Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, go figure.
Posted: 12/29/08
A/N: I got an interesting question about Gaara's name in a review, and I thought I'd address that here. In chapter nine I said that Sabaku was his clan name. I know that this isn't explicitly stated in the manga, but I thought it made a good deal of sense.
Now on its own, "of the Desert" may sound like a title or a description given to Gaara due to his control over sand. However, this seems less likely when you take into account the name of another Suna ninja – Akasuna no Sasori. Since Sasori left the sand village when he was fifteen, I find it unlikely that he somehow earned "of the Red Sands" as a title despite how brilliant or bloodthirsty he may have been. It sure sounds like it could be a clan name to me.
So why do Suna ninjas have a "no" in their names? Simple. It's just how they do names in Suna.
In olden times, the family or clan names of people were often based off of where they hailed from. This was true of western cultures as well as eastern. For example, my own family name is a city in England. Basically, names were derived as such: (given name) of (place). "Of (place)" was a modifier of the given name. Likewise, in Japan names were given similarly, only the formula was: (place) no (given name). "(place) no" was the modifier of the given name, since the Japanese character "no" links a modifier and the noun that follows it. In this case, "no" translates to "of" or "of the." All Japanese names were constructed thusly in olden times. Kishimoto Masashi would be written Kishimoto no Masashi, or "Masashi of the Kishimoto (clan)."
Nowadays the "no" is dropped, but we can still see its influence in the fact that, in Japanese, the given name follows the family name just as the modified noun follows the modifier.
Therefore, in my mind, the ninja of Suna simply form their names in a more classic style than the modern style used in the other nations that we've seen.
Chapter Title: Keep Yourself Alive by Queen.
Orochimaru left our organization after attempting to steal the body of Uchiha Itachi using an original ninjutsu he created in order to achieve a sort of faux immortality. We do not know what his motivations or goals are, but from the way he covets the Sharingan's powers I can only assume he wishes to copy as many ninjutsu techniques as possible. The man has a reputation for coveting knowledge of the ninja arts above all else.
Whether he wishes to use these techniques towards some purpose or simply to gather knowledge for its own sake, I do not know. The man was never accused of being stable, and I can tell you from personal experience that he is as disgusting an individual as I have ever met. He will seek out the youngest Uchiha in the hopes of taking his body as his own. The man has a reputation for seducing young ninja with promises of power in order to earn their loyalty. He will mark Sasuke with his brand in the hopes of luring him away from the Leaf Village.
Do not, under any circumstances, draw the Sannin into a fight. Even as strong as you are now you cannot hope to defeat him, and I am not sure how strongly the threat of directly defying Akatsuki weighs in his mind.
He may well kill you.
"An Uchiha? Weren't they wiped out a few years ago?"
Akira leaned over the railing to get a better look before answering Kaoru with a shrug. "I guess not."
"It's a famous clan. This should be good."
Naruto was silent as he joined his two teammates at the railing. He too was interested in how Sasuke would perform – especially considering that the boy was still likely having difficulty with his new seal. They had been one of the last teams to emerge from the forest and had little more than an hour to recover from the ordeals of the second task before being thrust into this preliminary.
"Is he just going to dodge around all day? I thought the Uchiha were ninjutsu specialists. What's he thinking?"
Kaoru's questions seemed to sum up what most of the observers were thinking. The large Konoha ninja that he was up against was attacking with taijutsu relentlessly while the younger Uchiha did his best to scramble away while occasionally wincing in pain.
The cursed seal was certainly hindering him here.
"He looks injured. I'm surprised he didn't withdraw like the pink haired girl asked him to." Akira had been paying more attention to things than Naruto had given him credit for, it seemed.
A few cheers went up from the younger Leaf ninja on the walkway opposite the Ame team when Sasuke tripped the older ninja and locked him in a solid arm bar hold. The mild celebration was replaced by gasps only a few moments later when the hold was released by a coughing, wincing Sasuke.
Kaoru frowned. "What happened? It looked like he had him and suddenly he's coughing up blood? What sort of technique did the big guy use?"
"Some sort of shock, maybe." Akira too was frowning at the odd fight below. "But why is the Uchiha still letting him get close when he has that type of melee ability?"
"There it is again. What's he doing?"
Naruto dipped his head down towards the fight below where Yoroi had clamped his hand onto Sasuke's forehead. "It's a chakra drain technique."
Two heads swung to face Naruto before swiveling back down to the battle below, where Sasuke had just come to the same conclusion.
Kaoru narrowed her eyes in thought. "I've never seen a technique like that before. It seems almost too good to be true – stealing other people's chakra like that."
"It has its drawbacks." While uncommon, there were a number of similar techniques used by ninja throughout the world to forcefully siphon chakra from their enemies in order to weaken or kill them. They were normally very useful against a vast range of ninja since they were notoriously difficult to defend against. The only major problem with them was that they didn't discriminate against what type of chakra they bled from their targets. "The range being one of them here."
"Yet the Uchiha is still trying to fight him hand to hand. Is he stupid?"
Naruto glanced to his left down the row only to find that the Suna team also seemed disappointed in Sasuke's performance. The boy clearly wasn't living up to anyone's expectations of him, though it certainly wasn't his fault.
A moment later that had changed.
Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke using the same kick that Lee had used against him in their short bout before the first stage, but quickly remembered that the Uchiha had been using his Sharingan at the time. He would have to be wary of using anything easily reproduced in front of the dark haired boy.
Then again, not much about Naruto's style was easily mimicked. The blond had never forgotten who the true villains were.
Sasuke's follow up attack was fairly impressive for something thought up on the fly, but even more impressive was his wrenching the creeping cursed seal back into dormancy halfway through his combo. Naruto shared the proctors' admiration of the act.
Good news for the Uchiha. Bad news for Orochimaru.
The match ended with Akado Yoroi planted firmly into the stone floor and Sasuke leaning heavily against Kakashi's leg. The white haired jounin waved off the medics and whisked the winded boy away while the medics placed Yoroi on a stretcher and carried him out. Naruto's eyes followed the older genin's jounin sensei as he too fled the arena. The man probably wanted to check on his student before berating him. Or consoling him. Naruto wasn't sure how they handled these things in Konoha.
"Well that was an interesting finish." Akira, as always, was as neutral as possible in his comments.
"Interesting? That arrogant moron almost lost just because he wanted to beat the other guy in close. What kind of ninja risks defeat over his ego?"
Naruto snorted. "Pretty much any kind. How many times have you ever run away from a fight?"
Kaoru sputtered for a moment before crossing her arms in front of her and huffing loudly. "It's not the same thing. Giving up and risking a loss just to prove a point can hardly be compared. One is about pride. The other is just about some arrogant sense of superiority. It's foolish."
"What if he was just trying to challenge himself?" Kaoru was so sure of her convictions that Naruto just couldn't help playing devil's advocate with her. "Maybe he didn't want an easy fight? After all, aren't we supposed to be working to better ourselves here?"
"I'm working to become a chuunin. I don't know or care what you want."
Naruto sighed and turned back to the arena below, where Aburame Shino and Akimichi Chouji were staring each other down. Or at least Shino was staring Chouji down. Maybe. Chouji just seemed a bit nervous, but a glance over his shoulder at a bearded man who must have been his sensei seemed to steel his resolve.
"Second match. Begin!"
"Here I come, Shino!" The tubby boy formed a hand seal and his body expanded until it was nearly spherical. He gave a war cry before pulling his hands, feet and head into his bulging torso and started rolling towards the so far silent and still Aburame.
"You have got to be kidding me. That's a ninja attack?"
Naruto shrugged. "I hear the more powerful members of that clan can grow to be five stories tall. How'd you like to fight a giant?"
Kaoru eyed him skeptically before shaking her head slowly and continuing to watch the match.
Shino was doing a good job of dodging the rolling monstrosity that was Chouji. Every time the meat tank would pass him by, the tall boy would brush the Akimichi's side with his palm. Naruto had a good idea of what he was doing, but the rest of the spectators seemed confused at the strategy. Had Shino been able to keep his skills secret even from his Konoha peers?
Apparently, he had. Not three minutes into the match, Chouji shrank back to his normal size and glanced around with a confused look before trying to slowly regain his feet.
He had some trouble.
"I suggest you give up. You hardly have any chakra left." The Aburame was sure being diplomatic about things.
Chouji blinked at him a few times before adopting a confused look. "What did you do?"
Akira spoke up from beside Naruto. "Another chakra drain technique?"
"Not quite."
Down below, Shino pushed his dark glasses further up his nose. "I placed my destruction bugs on you and ordered them to devour your chakra. You don't have enough left to sustain your jutsu."
The chubby boy continued to look confused. "Destruction bugs?" It was then that he looked down at himself only to find small black beetles crawling in and out of the folds of his clothes.
Then he fell to the floor. And screamed.
Naruto knitted his eyebrows together, as did Shino below him. That wasn't a very dignified way of going about things – not to mention the inadvertent slight to Shino for carrying the bugs around with him all the time.
"Get them off me! Get them off me! I give up! I give up!" Chouji continued flailing around on the ground while the proctor gave the match to the bug user.
Quickly, so that his bugs weren't injured any further, Shino called them off of the Akimichi and they scuttled across the floor and back under the long jacket that he wore. Without a word, Shino climbed back up to the Konoha side of the room and met his two teammates, who both gave him words of congratulations. The pretty jounin who stood behind him offered her approval by way of a smile and a nod.
Chouji stomped up to his team and was offered words of condolence along with what looked to Naruto like some good-natured ribbing from his sensei. Probably something about screaming like a little girl at the sight of a few bugs.
The next match was very quick and very painful.
Tsurugi Misumi, the third teammate of Yoroi and Kabuto, was paired up against Kankuro of Suna. Naruto was interested to see how the puppeteer performed in his fight.
To Naruto, the entire fight was a disappointment. Like his teammate, Misumi was a one trick pony who could apparently disjoint all of the bones in his body by using his chakra. By doing so, he gained an impressive grapple hold over Kankuro before, to all appearances, breaking his neck.
There were some serious problems with Misumi's technique from Naruto's perspective. First off, if Misumi ever came up against an opponent his equal in strength or stronger, he'd be sunk. Threatening to break someone's neck wasn't much of a threat if you weren't strong enough to actually go through with it. Likewise, if his opponent was able to move even a bit, Misumi was susceptible to cuts and other painful attacks from his captive. Finally, the contortionist was exposed to attacks from friends and foes alike while clinging to his target for any prolonged period of time. The technique was fine for a one on one tournament against genin, but for anything else was fairly useless.
Of course, the other problem with the technique arose when you wrapped yourself around something that obviously wasn't the person you were trying to subdue. Misumi was given a nasty shock when the figure he had "killed" wrapped multiple wooden arms about his body and squeezed with an inhuman strength that broke a number of his ribs. The Leaf ninja had fallen for an old trick that was a favorite among puppeteers – who were notoriously susceptible to direct attacks. Kankuro had drawn him straight to the puppet instead of to himself, and Misumi had paid the price for his mistake.
The puppeteer made his way back up to his siblings and their sensei with a smug look on his face, completely oblivious to the tight lips of his sister and instructor. Apparently they thought his relying on such a simple ploy to win was a poor decision, despite its success.
"I've never seen a puppeteer before. Makes you think twice before attacking someone head on, doesn't it?"
Naruto turned to see their sensei nod in acknowledgement before replying. The man seemed to finally be relaxing around him. "Too true, Kaoru. I once had a bad experience with a puppeteer. If you think this kid was tricky though, you should see some of the master puppeteers in Suna. They can use three or even more puppets simultaneously. It's almost like fighting a whole squad of ninja."
"How do they carry so many puppets?"
Naruto answered quickly. "They seal them, how else?"
Kaoru's eyes darted to Naruto's left shoulder before she nodded. Turning back to the arena, she adopted a pensive expression.
Behind his re-breather, Naruto grinned. It gave him a perverse sort of pleasure yanking Kaoru around by playing a fool one moment and a genius the next. He blamed his urge to toy with her perceptions of him on the lack of contact with others that he'd been subjected to the last few years.
People he had been about to kill didn't count.
Despite the brevity of the previous matches and their one-sided natures, Naruto almost wished for another such match halfway through the fourth. Sakura had been matched up against another kunoichi – a teammate of the Akimichi's named Yamanaka Ino – and then began a heated conversation about their childhood rivalry. On top of that, when the match actually did begin they were so evenly matched, and so physically weak, that they couldn't land a decisive blow on one another.
All the while Naruto could hear Kaoru mumbling under her breath about how pathetic these two were and that they gave kunoichi a poor name. Looking around, the blond could see that Temari and the kunoichi on Lee's team shared similar thoughts.
The match was deteriorating into a full-blown catfight when Ino sliced off her long ponytail and threw her hair across the arena floor. At first, Naruto was tempted to assume – along with the rest of the spectators – that the girl had lost it, but the strangeness of the action and the thoughtful look on the old Hokage's face made him look a bit closer. With some clever manipulation of her chakra through the fallen strands of hair and the clan technique that Naruto had seen her use on one of the Sound ninja in the forest, Ino managed to take over the consciousness of Sakura and was primed to forfeit for her.
Naruto thought that this was a rather twisted interpretation of the rules for the match, since it wasn't really Sakura who wished to give up and her life was in no immediate danger. Sure she couldn't continue the match in her current state, but could the Yamanaka truly claim victory? From what he had deduced in the forest, Ino couldn't take action against Sakura in this state without suffering the consequences herself. What it really came down to, he supposed, was how long Ino could hold the jutsu against another ninja. If she could do it indefinitely then theoretically her opponent was captured and the fight was over. If, however, Ino could only hold the technique for a matter of minutes, then there was no guarantee that her target couldn't break free from the jutsu and defeat her before assistance could be found.
"You can do it, Sakura! Don't give up now! Even if you lose, I promise I'll train with you every day so that you can become stronger and defeat your eternal rival!"
Everyone's attention was drawn to Lee, who was leaning as far over the railing as his balance would allow and screaming at the pink haired girl below him, who looked up at him with a scowl on her face courtesy of Ino. Almost immediately Sakura's hands grabbed her head in agony and she fell to her knees. Something about Lee's outburst must have upset the Yamanaka's control of her jutsu. Shakily, both girls regained their feet before Sakura spun around to look at the balcony above her.
"No thanks, Lee. But thanks." She turned back to Ino, who was livid. "Time to finish this."
In the end, they knocked one another out to the relief of everyone. The match had dragged on for over fifteen minutes and was possibly the most boring fight any of them had ever seen outside of the academy.
It was probably for the best that they had both been eliminated. They were almost certainly the weakest two ninja to get this far in the exam, though Naruto didn't doubt their bravery or determination. He had seen them up close in the forest.
The fifth match, in Naruto's opinion, drew a perfect parallel when compared with the one that preceded it. Once again two kunoichi entered the arena, but instead of a drawn out slugfest, this match was mercifully quick and cruelly decisive. Not two minutes into the match, Temari of Suna had knocked out the Konoha kunoichi named Tenten and had her draped painfully over her battle fan. It might not have been so bad if the blond kunoichi hadn't decided it was a good idea to toss her unconscious opponent onto the arena floor littered with her own deadly weaponry.
Naruto thought that the treatment was a bit brutal and in poor taste, but Lee was livid and wasn't shy about making his feelings known. The green clad boy leapt down to the floor in time to catch his defenseless teammate before meeting the Suna kunoichi's vicious smirk with a wrathful stare of his own.
"Nice catch."
Lee settled Tenten onto the floor carefully before replying. "What are you doing? Is that how you treat someone who gave her all in battle?"
"Shut up. Take that loser and get out of here."
That was the last straw for Lee. He leapt forward in a spin kick, ignoring Neji's yell to stop, only to be blocked easily by Temari's battle fan.
Naruto looked to the reaction of Lee's sensei, but the man seemed to approve of his student's decision. Hinata fidgeted nearby in obvious worry over the fate of her idol.
Temari and Lee locked eyes for a moment before the kunoichi pushed the boy away with her fan. The fight looked about to escalate when the spandex wearing jounin jumped down and grabbed Lee firmly.
"That's enough, Lee."
"Get back up here, Temari. Don't waste your time on that fool and his guardian."
That knocked the smug grin off of the girl's face. She turned her head to face her brother and nodded in compliance. Before she could go, however, Lee's sensei spoke up.
"Before you go, I have one thing to tell you, ninja of the Sand." The tall man patted Lee on the shoulder affectionately. "This boy is strong. Don't underestimate him."
Temari turned away and leapt up to join her brother, who had his eyes riveted on Lee. After a brief moment, he turned to look at Naruto with an equally intense glare, only to find Naruto already staring back at him. Gaara's eyes were slightly mad in anticipation of his fight, and the blond could only give him a hard look back. He broke eye contact with the unhinged boy and glanced over his siblings. The two had shrunk back from their brother as his restlessness increased, all too wary of his mood swings. Both had been following Gaara's gaze to Naruto, but neither would look him in the eye.
So much for their posturing.
"Finally."
Naruto turned to find his two teammates in conversation.
"Wish me luck."
Kaoru gave Akira a cheeky grin before patting him on the back and shoving him towards the railing. "You don't need it."
Naruto grabbed the taller boy's arm, earning him a curious look from Akira. The blond was concentrating on the dark haired boy already standing down in the ring. Shikamaru was looking at Naruto as he walked to the center, and though his expression was nearly as bored as ever, his eyes were intense. Naruto paused for a moment in thought before releasing his grip on Akira's arm and giving it a light pat. "Good luck."
Shikamaru's nod was barely perceptible, but it was there.
The whole room watched closely as the first of the Ame ninja debuted his skills. Naruto was completely in the dark concerning Akira's abilities, so he too watched closely.
As soon as Hayate began the match, shuriken were flying. Akira used both hands to fling them nonstop at the Nara boy.
Naruto was intrigued. While most ninja threw kunai or shuriken in tight braces – usually three or four at a time – Akira threw only one at a time, alternating hands all the while. As a result the shuriken landed at odd intervals and in strange patterns. Akira often threw them across his body to further stagger their flight, and while they seemed completely random, Naruto could tell from experience that the boy knew just what he was doing.
Shikamaru dodged them as best he could while trying to fumble with the occasional shuriken of his own, but Akira wasn't letting him begin a proper offense. The Nara took the small bit of time he had to realize that he was being herded into a corner of the room from which he was unlikely to emerge at the current look of things. Try as he might, he couldn't break the constant onslaught of Akira's attack to escape and soon found himself not ten feet from corner of the large room.
By Naruto's count, Akira had already thrown twice as many shuriken as the average ninja carried in his holster. Considering that he seemed unfamiliar with Naruto's own storage seals, the blond guessed that he was nearly out of weaponry.
Sure enough, when Shikamaru had seemingly nowhere left to turn Akira drew a kunai in either hand and pounced forward to end the match.
That was his only mistake.
Five feet from Shikamaru he stopped dead in his tracks, his hands drawn back in preparation of lunging forward into the Konoha ninja.
"What?"
Shikamaru's hands were clasped together and he was sweating visibly. He had barely managed his seals before the Ame ninja was upon him. "Success."
Akira struggled futilely to move, his face screwed up in effort. "What is this? I can't move?"
"You copy me now." Shikamaru pulled his hands apart and opened one wide. Akira grunted as his hands moved forward from behind him where he'd been caught to match Shikamaru's position. The kunai grasped in his left hand fell free as his grip slackened.
Akira's eyes darted around furiously before coming to rest on the dark shadow stretching from where Shikamaru stood in the dim corner to his own feet. "That shadow?" He blinked in stupefaction for a moment before looking back to the Leaf ninja. "So you caught me. Now what?"
Shikamaru raised his fisted but empty right hand up near his throat. Akira could only scowl and watch as his own hand did the same.
Only his hand held a kunai that came to rest against his jugular vein.
"Give up."
The Ame ninja was silent for a moment as thoughts raced through his head. He studied Shikamaru intently before replying. "No."
The Leaf ninja sighed. "Don't think I'll do it, do you?"
"You won't."
Shikamaru stared back at him before sighing and dropping his arm. "Troublesome. You're right, I wouldn't kill someone in this silly exam."
"So?"
Shikamaru brought his hands together before him. Akira winced as his kunai dug into the pinky of his left hand at the second joint. "I have no problem taking your fingers."
Akira gave a wry grin, his teeth clenching together from the pain. "One by one, eh?"
Shikamaru nodded solemnly.
Blood dripped to the floor from the blade digging into Akira's digit. He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Just like that, huh?" His eyes swept up to Kaoru, who gave him a small, solemn nod. "Fine. Proctor, I give up."
"Winner, Nara Shikamaru."
The dark haired Konoha ninja spared Naruto one last glance before padding up to his teammates, who greeted him enthusiastically.
Akira stayed on the arena floor as the medical ninja healed the small cut on his hand right before their eyes. A moment later he was standing next to them with disappointment written across his face.
"It's alright Akira. That technique was fucked up." Kaoru patted him on the back comfortingly. "You had him the whole time and he pulled a miracle out of his ass."
The tall boy just shook his head. "I can't believe it's over, just like that. What will people back home think?"
"They'll think you did a good job." Naruto grabbed Akira's shoulders firmly. "You did do a good job. No one will hold it against you."
"And what if none of us make it to the finals?"
Naruto turned back to the arena as the next two ninja were called down. "You don't have to worry about that. Kaoru will make it out of sheer tenacity, I'm sure."
"You're an asshole, you know that?"
Naruto didn't turn around. "I know."
"The seventh match between Inuzuka Kiba and Sai will now… begin!"
"Haha! Prepare to be defeated by the great Kiba! There's no way we can lose here, right Akamaru?" The exuberant boy received an excited yip from his small dog as he stared down the pale boy across from him. "Don't worry, this'll be over in one hit."
The boy named Sai simply stared at him indifferently.
Kiba flashed few a short sequence of hand seals before going down on all fours. "Here we go!"
The Inuzuka rushed forward at impressive speeds, for a genin, but pulled up short as Sai expertly swung a ninja-to at his head. The pale boy had produced the weapon from a sheath resting on the small of his back almost instantly.
"You're very loud."
Kiba jumped back and stared at the other boy for a moment, trying to take in the flat statement.
"And you smell."
Naruto caught Sakura covering her eyes in consternation across the room. At first he had wondered if Sai had simply been trying to rile Kiba up, but maybe the boy really had absolutely no tact.
"That's it you pasty bastard! I'm gonna shred you!" Kiba turned to his small dog while pulling something out of his weapons pouch. "Come on Akamaru!" The boy threw something small to his dog before popping another into his own mouth.
Soldier pills. They increased metabolism and in turn accelerated the chakra production of whoever took them over the period of a few days. However, most high-level ninja and those on long assignments didn't take them due to the inevitable "chakra crash" that occurred after the drugs ran their course. For this tournament situation, however, they were almost perfect.
The little dog turned red. Now that was odd, but it would explain the name Akamaru.
"Come on boy, let's do this."
The small dog jumped onto Kiba's back and, with a bark, transformed into a feral version of the boy himself. On closer inspection, Naruto could see that Kiba had grown more feral as well to match his partner. Like Naruto, he now sported claws and long fangs as well as obviously slit eyes.
A moment later, they were charging forward across the stone floor towards the unflappable, socially retarded boy. But instead of moving to dodge the dog and ninja duo out of instinct, Sai did just what Naruto would have done.
He attacked.
The Kiba he leapt towards was forced to dodge away awkwardly as Sai's dagger-like ninja-to swept after him. Two seconds later, the second Kiba caught up to Sai from behind. Before he was set upon, the pale boy switched his blade to his left hand and reached around his back to the small scroll that rested just above the sheath of his ninja-to.
Naruto wasn't sure what the purpose of the scroll was, so he was understandably surprised when Sai expertly pulled a paintbrush from the middle of the bound scroll, and after half a second of fiddling, splashed black ink into the face of the Kiba approaching from behind.
Kiba balked, his hands reaching up to cover his splattered face and gave a pitiable sputter and whine. The ink was in his eyes, in his mouth, in his nose. It looked like torture for the poor boy.
Sai reversed direction immediately and, sparing no thought to the blinded Kiba's suffering, rammed the hilt of his ninja-to into his opponent's face. A torrent of red flowed from the boy's nose, intermingling with the dark ink as it flowed down the beastly boy's front. Kiba collapsed to the floor in a bloody heap before being obscured by a cloud of white smoke.
"Akamaru!" The real Kiba had stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide in shock at how quickly his partner had been dispatched.
But Sai wasn't done.
He swiftly put away his ninja-to and pulled his scroll from his back, unfurling it in one smooth motion. Before Kiba could recover and come to his dog's aid, Sai had scratched a strange picture of two odd, stylized tigers on the blank paper. With a simple hand seal, the tigers took life and leapt off of the paper to land on the hard floor – each four feet tall and as vicious as it had been drawn.
The two tigers moved apart and started to stalk Kiba, whose eyes could only dart between the in tigers and the beaten dog whimpering on the ground.
Then Sai kicked the dog.
Kiba screamed at Sai. Sakura screamed at Sai. The rest of the Leaf ninja looked affronted. Kakashi shook his head at his student's callousness. The Sand ninja were amused, if anything.
"Guess not all the Leaf ninja are as nice as they make out to be." Naruto turned to see Kaoru looking with interest at the fight below.
"Not squeamish about kicking a hurt puppy, eh?"
She looked at Naruto like he was crazy. "Not if it wins me the match, I'm not."
Sai drew his ninja-to once again. "I'm going to kill your dog."
"No!"
The pale boy didn't even spare Kiba a glance as he bent down to put an end to the animal.
"I give up!"
Sai stopped, stood up, sheathed his blade, and leapt back up to his sensei and teammate. Sakura slapped him upside the back of his head and began to rant against him. Kakashi just sighed.
What an interesting character.
Kiba hovered over Akamaru as the medics took the small dog away. Aside from a broken nose and some bruised ribs, the small animal was perfectly fine. The Inuzuka stopped following the medics at the doorway that led to the medical facilities. His gaze darted from the doctors carrying his partner away and his teammates – or more specifically the small girl on his team who had yet to fight. With one last glance of longing after his dog, he trudged up the stairs to his teammates and began talking in low tones to Hinata while shooting wary glances across the room.
He was right to worry about her. Naruto took quick stock of the remaining fighters. Two Hyuuga – members of an infamous clan possessing one of the world's most powerful bloodline limits – one spandex-wearing taijutsu dynamo who had yet to take off whatever weights he tromped around in day and night, who also apparently knew an advanced performance enhancement technique, and an up and coming bitch with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove to her pompous uncle.
Not to mention two of the most inherently dangerous beings on the continent.
And one of those was half insane.
"She looks like she wants to curl up and die." Akira was staring intently at the Hyuuga girl in puzzlement. "What could she possibly be so afraid of? She's supposed to be a ninja, and this is only a tournament."
A quick glance at the match-up board gave Naruto his answer, though not entirely. It was strange that they'd force two members of the same family to fight here, but he supposed it was in the interest of fairness to all of the examinees. That didn't explain Hinata's crippling fear, though.
Naruto picked up on the barely restrained bloodlust rolling off of Gaara as well. The Ichibi's jinchuuriki was staring at him with a mad look on his face. No doubt he couldn't wait to take another shot at killing Naruto. Apparently five years had hardened the boy's resolve.
He wouldn't worry about that now. Hyuuga Neji – Rock Lee's teammate – had a rather frightening look on his face as he stared down his family member.
"I never thought I'd be facing you, Lady Hinata."
"Brother Neji…"
The Leaf ninja on the opposite platform were chatting animatedly with one another over the revelation. There was obviously a story here that most spectators weren't privy to.
"Before we begin the fight, I have something to say, Lady Hinata." The girl was wilting under his glare. "You don't make a good shinobi. Forfeit now."
Naruto let out a long-suffering sigh. This was going to be boring. A monologue no doubt filled with the bitter angst he had been free of for most of his life. He'd gotten over his own self-pity a long time ago. He decided right then and there that he didn't like this Hyuuga Neji.
"You are too kind. You wish for harmony and avoid conflict. You agree with others, never resisting."
Hinata wouldn't meet his eyes. The match seemed to be won before it was even begun.
"And you have no confidence in yourself. I always feel your sense of inferiority. That's why I thought it would be best for you to remain a genin." The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "But the Chuunin Exam can only be taken as a team of three. You couldn't turn down your teammates' requests, and unwillingly entered. This is reality."
The poor girl was shaking nearly as badly as she had been in the forest in the face of Gaara's bloody workmanship.
"Am I wrong?"
The words cut her. "N…no. I…I just wanted… wanted to change myself. To do it myself."
Neji frowned. "Lady Hinata. As I thought, you are a spoiled brat of the main house. People cannot change themselves! Losers are losers, their personality and strength will not change."
Naruto pursed his lips behind his re-breather. He liked Neji less and less the more he heard.
"Because people cannot change, differences are born. Expressions like 'elite' and 'loser' are created. Looks, brains, ability, size, personality… all people judge and are judged in these values. Based on these unchangeable factors, people discriminate and are discriminated against, and they suffer within their own means. Just like the fact that I am from the branch house and you are from the main house cannot be changed."
"Bingo." Naruto mumbled quietly under his breath so that only his fellow Ame ninja could hear. "If he's from the branch house then he's enslaved through a paingiver seal array."
"And what's the purpose of that?"
Naruto turned to see his two teammates watching him closely. "Well, the line that that particular clan tows is that the seal prevents their enemies from plundering the secrets of their bloodline limit when a clan member dies. However, they use a paingiver seal that can be activated remotely by anyone keyed into the seal, which just so happen to be the members of main branch of the family. Furthermore, the main branch doesn't get a seal, so their bloodline limit is free for pillaging." The blond turned back to the arena below. "As you can tell, it's not an entirely honest or judicious practice."
"How do you know all of this?"
Naruto found Kaoru giving him an odd look when he turned once again to face her. "The one who taught me about the Hyuuga was a vindictive bastard who found the whole thing terribly amusing."
Kaoru nodded slowly, obviously intrigued by Naruto's obscure knowledge.
Down below, Neji was still going on. "I have seen through many things with this Byakugan, so I know. You are just acting strong. Deep inside you just want to run away from here."
Hinata struggled to reply convincingly. "N…no. I really…"
The veins around Neji's eyes bulged as his bloodline activated. "You can't fool my eyes."
Where before the girl had been shaking a bit, now she was literally cringing in the face of her cousin's words. He went on and on, analyzing each movement as he continued to tear her down.
Akira spoke quietly. "This is pathetic. The girl may as well surrender at this point, she's in no condition to fight."
"So basically, in reality, haven't you already realized?"
"You're right, I think I've heard enough of this crap." Naruto was far removed from the verbal abuse he'd been subjected to as a young child, but the fact that she just stood there without uttering a word in her defense was sickening.
"That you cannot change yourself…"
Naruto spoke up then, his voice carrying across the nearly silent room. "My, my, my, what a terrifying technique. No wonder the Hyuuga clan is so widely feared throughout the ninja world. I almost wanted to kill myself there just to end that tedious rambling."
Neji turned to face Naruto, his eyes narrowing further.
"Are you a ninja or were you planning on talking her into submission?" Naruto kept his tone light. "Actually, that was a bit obvious, wasn't it? I don't think you'll be getting promoted through your fantastic oratory skills though, so why don't you get this over with so we can get out of here, eh?"
Neji's voice was even as he replied. "I was doing her a kindness."
"You weren't." Naruto's playful tone was gone. "Belittling her in front of all these people? It's times like these I'm glad I don't have a family." Naruto turned and gave a pointed look over to the Sabaku siblings, earning a scowl from Temari and a confused expression from Kankuro. Gaara just gave him the same mad look that that he had been sporting over the last ten minutes, his tongue running back and forth over his teeth in anticipation.
Naruto leveled his stare on Neji once again. "Now get on with it."
The two Hyuugas turned to look at one another again, one trembling and the other seething.
"You can do it, Hinata!" Kiba was jumping up and down next to his perpetually composed teammate, who seemed a bit annoyed at the dog trainer's exuberance. Despite that, Shino offered a strong nod in the small girl's direction, which coming from him was probably the equivalent of a standing ovation.
Hinata let a small smile grace her face and straightened up, taking the unique taijutsu stance of the Hyuuga clan. Neji followed, and a moment later the match was underway.
Finally.
"Brother Neji, we fight."
"Fine."
Naruto watched the two Hyuuga dance gracefully around one another, their bloodline limits guiding them to the perfect targets within the other's body. Every movement was precise. Every strike was deadly. He found it odd that Hinata had been so timid when she was obviously very talented as a ninja. If he had to make a guess, Naruto would say that she was stronger than most of the examinees in the room.
But that didn't change the fact that she was losing here. Badly.
Naruto was no expert in the Hyuuga Jyuuken style, but even he could see that the two fighters were at different levels of ability. While Hinata attacked with the flat palm strikes characteristic of the style, Neji used a combination of open palms and fingertip jabs. The only reason he'd be attacking so precisely were if he were striking at his opponent's tenketsu points directly.
Very few Hyuuga ever reached that level of proficiency with their bloodline limit. Making out the individual tenketsu points was rare.
While Hinata appeared to be controlling the match, Naruto could see that Neji was surreptitiously landing precise strikes up and down her arms. No wonder she didn't know anything was wrong – he hadn't actually attacked her inner coils yet, instead only shutting down the chakra flow in her extremities.
Her strikes were becoming less and less effective, and she didn't even know it.
Then Neji struck her in the heart. The girl doubled over, coughing up blood onto her cousin's sleeve and the floor.
Naruto looked around the room to find most of the spectators stunned, including some of the jounin. Even old Sarutobi looked impressed as Neji pushed up the sleeve of Hinata's jacket and revealed the chakra burns over her now closed tenketsu.
Neji knocked her to the ground, through with the façade that the fight up until that point had been. "Lady Hinata, this is the difference in talent that can never change – the difference that separates an elite from a loser. This is the reality that cannot be changed. At the point you said that you didn't want to run, you were setting yourself up for regret. You should be overcome with desperation by now. Forfeit."
Hinata got up, however, to the shock of those watching. Naruto wanted to shake his head at the cheers of both Kiba and now Lee, as the girl was clearly beyond her limits. She had no chance of winning now. At this rate, she was on track to be seriously injured.
Moments later, the girl was on the floor again coughing up blood.
"You don't understand anything. From the beginning your attacks have done nothing."
Hinata didn't stay down, barely regaining her feet as blood dribbled down her front. "It's not over."
"Acting tough is useless. I can see that you can barely stand. From the time of your birth the responsibilities of the Hyuuga main house have been forced upon you. You have always hated yourself for your own weakness. But people cannot change. That is destiny." Neji's eyes hardened. "There is no need to suffer anymore. Let it go."
"That's not true, Brother Neji. Because I can see it. It's not me at all. The person lost and suffering within the destiny of the main and branch houses, is you."
Neji had a mad look in his blank eyes, making him seem even more strange and fearsome than before. Without regard to the others in the room, he charged at the crippled girl with murder on his mind.
The jounin didn't let him get far. As brilliant or powerful as Hyuuga Neji purported to be, he was still a genin. It showed in the face of the four adults who stopped him in his tracks.
"More special treatment for a member of the main family?"
Naruto snorted. The fool just wouldn't let it go.
Moments later Neji's sensei had pulled him away and exchanged hushed words with him while Hinata's had called over the medics and leveled the Hyuuga boy with a nasty glare.
"If you have enough time to be glaring at me, perhaps you should be helping her." The boy had no tact, mouthing off to a superior like that in front of his own sensei and the Hokage no less.
"And to the peanut gallery up there." Neji was looking at Naruto with a superior sneer. "If you're a real ninja, you'll stay out of business that doesn't concern you. No one cares if you want to act the knight in shining armor."
The blond's reaction drew the attention of the entire room.
He laughed. And he laughed. It was loud, boisterous, and filled with mirth.
And it made Neji furious.
Two minutes later, Naruto wiped a tear from his eye and grit his teeth as he gave the Hyuuga his attention once again. "Can I be honest, Hyuuga?"
The longhaired boy didn't respond, but kept an angry glare plastered on his face.
"I find you disgusting."
Neji's scowl grew even more severe.
"You're a pathetic hypocrite, debasing your cousin's skill while extolling your own with obscure, bullshit notions like 'fate' and 'destiny.' I wonder, has it ever occurred to you that by your own admission you too are destined to meet your match and lose? You call Hinata a spoiled brat but it's you who whines about ninja preventing you from murdering a family member and a comrade in front of your own Hokage." Naruto leaned over the railing, looking down at the fuming boy below him. "You aren't even the second strongest competitor in this tournament, Hyuuga Neji, and if you ever insinuate that I'm less of a shinobi than a pathetic, arrogant, piece of shit like you again, I'll cut out one of those eyes you're so damn proud of. Fate is about to catch up with you, Hyuuga." Naruto's gaze floated to the selector board, then over to Gaara, who was looking madder than ever. "Now get off the floor, real ninja have to fight."
Neji didn't respond. He leapt up to where Lee was standing on the raised catwalk and exchanged quick words with him, all the while ignoring the frown on Lee's face.
Naruto didn't miss the fact that the Hokage had hung on his every word.
"Kaoru, I need to talk to you."
The girl looked at Naruto and quirked an eyebrow. "Don't you have more important things to be worrying about?"
He put a hand on the girl's shoulder, which she looked at curiously before meeting his eyes. "No, I don't." Naruto let his eyes slide over her shoulder to the Sand delegation, where Gaara was staring at them hungrily. "Then again, I suppose it can wait until after this match."
The floor was clear and Gekkou Hayate had retaken the center of the arena. "We're ready for the ninth round to begin, so fighters, if you please."
"Think about how much you're willing to give up just for a promotion here, Kaoru. Is it worth risking your career?"
She blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Naruto sighed and gripped the railing. "Just think about it. I'll be back in a minute." He easily flipped over the railing to land lightly on the arena floor. Slowly, he padded to the center and the two figures waiting there for him.
"Yellow, Rock Lee, are you both ready to fight?"
Naruto nodded, as did the boy in green.
"Then please, begin."
Naruto didn't move, or even take a fighting stance. Instead he cocked his head to observe his opponent, who stood straight with one arm forward – palm facing skyward – and the other tucked behind him.
"I know you don't like long-winded speeches, but I'd like to apologize for my teammate's words. Sometimes he's a bit more callous than he intends."
Naruto gave a nod. "He should be ashamed for what he said, but I wouldn't say I'm against talking. In fact, I've been hoping to fight you since before the first exam."
"You were watching me fight Uchiha Sasuke, weren't you? Well, I can only hope we have a good fight ahead of us." Lee bent his knees in preparation of lunging forward until he saw Naruto's raised hand.
"Are you sure you want to fight me as you are? I take this seriously, after all."
Lee frowned for a moment before nodding. "Then I'll be giving this my all as well." With that he leapt forward.
Naruto watched the boy rush towards him at speeds that exceeded what most of the other genin could manage. Eight feet from where Naruto stood, Lee leapt off the ground and began a powerful roundhouse kick.
It was slow. Much too slow. The boy barely had time to react as Naruto pre-empted his attack and sent him sprawling across the arena floor.
"Lee!"
Naruto looked indifferently up to the railing to find the green clad jounin – Maito Gai, if his memory of the Bingo Book served him – clutching the railing, eyes wide in fear. The other jounin were also tense and watching intently along with the old Hokage. Kaoru and Akira were struggling to close their gaping maws. It was pretty funny, actually.
As he wiped the small bit of blood from his kunai onto his sleeve, Naruto watched Lee pick himself up off of the ground. The shaken boy felt at the shallow cut on his left side just over his kidney and drew his bloody fingers in front of him to look at in surprise.
"You're lucky this is just an examination. Out in the field you'd be bleeding to death right now." Naruto slipped the kunai back into his weapons pouch and frowned at the recovering boy. "I told you I was going to take this seriously, so I'd appreciate it if you gave me the same courtesy."
Lee looked confused for a moment before looking down at his feet. Then he looked up to Gai for guidance.
That pissed Naruto off. "Don't look at him!" Lee's head snapped around to stare at the blond. "You've been wearing those ever since this exam started, even in the Forest of Death where killing was allowed." His cerulean, beast-like eyes narrowed in intensity. "Do you even understand that those Sound ninja were planning to kill you? To kill your comrades? I wonder… just when is fighting at your full strength necessary, Rock Lee?"
Lee was at a loss for words. All he could do was look up at his sensei again, but the man was watching Naruto and made no motion.
"I'll make this very easy on you, Lee. Take off your weights and give me a proper fight, or I'll kill you. It's as simple as that."
The black haired boy stood still and contemplated Naruto's words before reaching down and sliding off his orange leg warmers, revealing weights with "guts" stenciled down the sides. Naruto's eyes widened slightly as Lee let the weights drop to the floor from knee height. Despite such a short fall, they still cracked the stone slab in a spider web of fractures.
"Happy?"
Naruto's re-breather hid his smile. "Excited, actually. Well, maybe happy too. A little."
Lee gave his own small grin. "In that case, here I come!"
With that he was off. Naruto was legitimately impressed. The boy was easily as fast as some of the jounin he'd fought over the years. Clearly he hadn't been neglecting his physical conditioning, even if he had fallen victim to the pitfalls of weight training that Pain had warned him of all those years ago. His attacks were woefully predictable.
Naruto stayed low to the ground as he dodged and danced around Lee's powerful kicks and punches. He didn't have time to spare taking in the reactions of the crowd, though he could guess that he and Lee were drawing surprised looks. Lee was a taijutsu prodigy on the same level as Hyuuga Neji himself. Perhaps his teammate was the one he had been hiding his true skills from?
Lee chased Naruto around the room for nearly two minutes, landing only light or glancing blows that were easily deflected and shrugged off by the blond ninja. Naruto was loving the experience. For once he wasn't fighting with his life on the line, and though Lee had a longer reach than he did, the difference wasn't nearly as great as Naruto was used to. Here he could get in close and experiment against the boy's attacks – dodging, twisting, and grappling to his heart's delight. He could tell that Lee was enjoying himself as well, though as time wore on the taller boy was slowly becoming more and more frustrated.
Finally, Lee jumped back and breathed deeply. Naruto straightened and cocked his head to the side in question.
"Why don't you fight back?"
The blond shrugged. "I was having a good time. Honestly, I want to see what else you can do. I did see you fight in the forest, after all."
Lee nodded slowly. "That technique is very dangerous."
"I'm well aware of how dangerous a ninja battle can be, but you won't win by dancing around me, fast as you are."
"Alright, Yellow. You've already shown me that you're a worthy opponent. It would be rude of me to hold back against you now."
"I don't take offense, since as you say, your techniques are rather risky." Lee's eyes widened a bit and Gai straightened on his perch above. "They're the real reason I wanted to fight you, after all. You can open some of the Celestial Gates, correct?"
A murmur rose up from the spectators at that pronouncement. Naruto noticed Kakashi giving Gai an angry glare before they broke into heated conversation.
"How do you know about that?"
"Well, the first hint was your sensei. He's notable for being able to use them in combat on top of being one of the world's foremost masters of taijutsu." The chatter had died down, and all eyes were on the heavily clad Ame ninja. "Then there's the fact that this is the third time I've seen you fight, and never once have you used even a simple ninjutsu. It makes me wonder if you don't have the chakra to throw around those sorts of techniques."
Another voice bit into the conversation. "And what does that have to do with anything?"
Naruto looked up to Sakura looking down at him from in front of Kakashi and Gai. "Well, as your sensei can probably tell you, the Celestial Gates normally regulate the amount of chakra a person can flow through his major pathways. By forcefully opening the pathways, a person can channel more chakra than normal and surpass the body's physical self-limitations. Obviously, the Gates are there for a reason, so forcing extra chakra through them is both difficult and dangerous. Furthermore, the more chakra a person has in his inner coil system, the more dangerous forcing it through the Gates becomes. For a jounin with even average chakra reserves, opening more than three Gates makes his chakra incredibly unstable and risks untimely death from being ripped apart by his own power. That's why the Gate manipulation techniques are more suited to those ninja who have small chakra reserves, who are, consequently, the same type of ninja that are likely to specialize in taijutsu."
Lee was nodding slowly, as was Gai from the walkway.
"So, how many Gates can you open?"
The green clad boy grinned wide. "No more than I need to." He dashed forward with blinding speed and planted his left hand and knee into the floor, before thrusting his right foot high into the air… right where Naruto's chin used to be.
Lee's eyes widened and his head turned as Naruto spoke from the floor right next to him, crouched low on all fours. "I've seen that move four times now, it won't work."
Lee closed his eyes in anticipation before Naruto's leg swept out and knocked him across the hard floor for a second time. He got to his feet quickly this time, only to find that Naruto too had stood up.
"You can show me what you can really do or you can give up. I understand if you're reluctant to use such a risky ability, but I've never fought an opponent who could open more than the first Gate in battle. If you're not going to try to win this bout, then I'll finish it quickly."
"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself? You've only hit me twice, after all."
Naruto crossed his fingers in a seal familiar to the high level ninja in the room. It didn't prevent their surprise, however, when a moment later a dozen Naruto's stood in a line facing Lee. "These are shadow clones. Each one is just as solid – just as real – as I am. Do what you need to do to win. Or don't. I'm finished being patient."
Lee didn't look to Gai this time. As the clones began to charge him, he closed his eyes and concentrated.
Then he was off. The clones tracked him expertly as his speed increased even beyond what Naruto was capable of. Lee's skin turned red and his veins bulged.
He was serious now.
The twelve Narutos split into groups of three and stood back to back with one another. They each drew a kunai in either hand and crouched down low, making as small a target as possible for the speeding Lee. "How many gates?"
"Five."
The first of the clones burst into smoke as Lee's knee broke its guard and pulverized its nose. His success was short-lived, however, due to the kunai that bit into his calf as he moved through the small group. One of the other two Narutos in the cluster had turned as its brother dispersed and slashed at Lee's trailing leg.
The spandex-wearing boy barely registered the dull pain – thanks to his release of the Gates – before he had to dodge madly as nearly two-dozen kunai tore through the air where he had just been. He'd avoided most of the damage, but still bore shallow slashes across his body where the kunai had nicked him.
He'd have to make this fast.
Lee jumped back into the fray immediately. The longer he held the gates open the more damage he'd suffer as a result. He continued to plunge through the groups of opponents, but couldn't avoid the follow-up damage. It was one thing to overwhelm a single opponent with his speed, but somehow with every clone that was eliminated the rest were able to hone in on his exact position and trajectory. Though he had avoided any serious blows, the small, repeated cuts were beginning to make him lightheaded and his vision fuzzy.
There was only one group of three remaining – he was sure – though they were difficult to make out through the cloud of smoke that had formed on account of the clones dispersing. One of them was his real opponent. He'd have to deal with all three at once. His body was breaking under the strain already.
Lee leapt into the fray with his favorite roundhouse kick, catching the first Naruto high in the head. Landing quickly, he drove his elbows into the backs of the two remaining figures, which both promptly vanished into more smoke.
All three were clones. He swung his head around frantically trying to find the real Naruto, but even through the thick smoke he could tell that he was utterly alone.
Lee didn't have time to catch his breath before an elbow caught him in the back of the neck from directly above. The force of the blow drove his head into the stone floor hard enough to crack the heavy tile. His head spun and he spat up blood from a busted lip.
The green clad boy couldn't stop his Gates from closing back up. He could barely prop himself up off of the floor.
"Great fight. That really was impressive, Lee, but if you're going to be using a technique like that you should learn to keep your eyes from flinching closed because of the pain. You missed me catching a great spot on the ceiling. I can make a clone pretty quickly these days."
Lee coughed up a bit more blood from his place on the floor. "I can't believe I lost after all that. I trained so hard."
"No doubt, but I wouldn't get too down if I were you. They have these little exams every few months, and you're a damn sight better than most of the genin in this competition."
A soft pat on the floor announced the arrival of another ninja even as Hayate walked over to call the match. "He's right, Lee. You showed everyone here how brightly your spirit burns. No one will doubt your talent now." Gai turned to face Naruto with a neutral expression written across his face. "You're very good."
"I've had to be." With that, Naruto rejoined his teammates, ignoring their amazed stares and the few pairs of eyes that still followed him from across the room. Now, hopefully, his words would carry some weight.
"H-how?"
"How did I get so good?" Naruto leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I've been a ninja for a long time. But that's not the issue right now. The problem, Kaoru, is that you're about to fight the most dangerous ninja in this tournament, and you're not going to win."
The girl's awed expression melted away almost instantly, morphing into an accusing glare. "How do you now what I'm capable of? I could…"
"Shut up and listen!" The blond softened his harsh look and continued. "I'm sure you're very strong, but Gaara shouldn't even be competing in this tournament. He's a mad killer, and no doubt he'll try to murder you as well if you get into the ring with him."
"I can take care of myself!"
"I'm telling you, you can't. You've never fought anyone like him before. Most of the jounin you know probably wouldn't be able to defeat him."
"How do you know all of this, Yellow?"
Naruto turned to Akira and let out a sigh. "I've fought him before. He has abilities unlike anything you've ever seen and no qualms about killing whatsoever. He already wiped out one of our comrades' teams in the forest."
The taller boy's eyes widened. "You're sure about this?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't matter! I came here to win and I'm not just going to throw in the towel like that. I'm going to fight."
Naruto was silent for nearly an entire minute before responding. "Gaara can control the sand that he keeps in the gourd he carries. If he captures you with it, he'll kill you regardless of what the proctor might say. You need to surrender before he has you. Understand?"
"Why do you seem so sure he'll catch me? I…"
Naruto grabbed her shoulders once again and shook her, maybe a little more strongly than he'd intended. "Do you understand?"
Kaoru nodded slowly.
"Your pride is worth nothing if you're dead. There will always be other chances to get promoted. Even your uncle would rather have you living with a loss under your belt than a corpse for a niece." Naruto released his grip and gave both of her arms an affectionate pat. "Now, good luck."
"Good luck, Kaoru."
"Thanks guys. I promise I'll give up before anything bad happens, alright?" With that, she jumped to the floor below just as Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand.
"The final round between Iwamoto Kaoru and Sabaku no Gaara. Begin!"
Kaoru leapt back immediately. Clearly she was taking Naruto's words to heart, though the insane gleam in the Sand ninja's eyes might have been warning enough to keep her distance.
Gaara stood still and observed her like a starving animal would eye a slab of meat. It was amazing to Naruto that he was able to hold back his attack so long.
The Ame kunoichi made the first move. Flashing through a series of hand seals she bent down to the ground and dug her slender fingers into the groove between the massive tiles of stone that made up the floor. With the aid of her chakra, the girl lifted the entire slab from the floor before spinning on her heal and hurling the rock square across the room at the still stationary Gaara like a massive discus. Like her uncle, she seemed to be a powerful earth user.
Gaara didn't even flinch as a torrent of sand rushed out of his gourd and swatted the projectile out of the air like a particularly annoying gnat. "Is that all?"
Kaoru frowned as Gaara's sand rose up and swept towards her like a wave. Naruto noticed that she moved well, but still struggled to keep away from the sand as it raced after her – cracking and crushing the stone tiles along the floor with every missed crash. As she moved, Kaoru threw shuriken and kunai at the stationary boy, but quickly found that even throwing from directly behind him couldn't penetrate his shield of sand – part of which was held back near his body to prevent her long-range attacks from landing instead of joining the vast majority in trying to crush her. A minute of this later, the formerly smooth floor surrounding Gaara was broken into smaller bits.
A small smile spread across Kaoru's face. Quickly flashing through a series of hand seals, she planted her feet firmly on the ground. It took a moment before her strategy became clear. The broken shards of the stone floor rose into the air all around Gaara. The boy responded by directing a death glare at the kunoichi before him.
The hundreds of stone shards of Kaoru's Tile Shuriken technique flew at the Sand jinchuuriki at incredible speeds from every direction, taking advantage of the fact that the boy had only a meager amount of sand nearby to defend with. Sensing the danger, the malicious wave of sand that was nearly upon Kaoru reversed direction towards its master to aid in his defense.
It was too late.
Gaara was pelted from all sides by the chunks of floor and was lost in the dust cloud kicked up by the crumbling tiles. Kaoru drew a kunai and moved in for the kill with a satisfied smirk on her face.
Until she stopped dead more than ten feet from her target. Sand wrapped around her feet and snaked up over her legs from the floor, rooting her to the spot. Kaoru was too shocked by the vision in front of her to react.
Gaara stood just as he had before, but now with his skin cracking and crumbling to the floor. Naruto had seen this before when they had fought nearly five years prior. It was the shell of sand the jinchuuriki kept over his skin in battle. He was still completely uninjured.
The sensation of sand creeping up and around her neck and arms brought Kaoru out of her stupor. She gasped and struggled to break free, but it was far too late. Her eyes darted around wildly, looking for a way to escape, before they came to rest on Naruto.
He gave her a meaningful nod.
"I…" Her announcement was cut off by a hacking cough followed by sputtering and spitting. Panic began to sink in as the sand began to cover her mouth.
Gaara wasn't going to let her surrender.
Naruto glanced around to see if anyone was planning on stepping in, but it seemed that everyone was either too caught up in the spectacle or content to keep watching. They probably didn't know that Gaara would kill her for the hell of it.
Kaoru's head whipped around wildly until it too was held still by the sand, her terrified eyes darting around trying to find anyone to help her. To save her.
Gaara was savoring the moment, all of his attention on his helpless prey. The Sand team knew to look away – only the jounin was still watching with uncertainty. He was probably wondering how bad the fallout from his student killing a defenseless opponent would be. The Konoha shinobi all seemed too stunned to act. All except for the Hokage, who was taking in the drama below with a bitter grimace plastered on his ancient face.
Naruto surreptitiously drew a kunai. Sarutobi's old eyes followed the small movement, as did Kakashi's. The others were too taken in to notice. Gaara had raised his arm towards the helpless Kaoru. Kiba and Shino were cringing slightly.
As he brought the kunai up to chest level, Naruto saw Kakashi tense, ready to spring into action. What he thought Naruto was planning to do, the boy couldn't be sure. The Hokage met Naruto's eyes but made no move to interfere.
Gaara grinned widely, oblivious to the drool leaking out of the corner of his mouth. His fingers twitched in anticipation.
Kaoru's eyes were pleading. At this rate, the poor girl was going to die.
Naruto flipped the kunai in his hand – gripping the blade tightly – and slammed the ring on the butt of the weapon into the metal handrail as hard as he could.
Gaara jumped nearly a foot before looking around frantically for the source of the ringing sound. So did everyone else.
Naruto slid the kunai back into his weapons pouch with two-dozen pairs of eyes on him. "I think we're done here."
His words knocked the spectators out of their stupor. The old Hokage caught his eye and gave a barely perceptible nod before pulling his red hat low over his eyes.
"Proctor! The match?"
Hayate stared up at Team Thirteen's sensei before blinking and turning back to the entombed Kaoru and the bewildered Gaara. "The winner is Gaara. You will release your opponent, now."
The Suna ninja stared at the barely conscious girl in front of him before reluctantly recalling his sand. Kaoru collapsed to the uneven floor and gasped for breath, hot tears pouring down her face. Akira and her sensei were beside her in an instant, offering comforting words to their distraught comrade.
Kaoru looked up at Naruto through her tears.
She would be alright.
"Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Gai. I'd like a word with your students before you retire for the day."
"Is that necessary, Lord Hokage?"
"It will only take a few minutes of your time, Kakashi."
"What is this about?"
"I need to know what interaction, if any, your students had with the Ame ninja known as Yellow."
"Clearly he's not a genin."
"You mean he isn't genin level, Kurenai. Neither are the Suna ninja, however, nor are some of the students of the jounin here. Unfortunately, I have no say in whom our allies enter into these exams. It seems as though Hanzou has sent this boy here to make a statement."
"I worry about Neji, Lord Hokage. Yellow doesn't seem to have any qualms about injuring him severely, and I don't believe that the boy will find his humility before he goes up against him in the finals. Before today, I would never have believed that someone in this exam could defeat Lee at full strength."
"Which is precisely why we need to gather as much information on this boy as possible, Gai. I'm afraid we only saw a glimpse of what Yellow is capable of."
A/N: Long chapter. I hope you enjoyed the fights. Most of them were one-sided, I know, but I didn't see the point in building the suspense for something like this when most of the outcomes were obvious from the start.
Next Chapter: Who Are You? by The Who