Chunin Exams

(One more after this, it's already in the works. Enjoy)


It was an interesting morning. So far Hiro was running circles around Akane, Goji, and even Zeko. Goji was in his first stage to push himself further but it wasn't doing him much good in terms of actually landing a hit. "If that's the best you've got then wow. I'm disappointed." Hiro had his hands in his pockets while fighting the three but his kicks alone more than made up for the lack of attacks he could perform. Zeko still found it weird how his shoulder would bulge but it wasn't his place to say anything about that, he was too busy trying to find an opening to exploit but it was like Hiro had senses better than his. Even when they weren't in his line of sight he'd managed to dodge them or even counter their attacks.

So far it was taijutsu only and the only one who'd gotten close to landing a hit was Zeko and it was because he aimed right for the back of Hiro's head but he dodged last second. The three were huffing and puffing because of how they were really putting everything they had into landing just one hit but it wasn't working. They even managed a coordinated attack but Hiro saw right through it and sent each of them to the ground, again he did this all without his hands. "Hiro, why are we doing just taijutsu?" Zeko questioned as he put his shoulder back in its socket.

"Because all three of you against me? You'd kill me. None of you need to work on ninjutsu, I'd say you're all high Chunin for ninjutsu at least. Everything else I've seen puts you guys midway but I don't want midway, I want high tier." He flipped into the air and brought his heel down where the three Genin were, and the ground was never going to look the same since it was a crater now. "Show me the high tier!" He took his hands out of his pockets and they sweatdropped "Show me the strength of the Uchiha!" That was taken personally by one of them and he was going to do his best to prove his point.

They all rushed from their own side and clashed with either Hiro's forearms or his shin. They really couldn't find a way past his technique. He had so many openings but they couldn't exploit them because it was like his attention was on all three of them at once, however his mistake at the moment was forgetting that there were three of them and one of him. Goji spun and managed to connect his heel with- "Quit blocking!"

"Be faster than me!" He grabbed his ankle and started swinging but the kick to the side made him let go before he could build up momentum. It was their turn now.

Akane was grinning because of the effect that her kick had but it wasn't done there since a fist connected with Hiro's jaw, Zeko was in the air with his own smirk now. Goji gave his own punch to their sensei's stomach and his long tongue licked his lips in anticipation. They all started throwing their hits and pushed Hiro back and forth between them, he was being ragdolled no matter where he went. Every direction had either a fist or a leg that sent him right into another attack, he was being juggled like a bright red ball in the hands of a street performer.

"Ah damn! Let me- Shit! Give me a sec- Calm the hell down!" They weren't letting up on him no matter what he tried to say, they were beating him worse than the child of a drunken stepfather would get. The second he started to recover he took another shattering hit. If this were a street fight among normal people then somebody would be yelling, 'Fight back!' ironically.

He exhaled with a burst of wind chakra that formed a bubble of air around him that stopped three attacks from connecting at once and dealing some serious damage.

"Hiro! You said no ninjutsu!" Goji wasn't happy that they finally started getting somewhere and their teacher decided to break his own rule.

"You guys started ganging up on me, I like being unbroken." The bubble burst and Hiro cracked his neck in relief, but his team was too worn to pull what they just did again. "You guys were just owning me for a bit so you might be as ready as you can be. Rest for today, we head to Kumogakure tomorrow." He was gone in a swirl of sand while his team sat down in relief of the fact that they were ready enough for the exams.

Goji went back into his normal state and flopped back to the street of the wrecked city block, since it still hadn't been fixed. Zeko looked at his exhausted teammates, Goji was in a dark blue tunic, grey cargo pants and black sandals that went up to his calves. He was darker from the constant sun exposure and his skin had some spots where his skin was dry and cracked.

Zeko's attention went to Akane next and his subconscious was appreciating looking at her for whatever reason. Her body was finally nourished enough to get back into training while not as hard as when she had her entire curse mark but she was definitely stronger than she was in the prison. Her skin had a healthy glow and wasn't sickly pale for her skin color anymore. She was wearing a lilac long sleeve that was cut low around her upper chest and shoulders, matched with black spandex shorts that stopped right above her knees and ankle length blue sandals. He didn't know why but he was blushing the more he stared at her. She turned and looked at him with a glare but he just looked her right in the eyes, and she stared back until she gave up. Akira taught him that if you were going to stare at someone then don't just try to look away when they catch you, if you stare them in the eyes then they'll know you were looking but they can't accuse you since they don't know where you were looking. It was perfect for ogling at kunoichi since they usually didn't like being stared at as if their actual accomplishments didn't matter and their bodies were their only worth, since they couldn't prove you were looking anywhere what could they do? "Something wrong Akane?"

She wanted to start yelling at him or at least throw something at his stupid face but the little bastard just didn't show that he was actually staring. "You- What were- Were you staring at me?"

"Was I?"

"I'm still staring at you. Those shoulders just-" The rock that hit his face made him shut up right quick. "My eyesight!" She hit right on the mark and made him understand to not do what he did again.

The consequences of being caught by a kunoichi were never something any man wanted to risk and that's why Akira made sure to teach his son how to survive such a thing by avoiding it completely. "Let's go home so I can get the sand out of my underwear." Akane stood up and started walking in a direction but the sand that coiled around her waist made her turn around to see Zeko pointing behind him.

"I live that way." She didn't miss a beat in walking towards the dormitory, acting like she wasn't just going the wrong way. The three of them headed back to their collective home so they could rest for tomorrow's big event. The people on the street went out of their way to avoid interacting with any of them but they preferred it that way, and the next thing they knew they were home. Goji had his shoes off in an instant and went to a terrarium against the wall with a smile on his face, there was a young bearded dragon inside that looked up at him quickly.

"Hey Goji, how were you today?" The lizard climbed his arm and went around his neck to nuzzle his cheek affectionately.

"I still can't believe you named him after yourself, how can you name your partner after you?" Akane said as she lounged on the couch with her feet on the arm of it.

Zeko gave his opinion on the matter and the namesakes didn't like who he sided with. "It's pretty dumb." Somehow he could see the lizard frowning on Goji's shoulder and he was kind of impressed with how that worked.

"Okay what would you call a pet you have then?! My name is perfect for him… her…" The other two in the room gave him a confused look at what he just said, they definitely caught it but they had to double down.

"You don't know your pet's fucking gender?" Akane was sitting up now because she couldn't believe the tomfoolery she just heard.

Goji and Goji were flustered but they decided to throw some attention to- "I bet Zeko doesn't know how to tell a reptile's gender!" And that was the second thing he took personally that day alone. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. His hair started to shake unnaturally and from it came three slightly bigger hatchlings.

"Mamushi, a girl. Raida, also a girl. And Randa, the boy of the three. Two girls and a boy, I know my new partners better than you know your pet." The snakes left his hair and slithered down his arms to see Goji and Goji for themselves… they weren't impressed by the other snake summoner. They retreated back into his white locks and somehow were unnoticeable in them. "I'm gonna make scorpion steak for dinner."

"You eat scorpion? That's weird man." The bearded dragon owner placed his pet right back into its terrarium while questioning his teammate.

"I eat scorpions because I hate them, they had something to do with my dad's death. I'll eat as many as I can until I figure out who killed him… then I'll eat more!" The wall never saw the knife coming but to be fair Akane and Goji didn't even see him lift it up, but they remembered that he had some sort of magnetic ability.

Dinner went well somehow despite Goji complaining about the taste of the scorpion but he stopped his whining once another knife lodged itself by his hand on the table. Goji was laid down on the couch while Zeko was… off who knows where, and Akane was in Zeko's bed. She threw a huge tantrum their first night there and now she had his bed while he just wasn't around at night. Goji didn't really care where he went since it made sure that Akane wouldn't get pissed at him for walking in on her, privacy was hard when you were living in someone else's room. He got off the couch and went to the fridge for some water but the sounds from the bedroom made him get nosy and put his ear to the door.

'Is it happening again?'

"No… Please no… I'll- Anything…" She was sleep-talking again. He sighed then sat down beside the door. She'd been doing this since their first night here and it ate away at his heart every time he heard it. He couldn't speak for the other leaders of the curse mark squads but he did care about the well being of his gang, and now the sole survivor aside from him. Hearing that whatever those ANBU did really traumatized her enough to make her have night terrors almost made him scared to think about how she felt sharing a living space with two boys.

'Life is really something, one minute you're getting a new recruit and the next you're under watch by an eleven year old who could actually kill you if he wanted.' He started getting up but a noise stopped him.

"G-Goji…" Whatever happened to her really must've been awful because she would never sound so- so desperate. "Can you stay by the door? Please?"

He didn't respond verbally but he walked to the couch and grabbed his blanket and pillow then came back to his new post to lay down. He heard the sound of footsteps then the bed creaking. 'Hold up, how didn't I hear her get close to me? Was I that far in the zone?' Those were his last thoughts before he drifted off to dreamland where he dreamt of how the exams would go, and he figured that they'd make it through no problem so long as there wasn't anything else on Zeko's level there. The universe would have a field day with those thoughts.


The boy was back in his apartment before the sun was up and he was looking between the ninjatō his father made and the gourd his father also made. He couldn't exactly bring both since they were two very different types of combat, one being fast and fluid while the other was stationary and defensive. He had an emotional connection with both of the weapons since they were gifts but only one could go with him. Decisions, decisions. He grabbed his tool of choice and started fixing it to his back with all the straps and buckles necessary. The gourd was a better choice anyway since he could attack en masse. "Come on guys let's go! We're already ten minutes late!" His teammates were having a bit more trouble getting ready since he burst in five minutes ago and threw water on them. Akane packed a bag of the essentials while Goji was struggling to get Goji's terrarium out the window with him, they were so late that they decided taking the window was faster. He turned it sideways and finally was able to jump out with Zeko and Akane on his tail.

"Why are you bringing that thing with us?" She was asking the right questions since it wasn't necessary to bring a bearded dragon to the Hidden Cloud but his response was acceptable to her.

"I couldn't find a sitter who'd willingly stay at Zeko's." It was a quiet few minutes to the rail station after that and Hiro wasn't too pleased at his team being late but he decided to save it for the ride and he got them all on so they could leave. There were other teams on the rail who were itching and ready to go prove themselves, unfortunately their team was ready for the same. They stopped at two stations along the way and once they had their things packed up, Hiro decided to hit them with his question.

"So why were you all late to the station?" Zeko had a plan for that one and it was already in motion. "I'm not mad I just want the truth."

"Goji was being a drama queen." The youngest of them threw the attention elsewhere and the moment he had was used to leave a shadow clone with his gourd so he could explore the train. The next car had some people in it but one truly caught his attention with what he was doing in his chair.

He was molding some type of white semisolid mass into different shapes and sizes while his friends watched. "It takes fast hands to do this one, just watch me." Zeko took the older boy's words to heart and watched the display with the clay. This teenager was shaping clay so quickly that it was a sight to behold, grooves and ridges formed into the molds at speeds that would be hard to match. "See? A perfect songbird." He actually managed to make a lifelike molding of a bird out of that white clay.

"I think that kid likes your art more than I do, he's been staring." The other boy pointed straight at Zeko despite not facing his direction. Zeko decided to approach them and eye the creation even closer. It was beautifully made, as if a god came and decided to sculpt it themselves.

"How'd you make this? It's so cool." He was memorizing every detail of the little clay construct and for every second he spent looking at it, it just got more amazing as he saw the level of detail and craftsmanship in this one object.

"It's just a bird, calm down kid." That made Zeko look at the new voice and for a moment he saw someone else that he knew but his mind stopped seeing that and saw what was actually there, a boy with hair as white as his and a white cat tail wrapped around his waist to match. "Uh, kid? You've been staring at me for like five minutes."

"It's been two calm down, Ryoto." The boy who didn't even turn to notice the boy objected. "Not everyone is just used to seeing a boy with a cat tail."

Zeko finally got all the surprise out of his face and returned to his neutral expression so he could ask his question. "You're a Nekoma aren't you?" Ryoto looked surprised that someone actually knew about his clan but wasn't from his village, but his world was about to have even more new information to it. "You're a clan that's based in Suna." He pointed at his right arm where his representation was. "My teammate was one just like you."

The artist of their group caught that subtle word that made that sentence what it was. "Did you say she was one? Isn't she still one?"

Silence can speak volumes and this was a time in which it did. He didn't say anything else about what happened to his teammate but he did change the topic entirely. "You guys are going for the Chunin Exams aren't you? You're from the leaf too?"

"Yeah. I'm Neji, that's Ryoto and he's Inokyou. We're one of the Konoha teams." He looked Zeko up and down to notice that he was rather small, maybe even smaller than his favorite younger cousin. "How old are you?"

"I'll be twelve next year." He was used to people asking that one so he didn't hold it against Neji. "I'm ready for this as much as you are, I'm small but I'm strong." Inokyou laughed while Neji and Ryoto sat there in silence at what he just said.

Inokyou stopped laughing and lifted his creation to Zeko as an offering. The boy was awestruck that he was being given something so beautiful but he contained himself and accepted the gift. His eyes traveled across it and he was glad that he was wearing the seals his father gave him to hide what his eyes looked like at that moment, he was particularly glad because his enhanced vision let him see that this wasn't any ordinary clay and that Inokyou was either more malicious than he thought or he just didn't think he'd figure it out. He tossed the bird into the air and with a single flap of its wings it blew up in a tiny puff of black smoke. "It's such good art that it can't even last. Thank you Okuyo." With that he turned and walked back where he came from.

Neji's Byakugan was active while Zeko had his interaction with the clay and Ryoto was waiting for what he had to say. "No doubt in my mind. He's from the Sand but he's definitely an Uchiha, did we ever give them an Uchiha?" Shrugged shoulders from the cat boy while Inokyou was frozen in place. "Inokyou snap out of it!"

"He- He understood everything about my art style… We aren't gonna hurt him, final decision." He jumped onto the table and pumped a fist into the air right when Ryoto wanted to object. "FINAL DECISION!" The eccentricity of their friend made them want to crawl under the table once people started staring but they were paralyzed by the shock of seeing him stand there so tall and proud.

Zeko showed up and saw that Hiro was gone while his shadow clone was still sitting down by his team, he dispelled it and slid back into his spot unnoticed. "They better not have us take any tests when we get there, I didn't fucking study." Akane was making her case apparent while Goji was giving his bearded dragon a scrub with a, hopefully spare, toothbrush.

"Hey big Goji, how long have you two known each other?" A simple question that he never asked in their time together so far.

"I was actually the newest leader of the third part of the curse mark division. I was only in charge for a couple months before we… Yeah." Akane looked away with crossed arms but she wouldn't be left out of this one, by choice she spoke up about something incriminating.

"You're the best leader I had. Least you never told the others to use me when they were stressed."

The faint sound of a record scratching was heard and the two boys of the team snapped their attention onto her. "They what?"

"I'll kill them." Goji unconsciously snapped into stage one but he pulled it back since they were on a public train and they didn't need to set their example now.

Akane waved them off and pointed as they saw the clouds grow more dense. "I think we're here." She was right, they were officially in the Hidden Cloud village and just minutes later stepped off the train to head for their hotel room. The buildings were built into the mountains and for a few minutes they got to watch their youngest teammate acclimate to the lower oxygen levels in the air, and considering that he never showed how things affected him this was definitely refreshing. "What's wrong Zeko? Can't catch your breath?" She started laughing but she stopped once he fired back.

"At least I didn't stuff my face then puke it all back up." He finally got himself right enough to move normally without hyperventilating and they went to register at their hotel without a second thought, well Hiro would be given a different lodging since he was their team leader but that was neither here nor there. The room wasn't bad, two beds and a bathroom. Akane called one of the beds which left the boys to scramble over who'd get the other one. "We can fight for it."

Goji looked like he just swallowed a lemon with how sour his look was. "How about we just have a civil contest that will prove who rightfully- MINE!" He landed on the bed while Zeko was distracted by the stupid speech of civility. "First come first served."

He wanted to play dirty but he forgot who he was playing against. "Okay it's yours. So is everything that comes with it." The cork on his gourd popped off and Goji's danger senses went through the roof, and they were right to once sand poured out of the black container and went into the comforter, the sheets, the pillow, the entire bed. "Just like home." He was smiling while Goji was nervously ticking at how much he hated sand, especially in his bed.

The door was kicked open and there was a resident of Kumo there to greet them. "You guys should sign in for the first test. It's in half an hour." He was gone as quick as he came and he left the team of misfits in the room alone.

They tossed their bags down and headed out the door then started following all the genin teams that they saw heading towards a building embedded into the mountainside. The sign in was easy enough since they just had to sign next to their names but the complicated part came with meeting in the lobby where all the teams were. "Damn there's so many people here, I can't even count how many."

Zeko wouldn't miss the opportunity to get a quip in at Akane's expense and he took that opportunity. "Just say you can't count Akane." It was worth the smack he took to the head despite not having armored himself beforehand.

Goji looked around the giant room then crossed his arms in thought. "Ninety-four teams resulting in two hundred eighty-two individual genin." Dang. That surprised both his teammates since they were only there for thirty seconds and he already figured out how many people were present. One of them was focused on a certain smell, that smelly smell that smells… smelly, but not a bad type of smelly, no, it was a familiar smell.

He saw a girl with bright yellow hair standing beside two boys that looked very different from one another. One was the epitome of dark and brooding while the other looked bright and cheery in comparison. "Cheer up Maru, we can get through this no problem."

"Ano's right. We're a dynamic trio that has no counter." The girl had an orange long sleeve and blue pants, and Zeko was repulsed at the choice in clothing since it didn't match at all. He was most taken by her eyes which were mismatched in color, one being greenish blue and the other was yellow.

The dark and brooding boy sighed and gave his retort. "There's no way we can beat all these people, Kizura. No matter how strong you are, there are so many of them." He was a downer but he was their downer. Kizura smacked him on the back with a smile on her face and he was about to say something but something else caught his attention. "Do you know him?" She turned and saw a kid in purple with a big black urn on his back. "Hey you should stick with your team so you-"

He raised a hand to stop this brooding guy from talking to him anymore and he looked at the girl with a furrowed brow. "What's your name?"

This was awkward since she didn't know this kid and he just snuck up on them to get her name. "Uh… Matoi Kizura. What's your name?"

"I'm Zeko, my family name is still to be decided on. I hope we get to fight each other." She didn't get to ask him why he wanted to fight her since a Hidden Cloud Jonin appeared on a balcony overlooking the room.

"Attention bitches, bros, and non-binary hoes! Welcome to the Chunin Exams of Kumogakure!" All eyes were on him now so none of them saw a white haired boy reappear next to his team. "Your first test is going to be held shortly so pick your most resilient team member to be given a code word to protect! Shortly after that they will be put into a room with two people from another team and they'll try to get that word out of them!"

This was where some people started to show their true colors of cowardice by picking someone else to take whatever risk there was, but people who really had guts volunteered to be given that code word. Zeko was one of those people and he went right up to a proctor to state that he would be interrogated. "I'll take that code word." The grown woman looked at him like he just told her that planets were flat, but she digressed and gave him a piece of paper with a word on it. Others got the same slip of paper with different words on it and once they read over it the paper disintegrated.

Akane and Goji saw Zeko get led to a door and the man on the balcony gave one last piece of information. "Also! These exams are to simulate harsh conditions and hostile environments meaning that while it is very frowned upon, killing one another is allowed!" That was the last thing that the people who would be interrogated heard before they were put into their respective rooms.

Goji and Akane were ushered to a door where they just saw someone get put inside and the proctor that gave Zeko his word had them wait for a moment then let them inside the room where a boy from the Hidden Stone was seated in a chair. "I guess this is where you guys are gonna scare me into-" Snakes wrapped around his torso and bound him to the chair.

"Alright kid we want the word so give it up before we start hurting you." The snakes coming from Goji's arm tightened around the Stone kid but he was stubborn and just smirked at them. "Something funny?"

"I've been learning from the most stubborn people in the Stone, and Lady Shiro doesn't accept failures." Well they could see that he was devoted to the idea of being stubborn but his tenacity was about to be tested.

There was a team huddle so they could optimize the best way to get information out of this guy. "Easiest thing to do is just break bones one at a time unless you've got a better idea." He threw the offer in the air for Akane and the wicked look on her face gave her an idea that would definitely make her feel better subconsciously. "Akane, you're scaring me and I'm not being held by snakes."

She walked behind the chair and leaned over the captive boy to wrap her arms around his chest. "You can just give us the code y'know…" She leaned closer to his ear and whispered to him. "I'll definitely make sure you get something out of it~" The guy in the chair definitely was flustered from that open offer. She trailed a hand further down his chest as she moved beside him and he got to inhale her citrus scent. "All you have to do is say the word and I can help you all you need." Goji turned around to hide his snickering since he knew that everything she was saying was just sweet nothings to get what they needed.

"You can't- I'm not- What?" He was so confused that he couldn't make a proper sentence to show his confusion. "I'm not gonna fall for this you- dirty heathen." Now she was on his lap with her arms around his neck and he was more flushed than before. Her forehead was touching his and he could feel her breath against his face, he wasn't ready for any of this so he was only getting more and more built up as she went. Her hand was on the outside of his thigh and she was slowly rubbing his leg.

"Just say the word~"

He really couldn't take it and his hormone riddled mind wasn't thinking straight enough to stop him. "Moaning! The word is moaning!" She pressed her palm against his forehead and shocked him with enough power to knock him right out.

"Pretty ironic how the word is moaning?" Akane didn't even answer his question since she was busy walking out of the room with the code word in mind. They stepped out and their proctor was there with an eyebrow raised.

"Moaning." She nodded and they waited there for a few more minutes until they saw the door Zeko went in open slowly until he slid out and slowly closed it behind him with a click. "Uh, I think you come out last… Wait. Did you give them the word?!"

He shook his head and looked back at the door as the proctor was about to open it. "I wouldn't go in there for a couple minutes… or hours." His warning was cryptic but the proctor ignored it and opened the door. He was struck by the smell, it reeked of waste and death which made sense since there were two dead people from the Hidden Mist in the room. They were torn in half with their offal spread on the walls of the room and the proctor looked at Zeko right as his cork went back on his gourd. "They thought I'd go down without a fight." The proctor shut the door again and pointed down a hallway where other finished teams went.

A short walk later and they were given a blue flag and were told to wait for further instructions. Barely half an hour later the man from the balcony entered the room when the last of the genin trickled in from the interrogation test. "Well I want to say congratulations to everyone who made it this far, and I want to say that it's good that you signed your waivers before you got in this building." Some of them were curious as to what that meant but he continued his sentence. "Of the ninety-four teams that entered here, there are forty-six complete teams here. The end result of the interrogation was to teach you to keep information safe at any and all costs, or to obtain it at any cost. Now of course some of you went a little far but that's what waivers are for."

Inokyou raised his hand into the air and was called on. "What was the result of the words coming together? It seemed like gibberish."

The Kumo Jonin chuckled before he started speaking again. "Rolling, moaning, this realm of ours. In madness lost shall die. Corporeal laws are unrit as suns and love retreat. To cosmic forms from tangent planes we end as we began. From brooding gulfs are we beheld by that which bears no name. Carrion hordes trill their profane. Accord with eldritch plans. In luminous space blackened stars, they gaze, accuse, deny. To cosmic madness laws submit, though stalwart minds entreat. Its heralds are the stars it fells, the sky and earth aflame." Some type of poem? About cosmic laws and reality's constructs? Way too existential for this group he saw since most of them were scratching their heads. "Look we got it out of some game or something, it still works. Chaos of our world to the form we take to live in it, the time we all have before we end up in the void of death. The decay of our bodies that comes with the light of new life, and how we keep order so we can find the truth." A few more of them looked like they followed but it was still mostly confusion.

Neji shook his head as he realized that this room was mostly filled with dullards. 'It's an obvious set of words that tie into the poems to describe the theme people come on.'

"Because you all went through the interrogation test in the record time of an hour total, we can move to the next one same day. Each team has a flag and your goal is to get at least one more within the next eight hours. If you lose your original flag you'll be disqualified, if you lose a teammate you'll be disqualified, and if you don't get another flag guess what happens?" Nobody guessed but it was pretty obvious what would happen. More proctors led individual teams to different paths where they were suddenly taken into the mountain range among the snow and chill of the air.


"We just need a flag, let's find someone and take theirs." Akane was about to step off but Goji stopped her before she could make a hasty move.

Goji took the flag and strapped it to his back. "We can't just run off without a plan, if we go pick a fight without a plan we-"

"Ranton: Reizā Sākasu!" (Gale Style: Laser Circus). A bright pillar of light shot into the sky and alerted literally everyone in a five kilometer radius of where they were.

Goji was shocked at how she just decided to give away where they were while Zeko was busy messing with the snow on the ground. Rain was already something he wasn't used to seeing but seeing rain that froze before it hit the ground? He was in awe. "This is so cool!"

"Zeko, quit staring at the snow! We need to move!" He didn't like being interrupted but they did start moving through the snow as fast as they could. None of them were sensors but one of them could detect metals that got within his radius.

"At least three coming our way. They're moving fast, they're here…" He stopped to turn around and see that three boys from the Hidden Cloud were standing there. Goji and Akane were ready to fight but Zeko stepped forward and his gourd uncorked. "You two need to save your energy. I'll get their flag."

The three boys looked at Zeko then at one another… then they started to laugh at him. Not the laughing you do at a funny joke, but the laughter you do when someone trips and spills their lunch tray on themselves. "You two are really letting the littlest one step to us?"

"I'm eleven!"

They laughed even more at him as the snow around him started to melt from the anger he was putting out. "Alright look how about we each take you on so you can feel a little stronger? I'll go first and we can see where it goes from there." He literally couldn't take three steps before he saw the ground up close and personal. He also noticed that he felt a lot colder and once he saw his legs he knew exactly why. "AAH! HE BROKE MY LEGS!" Broke was an understatement, shattered was more accurate. His teammates were in too much fear to move but their eyes were stuck on the boy who just annihilated their friend's legs.

"You just crippled him!"

Zeko looked confused at that statement. He was about to ask for the flag but he didn't get the chance since a kunai charged with lightning chakra was put to his neck. "Thought you'd put me down that fast? Don't try me kid!" He turned them around and looked at Goji and Akane. "Give us your flag or he dies!" Neither of them moved an inch. If anything Goji was more focused on cleaning his nails while Akane started making a snowball. "I know you heard me, give us your flag now!" They still didn't move and he was really getting angry now. "Maybe you don't think I'm ser- Serio- Serious-" His body was locking up and he didn't know why.

"Good work you three." Mamushi, Randa, and Raida slithered back up his body and into his hair while the three boys were stuck in place, the paralytic venom in their veins made sure that they weren't going anywhere. Zeko took their flag and knocked each of them into the snow then covered them. Whether or not they'd be able to move before they got hypothermia wasn't his problem. "Let's go guys." They started moving again and left those piles of snow where they stood.

Two hours went by and nothing happened to them which made them suspicious. Zeko felt that same familiar feeling from before that made him ask Kizura for her name. 'I knew it!'

'Gah! Shukaku! Don't just yell in my head!' The boy slipped on a patch of ice and nearly ate the dirt because of it so his concern was understandable. 'What's got you yelling anyway?'

The tanuki grumbled in response but he still answered the question. 'That cat's in one of these humans… The two tails is around.' With that the boy started piecing something together. He finally took the time to learn about a few of the other tailed beasts and the two tailed hellcat was one of them.

Goji pulled his arm back before he broke the clearing and he put a finger over his mouth then pointed to a fight going on between Kizura's team and some people from the Stone. "Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" (Fire Style: Fireball jutsu). Zeko was paying close attention once he saw that her fire wasn't like his at all, it was blue. The nook she aimed it at threw up a mud wall in time but he had to move since that rock turned to hot sludge fast.

'I have to fight her.' They decided to move along since they weren't going to waste any time helping some nerds who didn't need it. The time flew by but in the end it was time for the event to end and every team that collected an extra flag or two was permitted to advance.

Once again they were in that room and the balcony guy was standing over them. "I'm impressed! Twenty-two teams came out of that simple event, you all weren't very competitive so time to dwindle the numbers some." A display on the wall flashed through names and landed on two. He jumped from the balcony to the main floor. "Everyone but those two clear the floor, these will be your preliminary matchups. You'll have three minutes to fight and the winner will move onto the finals. If I stop the match then you will stop or you'll be disqualified." They all left the floor and went to the bleachers to watch the match.

Well most of them watched the match, some of them paid it no mind. "Maybe you three should pay attention." Hiro and the other Jonin leaders made themselves noticed again. "Some of these guys are pretty tough… at least that's how their Sensei described them." His fellow Bedrock member didn't pay what he said any mind and went back to looking at the people in the stands with him until he saw his new artist friend and hurried over to him while the fight went on below.

"Hey, Okuyo, Neji, Ryoto. You guys made it." The last two he named off greeted him normally while Inokyou dragged him over and rubbed his hand through the kid's white hair playfully.

"I'm glad someone who appreciates art made it through."

Neji's Byakugan was active and Zeko saw it firsthand and had to sate his curiosity. "Hey Neji… are you a Hyuga?" The teenager looked at Zeko and nodded with a smile on his somewhat intimidating face.

"I guess even Suna knows about the great Hyuga clan." He was standing just as proud as Inokyou was on the train but his bubble would be popped quickly.

"No, I just remember my dad telling me about the times he saved his friend, Hitoshi."

Yep Neji's confidence was gone for the moment but he and Ryoto were looking at Zeko in a new light once he casually mentioned whom his dad saved. "Uh who did your dad save again?"

"Hitoshi, they were friends when they were younger. I never met a Hyuga so I didn't know how to imagine him."

Two more names came onto the board after one of the randoms pulled through in the end with some wire trick. Medical personnel escorted the loser out and the next two moved into the ring.

Meanwhile Neji's attention was split between Zeko and his Jonin and something didn't add up for what he just said. "You've never met a Hyuga?" The boy shook his head and Neji was glaring at Hiro with anger that his friends and freshly arrived sensei never noticed.

"Neji-kun! Your youth is being misplaced with your angry expression!" A woman in a bright green bodysuit with orange leg warmers and a green Konoha flak jacket yelled at the top of her lungs but Neji was undeterred.

'I remember Hitoshi-sama mentioning that he was friends with Uchiha Akira but… There's no doubt in my mind that his sensei has… Too much to consider right now.'

The woman clad in green was looking at Zeko curiously and he was doing the same to her. Her black hair was in a pixie cut but that was the only thing that was defining about any hair on her. "You look like a perfect member for the team of youth!"

Another pair was matched up after the last match ended in a tie for both of them ending up being knocked out.

"Youth?"

"No, don't!" Neji was too late to stop it and Zeko didn't know the powder keg he just set off.

"YES! YOUR YOUTH BURNS BRIGHTLY!" Eyes were on them now. "I am the Gorgeous Green Brawler of the Leaf!" She posed with her legs apart and her hands positioned by her face at an unrealistic angle. "TILE LEE!" She looked ridiculous in that pose and her team was beyond embarrassed.

"Maybe I'll learn more about youth when I visit your village someday." She flashed him a shiny grin and a thumbs up. Neji lowered himself to Zeko's level right as two names came onto the display again except that one was Goji and the other was some guy named Itoi. They both jumped into the arena and stared each other down, but Itoi outclassed Goji in size and what looked like strength.

They were given the command to begin and Itoi rushed while Goji stood and waited, Itoi's first punch didn't land since Goji bent his body backwards to dodge the hit. Goji decided to fight fire with fire and kick his enemy in his neck to push himself back but by the time he was looking at him again, he got sent to the ground with a crashing punch. Goji started getting up but a foot on his neck stopped him from doing anything other than trying his best to breathe. "Give up or I'll break your neck." Itoi wasn't angry or even hostile, he stated that as a fact.

Goji's struggling slowed down and he was about to tap out but someone stopped that train of thought from making it to its destination. "Goji! If you give up I'll show all the private shit on your phone!" With that mixture of distraction and motivation his time was now. Goji sprang up and threw Itoi off him with newfound strength, and then he made a display of running through hand seals while he was in the air. He finished and extended his neck in a disgusting show of ability to bite Itoi's neck, he returned his body to normal proportions and was smiling as Itoi was stiffer than a board. All it took was him walking up and pushing him over then turning his back for the match to be his.

Next was- Oh dear lord no. It was Akane and some girl from the Hidden Stone, well he knew where his money was going. Akane wasn't serious about this at all and the other girl definitely didn't like that at all. "Bitch you better look at me!" She didn't even turn her head as the match started and the Stone girl just started her jutsu while Akane just stood there. "Yōton: Yōkai no jutsu." (Lava Style: Melting Jutsu). A blast of corrosive fluid came out of her mouth and Akane finally decided to pay her some mind and dodge the fluid so it harmlessly collided with a wall. Akane unsealed a metal staff from her thigh and stabbed it into the floor before dodging another blast of yellowish white liquid. The song and dance happened another three times where Akane pulled out a staff only to embed it into the floor then dodge another spray of acidic slime.

"Does this mean you quit?" The Stone girl was confused and let up her barrage for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

She was going to the shadow realm for that one. "I mean you really like to spit, so I just assumed." This time Akane leapt onto one of the metal protrusions in the floor to dodge another stream of the liquid, but that's where her enemy was done for. Akane went through her hand signs faster than the Stone girl could get another lob of corrosive spit ready. "Raiton-" She was in the center of the four staves and her mistake was becoming more apparent. "Shichū Shibari!" (Four Pillar Trap). Bolts of electricity started sparking off the four 'pillars' and went straight to the object in between all of them, which was an unfortunate girl.

She yelled in pain and fell to the floor convulsing all the while, and Akane just gathered each staff and went to the bleachers where her teammates were gently clapping for her. "Not bad Akane, I didn't think you'd do something that cool." Goji was being oddly genuine while Zeko was thinking.

"Why didn't you use your Gale Style? You could've blown her away." A good question. Hiro decided to intrude to answer that one, which someone else paid attention to.

"She was born here, the Ao Akuma abducted her at a young age and raised her themselves. If she just showed off what she can do then Kumo would want her back and they'd do a lot to make sure they got her." That answer made a lot of sense to Zeko and he turned his attention to the match of Ryoto and someone from the Mist while Akane was looking at Hiro accusingly.

"Have you been spying on us? Cause I never told you that."

He crossed his arms and looked at her as if she wasn't a teenager but just a stupid kid. "I'm your team sensei, it's my job to know about you and if I gotta spy on you then I'll spy on you."

This conversation went on while Zeko was infatuated with Ryoto's feline movements that reminded him of… someone else. He was practically dancing around his opponent despite the layer of mist that they put up to try and block his sight, even if he couldn't see he'd be able to smell with his cat like nose or just hear him out so it wasn't going to be very effective. Just a minute into the concealed fight the mist cleared and Ryoto was the only one standing.

It was nostalgic seeing another Nekoma fight after going so long without seeing it, honestly it seemed like the Nekoma clan was really reclusive in his village since he never actually saw them. Then again cats were only seen when they wanted to be… His thinking brought the fist to his head, courtesy of Akane, and his attention to the display where it said something that really made him excited.

Kizura vs. Zeko

He didn't spare a second in appearing on the floor in a smaller swirl of sand than usual and his gaze was locked on Kizura and what he assumed was her sensei.

"Denka-sensei, I don't know how to move from here. I never saw him fight." Her jonin was a lighter toned woman with light blonde hair and she just put a hand on Kizura's head to get her to listen.

"Use your head Kizura, that gourd on his back." She pointed at the item in question and Kizura nodded. "He wouldn't carry it around just for fun since it's almost as big as him, and he's from Suna so I'd bet it's full of sand. He can probably use sand as a weapon but it's only as good as how much he has. Focus on getting rid of that sand, turn it to glass and he won't be able to fight." She nodded and leapt over the railing. Zeko was still staring at her with a small smile on his face.

The proctor called it and neither of them moved from their spot. "Blue fire? Has to be pretty hot to go that far, even my dad didn't have blue fire." The cork popped off and Kizura took a defensive stance low to the ground, and it reminded the boy of the panther style.

"That's cool but my fire isn't." She jumped back right as a tendril of sand burst out of the gourd and slammed right into where she was. It was much faster than she thought but she was quicker than it. Somehow. She started her hand signs and blew a ball of blue fire straight at Zeko. It didn't make it to him but he could feel the heat coming off it and it made him excited. He was about to strike again but he noticed that his sand vitrified from the heat, he tried to will it to move but all that happened was it crashing into the ground and shattering as glass.

Shukaku was just as excited as his host was in that moment. 'She can turn it to glass! We might have to try here brat!' More tendrils of sand lashed at her with speeds the audience was barely keeping up with but Kizura was avoiding the deadly minerals just fine, she was like a cat leaping from perch to perch.

'Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu.' (Fire Style: Phoenix Sage fire jutsu). Eight smaller fireballs came from her and struck each of the pursuing groups of sand, turning part of them into glass. Despite glassing over they didn't stop in trying to pin her down but every time they got close she managed to avoid them hitting her, which was good for her since they struck with enough force to make small craters in the concrete arena.

Neji was watching this fight with bated breath since he could see exactly what was going against what, and he didn't like what was going on so far. Inokyou saw something different but he wasn't wrong on a surface level. "He's gonna run out of sand. He can't hit her and she just keeps turning it to glass, once he's out she's gonna beat him." He didn't like that someone who appreciated his art was fighting a losing battle but there wasn't anything he could do.

In the ring more sand got vitrified once Kizura sent another fireball straight at a stationary Zeko and he used more to block the scorching flames, but it came at the cost of losing even more sand to attack with. "You're not fighting to win here, just give up before you get hurt." She was being advised that this was going her way by all means but Zeko was stubborn.

"Maybe when you start trying I'll want to, Princess."

Denka and her other two genin were feeling sorry for Zeko since he didn't know how much of a fuse he just lit. 'I suppose we'll have to show him a thing or two, Kitten.' Kizura's own help decided to show when a cloak of orange chakra appeared around her body and burned with all her anger at that single taunt.

"Katon: Goryūka no jutsu!" (Fire style: Fierce dragon flame). A giant blue dragon head that rose the temperature of the entire arena came out of her mouth and it took a massive amount of sand to keep its target from getting a serious injury before the fight could really start. Kizura was pissed off but her anger started getting replaced by mirth once she saw that sand wasn't spilling out of the gourd anymore, instead there was a small amount in the air around its owner. "You were excited to fight me but you weren't in your league."

Zeko finally managed to do the math on it and figured out her secret to having such hot fire. "You're the two tails!" She smiled and the nails on her hands extended by six inches.

"And you're the one tail. Nibi told me that his hosts have never been good at close range fighting, once you're out of sand you're open!" She was even faster than before and the sand that tried to stop her claws from landing a scratch was cut through and his face had a gash in it now. Kizura was rushing in and only scratching at Zeko's face now, it was a constant barrage of annoying scrapes but the message was clear; She was a cat toying with her prey.

"Sorry Inokyou but your new friend is out already, maybe make him something to help deal with the loss." Ryoto was the first to get the sign of Kizura toying with Zeko since… Feline clan. Neji was more concerned over how little the kid's team cared about the tables turning.

"You guys don't care that he's about to get hurt do you?" He was irritated at how lazily Goji turned to look at him but he was more surprised by the shrug of his shoulders.

"Why do you think he's about to lose?" All Neji did was angrily gesture his hands to the obvious game that Kizura was playing with their teammate. "If he was actually in trouble I'd be worried."

There was a key word there. "What do you mean if?! She's playing with him like yarn!"

Right as he said that Kizura was charging while Zeko unbuckled his empty gourd, useless without sand. She was about to make a more lasting injury and the proctor was about to step in and stop her but he didn't move fast enough. "All mine!" She was about to scratch his eyes out, but she didn't reach him.

BOOM

His fist slammed into her face with enough strength to send her flying right into the wall of the arena and make a concrete angel with her body. There was a crater where he stood from the sudden force he put out and Kizura was pulling herself out of the wall while everyone in the benches was staring at the sudden explosion of force. It was enough to where every spectator felt a gust of wind hit them in the face. "Fighting one way makes people think you can't fight another. But our boy is perfectly fine up close and personal." Goji was smirking now but the fight wasn't done yet. He raised his hand to catch the gourd that was tossed at him and set it down by his feet.

Now Zeko had his own cloak of chakra while Kizura was standing up again. "Come on! Let's see how weak the two tails really is!" This time he blew himself forward and threw a punch at Kizura that landed right in her sternum but he started a barrage right to her face to grind the salt in the wound, she was getting pushed back hard and couldn't do much against it. She finally got enough sense to duck below a punch and sweep his legs then jump over him and start another jutsu.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu." (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu). This time a blue ball of fire came with more downward force and Zeko just inhaled while making the ram sign.

"Fūton: Renkūdan." (Wind Style: Drilling Air bullet). Normally fire beats wind and is enhanced by the airflow, but this wasn't one of those times. The air bullet clashed with the ball of fire and made a giant explosion of red and blue flames that blew part of the roof off the building. Everyone was on edge now, these two just started breaking the building with the backlash of their attacks. Some people wanted to leave but others really needed to see the outcome of this fight.

Kizura landed on the ground and scanned the area for her equally destructive opponent. 'Be careful Kitten, I thought he wouldn't be able to fight you like this but I was wrong. I can't say for sure how to win now.'

"It's fine Matatabi, we just need to keep our eyes on him. We have two tails and he's just one." A second tail grew from the cloak of chakra she had and whisker marks appeared on her face. The Cloud was known for ensuring its Jinchūriki were as strong as they could be and Kizura wasn't an exception. "Right now I know that we're stronger, all we need to do is-" Birds. A lot of birds and it made no sense how so many birds could've just started chirping all at once. She turned her head and saw-

"Chidori no itami." (Pain of a thousand birds). It was like a thunderclap in the arena and everyone was getting anxious from these powerhouses going at it.

The blow was just as ferocious as the first one he landed on her but this time it was enhanced by lightning style chakra and it sliced right through her cloak to not only cut into her shoulder but also send her flying again. This time she landed on her feet like a cat should and charged him. While she charged her cloak turned blue and flickered like a campfire, with black markings dotting it. She turned more feline until she was just a ten foot long, blue, Hellcat. She was partly transformed into the Two tailed beast but her opponent was doing the same. Sand covered his body and fit to him like a glove unlike before when he was just a monster that resembled Shukaku, now it clung to him and showed that he was himself. His body shape was still present and his head's defining feature was his mouth that matched his tailed beast's.

Kizura bit into his shoulder but her power wasn't enough to penetrate the sand and she was grabbed around the midsection and pushed off. Zeko's arm extended and wrapped around her throat as he reeled a fist back and punched her in the face again, two flaming tails struck him and sent him crashing into the wall of the arena. Said arena was filled with panic over these two casually bringing out the power of tailed beasts, but with the combined effort of the Jonin they managed to make a barrier to keep everyone safe… as long as they didn't decide to attack them directly.

A giant blue fireball shot into the wall and pinned Zeko down even more, his body getting more rigid as his sand melted and cooled into glass. The Hellcat rushed and so did the Tanuki, their jaws coming down on the other with intent to get leverage and it all came down to who was stronger. Then the miniature two tails made a gamble, she fell to the floor and knocked Zeko off balance, and she delivered a crashing kick with her back legs that not only shattered the glass on his body but it also sent him flying away with part of his armor missing. She was on him just as fast and her jaws locked around his arm so she could swing him around like a ragdoll, and she let him go flying into the barrier which alarmed the spectators of the match.

'Are they trying to bring the place down?!' Goji thought while Akane was smiling at the destruction of the matchup. The Tanuki landed and watched as it got blitzed by the charging Hellcat but it used the advantage of arms to grab ahold of its scorching quarry then the two proved that they were more alike than they thought and their respective elements charged in their mouths. The point blank attacks pushed the two of them backwards but they didn't stop their blasts, they were on the exact same level in terms of power so it came down to elemental dominance… where fire beats wind. Hellcat pushed harder and overtook the squall with enough power to put its sender into the wall of the arena once more and glass his entire body. He couldn't respond to the paw strikes that hammered him like waves do a beach and knocked away his hardened body. His face was exposed and he took a double tail swipe to the body that pinned him into the floor, his mineral armor was gone and his orange cloak was dimming while the Hellcat stood over him, triumphant.

He was down… and by all means he was out. 'Who's the princess now?' It wasn't said aloud but it was an unspoken message that would be followed by actions that could seem symbolic to some. Slowly those two tails raised back into the air and slammed down on the boy again, and again, and again. The Kumogakure shinobi were cheering while everyone else was mostly silent, again Neji looked at Zeko's team.

"He can handle himself?! He's getting pummeled now!" Akane was scowling but Goji was staying relatively calm, of course a frown was on his face but he wasn't open showing anger. "I like being right as much as the next guy, but not this way." He was an empath so anyone getting hurt unrightfully always tugged at his heartstrings, more so when he was alright with that person.

The beating was still going on and it was astonishing how Zeko was still conscious, he definitely was feeling the pain of each blow but he wasn't in any position to fight back. He was ready to slip away and just let it be known that he wasn't good enough, that he lost to someone with more power. 'Get that shit outta your head brat!' Right, he had a mental roommate. 'Don't you dare roll over and just give up! You're better than this cat bitch and you know it, more tails doesn't mean she's better. Prove that one tail is as good as nine!' That was accented by the tails slamming down again but this time they were caught in two sand coated hands.

'Looks like he wants another round kitten, give the fools what they want.' Kizura dashed forwards and dragged the returned Tanuki along with her, she spun and was about to whirl him straight into the wall again but she lost all her momentum. Tanuki had his heels in the floor and his grip on her tails, he started turning and his turning turned into spinning around while holding onto the Hellcat. He let go and she got sent flying into the barrier like he did, and the audience almost wet themselves when they heard-

"Renkudan!" Wind might be weak to fire but with enough power it could overcome it, and the air bullet that slammed into the body of the Hellcat proved that point by stripping away part of its flames. The barrier almost gave in to the force but an extra push mixed with Hellcat jumping away renewed it. More balls of blue fire rained from above and forced Tanuki to dodge to stay solid but it failed to dodge Hellcat and was pinned to the floor again, she was charging another blast of fire in his face and his armor wouldn't hold up against something so close. Hellcat grinned behind her cloak and was about to blow him away but something unexpected happened, his armor formed a hand and pushed right into her mouth when the attack was ready. Again the arena shook and a cloud of dust was thrown into the air but it parted fast with the appearance of the two in an outright brawl, flaming paws hit sand armor and sediment coated hands struck a flaming cloak. They pushed each other back with one last hit to the other and both dropped low to the ground, two predators ready to pounce. They sprung at each other like coils that were fully tightened and clashed in midair. In that moment it was like a dance instead of a fight, their movements to gain leverage over one another were quick but efficient and one of them succeeded. Tanuki clasped his claws onto Hellcat's shoulders and flipped her beneath him.

Akane raised a fist into the air and shouted. "TAKE HER DOWN!" He obliged and bit down onto her neck as they fell.

The Hellcat slammed into the floor with enough power to send a cloud of dust into the air, one that obscured the vision of everyone there… except for a certain Hyuga. When the smoke cleared there were two kids with torn clothing and injured bodies. One of them had the other's arms pulled back from behind and it wasn't the girl doing it. Zeko's shirt was missing its left sleeve and his hair was singed at the ends, while Kizura's top was nearly gone and it exposed her athletic bra. The boy pressed his foot further into her back and pulled her arms harder, she yelled in pain but the proctor wasn't going to cut in to stop this one. "Let me go!" His grip actually loosened and he took his foot off her back, started to pull herself away but this is where everyone felt a sudden rise of maliciousness.

His grip tightened again and he pushed her against the ground, her arms still behind her. "The Two tails was fun to fight, but the One tail wins." He jumped and pushed her arms down and out with all his remaining strength, this resulted in a very audible crack. She didn't even manage to scream, she didn't cry either. She just blacked out from the sudden pain. One team was applauding their member while another was in shock that theirs lost.

Zeko was back in the bleachers with a lot of people giving him a good amount of social distance and he walked right up to Goji and got his gourd right back from him. "That was pretty damn cool." He strapped his gourd to his back where it belonged and watched the medical personnel take Kizura out while avoiding the falling parts of the roof.

The proctor was on the balcony again but now he was talking to another man with dark skin and blonde hair, but he was wearing a white cloak around his outfit. "That might be the Raikage, he probably felt what was going on from his office. Since those two were about to bring the house down it's no wonder he showed up." The next match displayed anyway and the Raikage was now on the balcony while the proctor went back to oversee the match.

Inokyou was up against someone from the Mist named Kito, he couldn't tell their gender since they had a mask, a hood, and baggy clothes covering their body. They jumped into what was left of the ring and got their call to begin the fight. The unknown's stance changed and they dropped lower to the ground with an arm trailing behind him, and the other holding the floor. They took the initiative and attacked first while Inokyou opened the satchel at his hip and flung a bunch of premade birds that doubled in size. They exploded once they made contact and Inokyou let his guard down for a second once they did.

Through the smoke came a charging person who at worst had a scuffed outfit but they were unharmed from the point blank explosions. The artist wasn't a close range fighter which is why both of his teammates were, and once his enemy was close to him he couldn't do anything but watch their hand wrap around his throat and hold him in the air. He struggled all he could but he was lacking in physical aptitude and this person couldn't say the same, his struggling stopped once their outfit moved and dark red spikes ripped through their clothes and punctured him across the body. Neji's Byakugan flared to life and Ryoto's claws were primed and ready. "Inokyou!"

"Okuyo!" The stranger to them was equally distressed at the artist's harm but the proctor called the match once they dropped him like he was a bag of trash.

"Okay Kito, you win." He was beside them to show that anything more would be met with action from him. Unfortunately Kito didn't care for authority and they pushed the proctor away and raised their arm, which was covered in dark red spikes. They took a step forward to finish their fight the proper way that they were taught and three things happened in a split second.

All three of those things had the same intent and they were on each side of Kito, stopping them from moving. Neji in front with pointed fingers at their heart, Ryoto on the right holding his claws at their throat, and the one causing the sound of an entire flock of birds chirping at once was Zeko with a Chidori aimed at Kito's spine. Ryoto looked feral with his frizzy hair and bared teeth. "Proctor-san said you won…"

Neji's expression was hiding a rage beyond comprehension but he managed to look calm aside from his eyes and the veins surrounding them. "Don't get cocky because you won…"

Lastly was Zeko, his joy at getting to fight another jinchūriki was gone and now he was furious at how this bozo really was about to finish Inokyou off when they already won. "Take another step… I dare you…" The proctor got up and blew a whistle that caught their attention.

"Kito and Zeko, both disqualified!" Zeko's anger went to the proctor but he explained himself. "It's against the rules for you to interfere in the match of another team, Neji and Ryoto could jump in just fine but you don't have that right. Rules are rules." Damn it all. "It doesn't help that Raikage-sama planned to disqualify you and Kizura from nearly destroying the arena. Using your tailed beasts is also against the rules, it's a very unfair advantage."

Akane was throwing a fit in the bleachers and Goji was barely holding her back. "YOU SON OF- LET ME- SLEEP WITH AN EYE OPEN!" She wasn't taking her teammate being disqualified well and Goji didn't have the chance to take it any kind of way since he was busy restraining her.

Zeko saw reason and dispersed his attack then turned to go back to the bleachers but he was stopped when he felt hands on his shoulders. Neji was looking over the boy's shoulder and he had a simple thing to say. "You're an interesting guy, even if you are an Uchiha. I wanna ask you something important, who do you think your enemy really is?"

They were scanning the bleachers for whomever he was talking about but Zeko wasn't understanding what he meant.

"Sometimes the most dangerous people are the ones closest to us, they don't really have our best interests in mind and you have to be careful of them."

"Huh?" He tried to follow along but he wasn't sure of what Neji could've been talking about so the adolescent just closed his eyes in thought.

"Sorry, that was a strange question to ask you. Thanks for being ready to help my friend." With that he had something new to think about and he thought about it even as they headed back to the bleachers.


His mind was made up and he was ready to raise hell. Let's backtrack to see how he got to be standing outside of a building with a Chidori charged in his right hand.

Rewind to just ten minutes prior and we'd see Zeko at his apartment at his desk, finally figuring out something he'd been working on just a week prior. His ninjatō was glowing brightly but it returned to normal just as fast. "Finally!" Mamushi slithered out of his hair to look at his weapon.

"Zeko-sama? What did you do?" She was the oldest so of course she'd learn to speak first. Funny thing was that they came and went from his hair as they pleased so they weren't even always on his body, at the moment it was just her in his white locks. He even went to Ryuchi cave at night since Akane wanted to take his bed.

"I finally figured out something my dad left for me. I was working on it before I actually went to Ryuchi cave and before Hiro signed me up for the Chunin Exams." He looked to his left to see Akane in the middle of a nap… on his bed of course. They had to be back in Kumo next month for the end of their exams and Hiro was going to take them. 'Still a dick move for him to send a scorpion to tell us when we train. He knows how much I hate- Scorpions…"

Things were piecing together and not in a good way. His memory recalled something that Chomusuke told him about the day Akira died, something that just turned a lock in his head. Chomusuke said that he didn't remember anything after they dealt with a- "Giant scorpion." Any summon could have growing to do, and his father died from venom thanks to a scorpion sting. "No." He had a bite on his leg after Uso- After Uso came to recruit them and they said no to him. Hiro said he spied on the three of them as their sensei but- Who says he did it for that?

Ryu was already good and dead but Hiro wasn't and Uso was the leader of Bedrock. "No way." The sting… The scorpions… The timing… It made too much sense. "Wait…" He remembered the wise words that Neji imparted to him after he was disqualified. "The people closest to us can be the most dangerous… The real enemy-" His emotions went from confused and inquisitive to beyond pissed off in a heartbeat. He grabbed the canister that had something in it and he bit his thumb then rubbed his blood onto the top. The jar unlocked and he opened it to reveal something that confused him but his anger was still in place. There was a note on the underside of the lid. "If you opened this then you've either figured out who took me out or you just dealt with them. If it's the first one then follow these instructions to the letter to ensure that you can win."

He did as the note said despite the difficulties in doing it and keeping quiet so Akane wouldn't wake up and pry over what he was doing. Once he was done he grabbed his ninjatō and went for his door but Goji stopped him from the kitchen area. "Going somewhere?"

Zeko stopped in his tracks and exhaled a breath that he was holding since he finished the task on the jar. "Goji. I consider you a friend and so I'm going to tell you the truth." Goji set the pot he was about to use down and listened attentively. "I might have figured out who killed my father, and I'm going to deal with it to get some answers."

"Who?" A simple question with an equally simple answer.

"Hiro. His scorpions have something to do with the one that stung my dad. I just know it."

Goji sat there in silent contemplation and ended up sighing. "Never trusted him. Okay, whatever happens happens." Zeko opened the door and as it closed he heard a simple two words that let him know what type of man Goji was. "Good luck."

That brings us back to the present where Zeko just finished flashing through the signs he needed for his Chidori and his right hand was coated in lightning chakra. He saw the exact spot that Uso would be in his office and aimed just to the right of it, entrances were everything and he was going to set a standard. "If I'm wrong I'll apologize, and when I'm right…" He jumped for the building and reeled his arm back. "Someone's dead!"

He blew away part of the building and revealed exactly who he was looking for.

"USO!"


Next Time on The Will to Defy Fate:

"You're wrong boy. I would never."

"You- You're alive?!"

"A shame, all that trouble and you just brought the other one right to me!"

"I'll make sure they get back what's theirs, and I'll rip yours out myself..."