Another chapter is here!
Enjoy!
Karin adjusted her weapon and supply pouch beneath her overly long shirt before she knocked on Naruto's door. Like she had promised, Karin had come to get him up since it was the morning of the Finals. There was about an hour before he needed to be there, but it wasn't that far so the excess time could be used to teach him how to use the Barrier Tags that she had made over the course of the night.
The latch to the door came undone and opened to reveal that Naruto was already dressed. He smiled at seeing her, but his smile turned into a slight frown when their eyes met. There was a note of concern in his voice as he asked, "Are you okay?"
Karin touched the slight dark rings under her eyes. "If you mean these, I'm fine. I couldn't sleep, so I kept myself busy. Don't worry about me." She stepped inside his home and returned his question to him. "How do you feel? After all, today is your big day."
"A little nervous," he admitted. "But I'm ready."
"Just to be safe, I made these for you." Karin reached into her pouch and pulled out the various sealing tags she had worked on that night. "They're color-coded like the others, but the yellow-rimmed ones are Barrier Tags like your tutor used."
He took them gingerly and looked down at the script etched onto the tags. Considering the delicacy and concentration needed to make the strokes as elegant and refined as she had, he quickly pieced together that she had spent all night making them. "You didn't have t—"
His words died when she placed a finger to his lips. "I want you to win so you'll be happy, Naruto. To that end, I would regret it if I didn't do everything I could. I can sleep later knowing that, so you shouldn't say something like I didn't have to when it was my decision."
"Okay…" He scratched the back of his head before holding the new tags up. "Show me how to use these and I'll work it into my plans."
Karin gave him a demonstration and overview of how to set them up before he made the final arrangements to his gear, summoning clones and transforming them ahead of time. There was no rule against it and that way he wouldn't have to do it in the middle of the battle if he didn't have to. Plus, the divided chakra could be returned to him in an emergency if he needed it.
When it was all done, the two of them set out towards the stadium where the Finals were taking place. There was a crowd filing in below as they stood on the rooftop across the road from it. Karin decided that was the point where they would split up, as he had to take a separate entrance for the contestants.
"Remember, Naruto, you're trying to do well enough that you impress the judges, not the audience," she told him. "They'll be looking for the qualities of a Chuunin that we've been over, show them and you'll all but be guaranteed to get it."
"Got it," Naruto said with a grin on his face. "Wish me luck."
Karin leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. A minor blush spread across her face when she pulled back, matching the one that appeared on his face. She turned so that her back was to him, hiding it as best she could. "That's how my mother always wished me luck, so… good luck!"
Before he could say anything, she jumped down towards where the crowd was entering the stadium and went with them inside to get to the individual stands. Along the way she pressed her fingers to her lips, wondering if she had made things worse for him. It was a silly concern given that the invasion was likely to be kicked off soon, which was why she had kept a number of sealing tags for herself, but it still worried her.
"Karin-chan!" Upon hearing her name being called, Karin turned her head towards the source and found Ayame from the Ichiraku Ramen there. She wore a simple dress and a small jacket that went over her arms and torso, and was waving for Karin to come towards her. "Over here!"
"Ayame-san, I didn't expect to see you here," Karin said as she approached. "Don't you have to work today?"
"Dad bought me a ticket to the event and told me that I should come see Naruto since he's on first." She patted one of the empty seats next to her. "Sit and cheer for him with me."
Karin did so, doing her best to relax for the moment as other people filed into the seats. Ayame made small talk by asking what Karin thought about his chances, his opponent, and whatever she could in anticipation of the match. For her part, Karin tried to answer without giving too much away so that she would see for herself.
That was when Sakura came towards them and asked, "Mind if I sit next to you?"
Ayame gave her the go ahead to take the free seat on her opposite side. "You must be so excited since both of your teammates are participating aren't they?"
"Hopefully they'll both be okay in their matches…." Sakura trailed off as she looked at Karin awkwardly.
"What?" she asked. "If you have something you want to say, then you can say it."
"Umm… about what happened on the rooftop across the street," she started. "You might want to keep an eye on your surroundings next time."
Karin's face started turning the same shade as her hair. "You saw that?"
"Yeah, I was on my way here with Ino and… I'm just giving you a heads-up on that," she said. "Don't be surprised if a blonde-haired girl comes up and bugs you for details later on. I managed to convince her not to bother you while the matches are going on, but she won't let go of any decent piece of gossip she gets her hands on."
"It was just for good luck," Karin insisted as Ayame looked between them with curiosity in her eyes. "That's all."
His teammate clearly didn't buy it. "Uh-huh. Sure."
Ayame seemed to have read between the lines since she asked, "On the lips or cheek?"
"Cheek," Sakura answered. "Naruto stood there for a full minute afterwards touching the spot."
Karin buried her face into her hands and groaned as Ayame started pestering her for details. At the very least it took her mind off the other concerns she had. For the moment, anyway….
[0-0-0]
Sarutobi stood in front of his seat out of formality as the Kazekage approached with his guards, the latter having come to see his children participating in the Finals. Both of them were adorned in the traditional outfits of their respective positions, hat and veil obscuring their faces. Of course, Sarutobi had his combat outfit beneath his formal attire should his long fallen student show himself.
"Good to see you again," he said as they shook hands. "I trust that your trip wasn't a burden?"
"No more than expected for crossing the desert," the Kazekage said. "I look forward to seeing my children's performance, as well as the other Chuunin hopefuls. I believe this year's batch will be exemplary."
"I concur," Sarutobi agreed as they both took a seat. "A number of talented youths will be participating, all of them with their own unique abilities and talents—such as your own. All three of them are quite impressive, but I wasn't aware there was a bloodline capable of manipulating normal sand."
A slight nod of the head obscured the Kazekage's eyes as he spoke. "Puppeteering is a gradually fading art. It was only fitting that I would have one of my own ensure that it survived another generation. Likewise, those proficient with the Wind Element are also a rarity, so it was a pleasant surprise upon learning she was naturally inclined to that alignment. As for my youngest… you are aware of my own ability, correct?"
"You control Gold Dust, I believe," he said. "Similar to how the previous Kazekage controlled Iron Sand."
"It seems that he possesses a derivative of that which allows him to control sand in general," the Kazekage continued. "Such things do occur in our world and it has great potential, alas the burden of such power has been taxing upon him. Though he has been ordered not to attempt anything lethal upon his opponents after the Preliminaries, I cannot guarantee the Uchiha's life should he refuse to surrender."
"To be a shinobi is to risk one's life, no matter what the case may be," Sarutobi sagely noted. "We are all aware of the risks, but I would not judge him before the match begins. He may surprise you."
That being said, Sarutobi already given the proctor clear instructions. He would intervene should things become dire. Itachi would not appreciate his brother's death and they wouldn't let the last of his bloodline be erased for an unnecessary competition.
Even as the small talk petered out when the proctor took the field, Sarutobi couldn't shake the sensation that something was on the verge of happening. Whatever it was that his old apprentice had planned would surely come about today and they had measures in place, but he could only hope that their Hidden Sand allies would not be caught in the midst of it. The last thing they needed was an incident or accidental death leading to another Great War…
He would have to remain vigilant.
[0-0-0]
Naruto stood along with the rest of the participants in the center of the field, positioned between Sasuke and Shino as the proctor gave them a once over of the rules. He mostly tuned it out, focusing on the crowd instead. He wanted others to notice him growing up and now he had more eyes on him than he ever had before. Only a handful of them were people he knew, but all the same he couldn't afford to blunder in front of a large crowd.
His eyes peered through the sheer numbers of strangers in an effort to find Karin. The thought of her kiss still left his heart hammering in his chest, but he told himself it was just for good luck. Not because she liked him in the same way that Sakura would fawn over Sasuke.
In the end, it was her distinctive shade of red hair that eventually led him to her, nestled next to a pink and brunette pair—Sakura and Ayame. All three of them waved towards him, though he was sure Sakura was doing so for Sasuke too. He flashed them all a wide-smile, only to get a sharp glare from the proctor that made him flatten out his expression while Sasuke rolled his eyes next to him.
As the Old Man gave them a speech before announcing that it was time for the competition to begin, Naruto took deep breaths. He trained for this with Karin, Sakura, and Gama-sensei. All he had to do was remember the strategy they came up with, the conditioning he had been put through, and his purpose for standing there in the arena. Once the speech was finished and the others headed back, Naruto stood across from Neji and faced him.
"Your cousin asked me not to hurt you too badly because she obviously cares more about you than you do her," he told his opponent before the proctor called for the match to start. "So I'm giving you one last chance to apologize before I make you pay in blood for what you did to her."
"You speak as though that is something you are capable of doing," the Hyuuga responded, a calm certainty in his voice as a pulse of chakra erupted from his eyes. The veins around them swelled to the point they were visible beneath this skin. "I can see otherwise. The outcome of this match has been determined since the moment of your birth."
"Keep telling yourself that." Naruto adjusted his stance and tensed his hands, one ready to reach for his back pouch and the other for his kunai holster. "It'll just make it look better when I win after the all the training I've done."
"You doubt my words, but I speak the truth," he stated. "Your false belief, the very act of entertaining the notion of victory, is merely born of your ignorance—a privilege of those unable to see the irrefutable chains of fate that shackles them. If you could, you would not harbor such delusions about your chances of victory changing simply because you exerted yourself over the last month in an ultimately futile endeavor. You would simply accept your defeat and surrender, sparing yourself the pain and embarrassment of having me bring about the inevitable."
Naruto wanted to dismiss his words as a method he used to psyche his opponents out, but he could tell that the other boy truly believed that. It wasn't just words to him, but an absolute truth as certain as the sky was blue. Effort didn't make a difference to him, a stark contrast to his teammate Lee.
"If that's true, then I'll simply have to shatter the chains of Fate," Naruto retorted. The month he spent training with the girls, the promises he made, the lessons with the tutor the Old Man had gotten him, all of it was for this moment. He wouldn't lose to someone who didn't believe that effort could triumph over Fate and reinforce that twisted belief.
"You two done now?" asked the proctor, an eyebrow raised in annoyance as he shifted the senbon in his mouth from one side to the other. They both nodded. "Good. Then let the first match of the Chuunin Exam Finals begin!"
Naruto leapt back as far as he could while Neji lunged forward, intent on crossing the distance in a flurry of steps. That was expected and he had practiced for it with Byakko. He grabbed and flung explosive-tagged kunai with one hand while cradling smoke bombs in the other.
The former flew in a spread pattern and triggered in mid-flight before they reached him, unleashing a thunderous chorus of explosions. The heat and force spread out in all directions, kicking up dust and dirt, and forced the Hyuuga stop his approach or risk being caught inside the blast radius by trying to slip in between them.
The latter were flung into the air and ruptured. The collective smoke bombs spilled out billowing clouds of fume that melded with the dirty veil kicked up by initial explosions. Between the two of them, a good part of the battlefield became obscured from the view of the audience.
Part one complete, Naruto thought as he moved onto the next part.
[0-0-0]
"Ahh, I didn't think it'd be so loud!" the waitress next to Sakura said, wincing as she covered her ears. She was far from the only person to do so, given a good portion of the audience weren't shinobi or used to explosions. They'd be used to them by the time the match ended if things dragged out too long—or deaf.
"Naruto's seeded the battlefield now." Sakura shifted her gaze to Karin at the declaration. The girl peered into the thick smoke as though she possessed a Byakugan herself. "The transformed clones are scattered and he's making more to work on padding them out."
"So all that smoke was to hide what he was doing from his opponent?"Ayame asked as she lowered her hands.
Sakura shook her head. "His opponent can see through the smoke easy enough. The whole point was so that everyone else couldn't. The judges evaluating the matches are taking into account the strategy being used against the opponent and will compare it on a broader scale, so while a Hyuuga won't be deceived, others would in the field. And if he manages to beat him despite the advantage the Byakugan gives his opponent, it will show he took information about his opponent's abilities into account and came up with a viable strategy regardless of circumstances."
The smoke thinned, allowing the audience to get a better view of a single silhouette that was moving and lashing out at a number of others around it. When it cleared there were over a dozen Narutos confronting the Hyuuga, some lingering out of his striking range while one in particular stayed far away at the rear. That was the one he rushed forward to strike, dispersing three that got in his way as he slid to a stop and prepared to thrust his palm out.
Then there was a flicker and shift in the lingering smoke around them as the Naruto there was now armed with a kunai, poised to stab his opponent. Neji immediately spun on balls of his feet, twisting his body before it could pierce his skull, and returning the fatal strike with a palm-thrust to the head. He didn't waste the chakra on the clone, but the force alone was enough to disperse it…
Only to reveal a concussive explosive-tag left behind. It went off with a shockwave of force that blew away the remaining smoke obscuring that section of the field. Tendrils of the fume clung to the Hyuuga as he hopped back and was immediately set upon by more clones that tried to grab him.
"Okay, explain that for me," Ayame said as another clone exploded when hit, this time sending his opponent staggering forward. There was a notable change in how he blocked and redirected the next clone into another one rather than pop it himself.
"Body Replacement," Sakura said. "Naruto's clones are self-aware and can substitute with him or the other clones if they see an opening or need to protect the original. Because they're essentially constructs made from the same chakra source, have the same body type, and the same mass, the lag time for substituting with them is next to nothing and allows him to cross the battlefield safely. And, by swapping with one that had a sealing tag attached to it beforehand, the moment it was destroyed the violent dispersion of the chakra set it off."
Even if his opponent could see the clones, the Byakugan couldn't tell them apart from the original because they shared their chakra evenly upon creation and had a matching chakra system. The only exceptions were the clones that he created before the match and had been changed with a Transformation technique. Even then, it meant that no one but Naruto had an accurate gauge of just how much chakra he really had since he could have it returned to him by dispelling a clone.
"So he has to avoid hitting the wrong Naruto or he'll risk getting blown up again," the waitress realized. "That means he can't simply pop them all, but at the same time he'll risk being swarmed."
"That's the plan," Karin stated. "Naruto has far more chakra than his opponent, more attack options, and can overwhelm him through sheer numbers. He'll only get stronger with every mistake his opponent makes until they force him to surrender or knock him out. In fact, the only reason he hasn't simply mobbed his opponent is because he's making it all clear for the judges while hiding his other trump cards just in case."
No sooner than she said that did the smoke finish clearing and everyone could see the Hyuuga was surrounded on all sides. The clones numbered at least twenty, every one of them out of arms reach and armed with kunai and shuriken. Sakura could hear the clones telling him a final time to surrender, only to be met with a silent refusal that they responded to with a volley of steel from all sides. It was like an iron maiden, a trap that he couldn't possibly escape from.
Naruto didn't aim for the vitals. He didn't want to kill Hinata's cousin despite being enemies for the moment. But no matter how his opponent moved blood would be drawn and the injury would either force him to surrender or leave him vulnerable to another barrage. Yet, despite not scoring a solid hit on Naruto and being entrapped, a faint smile came across the Hyuuga's face as they closed in….
Then he spun around and revealed a trump card of his own.