AN: Quick re-upload for small last-minute edits and trying to fix the omake fight list. (Minor Edits and corrections - 27. Aug. 2013)
Routine declaration: beyond the usual emphasized words and expressions, italicized segments usually are 'the mysterious voice' (or Inner Sakura) speaking, while (bracketed) segments signify 'active thought', non-vocalized or 'private' speech, sometimes an emotional echo or associative thought.
And of course I don't own Naruto, Sasuke or anyone else native to the series, be it manga or anime.
I also don't own the Alan Parsons Project. I'll just snatch a few lines.
oOo
During the chuunin exam, in the Forest of Death, Orochimaru gives Sasuke the Cursed Seal. So far, so bad and a familiar story.
But when Sasuke wakes, why does he hear a voice that tries to undermine the sannin's influence? And knows things?
oOo
Raven Chatter
The Raven is at home among the dead and dying. To him, eyes no longer seeing are a deliciacy...
Part Four: Tower Fight, Part Two
oOo
And now I know what Sakura did... There's definitely more to this than I expected.
oOo
"The preliminary exams are ready to continue. Everybody involved please return to the arena," the speakers repeated again.
Sakura and Naruto made their way upwards, no longer as tense as before. They even were smiling.
Hinata felt her heart skip a few beats. They couldn't have... could they? Noo...
She swallowed and tried to calm herself. One, two, ... ten, yes, all toes there.
Sakura, meanwhile, looked around and tried to spy other familiar faces.
"*Sigh* Oh well, at least the world doesn't seem to end today. Kakashi-sensei isn't there yet," she said, vindicated, while Naruto laughed at her joke.
Except for the copy-nin and Sasuke, as expected, all latecomers trickled in. The Sound team's remaining member, Kin Tsuchi, appeared apprehensive and doing her best to stay out of her jounin-sensei's line of view, who glowered at the majority of Konoha shinobi.
Finally the arrivals stopped, the officials has resumed their positions and, after a last announcement, the billboards flickered again.
"And now, for the Fifth Match: Akado Yoroi versus Inuzuka Kiba."
"Woohoo!" the dog and his boy howled in chorus. "We get to kick some butt!"
With a pumped fist and a leap, the duo – okay, Akamaru still in Kiba's jacket – went down the stairs and into the arena, where Kiba let his partner go.
Quickly, the fight began. Yoroi's Ability to drain chakra unfortunately wasn't of much use against the Inuzuka, who didn't rely on fancy high-chakra techniques but just chakra-enhanced attacks, basically just his clan's style of taijutsu. But he really enjoyed taunting his opponent, whose garb gave the dog-boy ample ammunition. Even the occasional setback from losing energy to Yoroi had not enough effect to notably slow down Kiba and Akamaru, who got his own chance to shine when Kiba finally triggered the Beast Clone technique.
"Shikyaku no jutsu – Juijin Bunshin! Akamaru, two-pronged assault! Fang over Fang – GATSUUGA!"
In a burst of smoke two horizontal tornadoes curved towards the temporarily crippled man, whirling around each other and passing him once-twice-three times reflecting from ground and walls and only grazing him, but turning him around several times from the glancing blows, before finally barrelling straight into him from opposite sides just as their victim triggered a few smoke bombs to take cover in.
The cloud of smoke turned into absolute chaos, no one able to distinguish fighters or maneuvers – except for the two Hyuugas, who had primed their Byakugan eyes. Hinata flinched every few seconds – usually accompanying a hard crack - while Neji just watched without much expression.
"Oh maan, what's going on in there? I wanna seee," Naruto complained. "Kiba was so cool being all bestial and stuff, and I never knew Akamaru could turn into his twin! What are they doing in there? He, Sakura, do you know how they can fight in all that smoke?" he asked as he noticed the sounds indicating lots of successful hits, not just maneuvering and missed attacks.
"Um, maybe they can smell their opponent?" Sakura guessed.
"Good guess," Kakashi confirmed.
"YEEEK! Not again!" "Kakashi-sensei!" Sasuke, having accompanied the man, just smirked, for once being on the other side of the sneaky surprise.
"Heh, heh, heh," the copy-ninja chuckled. "I guess I'll have to train my cute little students more in situational awareness. But yes, the Inuzuka have very sharp senses from training with and the link to their canine partners."
"So they're fighting by nose? Cool. Weird but cool," Naruto exclaimed. "Go Kiba!"
Just then a small furry bundle flew out of the smoke, crashing down limply.
Several gasps, mostly feminine, were heard in the audience.
A few seconds later a growling yell was heard. "You can drain my chakra, you can beat on me, you can act all superior as much as you want, but you-don't-hurt-my-partner! Die you bastard!" The shout was followed by a series of hard impacts and slashes, interspersed by a few sounds of pain, before ending in an eerie silence.
A minute later, the smoke had dispersed enough to see two unmoving figures draped over each other.
Hayate stepped over cautiously and examined the bodies.
"Well, both are unconscious. Yoroi due to damage, Kiba due to severe chakra exhaustion. Unfortunately, since both fighters are unable to continue," he added after a short wait and a quiet cough, "I have no choice but to declare the match a..." Suddenly, a yelp interrupted him, as Akamaru rose and limped towards the scene. He glared at Hayate – who at first didn't seem to know whether he was supposed to be intimidated or to go 'Aaawww!' – and snarled. Then he waddled over to Kiba, nipped him in the fleshy bits –"Ow!"- only to step up to Yoroi's neck, putting a paw there and baring his small but sharp teeth demonstratively at Hayate again.
The surprised proctor lifted an eyebrow, thought for a moment and finally declared: "Well, since Yoroi is defenseless and Kiba's clan partner *cough* could easily finish him, I'll tentatively declare Akamaru - and Inuzuka Kiba - winner of this match, subject to objections from higher up *cough*."
The Hokage consulted the teachers for a minute, then dismissed the notion.
"As constant animal partners are considered equipment and thus a part of the shinobi in question, the win stands. For further consequences I'll defer to a medical assessment and the Inuzuka clan head's opinion after Tsume has had the opportunity to review the fight in detail."
"Very well. So, final decision: Winner: Inuzuka Kiba."
The medic-nins quickly removed the motionless bodies from the floor, followed by a concerned puppy. Who after some commotion got permission to join Kiba on his stretcher.
oOo
"Whoa, that Yoroi guy must have gotten him bad, if he's got chakra ex- ex- if he's that much out of chakra," Naruto, trying to sound knowledgeable, failed miserably, prompting a bit of laughter from his teammates and thus fulfilling his real objective.
"Well, not anyone has your chakra reserves, Naruto. If you were completely fresh and had to fight against this guy he might just explode," Kakashi joked.
"Or if he had to fight Shino and his bugs the fight could last for days," Sakura whispered to avoid clueing the wrong people in on the Aburame bug's abilities. "You remember, they eat chakra, too?"
They tried to visualize the idea.
"Whoa, that would be... awesomely boring, or boringly awesome," Naruto grinned.
Even Sasuke found the ideas somewhat funny. Hmm... the voice wasn't commenting? Maybe it had been sealed, too. Oh well, at least he would be alone in his head again.
(You wish), same voice quietly thought, smugly avoiding its host's awareness.
(I'll let him think a while for himself again and use the time to take stock of these unexpected developments... well, I'll keep watching the fights, too. So far, the candidates for the finals have not really changed. I foresee the possibility Kiba will not be able to compete. Still, half the fights have yet to happen, so we'll have to see what develops. Hmm, what will happen with Gaara? The actual damage should be no problem for the med-nins, but the possible trauma... Or his siblings... what has Oro-creepy-maru planned in case none or only one of them gets to the final round? Questions, questions...) it pondered.
"Oh, and Saasuuke-kuun?"
Oh crap, is she backsliding already?
"Once this is over, I have a few questions for you... and you too, Naruto. And don't you dare try to avoid me again."
Both boys had identical reactions: Uh oh *gulp*.
oOo
"Oh, well, let's go on with it. And the next fight will be *cough*," The board stopped.
"Rock Lee... against Temari of the Sand. Both fighters down here, please."
Temari took the direct route, leaping over the railing and smoothly sailing downwards hanging on to her giant fan, but was surprised when she saw someone already standing there – she had been sure she had moved first - a boy with absolutely ridiculously huge black eyebrows, an horrible bowl cut and an exasperatingly annoying expression in his eyes, not to mention the awful ugly green jumpsuit. So that was 'Rock Lee' – hadn't been another one up there?
(And now I can read her thoughts too... weird. But cool,) Sasuke's inner voice noticed. (Maybe because Sasuke is focusing on the fight? But then why did I know what Sakura was doing before? And why am I getting only a few flashes from Lee?)
She looked – yes, there was another, older one there, probably a teacher. Damn, probably some clan features then. (Heh.) These guys seemed to have some weird behavior patterns, if she remembered right. Damn, why couldn't Kankuro or Gaara have drawn that guy as an opponent – one freak versus another?
She felt some guilt at the thought, they were family, and Gaara had threatened to kill them not that often during the last few days. Not that he killed them at all –yet- through these years, of course, so maybe he did recognize them as family, at least a bit.
Oh well, at least Kankuro would have been a better match, at least in looks – painted puppeteer pajama versus garish green guy – heh, nice alliteration.
"Oh dear, Konoha doesn't seem to offer sensible fashion choices at all, does it?" she teased, touching down.
"You're one to speak with that partner of yours," someone screeched from the peanut gallery.
"Yosh! Do not insult a youthful choice in garb, dear Ino! I'm certain his attire has been chosen with burning conviction," the green glare answered LOUDLY, "but it is not him I must face, but his youthful girl friend who so smoothly swept down to our battle!"
"Hey! I'm not his girlfriend! That fluke up there is my BROTHER, you twit!" Temari exclaimed.
"Ah! Forgive me my faulty preconceptions, then, but I was unaware of your relationship," Lee apologized.
"In fact, Gaara is my brother, too, you know..." Temari sweetly added, causing Lee to swallow with wide eyes, remembering Dosu's brutal end.
But he swiftly recovered and exclaimed "Yosh," –
Kami, has that guy no indoor voice? Temari thought.
"- then I expect you to have a comparable, if much more youthful, amount of battle spirit to test myself against, even if you are a female and I deeply regret to have to fight such a breath-taking vision of the desert!"
Did he just insult me, compliment me or compared me to Gaara? Or all three?
"Hey! If that was some sort of come on then I feel morally obliged to all womankind to shave off these black caterpillars between what you call eyes and that awful haircut of yours!" she yelled, trying to contend with the boy's voice.
And there was much rejoicing from above.
"In fact, why don't I just shave off everything from your nose on upwards?"
Less cheering, heh.
"Yosh! While most unyouthful in its intent, I do accept your youthful motive behind it and declare that in no way I intended to 'come on' to you! So let's have a most youthful match and test our abilities against each other!"
Up on the balcony, Maito Gai shed rivers of youthful tears in admiration for the amazing youthful eloquence his pupil displayed. "Oh, Lee... they learn so fast these days... soon there will be not much more I can teach you."
Oh Kami, both his other students thought, I hope so – or rather I fear that day?
Temari, confused, just shook the speech off and, snapping open her fan to the first – no, I'll go right for the second, this guy is annoying - setting, bellowed: "Enough banter! Let's start this so I can end it and get away from this... thing!"
"Yosh! Yes, announcer, let us do so!"
Hayate, wishing he had had some earplugs so he could pull them out right now, complied. "Sixth Match: Rock Lee versus Temari of Sand, start!"
oOo
Temari immediately swung her fan in the desire to end this fight quickly, trying to smash the annoying Lee against the wall. To her surprise, the gust of wind caught nothing but dust. Then she saw, from the corner of her eyes, something green move beside her and felt a hard impact on her legs, making her pay a quick visit to the ground. She quickly rolled to her feet, snapping her fan shut and swinging it with high speed in the green direction, only to miss again.
Lee, with blinding speed, had rolled to the side and, almost too fast to see, closed from the flank and swept her from her feet, only to roll away again and move into a new position.
He didn't want to actually strike the girl with force yet, so he went for 'soft' attacks. These not exactly being the forte of the Gouken -Strong Fist- style his sensei had drilled him in, he mentally took the choice as a nice opportunity to train, by trying to beat the sand blonde with these more difficult techniques. He drew the fight out a bit by making her drop and roll a few more times, trying just to exhaust, confuse and finally stun or daze her and softly knock her out.
"Striking to break, to injure or kill is easy, striking to only stun or disable requires great control," as Gai-sensei had said.
Well, she didn't seem to be strong in taijitsu, so the risk to himself was slight, and he could evade her wind techniques with his normal speed without much effort. He couldn't actually see her attacks, only feel them if they came close, but her movements were relatively easy to read and thus, the attacks no great challenge to predict.
Temari on her part fumed and spun to find her target again. There he was, standing in that dumb-looking stance of his, bandaged hand with its back towards her. She'd wipe that (actually nonexistant) smirk off his face!
With a snap, her fan swept open again and she went for full power already, not caring about reserving tricks for later fights. She'd get him with the Sickle Wind technique with enough spread so he wouldn't be able to dodge!
"Kamaitachi no jutsu!" she yelled and swung her signature weapon with all the force and chakra she could muster on the spot and produced a huge twister, covering half the arena's surface area and –yes!- catching the green grasshopper (why the heck had she come up with that moniker? Suna had neither much grass nor many insects feeding on it...) in her technique and twisting, pushing him upwards to the ceiling.
"Whoa...!" Lee had already been moving to evade, but her full attack had been much, much wider than expected and so he found himself, only halfway to the whirlwind's border, sucked in, ripped with amazing force off his feet and straight up into the air. Overcoming the confusion and vertigo quickly – not that mid-air combat was a specialty of his style, but during his training he had often enough traversed notable distances by external propulsion, usually Gai-sensei – he twisted and turned and, instead of flatly smacking into the ceiling, breaking the impact with his feet, practically crouching on the ceiling. His fingertips pushed into the stone to keep the hold he hadn't when on the ground rather than relying on his less reliable tree- (or wall-) walking technique.
Focusing chakra into his legs, his toughened body enduring the myriad of cuts, he held on and waited for the lull in the wind he knew would come as soon as the center of the whirlwind wavered far enough and blasted off, turning around and diving –through- the storm downwards, foot forward, to impact with the full combined force and speed of his chakra-charged muscles, trained Strong Fist –or in this case, Foot- techniques and gravity aided by his training weights.
He aimed for a spot about one step beside the girl.
Temari threw her target into the ceiling and let the wind rip him to shreds, yes, there flew green and orange strips of cloth, reddish drops being drawn into thin lines, highlighting the edges of the cutting winds. She kept her focus on him – how did he hold on there still? – and held the technique as long as she could. Just then the stream of chakra fluctuated, as the –now red and green- boy pushed off the ceiling and just broke through the force of her winds, shooting down like a falling star, a meteor, with incredible speed and force, faster than a normal eye could see, down towards... her...
She braced herself and tried to block, her fan instantly snapping shut and offering the resiliency of a steel girder – he missed! He -
With a huge crash, Lee impacted just where he wanted, barely passing her block, shattering the solid stone slabs into dust and gravel exploding in a huge blast.
Temari was unconscious before she struck the wall, smashing into it, blasted away by the burst of gravel and bonelessly sliding downwards, pelted bloody and soon to be red and black and blue all over.
Lee vaulted out of the almost hip-deep crater, ripping his kicking leg free without much effort, and stood an eyeblink later besides the girl, checking her condition. He was elated to find her covered only with minor wounds - admittedly a lot of them, but he didn't look much better – and just knocked out from the concussion without major broken bones.
"Yosh! She's alright! While her power of youth has clashed with mine for a glorious contest, the storms she called up have fanned my own flames to new heights!" he cried, seeking out his sensei with tearing eyes.
"LEE!" Gai yelled, crying manly tears of pride.
"GAI-SENSEI!" the answer came, both males thrusting their fists triumphantly towards the sky- ceiling.
Hayate cleared his throat. "*Ehrm* *cough* Would you please await the official verdict?"
Both froze, to the relief of all witnesses.
Hayate checked Temari's condition and rose again.
"Okay, an unequivocal victory for Rock Lee. Congrats. Medic!"
"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee yelled, crying manly tears of joy.
"LEE!" the answer came, both males hugging and thrusting their fists triumphantly towards the sky, the setting sun bathing them in a warm glow.
"Oh, and could someone get the guy with the shovel, to fix that?"
"Doton-"
"OK, that works, too."
Kankuro watched the medic-nins take care of his sister and began to nervously gnaw off the fingertips of his gloves to get at the chewy nails inside.
He would be next. He just knew it.
Fnck the plan.
oOo
Collectively, Team Seven shuddered and decided to just - forget – that scene.
"Wow," Naruto cheered, "now that is a crater."
"Ouch," Sakura empathetically groaned, "that was definitely worse than being smashed against a tree trunk."
"Impressive," Sasuke stated, "I had not thought Lee was that fast and strong."
"He probably held back in your little fight in the academy," Kakashi said. "If I recall, he only tried that one major maneuver on you, and Gai interrupted that."
Sasuke nodded, recalling the moment.
"Should you have captured that, take care," Kakashi murmured to Sasuke, "With taijutsu maneuvers on their scale you could easily hurt yourself badly when you try something your body can't follow through on. There is a good reason for the amount of training Lee goes through."
"Yeah, I got that," Sasuke answered just as furtively, "just as with chakra reserves for most B-class and higher ninjutsu. I need the ressources to perform.
"Well," the boy resumed normal speech volume, "then we know one more thing we might face in the finals, so give m- us appropriate training."
Damn.
Kakashi noted the close miss and Sasuke's abashed correction. Hmmm – the boy would have to work on it to avoid backsliding, understandable.
Naruto only noticed the correction. Sakura did so, too, but since she had lost her fight she just sighed.
"Wow – did you just say 'us', Bas- Sasuke?" Naruto cut the casual insult, it just didn't feel right this time for some reason.
Sasuke took note, just as Sakura and Kakashi did.
"*Sigh*," Sasuke felt put on the spot, but tried to rise to the challenge.
"Yes, I said 'us'. If you don't get good trainig, it won't be fun to beat you down without a good challenge. Not to mention you wouldn't get far enough to get to try at all, slacker," he actually grinned at the blonde, taking the heat out of the habitual insult.
"Bastard," Naruto grinned back, without rancor either.
"Hrn," Sasuke grunted, half-jokingly, before continuing. "But Kakashi, I meant what I said before – find something useful for her too," he pointed his thumb at Sakura, who looked back in surprise.
"Oh?" Kakashi scrutinized the pink-haired, still scuffed-up girl, who started to fidget at the attention.
"Dammit, girl, get a grip!" Inner Sakura yelled, "That is y- our opportunity to get taken seriously, to be an asset, to get a real chance with Sasuke!"
Sakura straightened and met Kakashi's eye. "Yes. Please." She firmly said.
"I'm good and tired of just trailing behind uselessly," she swallowed the bitter taste of the blunt but true words. "If I want to be of value to the team, I need to be able to do something useful. If I had known more medical skills, or had been stronger in genjutsu – hell, even my taijutsu isn't that good, I just got lucky with Shikamaru not being that much better."
"I still think you rocked, Sakura-chan," Naruto tried to support her, earning a perfunctory soft slap with a smile instead of her (formerly) customary fist.
"Very well," Kakashi said after a moment of thought. "You really have grown in this week, I must admit. I'll try to arrange something after this, we can make solid plans later."
Yay! "Hell yeah!"
The speakers crackled: "Repairs have been made. We will continue now."
oOo
Gekko Hayate, once again, stepped forward, clearing his throat a few times.
"Well, let's come to the seventh match, the day isn't getting any longer," he droned, trying to ignore the smashed and provisorily fixed stone slabs from the previous fight.
"And for the seventh match, we'll have...," once more, the sign flickered through the remaining participants and stopped at:
"Hyuuga Hinata will meet now Kankuro of Sand."
"I knew it, I fncking knew it" the masked puppeteer loudly cursed, pounding the railing with somewhat worn gloves. Muttering more curses, he listlessly made his way down to floor level.
Hinata flinched at the volume and vocabulary of the painted boy with the wrapped package. Had he something like his brother's sand hidden in there? She gulped and paled a bit at the memory.
Kurenai softly sighed and tried to encourage her student.
"Hinata, you can do it. Believe in you, in your skills. I do. Just act fast and decisively, before he can bring up - whatever it is he does. Just keep your eyes open for unexpected tricks, and if you hit enough of his tenketsu fast enough, the match will be over before you know it," she implored the shy girl.
Sakura, still giddy from Kakashi's promise, took notice. Hell, the girl needed good morale more than anything else, and if she wasn't totally wrong about everything she had seen from her...
"Hey, Naruto, isn't that the guy who tried to pound you the day before the exams?" she asked loudly. Hinata stiffened.
"Yeah, when I tried to get Konohamaru away from him. He had that foul mouth then too," Naruto cluelessly confirmed. "Called me all sorts of bad things."
"Doesn't seem to be a very nice person then."
"Nice? He was just spoiling for a fight and tried to pick on me for that."
"Well, I hope then he gets what he deserves. Someone should really teach him how to behave as a guest," Sakura poured it on, hiding her smile at the dark clouds figuratively rising from Hinata.
(Oooohhh, the poor guy...)
oOo
Yes, it was complete and utter slaughter.
The moment Hinata arrived on the floor her Byakugan was primed. Kankuro barely had the chance to open his foul mouth before the usually terminally shy Hyuuga girl stomped over to him, swept his strikes aside with elegant, curving Juuken blocks and hammered her flaring fingertips into his package – the one on his back, of course *sweatdrop*.
To the onlookers' further surprise, the masked boy dropped, clattering, without having actually been touched, while sounds of surprised pain came from the dropped bundle Hinata seemed to take great pleasure in mangling.
Shortly, the bundle unwrapped, displaying a severely abused puppeteer and everyone recognized his stand-in as the doll it was.
It had taken about seventeen seconds.
Neji's eyes rivaled Kurenai's for size, emulating dinner plates.
Sakura giggled evilly and gave Hinata a thumbs up.
Naruto and Sasuke just stood there, open mouthed.
(My gods... that was... so... beautiful!)
"Um... Winner, Hyuuga Hinata. Medic!"
"Yeah! Go Hinata! You rock," Naruto cheered loudly.
Hinata, having barely acknowledged the announcement of her win before, just flowed up the stairs, to Sakura's hidden enjoyment. Oh, the possibilities...
Then the girl rejoined her team and sensei and dropped in a faint, flushed and hyperventilating. Kurenai caught her and softly smiled at her student who for the first time she knew of had broken free from her mental shell of inferiority.
Shino might have smiled too, but with his coat, who could tell?
Lee and Gai – the former clad now mostly in new, blood-flecked bandages holding the cut up remains of his spandex suit together - started declaiming the power of the burning fires of youth, but everybody did their best to ignore them.
Tenten teased Neji about being more careful in riling Hinata, and the older boy tried to rally his belief in unalterable fate.
He just didn't know what fate anymore.
He began to doubt even the Kaiten could have stopped Hinata. At least unless he perfected it...
Kankuro, practically spun, folded and otherwise mutilated in multiple ways, thought he was feeling each and every tenketsu point on his body throbbing in a different rhythm.
He tried to beg the medics for painkillers, but his whole face was numb...
"Yes, yes, don't worry, we'll keep you conscious. We'll have to anyway, to treat your chakra blockades." The boy only cried, soundlessly.
Evil green beast... scary pale eyes...
A Konohaphobia sounded like a nice, safe habit to develop.
oOo
The whispered comments continued for a while, but Hayate, this time not delayed by the necessity of having the arena repaired, proceeded to announce the next and eighth match.
"Let's please continue *wheeze*," he droned, with the next match. Would please," he looked at the board, "Aburame Shino and Akimichi Chouji get on the floor?"
Oh, an Akamichi. Another breakage break after that match seemed highly probable. Nice.
"Hey, Chouji and Shino are next," Naruto – as usual – cheered.
"Very well," Shino nodded and moved on, Kurenai-sensei wishing him success.
"Chouji, if you win, the barbecue will be all-you-can-eat," Asuma promised.
With a rumbling sound, the large boy clenched his fist, resolve in his face and his eyes filled with stars. "I'll do my best, sensei! For the meeeat...!"
He rushed down the stairs to meet his former classmate.
"Hello Shoji," Shino calmly greeted. "Let us have a good match."
"Yeah, let's. But I have to win... FOR THE DELICIOUS MEAT!" he brandished his fist in an almost Gai-like manner, prompting Shino to incline his head sideways quizzically.
"Ah, okay," Hayate wheezed, "have a nice, friendly match then. Begin."
"BARBECUE!" With this battle shout, Chouji leaped forward, "Baika no jutsu – multi-size technique," ballooning out to eight times his normal volume and "Nikudan Sensha – meat bullet tank," pulling limbs and head inside with puffs of chakra and turned himself into the familiar rolling ball shape, immediately charging after Shino.
The usually cool Aburame leapt out of the way with flailing arms, incidentally loosening clouds of kikaichuu bugs.
"Rollrollrollrollrollrollroll...," Chouji rumbled, missing, deflected from the wall, shifted vectors, rolling on, missed again, bounced off again and so on for several trips around the arena, shaking and cracking the walls, Shino always barely a leap to the sides ahead.
The kikaichuu bugs swarmed through the air – on Shino's command avoiding the ground not to be squashed under the Akamichi ball – and formed whirling spirals trying to reach Chouji from the sides along his rotational axis, apparently only to be thwarted by each change of direction.
A frustrated "Tch," escaped the normally stoic Shino when Chouji completed his third full circle of crossing the arena, drawing a spirographic pattern on the ground. While Chouji was burning up chakra by the second, Shino was using up his physical reserves in dodging – who would tire first?
On the other hand, without Chouji showing a reaction yet, with each pass he was collecting a few more bugs hiding in his clothes and draining his chakra.
The race was on.
oOo
To many of the onlookers, the match was made exciting only by the rhythmic impacts of the Akamichi mass, threatening to shake them from their positions.
Naruto, of course, cheered at each crash and at each successful dodge.
Sasuke was annoyed by the continual shaking and quietly complained about the lack of techniques displayed.
Several others followed their examples, foremost Gai, Lee, Ino and Tenten on the cheering front and Neji, Shikamaru and the remaining non-rookies griping.
Okay, Shikamaru was less griping than running a quiet commentary about Chouji's tactics – or lack thereof – easily predicting the result.
oOo
Unfortunately, Chouji's chakra reserves were not sufficient to maintain this maneuvering long enough to tire Shino into missing an evasion, especially since the comparatively few kikaichuu getting through to him were enough to almost double his chakra consumption.
When he finally had to stop he 'poofed' out of the technique and, dizzy beyond previous experiences, simply fell flat on his face, moaning "the barbecueee."
Shino recalled his bugs, which were just starting to dive down on the other boy en masse, and gasped a bit, recovering from his own exhaustion.
When Hayate declared him the winner, he helped his former classmate up and just complained: "Chouji, that tactic was too exhausting to us both, too damaging to the environment and too simplistic in general. Another approach might have held more promise. I recommend working on other variants of your clan techniques."
"Heh, I guess Asuma-sensei and Shikamaru both will say something similar," he moaned. "But no all-you-can-eat... oooo..."
No one could tell if the Aburame was smiling as he helped Chouji back up the stairs towards their teams.
oOo
"Well, while the collateral damage due to the last fight is considerable, before we call a repair break this time we'll announce the matchup beforehand. So, the next match will be..." flicker, stop. "Hyuuga Neji versus Tsurugu Misumi."
"Wait a moment, he's a Hyuuga, too? Like that Hinata chick just before?" Misumi asked.
"Yes. He is her cousin and considered a genius and last year's 'rookie of the year'," Tenten sweetly answered, pointing out her teammate, who answered her action with a deeply displeased, freezing stare. Fortunately, hyouton – ice powers – were not the Hyuuga bloodline, otherwise the young weapon mistress might have suffered severe frostbite along with the annoying inquirer.
Who nonetheless shuddered and shouted: "Stronger than her then? Thanks, but no thanks, all I can do is stretch and flex. I forfeit! I give up! I'd like to live to become chuunin, thank you very much. Have fun in the finals. Bye."
And with s 'swoosh' of a shunshin speed technique he was gone, and the officials convened for a short deliberation.
(Wasn't he one of Kabuto's plants? Whoa, Hinata must have really made an impression, that or this guy wasn't that loyal anyway. Or both. Heh. I can only imagine what Neji must be thinking now... whoa, literally. Nothing from him. Well, one more fact for the file pile...) the voice mused, still leaving Sasuke to his own thoughts, currently orbiting around the other remaining contestants.
oOo
"Well, that was easy," Tenten grinned.
"Tenten, if you do something like that again before I have the opportunity to work off my frustration, I'll pick you instead of Lee as taijutsu sparring partner. I'm certain Gai-sensei will confirm that you could use quite a lot of improvement in that area," Neji threatened uncharacteristically, while speaking quietly enough the green menace he had invoked (and his almost-clone) should not have heard.
The girl silently whistled, impressed. "Wow, Neji, you really have listened to these lessons in trash-talking, ne?"
She chuckled at the clueless expression - lessons in trash-talking? - that encrouched on the formerly fuming Hyuuga boy's face and looked over to the female single remaining Sound nin.
"Well, since everybody else is done, we'll be the culmination then, ne? Hey, do you have any wall-shattering moves you intend to use?" She called out to the cow-pattern camouflaged girl, who pointed quizzically to herself, then, when Tenten confirmed with a nod, looked up to her jounin teamleader, who dismissed the query with an annoyed 'do-what-you-will' gesture.
"Not really. You?" Kin answered.
"Nope, me neither. Hey, sirs!" she shouted towards the Hokage's group.
"What?" an annoyed Anko, being in that group, snapped before being calmed by the Hokage himself patting her shoulder.
"Sorry, but me and that Sound girl over there are the last match anyway, and I for my part would like to get home at a reasonable time," she cheekily smiled, "so if we promise not to use wall-shattering moves could we just finish this already?"
Anko had to laugh at that. "Sassy, but I have to admit I like that. How about it, Sir? Hayate? Anyone else?"
Naruto on the other side was grinning widely, with a sky-raised thumb supporting the idea and making the old man smile. "Yeah! Go for it, old man!"
The Hokage let out a short laugh and shook his head good-naturedly. "Why not?"
Hayate sighed, assumed his station and declared: "All right, tenth and last fight for the preliminary round: Tenten and Tsuchi Kin. Ready? Begin."
oOo
Both girls had hurried down to the scratched-up floor and into the starting positions, Tenten grinning like the cat that ate the proverbial canary, Kin smiling a bit less happily, but no less fiercely.
"Welll...," Tenten drawled, playing with a kunai, "When I'm finished I guess my whole team will go to the finals. I think the last time a full team made chuunin on their first try all together was with the Legendary Three, ne? Now that's an achievement to aspire to..."
"Heh, think again. I admit my teammates haven't exactly bathed in glory, but they were creepy freaks anyway. I'm actually happy Dosu bought it. One could work with him, but, well, his bandages weren't just for show, you know," Kin chatted, ready to move at any moment. "Still, we both know who usually is the last one standing in a team, don't we?"
"Not you," yelled Ino but was ignored by the Sound kunoichi.
With a flick she took initiative, whipping a senbon needle at Tenten to test her speed. The chinese-themed girl easily deflected it with her kunai, entering a highly mobile guard position and pulling out a few more kunai with her other hand.
"Hehehe, got to offer something better that that," she laughed, returning an array of sharp missiles and forcing the Sound girl to dodge in apparent panic.
Kin didn't loiter and threw another few senbon, a sudden ringing warning Tenten of a change in technique and tactics. She dodged the bell senbon without problem and blocked the regular ones with another kunai, responding with a sudden hail of far more kunai than Kin had expected. Still, she dodged successfully and decided to up the ante. "Kage Senbon – shadow needles," she invoked, sending a hail of real and illusionary needles towards the Konoha girl, intermixing bells and normal senbon freely.
Tenten dodged and blocked with a bit of concern, especially since the other girl held the fire a bit longer than before, but stayed clear of most of the burst. Only a few small holes in the loose pants of her garb showed her small failure, but none had drawn blood, so she stayed unconcerned about poison, envenomed needles being a fairly common tactic.
Well, what one could do, she could do better, anyway. With an evil grin she whipped out her scrolls and, leaping upward unrolling them, released a swarm of sharp, pointy objects - "Soushouryuu – twin rising dragons" - in the direction of her opponent with deadly aim, peppering her with edged steel.
Her eyes widening at the oncoming metal storm, Kin leaped and ducked, trying to keep her skin as intact as possible. Fully into the rolling evasion but still already badly cut up, a tiny sound suddenly revealed to her an helpful fact which she instantly started to exploit, throwing needles right back into the aerial chop shop.
When her initial barrage ran out Tenten was somewhat concerned – the sound girl apparently hadn't dodged quite as well as she should have been able to, instead returning fire with her needles. Most of them had been deflected by her own weapons, of course, but she wasn't sure some of them hadn't scratched her. Especially since the Sound girl laid there bleeding, but still she heard a ringing in her ears...
Suddenly the bloody girl rose, chirping "I win" and separated into a mass of wavering and weaving duplicates, Tenten unable to distinguish the original from fakes due to sudden, increasing dizziness.
Poison! Shot through her mind. She got me! Got to finish her fast!
With a jerk she pulled the wires connecting several of the dispersed weapons to her hands to direct them at the enemy, but to her surprise the weapons didn't follow her intentions, dancing in directions she did not intend.
"Sorry, meatball head, I heard your wires sing when you tried to dice me up and put my own into play. And since you are nicely confused and dizzy now..." she pulled and waved and Tentens supposedly loyal weapons rose from the ground, both girls fighting for control, but Kin, unaffected by the sonic genjutsu she had set up with her bell senbon, easily dominated the improvised lethal puppet show the dancing weapons started to perform in spite of Tenten's skill with all of her weapons, supported by sonics-spawned hallucinations, seeing her own weapons wielded by her opponents doubles in a way that heavily debiliated her defenses.
Seeing the swarm of weapons rise into the air, whipping here and there, curving around to hit or miss, with both girls flexing their arms to each overcome the other, made the astonishing reversal an awe-inspiring event, maybe not the, but at least one of the most exciting fights of the day for the shrunken audience.
(Well, going by public recognition, Sakura was leading by points even though she lost; judging just skill and power, Lee would have won hands down; Chouji had applied the most general collateral damage; no one would deny the most brutal win to Gaara, while the most embarrassing win would go (to his deep shame) to Sasuke; and Hinata definitively owned the total curbstomp award (and would be lethally embarrassed if anyone ever called her on it). Naruto had delivered a good, popular showing and would possibly be tied with the girls' fight for general delivery. Unfortunately, this were the preliminaries and thus, no one made any lasting remarks about that kind of qualifications.
Back to the fight.)
For several exchanges the girls fought for control, but finally Tenten dropped first.
Oh Kami, Neji will never let me live that down, were her last despairing thoughts before everything became dark.
When the Konoha kunoichi stopped resisting Kin let up on the multitudinal tug-of-war guardedly, watching out for a trap, but finally let most of the wires go and limped forward to check up on her opponent, senbon at the ready.
Hayate met her over the dropped Tenten, checking on the girl and declaring Kin the winner, once again with the exasperated addition "Medic!", especially since Kin also was on the edge of passing out.
oOo
Sakura shuddered. So – many – sharp - pointy – things... She couldn't help imagining herself at the center of such a storm and firmly resolved to keep improving her evasion skills as much as possible.
Skin care wouldn't help much if there were more scars than skin anyway, and she desired to still have occasional use for some cosmetics, even if she recognized the need to set those on the back burner for awhile. The point might be to value capability over looks, but no one would expect her to completely forgo a little care if her main priority didn't suffer, right? Hell, not a single one of her possible role models was an ugly or even unattractive kunoichi.
As long as she could pull her weight along with her teammates. That was now top priority, to get Sasuke to recognize her as a valuable partner, and then...
She enjoyed the warm fuzzy feeling for a second, until she remembered.
Gaah, stop, no backsliding! She forced her thoughts back on track.
Fortunately Naruto energetically wanted to talk about the matches, and this time she welcomed the distraction. Besides, maybe she could sneak a few comments in and give the blond some ideas...
"Well, well, well... Now we'll see how the actual finals will look like," Kakashi mused.
"Both our team and Gai's have two members each, Team Eight will enter in full strength, then Shikamaru and the two non-Konoha nins left. The Kazekage probably will not be happy his kids were that unlucky in their fights, but as an ally he is expected with most of the other dignitaries. Maa, I see some diplomatic hiccups in the future..." Shaking his head, he went to the other teachers and officials.
"I have to agree with Kakashi. While I'm personally happy with most of the results, this has the potential to become seriously FUBAR," a concerned voice echoed in Sasuke's head.
The boy flinched. So you're still there, then? Why have you been silent?
"I had to sort a few things out as well as looking over the seal sealing and adding a few touches myself. Let me just say your chakra is in good condition again, a little low for now, but you should recover that with a good night's rest," the voice reported.
Good. Hm... dignitaries? The Kazekage? I never realized the exams were that important an event.
"*Sigh* Let me guess, when the Hokage explained, you didn't listen, right?"
Hrn. Forgive me for being a little preoccupied.
"Fortunately it really isn't that important, you can catch up with the politics later. Now get on the floor with the others, the final roster will be determined now."
oOo
Meanwhile, the Hokage and his entourage – Ibiki, Anko and Hayate mainly – had conferred with the jounin senseis about the results and the remaining kids.
Same candidates had been called down and stood there expectantly:
Sasuke and an overexcited Naruto, an exhausted Shino, a fidgeting Hinata, yawning Shikamaru, a still slightly pissed Neji and an agitated Lee.
Gaara, Kiba and Kin were still out of commission and missing from the lineup.
That made eight Leaf nin, one Sand and one Sound.
The Hokage congratulated those still present and explained the further proceedings.
"So, we'll determine now the first round of fights and then you have one month to prepare, until the dignitaries have arrived and the public exam is held. Now orderly pick a number from this box. For those not present, their teachers will pick.
"Uchiha Sasuke!" Ibiki, handling this step, called out the names.
"Hrn. Ten," the boy grumbled.
"Hee hee, who is the dead last now?" "Shut up."
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Right, yeah! Hmmm... Six? Or is that a Nine? Ah, okay. Six." Ibiki pointed out the helpful orientation mark with a stony face, while Anko giggled at the antics.
"Hrm. Aburame Shino."
"One," the tired boy stated.
"Hyuuga Hinata."
"Here ... um. Four," Hinata determined.
"Inuzuka Kiba. Kurenai-sensei?"
"For Kiba, Eight," she called out.
"Gaara, Baki."
"Nine for Gaara," rumbled the half-masked man.
Naruto stage-whispered: "Certain it's not a six?" "Shut up, slacker."
"Nara Shikamaru."
"Three," the boy drawled.
"Tsuchi Kin. Um... since her sensei is still with her other teammate, the Hokage will draw. Sarutobi-sama?"
"Seven." "Noted."
"Hyuuga Neji."
"Five."
"And finally, Rock Lee."
Formally the green-clad boy took the last number and announced it: "Two."
oOo
"Very well. So the finals matches will be:
"Aburame Shino versus Rock Lee."
"Yosh! Let us deliver a glorious spectacle, my cloaked comrade!"
"..." If I want a chance, I'll have to resort to these kinds of techniques...
"The winner facing the winner of:
"Nara Shikamaru versus Hyuuga Hinata."
"Troublesome..." Oh god oh god oh god don't piss her off before the match...
"Umm..." Shikamaru is usually so nice... I don't want to hurt him - too much...
"Hyuuga Neji versus Uzumaki Naruto."
"Heh." Another annoyance who has no chance but to suffer his fate.
"Yeah! Hey, Neji, even if you and Hinata are cousins, I won't go easy on you! Don't expect another freebie."
"I never expected one in the first place, Uzumaki. I'll show you your place," Neji grumbled.
"Yeah, first place. Believe it," yelled the orange annoyance.
"Shut up!" growled Ibiki. "And whoever wins will face the next match's winner - Tsuchi Kin versus Inuzuka Kiba. Hrm, both still out of it...
"Next then, Gaara versus Uchiha Sasuke. The winner will face the one who won the second round of the first matches."
"Hey, that means he gets a freebie through the second round? Sasuke, you suck!"
"Yeah, Naruto, because after fighting Gaara I will just breeze to the final round smelling like a rose. Want to swap?" Sasuke offered sarcastically, thinking of Gaara's power. Power... hmmm.
"Um, if you put it that way... my condolences, Sasuke, mostly nice to have known you," Naruto deadpanned.
"Maa, maa, keep it down, you two," Kakashi admonished from the sidelines.
"Now that we finished that, most of you have seen what your opponents can do. So use the month to prepare and do your best to earn the title and responsibilities of a chuunin," the Hokage closed.
The candidates present showed their respect and left, going to meet again with their teammates and teachers.
("Gaara again... I have no idea what his fight has done to him. Am I here just to see Sasuke killed? No, I have to think... come up with some idea to tweak his training... Chidori alone might not cut it... and I still have to guide Sasuke and find out how and why I get these intermittent flashes from other minds. Oh Kami, this will be a busy month...") the voice waffled, a bit overwhelmed.
oOo
oOo
Omake: the finals match list
Block A
01 Aburame Shino
02 Rock Lee
l
03 Nara Shikamaru
04 Hyuuga Hinata
Block B
05 Hyuuga Neji
06 Uzumaki Naruto
l
07 Tsuchi Kin
08 Inuzuka Kiba
Block C (Winner fights victor of Block A vs Block B )
09 Gaara
10 Uchiha Sasuke
oOo
oOo
Pre-AN: Le sigh. Okay, FF-Net ate the omake formatting, so I had to re-edit it a bit.
Main AN: Sigh. I'm not satisfied with several of the fights in this chapter. Maybe I should have put more planning in the matchups instead of letting the die choose, but once set I was determined to keep them that way.
Unfortunately, in the exam, Yoroi didn't show much general ability beyond his chakra drain, and Kiba – well, I just don't have much of a rapport with canines in general. So this match got the short end of the stick, sorry.
Similarly, the pairing of Shino versus Chouji didn't let either of them show their potential and since I decided not to have them pull new techniques out of their asses I chose this result, even if Shino winning once again refills the finals roster with canon staple. Oh well, with the removal of the other sand siblings alone the roster has changed significantly enough, anyway.
And having Kin win – another fight I had trouble with - incidentally removes her from being kinjutsu fodder... yes, I love messing up Orochimaru's (canon) plans. Unfortunately that won't mean he will just moan and go emo at the finals... that guy goes just crazy with planning.
On the other hand, writing Lee is fun, especially when he has a chance to shine. Boosting his vocabulary with a few Kuno-isms just fit so well too... I just wouldn't want to do a full fic with him... ^^
Hinata – I think this way of describing her fight, implied instead of blow-by-blow, also was pure pleasure. I don't hate Kankuro, but any Hyuuga is probably the absolute worst opponent he could face, being easily capable to see through his replacement trick. And having Hinata go on a Naruto-induced rampage is delightfully scary. Thanks to anyone who featured that concept before, you know who you are.
Hm, I just noticed I had Naruto's fight in the second chapter written in the same flavor. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Or is it just that the two are a favorite pairing of mine, so they tend to nicely mesh together?
Oh well, any well-written pairing can be a good pairing, and for now I won't bother much with them anyway; opening a way for Sakura and Sasuke does not mean they will end up together, though the probability becomes stronger. In a way, Sakura growing could just as well lead to SakuNaru, even if she for now seems to promote NaruHina... ^^
Feh, they are all 12-13, so it's too early for anything serious anyway.
Still, the prelims are finally DONE, so we'll have time again for some personal developments – and mad training, of course. And Emo Gaara? We'll see. ^^
Once more I rolled randomly for the matches, and weirdly, Gaara/Sasuke happens, just as Naruto/Neji does. Hm. Now, how do I tweak things to avoid copying canon? Or should I do just that?
Another thing to work at, but it more and more looks like Oro-creepy-maru has a busy month in front of him, changing and adjusting his plans.
And here I babble on in this Author's Note and just discover it's a whole page all by itself. Okay, it's the biggest chapter yet, too. Well, if I do have to torture myself, the least I can do is share the pain... Log out. ^^
oOo
Next: Raven Chatter Part Five: Four Weeks of Fun, Part One
The Raven keeps its own counsel. Once his shadow hangs above your door, no words will soothe him, no prayer remove him, and you will hear his voice forevermore.
"You don't understand something, boy. This isn't a partnership. You will listen, and either you will learn or I will break you!"
oOo