Naruto != mine
~Chapter 10~
The day of reckoning had come for the hopefuls who had reached the third stage of the Chunin Exam. Their matches were set, and so, after some initial words by the Hokage to the various distinguished guests, the competitors were sent to the stands while the two fighters for the first match, Neji and Naruto, faced off. The Hyuga branch prodigy spouted off something about Naruto being "fated to lose", which only made Naruto, intent on putting Neji through the same grinder that he had put his cousin through in the prelims, even angrier as he rebutted the claims. The proctor began the fight, and two closed with each other. Initially, Neji had the upper hand, closing Naruto's tenketsu one by one until the orange-clad Uzumaki was nearly paralyzed. Confident that Naruto was defeated, Neji turned his back to return to the stands, deactivating his bloodline limit as he did so. However, Naruto, ever the unpredictable one, managed to brute-force his tenketsu back open and summoned shadow clones who grabbed Neji by the arms so that Naruto could unleash a vicious beating upon him, leaving him unconscious with a broken nose, black eyes, a dislocated jaw, cracked ribs, and bruises all over his body. Naruto let the body collapse as the medics rushed in. "Fate means nothing. It's just a way to blame your problems on something other than your own cowardice. Hope you enjoy hospital food," Naruto said as he walked to the medical station to have his own internal wounds checked out.
The next match scheduled was for Shino against Kankurou. However, before anyone could even move, Kankurou forfeited, leading to resentful muttering throughout the stadium. The next match announced was between Temari of Suna and Karui from Kumo. The two proceeded to the center of the stone arena. "This should be easy. I'll be able to blow away a little cloud like you no sweat," Temari said cockily. "I'm going to turn you into mincemeat," Karui growled. "Oh shit," Ren commented in the stands, "she has already lost her cool and given Temari an advantage. This does not bode well…" And it did not go well for the Kumo genin. Karui, having lost her cool early on, was overcome by light cuts from Futon ninjutsu and also head trauma from being struck by a closed fan's heavy iron case. Temari had countered Karui's every move and responded accordingly, leading to it seeming more like orchestration than combat.
The third match was between Ren and Samui. Eager to face off against the buxom kunoichi, Ren used a mist/water shunshin to arrive at the center of the arena. Samui took the more sedate route down, and the two faced off. Hayate called fight and the two combatants leapt back and prepared jutsu. Ren fired off a salvo of water bullets from a one-handed seal, while Samui fired a lightning bolt which Ren narrowly dodged, while Samui easily dodged his slower projectiles, a neutral expression on her face.
Ren decided to hold back to see just how well he could do without falling back on his kenjutsu. His speed was apparently surprising enough to make her raise an eyebrow as he blitzed her, unleashing a rapid volley of punches which she ducked under. He managed to avoid her returning uppercut by leaping over her and rolling away. After a few more failed runs, Ren decided to up the ante and drew Mizuchi before tossing it into the air and catching it in a reverse grip. "This is the first time I have ever used my personal style against an opponent. I look forward to seeing how it does," Ren said. He settled into an odd position which resembled a sprinter's stance, Mizuchi held so that it's flat back edge lay against his arm. Samui reached behind her and drew her tanto from the small of her back. The reason for the stance became clear when, in a sudden surge of movement, he raced forwards and brought his arm and wrist around in a whipping motion, adding force to to the blow that caused his weapon to clash against Samui's with enough force to push her back and leave a chip in the hard edge of her tanto's blade. As they seperated, Samui's look became even colder than usual, if that was indeed possible.
"My apologies, Samui-san. I will gladly pay for a replacement," Ren said as Samui launched herself at him. For the first few minutes, he weathered the onslaught, blocking or evading her attacks, but she managed to catch his blade in such a manner that, with a circular movement, he was forced to release it and watch helplessly as it buried itself in the sand by the far wall or suffer a broken wrist. Then he was set upon once more, but he managed to catch her wrist, only for her other hand to try a downward strike with a kunai. He caught the second blow, and thus ended up in a power struggle. She worsened it by hooking her leg behind his and toppling both to the ground, him on his back holding off her weapons.
Ren, seeing the dire straits he had fallen into, decided to put his reverse-grip to use and tightened his grip, forcing her to release her weapons, which fell point first into the sand to either side his face, though her tanto nicked his left cheek and left a light cut which seeped blood. He them managed to escape the situation by keeping a hold of her wrists and using his legs to flip her over his head. He quickly flipped up to his feet and, expelling the require water from his mouth, used Suiton: Suiben no jutsu to form a water whip. He used this whip to bind his opponent, hoping to end the match… only for his "captive" to channel raiton chakra through his whip, giving him a painful electric shock that broke his concentration on the jutsu, fortunately for him terminating the connection. "Oh yeah, Kumo tends towards Raiton," Ren said a bit clumsily as he recovered. Meanwhile, in the stands, the match was producing a great deal of interest.
The kage booth was currently a center of discussion. "The Senju certainly is talented for a genin. He ha so far responded to each threat as it presented itself, and seems to have a solid grasp of basic skills," the Kazekage noted. "Yes, but that last move was a mistake," A, the yondaime raikage, noted. "Samui has also shown a great deal of talent as well," the Hokage replied. There was also spirited conversation among the jonin in the stands. "What have you been teaching that kid, Kakashi? He is easily chunin level, if not tokujo," Asuma asked. "Such youth!" Gai added. "He is actually mostly self-trained. I just taught him basic kenjutsu and chakra control with some physical conditioning. The rest came from his own independent studies and materials given to him by Hayate," the lazy cyclops replied. "Impressive," Kurenai commented. "Indeed," Anko said, licking her lips as she watched, making the other jonin give her strange looks. "What?"
Back on the field, the two combatants were facing off, both breathing heavily. Ren somewhat clumsily formed a hand sign familiar to his teammates and the more experienced ninja in the audience. "Looks like I have to use it, then," he said, "Kirigakure no jutsu." A large quantity of fog flooded out of his mouth an blanketed the combat area in a thick layer of mist. What happened next was invisible to those in attendance, and all that was heard was the clashing of kunai. However, the result was clear when the fog was cleared away to reveal that Ren and two clones, who quickly dispelled into puddles of water, standing with kunai prepared around Samui, whose top had been damaged by cuts which had missed due to Ren being a little thrown off by the recent electric shock, and now revealed far more than it should. "I surrender," Samui said, and Ren put away his kunai. "Here. Sorry about your clothing," Ren said, removing his shirt and handing it to her. Seeing as she was barely decent, she did not object and pulled on the garment, which, despite being a tight fit due to her generous bust, was still better than her ruined shirt. She did blush slightly, though, upon seeing Ren's bare torso through his long-sleeved net mail undershirt as he retrieved Mizuchi and also grabbed her tanto and kunai, presenting them to her in a formal manner. "Thank you," she said, carefully taking the weapons and putting them away. "Thank you for such a challenging match. And remember, since I broke your tanto I will pay either to fix or replace it," Ren replied as he walked back up to the stands with the Kumo genin. "Your cheek is a bit bloody," Samui told him. "Oh, yes, I forgot," Ren said as he paused to remove his hitai-ate and ripped off unnecessary material, leaving a strip of cloth about the width of the metal plate. Tying the remainder around his left arm, he made a bit of water in his mouth by kneading chakra and wet the improvised rag. He dabbed at his cheek, trying to remove the dried blood. "Did I get it?" He asked, looking at Samui. "No, here," she said, grabbing the cloth and wiping away the dried blood he'd missed. "Thank you," Ren said, giving a small smile which made Samui blush.
The moment was ruined by Omoi and Karui. "What's taking so long, Sam…" she trailed off as she saw the scene. "Oh no. Samui's fallen in love with the Senju heir and since he's a clan heir she'll have leave the village to be with him in Konoha and there will be a war…" "Shut up, Omoi. That was not cool," Samui told her teammate while Ren tried to slink away. "Meet me at the hotel tomorrow so we can find a new tanto," Samui ordered. "You got it, Samui-san," Ren said before fleeing the scene to return to the stands.
When he arrived he sat down beside Naruto and Sakura. "What took you so long, Ren? The match has almost started," Naruto asked. "Just making arrangements to meet Samui-san tomorrow so I could buy her a new tanto," Ren said. He turned forward to watch the next match when he was glomped. "Hi, Ren-kun," Ino said in a suggestive manner, rubbing herself against him. "Ino-san, this is not really the best time for this. And don't you like Sasuke?" Ren asked, trying to escape her clutches before her hands wandered too low. "But you are so much nicer to me, Ren-kun. Don't you find me attractive," Ino whined, giving him the infamous and feared puppy dog eyes. "Yes, I find you attractive, but this is hardly the way to go about this," Ren said. "Why are you so cold, Ren-kun? After all, you were my first kiss," Ino breathed into his ear, making him stiffen and gulp loudly. He was almost grateful when the genjutsu made all of the civilians fall asleep and chaos broke out in the stadium forcing him into action mode. He pushed Ino off and dispelled the genjutsu on all the ninja nearby. He popped a soldier pill and drew Mizuchi, swapping to a reverse grip. Instead of wasting chakra with ninjutsu, he used kenjutsu to cut down the invading nin, backed up by his comrades. He was progressively cutting down Oto nin when he noticed Temari and Kankuro escaping with some form of sand creature. Seeing that his fellow genin had things under control, he followed, staying out of sight. When Temari stopped to stall his teammates, he struck, lashing out with a water whip to bind her. "Go on," he told his team, "I'll take care of her." He pulled out some wire and bound her hands behind on either side of her fan and then bound her body and ankles. He picked her up bridal style and took her to his clan compound, the closest secure area he had, untied her and locked her in his own bathroom without her equipment, which he stowed in the adjacent bedroom and summoned Washitoru to keep watch before he left via shunshin.
When he arrived back in Konoha he saw three massive snakes conjoined at the tail wreaking havoc in town. Seeing as he lacked the ability to take on such a large beast he made a tiny cut on his thumb and executed a kuchiyose no jutsu with all the chakra he could muster. The eagle which he summoned was larger than the snakes, and was a storm-cloud gray color. "I am Washitoshi. What is it you require, Senju-san?" the eagle asked. "There is a trio of gigantic snakes destroying Konoha. I wish to enlist your aid in disposing of them," Ren said. "Hang on. This may get a bit rough," the eagle said, lowering its head so Ren could jump onto its head, where he anchored himself with chakra. Once Ren was aboard, the eagle took to the air, massive wings flapping. From high above, he screeched, and, with unerring accuracy, flapped his wings and released a barrage of sharp-tipped feathers which thudded into one of the snakes, killing a head. A second snake head was torn off by a diving attack when the head was grasped in Washitoshi's talons. The third head, unexpectedly, was killed by a toad with a pair of massive katana on its back falling on it from a midair summon. Ren asked Washitoshi to land and hopped off, thanking the massive raptor with a bow before he de-summoned. "Not bad, kid. So, the eagles finally found themselves a summoner. Picky birds have been looking for years now," an eccentric-looking man said. "I'd rather have picky rids than yakuza toads," Ren countered. "Yeah, yeah. I'm Jiraiya, Toad Sage and famous author. Now, if you have any other tricks up your sleeve, now would be the time to show them," the older nin said, indicating a mob of Chunin and jonin around them. "I just may have something which will fit the bill," Ren said, tearing off his arm protector and and the lower part of his net mail sleeve. He popped a thord soldier pill, shoved his hand into his equipment pouch, and pricked his finger on a shuriken. Once enough blood had welled up, he focused his chakra and rubbed the blood on the now-revealed summoning tattoo. In an unexpected eruption of mist instead of smoke, a ten-foot-long silver-scaled dragon appeared. "You are full of surprises, kid," Jiraiya said, looking at the dragon with awe.
"How may I help you, Ren-san?" the serpentine creature asked. "I could use some help with these invaders, Ryumaru-san," Ren replied. "There do seem to be quite a few. This should be fun," the dragon said, turning its head to fix the Suna/Oto force with a fierce gaze. The invaders, perturbed, were unable to react in time as Ren drew Mizuchi and twirled it into a reverse grip. Nodding to Ryumaru and Jiraiya, Ren took up a defensive position, holding himself so that he presented his right side to the enemy. A disadvantage of the reverse grip was that it left the other side of his body more open, and thus he kept that side facing away from enemies. He and Ryumaru both triggered a suiton jutsu into the crowd. He used a one-handed seal to fire off water bullets, while Ryumaru fired a high-pressure jet which actually pierced through the bodies of those unfortunate enough to get hit by it, which he swept through, cutting numbers drastically. Jiraiya, meanwhile, fired out a barrage of oil ballets which he then ignited with a flame bullet. Numbers sufficiently thinned, Ren dashed into the mob, cutting down enemies as he went. By combining the principles of his taijutsu with his kenjutsu, he was able to swiftly cut down the unprepared Oto nin. The remaining force from the initial assault was so intimidated that many ran in terror from the dragon, the Toad Sannin, and the Senju. Those who remained were swiftly dealt with by the trio, who fought in tandem, covering each other.