Before I begin, I want to give credit for the names used in this chapter. "Nao" came from ididn'tdoityoucan'tprove it on FF. "Kyouya" came from SavannahNoire on AO3. "Midori" came from both SavannahNoire AND reebajee on FF (and on that note, I forgot to mention last chapter that "Shinobu" also came from reebajee).

Anyways, enjoy the chapter! Now begins the Invasion arc, which has been one of the greatest pains to write because of how much stuff is happening. Buckle in, this is gonna be a crazy ride.

Chapter 32


"There are all kinds of quotes on sportsmanship, and being graceful in victory and loss. I wonder if those rules apply to battles to the death."


A loud buzz from countless chattering voices droned in the arena as Masaru walked down the aisle, looking around at the crowd filling the stands with an expression of awe. Today the third phase of the Chuunin Exams would commence, and he'd never seen so many people in one place before. Foreign dignitaries he vaguely recognized from his escort missions sat in cordoned off sections surrounded by guards, while masked ANBU agents stood stationed at various points towards the back of the stands in a visible display of security.

I wonder if Gaku-sensei is one of them, he wondered idly as he eyed the masked figures. Gaku-sensei had been drafted for security detail once again during the tournament, so Masaru hoped the man would show himself if he got a break.

"Masaru, come on!" he heard Sakura call, and he turned forward to see the pink-haired girl waving at him from the bottom of the steps, prompting him to scurry after her. Sakura had graciously invited him to join her to spectate the third phase, and seeing as he did not do well in crowded places alone he'd readily accepted. He smiled faintly as he fell into step behind her, following her towards a cluster of more familiar faces.

Kiba glanced over and waved eagerly as they approached, Akamaru raising his head and yipping excitedly. "Hey, Masaru! Sakura! I got a couple empty seats right here if you guys need a place to sit!"

"Thanks, Kiba," Sakura said, sliding into one of the empty chairs. Masaru sat in the chair between the two genin, leaning over to scratch Akamaru behind the ear.

"Hey Akamaru," he greeted, smiling at the happy puppy. Contented by the attention, the dog made the decision to ditch his partner and leapt off Kiba's lap to land in Masaru's. The change caught the Uchiha by surprise, but he quickly recovered and smiled as he continued to scratch the heavily satisfied canine.

"Seriously, Akamaru?" Kiba muttered, looking mildly exasperated at being abandoned by his best friend. Akamaru just shot him a look that looked strangely smug for a dog, his tail steadily thumping against Masaru's lap. Sakura just giggled at the scene, reaching over to join in petting the canine. Judging by the weird, drawn-out hum the puppy emitted, Akamaru had officially entered canine heaven.

"Ahhh!? Sakura!? Your hair!" Masaru winced as a familiar screech sounded nearby, and turned to see Ino staring at her best friend in an open display of horror. "I-i-it's—it's short!" As she began sputtering in shock and dismay her father chuckled behind her and followed his old teammates into a nearby row, leaving the shocked girl alone with only Chouji for moral support.

"Looks good, Sakura," the Akimichi boy said, happily tossing a few chips into his mouth and totally ignoring his teammate's current emotional distress.

"Oh, thanks," Sakura replied, smiling as she touched the tips. "I'm still getting used to it, but it feels so much lighter." Chouji squeezed past them to plop into the empty seat on Kiba's other side, graciously allowing Ino to take the one next to Sakura.

"I can't believe you cut it," the blonde moaned. "It was so much fun styling each other's hair at sleepovers..."

"There, there, Ino," Sakura soothed, patting her shoulder. "You'll get used to it, don't worry."

"Hey, I just had a thought," Kiba suddenly said. "Sakura cut her hair, and Hinata already has super-short hair, so... That means Ino's the only girl from our year left with long hair, right?" The others paused at this, letting it sink in.

"So basically, that means it's Ino's turn to cut her hair next?" Chouji asked.

The subsequent screech from Ino hurt but was admittedly hilarious.

Kiba openly snickered at Ino's horrified sputtering, even Sakura stifling giggles. Masaru just smirked cheekily, still scratching Akamaru behind the ear. "Hey, it's probably way easier to care for when it's short," he commented. "Maybe it'll feel good."

His teasing made her freeze, staring at him with a sudden calculating look. Just like that he felt his brief surge of confidence vanish, because dammit he forgot for a second Ino was a fangirl. "So you think I might look good with short hair, huh?" she mused aloud, and Sakura sighed and shook her head while Kiba smacked his forehead in frustration.

Chouji just happily munched on chips, totally uncaring of the mounting disaster unfolding next to him.

Soon enough the proctor called everyone's attention, his voice echoing loudly around the stadium as he signaled the start of the third phase. The twelve contenders filed onto the field at his signal and formed a line. As he rolled through the basic introductory spiel, Masaru noticed the other genin squinting at the proctor with frowns.

"Hey, isn't that a different guy from the preliminaries?" Kiba muttered, squinting at him.

"Yeah, it is," Ino agreed with a small frown. "They both wear bandanas, but the other guy coughed a lot more." Glancing between his classmates curiously, Masaru looked back to the announcer and briefly activated his Sharingan to get a better look.

"That's Genma-san," he told them. Noting his classmates' questioning looks, he shrugged and explained, "He was in the escort team for the Suna team." They nodded in understanding and turned back just as Genma dismissed a large chunk of the genin so the first match could begin. The day would start with Neji versus Niwakaame Nao from Ame.

(Distantly, Masaru thought he heard Tenten cheering for Neji.)

As the match unfolded the five genin began chatting lightly about the various match ups while watching curiously. The Rain genin used a ninjutsu-heavy style, blasting Neji with water bullets to try to keep him at a distance. Smart, he must have noticed the Hyuuga clan relied on hitting people's tenketsu points. Neji jabbed at the water bullets as he dodged them, the air seeming to shimmer as he dislodged the senbon hidden inside.

While Masaru observed the fight with thinly veiled fascination, he found his attention drifting to the conversation around him. "So that Oto bitch is up against Shino next," Kiba said with a feral smirk. "I'm really looking forward to how that one goes."

"I really want to see how Shikamaru handles that stuck-up Temari," Sakura added, her eyes gleaming with sadistic anticipation. "He better not mess up." The obvious venom in her tone reminded Masaru that Sakura had lost to Temari in the preliminaries, and he subtly inched away from her as far as the seat would allow. Sadly, that did not mount to nearly enough distance for his comfort.

"Who's Naruto fighting?" he asked.

"Don't you know?" Sakura asked, and when Masaru shook his head she said, "He's up against Hinata."

"Hinata?" Masaru grimaced and winced in sympathy.

"Poor girl," Ino murmured, sounding equally sympathetic. "I'd hate to be in her place."

"Why?" Chouji asked, munching on chips. "Do you think fighting Naruto would be that bad?"

"It's not that, Chouji," Kiba sighed, leaning back in his seat. "Hinata's got a major crush on Naruto. Haven't you ever noticed how she turns bright red whenever she sees him?"

"Girl's got it bad," Ino agreed with a sage nod. "And she's way too shy to act on it." As she spoke she leaned forward and batted her eyelashes at Masaru, who made a stoic effort to ignore her. Instead he turned back to the match, just in time to see the Rain genin flash through some hand signs and sink into the ground.

Surprised at the sudden change in strategy, Masaru leaned forward in his seat to watch with his Sharingan whirling to life, watching more closely. Veins bulged around Neji's eyes as he whirled around in search of his opponent, and then suddenly hands sprouted from the earth to grab him by the ankle. The Hyuuga reacted instantly, his arms moving in a large blur too fast to follow with regular eyes. Since Masaru had the Sharingan, he clearly saw Neji strike one of the wrists.

The hand went limp around his ankle and the other wrist quickly receded just before Neji could hit it, narrowly avoiding his fingertips before disappearing underground, and the Hyuuga quickly jumped away. Moments later the black-haired Rain genin emerged with a gasp, one of his arms hanging limply at his side. Before he could react further Neji surged forward and struck him again, jabbing various points on his body.

He hit Nao's knees and his legs gave away, collapsing to the ground in a jumbled heap of awkwardly splayed limbs, and Genma called the match.

"Woah, that was pretty cool," Chouji commented, while Masaru definitely heard Tenten scream "YEAH! WAY TO GO NEJI!"

"Great, now his head is going to be even bigger," Kiba groaned, scowling in irritation. "I was kinda hoping he'd get some sense pounded into him."

"Was he that bad?" Chouji asked curiously.

"He kept ranting about fate and destiny," Kiba growled, his eyes flashing maliciously as he glowered at the stoic Hyuuga boy as he walked back to the stands without a second glance at his opponent. "He keeps telling Hinata she's destined to be a failure and all that kind of bullshit. I don't like him."

Medics scurried into the arena to cart the fallen Rain genin away, a Hyuuga present among them to help unblock the tenketsu points. "Poor Masuyo," Sakura murmured under her breath, Masaru barely catching it over the roar of the crowd. He flashed her a curious glance, and when she noted it she smiled at him and shrugged. "Ah, don't mind me. It's no big deal." As she spoke her gaze flitted to the Kage's Box where four figures sat.


"A shame, Masuyo-san," the Kazekage murmured, though his voice held no sympathy. "It appears your village has fallen out of he running for the tournament already." Konan merely hummed in response, her hands folded atop her lap and her face a placid mask as she watched the medics disappear into the building with Nao in tow.

"It is fine. Nao-kun is skilled but still has much to learn, he did well simply to make it this far."

"Masuyo-san, I personally believe that Nao-kun did a fine job," the Hokage interjected next to her, offering her a grandfatherly smile. "Neji-kun is a prodigy within the Hyuuga clan, so defeating him would be quite difficult. More impressively, though, Nao-kun demonstrated an ability to use low-level jutsu in two different nature releases. That is quite a feat for a genin, especially at his age."

Konan turned to him with a pleased smile, nodding in agreement. "Thank you. I was honestly quite surprised as well. Kyouya told me Nao had great potential, but he's shown even more skill than I initially expected."

She smiled as she spoke, a bit of pride seeping into her voice. While Konan had come to the tournament to scope the jichuuriki they suspected to be participating, that did not diminish her role as a representative of Ame. She had great pride in her village, and Nao's performance had left her greatly impressed. If all the genin showed that kind of potential, then they wouldn't need to worry about Ame's future as much.

Next to her Shibuki still seemed a bit uncertain, though. "Ninja might be impressed, but we can't say the same for the nobles," he muttered. "They don't know much about ninja. You might not get as many jobs from this."

"Is that truly so bad though?" the Kazekage mused. "Civilian nobility is quite annoying to deal with anyway. Our own daimyo is dense enough, I imagine foreigners would only be more frustrating."

All of the village leaders fell silent at that, a slight gloom hanging over the box as each one recalled their own experiences dealing with nobility. Whether Kage or jounin, everyone knew how frustrating civilians could be.

They pushed the grim reflections away as they watched the next two fighters enter the arena, scrutinizing them with experienced eyes. One wore a baggy jacket with a high collar and dark glasses, both trademarks of Konoha's Aburame clan. The other, a female, wore a hitai-ate with a music note engraved into it, making Konan's eyes narrow. Oto had only formed within the last year, so very little information existed on it beyond some rumors Sasori's spy rings had picked up suggesting a link to Orochimaru.

"I'm curious about Oto," Shibuki admitted, unknowingly echoing her thoughts. "I haven't heard much about it. I thought the leader would have wanted to attend since one of his genin made it through on their first go."

"I extended an invitation, but the leader declined," the Hokage informed him, frowning slightly. "I was quite surprised. I expected they would desire some publicity."

"Do you know their name?" Konan questioned curiously, and he shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. Oto is quite secretive."

"Perhaps the leader is simply paranoid," the Kazekage suggested, and turned his head slightly to squint at Konan. "I am certain you know quite a bit about that, Masuyo-san. After all, from what I hear your own village's leader, Hanzou, has grown quite paranoid in recent years."

Hearing the name of the man responsible for Yahiko's death filled Konan with a sharp pang of rage and disgust. Only years of practice in schooling her emotions kept her from physically reacting, closing her eyes and speaking in a carefully neutral tone. "Yes, you are indeed correct. That is why I am present in his stead, after all."

As far as she was concerned, her words were half true. Hanzou had indeed grown deeply paranoid, as seen by his constant guard. He would never agree to personally venture into such a public venue and risk a potential assassination plot.

She just omitted the fact he had perished two months prior at the cold hands of Yahiko's corpse.

"Match, begin!" Genma yelled, and the two genin moved.


Standing among the other contenders, Hinata felt small and out of place. The Sand Siblings all had such intense auras about them, the Oto kunoichi who beat Kiba in the preliminaries had a confident, cocky smirk... Even Shikamaru, who seemed ready to fall asleep any second, seemed to belong there more than the ever-anxious Hinata.

When watching Neji's match that out of place feeling only amplified, her heart lodging in her throat as she struggled to follow his movements. Despite spending the past month in intensive training, she hardly compared to her prodigious cousin. Her fingers unconsciously reached for the braided bracelet dangling on her right wrist, recognizing the red strand by touch alone due to the wear from how much she traced it.

Shino tapped her shoulder in a silent show of support before descending to the arena for his own match, and just like that Hinata was alone, a weak little mouse in a den of demons. She tried to ignore it, tried to focus on Shino's match, tried to bask in Naruto's warmth and enthusiasm as he began bickering with Sasuke. She found it so hard to focus though, not when she could feel Neji's eyes on her.

Halfway through the match he finally approached her, crossing his arms with a scowl. "Why did you even come here?" he demanded coldly. "Right now you look ready to faint any second. You clearly lack the mental capacity to pass. At this point you'll probably pass out from nerves before you can even fight."

Hinata felt her breath hitch and her stomach churned violently, her mouth fluttering open but unable to form words. Screams echoed in her mind, her body locking up as she remembered the sickening crack of bone shattering beneath her fingertips. Across from her Neji's eyes narrowed, his scowl intensifying. "You're even paler now. You should have stayed home, like I told you."

"Hey, knock it off," Shikamaru interjected nearby, peeking open a single eye to lazily regard Neji with a mild frown. "You're just making her more nervous." Somehow his voice caught the others' attention, the Sand Siblings eying the scene from their peripheral vision while Naruto and Sasuke stopped arguing.

"Hey, what's going on?" Naruto asked, frowning. Before anyone could respond a loud explosion sounded from the arena, and the assembled genin turned to see clouds of dust rising from the field next to a smirking Kin. Shino burst from the cloud and moved to dodge as the kunoichi assaulted him with a wave of senbon, mixing in a couple kunai with explosive tags wrapped around the handles.

Clearly, the Sound kunoichi had realized that senbon alone would not be nearly enough to defeat Shino, because while she certainly had the precision to strike the tiny insects midair, she would quickly run out in the face of their overwhelming numbers. More explosions rocked the field as the kunai detonated, Shino getting nicked by a few blades but always managing to get clear before the tags could detonate.

The battle proved a suitable distraction for the genin, their attention now turned away from Hinata. Sasuke grunted, clearly unimpressed by what he saw. "Her grip on those kunai is clumsy. She's obviously not used to it."

Nearby Temari snorted and rolled her eyes. "Amateur," she grumbled to herself. "If you're going to learn something new for the finals, you should at least make sure you're halfway decent with it."

"Look closer at the ground," Shikamaru drawled, and the other genin all paused, leaning forward and squinting. Long lines of silver stretched across the arena in a shimmery web, wires glittering in the sunlight as they trailed behind senbon before falling limply to the ground and getting obscured by another cloud of dust.

Hinata's eyes widened in comprehension of the strategy. While she and the other genin could see the wires from their higher elevation, Shino would be much less likly to notice them due to his close proximity. Her hand tightened over her chest as her eyes trailed towards her teammate, gnawing on her lower lip in worry. Please, Shino, be careful!

However, to her horror, when Kin revealed her trap and pulled the wires taut to create a deadly web they right sliced through Shino. For half a second her body stilled with horror, the world seeming to freeze, only for her breath to rush out in a gasp of relief when Shino's body to dissolve into a swarm of insects.

The real Shino emerged from one of the trees, lunging at the still-stunned Kin from behind while the swarm that had formed the insect clone sailed towards her from the front. Panicked, the kunoichi started to move to the side to dodge only to wince as her thigh cut into one of the raised wires, her own trap turned against her.

She had no time to react before both Shino and his swarm descended upon her, the insects draining her of chakra. Her struggles to escape proved futile and soon enough Genma called the match in the Aburame's favor. Hinata felt her body droop with relief as her teammate mounted the steps to join them, stepping forward to greet him with a small smile. "You did a good job, Shino-kun," she told him, and he nodded in recognition of her compliment.

Her good mood swiftly vanished when she heard Neji audibly scoff though, making her flinch and quickly lower her gaze to her feet with a small frown. While she grew lost in her thoughts one of the Sand genin—Kankurou?—descended with some cocky parting words to his sister. The Waterfall kunoichi followed suit, vaulting over the railing to flip onto the field and grinning at him proudly.

"Get ready, cutie!" the green-haired girl declared loudly, her booming voice carrying clearly around the arena. "I, Tsukino Midori, shall defeat you today and bring honor to Taki!"

Kankurou just snorted, smirking at her cockily. "In your dreams. I'm the one who's gonna win!"

As the two began exchanging more trash talk Hinata paid them no attention, all the surrounding noise slowly drowned out by her own thoughts. Her fingers absently traced the braided bracelet dangling on her wrist, her heart pounding in her chest anxiously. Midori... She seemed so confident, so sure of herself, while Hinata just—just didn't. She didn't even know Midori, and yet she felt herself envying the girl's confidence.

A hand lightly touched her shoulder, making her jump with a loud squeak. She whirled to see her teammate looking at her, quickly retracting his hand. "Hinata?" Shino asked, a small modicum of concern evident in his otherwise flat voice. "You seem very anxious and stressed. Are you alright?"

Swallowing heavily, she shook her head and forced herself to speak, her voice fighting to claw its way out of her too-dry throat. "N-no, I'm... I-I'm..." Trembling, she sucked in a deep breath and dropped her torso into a bow. "I need to go, I'll be back soon!" Without giving him a chance to respond she took off running, ignoring the startled call from Naruto as she fled through the door.

I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!


In the stands Kiba stretched his arms above his head, thoroughly bored by the fight unfolding in the arena. Watching Shino beat Kin to the ground had left him with a strong sense of satisfaction as well as a renewed burst of energy, but all this trash talking just felt so lame after that.

"Screw it, I'm going for a walk," he declared, getting up. Akamaru immediately hopped off Masaru's lap to join his partner, yipping and wagging his tail eagerly.

"Really?" Sakura looked at him in surprise, leaning forward to look at him from Masaru's other side. "Don't you want to see how this turns out?"

"Nah, not really," Kiba replied with a dismissive shrug. "Not like either of them are ours, right?"

"I'll go too," Chouji volunteered, crinkling his chip bag and stuffing it in his pocket. "I just finished the chips so I wanna get some more from the concession stand."

Ino visibly perked up at this, leaning forward slightly to gaze at Masaru with a coy smile. Her eyes shifted between him and Kiba's now-empty seat, gears visibly turning in her head, and the Uchiha boy instantly paled and jumped to his feet. "I, uh, need to go to the bathroom," he stammered, and Kiba snorted and rolled his eyes. Clearly he just didn't want to risk Ino stealing his seat while he was gone, but the Inuzuka decided not to comment on it.

"Just make sure you guys get back before the next match," Sakura interjected. "That's when Naruto and Hinata fight." Kiba immediately huffed and shot her an annoyed look, irritated she felt a need to remind him at all.

"Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm gonna miss Hinata's match!" He hadn't seen Hinata much over the past month, as she'd been busy training with her clan every day. Even so, he knew she'd need the moral support. After being on a team with her for five months, he knew better than anyone how timid Hinata could be. While he might not be able to talk to her in person, he could at least root for her from the stands.

Turning away from the pink-haired girl, he said to the other boys, "Let's go." Chouji and Masaru nodded and the trio filed out of the row, heading up the aisle to enter the halls of the stadium. As they made their way towards a flight of stairs to reach the first floor Masaru glanced down the hall.

"There are bathrooms that way, right?" he asked, and Kiba shot him a skeptical look.

"Yeah, I think so. Smell kinda bad though, first floor bathrooms might be better." He wrinkled his nose as he spoke, a bit disgusted by the odor wafting down the hall, and felt no small amount of relief that it left his range once they started descending the stairs. "Wasn't that an excuse to get away from Ino though?"

"I might hide there for a while just in case," Masaru responded blandly. Chouji stepped over and gave his shoulder a sympathetic pat, a bit awkward considering he stood one step below the other boy.

"You really need to work on your people skills, dude."

"I know," the Uchiha groaned, sagging dejectedly. Kiba snorted, but before he could comment further a familiar aroma suddenly caught his attention. Lilac scented shampoo and lavender body soap drifted faintly from the doorway, almost drowned out by the other scents that had flooded the halls. Hinata?

Jumping down the last few steps, he sniffed the air and glanced to Akamaru to find him looking at him pointedly, confirming he smelled it too. Why would Hinata be here though? The contestants wouldn't need to go through this area, like, ever. The only thing here were the concession stands... and the front door.

Face darkening as realization settled over him, Kiba turned and began following the scent, Akamaru dutifully trotting behind him with his nose pressed to the floor. "Kiba, the concession stand is this way," Chouji called. He just grunted in response, raising a hand to wave him off without looking back.

"You guys go ahead," he said dismissively. "We need to check something out." The other boys watched him depart with perplexed looks, and after exchanging a confused glance they shrugged, each reaching their own decision. Masaru quickly jogged after Kiba while Chouji turned and continued his solitary walk to the concession stand the opposite way.


Elsewhere in the stadium, two men lay sprawled on the floor of a janitor's closet in nothing but their underwear, their eyes glazed as they stared at the ceiling in a trance-like state. They paid no mind to the cloaked ANBU operative crouching next to them, too lost in their trances to notice even the chill in the room. Dark eyes narrowed behind the white hawk mask as the man recognized the effects of a heavy genjutsu, and he started to reach towards them to wake them from it only to hesitate.

Slowly retracting his arm, he turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder, rising to his full height as he did. An ever familiar silver-haired man stood behind him, his single visible eye narrowed as he surveyed the scene before. "Well, this is a surprise," Kakashi quipped dryly, and the ANBU turned to face him more fully with a small dip of the head to show respect to the former ANBU captain.

"I found these two during my patrols. I recognize them from headquarters, but I do not know their names or codenames. I believe that someone took their uniforms and is using them to infiltrate the stadium." Kakashi hummed in thought, glancing between the agent and the two semi-conscious people on the ground. He reached for his hitai-ate and lifted it to expose his Sharingan, studying them critically.

"This doesn't look like it's just a genjutsu, their breathing is too shallow. Their scents are a bit off, too," he added after giving a brief sniff. "I'm guessing they have some drugs in their systems."

"I'll inform Lord Hokage," the ANBU declared, heading for the door even as he spoke.

"Not so fast, Hawk-san," Kakashi drawled, making him pause. The Copy-nin eyed his mask, his posture lazy and relaxed like usual but his gaze sharp and scrutinizing. "Funny thing, that. Last I checked, there is only one agent with that specific mask model since it got retired two years ago, and right now I know for a fact he's busy patrolling the arena."

A brief silence descended over the room as the two stood there, staring each other down. Then Kakashi huffed a small sigh and lowered his hitai-ate over his eye, casually turning away. "Well, I say that, but I think we have more important things to worry about right now. So we'll have to save this conversation for another time. Maybe tomorrow, if we're both free." With those parting words he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the "ANBU" standing alone in stiff surprise.

After a long moment he turned and darted through the door, mind racing with the implications of this encounter.