrounding him! I hear him coughing. The smoke then dissipates. He probably undid his jutsu himself, since it's lethal, even for him. Grasping the opportunity, Gaara imprisons Koji in his sand.
"Ugh! Dammit!"
Koji exclaims. I sigh in relief. No one got hurt… I'm so glad.
"Aaaah!"
Koji screams in pain. What? Why? Is Gaara doing this?
"Stay away from Kiu."
Gaara's voice sounds really serious.
"Is that a threat?"
Koji frowns. He then screams again in pain.
"If you don't want to die, you better do as I say."
Gaara wouldn't do that… Would he? No, please don't…
"I'm not scared of you."
Gaara frowns.
"Stop!"
The word escapes my mouth. Gaara's eyes widen. He then looks at me, surprise written all over his face. He then lowers his head. He then throws Koji at a wall, causing him to lose consciousness. The proctor then jumps in.
"Due to Koji being unable to continue the match, Gaara's the winner."
Gaara comes up to the balcony, unable to look me in the eyes. I go to him and hold his hand.
"Don't worry, Gaara. You'll always be my number one."
He then brings his head up and looks me in the eyes. He exhales and smiles.
"Congratulations on winning, Gaara."
Yukari congratulates him.
"Yeah… Congratulations…"
Ikki pats him on the shoulder. Yuto gives him a thumbs up. All of their encouragement widens his smile. Now there's only one match left. We all look at Ikki.
"It's going to be your turn next. Be careful out there."
Yukari tells him. Gaara, Yuto, and I also cheer him on.
"The last match will be Ikki and Rock Lee."
The proctor announces in between coughs.
"Finally! It is my turn!"
Rock Lee jumps off the balcony straight down to the arena. Ikki uses the stairs to go face him. I don't know much about Ikki's abilities other than the fact that he's skilled with his nunchaku.
"You may begin."
The proctor jumps away. Ikki immediately takes out his nunchaku. Lee smiles at that.
"You are also a fellow nunchaku user? Allow me to take out my own!"
Lee takes out also his own nunchaku. Ikki smiles.
"Awesome… You seem… like you're… good at those…"
They go all out from the beginning, busting out complicated moves with their nunchaku. Ikki is much faster than I thought. I can barely keep up with his and Lee's movements. Nunchakus clash. None of them landed a hit yet. They're both about the same in terms of speed. After a lot of high speed fighting, they pull away.
"You are a lot better than I anticipated."
"Same… to you…"
If it was under different circumstances, I'm sure these two would get along really well…
"You give me no other choice. I will have to fight you with all of my capabilities."
Lee then bends to his ankles and takes off what looks like weights. He throws them away and they break through the floor a bit! How heavy were those things?! If he was already that fast without them, then Ikki won't be able to keep up with him at all! Just like I expected, Lee is way too fast for even my eyes to follow. He easily lands a few hits on Ikki, who's unable to react to any of them. The match ends pretty quickly with Lee's victory. Lee helps Ikki up and they shake hands.
"That was an excellent match!"
"Thank you… I can… learn a lot… from someone… like you…"
Lee then rubs the back of his head and laughs happily.
"All the matches are over for the preliminary round. Will the winners please gather here."
Ikki comes back up on the balcony while all of us who won go down to the arena. Uchiha Sasuke's the only one who's not here for that. Other than him, there's Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Yukari, Hana, Yuto, Jun, Rock Lee, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji, Aburame Shino, Nara Shikamaru, and me.
"First, let me congratulate you on making it this far. Now, a word from the Hokage."
The Hokage then faces us on the platform ahead.
"In the main event, the third and final test, your matches will be seen by everyone. Each of you will fight to represent the strengths of your countries. I'd like you to show off all of your powers with no reserve. Which is why the finals will be held one month from now."
One month? That's unexpected. That's quite some time to prepare. Then again, it'll give me also time to look for new jutsu or something.
"We're not going to do here, right now?"
Naruto says. He's not tired after all this? What a strange guy.
"This break you can say, will be for preparations."
The Hokage explains.
"In other words, in addition to informing the various country lords and shinobi leaders, this is the time needed to arrange for the gathering of the event. This is also the preparation for you, examination students. Basically, it's the preparation to get to know your enemy and yourself. It's the time period where you will calculate your chances of winning by analyzing the data you accumulated during the trial competition. The battles up to now had you fight as if you were in an actual combat situation with the assumption of fighting an unknown opponent. However, the final trial will not be like this. There are those who showed all that they can do already to their rivals. There are those who competed and were badly injured against a strong opponent. To make everything fair, the one month should be used by all of you to advance and improve yourselves. Of course, it'll be fine to rest your body as well."
I see… I think I'll ask Otokaze-sensei if it's possible to return to Sunagakure to train for a bit. It'll be easier for me in a place that I'm more accustomed to.
"Well, I'd like to dismiss you now, but there's something that has to be done for the finals before I can do that."
What could it be?
"What the hell is it?! I've got to train now!"
Naruto's being impatient again.
"Well now, don't get so excited."
The Hokage says. The woman proctor from the second exam, Mitarashi Anko, comes forward with a box in her hand.
"There are pieces of paper inside of the box that Anko's holding. Each of you take one piece."
The Hokage explains.
"I'll come around, so wait your turn."
Anko says to all of us. She goes around, having everyone pick a piece of paper. I do the same as everyone else when it's my turn. I unfold it and find the number 7 on it.
"All right, you all took a piece. Now then, I'd like you to tell us the number on that paper in order."
The Hokage says.
"I got 1."
Naruto says.
"2."
Neji continues.
"3."
Yuto says.
"4, baby!"
Jun exclaims.
"5."
Kankuro sighs.
"6."
Shino says.
"I have 7."
I tell them.
"8."
Hana says.
"9."
Temari says.
"10."
Shikamaru yawns.
"11."
Yukari quietly says.
"12!"
Lee exclaims.
"13."
Gaara says.
"That would mean that Uchiha Sasuke is 14."
Morino Ibiki, the first proctor, says.
"Yes. Alright, now I will reveal to you the final tournament!"
The Hokage announces.
"Huh?!"
Naruto exclaims.
"That's why we drew the numbers for?!"
Shikamaru states.
"Now Ibiki, show them the match arrangements."
Already? The by how the numbers went, I should… Ibiki flips the paper he's been writing on and reveals the match ups. I knew it!
Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji.
Yuto vs Jun.
Kankuro vs Aburame Shino.
Kiu vs Hana.
Temari vs Nara Shikamaru.
Yukari vs Rock Lee.
Gaara vs Uchiha Sasuke.
I'm against Hana! That's the best outcome! I'll take revenge for what she did to Maru.
"Well then, you're free to go. Any final questions?"
The Hokage asks.
"Can I ask a question?"
Shikamaru raises his hand.
"Yes?"
"Since it's a tournament, it would mean that there's only one winner, right? Which would mean that one one person can become a Chunin doesn't it?"
Oh! I haven't thought of that. But that's weird. Usually it's more than one person who passes this exam each time it's held.
"No! That's not quite it. There will be judges, including myself, the Kazekage, lords of various countries that will make mission requests, and other ninja leaders who will be watching the final test. Throughout the tournament, these judges will be evaluating your abilities. Those judged to have the necessary qualities of a Chunin will be able to become a Chunin, even if they lose in their first match."
I see… That means there's a possibility that everyone might become a Chunin. The opposite is also possible. This also means that the more matches someone gets to be in, the more they'll be able to show off their skills.
"Well then, thank you all for the effort you exerted for the trials. You're all dismissed until a month from now."
Alright, no time to waste. I'll go see Otokaze-sensei and ask him if I can go back to Sunagakure to train during this month.
So sorry about the long wait ahead! I'll update as soon as I'm done with summer school! Review and tell me what you thought of this chapter :D Are you surprised by the matches? The finals match-ups? It's fun to read your reactions!
