"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes Hokage-sama, 18 participants made it to the tower in time. A preliminary round is advisable."
The Hokage slumped his shoulders in defeat and nodded his head. 5 days had passed since the beginning of this part of the Chunin exams and every team possible had already made its way to the tower, he just wishes not as many would've made it. Holding a preliminary round isn't something he sought to do, especially after what happened in the forest.
On the bright side - for him at least - the feeling of pride he felt for the amount of Konoha Shinobi that had made it to the tower was very rewarding, even more was that three out of the five konoha squads were rookie teams.
"Very well then, have a squad of ANBU collect those who were less fortunate and escort them out of the forest." He looked at his assistant with a stern face and added. "You know what to do about those who didn't make it."
Hiruzen isn't a fan of death, the mere thought of mostly young children - there were some old genins out there, Kami knows Kosuke is still alive only because he's too stubborn to kick the bucket - dying in such an undignified way was sickening to the very least. No matter how hard he tried to preach the use of lethal force only when necessary, there were always those who wouldn't listen and rejoiced in unnecessary bloodshed.
Such is the life of a Shinobi, he supposes.
Every arriving team had gathered around the arena in the middle of the tower, the eyes of Teams 7 and 10 set on Team 9 and their as of yet, absent member. None of them had been informed of what had happened with him after their encounter, they actually hadn't been informed about what had happened at all. The secrecy was so great they almost felt like Orochimaru was only a figment of their imaginations.
It definitely wasn't.
When Naruto had approached Kakashi to inquire about Neji's status the only answer he had gotten was 'We dealt with it', not that he knew what dealing with it implied, he guessed it most likely meant Neji's curse mark had been removed in some way. His sensei wasn't very sharing about the details though, the only thing he had gotten out of it was the name of what the treacherous Sannin had done to Neji.
Ten no Juin he called it, Orochimaru's very own Cursed Mark.
Sick bastard.
The Sandaime Hokage made his way to the front of the crowd with the Jounin sensei and a big statue of a hand holding a ram-seal behind. He stood there in front of the gathered Genin looking every bit as powerful as you would expect from a man of his reputation despite his age.
"It is with great honor that I congratulate you all for getting this far in the exams, you have made both your senseis and villages proud." Even though the majority of the Genin were Konoha Shinobi, there were two foreign teams and despite not holding any respect for the powerful man they couldn't help but feel smug at his words.
"I shall now tell you all about what's next to come in the following test but first, I must tell you what the real purpose of the Chunin exams is." Surprised looks could be seen in the faces of most of the gathered Genin, no doubt the ones who didn't look that way had already heard this little speech before.
"Isn't the point of the exams finding who deserves to be promoted, Hokage-sama?" Asked Shikamaru in his ever lazy tone.
"That is true…" The Hokage looked at him and nodded before turning his gaze back to the public, "but there's more to it than just that, the whole truth is that these exams started as a substitute for war."
A hand started rubbing Ino's chin as she thought hard about the Hokage's words, before giving up. "A substitute for war? What does that even mean?"
"These exams started shortly after the Great nations stopped fighting with each other. We all send our best, most promising Genin to fight and represent our villages in a somewhat controlled environment."
"Why is that necessary?" Asked Shikamaru.
"Feudal lords of all places attend these events, the Daimyo from all the great nations do as well, they are the ones who provide us with most of our mission income." Sarutobi looked around and could see some troubled looks around the Genin.
Naruto was one of those Genins, he didn't like the idea of being used that way even if it was for the good of his village, call him selfish but, isn't it a bit weird that the 5 kage and the leaders of the smaller villages send some of their young forces to situations where they're going to come face to face with death just for show?
"I know what some of you are thinking and I can agree to a certain degree but this is for the lack of a better word, a necessary evil, the exams allow for a simulation of battle between the nations where each of our leaders get to gauge our strengths and weaknesses while avoiding futile crushing of the other's military forces and useless bloodshed." He turned to look at his surrogate grandson for a second before moving forward with the test, it is a reality he and his comrades had to face at some point.
Everyone could see reason in the Hokage's words, it was disturbing to say the least to think that a battle of Genin could serve as a deterrent for war to the great nations but in some weird way it made sense.
Shikamaru still thinks it's a risky system at best, surely you can't hope to keep the balance of the nations this way, is the amount of missions a village gets truly an accurate testament of their power? It's somewhat unnerving that they had to put their lives at stake as a performance for the Daimyos, feudal lords and other important visitors but they all understood that's what was required of them from their villages.
They would comply, it's not like any of them had been forced to participate.
"Now onto the next part of the ex-"
"Hokage-sama If I may." A very sickly looking jounin with brown hair tied in a bandana stepped up in front of the Hokage. "I Gekkō Hayate would like to explain this part of the exams as the third proctor."
The Hokage chuckled and gave the man a polite nod as he stepped back with the Jounin senseis and the past proctors of the exams.
"As you all heard, my name is Gekkō Hayate and I will be the proctor for the third test of the exams. Now, before we go any further, I must inform you that too many of you reached the tower in time. A preliminary round will be necessary." Just as Hayate expected, groans and complaints from the Genin were heard all over the room.
"The third round of these exams will be a tournament consisting of One on One matches. As Hokage-sama said, we only want to show our important visitors the best." Hayate waved his hand and a couple of Chunin assistants left the room only to come back with a digital screen behind them.
"You will all face a randomly selected opponent in a battle, the winner of the match gets to compete in the main event, from this point forward you will all be judged as individuals, if any of you wishes to leave the exams or doesn't think themselves capable of handling this you may quit without fear of repercussion for your teammates." Hayate then went into a fit of coughs that made every single aspirant wonder if he should really be out here monitoring the exams.
"I quit!" Said Kabuto, startling most of the present Genin. "I'm almost out of chakra, I'm too tired to continue."
Hayate nodded. "Yakushi Kabuto is out of the competition."
Anko and Ibiki watched as he left and started having a conversation of their own about it, the face didn't ring any bells for Ibiki but Anko had been a part of the exams enough time to recognize his face, it was actually a bit embarrassing for her to just now be noticing that Kabuto always quits at this stage of the exams despite his circumstances, maybe this wasn't exactly the reason why Kakashi's brat found him suspicious but it truly is something worth looking into.
"That actually makes some sense." Kakashi muttered quietly in Hiruzen's ear.
"What do you mean, Kakashi?" He asked.
Kakashi turned to look at the teen leaving the arena as his brow furrowed in thought and replied. "Anko and I watched him during the whole of the test through the monitors, he never did anything suspicious, but he never did anything that would have left him as tired as he claims to be either, his team ambushed a team rather easily on their way to the tower and that was the only battle they ever had, clearly he's just pretending to be tired."
Hiruzen didn't bother to speak a reply to Kakashi's explanation but nodded in acknowledgement and discreetly did a few hand signs for the hidden ANBU in the room to trail Kabuto and see where he's going now, it would seem he really is some sort of spy, after everything that had happened in the forest, Hiruzen was pretty sure he knew who he was working for.
"If that is all then we may proc-" A door opening in the far left of the room interrupted Hayate's explanation and caught everyone's attention. Out of the door walked a recently awakened Neji, looking rested and stoic, like he always does. Without uttering a single word Neji made his way to his team and stood next to them, dismissing their concerns in the process.
"Right… Well, if no one else is going to quit we may proceed, because there's an odd number of participants, one of the matches will be a three-way match. The rules are quite simple, the match is over when one of you can no longer fight, is unconscious or dead. If I deem a match is over, I will jump in and end it myself in hopes of avoiding unnecessary killing." Hayate eyed the Genin and gave pointed looks to some of the more unbalanced ones.
The proctor started babbling some more stuff but Sakura completely shut whatever it was he was saying and focused on one of the Genin, specifically a sound Genin.
Sakura isn't a medical genius - yet - but she as well as Naruto and Team 10 watched how Neji attacked this Zaku guy's arm relentlessly, watching it swell like it did at the time, she had been convinced that it was going to explode and here he was now, arm heavily bandaged but otherwise functional.
He had to have received medical attention, and very good medical attention for that matter, how did he do it? How did he find someone to fix up the extensive damage done to his arm?
The sound of the screen going through a rapidly series of names managed to snap Sakura out of her own musing, it kept on rolling for a few more seconds until it stopped in a pair of names that made a certain Hyuga smirk.
"Hyuga Neji and Akado Yoroi stay here, the rest of you go to the balconies." Doing as instructed by the proctor the genin teams went up the stairs on the corners of the room into the balconies where they were joined by their respective Jounin senseis.
"Are you both ready?" Hayate looked at both remaining Genin and received a nod as an answer, he raised his right arm and let it fall back down as he yelled "Hajime!"
Letting his arm fall forwards, Hayate jumped out of the way and let the combatants face each other. Yoroi and Neji eyed each other with a completely calm visage, without having to waive any hand-seals the Hyuga prodigy's Byakugan came to life.
"You Hyugas think you're so good." Yoroi snarled and rushed forward, he started throwing fist after fist at Neji but the Hyuga barely had to make an effort to dodge the strikes and found himself calmly analyzing the weird fighting style of his opponent. His hits looked to be attempts at grabbing him rather than actual hits, top that with the weird flow of chakra in both of his hands and it wasn't hard for Neji to figure out what was going on.
"You're trying to absorb my Chakra, it's a pity your skills do not match your ability." Neji didn't generally care much for trash talk during a battle, but this was different for him, he felt a need to prove something ever since his defeat in the forest. He also felt like he wasn't trash talking his opponent as much as he was simply stating a fact.
"Says the guy who's only dodging, is that all you side-branch Hyuga are good for, running from a fight?" Never one to question his sensei's directives, Yoroi chose to rile up the Hyuga a little, it's not like it was hard to, all it took was a mention of the side branch.
Neji started fuming and seething in rage, he wanted to close up every single tenketsu and then some more in the bastard that dared speak ill of his family, he will pay for his transgressions and Neji is going to make sure of it.
'Pay you say?'
That voice started speaking again in Neji's head but this time he was ready for it, he had been warned by Hatake, the restriction seal relied solely on his will to fight it, a Hyuga needs no such power to overcome adversity, Neji's a prodigy, it's his destiny to best Yoroi.
'Such foolishness…'
Neji took a deep calming breath to focus his attention again on the task at hand, he felt his rage starting to recede at the same time the voice talking to him slowly faded away in the distance, it was after calming down that his Byakugan and its 360 degree view caught sight of the Jounin in the room looking ready for something.
He hadn't noticed it of course, but as soon as the side branch had been bad-mouthed in his presence, rage started taking over him and powering the curse mark he had been bestowed by the treacherous sannin, it had started to activate and while it didn't fully take over him this time, it was visible on his face.
Now under the influence of only his thoughts, Neji smirked condescendingly at his opponent and ran toward him. Not expecting to be attacked in such a way after the display the Hyuga had put on, Yoroi was too late to react, he tried to get a hold of Neji but his arm was instantly targeted by the faster boy. Making short work of him, Neji sealed off the tenketsu on his attacking arm and then went on to punish the other, rendering him incapable of defending himself or attacking for that matter.
Neji then placed a hard fist on his right cheek for good measure in what could only be described as a very un-hyuga way, Yoroi dropped limp on the floor after that, completely out-cold.
"Winner: Hyuga Neji!"
Naruto could see how on edge Kakashi had been for the entirety of Neji's match, specially after the seals started appearing on his skin again, it truly was something disturbing to feel, yes, everyone saw how that seal started extending itself through Neji, but not everyone could feel it, that energy so vile and so disturbing.
How was someone capable of that kind of energy, a former disciple of one of the kindest men on earth no less, the Sandaime never talked about Orochimaru with him and he knew it was because he felt guilty about his departure.
He refused to believe anything the Hokage had done was the cause for Orochimaru's actions.
Focusing his attention back at the matter at hand, Naruto just now realized he didn't even notice when Kakashi had lifted his headband to reveal his Sharingan eye, oh how he wished he could do that too, alas, it wasn't meant to be, at least not until it was strictly necessary, the Hokage told him.
"I thought you had dealt with it." Naruto could faintly hear the sound of Hayate calling out Ino and Hinata down to fight in the arena but didn't really pay much attention, there were other more pressing matters at hand.
"I did." Kakashi's reply was short and perhaps a little rude, he realized this as he sighed and covered his sharingan eye again. "The curse mark for all we know it's impossible to remove, not even Jiraiya-sama found a way to get rid of it, the seal the Hokage and I placed on Neji keeps it at bay but it's completely dependent on his will."
Naruto nodded his understanding and closed his eye in thought, he could faintly remember reading about such a restraining seal in some of the more advanced material he hasn't yet learned and mastered, even though he couldn't remember what it's called. Not even the legendary Jiraiya had been able to remove the curse mark, that thought made him take the whole ordeal as a challenge.
Deciding to think about the curse mark at a later date, he stole a glance at the stoic Neji and sighed, oh how he disliked him, not a single moment when Neji had been nice to him was stored in his memory and that's because Neji was always rude.
In a weird way, Naruto found comfort in knowing that he was rude to everyone.
Still, Naruto had always been a kind, compassionate and noble person, he refuses to believe there's not even one redeeming quality about him, perhaps the way to make Neji tolerable was finding out what made him the way he is now, worse case scenario he finds out that Neji is a dick just because and nothing changes.
"Winner: Hyuga Hinata!" The voice of Hayate calling the match made Naruto focus on reality once again, he had lost the entirety of the match but judging by how unscathed Hinata seemed, it probably hadn't been all that interesting…
Hinata.
That's just it, who would know better about Neji than his own family? Naruto decided then and there that he would approach her about it after the exams were over.
"Will Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku please come down?" Called out Hayate, bringing up a name a certain Pink-haired Kunoichi was very interested in.
"Sensei…" Sakura had been quietly listening to Kakashi and Naruto talk while she watched the matches but this was something she needed to ask. "That guy Zaku, Neji almost blew up his arm when he was possessed, how is he fine?"
Kakashi focused his attention on the sound genin and thought hard, he remembered watching such a thing through the monitors in the forest, what he doesn't remember seeing is him getting treatment in the forest and he was sure, no one had given him or his teammates treatment ever since they got into the forest. How did they evade the surveillance systems in the forest?
"Are both contestants ready?" Kakashi saw both genin nod and decided to file away his concerns for a later time, it was best he paid close attention and learned as much as he could from these mysterious individuals.
Back in the arena Shino and Zaku jumped away from each other and stared the other down, deciding to take action Zaku started channeling chakra through his un-bandaged arm and shot a Zankuuha at Shino who, much to his surprise, didn't even try to dodge.
The Jutsu hit full force and instead of dropping to the ground a bleeding mess like Zaku had hoped, Shino burst into a swarm of bugs that all rushed at Zaku from different directions, he jumped back and performed another Zankuuha to clear out the area.
Standing in front of Zaku was Shino, both hands on his pockets looking his forever but confident stoic visage. "It's best that you give up now, why? Because my bugs can eat your chakra out if you try to attack me and I can do the same should you try and attack them."
Zaku was indeed surrounded, but he was nowhere near beat. "Don't understimate me stupid tree-hugger!" He removed the bandages covering up his other arm to reveal there was nothing wrong with it other than a few bruises.
In the balconies Sakura looked even more shocked and turned to look at her sensei only to find a similar puzzled look on his face.
Down at the arena, Zaku smirked as he pointed a hand at each of the sides surrounding him but much to his surprise or annoyance, Shino still didn't look troubled at all.
"I will wipe that stupid look of your face, Zankyokukuuha!" Channeling almost all of his chakra carelessly into his attack, Zaku smirked, ready to take out Shino in a single blow…
BOOM
Instead of a powerful gust of cutting wind both of Zaku's arms exploded in a gory scene that left pieces of broken flesh and puddles of blood all over the floor, Zaku dropped to the ground now with two missing limbs and screaming and squirming in agony as Shino made his way over him, this time looking regretful. "I told you to give up." Not waiting for an answer Shino kicked him in the back of the neck and made him fall unconscious as the medic team made their way to them.
"Winner: Aburame Shino!" Shino walked up the stairs in silence and was met with looks of surprise and shock, not bothering to acknowledge them he simply walked past them all and stood next to his team.
"H-Hey man what was that?" Had he not been incredibly distracted, Kiba might have berated himself for stuttering.
"I had my Kikaichu fill the air vents in his arms making his arms explode when he used his jutsu, why? Because the wind didn't have a way out and the pressure was too much for his body." Shino didn't wish for him to suffer that way but he's a shinobi first and foremost, throwing a match for the sake of his opponent wasn't smart, he had been given a chance to give up and decided not to take it.
Fighting with Honor is not the ninja way.
The screen started going through names fast and this time both Naruto and Sakura were paying close attention. "Misumi Tsurugi and Sabaku no Kankuro, make your way down at the arena." Hayate called out, making them both jump off the railing, each sporting a smirk in their faces.
"Are both contestants ready?" Asked Hayate, receiving a nod from both Genin, he signaled them both to start and jumped away from the field.
"A brief warning…" Misumi said, looking incredibly smug and confident behind the veil of his. "The moment I use my jutsu, you should give up… otherwise, you'll die"
Kankuro smirked and looked ready to laugh at his bold claim, were all tree-huggers this overconfident? "It is you who should think about giving up when I start using my own jutsu." Kankuro untied the bandage holding the puppet on his back but was attacked by his opponent before being able to let it go free.
Misumi used his elbow to strike at his chest but was stopped by Kankuro's arm, to the surprise of Kankuro and everyone in the room, Misumi's arm started tying itself around his own while the rest of his body tied itself tightly around every one of his extremities, including his neck.
"If you don't give up now, I'll snap your neck!" Kankuro didn't answer and Misumi took it as a sign of his will, he could respect deciding to face death rather than giving up in the middle of a fight, even if it was foolish. "Have it your way." He grabbed his head with force and pulled it, making his neck snap in a loud and sickening crunch, Kankuro's face now looking directly at Misumi started decaying and turning into a puppet.
The bandaged bundle on the floor unfurled to reveal a perfectly healthy Kankuro controlling the puppet that was now tying its extremities very tightly around Misumi's torso, he moved two fingers and the puppet started crushing Misumi's body who yelled loudly in pain as he loudly gave up.
Misumi fell limp on the floor as Hayate re-entered the field. "Because Misumi can no longer continue, Kankuro is the winner."
He signaled the medic team that took Misumi's unresponsive figure as the Suna genin made his way back to his team with a smug look on his face.
"This exam is full of freaks." Sakura said to her team looking a little grossed out by the turn of events, it was one thing to see someone losing both arms, but having it be by the courtesy of chakra eating bugs? What about the crushed guy who's extremities looked like jelly just now?
"Oh come on Sakura-chan, don't be so hard on yourself 'ttebayo!" Naruto's comment earned a snicker from the members of the close Team 10 and even their own senseis.
"NA-RU-TO!" Sakura started making her way toward her teammate menacingly with an arm already stretched to hit him hard.
"Maa maa, Sakura-chan." Said Kakashi with a playful tone as he intercepted her, "pay attention now, beat him up later." He didn't even take his eye out of his book, but Sakura could see the eye-smile behind it and decided to let Naruto off the hook for now, thinking back, she did make a rude comment.
The names on the screen started spinning rapidly again and this time it stopped on three different names rather than two. "Will Kinuta Dosu, Akimichi Chōji and Haruno Sakura join me down here?"
Sakura started sweating and looking nervous, she had worked so hard to get here and finally, she got her desired opportunity to show just how much she grew in the past months, so why did she feel so insecure all of a sudden?
Was it because of the special match up that no one wanted to be a part of- or was it because she didn't think herself capable anymore? Maybe she had been overestimating her own abilities for a while, or maybe she-
"Sakura-chan." She turned to her left and found the sight of her teammate looking at her with a warm look, a reassuring hand now on her shoulder. "You got this okay? You're super strong and you're the best kunoichi in Konoha 'ttebayo!" He said as he smiled and gave her a thumbs-up with his free hand.
Sakura chuckled a little nervously and took a deep breath to calm down and returned the smile in kind. "Thank you, Naruto-kun." She walked to the stairs but stopped right by Naruto and placed a soft, grateful kiss on his cheek before continuing on his way down, not staying long enough to see Naruto blushing furiously and hiding in embarrassment behind Kakashi's amused figure.
The girl jumped from the railing and landed softly on the ground, shortly after she was joined by Chōji who looked incredibly nervous and conflicted. "I-I can't fight you Sakura, we're friends." He said with worry in his voice that Sakura could find heart warming, to a certain extent.
"Don't give up Chōji, you're not doing me a favor by not fighting me." She firmly believed that him refusing to fight her was putting her at a disadvantage, if he refused to face her and give it his all, she might lack the necessary experience further down the line and that would only end in disaster.
Chōji didn't look all that convinced but nodded his agreement either way, he had spent enough time with Sakura to know he wouldn't be winning an argument against her.
"You tree-huggers are all a bunch of wimps." Said Dosu with a scoff and crossed arms, he wasn't worried about them teaming up on him, he firmly believed they stood no chance against him.
"This is a special match-up and special rules apply, the winner of this match will be the last one standing." Said Hayate, getting the participants attention before things became heated, it was bound to happen either way, best it happened after he called the match. Hayate asked the participants if they were ready and after receiving nods of confirmation he once again jumped away and gave start to the match.
"You should give up what you can, what can a little girl and fatso over here hope to achieve?" Dosu asked, somehow managing to look smug and dismissive despite having his face completely covered by bandages.
Chōji started trembling in fury at being insulted in that way, he hated being made fun of because of his weight. "What did you call me?" He asked in a menacing tone that was entirely dismissed by Dosu.
"Is fatso angry at me because I-"
NIKUDAN SENSHA!
Blinded by rage Chōji used his jutsu and started rolling at the surprised Dosu at high speeds, leaving even Sakura surprised by his quick action, she would be lying if she said she didn't wish to team up with Chōji to defeat Dosu before having a duel of their own, apparently the Akimichi Heir didn't think that far.
Dosu reacted to the advance and jumped away only for Chōji to change directions and keep going after him, Sakura kept yelling at Chōji to stop and think things through or come up with some sort of plan but he either didn't listen or didn't care, she definitely wasn't going to jump in front of him to stop him so she could only watch as Chōji rolled all around the arena.
Noticing Chōji was starting to slow down, Dosu stayed in place- only to side step him at the last minute and hit his side with an elbow. Not really feeling the impact Chōji was just about to retaliate when he lost all sense of direction and became extremely dizzy, he dropped the jutsu making him bigger but the damage was already done.
Dosu did the same thing he had done to Kabuto at the beginning of the written test and Chōji was now on the floor vomiting his soul out his body and unable to stand up. The sound genin grabbed a Kunai for good measure and was about to stab him when Sakura stopped him with her own Kunai.
"Proctor, Chōji can't keep on." She said without losing her focus on Dosu, Hayate nodded from a distance and quickly jumped in to retrieve Chōji before leaving the arena once again.
Sakura was frustrated, Chōji had completely dismissed her over a comment about his weight, she understood him better than anyone else as she was easily irked and thrown of her game with comments about her appearance. She just didn't understand why Asuma hadn't taken care of it the same way Kakashi did for her.
How did Kakashi do it? By making fun of absolutely every single thing she hated about her appearance until she had to learn to ignore him of course.
Sakura didn't learn much about Dosu's jutsu other than it required him to use those weird gauntlets that were on both of his arms, they would've to be disposed of.
Without missing a beat, Sakura jumped away as far as she could the moment she noticed a slight shift on Dosu's stand, and sure enough, he had tried to use his jutsu again to make her drop.
"You seem to be slightly better than your friend. No matter, you still can't win against me." He grabbed a hail of shuriken and threw them at her hoping to distract her long enough to use his jutsu on her but, much to his confusion, she stood still and let the Shuriken pierce her body.
Thinking he had won, Dosu lowered his guard but that proved to be a fatal mistake when the pierced Sakura burst in a shower of cherry blossoms and the real one hit his forearm with a rock covered punch, effectively breaking one of his gauntlets.
Dosu jumped away and seethed in anger, he didn't know this girl could use Genjutsu. He was now in a tight spot, he only had one of his main weapons and had to be constantly on guard and checking for Genjutsu, he didn't have much time to think of a strategy because of a hail of shuriken flying towards him. "You annoying bitch!"
Sakura's strategy was quite simple in her mind, keep your distance as much as possible and only close in for an attack when an opening presents itself. She had already done it once and she only had to do it once more, he hadn't used any jutsu that didn't require the use of his device yet which led her to believe he was reliant on them to fight effectively. She could use it in her favor.
"Can't fight without your toys, big-boy?" She mocked and got the desired effect in the form of Dosu cussing her out and losing his cool, she threw another hail of shurikens as he jumped away to evade them.
He landed far away from her and tried to return her attack only to find her gone from the arena, thinking he had been placed under the effect of Genjutsu once again, Dosu used the dispelling technique and surely enough, found Sakura running at him with another reinforced punch, this time however he was able to react in time and used the same move he had used to incapacitate Chōji.
Sakura stopped dead on her tracks and dropped to her knees, Dosu smirked behind his bandages and before the proctor could stop him, he fished a kunai out of her pocket and stabbed her right in the forehead, making all signs of life leave Sakura's eyes…
Then she turned into a bunch of rocks.
Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!
Kakashi watched in amusement as a pair of hands took hold of Dosu's feet from the ground to pull the genin hard, burying him in the ground with only his head and the arm gauntlet free.
Sakura emerged in front of him and looked at him with a smirk, she used a kunai to destroy the device to then place the tip on his forehead. "You lose."
"Winner: Haruno Sakura!"
After being announced the winner Sakura did a little victory dance and released Dosu from his underground imprisonment, oh how she loves that Jutsu.
Kakashi had done great to teach it to her for sure. Sakura turned her back on Dosu and started walking back towards her team. She could still hear Dosu cussing her out but she honestly didn't care much, that's why she didn't notice when an enraged Dosu picked up a Kunai and started running at her.
"You stupid bitch!" He called out, making Sakura turn around to find his attacker's kunai just inches away from her face. She had been too slow to react to his advance but the exam proctor hadn't been and Dosu was stopped by his firm grip.
"You should've learned to accept defeat." It was just then, hearing Hayate's icy tone and the lack of coughs between his words that she noticed the Kunai piercing Dosu's neck and dripping blood.
Sakura stood incredibly still and started stuttering nonsense; she had seen death before of course, her teammate had died in front of her, but she had never seen someone being killed in front of her.
She didn't even notice Kakashi using a Shunshin to bring her back by his and Naruto's side. "Are you alright, Sakura?"
"S-Sensei? I-I he, he tried to, he, I-" Why was it being so hard for her now to form a coherent sentence, she was worried she would look like a baby but she couldn't even say that. Sakura could faintly hear the sound of Hayate calling out names in the distance, Tenten had gone to fight that Temari girl from Suna apparently but she didn't have it in herself to pay attention to the match.
Her hands wouldn't stop shaking, every time she thought of what would happen she would see Dosu's face, she would see how life left his eyes, but the face, it wasn't Dosu.
It was him.
Someone had been killed in front of her and she immediately went back to that place again. Sakura was standing on the balcony but her mind wasn't there. She looked around and all she could see was a bridge covered in fog and her lifeless teammate bleeding out in front of her.
And she couldn't do anything.
"Sakura, calm down." The voice of his sensei snapped her out of her thoughts as she started to focus on the current time again, she could see Shikamaru going up the stairs and an unconscious Kin being taken to the infirmary. 'Shikamaru? Did Tenten finish fighting already?'
"Take a deep breath, Sakura." She did as instructed and started taking deep breaths, slowly her vision started becoming normal again, she could feel her heart-rate stabilizing. A panic attack? Out of nowhere? "It's alright, Sakura, we'll talk about it later. It's Naruto's turn."
Seeing as Sakura's panic attack was over Naruto walked down the stairs to meet his chosen opponent.
Kiba.
"This one's going to be easy, eh Akamaru?" He said as he jumped off the railing with as much confidence as one could muster, the aforementioned Akamaru simply barked in agreement and jumped off of Kiba's hoody, both now standing up in front of Naruto.
"Pfff, I can beat you with my eye closed any day, mutt." Naruto loves riling people up, especially when it was so easy, the match hadn't even started yet and Kiba was already impatiently wanting to pummel Naruto into the ground.
"Kick his ass Naruto!"
Naruto and Kiba both looked at the balcony to find Ino cheering for him. Sure Naruto had become friends with Ino ever since he started hanging out with Team 10 for training but this was a little unexpected, clearly it was unexpected even by the members of her own team if Shikamaru's questioning look was any indication.
Ino simply shrugged it off as if it was the most normal of occurrences "What? He's annoying."
That comment earned her a snicker from Naruto and deadly looks from Kiba who was now seething in anger, Ino was helping Naruto and she didn't even notice.
"Are both contestants ready?" Hayate was growing tired of these Genin bickering with each other, couldn't they just fight professionally and be done with it? He couldn't really blame Naruto, the boy's sensei sure likes to have a chat with his enemies.
Kiba and Naruto nodded their approval and Hayate quickly started the match, not long after he jumped away from the arena. Kiba tossed a red pill to Akamaru which made it turn red and more feral. "Let's end this quickly, Akamaru."
With a call of Giju Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu! Kiba dropped on all fours as blue chakra started swirling around him. His eyes became slitted, his nails became claws and his fangs grew larger. Akamaru then jumped on top of Kiba's back as he made a half-ram seal and called out. Juujin Bunshin! Making Akamaru turn into a perfect copy of him.
The now transformed Akamaru jumped from his back and they both started running at Naruto who had been studying their movements up until now, seeing as an attack was imminent Naruto grabbed both of his staffs and stood in a defensive position. With the left staff in a reverse grip, Kiba and Akamaru jumped in the air with a yell of Gatsuuga!, both started rotating their bodies so far that they became drills and started descending at Naruto.
The Uzumaki jumped back to avoid the hit but was met with another coming drill from his left that he just barely managed to dodge by jumping up where he was met with another drill, he quickly performed the Kage Bunshin and used one of his clones to substitute to a safe spot where he could think of a plan.
"What's the matter, Naruto? Too scared to face me so you keep running away?" Oh how Naruto hated when they tried to rile him up in return, and how he hated the fact that it almost worked, that damn stupid mutt.
"I'm going to make sure you can't dodge the next attack!" Kiba fished a smoke pellet out of his pouch and threw it on the ground, covering the whole of the arena in smoke and leaving his and Naruto's vision completely obstructed. He didn't need to see Naruto, he just needed to be able to smell him while the Uzumaki couldn't be able to see where the attack would be coming from and dodge.
Too bad Kiba didn't know Naruto was a sensor.
Up in the balconies Sakura visibly smirked and Kakashi had an amused look on his visible eye. "He just lost the match." He said, shocking the Jounin sensei of Kiba's team, Yuhi Kurenai, who had come a little closer to him when the match started.
"Really? How come you have so little faith in your student Kakashi?" Asked Kurenai with a curious look on her face, it was good to be realistic of course but that seemed a little cruel from him.
"My student? Who said anything about Naruto? Kiba just sold the match." He said without taking his eye off from the field, he would've used the sharingan to have a better view but the sharingan isn't really capable of seeing through smoke, just watching the flow of chakra wasn't worth it in his opinion.
Back in the arena Kiba started his onslaught once again but much to his surprise, he found he still wasn't being able to hit Naruto despite knowing exactly where he was, the slippery Uzumaki was definitely still capable of dodging the attacks without relying on his sight, annoying little bastard.
Angry at the fact that Naruto was still able to dodge his attacks, Kiba stopped his onslaught once again about the same time a gust of wind cleared the smoke revealing… 3 Kibas?
"Hah! You're a bigger idiot than I thought if you think I wouldn't be able to recognize Akamaru's scent moron!" Kiba said as he lunged forward to the fake Akamaru and hit him on the face hard only for his punch to phase through him? How? Kiba knew it wasn't a Bunshin because he could feel Naruto's scent in it.
Suddenly, from the ground emerged three Naruto's in a triangle formation with their hands already on a Bird seal. "I'm sorry Akamaru, I think you're pretty cool!" Not waiting for Kiba to snap out of his confusion and without giving them much time to react, the three Narutos extended their hands toward Kiba and called out.
Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu!
A beam of lightning shot out of the palms of each Naruto and traveled through the arena too fast for the still shocked Kiba to react, it hit both him and his companion head-on and caused him to shake in their spot in pain. They couldn't even yell because the strong energy current wouldn't let them open their mouths.
Not wanting to use more force than it was necessary on fellow shinobi - despite how much Kiba annoyed him - Naruto stopped the jutsu when he knew it was enough to knock him out, making both Kiba and Akamaru drop limp on the floor.
"H-How?" Asked a sputtering Kurenai.
"Naruto is a sensor, a good one at that, Kiba gave him the opportunity to prepare his attack with the cover of the smoke, not the smartest of moves." Answered Kakashi with a nonchalant tone he used to disguise his own pride in his student turned little brother.
After Hayate called the match and an unconscious Kiba was taken to the medical guard, Naruto climbed the stairs and was met with the cheers of his friends and a questioning look on his teammates face. "How didn't Kiba notice you were just a regular bunshin?"
"Genjutsu." He answered making the Genjutsu mistress of Konoha - Kiba's sensei - perk up at his comment.
"Oh? What exactly did you do to him?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.
"It's something Kakashi-sensei taught me, an easy illusion to trick his nose into feeling a scent that isn't really there." He looked at Kakashi who only gave him an approving nod and went back into his book reading, he was just getting to the interesting part.
"I thought you said you didn't like Genjutsu." Sakura rubbed her chin in thought, he did say that to her.
"I said Genjutsu doesn't really fit my style, it takes too much control and concentration out of me, I need more practice to be able to use them effectively." The explanation of how he used it just now was omitted and it really wasn't necessary, Kiba had provided him with a perfect cover to concentrate for a few moments after all, he saw an opportunity and he took it.
The room settled once more and the only two Genin who still hadn't had a chance to fight were clearly anxious, though for very different reasons. Lee was eager to feel the thrill of battle and prove himself as a capable ninja despite his limitations, he wanted to show everyone that his will to fight greatly overcame the fate imposed to him at birth, he wanted to show everyone that it wasn't necessary to use Ninjutsu to be a strong shinobi.
Above everything else, he wanted to show him he was worthy of respect.
Naruto was sweating bullets, Lee had arguably become his best-friend, sure, Shikamaru, him and Chōji had formed a very special bond and there was nothing he wouldn't do to keep them safe; he respected Shikamaru like no other Genin and admired his wits too, but there was something about Lee, something about the way he drives himself that Naruto has admired ever since they met.
His will to never give up.
Lee is the strongest Genin there is currently in the village and Naruto has no trouble admitting such a fact, he actually strives to be like him. Sometimes he wonders, just how strong would a person with a determination as strong as Lee' the limitations he had been born with; the idea is both scary and exciting.
If only he didn't have to fight him, Naruto knows Lee can take care of himself but there was something about Gaara that screamed of danger and he hadn't been able to figure it out… he shouldn't be worrying much about it, Lee is strong, if anyone can beat the shit out of Gaara is him.
"Will Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara please come down here?"
"YOSH LEE!" Gai struck his trade-marked nice-guy pose and patted Lee's head. "It's time for you to show them the power of youth!"
"YES GAI-SENSEI! I shall make you proud with the brightness of my youth!" Said Lee, just as excited and eager to fight. He pocketed the notepad he had been using to write anything his sensei said or anything he saw during the matches that he thought interesting and jumped off the railing to meet his opponent.
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to give you blood worthy of you mother, wait some more, I'll find someone strong to offer you later." Gaara had a crazed look and a psychotic aura as he said it and held his head tightly with both hands as if he were in some kind of pain but whoever this mother he was talking to must've been pleased with his explanation because he went back to his stoic but menacing demeanor immediately after that.
"Kakashi-sensei." Almost whispered Naruto up in the balcony making sure only his brother could hear him. "That guy… his chakra - chakras - are awful and there's two, why does he have two chakras? What is he?"
Kakashi took note of Naruto's worried look and focused hard in thought, there was only one thing he could think of that would make someone have two different chakra sources. It was hard to believe that Suna had sent their so-called weapon all the way to Konoha for an exam but he had learned to trust Naruto's sensing and so far he hasn't been wrong about anything.
The sensei leaned closer to Naruto, whispering a single word so low only he could hear it and saw his face turn white, he knew very well what that word meant and he didn't like it.
Jinchuuriki.
"Are both contestants ready?" The question was asked and in the arena it was clear they both were.
Sakura could see Naruto trembling, yet refused to talk about it when she asked if he was okay. He had never been so scared before and he knew he wouldn't be this scared if it was him facing Gaara, he was really hoping Lee would be more than strong enough to pummel him into the ground- Jinchuuriki or not. At the very least, he was hoping Lee would know when to give up if it came to it.
Down in the arena both contestants nodded and the match started, Gaara removed the screw cap of his gourd and it came flying at Lee. He took it as his cue and started running, aiming a fist to Gaara's face to find it connected with a protective wall of sand when he got closer. 'Sand manipulation jutsu, it will be hard to get through it.' He observed as he jumped back.
Lee jumped back just enough to avoid a counterattack before coming to the offensive again, he closed in in Gaara's personal space and started throwing punches that would all be stopped by the sand. He started circling Gaara as he attacked hoping it would be enough to divert his attention but it proved for naught.
The green-clad genin started mixing up his attacks with open palm strikes to the chest, lower kicks, punches and jumping kicks but nothing seemed to work so he jumped away.
"Is that all? I'm still not entertained, there hasn't been enough blood." Gaara said, going into the offensive. Waves of sand started flying at Lee from multiple angles who would dodge in a certain direction only to find more sand waiting for him at the spot.
Lee jumped and was forced to dive back down immediately to avoid being hit in the air, he rolled as he fell to soften the impact and found sand already coming at him, he quickly jumped back up high enough and landed on the pointed fingers of the statue in the back of the room to think on a strategy.
"Take them off Lee!" The strong voice of his sensei filled the air and he turned to look at the imposing man to find an approving look on his face.
"But you said I should only take them off to protect someone very important to me sensei!" He replied, recalling the rules imposed to him by his sensei.
"Yes, I did, but this is an exception, show us all your flames of youth!" No more explanation was needed as Lee started giggling and sat down to remove his leg warmers to reveal a set of weights on each of his legs. Almost everyone started wondering how would removing some weights help his situation, even Kakashi who despite using weights in the training of his Genin, knows that the speed boost they would get from removing them while good wouldn't be fast enough to overcome Gaara's sand.
Not caring about the murmurs, Lee stood up and let both set of weights fall on the ground, making giant craters and lifting up an incredible amount of dust from the ground. Everyone in the room - except for the people who knew about it - had their jaws on the floor as Lee disappeared from view. In the balconies, despite being extremely worried, Naruto couldn't help but smile proudly.
Lee re-emerged in front of Gaara, shocking him and everyone with his speed, he punched him in the face and was just barely stopped by the sand. Not wanting to waste his momentum, he disappeared again only to reappear on a different side of the red-head to attempt to hit him, he did this multiple times until he managed to get past the sand and connect a spinning axe kick on his head.
Everyone, especially Gaara's teammates and sensei were surprised that someone had managed to actually hit Gaara. Lee kept going at him and managed to connect another hit, this time in his jaw and sent him flying. When Gaara stood up once again, his skin started peeling off and turning into sand. 'A sand armor? I need to get him away from his sand so I can break it without trouble, perhaps if I send him in the air and hit him repeatedly… the Lotus.'
Having made up his mind, Lee let loose the bandages of his arms and started running at incredibly high speeds around Gaara, dust started to rise following his steps and except for a few after images, spotting Lee became nigh on impossible, for those who didn't have access to a Dojutsu of course. The Hyuga present in the room almost instinctively turned on their Byakugan at the same time Kakashi uncovered his own Sharingan eye, neither of them wanting to miss out on what was about to happen.
Lee ran inside Gaara's defense and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to send him in the air, not satisfied he used his arms to lunch himself up legs first and kept on kicking him multiple times causing visible cracks to appear in his sand armor. When he deemed them both to be high enough, Lee used the bandages in his arms to tie himself around Gaara as well as restrict his movements and then started spinning, he and Gaara both started falling to the ground fast and the red-head was clearly going to hit head first.
Omote Renge!
Both Genin impacted the floor and a loud crash followed, when the dust that had rose from the impact settled, it revealed a winded Lee panting hard with an unmoving Gaara buried in the ground, Hayate made his way to the zone of the impact to determine if Lee had indeed won and found the unmoving Gaara breaking down and collapsing into sand.
'An empty shell?'
A vile energy that made every hair in Naruto's body rise filled the room and he started holding on to the rail so hard that his knuckles started turning white. Behind Lee a maniacal laugh could be heard followed by Gaara emerging from the sand with a twisted face.
"Yes… your blood will be enough to please mother!" Gaara started a new onslaught of sand much faster and powerful, Lee tried to dodge as much as he could but was caught in the end and thrown hard into the wall, engraving his figure in it.
His face became full of determination as he dug himself out of the wall, immediately jumping away from Gaara. Upon landing Lee crossed both of his arms and stole a glance from his sensei.
'To protect and maintain my Ninja way!' Energy started swirling around his body and for the first time ever Naruto had been able to feel the gates, for the first time ever Naruto had been able to feel how truly impressive his friend really is.
Fourth Gate of Pain: Shomon! Lee's skin turned red as a visible green aura formed itself around him. Not wasting any moment he ran at Gaara and the ground started breaking as he went from the sheer power he expelled.
An unsuspecting Gaara who had just reformed his sand armor was kicked in the jaw and sent flying in the air, Lee jumped high up and continued his onslaught at speeds so high Kakashi could barely perceive with his Sharingan. In the air Lee started hitting Gaara repeatedly from multiple angles without ever letting him fall.
'No human can move like this!' Were the read-head's thoughts as his armor was cracked in multiple places and the pain he felt became more unbearable. Lee appeared in front of him and yelled "This is it! Fifth Gate of Closing: Tomon!", and the energy around him became even more powerful. He looked around and stole a glance at his teammate.
'Are you watching Neji? This is my ace in the hole that I had saved for you.' Lee hit Gaara hard in the stomach and sent him crashing to the ground once again.
BOOM
The impact was so hard everyone could feel the aftershock as a loud crash not very different from an explosion echoed around the room. In the arena Lee could be found kneeling and barely able to move with a satisfied and accomplished look on his face.
"LEE!"
Lee heard his dear friend call his name but didn't understand the urgency in his voice until he felt it, strings of sand tying themselves around his body, he tried to stand but failed and only managed to give the sand more ground as it tied itself around his arm and lower back.
The world slowed down for him, he could faintly see Gaara closing his hand and muttering some jutsu he didn't quite catch, he could faintly see how Naruto completely disregarded the rules and was in the process of jumping off the railing.
Then he feel it.
AAAAAAAAH!
He screamed in agony and fell back on the floor, this time everything around him started moving too fast for him to understand. He knew he was being held by someone, he guessed it was probably Naruto if the faint hint of Orange he could see was anything to go by, in front of him stood an imposing figure that had clearly stopped the advance of the sand and was dressed in similar clothing to him, it must've been his reliable sensei.
Everything had become hazy for him and he was just barely conscious, the only thing keeping him awake was a single thought that wouldn't leave his mind.
'I can't feel my legs…'
—
AN: Definitely the longest chapter so far, did I intend to be this way? Not really.
The prelims aren't exactly my definition of super interesting but I know they are important, I just wanted to have them all in a single chapter instead of doing two parts of the same thing. I skipped through a few fights and it was mostly because they were exactly the same as they were in canon and I didn't just want to write "This fight is the same as canon" in the middle of the chapter, I feel like it breaks the immersion.
You might be thinking Ino and Hinata didn't fight in canon, but - no hate to Ino - that's not my exact definition of interesting to be honest.
That's it for this update, do remember to leave a comment if you wish, I hope the chapter was up to your liking and hopefully you'll like what's to come.
Be safe!
Glossary:
Zankuuha
Decapitating Airwaves
Zankyokukuuha
Great Decapitating Airwaves
Nikudan Sensha
Human Boulder Tank
Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu
Shunshin
Body Flicker Jutsu (I'm only adding it now because I've used it a lot of times by now and I don't think I've ever explained what it actually is)
Giju Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu
Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All-Fours Jutsu
Juujin Bunshin
Beast Human Clone
Gatsuuga
Fang Passing Fang
Kage Bunshin
Shadow Clone Jutsu
Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu
Lightning Release: Lightning Beam Jutsu
Omote Renge
Primary Lotus