Previously on NARUTO TCG…
Are you still upset that I threw you away? Unlike you, he is a talented shinobi. He possesses the Sharingan of the previous Uchiha clan. He's also a perfect vessel to be my successor."
"Well, if he does survive things are going to get more interesting."
"Don't stop the tournament now. Three duelists from my village are taking part as well. I'm going to enjoy this." Orochimaru then disappears in a cloud of smoke. "Bare this in mind," his cold voice echos in the night sky. "If anything happens to deprive me of my fun...it means the end of the Leaf Village."
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NARUTO TCG: CHUNIN BATTLE TOURNAMENT DUELS-
COILS OF THE SNAKE
Chapter 10:
Handsome Devil
Meanwhile, Neji, Tenten and Lee were resting on a giant forest tree. "Alright, the sun should be up in about an hour or so," Neji says. "We spent the entire day gathering food and water. Most of the teams are resting." He is counseling out a strategic plan. "We'll attack at this time as we planned. Let's split up and spend half an hour scouting the area. But whether or not you find another team, we come back here in 30 minutes. Understood?"
"OK."
"Roger!"
As Sakura sits alone, watching over the unconscious boys, Orochimaru's three Sound minions find her. They have been ordered to strike Uchiha Sasuke come daybreak.
Orochimaru reveals his purpose to recruit followers to Anko. He taunts her for her interest in his new find, Sasuke, the perfect vessel to be his successor. He warns her that if she interferes in the exam, Leaf Village is finished.
Sakura watches over her teammates as they recover from their injuries. She vows not to fall asleep, but does. Naruto and Sasuke awaken, bringing tears to Sakura's eyes. Suddenly, Orochimaru shows up, transforming into a snake head and attacks the boys. She tries to warn them but she lost her voice. She awakens, startled from the nightmare.
Sakura hears a rustle from the bushes. It is only a squirrel. She throws a kunai to scare it off, not realizing that the Sound ninjas watching her placed an explosion tag on it. They decide to move closer.
Meanwhile, Rock Lee scouts out the forest. He spots 20 leaves falling to the ground and daydreams that if he can catch all 20, Sakura will like him. He catches all but one when he sees a squirrel with an explosion tag on him. He rushes to its aid.
Neji, in another part of the forest, stops in his tracks and looks around a bit. "All right, stop hiding and come out." He calls. Somehow he knows that there was no one hiding behind that bush other that Squad 10: Ino, Shikamaru and Choji. "Shoot!" Ino whispers, "How could he have seen us? We hid so fast!" "What a drag! Now that he has found us out this is gonna be such a pain!" Shikamaru says.
"It's no big deal...our hide and hang out strategy didn't work...so will just use strategy number two!"
"What? Are you serious, Ino?" Choji asks.
"You got a problem with that? Trust me, this plan can't fail!"
"Well, what have we got to lose?" Shikamaru remarks. Whether or not this plan of hers would work, Ino and her squad decided to come out of the bushes. Knowing full well that Neji would never fight weak opponents like them without being challenged, she decides to flirt instead. ": Hi, there! I've been wanting to meet you for a really long time, Neji" takin of her ribbon she releases her long blonde hair as it flows like a glistening ocean of gold. "... so,Hi!" her magic created a long deafening silence. Birds chirping, crickets singing, frogs croaking, all was broken by a…
"Get lost." From Neji.
He turns away from them as he walks away. 'I can't believe it!' Ino thought. 'No one could've resisted my flirting! Who does he think he is?'
Neji stopped, "By the way, does the fact that you're shaking you fist means that you want to challenge me?"
Unbelievable! how did he know? "Wha? No way! Of course not!" 'How did he know? It's like he has eyes at the back of his head!'
"Then, go. Beside, taking a prize from cowards like you would only make me the laughing stock of the village." But before he could finish, Squad 10 were already gone. "Hmph, I guess I proved my point."
They rested in the dirt catching their breath, then Ino redid her hair. "Alright! Let's see if we can find some weaklings!" she laughs. "Yeah, well, I doubt we'll find anyone weaker than us." Shikamaru said.
Meanwhile, Sakura remains still over her fallen teammates. Suddenly she heard a small chuckle. That is definitely a person, she certainly hopes it isn't. She slowly turns the opposite direction. There she shivers in fear. She wishes they had never arrive, the sound ninja trio. " Some lookout! You're half asleep!" Dosu, one of the sound-nin said." At least you don't have to keep watch anymore. What's the point after we've already found you? Now wake Sasuke up," he lifts up his sleeve to reveal a bulging iron shinobi shield. "We want to duel him."
Sakura pulls out her kunai. "What are you talking about?! I know it's that Orochimaru person who's pulling the strings from the dark! What's his purpose here? What does he want!?" As the Sound ninjas get closer, she throws her kunai to cause a giant log to begin swinging at them. But as the log came into contact, Dosu pressed his shielded hand onto it, created a hand sign, and caused the colossal log to shatter into millions of tree bark.
"Ha, frankly speaking, you have no talent. People like you have to work harder. A weakling like you shouldn't mess with guys like us!" the sound-nin advance quickly toward Sakura. As she awaits her death, a green blur appeared out of nowhere shouting "Leaf Hurricane!" it swung at them as they skied across the dirt in the opposite direction. The stranger lands in front of Sakura, and then she realized who saved her, "Is that so?" that green jumpsuit, those orange stockings, "It looks like you also need to make more of an effort." those bandaged hands, those thick eyebrows?! "Who are you?" Dosu said. It is none other than… "I am the handsome devil of the Hidden Leaf Village, and my name is Rock Lee."
"Lee" Sakura asks, "Lee, why are you here?"
"I will always come when you are in danger."
"Well, thank you… you saved my life."
"I said it once before… I will protect you until I die."
"Oh, well," Dosu takes out an Earth Scroll card and puts it into his shield. "Zaku, you can have Sasuke, I'll take care of this guy."
'From what I can see, Sakura is in no condition to fight.' Lee thought. He puts on his shield and converts to duel mode. "If I win this duel, you leave Sakura and his friends alone. Is that understood?" Dosu's shield is unique. A blade holding multiple card zones pop out of either side of the shield. Then both sides turn 90 degrees so each end connects each other, then they both turn another 90 degrees to the left, completing its duel mode.
Both: "Duel!"
Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Ino and Choji discuss tactics for finding a team to easily get the scroll card from. "Oh, man! There doesn't seem to be anyone around who's weaker than us!"
"Not so fast" Shikamaru says, "...I still think that Naruto's team might actually be weaker than we are."
"Take that back right now, you jerk!"
"What'd ya mean?"
"There's no doubt Naruto and Sakura are lame, but I won't have you bad mouthing Sasuke! He's awesome!"
"Naruto and Sasuke are out cold," Choji points out to the right. "It's Sakura who's fighting." Ino turns to his direction and what he saw shocks her.
"I go first." Lee says as he starts the duel. "(7) And I will start by deploying Tortoise Ninja (1/0). Then I set 2 cards face down and charge the rest into my chakra zone (CZ: 4). I end my turn (0)."
"Very well, I'll just play Kin Tsuchi (0/1) and charge 5 chakra (CZ: 5). I'll end my turn (1)."
"My draw (2). I deploy Rock Lee to the battlefield (3/0). Then I will send out Tortoise Ninja into the battlefield as well. Tortoise, attack." The turtle curled up into his shell and spun towards Kin and knocked her to injured state (0/1). "Now it is Rock Lee's turn to attack." Lee's avatar dashes in and deletes his opponent. "That ends my turn (0)."
"(2) This is just the card I need. I deploy Dosu Kinuta (1/1). Next I'll remove 2 chakras to equip Dosu with the Sonic Fang!"
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Card info: Sonic Fang is a jutsu card that lowers an opponent's shinobi by 3 points when it battles against the user. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"With a weapon like this it's only a matter of time before I claim this match mine. Attack!" Dosu's avatar leaps in towards his opponent and points the sonic speaker towards him, but Rock Lee reached deep underground, and takes out a giant tree root, defending himself against Dosu's noisy attack. "What? What just happened?"
"I have activated my Escape Jutsu card. By discarding 1 chakra (CZ: 3), I can negate any power effects to 1 ninja. Now that your Sonic Fang is no longer active, it is Rock Lee's turn to attack!" Lee swoops in and attacks Dosu and forced him to injured state (1/0). But in return he was hit by Dosu's fang which forced him to injured state as well (2/0).
"Dosu Kinuta is a special shinobi. When he attacks, his special ability gives 1damage to any ninja who battles him. I'm finished (0)."
"It is my move (1). I send Rock Lee and Tortoise Ninja to the battlefield. Next I release 2 chakras (CZ: 2) for Lee to attack Dosu with the jutsu card Leaf Hurricane, which gives him 3 extra combat points (5/0)."
"Attacking will only trigger my Sonic Fang. Remember, it takes away 3 points of power whenever anyone attacks the user."
"Lee will still have enough power (2/0). Go, Leaf Hurricane!" Lee spins around in the air and finishes Dosu with a flurry of kicks. "Next my tortoise will attack directly." The turtle spins around and slams Dosu, giving Lee 1 battle reward (BR: 1). "That ends my turn (1)."
"(1) I play another Dosu Kinuta. That's all (0)."
"It is my move (2)!" Lee looks at his card and glares in amazement. "Wait, this is…"
Flashback: The teams 8, when they first became genin, are at the meadows training. Lee was the only one who mastered the task, the Lotus. Once he mastered it, Lee was jumping for joy.
'This jutsu...' Guy thought, 'in the end, only Lee could make it his own!' "Lee..."
"I did it! I actually did it!" Lee shouts.
"Lee..."
"After all that practice, I pulled it off!"
"LEE!"
"I guess this proves if I try hard enough, I can do anything!!!"
"QUIET!!!" Guy punches Lee in the face. "Now, listen to your sensei's awesome message!"
"Yes...I am ready...to hear your amazing wisdom, sir!"
"This new jutsu, the Lotus technique, is now forbidden."
"What do you mean? Why?"
"This jutsu...it puts a huge strain on your body's muscles. It's a self-sacrificing technique. Normally, humans only use, if most, twenty percent of their muscles' strength. Do you understand only about twenty percent? If all of the power were to be used, the muscles would disintegrate. So the brain regulates the amount of power the muscles can excert. But this jutsu is different; it uses chakra, which forces the brain to go past its limits, allowing for continuous high-speed taijutsu. In other words, this jutsu relies on a secret technique, which brings forth power almost to the limits of the human body. So you see, it is very dangerous. There is one time this jutsu should be used, when a particular condition is met'"
"Yes, I see. So what is the condition, sir?"
"You all need to take this to heart. The condition is..." end flashback.
'Guy-sensei, I have to use the Lotus now. The condition has been met. I must use this jutsu...' Lee and Guy: "...to protect the life of someone precious!" "I send Rock Lee and Tortoise Ninja into the battlefield! Now I will release my last 4 chakras (CZ: 0) to play this: the jutsu card Primary Lotus!"
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Card info: Primary Lotus is a jutsu card that allows you to flip one coin. If head, the user discards 1 ninja your opponent controls. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Lee undid the bandages on his arms and uses them to wrap himself to Dosu. With incredible speed, he leaps up into the sky and then spun around rocketing into the ground, destroying Dosu. "And now Lee and Tortoise will attack directly!" first the turtle launched a spinning attack directly on Dosu (BR: 2), then Rock Lee tackles him with incredible speed, winning the duel (BR: 3). Dosu collapses onto the ground. All holographic projectors are off as Lee walks towards Dosu.
"Okay, I win. Now leave this place, ant take your friends with you."
He didn't move a muscule. In fact, all he did was chuckle. "You certainly have mistaken me for a person… who believes in playing fair!" Dosu tries to punch him, but Lee dodges. "Now watch...We're going to show you something called 'the wall' " Lee suddenly stops and suddenly loses balance. "Your jutsu is indeed fast, but ours is even faster because it travels at the speed of sound." Lee drops down to his knees and started to cough up blood.
"Lee, what's wrong?" Sakura cries. Lee's ear starts to bleed. He clutches it as he trembles.
"Oh, I forgot to mention this shinobi shield I wear. You might be able to dodge my blows, but you can't get away from it. I don't need to strike you with my fists. I can hit you with the power of sound."
"Sound?"
"What makes it possible for the ear to hear things. What is sound, really?"
"The vibrations." Sakura said in worry.
"Give the little lady a prize. Yes, the vibration of molecules in the air creates a sound wave. These vibrations are collected by the ear. Then directed through the outer ear canal to your eardrum. The rest, as they say, is anatomy. What interests me are the organs of your inner ear, the ones that control your sense of balance, your ability to move." Dosu laughs again, "Feeling a little dizzy, naseous? That's right, best if you don't even try to stand up for a while." Dosu attacks Lee to get to Sakura.
She pulls out her kunai, and throws it at Dosu. He gets mad and attacks Sakura but Lee throws himself in front of Dosu using Konoha Whirlwind. Dosu blocks and then attacks with sound. His arm amplifies the sound that is generated inside to its maximum, like a speaker. He can also use his chakra and join it into the target. Lee drops to the ground from the pain and lack of balance.
With Lee down, Dosu sets his sights on Sakura. She throws her kunai, but he easily blocks. From a distance, squad 10 are watching the fight. "Those guys are too powerful," Choji exclaims. "We gotta get out of here." "Naruto and Sasuke are unconscious too." Shikamaru says. "That Lee person is also beaten, that only leaves with Sakura all by herself against those three goons." He looks at Ino. "So what are we gonna do?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You and her...you were friends once, right?"
How could she forget…
Flashback: it was long back when they were little children. Ino was told by Sakura to meet her at the park. When she arrives, she can see Sakura sitting on a bench, with a serious look on her face. "Hi, Sakura." Ino sits beside her. "What's wrong?"
"Sasuke… you also like Sasuke… don't you?"
"Huh?" Ino was surprised. How did Sakura know?
"So, I guess that means we're rivals from now on." Sakura hops off the bench and walks away… without saying another word. End flashback
"Well? Ino...So like, what do you want to do?"
"Why do you keep asking me that, what am I supposed to do? You want me to go out there and get myself killed?"
Sakura throws four shuriken at Dosu, but were intercepted by Zaku, who uses the tubes that are implanted inside the palm of his hands to create a giant gust of wind strong enough to intercept them. While blinded by the wind, Sakura could feel a sharp pain in her scalp. She is being pulled by her hair by Kin.
"My my, what soft and shiny hair." She smiles as she tightens her grip. "But you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing, and a little more time practicing your jutsu, you might not be in this fix." She turned Sakura's head so that she is facing Naruto and Sasuke. "Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make Ms. Beauty Queen watch while you finish off that Sasuke guy."
"Why not? Sounds like fun to me."
She couldn't believe this. Sakura is doing everything she could and she can't do anything about it. 'It's no use. I've got no strength left.' Sakura thought as she sits crying. 'Way to go Sakura. You let everyone down again! What good are you?! Even now, when the others really need me, I cave! How many times have they saved my neck? You think, maybe, just this once, when it's life or death, you'd think just maybe that I'd be able to come through!'
"All right, little man..." Zaku is walking towards Sasuke for the kill. "Time to end it!"As Zaku makes his way to Sasuke, Sakura takes her first real step towards becoming a nin. She pulls out a kunai from her pouch. "Come on. It's pointless," Kin says, "that won't work on me."
Sakura turns and grins at her. "It's not meant for you." In an instant, she cuts her hair to free herself from Kin's grip. 'I've always considered myself to be a true ninja. I claim that I'm madly in love with Sasuke, and I'm always lecturing Naruto acting like I know so much more. But it's all empty words, because their always in the lead, and I watch them from the background. Why is that?' she then looks at the unconscious Lee 'And Lee, you did more than just say you like me, you proved it. We're not even teammates, and you put your life on the line for me.' Sakura takes out her shinobi shield, 'Okay, no more caving...' converts to duel mode, 'Now it's my turn to take the lead,…' and slaps her deck into its catch. 'and all of you can watch me from the background.' "Alright. I challenge all three of you to a duel and if I win you'll leave us in peace."
"Ha! You have got to be kidding me." Dosu exclaims, "I've already took out the guy in the spandex, a 3-on-1 match shouldn't be much of a challenge."
"Well how's this for a challenge!?" from out of nowhere three shadows appear in front of Sakura. It is no other then Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, members of squad 10. "Now it's 3-on-3!" Ino announces.
"Ino, but why?"
"I'm tired of you showing off in front of Sasuke, and trying to get all the credit!" squad 10 take out their shields and convert them to duel mode. "Sakura, you take care of Naruto and Sasuke, we'll take care of those guys." Zaki, Kin, and Dosu stood side by side as they did the same thing.
All: DUEL!!!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Tune in for the next chapter of NARUTO TCG.
Next time: Formation
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