Alright! 18th Chapter!
195 reviews, 49,000 hits!
On a funny note: jon s. an anon, believes that the pale man is, in fact, Orochimaru! jon...I can't start to tell you how wrong you are...
...yeah, I know I haven't updated for more than a week, but...well...I don't actually have an excuse...Just deal with it. in response, I got quite a few votes to have Pyron eat Sakura, and only one with a plea NOT to have the lovable dragon feast on her flesh. You know what that means...Well...I know what that means, and you all get to find out XD...ON WITH THE SHOW!
Disclaimer! I am pretty sure that I don't own Naruto, and neither do I own Elric...or at least that is what I am told...I'LL SHOW THEM! I do know I own original characters, and if you want to use them, just ask.
"Blah"-person speaking...'Blah'-person thinking..."Blah"-Demon speaking...'Blah'-Demon thinking..."Blah"-Memory speaking(they don't think)...'Blah'-Pyron speaking through mental pathways.
Leaves of Steel, Chapter 18
Naruto's Mindscape
Paw-steps could be heard, running away from the great hall in the cerebral castle. Inside of said hall, The Yondaime-Figment was face down on the table, breathing heavily. Clutching his throat, it wasn't long before he fell silent. The hall was empty, and a pool of blood formed at the figment's head.
The rabbit twirled a set of keys on the right paw, the left touching a seemingly random series of stones on the wall. As each was touched from a standing position, they emitted a faint glow. Once the stones finally were glowing in the shape of a door, one appeared. The rabbit pushed the keys into the glowing door's lock, and twisted.
"All too easy..." the small mammal murmured, "i think my cover story successfully worked. The Yondaime is a fool..."
The critter pushed the door open and stepped inside. What cam in to view was a giant colored cube, all mixed around.
"What the fuck!?" screamed the bunny, "A fucking Rubik's cube? ...Oh, I get it, the core is inside...This might take a while..." and with that the bunny began to spin sections.
Competition arena: 7:59AM
Sakura tied on her headband, drawing the ends tight. She drew a handful of kunai, and began to wrap explosive tags around them. Naruto stood still, contemplating his inevitable victory. He motioned for a cloaked figure to approach. Said cloaked figure had a massive blade strapped openly on the back.
"Yonshu...I leave this one to you..." the necromancer said, pushing off the ground to jump behind the undead warrior.
"Hai, Naruto-sama!" the undead said, throwing off the cloak to show a gleaming skull.
Yonshu HAD consumed all of his flesh, and he had glowing joints to show for it. Only his eyes remained, swiveling backwards into his skull, so as to freak out the pink-haired excuse for a ninja.
Sakura shuddered, but strung a steel wire through the ends of the kunai. Both parties bowed to each other, Yonshu making sure to freak Sakura out by removing his head as if it were a hat as he did.
"Begin!" shouted the Sandaime, raising a hand.
Sakura started it off, by throwing her chained kunai around the skeleton, kunai looping around the bones, as well as each other. Yonshu stood quietly, waiting to see what would happen.
BOOM!a blast was heard, shooting up parts of the floor and such, broken kunai flying every which way. After the smoke had cleared, a pile of bones, mixed in with some kunai and broken steel wiring remained. Sakura grinned, and Naruto sighed.
Yonshu's bones began to rattle, and instantly spread out into the shape of a disassembled skeleton. The pink-haired girl was shocked, and then tripped by a rouge humerus bone. Oh, the comedy.
Yonshu snapped back together, brushing the soot off of the gleaming-white calcium and protein deposits, "Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" the skeleton taunted in a dark voice, "Anything else you would like to show me? Or will I have to actually start fighting?"
Yonshu was quickly answered by a formation of your standard, run-of-the-mill bunshin. They surrounded him, throwing fake punches, with a real one mixed in every once in a while. When he tried to retaliate, the girl kawamari'ed out, switching with a painful floor tile.
Yonshu punched the rock, shattering the stone into small bits. As the dust cleared, an eerie green glow surrounded his hands, with small black bubbles popping inside of a luminescent sphere around his hands.
"Demonic Arts: Ectoplasmic orb!" the post-mortem boy shouted, hurling the dark mass at the girl.
Sakura barely dogged, but the ball scraped her hair, burning a clean hole right through it. After the ball had exited the hole it made, pink hair inside of it began to swirl around rapidly, slowing the ball.
"Demonic Arts: Material Golem!" Yonshu called, as the hair spun and grew, morphing into a giant, pink, hairy golem.
Pyron nodded to his new student, 'Good job, I didn't think you'd get down what I taught you so quickly...'
Yonshu's teeth formed into an eerie grin, as the golem rose from the ground, howling. Sakura paled at the concept of fighting her own hair, but quickly dispatched the weak golem with a simple academy katon jutsu.
"Ha! You call that a threat?" The weak genin called out, facing her defeated hair.
The skeleton was irked, so he decided to aggravate the puny mortal even further, "You call that a hairstyle?" he said, pointing to the incredibly uneven hair Sakura was now sporting.
Sakura roared with anger as her second personality took over, "YOU WILL DIE!" the scary girl screamed, as Yonshu shrugged.
"Been there, done that, got the T-shirt." he said drawing his blood-red Zanbato.
He rushed the girl in his kenjutsu (swordsmanship) stance, spinning clockwise to an attempted disabling (read: killing) blow. Sakura caught the blade with as much chakra as she could muster with her anger. She threw the skeleton, along with his blade, into the wall.
"Fucking bitch..." Yonshu murmured, prying himself from the wall.
As soon as he got free, Sakura pounded her chakra-charged fist into his skull, subconsciously releasing the energy as she hit. Yonshu's skull was everywhere, and Sakura walked away from the apparently finished skeleton. She heard a clinking sound, and turned to receive a punch to the gut from a headless skeleton.
Naruto smirked, as he channeled energy into the steel pins he had pyron insert into all of the bones. The skeleton roamed past the weakened weak girl, to collect pieces of his skull, which floated above his head as they were found, re-forming.
"I'll get you for that..." he stated clearly, running an energy-filled finger over the cracks, repairing them almost instantly.
"Demonic Arts: Demon State!" he called, as his bones began to change shape.
Sakura recovered from her injury quickly, rushing the bent-over form, "LIKE I'LL LET YOU FINISH THAT!" she shouted, punching what she perceived to be his form.
Her punch hit only air, as the monster reappeared behind her. it uttered some uncomprehendable words in an ancient language, and shoot out a stream of green fire. Sakura just barely flipped over it, but suffered 2nd-degree burns from the proximity. The fire dug into the ground, coming only meters away from a gas line.
Sakura picked up the skeleton's sword in an attempt to use it against the new rival. Naruto smirked as her saw the former Yonshu deliver a raking blow with his claw to the flirtatious kunochi that cares more about her crush than she does her skill.
Sakura fell to the ground from the searing pain that followed, and was about to be finished off by a massive bone spike when something caught the gleaming spike.
"Yonshu," the Necromancer stated, "that will be enough. Return to your standard state, as you have proven to her that she is not ready to become a chunin." Naruto commanded, before turning to Sakura, "Sakura, you really need to stop failing so hard at life. When you recover, spend your time training, so you DON'T get killed in the field." he reprimanded.
Yonshu had changed back when he felt an odd sensation at his left hand. The bone fell apart, turning to dust as it his the floor. His left arm followed it partially, leaving a jagged bone left at the middle of the forearm.
Naruto looked concerned as he scooped up a handful of the dust off the floor, "Yonshu, you only have a set amount of chakra...I suggest you conserve it for when you really need it." he said with a sad look in his eyes.
The skeleton nodded faintly, before sheathing its sword with its one remaining arm.
Sarutobi coughed to gain attention, "Winner...Uzumaki Naruto!"
Tenten ran up to her love, hugging him, "So amazing Naruto-kun! You didn't even have to fight!" she whispered into his ear, following up with a lick to said appendage used for hearing, earning a blush from the boy.
Hinata was filled with rage, but knew that she would get her vengeance soon, so she pressed a hidden button in her sleeve to start the next match.
The board spun through names, passing Naruto and Sakura's, as it normally would.
Hyuuga Neji vs. Aburame Shino
Neji and Shino both walked down non-chalantly. The both bowed to each other, and looked towards the Sandaime.
Sandaime looked around for a second, his Alzheimer's kicking in for a while, before he sheepishly grinned, "Begin!" he Shouted, as if he was attempting to make up for the delay.
Shino had already been placing bugs around the field. Neji activated his Byakugan, and soon called out Shino.
"I see your bugs! No use hiding them from my all seeing-" he said, before he was interrupted by Shino.
"-Shut up. I know about your eyes. No use bragging, this match will be mine." the bug user calmly stated.
Neji charged, stopping before he touched the boy, "You are in range of my divination!" he called, to which Shino sighed.
"2 palms! 4 palms! 8 palms! 16 palms! 32 palms! 64 palms!" he called on each hit.
Shino stood motionless, then began to laugh. Neji stood gawking as he delivered a random flurry of jyuken strikes to the boy's tenketsu. This only caused Shino to laugh more.
Kiba knew that something must be wrong if Shino was laughing. Hinata really didn't give a damn, as she was too busy fantasizing about Naruto. Kurenai was not present at the moment, she had told the Heiress something about "Being busy with some of the finer pleasures of life" it was odd how Elric was missing as well...
Shino stooped laughing, "It would appear that my Kikai bugs ate the chakra behind your attack. After all, my exit holes are at the same points as my tenketsu..." he stated calmly, punching Neji in the stomach, before releasing a horde of bugs onto the boy.
Neji became weak, Shino was getting ready to hold a kunai to his throat, as Neji felt a death-glare from Hinata.
'Hinata-sama, I understand that if I fail, I'll probably have to undergo that same punishment again...' Neji thought.
Nobody noticed Hinata making a set of hand-seals before Neji felt a massive wave of Chakra wash over him.
Hinata giggled as she saw the effects of her newly created jutsu, 'The caged bird seal isn't all that bad. It can also act, according to what I've found on my "test subject", to transfer chakra from other branch members. Right now, the servants should be feeling a little woozy.' the creepy-cute girl thought.
Neji suddenly sped up, in reference to Shino, and delivered a fist to the back of Shino's neck, causing the bug user to black out. Neji smirked triumphantly as Sarutobi declared him the victor. Neji promptly fainted.
'But that isn't all it does! It then returns the borrowed chakra two-fold! That is what you get for weakness, Neji!' the girl thought viciously.
Hinata waited for the medics to get the hell off of the field, then pressed the hidden button. The board spun through the names again, skipping over previous fighters. The selection process stopped, and landed.
Hyuuga Hinata vs. Sabaku no Temari (I do this because she is Gaara's sister)
Temari looked at her opponent, smirking for the prospect of an easy battle. She jumped down, staring at the Hyuuga to follow suit. Hinata put on a fake face of worry, and slowly came down. The two bowed to each other, Hinata trying to look nervous while she did.
Sarutobi raised his hand from an easy-chair, mumbling something about, "Begin"
Hinata ran at Temari, who was thinking about dodging at the last second, when Hinata surprised her with a jyuken strike to the chest. Temari jumped back, and began to cough up blood. Hinata charged again.
'What is going on? Baki said she was the weakest one on her team, but-' Temari was thinking before she was burst in upon by Hinata's intent.
"HERE!" shouted Hinata, slowing down before she hit a small place on Temari's stomach.
Temari smirked as she felt no damage being done. Hinata smirked back, and twisted her hand, spinning her own body as she rotated it faster and faster.
Hinata narrated her own actions inside of her head, so as to remember what she had done to Neji the first time she tried it out, 'Neji was teaching me the Kaiten, when I thought of this: What if one made a Kaiten INSIDE someone else's body? Maybe by spinning the chakra inside of the victim's chakra repository in the stomach, the victims chakra can be manipulated against them! After that, I draw the turmoil-infused chakra out of the tenketsu, removing it all, and converting it into a jyuken strike!'
Hinata did just that.
Temari was in intense pain as the Hyuuga had scouted her Chakra system's direction, spun the other way, drawing the Chakra from the system backwards, and converting it into a typhoon. She felt her Tenketsu open, and Hinata stop spinning.
The pale-eyed girl drew out the chakra, now mixed with Temari's own blood, "Jyuken: Bloody Palm!" she called out, slamming the bleeding chakra into Temari's stomach again.
Temari screamed in a burst of pain, and flew into a distant wall from the force.
"Never underestimate your opponents!" the Hyuuga heiress called out, "That wasn't lethal, so get up and fight me!"
Temari stood shakily, using her fan as a crutch, before raising it without warning, and opening it with great force at the girl, who was smirking.
The sides of the fan came back to hit Temari, who let out a yelp of surprise. Hinata rushed up to her, and kicked her in the solar plexus.
The lavender-eyed girl pulled a large piece of paper-like stuff from her pack, spreading it to show Temari, "Looking for this?" she asked, holding the guts of Temari's fan.
Temari's eyes grew wide, and saw Hinata's foot come down on her head, knocking her out.
Sarutobi was about to declare Hinata the winner when the self-same girl interrupted, "Winner, Hyuuga Hinata, Heiress to the Hyuuga clan!" Hinata walked back up to the balcony.
A team of medics rushed Temari, "She has almost no chakra left! Her inner coils are heavily damaged! Large head trauma! Get her to the Hospital! Stat!" the lead medic called out to the others.
Naruto looked at the Hyuuga with surprise, he didn't know she could be that vicious. Hinata caught his gaze with a fierce blush. Gaara was also staring at the girl in surprise, he had KNOWN his sister was strong, just how strong was THIS girl? She didn't even seem winded.
Hinata smirked at her full chakra levels, 'I stole her chakra with that Bloody Palm strike, damn, I'm good. Even the jyuken strikes were not pushes, but pulls. I used her own chakra, by manipulating it with my own chakra control. That reminds me, when I get home, I'll have to smack that look off of my sister's face. Maybe even show her who's boss by means of Bloody Palm...' Hinata had an evil grin, somehow adorable, on her face.
Tenten was staring at the girl, freaked out at how much she had changed. Neji HAD said she had "changed", and maybe THIS was what he meant.
The Heiress pressed the button before anyone noticed the time lapse, and the board came to a decision.
Kinuta Dosu vs. Sabaku no Kankuro
Dosu jumped down in a hurry, and Kankuro just walked on down. The two faced each other, and Kankuro gave a bow. He stared at Dosu, who looked back.
"You are supposed to bow, you know." Kankuro reminded the sound ninja.
Dosu raised an eyebrow in anger, "I AM BOWING, ASSHOLE!" he cried out, before mumbling, "It's not my fault I have a spine problem..."
Kankuro put a hand behind his head, before the Sandaime called, "Begin!"
Dosu charged with his melody arm, and hit Kankuro full-force for insulting his spinal column. Kankuro's face-paint fell off to reveal a puppet, who stabbed Dosu with a poison-tipped blade. Dosu doubled over in shock, and Kankuro stabbed him again and again until he fell over.
"Too easy..." Kankuro sighed from the puppet's back.
Sarutobi quickly declared, "Winner, Sabaku no Kankuro!"
Hinata forced the Boards hand yet again.
Nara Shikamaru vs. Tsuchi Kin
"...How troublesome..." a certain lovable slacker groaned as he made his way to the ground, "I have to fight a girl..."
Kin happened to be raised in sound, and, because of what the name implies, heard his little remark, "Hey! Sexist! Stop whining!"
As soon as kin and Shikamaru attempted to bow to each other, the Sandaime said, "Begin" in a bored tone.
Kin threw needles at the Nara, who caught them all with his shadow. he had, after all, trained with Naruto at a young age to forget about about stupid, controlled techniques, and focus on just manipulating shadows and their corresponding objects or persons. He pulled the senbon to him, and pocketed them.
"HEY! Those are mine!" Kin shouted.
Naruto smirked, remembering a lesson he taught the lazy and wasteful Nara, "Never waste materials, because...DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THEY COST!?"
Apparently, Shikamaru remembered as well, and fingered the senbon. in his pocket.
Kin had decided to try to piss him off, "I SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH MY NEEDLES, PERVERT!" she shouted at the sight of him 'caressing' her senbon.
Shikamaru mouthed, 'Troublesome', and tripped the girl with his shadow.
Kin tried to get up when she noticed she couldn't. Shikamaru had his hand outstretched, and he was controlling HER shadow from a distance without touching his own to it. He made her own shadow move to choke her, until she blacked out. He let the Medic-nin take care of THAT little problem.
"Winner, Nara Shikamaru!" voiced the Hokage.
Hinata immediatly pressed the button, to avoid an awkward silence.
Tenten vs Akimichi Choji
Tenten jumped down to the floor, that is, AFTER enraging Hinata by kissing Naruto deeply. Choji walked down like the blubber-bag he is, (YAY CHOJI!) eating a bag of Barbecue chips all the way. He got down, and bowed to Tenten at the same time she bowed to him.
Sarutobi got out his own bag of barbecue chips, and began to eat saying, "Begin." as he crunched.
Tenten started it off by throwing a kunai as fast as she could at Choji, embedding itself in his thigh.
Choji stared at the wound, "That wasn't very nice..." he said, beginning some hand seals.
Turning himself into a human tank, he rolled at Tenten, who simply pulled out a spear, and waited for him to come. Choji couldn't stop, and impaled his arm quite heavily.
Screaming in pain, his meat tank jutsu went awry, and he smacked Tenten with a massive arm to the side. Tenten grabbed onto the wall she landed on with chakra, and fired several needles into Choji's arm. She then drew out a set of four senbon with tags on them. The tags had little lightning bolts on them.
Tenten remembered Naruto helping her make these, using his tome to develop a new jutsu, "The idea is to make a lightning field, to trap and damage to enemy. The larger they are, the more potent this attack." she smirked, and raised them, so as to show Naruto she was using them.
Naruto smirked at the sight of them, and channeled extra magic through the tags unnoticed. The senbon began to glow, and Tenten jumped into the sky.
Choji saw what looked like a glowing fan, and made to cover his body with his his arms. This was just what Tenten wanted, an unmoving target. She launched the needles at four corners of the tile he was on, each hitting their target perfectly. Tenten, seeing a confused Choji, withdrew a blue-tagged needle, the key to the jutsu.
"The thunder cloud-senbon you fire above the others, the higher, the better. Once in the center, it is held aloft by the lightning it creates. It will keep producing a cage until you either knock it away with something, wait for the minute to expire, or launch the final attack." she remembers Naruto saying.
She shot the needle, producing a painful cage of lightning, electrocuting choji constantly.
"Final attack?" she remembers asking.
Tenten withdrew a red-tagged needle, with a massive lightning bolt on it.
"Yeah, it has to strike the center of the target, causing the top needle to drain the energy from the base needles and strike the center in final. This will just knock the opponent out, but is REALLY cool. It is also the basis for another, lethal attack, IF, and ONLY IF the enemy is still standing." he had said.
Tenten fired the needle, which struck Choji lightly in his round stomach. The bolt struck, and Choji stopped screaming. Tenten walked up towards him and removed the needles, including the one that had imbedded itself it the ceiling from the bolt.
"Winner, Tenten!" called the Sandaime.
The medics were approaching Choji with a stroller when the hokage waved them off. He reached into the bag of chips for the last one. Choji's eyes twitched, his nose rattled, his fingers jiggled, and he was up, with the chip in his hand.
Naruto mouthed, "NO WAY!" as Choji sent the final chip to its doom.
Hinata broke the mood by pressing the button yet again.
Akado Yoroi vs Uchiha Sasuke
The man with the shades began to walk down when Sasuke started taunting him from the ground, "I'm surprised to see you actually making it down, with you being blind and all. Somehow, it doesn't seem fair for you to fight against me. Watch that step, oh wait you can't!" the boy with the hair shaped like a chicken's rear yapped on.
Yoroi rolled his, quite lucid, eyes from under his sunglasses, "hey, kid, I'm not blind, I just like wearing shades." he said plainly, admiring his own reflection in the widened eyes if the "last" Uchiha.
The Sandaime looked at the two, and had to wait the entire two minutes until they figured out they were supposed to bow. "Begin!" he said, when they finally did.
Yoroi patiently waited for the cocky kid to try to attack first. he did not go unrewarded, as the Uchiha attempted a stolen series of kicks. He caught each kick, draining chakra each time. Sasuke punched Yoroi in the face, hiding a kunai in the hand. Just as he had thought Yoroi moved to block it. Sasuke jabbed the kunai into the older Ninja's hand, twisting it after he had struck.
Yoroi yowled in pain, as Sasuke stabbed kunai after kunai into his prone form. He then focused chakra to his left arm, and began a punch,
During the middle of the punch, Sasuke's sealed seal emitted a fire-like glow. Before anything could happen the dragon scale appeared on his arm, canceling out the glow with a stronger, green one. His arm connected with Yoroi's face, and, as soon as it did, a blast of fire exited the seal, propelling Sasuke's arm farther into Yoroi's face.
A sickening crack was heard, Naruto grinned, and a certain sound instructor looked incredibly angry. Sasuke gave a smirk, as he was common to do, at the sight of Yoroi on the ground, with a large amount of blood coming out of his mouth.
"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!" Sarutobi said, twirling his beard in between his fingers.
The Med-nins barely got the "genin" off the field before Hinata pressed the button.
Lee vs. Inuzuka Kiba
Before Lee could jump down, he was held back by Gai, "Lee, I'm not sure if the other contestants have noticed it, but his dog is most likely an integral part of his fighting system!" Gai told his attentive student.
Lee nodded, and forsake his pencil and pad for added speed. He jumped off of the balcony, and gave his usual challenge pose to Kiba. Kiba walked down with Akamaru on his head. Akamaru and Kiba bowed simultaneously, as Lee gave such an exaggerated bow that he fell down.
Kiba figured this was a distraction tactic, and he was right, for when the Hokage called out "Begin!", he was immediately attacked by a flurry of feet. Right when the first kick landed, Kiba was sent into a wall, but the kicks kept coming. Lee had one of his bandages around the dog-user's waist, and was kicking furiously, only to be bitten by Akamaru's teeth.
With a yelp of pain, Lee tried to no avail to free himself. Kiba's teeth were also in the boy, and his were...well, BIGGER. Being bit on the shoulder and leg wasn't high up in Lee's "to do" list, so he activated the first of his gates, the burst of energy forcing the teeth to let go. He severed the bandage, and spun like a top to deliver a round house kick to both adversaries.
"You will never quench my flames of youth!" Lee shouted, opening as many gates as he could at once.
Naruto was taking notes, thinking up a new devious plot, as Lee pummeled Kiba at speeds so fast, only the Hokage, as well as a select few Jonin, were able to see him. And that was BEFORE he dropped his weights. The second the weights hit the floor, he took off to pound Kiba and his companion further.
Truth is, Kiba had been unconscious for the last 100 hits or so. Which meant about a second. Finally registering the K.O, Lee stopped.
"Winner, Lee!" shouted the Hokage, before running, personally, to the side of Kiba, "Good, still alive, MEDICS!" he called.
Lee fainted, after tearing so many muscles and ligaments. The Sandaime sighed, and returned to his seat.
Hinata pressed her hidden button with a sigh, 'I wish I had set it to auto, but NOOO, I HAD to go and give myself all control...'
Tsurugi Misumi vs Abumi Zaku
The two stepped down, and quickly bowed to each other.
"...Umm...begin?" the Sandaime asked, confused.
Zaku quickly called, "ZANKUHA!" and crushed the "Leaf genin" against the wall.
Unfortunately for the "Leaf genin" a piece of re-bar lay there, and impaled the boy's head. Most of the other contestants looked away at the brain splatter, except for a few, namely Gaara, Naruto, the Sandaime, Baki, and the mysterious sound jonin.
The Sandaime used a removal jutsu he had mastered just for this purpose to clean it up. The Medics on the other side of the room had to rush over and sweep up the ashes. Sarutobi began to mourn, and left the room.
Hinata left a minute of silence, or at least she had intended to, when Sabaku no Gaara moved directly in front of Ino.
"Mother wants your blood." he informed the girl, sand swirling around him.
Ino backed away, "T-that's o-okay, I-i fo-forfit..." she ran out of the arena.
Gaara looked at the ground, "Why do I always tell people that? They seem to run away when I do..."
Sarutobi walked back in, red eyes covered by a genjutsu, "I am aware Yamanaka Ino surrendered to Sabaku no Gaara. As is such, I would ask for the winners of the match to come forth. You will be given numbers, on a basis of one to ten, and that is your entry slot for the tournament."
The winners stepped forward, but not before Hinata used a sealing jutsu to make the button vanish.
"1-Lee! 2-Sabaku no Kankuro!" at this, Kankuro backed up slightly.
"3-Uzumaki Naruto! 4-Hyuuga Neji!" Naruto looked towards his prey, and grinned, causing Neji to pale.
"5-Sabaku no Gaara! 6-Uchiha Sasuke!" Gaara had 'that' look in his eyes, you know, that ' mother want's your blood' one.
"7-Nara Shikamaru! 8-Tenten!" Shikamaru quickly thought, 'After what happened to Choji? NOOOOOOO!'
"9-Hyuuga Hinata! 10-Abumi Zaku!" Zaku was afraid for his very life, after seeing what happened to that Temari chick.
The Hokage continued, "These decisions are final! If you want to give up, do so at the Stadium. You have one month to prepare! Make use of it. If you don't show, you are disqualified!"
Naruto walked out of the stadium with Tenten in his arms, Pyron on his head, and Yonshu following close behind, "Like it is even going to be a problem!" he shouted confidently.
Naruto's Mindscape
The bunny had an entire side solved already, "I would not say such things if I were you...Naruto-sama...After all, a month should be plenty...TO SOLVE THIS DAMN THING!" a piece of Stormbringer, the final one, was strapped to his back, emitting a black glow, and humming with the souls of countless innocents.
End of Leaves of Steel, Chapter 18
Something smells ominous...I can't quite shake the feeling...OH YEAH! The people Naruto knows and loves are in danger!...How could I have overlooked that? Prepare for a Time-skip! (I do that so as not to constantly write dates and times...it is...too Troublesome
-Johnhamsta