Disclaimer: Ayame and Sasame are mine. The plot is mine. The rest of it isn't.
Last time: Tenten and Naruto get to training.
This time: Let the exams begin.
In the following weeks, Naruto and Tenten fell into a sort of routine. First Naruto would work with Tenten on her jutsu until they took a break for lunch, then following that, Tenten would work with Naruto on his taijutsu and kenjutsu.
In close to two weeks, Tenten mastered the Kage Bunshin and Naruto's kenjutsu had risen to a point where Tenten began focusing less and less on it and more and more on Naruto's taijutsu. From mastering the Shadow Clone, Naruto began working with his kunoichi partner on her amount of chakra, forcing her to do the technique over and over until she could barely move then waiting for her to recover before doing it all over again.
Following that, Naruto branched off into other jutsu, teaching the weapons mistress other Styles like Katon and Doton. At the same time, he started her in on Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu and that proved to be more difficult for the kunoichi, even considering the natural she seemed to be at using water techniques.
Naruto, on the other hand, was still struggling to release even the first gate, meditating every night, just before going to bed, and throwing everything from his mental 'body' to Kyuubi's youki at the massive door, but to no avail. The chain remained firmly affixed to the door and didn't even sway, not even when Naruto hammered it with the equivalent of four tails.
Soon, the two blended their training, going into all out spars that would drive them both to exhaustion. At first, Naruto came out on top time and time again, but Tenten began to catch up, becoming rather inventive in what she did with her Shadow Clones, and Naruto was forced to use every strategy he could think of (and a few new ones too) in order to stay a step ahead. It wasn't until they were beating on each other that there was a first training accident because Naruto, going beyond his limits again, slipped in his sword defense and didn't react quick enough, the result being Tenten's katana slipping under his guard and slicing deep into his stomach.
She'd been horrified and apologized profusely as Naruto lay bleeding on the rocky shore of the river. Before Tenten had been able to gather her wits and go for a medic, the wound had closed and Naruto had washed his shirt and stomach off in the icy water, shocking his partner to no end when he'd turned around and there'd been no sign of a wound, besides a thin red line of irritated and raw skin.
Convinced that the super healing been a freak coincidence or a one-time deal, something Naruto 'forgot' to correct, Tenten had gone to the hospital and requested a medic-nin to oversee the training matches. Sakura had been the one who'd volunteered and she would sit on the rocks watching the pair go back and forth, berating Naruto when he would go past his limits and almost pass out, a condition not helped by the fact that the pink-haired medic had a tendency to throttle the blond shinobi as she was berating him.
About two weeks before the Third Exam was to start, Tenten had discovered a surprising quality about Naruto's seemingly ordinary katana. He'd backed her into a corner against a huge rock and swung hard, Tenten jumping up over the swing. She'd expected the sword blade to crash against the hard granite, but it'd passed right through, not hindered in the least by the unforgiving boulder. After the slash, there'd been a second or two delay and the top half of the rock had simply sheared right off.
Naruto had explained afterwards that his sword was made of a metal that was easy to channel chakra through, resulting in an enhanced edge. Even more surprising was that he would alter the chakra's nature to become his affinity, and since wind chakra was built for slashing and cutting, the blade would become razor sharp and wickedly resistant.
The blond had said that the sword was a gift from an elderly retired shinobi that he'd helped out and the old man had given Naruto the sword in gratitude. The Yondaime's son had aptly named it 'Kazekiri' or Wind Edge after he'd discovered the hidden attributes of the blade.
As for the shinobi themselves, they became rather good friends as time went on, comfortable enough with each other that they didn't think of going out to lunch together as a date or anything, though Tenten would blush fiercely when they worked on grappling techniques, but Naruto never noticed as he was thick headed when it came to women in general and he was more intent on getting the technique down anyway.
The week before the Third Exam, Naruto began progressively lightening the load he placed on himself, until the day before the exam was to begin, he told Tenten not to even show up because he was going to take the day off and recuperate after beating the crap out of each other for close to a month.
"We're still going to train with each other, right?" Tenten asked, hoping that Naruto would keep training with her even after she'd come so far.
Naruto looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "Are you crazy? Why would I quit?"
Tenten blinked owlishly then smiled. "Sorry, never mind."
The blond shinobi stared a moment later then shrugged and swung his discarded cloak onto his shoulders and headed for the village, talking easily with his partner about what they'd worked on so far and what they were going to do after the Exams were over.
Soon enough, they arrived at the intersection where they usually went their separate ways.
"Well, Naruto, good luck at the Exam," Tenten said, extending her hand with a smile.
"Sure, thanks Tenten-chan," Naruto answered, taking her offered hand with a firm grip and a radiant fox-grin. "You coming to the exams?"
The kunoichi nodded. "Yeah, wouldn't miss it, plus Gai-sensei is making us because he wants to see the 'brilliant displays of the Fire of Youth!'" The last was said with a pompous tone as Tenten make fun of her exuberant sensei.
"Cool. See you there, Tenten-chan." Naruto turned and headed off the road in a swirl of dark cloth.
"Bye, Naruto!" The weapons mistress called, not noticing the glares that she drew from some of the civilians passing by.
Naruto's day off was mostly spent at Tsunade's, sleeping, eating a meal or two that wasn't ramen (at the fox's instance) and researching other jutsu for him to learn and, eventually, pass on to Tenten. Shizune, who had the day off from the hospital, remarked about his diligence with the scrolls he'd gotten from the library after lunch, to which Naruto replied that it was mostly to keep him sane from worrying about whether or not Moegi and Konohamaru were ready for their duels with the Twins.
Shizune had just smiled. "Do what you have to, Naruto-kun," she'd said.
"Always do," Naruto replied distractedly. The black-haired medic had just laughed before returning to the various housekeeping tasks. That day passed fast and before the blond was ready, the sun had been down for an hour or two and Tsunade had returned from her day at the Tower. Turns out she and Naruto thought alike and had given Konohamaru the day off, and the Hokage had decided to shove her copious amount of paperwork off on her aides.
Naruto hit the hay early and almost before he registered that he was asleep, Shizune was shaking him awake and saying that he had to get to the arena. The blond genin grumbled, not being much of a morning person anyway, much less wanting to go to an exam with two psycho bitches who wouldn't rest until he was dead.
Never the less, in no time, Naruto's cloak was billowing as he bounded across rooftops and sprinted down power lines on his way to the arena where just a couple of months before, he and the Godaime Hokage had beat the living crap out of each other.
The blond touched down in front of the gate and the two chuunin nodded to him and stepped aside, letting him pass.
"Naruto-aniki!"
Naruto couldn't help but grin when Konohamaru waved him over to stand next to him and Moegi. The Takeda brothers were scowling at the world in general and the Kusajishi sisters were just standing around.
"Nervous, Konohamaru?" The blond asked. The young shinobi would be the first to face the Twins.
The Honorable Grandson gulped. "A little, but I think the Old Lady's training will help a lot."
"So does this mean that you're freakishly strong like Sakura-chan?"
"No. I really don't have the chakra control for it."
"So then…"
Genma interrupted. "Alright, quiet over there. The Kages are watching."
Naruto glanced up and saw Baa-chan in her ceremonial robes, and a man with a leathery face and gray eyes dressed in dark blue robes. That was obviously the Mizukage. But there was a surprise on Tsunade's right.
That Kage was dressed in teal robes and hat with matching eyes and an angry looking scowl.
"GAARA!!"
The Godaime Kazekage scowled even more deeply, but not before Naruto caught a brief upturn in the former Jinchuuriki's mouth before it downturned.
"What the hell's he doing here?" Konohamaru asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"The hell if I know," Naruto answered.
Moegi slapped her forehead. "You idiot, Naruto-aniki. Kazekage-sama is obviously here to see you." She looked at him skeptically. "Aren't you two friends or something?"
The blond grinned sheepishly. "Whoops. Guess that didn't cross my mind."
Konohamaru shook his head. "Geeze. You're a good shinobi and all, Naruto-aniki but you're still thick headed."
"Watch it twerp. I'll kick your ass in the finals."
An annoyed Tsunade cut them off. "Are you two idiots quite done!?" The Hokage was on her feet and her arms were crossed, glaring hard down at the pair with her patented 'I'm gonna kill you!' glare. Quelled, the two genin shut up. Then the Hokage spread her arms wide and shouted to the stadium, "Welcome to the final portion of the Chuunin Exams!" A roar went up among the assembled people of Konoha. "Well, without further delay, let the tournament begin!"
Another roar went up from the people and Genma turned to the candidates. "Alright, listen up, the rules are simple. There are no rules. Fight until one of you can't continue or dies. I will step into stop the match before death occurs, but I'm not making any guarantees. Good luck." He raised his voice. "First match! Kusajishi Ayame vs. Takeda Yosuke!" More cheers. Genma looked almost bored. "Everyone else, to the booth."
The shinobi trooped up the stairs and took their place in the booth that was set into the wall below the spectator stands.
Ayame and her opponent stayed below on the arena floor, approaching one another until they were within an arm's length of each other.
Takeda Yosuke was a lanky beanpole, like his brothers, with hard brown eyes and long shaggy brown hair that hung to his shoulders. He stood with the casual arrogance of a shinobi who knew his arts and how to use them. Naruto wouldn't have been surprised to know that Yosuke was a prodigy like Neji or Shikamaru.
Genma, trademark senbon sticking out in his mouth, stepped up and looked from the smiling kunoichi to the frowning genin. The Hokage had told him about the Kusajishi Twins and to be careful about stopping a match, particularly the ones between the Twins and Naruto. As he raised his hand to begin, he realized that the Hokage and Council didn't pay him nearly enough to put up with this shit.
"First match…" The atmosphere in the stadium sharpened perceptibly as the crowd sat forward on the edge of their seats, waiting for the match to…
"Begin!"
Genma bounced back to get to cover and whatever scant protection it provided for him.
Yosuke whipped out a kunai faster than the eye could track and hurled it at Ayame in the same motion. The kunoichi smirked confidently as her fingers whispered across the seals on her wrists. Kyuubi had been correct when he'd said that Ayame's seals drew off of a stash. The seals were linked to a second set of seals that were inscribed into two huge bins back in the Twins' village. By changing the way her chakra flowed when she activated the seals, she could draw different weapons from the bins, providing the weapons were layered a certain way. That was why she was so bitchy when it came to how the weapons were layered. If they were set up wrong, she could get a kunai when she needed shuriken, and that could cost her her life.
Kunai appeared in her hands and the blue-clad kunoichi let one fly and held the other one, charging at Yosuke with as much speed as she could muster. The Takeda was surprised to say the least when his kunai was deflected with a shower of sparks and Ayame hurtled at him with fire burning in her red eyes.
The Mist shinobi leapt back, to gain distance and his hands began flashing through hand-seals, before the shinobi reared back and shouted, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," then spewed a raging fireball that scorched the ground as it traveled.
Up in the contestant's box, Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"Odd," he murmured to no one.
"Naruto-aniki?" Konohamaru asked, but Naruto didn't seem to hear him. The blond shinobi was watching the battle below with a dangerous and calculating look on his face. The kid was unnerved. He'd never seen that particular expression. "What's wrong?"
The look didn't vanish. "He used a Katon jutsu…Kind of odd for a Kiri-nin."
Scoffing from their right met the Konoha shinobi's ears.
"Whatever, bastard." It was Takeda Kanryu. "If you think that the Takeda brothers just use Suiton jutsu, you've got another thing coming." His voice was reedy and high, thick with a holier-than-thou tone that Naruto had become accustomed to hearing in Sasuke, Neji, and Hiashi's voices.
The shinobi backed up when the blond genin sent a heated look his way. The Takeda gulped and shut up. Something told him that the tall, cloaked nin was not to be trifled with. If anyone found Naruto's change in demeanor strange, then they'd never seen him when he'd been away from the village. The Sound missing-nin had been famous for his cold shoulder, something which tended to come out when Naruto went in to combat these days.
Down below, Ayame jumped and cleared the fireball, swiping her seals again and let loose a barrage of shuriken that arced for the ground and hurtled at the Takeda brother.
The deadly missiles struck and the shinobi collapsed in a shower of blood.
Ayame smirked as she landed, but that confidence lasted only a few moments as the corpse of the Mist shinobi burst into smoke and cleared to reveal a shuriken-studded log, no sign of the kunoichi's target anywhere in the stadium.
Then she blinked. "Oh please," she muttered, swiping a seal and hurling a tagged kunai into the tree behind her. The tag detonated with a massive explosion and reduced the tree to splinters and ash, a figure bursting from the cloud of smoke and coming straight for her. Ayame huffed and decided that it was time to stop holding back.
Yosuke blinked and Kusajishi Ayame was gone.
"What!?" He skidded to a stop and looked around, but there was not a sign of Ayame near him and he couldn't sense her either.
He cried out as pain lanced up his left leg and he looked down to see a hand protruding from the ground behind him, a kunai firmly lodged in his calf. He screamed again as the kunai twisted, making blood spray, and then was wrenched sideways, tearing out the side of his leg then slashed across his right leg and rending skin and muscle there as well.
The injuries dropped him to his knees. There was a cracking noise and another hand lanced out and drove a kunai deep into the Kiri-nin's throat, once again spraying blood, life-blood this time, all over the ground.
Takeda Yosuke slumped, making a pathetic gurgling noise in the back of his throat as he watched with rapidly darkening vision as two Ayames emerged from the splintered dirt and rock.
'Shadow Clones,' he realized with fading thoughts. 'She used speed to get to cover, then made shadow clones to attack with and went underground.' From there, it was a simple matter to follow the violent vibrations from his feet to the source and immobilize him with the slash to the calves, then lay his throat open.
Ayame's voice came to him from across a great distance, a smug note clear in her voice. "Sorry, but you lose this one."
Everything went black.
The crowd was silent for a moment at the death of the Takeda brother then muted mutterings broke out among the population. It was not the ending they'd hoped for, and Genma had been just as caught off guard as Yosuke, and so had not had the time to stop the fatal strike.
The senbon-chewing shinobi shrugged then announced to the stadium, "Winner, Kusajishi Ayame!"
Up in the booth for the candidates, there was a stunned silence, except for Sasame cheering her sister on for her victory.
The two remaining Takeda brothers were muttering sullenly to each other and Moegi and Konohamaru were just stunned. Only Naruto was making any sort of real movement and that was only the clenching and unclenching of his fist, barely visible through the part in his cloak.
The voice of the jounin proctor below brought them out of the paralysis that the gruesome victory had cast. "Next match! Moegi vs. Takeda Kanryu!"
The crowd also seemed to be relieved of the silence, bursting into cheers again as the masked Takeda and Moegi took their places and got ready to go.
"Begin!"
Neither fighter moved.
Moegi was watching her opponent like a hawk. Kakashi had known that, without the Sharingan, what he could teach the kunoichi was limited, but that hadn't stopped the lazy jounin. He'd taught her strategy and tactics, and, after discovering that the genin's chakra control rivaled Sakura's, had taught her some jutsu that required a bit more finesse that what he would've taught, say, Naruto before his little stint as a missing-nin.
It hadn't been the grueling beat down-style training that Naruto and Konohamaru had gone through, but she was stronger than she had been a month ago.
"Give up, Chibi."
Moegi blinked at Kanryu's abrupt break into speech.
"What?"
The Takeda's sneer was visible, even through his mask. "You can't beat me. A kid like you in the exams? Give me a break. Are Konoha's jounin really that stupid?"
Moegi didn't answer, falling back on Kakashi's training.
'He said to not rise to the taunts of your enemies. Take you time, keep your cool, and the weaknesses of your enemies will become clear.' She reminded herself. It wouldn't do to succumb to the flaws that Konohamaru and Naruto had, which was their lightning-quick tempers. Never did they rage against their friends, but it didn't take much to set them off. That made some of their battles harder than they needed to be.
Kanryu kept on talking, but Moegi wasn't listening, she was looking for flaws in his posture, flickers in his eyes, a twitch of a muscle, anything that could expose a weakness she could take advantage of.
It didn't take long for her to find one.
Takeda's weight was farther back on one leg than it should've been, which meant that if she should rush in, he'd be able to jump back faster and shower her with shuriken when her attack over extended. By contrast, should she rush and Takeda choose to block, which considering that he looked to be the type that looked down on 'weaker' opponents was probably the most likely, it would take a second to transfer his weight forward and get enough behind the block to stop the hit cold. The variables were many, and multiplying by the second.
To cut down on the possibilities, she would need to distract him. Her hand dipped into her kunai pouch and hurled one of the knives there at the masked man, who bounced back and away.
Moegi put chakra into her feet and shot forward, seeming to skim over the ground for a second before she darted into the air, streaking for the falling genin like a bullet. Now that Takeda's feet were off the ground, he wasn't able to brace against her and that would be his downfall.
The masked man's eyes widened in alarm as he found himself staring up at the Konoha kunoichi who was in his face, fist drawn for an attack.
Her fist collided with the thud of bone on bone.
Kanryu burst into a plume of smoke.
Moegi's face showed her surprise at the sudden twist of fate. Before she could do anything but register she'd been had, she yelled in sudden pain as a senbon flew from the trees and bushes ringing the center of the stadium and lodged right over her shoulder blade, going deep enough that she felt it dig into bone a little. The warm feeling of blood followed an instant later, causing the kunoichi's top to stick to her.
The kunoichi didn't waste time in pulling it out, hoping against hope that the weapon wasn't poisoned.
"Pay attention, little girl," the Kiri-nin admonished with a jeering tone. It was clear that he wasn't taking this match seriously, seeing a teenage girl as a minor threat at best. "I don't want to kill you any faster than I have to."
So that was his game? He was going to taunt and humiliate her until she couldn't take it anymore and then he'd take his dear sweet time killing her. Well, Moegi wasn't just going to sit around and let that happen.
Despite the wound in her shoulder, it didn't hamper her movement, so the genin drew two kunai and waited. Sure enough, Kanryu didn't hesitate before charging in at full steam and lunging with a vicious war cry, dark eyes wide with a light that made him seem insane and angry at the same time.
'Remember your lessons,' Moegi told herself again. Kakashi, not knowing Ayame's style of fighting, had covered a little of everything, from basics to advanced jutsu, trying to show her how to find all the little tricks that made an attack tick. 'A lunge is a straight forward attack and it has a high probablility of overextending if the attacker missed.'
Her feet moved, taking her to the outside and facing the shinobi, the knife that he'd drawn to bury in her rib sailing harmlessly past, her own hand once again dipping into her pouch to seize a knife of her own and drive it into the passing man's ribs, the keen blade passing between the ribs with no problem.
Kanryu once again exploded into smoke.
"Another Kage Bunshin!" This time, Moegi was ready for the follow-up and bounced out of the way, the quick flash of a senbon lodging in the soil. If the kunoichi hadn't moved when she did, it would've probably struck in her Achilles tendon and immobilized her. However, Takeda made one critical mistake.
Moegi saw the leaves rustle as needle left its owner's hand.
Thankfully, she'd managed to keep her kunai, so she twisted and hurled it at the brief rustle. There was a whisper of feet over dead leaves and the teen caught a flash of movement. No wonder this guy was in the Chuunin Exams, his stealth skills were good, but someone like Naruto-aniki or that crazy lady Ayame would be able to shred him, hell, any chuunin worth their rank would be able to do it.
The was a sharp 'clang' and a shower of sparks. The movement stopped and Moegi held her breath. Did the guy stop? Would he be caught in the…
BOOM!
Explosion from the tag she'd slipped around the hilt of the knife at the last second.
Shrapnel in the form of wood splinters and burning embers from immolated leaves and bark rained down on Moegi and Genma, but neither moved, not even when peppered with bits of the burning debris or pricked by slivers of flying wood. They were both waiting for Takeda to emerge.
And the wait wasn't a short one.
There was an abrupt drop in visiblility as a sudden mist sprang up out of nowhere and quickly obscured the battlefield to all but the most experienced jounin and other elite shinobi. For a moment, Tenten, in the crowd, wondered where the water from the jutsu had come from.
Neji had the answer, chakra coils leading to his eyes bulging with the chakra needed to sustain his Byakugan. And the deeper-than-normal scowl indicated that what he saw was both puzzling and probably bad news for Moegi down on the floor of the stadium.
"His chakra network is out of control."
Lee and Gai, before now paying attention only to the match, now looked at the Hyuuga jounin.
"What do you mean, Neji-kun?" Gai asked, clearly interested.
"I've been tracking him with the Byakugan this whole time," Neji elaborated. "I want to make sure I know what to look for if we ever go to war with them. Just now, he pulled something out of a pouch and took a sniff." The pale Kekkei Genkai empowered eyes narrowed. "Then his inner coils went haywire. I don't think even Naruto could match it."
Tenten blinked. She probably knew better than anyone the sheer amount of raw power the blond possessed. The kunoichi glanced over at Naruto, visible in the box from his brilliant hair and cloaked figure, and saw his normally shining blue eyes were currently just as cold and calculating as Neji's. "How is that possible?" She asked. During training, she'd seen Naruto make close to a hundred shadow clones, fight her, then show her an B or A-ranked jutsu without even blinking.
She, by contrast, could only manage about twenty Kage Bunshin at any given time, up from an initial nine or ten, and she wouldn't even consider using an A-ranked jutsu whilst using the Shadow Clone Technique or just after it.
Neji flicked a quick look at her, but Tenten knew he still saw every detail on that field. One of the perks of nearly three-sixty degree vision. "I don't know, Tenten." His gaze snapped, not over to the field, but to Naruto, who's mouth was moving, probably explaining to the situation to Konohamaru.
Sure enough, that's what he was doing.
Naruto, having been studying up on the various Suiton jutsu out there, was just as puzzled as Tenten at first, wondering how this was possible, when only chakra freaks like Hoshigaki Kisame, or a Kage like the Nidaime could create water jutsu without a source.
'How'd he do it? That Takeda guy isn't anything special.' Abruptly, his nose sharpened, allowing him to smell everything from the acrid stench of the still-burning tree to the various perfumes and colognes of the spectator and contestants. Kyuubi had sent a burst of youki to his nose, sharpening the organ to many times the sensitivity of a dog's.
Borne on the wind, heavily diluted by the water in the mist, was a sickly sweet scent that Naruto had never smelt before. It was so pungent that the blonde's head seemed to swoon just from catching a whiff.
'The hell is that?'
'Chakra enhancement drugs,' Kyuubi grunted simply, swishing a tail.
'Chakra what now?'
'Just what I said, brat,' the massive fox replied irritably. 'It's been a while since I've run into that crap.'
'You know what it is?'
'I'm a demon hundreds of years old, you idiot. I've been around the block a couple times, and seen plenty.'
'Well, don't keep me in suspense, furball. What's it do?'
'Exactly what the name implies. I suppose it could be compared to soldier pills or that water in the Waterfall village, except that this is many many many times more potent. I'm pretty sure it's made by taking the ingredients for a soldier pill and then concentrating them, along with a few additives to further boost the effect.' Kyuubi's upper lip curled. 'This guy's an idiot. That crap's hard to make at the best of times, and it's extremely addictive to boot. I was under the impression that all the villages outlawed it close to a hundred and fifty years ago.'
Naruto blinked, then turned all business again. 'Withdrawl symptoms?'
'Many, varied, and not at all pleasant. They range from vomiting blood all the way up to death. The ones that leave you alive get worse the longer you use it, until you can't go for more than a couple hours without a dose of a couple ounces and even that worsens the withdrawal until there's nothing left for you but death.'
'Cure?'
'None, aside from maybe being a Jinchuuriki or having a fantastic Bloodline or a stubborn iron will.'
'Well, two out of three isn't bad.' Naruto found himself pinned under a massive claw and a snarling demon maw inches from his face.
'You put that shit inside us and I will eat you, deal or no deal.'
'Relax you bastard!' Naruto yelled at the snarling kitsune. 'Think about it! Would I do that!?' The claw released him.
'No. But don't even joke. I've seen the deaths.' The Nine-Tailed Fox shuddered. 'It's not anything I'd wish on anyone.' Both knew that was saying something, seeing as what the fox was.
Naruto turned to a more serious topic. 'What's this mean for Moegi-chan?'
His partner was silent for a moment. 'Hard to say. The effect will be a massive boost in her opponent's chakra. The time is another matter. For some reason, the duration increases with use. No one knows why, or cares since it's outlawed.'
'So to make it simple, it means big trouble.' Kyuubi's silence was all the answer the blond needed. That was when Konohamaru asked what was going on and the blond proceeded to explain.
"Chakra enhancing drugs?" Neji repeated as he watched Naruto continue to explain to the Sandaime's grandson. The Hyuuga barely heard Tenten's question about what he was talking about, but when he had a fair idea, he began explaining.
Meanwhile, in the pea soup that was hanging over the arena, Moegi was looking around with a tense alertness coursing through her. She could just barely feel Kanryu's chakra ghosting at the edge of her perception with a deadly caress that sent shivers down her spine. There was just one problem.
She didn't know how to sense chakra yet.
In order for her to be able sense him when she shouldn't know how to yet, the man had to have a massive amount, chakra so high that is was almost inhumane.
This battle was about to get a lot more interesting and she had to be ready.
Moegi's hands began flashing from seal to seal. She'd show this Kakashi-knockoff that she wasn't to be taken lightly.
Well, that's that. Sorry if the Ayame battle was lame, but don't forget, she's able to go against Naruto and hold her own, and Naruto, even without Kyuubi, is about as strong as an ANBU captain or a Kage. So what chance would a genin have against her when she fought seriously? Moegi's battle is hopefully going to be more interesting, and Konohamaru's battle with Sasame is going to get its start probably next chapter, then it's all downhill from there as Naruto takes on his main antagonists (or antagonist, you never know). Anyway, look forward to the next chapter, review, y'know the drill. No glossary this time, unless you really need an explanation of the Hidden Mist Technique.