Second Chances
By: FlameXFullmetal
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: I'm back! I have no idea what has gotten into me at this point but I just feel like sitting down every chance that I get to type these chapters and somehow I have updated all of my stories at least once already and didn't even realize. I am glad that people like the fights because I suck at writing fight scenes but I love writing. The only way I am going to get better is by practicing and I'm glad that I'm not that bad at it. In any event, the reviews and then the new chapter! I apologize this will be long.
The Jingo: It is true that Tobirama was the first to violate the founding principles of the village by refusing to let go of his feelings for the Uchiha, however, bare in mind that everyone has a choice that they can make when responding to someone else's actions. Tobirama chose to ignore Hashirama's request that he try to get along with the Uchiha. Hashirama chose to ignore the fact that his brother was violating the principles of the village and did nothing to stop him or make him reconsider before the situation deteriorated. Hiruzen chose to go along with Tobirama's approach to, and the policies regarding the Uchiha. I doubt that Minato had much time to do much of anything seeing as no one knows how long he was Hokage.
The Uchiha chose to prove that the very accusations against them were warranted. They didn't have to prove the village wrong, all they had to do was prove Tobirama was wrong and just paranoid. If they had actually approached the Sandaime sooner or even Minato before the Kyubi attack and pointed out the policies as well as how they had affected the public's view of the clan perhaps something could have been done. I have not read the full manga so I can't comment on anything that happens there however, after the massacre Sasuke alienated himself by refusing to use honorifics (which is one of the most disrespectful things one can do in Japanese culture) and only interacting with people he could use to get stronger. He saw everyone that wasn't as strong as him as insignificant. Unfortunately, if there was any shunning being done it was for his attitude not the fact that he was an Uchiha. His behavior only led the village to believe that the rumors they had heard of an Uchiha possibly being behind the Kyubi attack for power could be true.
Sadly, there is a lot of cause and effect in regards to the Uchiha. Most of which was caused by the paranoia of the second, the failures of the third and the Uchiha believing that they had not been given an important role in the village. The belief that you had to be in a position of power in order to be recognized for hard work and dedication. As it was had the Uchiha not chose to rebel, they very well could have had one of their own as Hokage. Hiruzen commented that Itachi was already thinking like a kage as a child. Had the Uchiha grit their teeth and continued to work with the village instead of against it, Itachi could very well have become the fifth Hokage.
With that said, yes I believe that the massacre as an order by the Hokage could have been avoided. However, it more than likely would have still happened as Danzo wanted them dead regardless primarily for their eyes. If the clan remained in good graces with the village then Itachi would have had no reason to kill them. The attack on them would have exposed Danzo and played in their favor as Hiruzen partially agreed with Danzo in regards to the Uchiha's treatment. Regardless in the end, the primary fault lies with the Uchiha for allowing Tobirama's stubborn refusal to let go of his hatred rekindle their hatred for everything Senju.
"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking
'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals
"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling
"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking
'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking
hello jutsu
**********Headless of What's in it's Path***********
"The last match of the first round will be Sabaku no Gaara vs Higurashi TenTen. Both fighters ready? Good. Begin." As soon as Genma finished his Sentence TenTen jumped back trying to put as much distance between her and Gaara as possible. She knew that it was not an effective strategy but she needed time and the further the sand had to travel the more time she had. Taking a calming breath she withdrew two scrolls and placed them beside her flying through a chain of handseals. As the scrolls rose from the ground she followed them up and gritted her teeth. She had no room for error.
"Soshoryu!" She yelled and began to release a hail of sharpened kunai. She had spent part of the month ensuring that this technique was perfect. Releasing the stored kunai in the scrolls she watched carefully as each headed straight for their mark. Gaara merely looked on impassively as the weapons came near and his sand rose to shield him. At first it was just a hail of kunai, then there were shuriken, maces, swords, tantos and spiked clubs. Weapons of all kinds and hailed down on him from the girl above and yet, none of them connected with the red haired boy.
As the scrolls fully emptied TenTen wasted no time as she landed and immediately released the shuriken she had sealed in the arm bands she had worn that day. Dashing around the boy she continued releasing shuriken after shuriken without break. None passed the sand barrier and all of them clattered to the ground. As the last shuriken was thrown she quickly replaced further away and watched as the log that had taken her place was mercilessly crushed.
"What is TenTen doing?!" Sasuke snapped turning to look at Naruto who was quiet watching the battle with a critical eye. "She's going to get herself killed!"
"Calm down Sasuke. She knows what she's doing. Look at her eyes. She expected the outcome. I know that she wouldn't have gone through with the fight without a plan."
"What plan?" He hissed. "She's just using a more complicated strategy then the one that she used against Temari the first time that they fought." Naruto turned to look at his friend and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"You have to calm down and have faith in her, Teme." He whispered making Sasuke's eyes widen. "In our time she didn't have the training she has now. She won't make the same mistakes. She knows what she's up against. I know that your worried and that you don't want to see her die again. I don't either."
"Sorry..." Sasuke whispered. The memory of the last time she had used the technique was still a sore point for the two time travelers. She had stayed behind to give her team time to escape and call for back up. Sasuke and Naruto had been the ones sent to deal with the reported forces and they had arrived just in time to see her attack backfire. The Kumo nins had used the trail of metal weaponry as a lightning rod. When the attack connected with TenTen, they had still been to far away to save her. One single second more was all they had needed. Needless to stay they had hated the attack ever since.
Cursing, TenTen was forced to halt whatever she had planned next in favor of performing several replacements to escape the sand that was now pursuing her. Gaara had gotten tired of waiting. Jumping immediately after replacing, TenTen landed on the stadium wall in order to take a breather. She couldn't keep wasting her chakra.
'Just one more component. I'm always ready.' She thought looking down at the jinchuriki. She knew that she had no chance at winning. However, that wasn't the point of this. The point was to remove Gaara from the invasion altogether so that Naruto could focus on Orochimaru. She hoped that her fight combined with Naruto's would be enough to do that. Reaching towards the second set of seals she nodded to herself and unsealed the item within. It was about the same length as a wakizashi and was modeled after the Nuibari. However, where the nuibari was a choto, hers was shorter and lighter as it was meant to be a distance weapon. Once more she jumped in the air directly above the jinchuriki and launched several of the swords at him. Only there was one difference.
"She missed." Rasa quipped.
"It seems so." Hiruzen nodded.
"No she hit exactly what she aimed for." A countered making the two kages look back at the field more closely. Despite the fact that it merely looked like it was a field littered with weapons to the untrained eye, it quickly became apparent to the kages what A meant.
"Is that..?" Rasa asked in surprise. Hiruzen merely nodded and looked at the girl more closely. The genin were getting more and more suspicious to him.
"The preparations are set." TenTen whispered to herself as she smirked at Gaara's annoyed expression.
"You missed. Are you even trying anymore?"
"Tell me Gaara, do you know what is so special about the Nuibari of Kiri's seven swordsman?" She asked.
"I don't care."
"The sword is more of a massive sewing needle, however, it has one defining feature when it was used by the last known wielder Kushimaru. He used it to literally stitch his opponents together by using the ninja wire that was attached to the sword." TenTen explained pulling on a nearly invisible wire. "Furthermore, all of the weapons around you were specially made to conduct lightning chakra, making it stronger."
"I know that I can't beat you. No strategy I came up with over the month would allow me to beat a jinchuriki. Perhaps briefly incapacitate them, but I can't deal with the bijuu. So I thought to myself why don't I take the bijuu out of the equation for your next fight?" She finished as lightning chakra crackled around her hand. A second wire in her other hand had a slight greenish glow to it. As Gaara lashed out against the kunoichi to stop her, more shinobi wire sprung up around her in a net like formation.
"That won't save you!" He snapped. He wouldn't let her take his mother away! As her teammates screamed for her to move, TenTen stood her ground and waited patiently. The sand slammed into the wire but instead of continuing it blew apart into individual particles harmlessly. The net seemed to glow and crackle as the last of the sand was knocked away.
"I don't have a bloodline. Nor do I have any family jutsu to fall back on. However, I read that a shinobi in Kumo was able to combine wind and lightning chakra to make a pseudo storm release. It took a lot of practice but I managed to replicate the technique. Furthermore, by using my wind affinity I can manuever the water particles in the air to conduct my lightning affinity making it stronger." Taking a deep breath she quickly, but carefully, began to weave the seals she needed.
"Fuinjutsu: Sutomudoragonshiru! Fuin." She yelled and the glow from the wind chakra raced across a third wire to her right hand. The raiton and futon seemed to battle for dominance briefly before combining and making it's way down the wire and across the seal drawn with the weapons that she had positioned around Gaara. As the ranton chakra connected with each weapon they began to glow as well and within seconds an array that had been hidden was completely visible due to the way that the seal was lit up.
Growling Gaara attempted to jump out of the array only to collide with a second barrier trapping him inside. As he hit the ground the lightning raced from the seal and encased him completely. Almost instantly he could feel Shukaku's chakra being driven from his system and forced back behind the seal. There it stayed no matter how much it thrashed against the new seal. Outside of the seal the Suna nin were witnessing something that they believed would never happen. The rings faded from around Gaara's eyes and his sand practically collapsed to the ground around him.
"What have you done?!"
"I told you. I took the bijuu out of the equation. It seems as though the bijuu had forcibly activated your magnet release and kept it active. You should still be able to use that. Unfortunately, that's all I've got in me." She whispered falling to the ground as her body registered the significant loss of chakra.
"Winner: Sabaku no Gaara! The next match will commence once the field has been cleared." Genma called and then sweat dropped as Naruto and Sasuke seemingly teleported to her side.
"She's fine.." Sasuke breathed after a second. "It's just chakra exhaustion."
"That was so reckless TenTen and yet, it was brilliant." Naruto commented picking her up and carrying her off of the field. Laying her down in the infirmary, Naruto made a few quick hand seals and placed his hand over her stomach. A pulse of chakra later he shook his head.
"There, I've restored her depleted chakra stores so she should be fine for when snake face makes his move."
"TenTen!" Lee yelled as he raced in the room worriedly.
"She's fine it's just chakra exhaustion. I've already transferred some of my chakra to her to speed up her recovery...Though she may be hyper for awhile. I've been told my chakra has that effect on people for some reason."
"Good." Lee breathed in relief.
"It seems that she has definitely been going through the fuinjutsu books and scrolls I gave her though. I would have thought she would have been to busy." Naruto commented before turning and heading out of the room.
"We have to go back Sasuke or we will be disqualified."
"Right." Glancing at TenTen one more time he nodded and left the room silently. Lee watching them from behind.
"Gai-sensei...I think that they saw the TenTen of their time die. Like they were there and to late to save her."
"I agree. Sasuke was terrified during that whole match and it only got worse when she used the Soshoryu"
"It must be horrible knowing what they know and also knowing that it could happen again if they aren't careful."
"This it is Lee. I'm just glad they decided to share some of the burden with us."
Back in the arena...
It only took several minutes for the arena to be cleared and Naruto and Sasuke returned just as Genma called for everyone's attention.
"The first match of the semi-finals will be Uchiha Sasuke vs. Aburame Shino." As Genma watched the two take their places he couldn't help but look more closely at the "last" Uchiha. The boy was becoming more and more of a mystery than he should be and when combined with the order the Sandaime had given him to watch the rookies closely he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
"Are both fighters ready? Begin." A swarm of kikaichu flying towards Sasuke as soon as the match began forced Genma to move out of the way quickly.
"I see. Your fire beetles..." Sasuke whispered racing through several hand seals and smirking.
"Suiton: Suijinheki." Almost immediately a wall of water formed around Sasuke causing the insects to impact the wall and explode leaving Sasuke unharmed. The water falling to the ground around him, Sasuke quickly moved to his next jutsu.
"Chidori Nagashi." Instantly Sasuke's body was surrounded by lightning that quickly began following the water that had been scattered as a result of the explosions. One of the trails leading straight to Shino. Cursing the Aburame jumped out of the way but the lightning was much faster striking him in mid-air. His muscles locking in place he grit his teeth and waited for the current to end. As soon as it did he fell to the ground and found a sword at his throat.
"Aburame Shino is unable to continue. Winner: Uchiha Sasuke." Genma announced surprised by the speed in which Sasuke had switched between nature releases and his movement speed.
"Sorry Shino. I have to save my chakra for later."
"No offense taken but did you have to use that one?" Shino asked in irritation. Sasuke merely laughed and helped Shino to his feet and off of the field.
"You most certainly have some surprising genin Hiruzen. If I remember correctly the chidori is a weaker form of the raikiri designed by Hatake Kakashi. Yet, a rookie genin seems to have modified it."
"They do keep surprising everyone, myself included A." Hiruzen replied hoping that his voice didn't sound as strained as he thought that it did.
"Next match Uzumaki Fu vs. Hyuga Hinata." Genma announced and nodded as they stood across from one another and smiled.
"Let the best kunoichi win." They said in unison before giggling.
"Ready? Then begin." Fu immediately flew at Hinata launched a devastating right hook that the heiress quickly dodged before jumping off to the side.
"Eager?"
"Maybe. Though this is kind of annoying. You are to flexible for my taijutsu and you aren't strong enough physically to take me in taijutsu. Which means that this will most likely be a ninjutsu battle. The problem is our elements both defeat and fuel each other. So we would be locked in a stalemate until you run out of chakra." Fu pouted.
"That just means we will have to be inventive then." Hinata replied making Fu smirk. Flying into the air the girl made two hand seals and took a deep breath.
"Hijutsu: Rinpungakure no jutsu!" A silvery white powder was quickly exhaled and Hinata groaned and closed her eyes quickly before the jutsu could render her momentarily blind and made her own hand seals.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu." Hinata jumped away as the fireball impacted with the powder it combusted and a massive explosion engulfed the arena floor. Diving into the smoke Hinata activated her Byakugans and glanced around. Locating her opponent she pulled her hand back and gathered chakra.
"Hakke Kusho." Fu grunted as the attack collided with her midsection and thanked Chomei as she felt the bijuu begin healing the area. Taking a deep breath once again she formed several handseals.
"Futon: Daitoppa."
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu." Just as the wind made contact with the smoke cloud and began blowing it away a fireball once again met Fu's technique and this time it sped right for her having increased in size and power thanks to her wind jutsu.
"Suiton: Suijinheki." A wall of water protected Fu and she quickly moved to another set of seals.
"Suiton: Suiryudan no jutsu." Hinata quickly used another hakke kusho to destroy the dragon before beginning her own set of seals.
"Raiton: Rairyudan no jutsu." Hinata called forming a massive dragon of lightning and sending it towards Fu using the water still in the air to increase it's strength.
"Futon no Yoroi."
"Wait is that?" A asked in shock.
"I believe that young Fu has made a wind version of your lightning cloak." Rasa said bluntly making A twitch. Looking back towards the fight he watched as the kunoichi sped straight towards the lightning dragon and blasted through it with no injuries.
Hinata grunted as she performed a series of backflips to avoid the relentless barrage of attacks that Fu sent her way after using the wind armor to speed herself up. What followed next was a stunning display of strength and acrobatics between the two kunoichi as they seemed to be at a stalemate. Hinata, unable to compete with Fu's strength and pressed by her new speed, was trapped on the defensive. Meanwhile, Fu was unable to hit the annoyingly nimble Hyuga despite the boost of speed and only seemed to be delaying the inevitable.
"Kaze no Yaiba." Fu gritted crafting a blade made of pure wind initiating a clash of bukijutsu.
"Hi no Yaiba." Hinata smiled as she countered Fu's wind with her fire true to Fu's earlier prediction of a stalemate in both ninjutsu and taijutsu. As the swords clashed both kunoichi were forced to let go as the wind caused Hinata's fire sword to spiral out of control resulting a massive fire in the middle of the field.
"Just as I thought." Fu hummed. Sighing she formed several hand seals and glanced at Hinata. "I've been working hard the last month to truly due my Uzumaki ancestors proud. This is the result of that." Fu's body began to glow an almost red-gold color dispelling her wind armor.
"Tengoku no horei Fuin!" Hinata stared in awe at the vast amount of chakra that she was emitting and felt her training war with her mind over whether or not to preserve her byakugans by turning them off. Deciding against it, she had no time to react as Fu was in front of her and a swift punch sent her careening into the opposite wall.
"In all honesty this isn't perfect, yet. However, I think that this is the only way to actually fight you in taijutsu." Fu confessed. Wincing Hinata slowly stood and eyed the kunoichi wearily.
"I see. The seal allows you to increase your speed to the maximum possible by your body. However, it seems in it's current state you trade a majority of the power you had before. That's the only reason I could still get up. It forces you to use only taijutsu doesn't it?"
"Yeah. Like I said it isn't perfect but right now it works. All of my chakra is powering the seal and can't be molded for external use. The cloak around me is something else that needs work." Fu sighed and then smiled at Hinata.
"You going to be okay?" Hinata smirked standing up straight her right hand pulsing with healing chakra.
"Yeah. However, I don't think that I can beat that cloak as I am now." Hinata confessed. The crowd felt their eyes widened believing that the Hyuga heiress was about to forfeit. Even Fu felt her eye's widen. "That's fine though. I guess this is as good a time as any." Turning to look at the stands were her clan was sitting she got a determined look.
"This is why we need change. Why the traditions followed by the Hyuga are outdated. This is the potential we have lost because of our current structure. Watch closely." She declared and closed her eyes. Almost immediately a violet aura surrounded her body forming a cloak of her own before becoming a beautiful lilac color.
After several seconds Hinata opened her eyes to reveal that they were no longer the white of the traditional byakugan but light blue with a white floral pattern to them. The cloak brightened considerably and thickened causing it to appear almost like a protective cloak. Her chakra couldn't be missed anywhere in the village and several sensors found themselves slowly being overwhelmed by the density and potency of the cloak.
"What is that?!" Fu exclaimed her statement being echoed by the Hyuga clan, kages and several shinobi including Kurenai who had come to watch.
"The Tenseigan. The second stage of the byakugan. It's evolution if you will. According to the documents I referenced in the Hyuga library that spoke of the eye and it's power, the Tenseigan is on par with the Rinnegan in power. However, while the Rinnegan was said to be able to resurrect the dead, the Tenseigan can supposedly revive a planet that was destroyed. That's not all it can do but more than enough information has been revealed. Shall we continue our fight?"
"Yeah." Fu whispered in awe as Chomei whispered the things that she had heard about the eye. Focusing on the fight ahead Fu flew towards the Hyuga at near unprecedented speeds and cocked her fist. However, unlike before she never made contact. Hinata merely held her hand in front of her and smiled softly.
"Shinra Tensei." She whispered the jinchuriki slamming into the wall behind her as she was blasted away by an unseen force. The whole stadium fell silent as they witnessed the power of the until now unknown dojutsu. The Hyuga clan itself was staring in shock at Hinata. They hadn't known that such a thing was possible and yet here Hinata was proving them wrong.
"She did find something...She was right." Hiashi whispered gaining the attention of those around him.
"What do you mean Hiashi?"
"Hinata came to me at the start of the month break and asked me if it was possible for the Byakugan to evolve like the Sharingan. I told her it wasn't and she asked for permission to search the archives to see if our ancestors had that theory as well. I granted her permission on the grounds that if she didn't find anything that she would stop looking into it and drop the subject. I thought that she hadn't found anything when she left without any scrolls or books." Hiashi replied without even turning to look at his father.
"I see.." He gritted out.
"What was that?!" Fu exclaimed climbing out of the wall wincing. Looking up she found Hinata actually hovering above the ground watching her carefully.
"Bansho Ten'in." Fu felt her body lift and before she knew it she was flying straight at Hinata and she had already changed stances.
"Hakke Rokujuyon Sho." Fu grimaced as she felt all sixty four strikes land with pinpoint precision and she was once again launched away from her. Crashing to the ground, the cloak of chakra around her faded and her body became heavier and more painful.
"Sorry Fu, but I saw the other problem with that seal. At those kinds of speeds you might as well have opened the eight gates. Granted it is best suited for someone like you but in it's incomplete form it is quite the double edged sword. Since all of your chakra was needed to power it, all I had to do was shut down your chakra points and it would deactivate. Unfortunately, you shouldn't be able to move for awhile." Hinata explained making the jinchuriki nod sadly.
"It was a good match. I would've won against anyone else...but Naruto...and maybe Sasuke." She said as Genma called the match.
"Fu is unable to continue the winner is Hyuga Hinata." Deactivating her Tenseigan Hinata knelt and carefully re-opened the tenketsu she had closed and then helped her off of the field. The applause was thunderous and somewhat deafening. The crowd certainly had enjoyed the show. Turning Naruto looked towards Gaara and steeled himself. This wasn't going to be easy. He knew that. What he had planned could potentially backfire on him but he felt that it was for the best.
"Will Uzumaki Naruto and Sabaku no Gaara please come down to the arena floor?"
**************T.B.C************
A/N: I'm back. I hope that was portrayed at the right pace and was believable. I wanted to get through all of the semi-finals but the chapter was starting to run a bit long and I wanted to eat dinner. If I had stopped it there so I could go back and finish it I would have forgotten for a few weeks. Anyway the invasion will start near the end of the next chapter. I hope that liked. Until next time! Ja ne!
Shoshoryu – rising twin dragons
fuinjutsu: Sutomudoragonshiru – storm dragon's seal
Suijinheki – water wall
Chidori nagashi – one thousand birds current
Rinpungakure no jutsu – hiding in scale powder
Gokakyu no jutsu – fireball jutsu
Suiton: Suiryudan – water dragon jutsu
Hakke kusho – eight trigrams air palm
Futon: daitoppa – wind release great breakthrough
Raiton: rairyudan – lightning dragon jutsu
Futon no yoroi – wind release armor
Kaze no yaiba – wind sword
Tengoku no horei – heaven's decree
Shinra tensei – almighty push (heavenly subjugation of the omnipresent god)
Bansho ten'in – universal pull (heavenly attraction of all creation)
Hakke rokujuyon sho – eight trigrams sixty four palms