Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto
Piece of the Puzzle
Chapter 9: Momo 1/2
It was now the day of the final round of the chunin exam. The first match would be starting soon. It would be between Momo's Inuzuka team-mate and a ninja from the Hidden Rain Village. Her Aburame team-mate would be in the third match against a puppeteer from the Hidden Sand Village.
Momo was up last, against a taijutsu specialist, who was also from the Hidden Sand Village. He was the team-mate of the puppeteer, and was considered quite arrogant.
At the moment, Momo was standing in the arena floor, waiting for the event to start. Her parents were in the audience with Naruto. Momo tried looking for them, but could not spot them amongst the crowd.
Momo was getting anxious. It did not help that she would have to fight last.
'I can't wait until it's my turn so I can show everyone what I'm made of! But if they don't hurry up and start I'm going to go crazy!'
It appeared that spending a month with Naruto completely destroyed any sense of patience she had.
'I guess I'll just have to put all my pent up energy into beating my first opponent as badly as possible.'
Momo was in a bad mood now, but as long as her first opponent did not provoke her, he would be fine. After all, what was the worst a girl with Haruno blood in her could do to someone that annoyed her?
Up in the stands Naruto was chatting with former team-mates, and unknown to him at the time, his future in laws.
"You guys are really going to be surprised by how much Momo has improved."
"Un." Sasuke replied eloquently.
Sakura lightly elbowed her husband, who merely glanced at her before returning his attention to the arena floor. Sakura sighed, and turned her attention to Naruto.
"What Sasuke meant to say is that we're both sure you did a fine job instructing our dear little girl for the past month and that she has developed greatly from your tutelage." Sakura clarified.
Naruto looked incredulous.
"You mean to tell me you got all that from a grunt?" He asked her.
Sakura nodded before replying.
"Yes, I've spent so much time with Sasuke over the years I can infer the meaning of each of his grumbles."
Naruto had a brief vision of what Sasuke and Sakura could do together that would make him grunt a lot. Wanting to get that horrible mental image out of his head he quickly changed the topic.
"So why did you guys pick me to help Momo? Her best skill is illusions, which I suck at. I can't really teach her anything about fire techniques either."
Sakura came up with an answer rather quickly.
"Sasuke and I can teach her anything she wants to learn in those areas. We wanted you to help her since she's a hybrid of us, and you are the person most familiar with our styles. If anyone could help her develop what she already knows and branch out, it's you."
Naruto was pleased by that, and smiled to show it.
'I guess that makes sense.' Naruto thought to himself. 'I did get the idea for having Momo learn to wield tonfa from Sakura. She was always weak in close combat fighting. If it wasn't for Grandma Tsunade's super strength technique, she wouldn't be any good in a fight at all.'
Naruto would never say that out loud of course. He had seen exactly what Sakura's monstrous strength could do to someone and did not want to be on the receiving end of her punches.
'Sasuke's weaknesses are trickier. His fire techniques leave him vulnerable, at least the fire breathing ones do. No wonder he stuck with lightning techniques once he started learning them.'
Naruto did not realize it then, but there was a chance that the Uchiha clan, once widely known for fire techniques, might stop using them altogether someday, with the exception of their signature technique.
'I hope what I taught Momo was enough. I wonder if I should have worked on her fire techniques.'
Naruto's thoughts were broken when Sakura spoke up again.
"Besides, we trust you with her. We know you wouldn't do anything to hurt her."
"Of course I wouldn't!" Naruto concurred.
Little did they know Naruto was not the one to be worried about.
"Ehn." Sasuke spoke suddenly.
"That means the proctor is here and the finals will start soon." Sakura explained to Naruto, who nodded in understanding.
Indeed the proctor for the exams had arrived in the arena. It was none other then Sarutobi Konohamaru, the self proclaimed future eight Hokage. After announcing the start of the final round, the competitors not fighting yet left for their lookout, while the first round began at last.
Momo watched the battles from the private alcove. Overall, she was not impressed.
'Maybe it's because I've spent the past month with an S-class ninja and I've grown to expect more.' Momo reasoned to herself.
The first match between her team-mate and the rain ninja was rather one sided.
'All the rain ninja did was create a fog to disorient Inuzuka and throw off his scent. Then he just caught Inuzuka in an illusion and pelted him with senbon until he passed out. If it wasn't for Inuzuka's dog, he would have lost much sooner. That just goes to show how valuable I am to the team.'
Indeed, dispelling illusions was one of Momo's tasks on her team. Had her Inuzuka team-mate been paired up against another taijutsu based fighter, or been able to catch the rain ninja and engage him in close-quarters combat, he would have done better.
'At least Aburame won his match, though it was pretty creepy.'
Her Aburame team-mate merely used his destruction beetles to eat away at his opponent's chakra threads that were controlling her puppet. Eventually, they overcame her and sapped away her chakra.
Momo paid close attention to that battle, as she would have to face her team-mate in the next round.
As for the second fight, Momo watched it closely as well. The fighters were a team-mate of the Rain ninja, and the only other ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village to make it to the finals.
The other Leaf shinobi was from a civilian clan, so he did not have any signature techniques, but instead settled for a mastery of what he could learn. The boy seemed to have an unnatural level of skill with the basic three techniques.
Whenever the Rain ninja seemed to land a killing blow, the leaf ninja quickly used the replacement technique to evade it. The arena was soon filled with many scattered logs that appeared to come from out of nowhere.
While his clones were nothing more then a distraction, they quickly became an annoyance for the Rain ninja. The Leaf ninja seemed to be able to create them with a thought. His speed then allowed him to put distance between him and his opponent, who would be dealing with the clones.
Momo surmised the Leaf ninja must have spent much time working on his physical development to increase his strength and speed since he had nothing else to work on.
The Leaf ninja even used the transformation technique. Like Naruto, he disguised himself as a rock, and even one of the logs used for a replacement. When the Rain ninja was in range, he revealed himself and made a sneak attack.
The battle carried on in that matter. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the Leaf ninja, he was outmatched. Not even his impressive skill with his wakizashi gave him an edge against the rain ninja, whose own ninjato were electrically charged.
That worried Momo. Although she gained much skill with her tonfa in the past month, the Rain ninja had much more experience with his ninjato. Not only that, but they were electrically charged, which could counter her earth-infused tonfa.
The Rain ninja eventually won the match. Many thought that the Leaf ninja, despite losing made an impressive performance and his skill with the just the basics was incredible. His promotion was virtually assured.
Momo took it as another reason why the basic three were known to all ninja, and silently thanked Naruto for improving her own skill with them.
Since the first match of the second round would be between the Rain ninja, Momo inferred the weaker one would either forfeit, or they would fight enough to demonstrate enough of his skills before the stronger of the two claimed victory.
Momo already knew what to do if, no, when she fought her Aburame team-mate. They would both fight to the best of their ability, and with no regrets or grudges afterwards no matter who won.
Finally, it was Momo's turn to fight. She made her way down to the arena floor, and stood across from her opponent. Momo thought she could hear someone cheering for her, but brushed it off in favour of focusing on her match.
Indeed though, many people were cheering for Momo. They were her fanboys, supporters of the Uchiha clan, and even Naruto. He was waving a flag with the Uchiha emblem on it, to Sasuke and Sakura's chagrin.
"Naruto," Sakura growled out threateningly, "where did you get that?"
"There was a vendor selling them, so I thought I'd buy one to cheer on Momo." Naruto replied.
Sakura simply huffed, and silently decided to track down whoever had the gall to think they could capitalize on the Uchiha name and profit off her little girl's performance.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, doing his best to hide his nervousness, decided that during the break after Momo's match he would talk to the vendor he hired and have him close up, hand over his share of the profits, and tell him to leave town until Sakura's rage receded.
Down in the arena floor, Momo was sizing up her opponent. The Sand ninja appeared to be a foot and a half taller then her. He was tanned, and very muscular. It was obvious that he was a taijutsu fighter. Momo was already identifying his abilities.
'My guess is he fights in close quarters while his team-mates handle the mid and long range attacks. They were a puppeteer and the fan user I beat in the preliminaries. He might have some weapon training, or earth techniques as well. This might be tough.'
Thinking back to her training with Naruto, he identified her weaknesses and showed her how to compensate for them. Momo, surmising her opponent's most likely weaknesses determined a plan for defeating him using her strengths.
'I should maintain my distance from him. I can use my illusions to conceal myself, and make critical attacks while disorienting him with my illusions. If I'm lucky, I can get a direct hit with the great fireball. That should end it easily. I just have to make sure not to engage him in hand-to-hand combat.'
While Momo was coming up with a battle plan, her opponent chose this time to speak up.
"Hey, little girl!" He called out to Momo.
'Little?' Momo thought menacingly.
"Why don't you go back to playing house and having tea parties with your dollies. The chunin exams are a serious competition, and I'm sure you don't want to break a nail."
A silence fell over the crowd at the Sand ninja's declaration. One person did speak up, and somewhat accurately described the feelings of said crowd.
"Oh, he did not just say that." A blond female spoke to her former team-mates and childhood friends.
Sakura looked like she was mad enough to fight every Shadow and win. Sasuke, who may have been stupid enough to do so, was wisely staying quiet to avoid becoming the target of his wife's ire any more so then he already was.
Naruto was very pale, and had a sickening feeling in his stomach. It was most likely from the rage he could feel coming off from Sakura, knowing what it was like to be on the receiving end of her fists.
Back in the arena, the Sand ninja continued to seal his fate.
"Tell you what, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you get in a free hit."
He then closed his eyes, put his arms to his sides and raised his chin, knowing that Momo could not reach it unless she jumped at him. Too bad he failed to notice the tonfa Momo carried.
Konohamaru, noticing Momo's growing rage, wisely started the match. Momo charged in instantly.
"Yah!" Momo shouted as a battlecry.
In an instant the petite girl used the body flicker technique to close the gap between her and the Sand ninja. Using the temporary momentum of the speed boost from the technique, she thrust forward with both of her earth infused tonfa into the Sand ninja's jaw, shattering it and sending him flying backwards.
Ignoring the shocked look of the foreign spectators, and the odd look of expectance from the locals, Momo continued her assault.
Not giving the Sand ninja time to recover, Momo manoeuvred behind him. Momo then delivered a sweep kick to his legs. She quickly moved back into a battle stance, and when the Sand ninja was nearly parallel to the ground, Momo kicked him right in the back, launching him upwards. Momo then used a move she learned from Naruto, which was originally one her father copied.
Momo leapt up, somersaulted, and delivered a devastating kick to her opponent's stomach. The Sand ninja coughed up a generous amount of blood, and fell to the arena floor with a painful cracking noise.
Momo made a rather graceful landing. After a moment, she began panting slightly. Looking around in confusion, she asked Konohamaru a strange question.
"What happened? Is the match over?"
Konohamaru, who had been keeping his distance for the match, gestured to the Sand ninja's fallen form, which was being taken away by the medical ninjas, then called the match in favour of Momo.
Said girl was still in a state of surprise.
'I wonder what happened. Oh well. At least I don't feel all that pent up energy anymore. I must have burned it out in the fight. It's strange that I don't remember it.'
In the audience, one blond was wondering what happened as well. Luckily, the people sitting with him seemed to know.
"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked Sakura. Sasuke had slipped away for some reason. Sakura, seeing her daughter claim victory, had calmed down.
"Oh that? Momo has anger issues." Sakura answered.
Naruto, not so pale now but still in disbelief, was not satisfied at all by that response.
"What do you mean 'anger issues?' Momo, a sweet little girl who could kill a grown man with her ninja skills, but still a sweet little girl just beat the crap out of a guy twice her size! How is that possible?"
Sakura merely gave Naruto an "are you an idiot?" look before speaking again.
"Momo is a sweet little girl. To us anyway. To any of her fanboys and those who look down on her for being a girl she can be absolutely ruthless."
"Huh?"
Sakura sighed. Clearly Naruto would need a reminder of his youth.
"Okay, do you remember all those times you would ask me on a date, or do something else completely idiotic and I would clobber you for it?"
Naruto gulped, paled, and nodded meekly in reply.
"Well, Momo seems to have inherited my tolerance, or rather intolerance for stupidity, along with my innate strength. Anytime someone makes her mad, she assaults them until they're a bloody pulp. Oddly, she never has any memories of doing so."
Naruto had nothing to say. He was too busy trying to block out all the returning memories of being subjected to Sakura's inhuman strength.
'Note to self,' Naruto thought to himself, 'be as nice as possible to Momo from now on and do not get on her bad side.'
Little did he know he was one of the few people Momo would never hurt, or how much his vow would change his relationship with her.
"Anyway," Sakura spoke up, "I'm surprised you didn't hear about it. Her rage is quite legendary around the Leaf Village. People have been comparing Momo to me and master Tsunade for quite some time now."
"I was mostly focused on learning about Momo's ninja skills, not on her personality quirks." Naruto answered. "It's funny how I never saw that side of her during our training together."
"She must like you then." Sakura said to Naruto.
"Yeah, I guess so. Aren't I the lucky one?"
Little did they know how much Momo liked Naruto, or how lucky he was.
Author's Notes: I'm calling a break now so I can address an issue before continuing. Is Momo becoming a Mary Sue? I personally don't think so. Given her parent's skill level, and that both of them have been tutoring her during her academy years, it seems plausible for Momo to be at or above Sasuke's level when he was a genin, but the twelve year-old Sasuke could still defeat twelve year-old Momo.
Momo refers to her team-mates by their family names because she's not very close to them, and because I'm too lazy to name some of the original characters in this fic.
If anyone has any questions about anything in the story let me know. I would love to explain every little nuance about the story or thought I had while writing it.