A/N: Alright, so this chapter will be a lot less clunky than last chapter, as I no longer have to adhere to a strict structure of events that none of us care about.

One more match to go, but I promise, it'll be worth reading. At least for its conclusion.

Time for Chapter 30

Enjoy!


Satsuki drew a kunai and flipped backward several feet, creating a distance from which to gauge her options. Yoroi, whose lower face was covered by a cloth, simply remained in place. The match had only begun moments ago, so they were both fresh. Tension was at its peak as a result. Opting to lead safely, Satsuki launched several shuriken in the Oto genin's direction, to which her foe deflected each with a swiftly drawn kunai of his own.

"Rudimentary." he said, charging from his position to engage. Satsuki's eyes immediately flashed red. As Yoroi attempted to enter range with a lancing punch aimed at her head, Satsuki easily ducked underneath it and used his momentum against him in order to toss him over her shoulder. Rebounding quickly, the Oto genin took another attempt at her. This time, rather than launching him away, Satsuki stepped in hard and caught him across the jaw with a tighter punch that slipped right inside his wide swing.

Buckling his knees briefly, Satsuki's punch momentarily sat Yoroi on his rear end. While he recovered quickly, the Uchiha girl had ample time to leap back out to long range and weave a sequence of hand signs.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" she yelled, launching a volley of small mid-sized fireballs directly at him. The masked genin dove out of the immediate line of literal fire, but when the masses of fire hit the concrete, they burst into a shower of burning sparks and residue. One of these large sparks grazed his right sleeve, causing it to catch fire. As he ripped the cloth off of his shirt to prevent the blaze from spreading, Satsuki capitalized.

"Eyes on me." she said, having blitzed her way around and behind him in the midst of the fiery chaost. As Yoroi turned to face her, Satsuki sunk a kunai into his bare shoulder. Crying out in pain, the Oto genin was promptly sent flying back fifteen feet by a mean kick to the chest from the raven-haired girl. Yoroi hit the ground with a rough 'thud', landing square on his back.

Though satisfied with her initial success, Satsuki was determined to outperform her teammates, and finish things quickly. Dashing across the short distance between them, the leaf genin bore down on Yoroi with her entire bodyweight, pinning him to the ground by driving her knee into his solar plexus just as he was beginning to sit up. She then ripped her kunai out of his shoulder and reared it above her head.

Stabbing the blade downward, intending to impale him nonlethally, Satsuki's attempt to briskly end the match was halted by Yoroi catching her wrist. Initially, she thought nothing of it. She could find other ways to finish him with ease. She had him dead to rights. After a few moments of tug-of-war to pull her arm free, Satsuki soon found herself beginning to weaken.

"What…is this?" she hissed as she struggled against Yoroi's grip. The Oto genin then muscled his way to a sitting position, and then up to his feet with the Uchiha in tow.

"Let's just say that getting close to me was a mistake." he said vaguely, his tone confident and mocking. Gritting her teeth, Satsuki snapped her head forward and slammed her forehead into his mouth. The maneuver loosened Yoroi's grip just enough for the Uchiha girl to pull her arm free and create space between them again.

Finding herself suddenly out of breath, Satsuki took a moment to collect herself. It took little time for her to deduce what had likely happened to her during the brief grappling match.

"You can drain chakra through touch, am I right?" she asked. Yoroi chuckled a bit and extended his palm in front of himself as though to present it.

"Spot on. Unfortunately for you, knowing what I can do isn't the same thing as being able to stop me." he replied. The Uchiha girl rolled her wrist in the socket to relieve its soreness.

"I'll be just fine." she shot back. The genin then began to circle one another, searching for a proper point of entry. Their first few exchanges had established a number of things. First and foremost, Satsuki was far faster, and significantly more nimble. Such advantages were greatly helpful when applied to crossing distance. Alongside this, however, it would be a fool's errand to attempt to finish Yoroi up close.

'He'll just drain me if I stay in range for too long. I have to get in, and get out.' the Uchiha girl thought to herself. With this condition set for her approach, Satsuki led the proverbial dance. Launching a swarm of shuriken out in front of her, the raven-haired girl delayed her charge by a half-beat. Then, just after Yoroi had managed to deflect the projectiles, Satsuki's form flickered. Barely a second later, she appeared directly in front of him, her sharingan locked on his pupils. Though she had never attempted it in live combat before, Satsuki immediately captured Yoroi in an ocular genjutsu.

Freezing stiff in place, Yoroi was promptly shoved backward a foot, and clattered on the right side of his temple by Satsuki's left shin bone. While the initial stages of the maneuver had been successful, the impact of the Uchiha girl kicking him upside the head snapped Yoroi out of the genjutsu he had been placed under. Before she could pull her leg back, the Oto genin caught her by the ankle. The moment his hand made contact with her, Satsuki felt her chakra being sapped once again. Acting with great urgency, she leapt up into the air and twisted.

Bringing her free right leg past Yoroi's head, Satsuki made a scissor motion with her legs and slammed the heel of her right foot into her foe's skull. The blow forced Yoroi to release her ankle. Landing on her feet reflexively, Satsuki performed a round-off to reestablish a long distance between them. Another close call, despite her meticulous tactics. She was walking a fine line.

'He only had my leg for a second or two, and he took a serious bite out of my chakra. That jutsu is nasty.' she thought to herself, attempting to hide her growing fatigue. It was strange. While being drained of one's chakra certainly could result in sluggishness and a lack of vitality, the exhaustion setting in for Satsuki was beyond that point. Her entire body was growing sore by the minute, and she couldn't seem to take in enough oxygen no matter how deeply she breathed in.

Unsettlingly, the dull pain coursing through her was rooted on the left side of her neck.


Naruto curled and uncurled his fists. Satsuki was performing well. She was winning nearly every exchange, inflicting damage, and rarely being hit in return. By every outward appearance, she was dominating, and well in control. Despite that, the Jinchuuriki found himself growing more and more concerned. As he pondered possible reasons why this was, Shikamaru put it into words.

"Something's wrong with her. She looks…off." the Nara boy said. Naruto nodded slightly, straining himself to find what exactly felt so out of place. It was subtle, but there was an undeniable difference between Satsuki's usual level of performance and what she was showing at present.

"She's looked a little stiff since the match began, but now it looks like she's fading already. Five minutes of fighting shouldn't be tiring her out. Not like this." Naruto said, gripping the railing as his teammate was grazed across the forehead by a thrown kunai from Yoroi. Kakashi, who was between the two boys, closed his right eye to better focus his sharingan.

"Yoroi has been draining her chakra little by little with every moment of contact they've made, so that likely has something to do with it, but I agree. She shouldn't be looking this labored yet." he interjected. Just as the older ninja had said his piece, Satsuki was struck cleanly for the first time in the fight and sent stumbling back by a punch flush to the point of her chin.

"C'mon, Satsuki. Push through it." Naruto muttered under his breath. Several more exchanges occurred over the following minute, the most significant of which featuring the Uchiha girl landing a brilliantly-timed jumping knee that caught Yoroi ducking down and shattered his nose.

"She's still mostly lighting him up, but shouldn't she be trying more ninjutsu? It worked the last time she used it." Shikamaru inquired, to which Naruto agreed. Kakashi shook his head at the notion, surprising both genin.

"She's conserving chakra. She can't afford to burn herself out any more than she already has. Unless she can finish him with ninjutsu in one or two shots, she has to win this with taijutsu." he said. It was a grim assessment, but one that likely held its water. It was frustrating, above all else. There was nothing any of them could do for her. She was on her own, suffering from some sort of unknown ailment in the middle of combat.

After another several minutes of gradually equalizing engagements, Satsuki's obvious struggles came to a head. Having been caught stepping into range recklessly, the Uchiha girl was stunned by a short counter and buckled. She was then grabbed by the neck and ripped off her feet.

"Not good." Shikamaru said tensely. Unlike every other time Yoroi had managed to establish a grip on the raven-haired girl, Satsuki was having great difficulty escaping. She was stuck. The Oto genin's hand then began to glow blue. He was draining her far more forcefully than he had been before.

"This might be it." Kakashi said, his jaw visibly clenched under his mask. Naruto fought back the urge to yell out in frustration. She was stronger than she was showing herself to be. He knew it with absolute certainty. He had seen it firsthand. Yet, there she was, on the edge of unconsciousness at the hands of a genin who may as well have been nameless.

"Shut up. She's not done yet." Naruto growled, earning a sideways glance from his teacher. Before the older man could respond, the blonde was proven correct, if only for the moment. With a sudden burst of life, Satsuki seized Yoroi's wrist. In a stunning turn of events, the Oto genin then began to twitch uncontrollably. Soon enough, he dropped her and backed away.

"See? Told ya." Naruto said with a smug grin. Shikamaru's brow scrunched up, a look of puzzled skepticism forming on his face.

"What even happened there?" he asked quizzically. Kakashi, who now appeared to be grinning alongside Naruto beneath his mask, folded his arms across his chest.

"It's completely slipped my mind up to now. I never got around to finding out what chakra natures you three have. If that little exchange is any indication, Satsuki is just like me. She's got lightning-natured chakra." he explained, eliciting wide eyes from both boys.

"That's sick." Naruto said with open admiration. Shikamaru's expression held a similar level of awe. Kakashi's mood quickly sobered, however.

"It is, but she isn't out of the woods yet. That trick was probably accidental, and even if it wasn't, it won't work twice." he said realistically. Naruto gave a reluctant nod of agreement as he studied Satsuki, who was still down on one knee. She looked even more exhausted than before, with her breathing visible through her back.

"She needs to wrap this up quickly. She'll pass out if this goes on for much longer." Shikamaru said seriously. The Uchiha girl then began to rise to her feet. Before she could quite make it to a fully vertical stance, she faltered and dropped back down. She was gripping the side of her neck.

"It's that mark. The one Orochimaru put on her." Naruto said, having finally been given a piece of evidence to cling to. While Shikamaru reacted with shock, Kakashi merely had a solemn nod. It appeared that he had been suspecting the conclusion Naruto had come to for quite some time.

"Should she still be fighting if that's the case? We don't know what that mark is doing to her. It could be killing her for all we know." Shikamaru said, a new edge of urgency in his voice. Kakashi remained focused on Satsuki.

"I'll give her five more minutes. If this isn't over by then, I'm stepping in." he said. Naruto swallowed nervously. If her current state was anything to go by, the Uchiha girl had little offense left in her. Five minutes or not, she appeared near her limit. Unable to contain himself any longer, the blonde cleared his throat.

"Is that all you've got, Satsuki Uchiha?! Really?! Just a few punches and some fire?! You're better than this! Start acting like it!" he yelled down to his teammate, who craned her neck around and up to look at him. Though it took her a considerable amount of time, Satsuki answered his call to action.

Slowly, painfully, she rose up to her feet.


Satsuki ignored the searing pain in her legs as she forced herself to stand. She could hear her heart in her ears, and her mouth tasted of blood. She was utterly exhausted, but she was far from mentally spent. For every flaw the Uchiha could be accused of having, a lack of grit was not one of them. Far from it. Beyond her inherent distaste for quitting, her ego was being bruised.

'You aren't good enough to beat me.' she silently hissed to Yoroi, who was still looking rather numb after having been jolted. Satsuki's eyes then drifted back up to Naruto, who was looking on expectantly.

'And nobody talks to me that way. Not even you.' she added as a mental footnote. The issue still remained, however, that she had practically no chakra. Not enough to perform a meaningful jutsu, that was. Wracking her brain, Satsuki found a single option left available to her. It was a gamble, but one that could potentially win her the fight all at once. Her sharingan, despite all of the chakra that had been drained from her, were still active.

With one final glance at Naruto, Satsuki took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. Lowering her stance, the raven-haired girl braced herself for what was likely to be an incredibly sore experience.

"One last card to play? It won't work, but I'll–" Yoroi began. Before he could finish the sentence, Satsuki vanished from view, appearing right in front of him a quarter-second later. The Uchiha girl then slammed home an identical kick to the one that Lee had used in order to send Gaara airborne, right under Yoroi's chin. The results were sublime, with the Oto genin immediately being launched straight upward.

Allowing her body to act on autopilot, Satsuki vanished again. When she reappeared, she was shadowing Yoroi from behind. They were hovering level with the balcony, right in front of Team Seven. Glancing at them briefly, Satsuki smirked at the unbridled shock on their faces. Even Kakashi looked rather surprised. Choosing to save her gloating for later, Satsuki returned her attention to Yoroi, who was looking back at her over his shoulder fearfully.

"I borrowed that first part from somebody else, but from here on out, it's all original." the Uchiha girl said confidently. Just as she was preparing to begin her improvised maneuver, a sharp pain flared up on the side of her neck, causing her to flinch and hesitate. While she initially began to move despite the discomfort, the pain quickly spread outward. Taking a frantic look at her body, she found that the marking on her neck was spreading at an alarming rate.

'Not right now. Please not now.' she begged the powers that be. Despite her pleas, the marking kept on spreading, enveloping much of her upper body in paralyzing pain. As it took hold of her, time almost seemed to slow. Her final gambit was being taken from her, for reasons and causes outside of her control. As this realization set in, and the fractions of a second ticked away, Satsuki felt a rush of indignant anger rush through her. With it came a single conviction.

No matter what it took, no matter how badly it would cripple her, she would not be conquered.

Letting out a short yell of frustration, Satsuki slammed her knee into the Oto genin's lower back and forcibly grabbed him by the shoulders. She then rotated their position, allowing herself to effectively be on top of him mid-air. With great flexibility, Satsuki then hooked the back of his head with the instep of her foot and pulled him in just far enough to snare his neck between her calves. Satsuki then torqued her body to send both she and Yoroi into a swan dive toward the ground below.

They quickly picked up speed, hurdling toward the concrete floor with enough velocity for the wind drag to completely unravel the Uchiha girl's braid. Just before they reached the ground, Satsuki pulled her legs in and removed her bottom leg from his neck, whipping Yoroi underneath her with a grip on his shirt. A half-beat later, they collided hard with the floor, with all of Satsuki's weight landing squarely on her foe's neck, which was pincered between the floor and the girl's shin bone. A grotesque snapping sound echoed through the room.

Slowly rising up from the kneeling position she had landed in, Satsuki stepped back away from Yoroi. Their impact with the floor had crushed his windpipe, and snapped his neck completely. His head was tilted off at an unnatural angle. Well before Hayate rushed in to check on him, Satsuki knew that he was dead.

"Yoroi Akado is unable to continue. The winner is Satsuki Uchiha." he announced, his voice as hushed as it had been since the beginning of the preliminary round. Under normal circumstances, the Uchiha girl likely would have found herself appalled at what she had done. At present, for whatever reason, she felt nothing.

"I think I'll call that one…Falcon's Dance." she muttered to herself. She then attempted to turn away from the scene and walk away. Before she could even take a step, her legs gave out and she fell forward. Thankfully, she was caught halfway down by Kakashi, who promptly scooped her up to carry her.

"How'd I do?" Satsuki asked drearily, feeling a deep sleep nagging away at her consciousness. The Copy Ninja gave her a close-eyed smile.

"Very well. A little morbid, but you got it done." he said. The raven-haired girl nodded and allowed herself to relax fully.

Within moments, before they had even reached the stairs, her world went black.


Kakashi took a deep breath and readied himself. It had been quite some time since he had attempted any sort of complex fuinjutsu. He was competent in the field, but hardly a specialist. Unfortunately, time was of the essence, and enlisting the help of a more skilled sealer was not an option.

'At least I didn't have to make the array.' the Jonin thought to himself as he checked each section of the formation that Satsuki was laying in the center of. The girl had still yet to awaken since her loss of consciousness after her match, which was both concerning and a welcome development at the same time. She certainly needed the rest, but passing out so suddenly was rarely a good omen.

'That was her first kill, too. First for the whole team, actually.' Kakashi pondered. Sighing to himself and stepping back away from the complicated circle of symbols and characters,

'I'll line her up with a therapist if she struggles too much with it.' he decided, adding the thought to his mental to-do list. He then weaved a sequence of hand signs before slamming his palm down just in front of the array. The circle quickly began to glow, with chakra rising up from it like smoke from a fire. Tightening his focus to ensure that the process went along smoothly, Kakashi performed the final procedure. Stepping inside the circle, the Jonin pressed his palm to the mark on Satsuki's neck.

The chakra coursing through the array then flowed inward, soon finding its way to the Uchiha girl. A few moments later, the circle went dark, and Kakashi removed his hand from her skin. The mark was now encircled with a seal on all sides. The process had been successful. Releasing a breath he had been unknowingly holding, Kakashi stepped out of the circle again.

'It's probably better that you weren't awake for this. It's a painful thing to go through.' he thought as he studied his sleeping student. Then, just as the Copy Ninja had taken a step toward her to escort her out of the subterranean chamber they were currently residing in, the sound of echoing footsteps caught his attention.

"For such a powerful village, Konoha's security is lacking."

Instantly recognizing the voice that had spoken, Kakashi whirled around and drew a kunai. As his ears had informed him a moment earlier, they were no longer alone. Strolling past the stone support pillars with casual ease was Orochimaru, who was curiously wearing what appeared to be a Jonin flak jacket and a forehead protector bearing the symbol of Otogakure. Forcing himself to remain calm despite his nerves, Kakashi stood tall.

"That's my job, actually." he shot back calmly. Orochimaru halted his advance at the final pillar before the array, leaving him twenty odd feet from Kakashi and Satsuki.

"Precisely my point." he said vaguely. Being quick witted himself, the Copy Ninja easily caught the insult laced into the older man's words. He ignored it.

"You're here for something. Come on out with it. We both have better things to be doing." the Jonin said. Orochimaru chuckled and made a wide gesture with his arms.

"Well, even a man like me gets homesick from time to time. The leaves are such a beautiful color this time of year." he replied with mocking humor. Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"You've never been one for sight-seeing, and as far as this village is concerned, you're not welcome." he said bitingly. The Sanin's expression remained relaxed and confident. He then glanced past Kakashi.

"It won't work, you know." he said, gesturing to the sleeping girl in the sealing array. The silver-haired ninja tightened his grip on his kunai handle.

"What do you want with Satsuki?" he demanded. Orochimaru did not give him a straight answer. Instead, he seemingly switched the topic.

"You've changed since last I saw you. You've acquired something new. Something valuable." he said vaguely. It took Kakashi little time to deduce what he was referring to.

"And? What of it?" he countered. The Snake Sannin's pale lips pulled into a dark smile, the tip of his reptilian tongue just barely flicking out.

"Is it so wrong of me to want it as well?" he asked, once again allowing the younger man to connect the dots himself. When the trail of verbal bread crumbs led Kakashi to the obvious conclusion, he scowled.

"You want her eyes." he said. Orochimaru, much in contrast to his expectations, shook his head and stepped forward.

"No, no. Think bigger than that. More ambitiously. You've likely learned the hard way that the sharingan doesn't take kindly to foreign hosts. I have no interest in a pale imitation." he corrected. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly. What was being suggested was both deeply disturbing, and far too in line with the exiled Sannin's modus operandi. Seeming to sense that he had instilled a degree of unease, Orochimaru began to walk forward again.

Immediately, Kakashi uncovered his left eye and dropped down to one knee. Within seconds, a mass of sparking blue electricity encased his right arm, with the sound of wailing birds reverberating through the chamber.

"Take another step forward, and one of us dies. Right here, right now." he said threateningly. Orochimaru halted his advance once again, but his posture remained unbothered.

"Go right ahead. Flip that coin." he challenged, a look of total calm on his pale face. A tense silence then overtook the chamber, with neither man budging an inch. After a few moments had passed, Orochimaru turned on his heel.

"Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, she will come to me in search of power. You know what she is, deep down. It's in her nature." he said, vanishing into the shadows immediately after. Once the man was well and truly gone, Kakashi allowed his jutsu to fizzle out into silence. For a time, he simply stood inert. Alone to mull over what he had been told.

'He'd have killed me. What was even the point of threatening him?' Kakashi wondered to himself, finding that he was shaking slightly. Getting his breathing back under control, the Jonin swiftly retrieved Satsuki from the array and exited the chamber.

Things were even more dire than they had seemed.


A/N: HELL YEAH. FUN-ASS CHAPTER. So, yeah, the elephant in the room. Satsuki fucking murdered Yoroi. Jack did warn you all that this story was rated M for a reason, and I will be keeping with that theme. People will die in this fic, some of them quite brutally.

And yes, that final part *is* a direct rehashing of canon, but I think we can all agree that it's a good enough scene to be written out in its entirety.

The prelims are FINALLY over. Now, I can do some fun character stuff before the final round.

Please leave me a review if you can! How am I doing with writing combat? Am I getting the vibe and atmosphere right? Let me know!

I love you all

Read and Review!