This is a Naruto Fan Fiction only.
Just as we got off the arena I saw the look Gaara had on his face, and I knew somehow that this was going to be a fight that Lee would end up wishing he never had.
He looked like a hungry beast that had not eaten in months. I knew that look very well and I could hear his muttering as I walked past him going towards where Sayomi and Sakura were standing.
The fight was beyond weird for everyone, but me. The gourd Gaara carried was filled with sand and the sand appeared to have a mind of it's own. No matter how Lee tried to attack the sand either defended against it or tried to devour him whole.
The sand acted as if it's only purpose for existing was to protect Gaara. I knew of the technique Lee would often train in, but never use unless it was a life or death situation. The way Gaara was fighting it was clearly a life or death situation.
Just as I was thinking this Guy stood up on the handrail of the balcony and began to act like he lost his mind. "Lee take it off, Fight with fire of your youth!"
I for one called this something beyond simply stupid. We saw as Lee began to undo his belt. He began to take off his shoes and gloves. On his weight he had dozens of chakra weight metal strips. He let them all fall on the arena floor, and each time one fell it caused cracks on the arena stone floor.
He then threw his gloves and shoes against a wall and caused a big hole to be made as the things hit it. If mother had not trained my senses I would have never been able to follow Lee's movements at all. 'I bet he looks like he just disappeared.'
The sand could no longer keep up with him and just as he got close enough to him Lee hit him with a technique I knew was called Morning Tiger. It was then that the reason why he never got injured during a mission became clear for all to see.
He had been wearing a coating of his sand all over himself the entire time. Just as the sand crumbled Gaara began to cough up blood and a deep gash was across his face, almost like he was indeed been scratched by a tiger's claw.
"You bastard! You made me bleed my blood. I will make you pay for that with your life. You shall be the proof of my existence!"
Just as the sand went after him he opened the first gate, and he got even faster. The whole fighting must have made him thirsty, because he took his canteen and took a large gulp. A few minutes later I got a whiff of what was in that canteen and I didn't like this one bit.
I jumped up right next to Guy and I had to warn the proctor or something would happen he might not live through. "Proctor if you value your life, get out of there now! He is drinking firewhiskey! Don't walk up here, run for your life!"
Guy looked at me and nodded his head as he heard me. "Good call, Naruto. Since you are his friend you know how he gets if he drinks anything with alcohol."
I looked at Guy as we both jumped down unto the balcony. "I know how he gets alright, Lee is a master at that style of fighting, and nobody taught it to him. It can't be learned or taught after all."
Sakura flat out demanded what we were talking about. Guy decided to explain, "Lee is a master of the drunken fist style, once he took a drink by mistake and it took three squads of ANBU to finally wear him down. There was nothing in that place that was not broken or crushed. It was just that terrible, but what makes it worse is the more drunk he gets, the stronger he gets."
"That time he had a gulp of beer, now if Naruto is right he took a gulp of firewhiskey. Comparing it to something else beer is a match and firewhiskey is the flames of an active volcano. This will not end pretty, and probably will cause him to be disqualified when he kills his opponent."
I on the other hand know that he had better control of himself than most gave him credit. The fight ended because Gaara went and did something I had not done in years. He tapped into the power of the tailed beast within him. I on the other hand tapped in the power from within myself, as a tailed beast.
I had in the years growing up fully accepted that I was not human, and in fact I always considered my self a tailed beast, much like my mother. I only came to appreciate my human form when I first began to get to know Sayomi.
Before that I considered humans to be the lowest of the low, the worst creatures ever to walk on the earth. In truth my supposed surrogate brothers did influence me to start to consider it.
I had to send killer intent towards Gaara to stop him from killing my friend. I basically made it quite clear if he killed him, no matter how much he wanted to prove his existence, he would pay the price for killing my friend and it would be something he would not survive,
The Hokage looked at the end of the fight and even I knew he was ready to jump down to the arena and stop the fight if the fight would result in Lee's death.
As the ten of us that remain were told to gather on the arena floor. I looked up and saw the smiling faces of Anko, Mizuki, and Kakashi. "Congratulations to those that won their fights, and for those that lost you can try again next year. You will find that in front of you is a box. You will take one slip of paper from that box. This will determine who you will fight next."
I walked last and got number seven, somehow I didn't particularly felt lucky. I was feeling even less lucky when I saw Sayomi had the number 8. The idea of hurting my lover was not exactly a wonderful idea for me, and me taking it easy on her would cause her to break off our relationship.
I guess this is what you would call being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either way I would suffer emotionally, some pain more than others.
As I feared, the next fight was indeed in a month and against the person I loved no less. 'Why couldn't it be Sakura? I could easily beat her to intensive care and I wouldn't shed a tear.'
'Well son I have to admit she would have it coming, except that it seems that she and Ino knocked each other out, while we were trying to figure a way to deal with Shukaku should he go out of control, and the final fight of the last task.'
Darn it, leave it to Sakura to ruin something that would actually help me out. "Since the other guest will take time to get to the village, from today for one month you will not be given any missions by any of your villages, instead you will spend the month training."
"This is a good chance for you to polish your skills and make a good impression the Kage and more importantly future employers. As a Chuunin you will have much difficult missions, and more important clients. It would be for the best to make a good impression on them."
The Hokage sure loves to give speeches it seems. To me the speech meant something entirely different. To me it meant that he wanted to show off the skills of his ninja to the other Kage, and to try to get even more contracts for the village from potential clients.
It might be a tournament to decided if we become Chuunin, but deep down it was also a pooch and pony show. I didn't need to waste time trying to get tougher so I decided to have a little time of rest and relaxation.
As we walked out I decided to get started on my R&R. I immediately went towards the outside of the village and began to look for stupid bandit groups. I knew that if I was alone the idiots would not miss the chance to attack someone they consider an easy target.
After killing half a dozen bandits, and ran towards the last bunch of bandits I was having a blast. "Boy it sure is nice that there are so many bandits around in the forest. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!"
That is when one of the bandits decided to say something as he was running away from me. "How the hell did we end up like this! It was us that was supposed to hold him hostage and ask a ransom from the village. Instead we have this psycho who just loves killing us! The hell, he even says it's fun!"
I got done with the bandit group and was cleaning my bloody hands on a piece of cloth. I walked over to the cage and several young ladies were inside. I gathered some wind chakra and just cut the lock clean off the cage.
"Ok, people the bandits are done and you are all free to go. Sorry that it took me so long, but I guess time flies when you are having fun." A short red haired woman was the only one to stay behind. She was glaring at me like I had done something to her.
"Would you be so kind to tell me your name?" She was quite strange, instead of going back to her village she was demanding to know my name. Might as well tell her and get her to get going, I didn't want to miss out on the fun of taking down another bandit group.
"My name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki. Shouldn't you introduce yourself and more importantly why are you glaring at me like I did something bad?"
She took out a pair of glasses and cleaned them. She placed them on her face and smiled. "Oh because you did something. I can't believe there was another Uzumaki and you didn't come looking for me. I am your cousin for crying out loud and you and your mother just left me on my own. Even after our clan's village was destroyed!"
"You got the same horrible hobby of wiping out bandit groups, just like your mom. I can't believe she never mentioned me to you. I am Karin, Karin Uzumaki. So why the anxious look cousin?"
Here I was thinking I was the last Uzumaki and I just had to rescue a cousin I had no idea she even existed. I really needed to blow off some steam after this.
I decided to be direct and to the point. "I am not doing this just to kill bandits, this is part of my training for the Chuunin Exam Finals. Now I really must hurry along or else these stupid bandits will get wind of this and I will have my prey escape!"
She just adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Now that I am here cousin I can even tell you where the idiots are. I can see them quite clearly you know. But how about while you kill them we catch up? I mean I would love to hear how you been all this time? Must be better than me at least."
I had to admit somehow she could really find the bandits a whole lot faster than me. This made the whole hunt less fun however, how could finding your prey be fun if you are given a map where to find them? I mean this is as fun as fishing when the fish are in a barrel.
It did give me a chance to talk with a cousin I never even knew I had. The weird thing is that I was never told my mother had any human siblings other than mom. It just didn't add up somehow.
She was having a pretty good time listening to my life, and how I ended up the way that I did. She finally decided to tell me something that left me rather speechless.
"Here I was thinking that I was the only Uzumaki that had been having a hard life, but compared to you I think me and Nagato had it pretty easy. Honestly Naruto why haven't you left the village if they treated you so badly?"
That was something I always wondered, but now I was really trying to figure out why. At first it was simple, I didn't escape because doing so would actually prove that the stupid villagers actually beat me.
Then I met Sayomi and it became the possibility that Sayomi would think less of me if I ran away. As the Chuunin Exams happened I finally realized that I should live a happy life regardless of what the village may or may not think of me.
Konoha was the place I was born, and if the stupid villagers didn't like it, then it was their problem. I would live my life how I want to, and they could go ahead and jump off a cliff if they didn't like it!
"I decide how I live my life Karin, I decided to live with the people I consider precious and if the stupid villagers don't like it. I don't care one bit. I will not let people who are so blind dictate how I live my life!"
She smiled and nodded her head in agreement. "Yep, you are definitely right cousin. I figured the same thing. It's nice to see that you don't let others influence how you live, if only Nagato was the same. I guess I will see you around Naruto. Give them hell in that tourney you hear!"
She walked away and I was left wondering if she was really my cousin, or did someone send her to find out what I was doing for my training. The last thing that struck me as odd, but only noticed till she left is that she had the same sent as Kabuto. Could she be a spy for Orochimaru too?