XLII: Preliminary Round Part II
Konoha, Forest of Death Tower, One Month Four Days Ago:
Naruto missed the next three matches. He had followed Hinata into the medical area and refused to be moved from her side while Kabuto and his fellow med-nins tried to save her.
From what he could hear, Tenten had lost to Temari, Kankuro had crushed one of Kabuto's teammates, and Kiba had been soundly beaten by Lee. Shikamaru versus an Ame-nin had just been called.
Kabuto put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm afraid we're going to have to operate," he said sadly. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I promise that she'll be okay," he quickly reassured Naruto when he saw his forlorn look, "She shouldn't even have any scars from the operation when we're done."
"Please Kabuto, please let me stay."
"I'm sorry, but you're very presence could distract one of us enough to make a mistake that would leave her worse off than when we started. Go watch the matches. Your turn should be coming up soon anyway."
"How's she doing?" Sasuke asked when Naruto reentered the tournament room.
"They have to remove the bone shards from her lungs," Naruto reported despondently, "I wanted to stay but Kabuto said I'd be a distraction…"
"Well, Fishcake, that much safety orange could distract anyone," Sasuke retorted, trying to lighten his friend's mood.
"Not now Sasuke…" Naruto snapped. Naruto's shoulders sagged and he sighed, "Sorry Sasuke. It's just…"
Sasuke put a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder, while in the background Shikamaru knocked his opponent out with a clever use of his Kagemane no Jutsu and a wall. "It's okay I understand. I'm worried too."
"Winner: Nara Shikamaru! *cough*"
Naruto watched disinterestedly as Haku and Kin's number was called. Haku took it easy, trying to get a feel for the Oto-nin's style. At first, she easily knocked the other girl's senbon needles out of the air with her own. Then, Kin threw a handful of senbon at Haku so that half were in the shadow of the one in front of it.
Haku almost didn't notice in time. She managed to knock most of Kin's attack out of the air, but was forced to sidestep the three that made it through. They made a strange jingling sound when they struck the wall behind her, and Haku noticed for the first time that Kin's Senbon had bells attached to the end of them.
Haku's next attack went wide, and she suddenly felt as if she was on the deck of a ship in storm.
"Ha! Too easy," Kin boasted, while pulling on the ninja wire connected to her bells, making them ring again, "A little sound based Genjutsu and you've as good as lost!"
"Sound?" Haku pondered as she tilted her head, "Well it's easy enough to fight without being able to hear." She plugged her ears with her fingers.
"How do you plan on fighting me with your hands covering your ears? What, can you throw senbon with your toes or something?"
Haku shook her head and pulled her fingers out of her ears, leaving behind a cap of ice over her earholes. "WHAT? SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"Oh, a Kekkei Genkai…That's so not fair…"
"WHAT?" Haku threw a dozen senbon at Kin, who had to roll out of the way. "I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU."
With her main attack negated, Kin was in a world of trouble. She managed to hold her ground for a couple of minutes before she realized that there was nothing she could do to beat the other brunette.
"All right, all right!" Kin said and she raised her arms over her head, "I surrender."
"Winner, Momochi Haku!"
Naruto didn't pay much attention to the next two matches. Shino blew off the arm off of one of the Oto-nins, Zaku, by filling the holes he used for his techniques with bugs.
Then, Dosu defeated Ino by dodging her Shintenshin no Jutsu and beating her senseless before her mind could return to her body.
The next number was called and Gaara of the sand siblings and The oldest member of the team from Kumo.
"Man, fighting such a little kid's gonna be dull…" The Kumo Genin grumbled. He was tall, dark skinned and had shaggy white hair that hung over one eye. "Sorry, But I'll make this quick."
As soon as Hayate gave the signal, the dark skinned Shinobi clapped his hands together a glowing white circle of chakra immediately surrounded his hands, "Ranton: Laser Circus!" (Storm Release: Laser Circus A/N: Kumo techniques are in English in the manga) Dozens of Bolts of lightning burst from the ring around the Kumo-nin's hands.
The first six impacted into a sand wall that sprang up between Gaara and the Kumo-nin, Then the bolts of lightning changed direction, flowing like water around Gaara's sand wall, but before any of the Lightning bolts could hit him more sand walls sprang up around him, completely enclosing Gaara in sand.
"Nice defense kid," The Kumo-nin said halfheartedly, "But is that all you've got?"
"No, now it's my turn." Gaara said from within his sand defenses, before launching a dozen spears made of sand from the sand walls that surrounded him. The Kumo-nin leapt out of the way but the spears curved after him. Six of the spears caught him in the back and pinned him to a wall.
"DARUI!" his Jonin instructor shouted in shock and horror.
"YOU KILLED HIM!" one of his teammates shouted, "MURDERER!"
"I wanted to see how fast he was," Gaara said disinterestedly, "He should have dodged faster."
"Winner, Sabaku no Gaara." Hayate coughed, "Next time, be more careful with your opponents."
"Next time don't give me someone who's so weak."
"I'll help take him to the medical area," Naruto volunteered.
"Why the medical area? Shouldn't you be taking him to the morgue?" The boy's sensei asked. Her voice sounded hollow, like something had broken inside her.
"Konoha has the best medical ninja's in the world, I'm sure they can help him."
"It'll take a miracle to help Darui now…" She said sadly, but she followed Naruto and the other med-nin outside despite her gloom.
"Ah, Naruto, perfect timing." Kabuto looked exhausted-his skin had gone ashen and his face was shiny with sweat. "We just finished Hinata's operation. She should make a full recovery in about a month."
Naruto beamed at the news, "That's great Kabuto! I knew you could do it!"
Kabuto blushed at the praise, "It was nothing Naruto, Now tell me why you brought me a de…"
Naruto cut in, "If we hurry I'm sure you can save him." With his back turned to Nii Yugito, Naruto ended his sentence with a wink.
"Er…Sure, let's see what we can do." Naruto and Kabuto carried the body into a private operating area. "Now tell me, why exactly did you bring a dead guy to the medical
area instead of a morgue?" Kabuto whispered so that Yugito couldn't hear.
"Well… I wanted to try something. I've done it before but I don't really get much chance to practice it…"
"Well… If you need a dead body to do whatever it is you want to do I can see what the problem is. Just… don't make a mess."
"I won't. Just…get ready to catch me when I fall over okay?" Naruto's eyes began to glow with a soft silver light as he activated the third ability his eyes possessed.
"Kit, use my chakra," Kurama said, "It should prevent you from passing out like last time."
Naruto gave Kurama a mental nod and began to pull on Kurama's chakra, and the light took on a blood red tint. "Here goes nothing," he whispered.
Naruto placed his hands over the Kumo-nin, Darui, and the silver red light began to seep out of his palms and into Darui's puckered wounds. Almost immediately the wounds began to close.
"I-Incredible…" Kabuto whispered in awe. "I've never seen anything like it."
Within seconds of the wounds closing, Darui jerked himself upright and took a deep, panic stricken breath, like a drowning man who's head as finally broke the surface. "I… I'm alive?" He twisted around, trying to see and feel where the sand spears had pierced him.
"Yes, it was a close run thing, but you made it," Kabuto explained
Hearing Darui's voice, Yugito burst into the private area, tears streaming down her face. "You're alive!" she screamed and rushed over to him and grabbed him in a tight hug, "You're alive. You're alive. You're alive!" She made a strange purring noise in the back of her throat while she rubbed her face against his.
"I'm surprised too," Darui murmured while trying to pry himself free of the slightly older woman.
Yugito let the blushing teen go. "I'm sorry," she blushed, realizing what she just did in front of two strange ninjas. "I'm glad I won't have to tell A I lost his favorite pupil…"
"We should leave," Kabuto said, "And let you have some time together. Besides," he gestured towards Naruto, "I do believe our teammates are about to fight each other."
Sasuke and Kabuto's teammate, Yoroi, stood face to face in the center of the room.
"Don't worry kid. It'll be over quickly."
Sasuke smirked, "I know. Don't worry, I'll do my best not to kill you."
"*cough* Begin!"
On Hayate's signal, Sasuke jumped back and spat a sealless Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu at Yoroi. The older Konoha shinobi dodged the fireball easily, only to be struck by four shuriken and a kunai that Sasuke had thrown behind his fireball.
"Clever. But it will take more than a couple of shuriken to beat me," Yoroi boasted while pulling the kunai free from his shoulder. He threw it straight at Sasuke, who disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Shit! A kage bunshin?"
Yoroi spun around trying to find Sasuke. But he was too late; Sasuke caught him with a kick to the chin.
"That's my move!" Lee exclaimed, "How did he master it so quickly?"
When Sasuke's foot connected with the older genin's face, he felt a surge of chakra drain out of him. "What was that?"
"Chakra draining is my specialty," Yoroi claimed, "I'm so good I can keep almost half what I take from you."
"Is that true?" Naruto whispered to Kabuto, "I thought ten percent was the maximum."
"If you devote all your training to it, you probably could manage to go up to a quarter," Kabuto replied, "But Yoroi has been training that Jutsu for almost eight years, ever since the academy."
Sasuke ducked under a punch, Yoroi's fist just barely grazing Sasuke's hair. Despite only touching his hair, Sasuke felt more of his chakra draining away.
"Is that all you can do?" Yoroi taunted, "For a supposed genius, you're pretty weak."
Sasuke dodged Yoroi's next attack and spat another fireball at him.
Yoroi just laughed, "Yes, Yes, keeping wasting chakra, soon you'll be out and as defenseless as a kitten!"
When Sasuke ran low on chakra, the cursed seal Orochimaru placed on him began to itch and burn. Sasuke tried to net Yoroi with his wires, but the older ninja charged him in an attempt to drain more chakra, forcing Sasuke to drop his wire and dodge the larger ninja.
Suddenly the itching turned to excruciating pain and Sasuke dropped to his knees. "Out of chakra already?" Yoroi taunted, "I figured you'd last another three minutes."
Sasuke began to giggle as black flames spread across his skin. Shaking with laughter, Sasuke stood back up. "You have a funny face," Sasuke said with a manic grin, "Don't worry, I'll fix it for you."
Sasuke moved faster than anyone had ever seen him move before. In the space of a heartbeat he cleared the distance between them and uppercut Yoroi hard enough to launch the larger genin three feet into the air.
Sasuke sent him crashing back into the floor with a spinning kick. Yoroi tried to stand, but Sasuke's right hook sent him tumbling head over heels across the room. Yoroi hadn't stopped rolling when Sasuke kicked him back in the direction he had come from.
"I don't remember Sasuke being that fast," Kabuto frowned, as Sasuke began an impromptu game of soccer with Yoroi as the ball, "Or that crazy."
"Goal!" Sasuke shouted when Yoroi bounced off a wall
Naruto bit his bottom lip, "That's…something new, but don't worry, me and Ero-sennin can fix it…I hope."
Yoroi tried to crawl away while Sasuke did a victory lap for his 'goal' but when Sasuke came back for 'the second half' Yoroi threw up his hands and screamed, "You win! You win! The game's already over! I surrender!"
Sasuke stopped mid kick, "Aw… but it was just starting to be fun." Sasuke moaned while the black flames shrunk back into the seal.
"Winner, Uchiha *cough* Sasuke." Hayate announced before pulling the next number from his bag. "Next match number *cough* Seven."
Naruto looked down at the paper in his hand, it was his turn now. Naruto stepped into the fighting area. He only had to wait a moment before his opponent stepped up to face him, with a wide, malevolent smile on her lips.
"Uzumaki Naruto versus Haruno Sakura *cough* Begin!"
A/N So… Tobito's going to be the Juubi's Jinchuriki… sigh… and that's an interesting new 'fact' about Hirashin, that jutsu is seriously OP, I doubt I'll use the whole Hirashin seals last forever thing in my story, but we'll see.