Chapter 8: Strategy Is Key

In the tower at the centre of the forest, there was complete chaos. Technicians and ANBU were scurrying around the building, trying to locate Anko Mitarashi on the monitors and in the woods. It was unanimously agreed to that she hadn't simply fallen prey to the monstrous denizens of the Forest of Death, which left only a few possibilities. This was the first time in nearly a decade that she had been entrusted with anything particularly important outside of a mission, and people were eagerly joining in, either to prove her innocence or revel in her guilt.

"Do we have any leads?" snapped Agent Boar, the captain of the security squad.

"She was last seen in sector 6F," one of the technicians said, examining a data readout with concern. "There was a burst of interference that knocked all of our cameras offline, and the team dispatched to the area hasn't found her yet. The only explanation we have so far is that team from Grass."

"Yeah, two Kusa genin were found at their entrance, both dead," said another man. "The third member of their team wasn't there, but we have footage of him in the forest. We're checking their sensei's documentation right now, but so far it seems legit."

The door burst open, and an ANBU ninja with a toad mask rushed into the room. "Danzō Shimura's genin team is dead," he said tonelessly.

"What?" the technicians chorused.

"He assigned them to kill the Kazekage's children, did he not?" Agent Boar said.

"How do you know that, captain?" Agent Toad asked.

"I guessed. They were too much for those little Root bastards, eh?"

"Sir, Agent Torune and Agent Fū were both killed by explosive tags."

"Untreated third-degree burns and blood loss?"

"Dismemberment, actually. It seems one of them was covered in half a dozen tags, and the other was hit by one with an unusually high concentration of chakra."

"It seems letting Mitarashi organize the event was a mistake," Agent Boar said icily. "Who the hell let her hand out high explosives in such a lethal test?"

"The writeup says they were meant to be duds," his subordinate remarked. "It was supposed to be a psychological component, so either the manufacturer is incompetent or Mitarashi was lying."

"Team Seven has reached the tower!" one of the technicians declared. "Naruto Uzumaki appears to have lost the use of his left arm and taken some senbon wounds, and Sakura Haruno has some nasty burns on her upper torso. We need a medical team, stat!"

Turning away from the hubbub of Anko's subordinates, Agent Boar sat down heavily in a wicker chair. "Just... keep looking," he grunted. "The exams will move on without her, but anyone who can abduct a tokubetsu jōnin without a fight needs to located and terminated. I will stay in contact with Lord Sarutobi from here. You have three more days until the knowledge of her disappearance becomes public."

"Yessir," said Agent Toad, leaving to continue the search.

.:.

Sarutobi observed the successful genin appreciatively. There were only a few deaths in the second test, most notably an Ame genin on Team Shigure and the entirety of Team Sai. Whatever Danzō had wanted by entering them in the test, he likely hadn't obtained it. He was pleased to see that Naruto had made it through in one piece, and that he had regained the use of his dislocated arm. Even better, his team was progressing nicely. All of them stood a chance of becoming chūnin, and he was certain now that they deserved to be here.

There were six genin teams present. Team Kabuto, Team Yahiko, Team Kidōmaru, Team Gai, Team Kakashi and the Sand Siblings. That was eighteen genin total, which meant having a preliminary match. If there were no preemptive forfeits or ties, that would cut their numbers down to nine, though he had hoped for only six or so to actually move on.

"I must congratulate all of you for making it this far," he said, his voice carrying across the sandy floor of the arena. "Each of you has demonstrated intelligence, cunning, teamwork and skill befitting a shinobi of chūnin rank. For those of who have not met me, I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. You have all had ample time to rest and recuperate in this tower, but now you face a third challenge. In one month's time, there will be a great tournament held in Konoha, where you will test your mettle and attempt to prove to the Kage of Konoha and Suna, and the Head Jōnin of Hidden Grass, Sound, Waterfall and Rain that you are worthy of a promotion."

He watched their faces carefully. Some showed excitement, others anxiety, and a few displayed boredom or disinterest.

"Before then," he went on, "there will be a preliminary match to further decrease the number of combatants in the final round. You will fight until you or your opponent can fight no more. Prepare yourselves, for the next trial is here and now!"

Another shinobi stood up and advanced from the wall. His typical method of camouflage was to blend in with a crowd, but a shadow on a sandstone wall worked just as well. He came forward, looking somewhat miserable.

"I am the proctor for the third exam, Hayate Gekkō," he said quietly. "You'll have to excuse me, as I'm a little bit sick right now. Before we begin, anyone who doesn't feel they can participate fully in this next event can back out. Would anybody like to take this opportunity?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," said Kabuto. "I'm still rather sore from the forest, and I don't think I can perform well enough to win my match. I'd appreciate it if you took my name out."

Hayate eyed the hale-looking shinobi, then shrugged. "Kabuto Yakushi," he said to himself, "is jumping ship yet again. If Anko were still around, I'd owe her more than a few drinks."

"Do we have to—?" Misumi started to say.

"No," Hayate replied. "This is the tournament round, and you are no longer a team. That being said, the preliminaries will not pair you with another member of your team, due to the conflict of interest and the intimate knowledge of one another's skills that has developed. If nobody else is going to back down, we have an uneven number of competitors. The first bye goes to..."

A large screen flickered to life behind him, dull green and blank. After a tense moment, the name 'Zaku Abumi' appeared in stark white letters. Following that, the first match appeared.

"Would everyone leave the arena except for Kin Tsuchi and Rock Lee?" Hayate asked, coughing softly. While the rest of the genin filed away, the names two readied themselves in the ring. Rock Lee looked as boisterous as ever, despite nearly losing Tenten to a giant leech the day before, while Kin Tsuchi looked confident and controlled.

They approached each other in the centre of the ring and bowed, one earnestly and the other sardonically. In fact, Lee stepped forward and shook her hand, Kin looking somewhat reluctant.

"Begin," Hayate said, before erupting into a hacking cough.

"I know little of you or your teammates, save for that you do not specialize in taijutsu," Lee said, "but I am sure that you will make a formidable opponent."

"Yeah. Whatever."

The first few seconds of the match were agonizingly tense. Then, with a yell, Lee rushed forward and attempted to take Kin's head off with a flying roundhouse kick. Kin warded the strike off with a volley of perfectly aimed senbon. Without having to move, she avoided the attack as Lee was forced to twist out of the way to protect his shin. Landing behind her, he readied another attack, only for Kin to throw even more needles from her seemingly endless supply to deflect him.

"I don't understand," Sakura muttered, up in the stands. "Kin is a long range fighter, and Lee isn't fast enough to close the gap. Why does he keep trying to fight her in melee?"

"Because Lee can't use ninjutsu," Neji answered shortly. "Guy's brutal training regimen is the only reason he succeeds as a shinobi."

"But why not use thrown weapons?" Sakura argued. "He should be able to distract her with kunai before trying to move in. Trying to dodge senbon from someone who clearly knows what they're doing is nuts!"

"The Might Guy school of fighting discourages throwing weapons, because it decreases your arsenal or your Youth or some shit," Tenten said sourly. "Lee agrees, because Lee always agrees, and I don't think he has much more than a kunai on him right now."

"He's toast," Naruto agreed, as Lee sustained another senbon to the abdomen after another failed attack.

"Not necessarily!" Guy protested. "Lee may only have taijutsu, but he has plenty more tricks up his sleeve!"

"Does he?" Kidōmaru said slyly. "It seems to me that our students are boss mobs, rather than player characters."

"I don't follow," complained Naruto. "What's a 'mob'?"

"They have a limited skillset," the spider summoner said, ignoring Naruto's question. "When the hero comes along, Kin and Lee are defeated because their opponent doesn't need better taijutsu, or better senbon skills. They just need a clever strategy and some decent ability in a different area. Genjutsu, say. But no matter how many tricks Lee or Kin have up their sleeves, they'll be crushed if they don't diversify."

"LEE! TAKE YOUR LEG WEIGHTS OFF!" Gai shouted, evidently tiring of having his training methods insulted.

"BUT SENSEI, YOU SAID—"

"YOU MAY DO SO JUST THIS ONCE! I WILL ALLOW IT!"

"Prepare to witness my true potential!" Lee announced to Kin, jumping back roughly fifty feet onto the outstretched fingertips of a sunken colossus. He ripped his legs weights off, threw them over the edge... and promptly fell after them, tipping drunkenly from his aerial perch. Just before the weights hit the ground, Guy launched himself from the stands and intercepted his student, clinging to the wall as twin fountains of dust were kicked up by the falling bands.

The entire crowd gaped at Kin, who smugly adjusted her Oto uniform.

"Poison," she explained. "It was acting far too slowly, even after I scratched him when he shook my hand, so taking those leg weights off much have drastically increased his circulation. With so much poison already in his blood, it was only a matter of time before his fortitude gave out."

Hayate coughed again. "Winner: Kin Tsuchi."

.:.

The next match was Sakura Haruno versus Oboro, one of Yahiko's genin. The Ame ninja was mostly sealed inside a hazmat suit, like his other two teammates, and his expression was hidden behind a rebreather. In contrast, Sakura looked open and vulnerable. Parts of her body were still red and blistered from the heat of Shigure's explosive tag trap, and she looked scared and nervous. As soon as the proctor call the match to a start, the two of them immediately leapt away from one another. Sakura watched her opponent carefully as he formed the dog and tiger seals.

A few dozen clones shimmered into existence. All of them looked real enough, and a quick try at dispelling genjutsu told her that they were made of something physical. Emboldened by superiority in numbers, Oboro's clones swarmed Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi took out a knife and started slashing through the clones, but none of them reacted at all. Each slice simply slid through their bodies, like an arrow through smoke.

"They're made of mist," Sasuke said, his sharingan revolving. He formed the two hand seals, and suddenly a copy of himself stood at the other end of the platform.

"That they are, which means they can't be dispelled," Yahiko said proudly. "Oboro worked quite hard to master the Haze Clone technique, because it gives him a tactical advantage over any non-wind user."

"Sakura seems to be doing just fine," Tenten pointed out. "There's no way Oboro can just attack her like that; sooner or later, she'll find the right one. Even if he blocks, she'll have found the real one."

Sakura, meanwhile, was forming a strategy of her own. Every time the clones were interrupted by something, they wavered. She could only try to attack one clone at a time, but Oboro's control over the technique was finite. He could only make one of them move at a time, probably including himself. That meant a whole lot of easy targets for what she planned to do.

Feeling foolish for dodging the intangible strike of one of the clones, Sakura used the motion to bend over and scoop up a handful of the arena floor. Loose sand and dirt swirling in her palm, she threw the dust outwards, evenly coating the haze clones. All of them began to shiver, the intrusion disrupting Oboro's control of the technique.

"Where's the real one?" Naruto shrieked, leaning over the railing and scanning the fight.

"Mm, she's got her work cut out for her," Kakashi remarked mysteriously.

Behind her, the earth split noiselessly in two, the real Oboro emerging with a victorious gleam in his eyes. He lunged forward, bare hands grasping for her throat, but Sakura was almost as fast. She spun around, allowing him to start the choke but slapping one palm firmly against his chest. The salvaged explosive tag ignited, blasting the two of them apart. Neither stood up.

"This match is a tie," Hayate said blandly, suppressing his urge to cough. "Medics!"

.:.

"Temari versus Dosu Kinuta!"

The two genin took the stage, their expressions unreadable as Hayate called a start to the match. Like all long-range fighters, both immediately jumped back to gain space for their respective attacks. Dosu readied his Melody Arm, and Temari flicked her fan open.

The Kyōmeisen relied on vibrations produced in his arm, redirected by chakra to produce deforming effects, such as shattering objects or destabilizing an opponent's inner ear. That was his favourite trick, as the nausea allowed him to fight with impunity, not having to worry about ranged attacks. This girl, unfortunately, could manipulate air. Sound didn't necessarily have to travel through a still medium, but a gale of the strength Temari could produce would seriously impede his aim and power.

Watching her carefully, Dosu armed himself with a tantō and began moving it in a standard guard position, making sure to keep his movements innocent enough that Temari wouldn't notice what he was doing. Slowly, moving closer to her, he began to disrupt her balance.

Temari waited for Dosu to get a bit closer, then unleashed her fan. "Kamaitachi no jutsu!" she shouted, forcing Dosu to back up quite a bit. Nevertheless, as scythes of wind began to gouge holes in the arena, she was startled to find that her aim was off. The greatest damage had been done to the wall a few feet to Dosu's left.

Scowling, she tried again. The war fan rippled as a massive blast of air hit true, knocking Dosu to the ground and forcing him to curl up in the fetal position to avoid being diced by the sharp winds. Whatever had impeded her aim, it was gone now. She smiled knowingly.

Dosu stood up shakily, forcing his body to comply. He was less hurt than rattled, adrenaline making rational decisions difficult, but he remembered to start the echo drill once more to disorient Temari. The girl noticeably winced, putting the tip of her fan on the ground for support and sliding her feet out to stay standing.

That was her mistake. Dosu rushed forward, taking advantage of the fact that she'd disarmed herself to try and finish her off. Temari was too skinny for the Kyōmeisen to knock her out, so he'd go for a tantō through the gut. Simple, devastating, and not permanent if the medics got there fast enough. He jumped around the fan's edge and struck. The crowd held its breath as the tip of the sword...

... was nonchalantly deflected by Temari. Quickly and easily, the Kazekage's daughter dismantled Dosu's defence with taijutsu. The Oto gennin stumbled away from her, leaving him open for a solid punch to the gut that doubled him over. One more strike to the jaw and the match was over.

"Winner: Temari," said Hayate.

She turned to the crowd. "I figured out that he was using sound waves as a weapon to make me too dizzy to fight, based on the way he used that thing on his arm. That meant he was mucking with my inner ear, so I just used a fūton technique to create a vacuum around my ear. Then, I faked being affected to draw him. I was counting on him having poor taijutsu, but poor kenjutsu worked just as well with the element of surprise."

She left the stage, and the great screen began to randomize the next match.

I decided not to show Team Seven versus Team Shigure, because so little of Shigure is shown at all. He uses senbon and a umbrella, and is murdered violently within two or three minutes of his introduction. Mostly, it's because their fight would've been more boring if I showed it instead of alluding to it.

Sarutobi's reference to Orochimaru as the Head Jōnin of Otogakure rather than Otokage is not a mistake. That's what his title should be, and as Hokage it's his job to discourage upstart hidden villages from getting too full of themselves.

Temari is significantly more powerful than in canon. Not only did beat Dosu with taijutsu, she can create a vacuum with wind release. There is a reason for this, beyond her being an important character. Dosu's final attack reckoned that she didn't have enough body fat to be defeated the way Chōji would have, especially with the tessenjutsu to back her up. Also stronger is Kin, who beat Rock Lee without really breaking a sweat. These changes keep rolling!