Made of Fail

Chapter Nine

Kuro hated the sun. She hated it with every fiber of her being.

That was why she'd taken to sleeping during the day and waking as the sun went down – at least when she was in a goddamn desert. Fucking sun.

Anyway, as Kuro sat at the desk in her hotel room with scrolls covering the entirety of it, an inkwell in one corner and a paintbrush in her hand, she began to mutter to herself.

"No, if I do that the energy will collapse in on itself, what if I, no, that wouldn't work, if he's a lightning-type he'll just use it to his advantage, but if I… Yes, that'd work, but that's not what I'm trying to figure out right now!" Kuro slammed her hands onto the desk, very nearly upsetting her inkwell, before she stood and began to pace.

"Okay, before I do anything, I need to formulate a plan of action. Think, Kuro, think! Yes, this isn't your strong suit, but thinking ahead is necessary for survival in this world! Okay, so if I soak him with water balloons… But that'd only work if he truly is a lightning-type. If he's something else I'll need to counter with something else, but assuming he is a lightning-type I'll have to fight him using his own element against him, and I'll need a hell of a lot of water for that, and that's a damn waste… What if… Yes, I can do that, add wind to the water to boost its volume, but it'll still be a waste… But of course, this is only if he's a lightning user, if he doesn't rely on lightning-type attacks I'll need to formulate a completely different plan…"

Then she smacked herself across the face. Hard. "Stupid!" she cried out. "I'm wind! Wind is strong against lightning! Nyū~…"

Outside, Gaara, Temari, and Kankurō watched Kuro's insanity rise to the surface through the window.

"She's gone off the edge, hasn't she?"

"Yep."

Unlike Kuro, Tarantu didn't need to talk out loud to herself to figure out a plan. If she needed to fight that Kiri-nin, then she'd simply take her down with a genjutsu – or, if that failed, challenge her to something completely ridiculous, like arm-wrestling, and beat her through her sheer strength (bolstered, of course, by her chakra). Instead, she was studying the list of who would fight whom.

If she beat the Kiri kunoichi, she'd have to fight one of the Kumo-nin. If she won against one of them, there was a chance she'd have to fight Kuro. But to do that, Kuro would have to win against her own Kumo shinobi, plus whoever won the fight between Maiko and her opponent, a Kiri shinobi. Plus, she'd need to win against Utakata, and if he were fighting seriously there was no way she'd win. There was also no question that Utakata would win his fights, at least up until the battle between himself and Kuro, if it did indeed happen.

But that still left her own problem – did she even want to fight? All she wanted to do was help others – she didn't like hurting people. Yet, if she didn't try her hardest she'd stay a genin, and the Kazekage and everyone would be watching and the Kazekage did not tolerate failure, especially if you didn't try your hardest.

Good lord, she was confused.

Utakata was not having nearly as hard a time as the others – he knew his goal, and he knew how to achieve it. All that was left was training.

A few days before the final stage of the Exams began, the other Kage had arrived in Suna. Kuro had crawled out of her hidey-hole as soon as she'd heard, and when she saw Zabuza in formal attire, she laughed her ass off. Everyone watched in horror – you didn't laugh at a ninja, especially a Kage, especially if that Kage was Momochi Zabuza.

Had they been expecting a fight, they'd have been disappointed.

"Stop laughing, brat."

"AHAHAHA! But it's – AHAHA – so damn – AHA – funny!" Zabuza turned to her and narrowed his eyes. "You've got a death wish." Kuro shrugged, the insane laughter gone but the laughter in her eyes still remaining.

"Only if I knew you were going to kill me, which I know you won't, 'Nī-chan." The passersby's jaws dropped.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"Okay…'Nī-chan."

"All right, that's it!"

"Ack! Put that down, you crazy bastard!"

"I'm not trying to kill you, it's realistic training where it doesn't matter if you accidentally lose your head!" Suigetsu, who was standing behind him, shook his head in exasperation, while Chōjūrō simply cringed back in horror. They were the only two people Zabuza had brought with him to Suna (leaving Terumī Mei in charge), stating that he knew how to take care of himself and he just wanted to show the new kids around.

Things with the Raikage were settled quite a bit differently.

As soon as Kuro saw him she grinned and dragged Tarantu up to introduce them. Once again, people held their breath as they waited for the Kage with anger management issues to grind them into meat paste, but they were, again, sorely disappointed.

Tarantu smiled and bowed to him. "It's nice to meet you," she said. A greeted her before leveling a glare on Kuro. "You had something to do with Momochi becoming Mizukage, didn't you? And if it wasn't you, it was Sara."

Kuro grinned and shrugged. "I was with him when it happened, but I didn't have anything to do with it…much. I never asked Sara-chan." The grin grew wider. "Is Kumo recovering from the intensive damage Sara wreaked? When I left, that street vendor was still frothing at the mouth."

"I hardly qualify a single exploding fruit cart 'extensive damage' – especially where Sara is concerned. Last time she did far, far worse."

…

"I'm so sorry."

"Apology accepted," A said. "You didn't know her for too long, so it's to be expected. She's the kind of person who'd blow up the world just to see the fireworks."

"No, that's standard crazy," Kuro disagreed. "That bomber, Deidara, thinks like that. Sara's insanity is beyond the human scope of comprehension." The two agreed and shivered involuntarily. That bitch was insane in the membrane.

They didn't meet up with any of the other Kage – the Iwakage, Ōnoki, didn't come, anyway – but they didn't need to do so. Besides, they were busy getting ready for the Finals in a few days.

But that didn't mean they were prepared for what happened next. They were completely shocked when they saw the rest of the Family there.

Kuro, Tarantu, and Utakata stared at the people in front of them. They were all there – Rōshi, Sara, Kimimaro, Anko, Jūgo, Fū, Haku…and even Naruto had been allowed to come under the Hokage's protection.

With a giant grin on her face that squeezed her eyes shut, Kuro began to introduce them to Tarantu.

It was with his joyful reunion still fresh in their minds that the Finals began.

Naruto sat in the stands in between Fū and Jūgo. Through the beetle he'd been given from Fū, he'd already known Gaara and a bunch of other people – it was great to finally know him personally. Gaara was fun to be around.

Squirming in his seat, the blond boy stared down at the arena, where everyone stood in a line facing the Kage booth. "When's it gonna start, dattebayo?" he whined, his ever-present pout deepening. "I thought we were gonna see people kick butt! They're just standing around!"

Fū turned to him and gave him a hug – they were sitting in the same seat due to their size – and smiled at him. "Don't worry, Naru-chan!" she chirped. "It's gonna start soon, you'll see." She spared a glance at the arena. "See, Uta 'nī-chan and that Kiri kunoichi are about to fight!"

Down in the arena, Utakata and the Kiri kunoichi faced each other – Utakata was standing in a straight, yet relaxed posture, while the Kiri-nin took a low stance. Baki, the Proctor, stood between them. "Utakata versus Taki Ichiko: Hajime."

Ichiko immediately flew at Utakata, her face set in determination. Utakata waited for her to come at him as he took the one of the starting Slug stances. Ichiko struck a full blow on his chest, which made him lean back impossibly far, his spine seemingly deciding to ignore what normal spines were supposed to do, before he sprung back and used the momentum to hit her hard in the sternum.

The girl hadn't expected this at all, which was why it worked – she flew back and scraped along the ground, coming to a stop a couple dozen meters away from him. "Proctor-san," Utakata said mildly. "You might want to call out the medics. Her sternum is shattered."

Before Baki could call out the winner, however, Ichiko began to stand. "I won't…lose…to the likes of you," she hissed. Utakata simply looked at her calmly. "You might want to stay down," he offered. "You'll do more damage if you get up." This, unfortunately, seemed to make Ichiko even madder. She immediately tried to run towards him, but as soon as she moved her torso she cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

Baki called the match in Utakata's favor and the medic-nin ran onto the field to care for Ichiko. As Utakata walked off amidst confused, yet polite applause, Ichiko turned her head to look at him. Tears of humiliation and pain prickled at the corners of her eyes and she burned the image of that teen into her memory. 'I'll get you for this,' she thought to herself. 'You'll pay for humiliating me in front of Mizukage-sama.'

Back up in the stands, Naruto was yelling out in confusion. "I knew we were gonna see him kick butt, but I wanted a longer fight than this, dattebayo!" he cried out. Fū agreed with him and they began to talk loudly to each other about how confused they were that what Utakata did was awesome, but they wanted a longer fight and they didn't know which one to choose.

They were only quieted by the next fight: Jinta versus Gīchi.

The two boys stared at each other. "I just want you to know," Jinta said loudly, "that it wasn't my idea to team up with the likes of you. I just did it for the sake of passing the second test. But now, I'm gonna kick your ass! I hate people like you!"

Gīchi narrowed his eyes at him. "You're pathetic," he said in monotone. "I didn't want to team up with you, either – it was only because our team leader made us do it that it was done. Now that I don't need to listen to her, I'm going to crush you like a bug."

Up in the stands, Fū was being restrained from going down and kicking Gīchi's butt.

"Hajime!"

Jinta flew at Gīchi in a rage, but he calmly sidestepped the attack and drove his heel into Jinta's back, making him hit the ground hard. He stood up and whirled around, a kunai in his hand, only to slash at air as Gīchi ducked before attempting to punch out his knees.

Jinta jumped over this attack and aimed a kick at Gīchi's head, pushing away hard and landing on the ground a few meters away. His opponent held his head in his hands as he stood up and began to sway. Seeing his chance, Jinta began to throw shuriken at him – although his aim was off, it improved as he got closer and still wounded him.

As soon as he got close enough to punch him, however, the ground underneath him collapsed and he fell, with a yell, into the hole – and into the waiting arms of a humanoid spider puppet. Gīchi stood up straight and looked down at Jinta, who was struggling to get out of the puppet's deadly embrace. "Remember," he said coldly as he looked down at his struggling opponent, "that I am a master of traps. Since the last Task, I've been training to work with puppets to help me with my traps. Now you don't only have to deal with me, you have to deal with my little helper. While I distracted you, he set up my trap underground. Do you admit defeat?"

The smile was wiped from his face as Jinta looked up at him, a glint in his eyes. "I don't lose to the likes of you!" A single puff of smoke and a log left in Jinta's place revealed that the boy had made his escape.

Gīchi's eyes narrowed dangerously before he looked around. Not knowing where your opponent was coming from was extremely dangerous. Damn…he was low on chakra. He was extremely untrained in using chakra strings, and when he used it through the ground and through his toes, and he didn't know how to keep it up without using too much chakra, his stamina went down drastically.

Jinta, hidden underground, was going through a similar train of thought. Keeping the illusion up on the kawarimi to make it look and talk like him was exceedingly draining. Contrary to popular belief, Jinta was very, very good at using genjutsu. But…it had taken ages for him to be able to get good enough control to even be able to use genjutsu in the first place. If Gīchi had only begun practicing a month ago, he'd probably be suffering from low chakra at the moment as well. If that was so…he'd only have one shot at this.

It took a few minutes and everyone in the stands were beginning to get impatient. Before they could begin to get too rowdy, however, Gīchi moved with lightning precision to his left – where he'd been standing before, the earth crumbled to reveal a gaping hole.

"You blatantly ripped off my trap!" he yelled. As soon as he did, however, two hands grabbed his ankles from belowground. "Doton: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!" Gīchi was pulled belowground with only his head sticking out. Jinta stood in front of him and held a kunai to his neck. "I win."

"Winner: Jinta!" The last thing Jinta heard before fainting from chakra exhaustion was the crowd cheering wildly.

Up in the stands, Fū and Naruto were cheering. "That was awesome, dattebayo!" Naruto crowed. "Did you see how totally awesome that was? He was all like 'pow' and then he was all like 'no, you got me' and then –,"

"Yeah! Jinta kicked that butt-head's butt! Oh, quiet, 'Kā-chan's going next!"

What happened next was something no one had ever imagined.

Kuro faced her opponent, a muscular, dark-skinned man from Kumo. Baki stood between them. "Yamada Tarō versus Yin Kuro Tsukiakari: Hajime." And he jumped away. Kuro faced her adversary with a smile. Soon the smile turned deadly. "You…" she hissed, pointing a finger at him dramatically. "I can't believe you!"

Tarō looked at her in confusion. "Huh?" he asked eloquently. Tears pricked at the corners of Kuro's eyes. "How could you do this to me, Tarō-kun? I…I thought we…had something special." Now Tarō was really confused. Kuro seemed to come to a decision. "If I can't have you," she said decisively, "then no one else can!" With that, she tore a frying pan out of a scroll, and while her opponent still stood around in confusion, ran straight at him. "YAAAH!"

Just before she reached him, however, she puffed out of existence and he felt a cold blade touching his jugular. Several more of Kuro blinked into existence, all holding weapons to vital parts of his body.

Then she neatly sliced over his jugular vein.

As medics rushed onto the field and Baki declared the winner, Kuro absent-mindedly licked the blood off her blade and meandered over to one of the medics. "He'll be okay; it's just a shallow wound. He's only in danger if his blood pressure goes up." With those parting words, the brunette walked back up to the competitors' box, where her Bay Cat, Utakata, and Tarantu were all waiting.

As Maiko and her opponent fought it out below, Tarantu leveled a glare at her friend. "Was that really necessary?" she snapped. "You already had him!" Kuro looked at her friend with empty eyes. "I only gave him a shallow wound. He was only in danger if his blood pressure went up and opened up the vein even more," she repeated calmly. "Had I not disabled him then, he'd have definitely muscled his way through my clones and we'd have had to fight more." Her eyes softened and she gave her sister a hug. "I'm sorry I can't say more about this right now, but I promise I'll tell you everything later."

Tarantu looked at Kuro in confusion. "Kuro…?" Kuro shook her head and they both went quiet. Utakata refrained from congratulating Kuro on her victory. It seemed wrong, somehow.

Kuro leaned against the wall, not even looking at the Kumo-nin below. Instead, her eyes were closed and she was thinking. Why was her 'nē-chan so angry at her? It made perfect sense to her to do what she did – taking him out that way had a low probability of death, and it was quick. Getting mad over it for no reason was…well, illogical!

Death had no affect on her whatsoever. She guessed it had started with those shock videos on the internet that she'd seen when she was fifteen – from the torture in Ukraine to the beheading in southeast Asia, she'd quickly become immune to it. She'd never seen it in person, but the apathy would give her an edge when she did need to make her first kill.

Ever since she could remember, there'd been a voice in her head telling her to do things – scary things. The first time she could remember it was when she was in kindergarten, and she had this vision in her head of her rushing out the door, finding a cliff somewhere, and jumping to her death. She'd turned it over in her mind, seriously considering it, as the scene played over and over again. The little nagging feeling was in the forefront of her mind. It was almost like gathering her strength to jump off the high dive – it's okay, all you need to do is step off. Just one step and you'll have done it. You have the courage to just take one small step, don't you?

And that was what it boiled down to – one small step – because if she took one step, she'd invariably take the rest. That was how her mind worked.

And things like that still happened all the time.

Even then, that little urge had been whispering to her. It's okay, all you need to do is press the kunai to his neck – see? It's not so hard. Just press the kunai to his neck, and that'll be it. The scary part wasn't that she had these thoughts – no, they'd been with her for her entire life – but the fact that she wanted to go through with them. Only that little shred of human emotion and morality kept her afloat.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Kuro slowly slid down the wall until she was seated. Dimly, she heard someone shaking her. Looking up, she saw the face of her sister. Suddenly Kuro felt calmer, more relaxed – her mind cleared of all negative thoughts. It was like a breath of fresh air after traveling through smog.

"– so wish me luck, okay?" Kuro nodded, smiling. Tarantu smiled back at her before leaving to go down to her match – taking with her the clear head she'd given Kuro. As the calmness left her, as Tarantu walked away, her smile faded. Desperately, she floundered around a bit, trying to find the calmness Tarantu had taken with her.

There – she found it!

Finding that tiny bit of positive energy Tarantu had left, Kuro grabbed onto it, her will forcing the particle of happiness to stay. And stay it did. She followed it until she was looking down at the arena where Tarantu faced off against her opponent, a Kiri-nin. Kuro smiled. Now that she was looking at Tarantu again, the calm feeling returned, though only at about half-power considering their distance from one another.

Down in the arena, Tarantu spared a glance at her friend. Good. Now that Kuro was looking at her, she could find it within herself to fight.

"Yōsabaku no Tarantu versus Taka Raiden: Hajime!"

Tarantu immediately took a defensive Crane stance, waiting for Raiden to run up to her. She didn't have to wait long. Raiden (which was actually a boys' name, now that she thought about it), immediately went on the offensive, taking out a sword (why hadn't she noticed that before?) and beginning to slash at her with it.

Now, due to Kuro's running from an angry Zabuza and knocking into her, causing him to focus his attention of the both of them as he swung his big-ass sword, Tarantu was pretty damn good at dodging swords – especially if they were smaller and wielded by average swordsmen…or women.

So Tarantu began to gracefully dodge the amateur sword strikes, keeping silent as she began to build up chakra. Suddenly she bit her cheek, wiped some of the blood from the cut onto her thumb, and ran through several hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Jō!" A jō staff blinked into existence in front of her and she swiped it out of the air, and, dodging another one of Raiden's sword strikes, skillfully twirled her jō towards her opponent's throat.

Raiden dodged this and swung at Tarantu again, who blocked it with her jō before using the momentum from the strike to aim a roundhouse kick at her head. It didn't hit, as Raiden dodged once more, but it clipped the side of her nose, the chakra-powered kick sending her flying.

She maneuvered herself so that she was able to push off the wall after crashing into it, leaping off with some chakra enhancement – and a twinge of pain. She'd probably fractured something in her leg; that was a hard landing.

But Raiden pushed off anyway, ignoring the twinge of pain because that was what she did, leaping towards her opponent with her katana held high. Tarantu blocked her strike, using her superior strength to push the sword away before kicking her opponent once more.

Raiden lay there for a moment, taking deep, gasping breaths before shakily standing. "You…bitch!" she hissed. "I'm going to kill you!" Tarantu simply stared at her unflinchingly, saying nothing. This, sadly, seemed to aggravate her more, and she, realizing it probably wasn't such a good idea to use close combat with Tarantu, decided to go through several hand signs. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

Tarantu rolled her eyes, but then began to flash through several hand seals of her own.

"Fūton: Great Breakthrough!" And with that simple technique, loaded with just the right amount of chakra, all the mist was blown away. Tarantu spared a glance at Kuro, who gave her a thumbs-up and a grin, which she returned. Raiden, however, wasn't so easily ignored. "Damn you!" she yelled, going through more hand signs. She couldn't use any more water-based jutsu, having exhausted her entire water supply with that last technique, but she wasn't completely helpless.

"Raiton: Electric Gloves!" Raiden's hands erupted in a crackling electrical field that ran up and down the length of her arms. She then began to run at Tarantu, who took out a scroll, wiped some blood on it, and faced it towards her opponent, launching ten or so water balloons at her.

They burst open as Raiden batted them away, soaking her completely and turning her own jutsu on her – magnified.

Raiden screamed in pain before collapsing, her body wracked with spasms. Baki announced the winner even as the medics arrived to treat Raiden.

Surprisingly, Tarantu realized that she wasn't as horrified at her actions as she should have been. She strode up to the competitors' box and was congratulated by Kuro and Utakata, but she barely heard them. Instead, she concentrated on the calm feeling being near Kuro brought her. Before, she'd been completely upset about fighting anyone – or even training or stepping on something by accident. She'd begun to limit the types of foods she ate so that she wouldn't even be eating full plants – only its fruit.

She knew that something was wrong – she'd lost weight from stress and lack of nutrition, and began seeing sin everywhere, even in her own children. She wanted to wipe away that sin – even if it wasn't really there.

But now that she was near Kuro again, her mind cleared – it had cleared even more when she'd touched her. To be able to find it in her to fight, even to be able to think clearly, required her to be with her little sister.

Perhaps this whole 'two different villages' thing wasn't going to work out after all.

Due to injuries and chakra exhaustion, the next part of the fights was to continue the next day.

Kuro and Tarantu ended up at the hotel, where they explained their experiences with each other – from the voices in Kuro's head to the urge to 'cleanse' sin from the earth. They sat in silence, just holding each other after that revelation, until Kuro spoke.

"This isn't going to work out." It was whispered, but because of their proximity to one another and Tarantu's advanced hearing, it was heard anyway.

"What isn't going to work out?"

"This whole…setup. We can't work without each other. If we need to be near each other at all times, how are we going to deal with being in two different villages? And even if we're in the same village, what happens when one of us needs to go on a mission? This won't work out."

"It appears," a new voice said quietly, "that you've realized the issue between your clans." Tarantu and Kuro's heads snapped around to see a tall, slim figure standing in the window, illuminated by the waxing moon. The figure hopped into the room to reveal its identity.

"Sara?" Sara nodded. "Your clans, despite their hate for each other, needed to work together to survive. Contrary to normal human behavior, they chose hate over survival, so they went insane; every last one. The Hidden Villages at that time banded together to eliminate them all."

There was silence as this struck the two surviving members of said clans.

"Why did they need to work together?" Tarantu asked softly. "Why does this happen?"

"The YinYang symbol, in Chinese mythos, arises from nothingness and fall back into nothingness in an endless cycle, swirling together for all time," Sara recited. "But that's just it – together. You can't have Yin without Yang, and you can't have Yang without Yin. To separate them is to break the universe itself apart. If you put only one of them into something, it won't work – at all. That's why there are the Yin and Yang clans. You were meant to work together in perfect harmony, just like the true YinYang symbol. But your clans didn't. The separation is what caused the insanity."

Kuro found her sister's hand and gripped it tightly. She already knew she was insane, but to be actually insane…

They needed to talk to their Kage.

Utakata versus Jinta

Kuro versus Maiko

A male Kumo-nin versus Tarantu

The matchups for that day were sure to be exciting – Utakata hadn't truly shown his powers as of yet, and people liked Jinta's spunk. Kuro…amused them, but they were also a bit put off by her kunai slice the day before, although they did like Maiko, who was very feminine and looked like she danced with her fighting fans. The Kumo-nin was extremely talented, and people were eager for a fight between him and Tarantu and her bag of tricks.

In the stands where they were the day before was the Family. Fū and Naruto sat in the same seat once again, and couldn't sit still for excitement. "Mu…first up is Uta 'nī-chan against that Jinta guy," she told Naruto. "Uta 'nī-chan's gonna kick his butt, of course, but he knows enough to give us a good fight and draw it out."

"Then how come he didn't draw it out for his first fight?" Fū seemed to think for a minute before looking down at her big brother. "Uta 'nī-chan…used to be a Kiri-nin. He left because people hated him… Kinda like us. So he doesn't like people from Kiri very much." Naruto's pout deepened, but he stayed quiet.

Baki stood between Jinta and Utakata as he reminded them of the rules. "Utakata versus Jinta: Hajime!" Utakata waited patiently, allowing Jinta the first move. Jinta seemed to think a moment before beginning to run through hand signs. "Katon: Mist Covering Technique." A fine gas began to spew from his mouth. When it had sufficiently covered the battlefield, Jinta then lit a match.

"Boom." The entire arena burst into flames.

When the flames died down, both Baki and Jinta popped out of the ground to see a human-shaped…thing where Utakata had been. It began to splinter and crack, and soon a completely unharmed Utakata stepped out. "Slug Style: Mucus Shell," he explained calmly, turning his gaze to Jinta. Taking his bubble-blower to his lips, he began to fire them out at a rapid pace, all shooting towards or around Jinta.

"W-whoa!" he cried out, dodging the bubbles as he didn't know what they did – only that it probably wasn't a good idea to touch them. He wasn't prepared for them to explode.

The explosions from the bubbles were small, but they set off a chain reaction, bouncing him off other bubbles and making them explode, too, until they were all gone and he lay on the ground. He slowly began to pull himself up, covered in scrapes, bruises, and mild burns, but – as some people noticed – nothing that would impede his movement too much. Had he wanted to, Utakata could've killed Jinta with that attack, but he didn't – to give people a good show.

Panting, Jinta began to throw kunai and shuriken at Utakata, setting off some traps he'd laid down when he was underground. While Utakata was otherwise distracted, he began to go through hand signs once more. "Thirst," he muttered under his breath. "Demonic Illusion: Heated Soul. River Sounds." As the triple genjutsu hit, Utakata's eyes widened. A sudden, burning thirst had overtaken him, along with a blazing heat that didn't seem to want to go out. The dual sensation of being parched while simultaneously sweating out the water he did have was exceedingly distracting.

There! There was a river to his left; he could hear it. He continued to dodge Jinta's thrown weapons, edging closer and closer to the sound of the river. That was when he got caught in a trap.

With a loud exclamation, Utakata jumped away, just barely missing the trap throwing dozens of shuriken at him – all poisoned, he noted. 'Genjutsu,' he realized. He quickly dispelled it, and his body was back to normal. Taking a deep breath, Utakata turned to look at Jinta approvingly.

"That was very stealthy of you, Jinta-kun," he said. "I admit you nearly had me there. Your skills are highly impressive." Utakata smirked. "However, do not think that you are going to get me to fall into the same trap twice." With that, he finally went on the offensive, running towards him and channeling chakra to his fists. The slug style actually did not involve going towards the opponent, but in this case, Utakata felt that it was justified.

Even so, since he didn't have much practice at all actually going towards someone and actively fighting them, that way, he didn't do it well at all. Jinta kept easily dodging his strikes, as though he already knew where they were going to be. At least Jinta's strikes seemed to miss as well, so that was something.

It kept going like this for a few moments until Utakata noticed something strange – whenever he punched with his left hand, Utakata would easily dodge, but when he punched with his right hand, he had to dodge by a wider margin, and every so often he felt as though he clipped something that wasn't there. But the real clue was when he suddenly switched to kicking. He kicked Jinta's right leg – and it passed through.

'Another genjutsu?' he thought in shock. Utakata leapt back and dispelled this illusion as well. The world suddenly shifted slightly to the right. He looked up at Jinta, who smirked at him. "Demonic Illusion: Sly Fellow Mind Technique," he explained smugly, "combined with Demonic Illusion: Double False Illusion Technique. When you broke out of the earlier illusions, you neglected to check for more illusions afterwards – I layered another illusion on top of the first one that you didn't detect until now."

Utakata looked very impressed. "That was good," he said, feeling slightly woozy. Looking down at himself, he frowned. Bruises and cuts dotted his skin. But he hadn't felt anything…

Ah, yes. Yet another genjutsu.

He dispelled the third genjutsu and suddenly pain shot through his body. As he struggled to understand this new development, Jinta took it upon himself to explain. "Invincibility," he said. "It's a genjutsu that makes you feel like you're not hurt or tired at all. I couldn't have you notice that something was wrong when I used the Sly Fellow Mind Technique – if you felt pain in an area that you hadn't seen me hit you, that'd have been a dead giveaway. So I layered yet another genjutsu on top of that."

Utakata began to chuckle softly. "You truly are a model shinobi, Jinta-kun," he said with a smile. "Layering illusion upon illusion upon illusion and so on is the perfect example of what a ninja should be. Whomever taught you should be proud to have such an amazing student."

Jinta flushed at the praise, but quickly shook the thought away. He needed to keep a clear head for this.

"Thank you," he said happily. "Please continue." Utakata's smile widened. "However, you seem to be under the impression that you have the upper hand." Cold steel touched Jinta's neck, and Utakata melted away into a pile of goo. The same smooth voice – almost like melted dark chocolate – spoke up from behind him. "You were fighting a Mucus Clone the entire time."

Jinta stared at the pile of goo – mucus, he corrected himself dazedly – in shock. All of his plans had gone down the drain in that one action. Everything he'd been planning, everything, all his hopes of becoming a chūnin disappeared in the blink of an eye. "When?" was all he managed to croak out of his suddenly choked up voice.

"When you ignited the fire in the beginning of the match."

Tears collected in the corners of Jinta's eyes at this. All this time…?

"Winner: Utakata." Everyone in the stands cheered.

"I have one question for you though," Utakata added as he stepped away from Jinta. "How come you ran out of chakra against Gīchi-san yesterday, yet you had so much today?" In a deadened voice, Jinta answered. "Gīchi is my best friend," he said. "Ever since we were little, we were the best of friends. He and I decided who would win a month ago, and we set it up so that we'd look weaker than we really are."

There were a couple of gasps from the spectators at this. Utakata simply looked at Jinta. "You truly are," he said, "a master of illusions."

This made Jinta feel the tiniest bit better.

The next fight was Kuro versus Maiko.

Up in the stands, Fū and Naruto were practically vibrating with excitement. "Yeah! Mommy's gonna fight again!" Fū cheered. Naruto grinned as well. "Finally! She got that last guy good, but it was way too fast! That Suna-nin's not going down so easy, especially since they're actually trying to draw out the fights now."

"Yin Kuro Tsukiakari versus Maiko: Hajime." Baki jumped back as Maiko immediately sent a wind attack at Kuro, dual-wielding hand-held fans. Kuro used her own wind nature to see and deflect the sharp wind strikes to either side of her, acting like a wedge. Deep gouges carved up the earth around her.

Maiko smirked. "Oh, you're a wind user, too? This'll be fun, then."

Kuro cocked a brow. Then she began to rant. "What is it with people wanting to fight others with the same attacks? Is it because you like to fight pointlessly? What's the point of fighting fire with fire when you can use water to put the fire out and come out unscathed?"

Maiko stared at her, a light flush covering her cheeks. She'd…actually never thought of it that way. "Indulge me," she said finally. Kuro shrugged and tossed a flat, spinning metal hoop at her. It flew at her quite quickly and lightly, almost as though it was a part of the wind itself. She attempted to deflect it with a sweep from her fan, but it hardly budged from its course.

Seeing as how her wind jutsu wasn't working, Maiko was just barely able to dodge it. The hoop imbedded itself in the wall. "This," she said with a grin, "is a chakram. It's aerodynamic, so wind won't put it too much off course. But you probably already figured that out, didn't you?"

Maiko ground her teeth together. "I thought we were going to use wind chakra!" Kuro blinked owlishly at her. "You do understand," she said slowly, "that ninja rely on deception and I didn't care to, as your opponent and not your friend, cater to your wishes. I didn't feel the need to see who was better at using wind chakra because it would be illogical to do so. These aren't friendly spars, Maiko-san. Our promotions depend on the decisions we make here – basically, our futures are decided by people who carefully analyze our every move. I would be glad to spar with you in a more acceptable environment to test each other's elemental efficiency, but right now the deal is to amuse people while simultaneously trying to act in a way that doesn't turn off the people who are going to promote us.

"In effect, fighting wind with wind would cost precious chakra, since using the same element is self-defeating. And one of us is most likely going to need to fight later, so the best idea would be to conserve our energy by fighting smartly while also giving the spectators a good show, thereby increasing our chances of becoming chūnin," she finished.

Up in the Kage booth, Zabuza nodded approvingly. "Kuro's got this entire thing down," he said. "She really understands what it means to be a ninja. You've got quite the kunoichi under your command, Hokage-dono."

Hiruzen smiled. "Why thank you, Mizukage-dono," he said with a chuckle. "Although I thought I was used to surprises and sarcasm from Sara, a friend of mine, Kuro still never ceases to amuse and surprise me."

Zabuza froze. "You…know Sara, too?" he asked, staring at Hiruzen. Hiruzen looked at him, surprise evident in his eyes. The Raikage, A, spoke up. "I know her, too," he said. "And may I say that she's the most terrifying thing in this universe."

The three Kage shivered.

Below, Maiko's eyes narrowed. "Tch…" She got into one of her fighting stances, attempting to go over the jutsu she had in her arsenal that weren't wind-based. Unfortunately, she could only think of a few. Suddenly, she was hit by how narrow her chosen field really was. She was really a one-trick pony. She really needed to rectify that, and soon. Perhaps learning a few earth-based ninjutsu might do the trick…

But for now, it looked as though she'd need to rely on taijutsu and/or trickery. Maiko smirked. She could so do that.

Maiko quickly put her hands in the 'tiger' hand seal. "Activate!" she yelled. Now that Kuro didn't have her chakram, Maiko figured that she could attack without worrying about the weapon.

She was wrong.

She activated the seal on her fan, sending dozens upon dozens of senbon needles flying towards Kuro. Unfortunately, since her eyes were focused on Kuro and not on Kuro's chakram, she didn't notice that it was still in play until it dug deep into her back, right between two of her lower ribs and just missing some very vital organs. Crying out in pain, she tore the hoop out of her back and glared at it, noticing for the first time the intricate designs engraved onto its surface.

"Oh," Kuro said innocently. "Did I forget to mention that I have more tricks up my sleeve? So sorry, I truly do have quite a terrible memory." Maiko glared at her, pushing chakra to her wound in hopes that it would heal. "These seals…" she panted. "What do…they do?"

"Why should I tell you?" she asked. "If I do, you'll just figure out a way to counter it, and if you already figured it out, I don't see the point in telling you. I may be a bit of a showoff – actually, a lot of a showoff – but I'm not completely stupid."

Maiko looked at the chakram for another moment before taking her other fan, closing it, and beginning to mercilessly beat the ever-living crap out of the metal hoop until it was bent out of shape and utterly useless.

Kuro's eyes shone and she laughed – she laughed! – before the chakram began to roll towards her. She picked it up and looked at it in amusement. "I admit, I wasn't expecting that. You effectively took out my weapon without knowing much about it other than that it was dangerous and had special powers.

"Now that it's useless – though I guess I can still work the metal – I can tell you that the 'designs' on my chakram were actually heavily modified directional seals. By activating them from a distance, I could change its direction. The best part about it is that the seals stay in the same place – north, south, east, or west – no matter how you move it, so that I could still keep it going no matter how it spins. It's a great compass, too."

Maiko's eyes widened, as did those of most everyone else who heard this proclamation. Sealing was an incredibly difficult art, and to be able to not only work with them but also create new uses for them and merging existing ones together was a skill that got increasingly rarer as the years went by.

"You, Hokage-dono," A said, his eyes fixed upon Kuro, "are one lucky man."

Kuro was a bit flustered at the attention she was receiving – it was a bit like being on stage, except now she could see, with perfect clarity ever since she unlocked her hanyō side, every single pair of eyes on her (something about the demonic chakra – yōkai – changing her genetic structure to change the shape of her eyes so that they were perfectly spherical, plus reinforcing them with yōkai and therefore giving her perfect vision).

Maiko shook her head clear and regarded Kuro with an appraising glance. "You're quite multitalented," she commented. Kuro shrugged. "I've always been good at a wide range of things, and being a ninja allows be to put them to full use," she explained off-handedly. "Still can't cook or bake, though, but that's probably because I'm an extremely picky eater, so I don't exactly eat what I bake and therefore I can't make it better. Food's never been a big part of my life. I usually need someone to remind me to eat. I'm working on it, though."

Maiko's eye twitched. "So you wouldn't take the time to explain to me what the seals on your…thing…did when I first asked, but you ramble on about something completely stupid?" Kuro flushed a bit and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, that's another problem of mine. Either I'm absolutely quiet and don't say a word, or I ramble on about things even though I've clearly made my point and I'm not talking about anything relevant. Today seems to be one of my chatty days, huh?"

The blonde sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Forget it; let's keep fighting."

Kuro simply grinned, getting down on all fours in her Wolf taijutsu stance while simultaneously creating half a dozen shadow clones to aid her, neglecting to use hand signs and therefore drawing more interest to herself. Maiko smirked back at her.

"Let's go, girlfriend," Kuro taunted.

The two flew at each other and began to trade blow after blow. Maiko's graceful dance was almost poetically offset by Kuro's animalistic rough and tumble style – even so, neither had too many noticeably unnecessary movements in their attacks, dodges, and defenses. Every movement had a reason, and Maiko used all her useable resources to deflect the seven Kuro – six clones, one real. One was punched in the face while another was taken out by a back-kick that hit her smack-dab in the middle of the face – simultaneously.

It didn't take too long for Kuro's clones to be completely wiped out – she'd never tried using them in a real fight before, anyway, so it was natural that they wouldn't hold up without the practice, anyway. However, she was able to get a few good hits in before her clones dispersed in a nearly unnoticeable cloud of smoke. Leaping back and licking at a wound on her right arm, she stood up straight, grinned at Maiko, and stomped her right foot three times on the ground.

From seemingly out of nowhere, an auburn-colored feline blinked into existence in midair and leapt to Kuro's side. The cat was maybe three kilograms in weight, and perhaps about five hundred millimeters in length, plus a tail that was almost as long as it was. It had lime-green eyes with slit pupils a slightly different, almost more neon-green shade. Underneath the tail – which was thicker than normal and oddly…pear-shaped (or was that just the fur)? – was a white stripe that continued to the white-furred underbelly.

It had slightly rounded ears and two darker chestnut stripes that ran parallel to each other from the inner corner of its eyes to the back of its head, while the top of its snout also had the same color in a strange diamond-shape, the widest part of the diamond on the same plane that its eyes were. It also had two stripes, almost reminiscent of whiskers, of the same darker chestnut color, on its cheeks. It had white whiskers.

"This," Kuro said proudly, "is my partner. She's a Bay Cat." Maiko looked warily at the creature. "What's its name?"

"She doesn't have a name," Kuro said, emphasizing her gender. "I don't put labels on my friends unless I don't see any other way of going about things." Her opponent twitched slightly. That actually made more sense than most of her other actions, but it still made very little sense, if any, which said something about Kuro's earlier proceedings.

Maiko sighed. There really was no limit to her big bag o' tricks, was there? Intent on finally finishing her fight, she began to run towards Kuro, picking up the fan she'd dropped so had both of them again and charging them with wind chakra before throwing them, spinning quickly, at Kuro before flashing through hand signs at high speeds. "Fūton: Wind Gale!" The open fans began to fly even faster through the air by using the energy from this supplementary technique. The Bay Cat was able to barely dodge the fan thrown at her, but Kuro was too slow and got clipped on her left cheek, which broke her jaw with a loud cracking noise.

Kuro flinched in pain, just barely missing Maiko's next wind attack which gave her a cut on her right shoulder and rendering that arm numb, though not completely useless. Jumping back and continuing to dodge Maiko's suddenly vicious attacks, she gave her wounds a chance to heal. This took maybe five minutes thanks to the yōkai that flowed through her system, at which point she went on the offensive, attacking in tandem with her partner. This shocked Maiko enough that the Bay Cat was able to sink her claws into the wound in her back that she'd gotten from the chakram in the beginning of the fight and ripping it open again.

Maiko shrieked in pain, falling to her knees as she frantically tried to stop the bleeding with her hands. Kuro and her partner immediately backed off as Baki called the fight in Kuro's favor so that the medics could rush onto the field for her wounded opponent.

Tarantu, however, beat them there and began to pump healing chakra into her temporary teammate, concentrating solely on the wound. It was completely non-lethal by the time the medics got there.

Semi-Finals: Tarantu versus a male Kumo-nin

Since Tarantu was already on the field having just healed Maiko, only her opponent needed to come down. The medics had already known of Tarantu's medical prowess, so they weren't as shocked as they normally would be. Even so, they were still a bit awed.

Tarantu marched over to Kuro and put her hands on her hips. "Did you need to injure her that badly?" Kuro pouted. "Technically, I didn't do it," she said in her defense. Her Bay Cat looked mildly betrayed at this, but Tarantu spared her naught a glance.

"You are fully responsible for this, Yin Kuro Tsukiakari!" she hissed, making her friend curl in on herself just the slightest bit. "It was a fight!" she whined. "I kinda had no choice but to injure her in some way or another! And normal internal injuries would've been much more life-threatening! I did her a favor by giving her a wound that was easy to heal compared to most others I could've done! Remember what happened with –"

"Yes, yes, I remember," she said before smiling. "Just get up to the box; don't get too comfortable, though." Kuro looked curious at this, but shrugged and acquiesced. Her Bay Cat slunk after her.

Tarantu's opponent had finally gotten down the stairs at this point, and though people were ready for this fight, a part of their minds still lingered on Kuro's abilities. Tarantu knew this – and she also knew that she was going to be thought about, too.

A/N: I'm a terrible person to cut this off right here, aren't I? Snerk. Especially after having been gone for so long. My update schedule's been shot to hell, huh? Heehee, I've always wanted to be able to say that!