Hokage no Isan Chapter 22, a naruto fanfic

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Kakashi: Sell out. (blinks as a tentacle wraps around him) THE HELL?!

Kyugan: Be gentle Cthulu-kun!

Kakashi: WHAT ARE YOU-?! NO! THAT'S AN OUT HOLE! AN OUT HOLE!

Kyugan: Role camera.

Proclamation of strength; Battle of the brains!

As the stadium stopped rocking, Genma managed to climb to his feet, staring around in shock at the destruction. The coliseum walls were riddled with cracks, as if an earthquake had gone off right in the middle of the arena; the spectators were either on the floor or holding onto their chairs like desperate limpets. Even the Kage and Daimyo booths were looking a little put out, the Wind daimyo actually holding onto the handrail for dear life, having apparently been flung over it during Domon's last move.

'This guy!' Genma muttered, staring as the Giant got to his feet, 'He's something else!'

Domon glared at the battered sound genin as he feebly tried to raise himself off the ground. "What…are you?!" Dosu gasped, looking like a truck had hit him.

Domon snorted, before slinging Kubikiri Houcho over one shoulder and glaring at the genin. "Ore wa Oni no Domon!" he roared, causing the audience to wince as the arena walls echoed his words, "Konohagakure Saikyo doko da!"

He looked up at the Daimyos and smirked evilly, displaying FAR too many fangs than the human mouth should hold as he leveled his sword at them.

"And don't you forget it!"

"Dumbass," Recca snorted, shaking his head dismissively, "claiming he's the strongest like that."

"In terms of physical strength, he probably is, Aniki." Naruto muttered, eyeing the cracks along the wall with trepidation.

"He has a point," Fuko agreed, "none of us even compare to him in that aspect, he's definitely the powerhouse out of all of us." She snorted, waving a hand dismissively. "Luckily he's not as smart as he is strong, or we'd be in real trouble."

Mikagami shivered, looking down at the arena in concern. "Domon with intelligence," he muttered, "that IS a scary concept…"

Domon, unaware of the ridicule he was suffering, grunted and looked at Genma questioningly. "Oi, we done here?" he asked, causing the senbon chewing jounin to shiver, blinking at the absurdity of the question.

'He actually has to ask?' Genma muttered, eyeing the destruction with an air of mild horror, before raising his hand. "Winner: Ishijima Domon!"

Domon smirked and walked over to the steps to the fighter's booth, his wounds apparently not bothering him in the slightest. 'Showed off a bit much there,' the teen admitted, 'still haven't perfected the Toate.' he smirked, mentally patting himself on the back. 'At least I used my head for once!'

He grinned as he entered the booth, looking over at his teammates expectantly. "Yo, what did ya think?"

Recca smirked, pointing at the arena walls, as plaster fell from the ceiling. "I think someone needs a little more restraint," he mocked, "any more and you would'a brought the entire stadium down around us."

The giant flushed and gave his rival the finger, before turning to his blonde teammate. "Oi, squirt, you still got any of that cream Hinata-chan gave you?"

Naruto nodded and pulled out the tub. "Here," he motioned, "Lemme see your leg..."

'Brute force aside, Domon put good use to the terrain and his abilities' Sarutobi muttered, 'in a four man team he would work well in the offensive position,'

The eldest Sarutobi sweatdropped as a piece of the roof fell into the arena below, startling Genma as it almost landed on the poor man's head. 'Like that couldn't be any more obvious.' He muttered, shaking himself and smiling at the booth where the chunin hopefuls were conversing amongst themselves.

'Still, they have come a long way from being foreigners with little experience, and to declare himself as the strongest in Konoha, he has made the lords see we are a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the battlefields.'

He shot the faux Kazekage a look, smirking to himself at the sight of his discomfort.

'I bet you aren't feeling as confident as you used to be, are you…Orochimaru?'

Chouji and Asuma were less worried about Shikamaru's upcoming fight than they were with their female colleague at the moment. Ino had frozen up again when Domon had come marching out at the start of the round, and his roaring in the stadium had caused her to shake uncontrollably, especially when she saw how much stronger he'd become.

'Then there was that…that monstrous technique…' Asuma muttered, eyeing the cracks in the wall with a shiver, before regarding the wide-eyed blonde carefully. 'This is even worse than when they fought at the tower,' the jounin noted, 'I think she's gone into shock.'

"Asuma-sensei, what should we do?" Chouji asked, worried about his teammate, friend and secret crush as she simply sat there staring through him.

"We have to get her to the infirmary, there are medics there." The Jounin muttered, looking at the boy after a few minutes and nodding. "I think a memory suppression jutsu would be best, but those tend to be unreliable." he winced stiffly, "And I'm no genjutsu specialist."

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance?" a calm, quiet voice asked. Looking up revealed a cowled, cat-masked ANBU, who knelt beside them carefully with a nod. "I'm a medic," he admitted, "but I'm also experienced with the suppression jutsu."

He turned his mask towards the jounin, tilting his head slightly. "Are you sure though? They DO tend to have build-up side-effects." At the jounin's look of confusion he nodded at the girl. "She could lose a few I.Q. points if exposed to them too often."

Asuma winced, not liking the outcome of THAT situation at all. 'Inoichi would have my balls if something happened to his baby girl.' He muttered, imagining the enraged Yamanaka patriarch using his Hiranshin no jutsu to make Asuma walk off a cliff...among other things.

"Just do what you can then." The jounin muttered, shaking his head at the situation. The ANBU nodded and got to work, placing a hand on the blondes arm and causing her to drift off to a dreamless sleep.

"A couple of hours of rest and she'll be back to her usual bubbly self." The medic said cheerfully, standing up again. Asuma winced, knowing Ino was anything BUT bubbly, but thanked the man all the same. "Not a problem, shall I take a look at her too?" the ANBU asked, pointing behind the Jounin.

Asuma and Chouji looked round to reveal Sakura, still standing in her shocked position, looking for the entire world like a giant paper cutout. "Nah, she's fine." They muttered offhandedly, earning a sweatdrop from the ANBU.

Shikamaru shivered as the group was congratulating their giant comrade. "Man…I don't have a single friendly face here." He muttered, before looking over at Shino and shivering as the Aburame eyed him stoically. 'Well maybe one…but he's freaky too…'

The lazy genin sighed, wondering whom he'd pissed off to wind up in this situation, he strongly suspected his mother was involved in some way or other, she generally was.

'Tokiya's the brains of the academy too,' he recalled mournfully, 'so if I'm not careful out there, he'll eat me alive…' He sighed in relief, looking up at the sky contentedly. 'Relax, Shino's up against the puppet guy from the sand next,' he closed his eyes, 'no need to worry for a while…'

"Proctor!" Kankurou called out hurriedly, "I'm forfeiting the next match!"

The lazy genin face faulted, causing Shino to look at him in concern. 'Mendokuse,' the Nara scion moaned from the floor, 'my luck always DID suck…'

'That was close,' Kankurou muttered, eyeing the combatants cautiously, 'can't risk Karasu's mechanisms being looked into before the plan gets in motion.' He winced, looking over his shoulder at Shino in trepidation. 'Besides, this guy's bugs eat chakra…and I'll need all I can spare, Temari being in the condition she's in.'

The middle sand sibling shivered, eyeing the surroundings carefully.

'As it is, I've bought some time…time which these two should also compensate.' He nodded grimly, 'Gaara will probably kill the Uchiha on sight, and that'll be the signal.'

Shino didn't show any emotion, but behind his collar and glasses, his face was set in a calculating frown as he glared at the sand siblings, a strange rustling noise coming from the depths of his coat that caused any who heard it to shiver.

Genma cleared his throat, looking up at the audience. "Due to Kankurou's forfeit, the win goes to Aburame Shino." He explained, looking decidedly impartial, though internally he was skipping with glee, seeing he was now several hundred Ryou richer.

The crowd was muttering their displeasure at this, so far the Konoha genin had been providing a brilliant show, to see another in action, especially the enigmatic Aburame clan scion, was a treat they felt cheated of. The senbon chewing proctor cleared his throat again, catching their attention.

"As such, we will move on to the fifth match: Mikagami Tokiya versus Nara Shikamaru."

Shikamaru moaned as Tokiya walked down the steps elegantly, not a hair out of place. "Man, this is way too much trouble." He muttered, raising a hand lazily, "I'm just going to for-"

"Good luck Shikamaru!" Naruto cackled, slapping the lazy genin on the back, "You're gonna need-huh?"

The reason for the blonde's confusion was that Shikamaru had apparently disappeared into thin air.

"Eh? Where'd Shikamaru go?" Naruto asked, looking around the booth for the lazy genin, whilst behind him the other competitors, with the exception of Shino and Gaara, sweatdropped.

"Naruto…" Recca deadpanned.

"You knocked him over the rail." Domon finished, straight faced.

The blonde Hanyou blinked, looking over the railing to spot an annoyed Shikamaru glaring back at him from the imprint he'd made in the ground courtesy of the baka express. "Uh…oops?" Naruto muttered, a sweatdrop the size of a basketball sliding down his head.

Shikamaru stared up at the clouds in exasperation, shaking his head at the predicament he was in. 'Why me?' he begged them, 'What did I ever do in a past life?'

"Nice entry, what are you going to do next?" Tokiya said, smirking at the genin, "Forfeit perhaps?"

The Lazy genin twitched in irritation, he HAD been considering that even before he entered the ring after all. 'However,' he muttered, 'hearing THIS guy say it, I feel like fighting just to spite him.' The teen laughed internally, shaking his head at the thought. 'Mendokuse…I can't believe I'm doing this.'

Shikamaru slowly stood up and motioned to the proctor.

"Lets go."

Asuma, after watching Chouji escort their teammate away, covertly copping a guilty feel along the way, smiled as he sat next to Kurenai, earning a small flush from the younger jounin, which was either from embarrassment or the man's ever present smell of cigarette smoke.

"Now we'll see just what these two can do." The younger Sarutobi muttered, lighting up a fresh cancer-stick in anticipation, causing Kurenai to look at him.

"Is there that much to see?" she wondered, "Tokiya was the number one rookie at the academy, and I'll admit that Shikamaru did well in the preliminaries, but his scores were, well…"

Asuma snorted, amused despite himself; "Dead last?" he prompted, causing Kurenai to flush, not wanting to sound derogative towards her colleague's charge, until Asuma held up a hand to stave off any apologies. "Relax, I'm not insulted," he assured her, "but you're wrong if you think he's an idiot." The younger Sarutobi smirked, eyeing his favorite student in a calm manner.

"Shikamaru has a natural flair for strategies," he explained, "he loves shogi and go, despite his lazy demeanor." The Jounin winced, shaking his head in self-sympathy. "I've never beaten him once at neither of them either."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow, knowing that Asuma had won the Konoha professional Shogi Go championships three years in a row, ever since the Hokage stopped playing that is.

"Just watch," Asuma goaded, "I'll bet he's gathered all he needs to know about Tokiya from the get go."

'I got nothing on this guy.' Shikamaru muttered, sullenly, 'I didn't really see him fight in the preliminaries, so I don't know what he can do…all I got is his record at the academy.'

He frowned, remembering how his mother would hold copies of the test scores under his nose as she yelled at him to pull his act together. 'Perfect test scores, perfect attendance, heck, they even set up another fan club dedicated to him.' He shivered at the memory; 'I think I saw a few faculty members in it.'

Shaking his head, the Nara eyed the no.1 rookie cautiously. 'Doubt he's stupid enough to fall for the head to the wall trick,' he thought dryly, 'so I gotta be careful.'

At the same time, Mikagami was running through his thoughts on his opponent as well.

'This one isn't as stupid as he looks, despite his slothful appearance.' He frowned delicately, recalling Shikamaru's earlier performances. 'He can capture and restrain his opponent with that shadow jutsu of his, so ranged combat is probably the best way to deal with him.' He eyed his opponent carefully, "And he can minimize his shadow to any length, but there has to be a limit…'

Genma eyed both contenders, noting the analytical looks on their eyes before smirking in anticipation.

"Fifth match: Begin!"

The two leapt back, with Shikamaru hurtling Kunai as a distraction.

"Useless!" Mikagami yelled, hurling his own, causing the Nara to back flip, the lazy genin retreating to the trees and hide in the shrubbery.

'Regular tactics aren't gonna work here,' Shikamaru deduced, eyeing the genius through the cover of the woods, 'lets see…'

Kurenai blinked as she saw the lazy teen make a weird symbol with his hands. "A hand seal?" she asked, blinking slightly.

Asuma smirked around his cancer stick, "Nah…he's thinking." He countered. Kagero raised an eyebrow and the smoking jounin elaborated. "Shikamaru's like an old man," he explained, "he likes to take things slowly…so whenever we played Shogi, he'd make that hand sign and think out a strategy." Asuma winced, "I'd go down in the next two or three moves, tops."

Kagero blinked, "Really? That's quite impressive." She noted, actually quite impressed, having played Asuma during the few times the jounin gathered.

"Impressive or not," Kurenai countered with a frown, "playing shogi or go isn't the same as real life."

"On the contrary." Kagero cut in, "When compared to the intricate strategies thought out on a chessboard, there is a lot of similarity between them and battle situations."

Asuma nodded, "Kid loves strategies," he explained, "so one day, I gave him an I.Q test in the form of a puzzle game."

Kurenai looked interested, "And how did he do?" she asked, prompting Asuma to smirk, virtually chuffed.

"Even I was shocked," he admitted "damn kid's I.Q rated over 200."

Kurenai blinked, shocked out of her gourd. "T-two hundred?"

Kagero looked interested, "That is impressive, about how much over would you say?"

Asuma shuffled awkwardly, "About…ten, more or less?"

Kagero nodded, "Well then, Tokiya's last I.Q test put him in that range if what he said was right." She smiled at the two genin in the ring, "Looks like he'll get a decent challenge after all."

The immortal kunoichi failed to notice the looks of shock on the surrounding jounin populace.

Shikamaru opened his eyes, ready to set his plan in motion.

"Kagemane no jutsu!"

The shadow shot out and attempted to ensnare the swordsman, only for Tokiyai to leap backwards, back flipping away from him.

"Clever, using the wall to increase the length of your shadow." Tokiya conceded, pulling out a canteen of water, "Regardless…it shall not work on me."

Shikamaru watched, amazed, as the water turned into a sword as it was poured upon the strangely shaped kunai the young man was holding. 'Great,' he muttered, feeling a moment of childish jealousy, 'does every Konoha finalist have some sort of blade except for me?'

"You've shown me your art," Tokiya muttered, snapping his opponent out of his thoughts, "Now I shall show you mine."

Planting the tip of Ensui into the ground, Tokiya made a seal with one hand. "Hyomon-ken…"

Recca blinked, grabbing the railing in shock. "OI! Mikagami!" he yelled out, causing the Suna representatives to blink, "You trying to kill him?!"

"Tsurara mai!"

Shikamaru's eyes bulged as several icicles erupted from the ground and hurtled toward him murderously. "SHIT!" he yelped, barely dodging out of the way, "What the hell was that?!"

"Hyomon-ken," Tokiya replied, pulling his sword out of the ground, and walking towards the genin, "my art."

Shikamaru snorted, eyeing the madogu wielder carefully. "An ice blade huh?" he muttered sullenly, "Cool."

Tokiya smirked, tilting the blade so it crossed in front of his face. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

Shikamaru winced slightly in discomfort; one of the icicles had scratched his side. Not deeply thankfully, but there was an irritating cut in the genin's flank that was rubbing against his shirt, and the cold feeling wasn't helping. 'Okay, so he can attack from long range,' the genin thought, 'but he was to put his sword into the ground to do it…gotcha.'

"Kagemane!"

Tokiya sighed, looking decidedly disappointed. "A one trick pony," he taunted, "no matter how many times you-!" He leapt back to avoid the seemingly longer shadow, a smirk adorning his cultured features.

'I see…he's taking advantage of the sun's positioning to lengthen his reach,' the swordsman frowned delicately, 'Clever…but not clever enough!'

"Hyomon-ken:" he cried out, "Mizu-naru-hebi!"

Shikamaru yelped as he leapt to the side, canceling his jutsu to avoid the older teen's water snake. 'Okay, so he has other attacks that can reach me,' he thought with a shiver as the snake vanished, 'and getting in close is suicide, Kendo Sanbai Dan and all that…' He frowned as he dodged another water snake, 'Still…all that water…where's he getting it from?'

The Nara blinked as he remembered the start of the match, smirking to himself.

'Bingo.'

Tokiya was frowning in thought, eyeing the surroundings carefully. 'He's tenacious for someone so lazy,' the genius thought, 'and unusually quick at dodging attacks.'

With the ease of long practice, the swordsman dodged a kunai hurled in his direction and smirked as he noticed the Kagemane speeding towards him. "Your range is about fifteen feet," He called out stepping beyond the shadow's maximum range, "how long can you keep this up?"

Shikamaru refused to answer and the swordsman was about to continue when a shadow appeared in mid air. Cursing vehemently, Tokiya leapt back as a kunai hanging from a parachute descended, allowing Shikamaru to increase his reach once again.

'Interesting…' the swordsman muttered, eyeing his opponent appreciatively, 'he used the last attack from the Mizu-hebi to distract me from the fact he'd sent up a tool to lengthen his shadow.' he dodged to the side and smirked, 'He's good at this.'

Tokiya then did the unexpected and stopped right in the shadow's path, causing Shikamaru to blink as he supposedly captured the swordsman with his jutsu.

'This isn't right,' the Nara muttered eyeing the figure analytically, 'he just stopped in mid dash.' Scowling, the lazy genin grabbed a kunai and walked forwards, the swordsman mimicking his actions until there was only six feet between them.

"I wonder…" Shikamaru pondered, before moving the kunai in a slashing motion, causing his captive to cut off his own head with Ensui.

"He didn't!" Kurenai gasped, eyes widening as the audience cried out in shock at the Nara's apparent cruelty as Asuma winced.

"Yeesh, never thought he had it in him to do that…" He muttered, before blinking suddenly, staring down at the arena suspiciously. "Wait, somethings not right…"

Kurenai blinked and looked at her colleague, "What is it?" she asked, noting the suspicion on the man's face.

"Normally, whatever happens to the target whilst under the effect of Kagemane happens to Shikamaru." Asuma explained, pointing at his charge in confusion, "Now I'm not complaining, but why didn't HIS head come off too?"

Kagero smiled, looking down at the arena.

"Check."

Shikamaru snorted as Tokiya's headless corpse turned into a puddle of water. "Mizu bunshin eh? Pretty clever." He looked around, cautiously, "And you've drawn me into the open, where you can watch me carefully."

"I'm impressed," Tokiya's praise echoed around the stadium, "I take back the sloth comment from before."

Shikamaru eyed the surroundings carefully, "Doesn't really bother me, my mom calls me and pops worse."

Up in the stands, Nara Shikato winced. 'Ain't it the truth…' he mumbled, knowing all too well how bossy the 'love of his life' could get. Inoichi chuckled at his teammates expense, whilst Choza chomped away at his onigiri.

"You have my condolences." Tokiya muttered, "However, you'll forgive me if I finish this early."

Abruptly, the stadium filled with a dense fog, obscuring the audiences view, much to their displeasure.

'Kirigakure?' Genma muttered, interested; 'Wasn't expecting that.'

Shikamaru scowled, and then slowly closed his eyes, trying to visualize the terrain in his minds eye.

"Man…" Recca scowled, "I hated this when we fought Zabuza, now Mikagami's got it too." He looked over at Naruto and Domon, "You getting anything?"

Domon nodded, gazing down into the ring, "I can sense where they are," he admitted, "but I can't tell who's who though."

"Tokiya's the one coming up behind the other one." Naruto muttered, ears twitching slightly, his eyes closed, "And Shikamaru's the one whose heart's beating so fast."

Recca whistled, "Man, those lessons with the fox are paying off!" he praised, causing Naruto to flush and scratch his neck.

"I'm just listening alright?" he muttered, "I can't sense 'em like Domon can."

Fuko blinked, before crossing her arms in a time-out. "Wind back," she ordered, "Domon can sense them?"

Recca shrugged, thumbing at his rival disinterestedly. "Think of it like a radar or something." He prompted, causing the girl to stifle a laugh at the image of a submarine with Domon's face floating through a sea of mines, which looked like miniature Recca and Kurei heads.

Shikamaru kept his eyes closed until he heard the telltale sound off crashing ice hurtling towards him, grinning despite the Goosebumps and his racing heart.

'Check mate.'

"Tsurara ma-!" Tokiya froze in mid attack, speechless as he sensed his icicles do the same.

"Kagemane, successful." Shikamaru called out through the mist, which slowly began to dissipate, revealing the massive wall of icicles that had formed around the lazy genin. "Mendokuse," He sweatdropped, before shooting an annoyed glare towards his captured opponent, "you trying to kill me?"

Tokiya snorted, attempting to shrug but found this impossible due to the Kagemane still being in effect. "Not really," he admitted, "but if you HAD died I wouldn't have shed tears."

Shikamaru smirked, "I'm guessing the only thing holding these things back is you…right?"

Tokiya returned the smirk, "You'd be correct," he agreed, cocking a delicate eyebrow, "care to explain?"

Sighing in relief at having guessed right, the lazy genin raised a finger. "First off, your sword obviously relies on the amount of water used to make it; logically, a single canteen's worth wouldn't last very long." He raised another, "Second, I noticed that every time you used a technique, your blade seemed to grow thinner, as if losing its density."

A third went up, "Thirdly, even when you weren't holding your sword, you had this intense look in your eye…you need to FOCUS to keep the attack going, don't you?"

Mikagami nodded, visibly impressed at his opponent's deductions, "Correct," he admitted, "I don't need to be touching Ensui to control the Tsurara mai."

Shikamaru shook his head, a self-mocking grin on his face. "Mendokuse, if this were a chess match we'd both be in the check position, eh?"

Tokiya laughed gently, "It IS rather embarrassing; if you let me go, I renew my attack, but if I attack you, no doubt I would suffer damage as well."

Shikamaru snorted, rubbing the nick on his neck, "Noticed that eh?" he remarked, wincing at the sting.

The swordsman smirked, "You aren't the only one that studies his opponent in the midst of battle." He winced suddenly, feeling the strain of the technique shooting up his arm. "It's getting hard to maintain the icicles;" he noted, "Ensui's water is almost dried up."

"I'm low on chakra too." Shikamaru acknowledged, "What say we call it a tie?"

Tokiya sighed, "I'm not fond of that," he remarked, "but what else can I do?"

Genma smirked, nodding approvingly to their joint decision. 'These two, more than any of the others, they've displayed the truest values of the chunin, the qualities of a strategic leader.' He smirked and shook his head, eyeing the damage to the terrain, 'Had they both been accompanied by four man teams, this battle could have ended a little differently.'

"I'm declaring this one a draw!" he called out, ending the match amidst cheers from the crowd.

Shikamaru winced, rotating his stiff neck, not used to so much pressure as he released his opponent as the ice melted. "Mendokuse" he muttered tiredly, "you'd be a bastard to beat at shogi."

Tokiya raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You like shogi?" he asked smiling lightly, "Perhaps we can settle this over a game later?"

Shikamaru eyed the swordsman, before smirking, amused despite himself, "And here I thought we had nothing in common…" he snorted, shaking his head in bemusement.

Tokiya sighed, agreeing with the genin wholeheartedly.

"Life is full of surprises."

And so another match comes to an end. Not a complete victory, but at the very least Tokiya-kun has someone he talk to on equal footing.

Cthulu: (Unintelligible squelching noises)

Kyugan: Oh? done already? just drop him anywhere.

Cthulu: (nods and drops a traumatised Kakashi on the floor, before receding into the shadows)

Kakashi: It puts the lotion on it's skin...it puts the lotion on it's skin...

Kyugan: (Sweatdrops, before turning to a figure nearby) Get me Yuko-san, tell her i need that unreleased copy of Icha-Icha paradise the movie.

Figure: That again? you do know what she charges for it right?

Kyugan: I had Cthulu tape everything, (Holds up a slimy video camera) Nothing gets your boss off like good old tentacle pron.

Figure: (Grimacing as he holds the camera) sigh...I'll let her know.

Kyugan: Good man Watanuki, and take care. (Glares at the quivering form of Kakashi) The things I do for you.

R&R!!