Chapter Twenty-Eight – The Finals Part Two
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"Match Five, Hyuuga Hinata of Konoha versus Temari no Sabaku of Suna. Begin!"
Hinata backflipped out of the way of Temari's opening attack, landing on Kyouka's back and performing a fast series of hand-seals.
"Combination Kagetora Clan Technique: Great Tiger Henge no Jutsu!"
"Crap!" Temari cursed as Hinata vanished in a cloud of smoke. "You can do the tiger thing too? How? You're a Hyuuga!"
Hinata flowed down off Kyouka's back, then the two of them loped away from each other, taking positions with Temari in the middle, easily dodging the wind-blades that Temari unleashed in an attempt to keep them away from her. After a few seconds, Hinata started to charge forwards and Temari spun to face her, raising her fan.
"Wind relea… woah!"
Unnoticed, Kyouka had unleashed her earth-jutsu, causing the ground to ripple and making Temari stumble. As Temari fought to recover, Hinata pounced, knocking her down and landing on top of her, jaws fixed around her neck.
"Dammit." Temari sighed. "You win. Now get off me please?"
"Winner, Hinata!" Genma declared as Hinata reverted and stepped off Temari, allowing the blond to scramble to her feet.
"Dammit, the fat boy lasted longer than I did." Temari grumbled. Hinata smiled.
"You were at a disadvantage. I had seen your techniques, you hadn't seen mine. It is hard to fight what you do not expect."
"I can't believe I got defeated so fast." Temari groused. "Even dog-boy lasted longer than I did. That's just embarrasing. I'm supposed to be a strong Kunoichi, not a… a cat toy."
Hinata giggled.
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Gaara stood alone in the middle of the arena, glaring at Genma who in turn was looking up at the Kage box.
"There is no sign of Uchiha Sasuke, my lord Hokage." He said, only to be interrupted by a small cyclone of leaves. As it dropped, it revealed Kakashi and Sasuke standing back-to-back, arms folded. In addition to his usual outfit, Sasuke had bandages and straps around both legs and his left arm.
"Sorry we're late." Kakashi eye-smiled as Genma glared at him.
"The match got delayed because you were late." Genma growled and Kakashi shrugged.
"Well, we're here now, so everything's fine. Don't you agree, Sasuke?"
"Hnph."
"See? He's eager to begin."
Genma glared at Kakashi, who vanished in another swirl of leaves, leaving Sasuke and Gaara to glare at each other. Genma took a few paces back.
"All right, the rules for this match are the same as in the preliminaries. The match continues until one of you dies or admits defeat. However, I can stop the match, but that's solely my decision"
Gaara chuckled and Sasuke frowned back at him.
"Match three, delayed, Gaara noSabaku of Suna versus Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha, Begin!"
As soon as he said it, Sasuke leapt back and threw a pair of shuriken at Gaara, who didn't even twitch as billows of sand flowed out of his gourd and caught the projectiles before shifting shape, becoming a copy of Gaara which threw the shuriken back at Sasuke. Sasuke smirked as he easily dodged the projectiles.
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"The sand shield became a sand clone!" Temari gasped from the balcony as Hinata watched, Byakugan active.
"There's chakra in the sand, and it's… Biju chakra." Hinata murmured. "Naruto-kun was right, Gaara is a Jinchuuriki just like him!"
Temari jolted as if someone had stabbed her with a Kunai. "What?! You mean that comment a month ago about sealing… he knew back then? How?"
"Naruto's the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Hinata said, gazing at the scene below them. "Your brother holds the Ichibi, the one-tailed Tanuki. Naruto-kun recognised the feel of the leaking Youkai and the scent. He warned Shino, that's why he forfeited, and Sasuke. I don't know how Sasuke prepared, but we'll soon see."
"Who… else knows? About Gaara?" Temari asked, her eyes wide and hands gripping the railing tightly.
"Most of the Konoha shinobi, by now." Hinata said almost absently.
'Shit, this is bad, very bad!' Temari thought, 'And I'm stuck here with no way to warn Baki-sensei that Konoha are fully prepared for this part of the plan, even though they don't realise it! Wait a minute…'
"How are you so calm about my brother being a Jinchuuriki?" Temari asked, trying to hide her rising panic.
"Simple, I'm engaged to Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled. "I know that Naruto would never hurt me, or anyone that he cares about."
Temari stared at her, shock warring with panic for supremacy.
'She's happy about marrying a Jinchuuriki?'
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Sasuke struck at the neck of the sand-clone, only for the sand to wrap itself around his wrist. Delivering a powerful cross-strike, he shattered the sand-manacle and leapt away to buy a few seconds to think of a new plan of attack. Dashing forwards, he launched a punch, only to vanish in a blur of speed as the sand rose in a barrier before him.
'What? Where did he go?' Gaara thought, just as Sasuke reappeared behind him, already striking. The sand barely blocked in time as Sasuke vanished in a blur of speed once more. Again and again, the sand shifted, just barely in time to block the incoming strikes.
'My sand, it's barely matching his speed!' Gaara thought, spinning just in time to see Sasuke's punch being stopped by his sand. Before the sand could even start to reform, Sasuke had vanished again.
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"How is he doing that?" Ino gasped as she and Sakura sat watching the match along with Tenten.
"Simple." Gai said from behind them, causing Ino and Sakura to jump and squeak in shock. "Sasuke asked for permission to copy Lee's speed, and has trained with it for the last month. Although he is not up to Lee's standard since he gains his speed through channeling chakra rather than pure hard work, meaning that he cannot maintain the speed for very long, it should be enough for this fight, combined with the other moves my eternal rival has taught him."
"But what did Lee get out of it?" Tenten asked and Gai grinned.
"Lee-kun got to choose four Jutsu from the Uchiha library for himself, he chose low-level Jutsu that fit with his combat style and enhances it considerably without causing a significant drain on his chakra reserves. And Sasuke ensured that he does not know which Jutsu Lee-kun picked, so he cannot develop any counters ahead of time. Truly a most youthful course of action, and one which has gained my respect!"
"So… to gain an advantage against Gaara, he willingly gave Lee an advantage against him, right?" Sakura asked.
"That is absolutely right, cute student of my eternal rival! As he explained to Lee and I when he made the trade, he knows that Lee does not truly wish to kill him, so he is likely to survive that fight, while Gaara is so bloodthirsty that he needs every advantage he can get."
"I… see." Sakura mused.
"Go Sasuke!" Ino cheered.
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Gaara spun round as the sand to his right was almost dissipated by a powerful kick, then a fist punched through the shield behind him and knocked him forwards. Pulling more sand from his gourd, he turned round, then something made him look up, just in time for a powerful kick to slam down on his head. Staggering backwards, Gaara felt the layer of sand on his skin, the layer which kept him safe from harm, crack and begin to flake away.
'So fast… how is he this fast? How can he be this strong?' Gaara thought as Sasuke wove through his defensive sand and grabbed him, then Sasuke drove his knee into Gaara's stomach and followed up almost instantly with a powerful kick that sent him flying backwards. As he landed, his sand cushioned the impact and he looked up, eyes wide in shock to see Sasuke taking an upright fighting stance.
"Is that all you've got?" Sasuke taunted and Gaara growled. Pulling his hands up into a seal, he remained still as his gourd emptied itself, slowly forming a sphere around him, a sphere firmly attached to the ground.
"What?"
A wisp of sand formed an orb above the sphere, an orb which turned into a floating eye. Sasuke looked at the sphere rooted to the ground, then dashed forwards to deliver a powerful punch, only to dodge as the sphere suddenly extruded a barrier of long spikes. Retreating, he watched as the spikes withdrew back into the featureless sphere. Activating his Sharingan, Sasuke launched another strike, only for the sphere to defend with more spikes.
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"Dammit!" Kankuro muttered as he sat watching next to his Jonin-sensei Baki. "What the hell does Gaara think he's doing, resorting to that? He knew the plan!"
"Gaara was never one for plans when there was killing to be done." Baki said slowly. "This could be… a real problem."
Kankuro nodded teeth clenching as he watched his brother.
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Sasuke moved away from the sphere and leapt onto the wall surrounding the arena. Mantaining his position with the tree-walking technique, he undid the strap on his left arm, letting it fall to the floor. Placing his right hand on the back of his left, he concentrated just as he had trained to do and chakra started to flow into and around his hand.
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"That technique…" Gai gasped.
"Yes." Kakashi said from behind him. "My signature move, Chidori, or thousand birds. As well as training him to duplicate Lee's speed, I also trained him to use the lightning blade, but even with all the training I gave him, he can only use it three times a day before his chakra reserves get too low. And with how much he had to use to perform the speed boost, I'd say that after this, he only has one more shot."
"Kakashi-sensei… what is that move?" Sakura asked.
"It's a lightning-charged attack that is delivered at high speed." Kakashi explained. "The trouble is, the speed required causes the user to experience tunnel vision, so a Sharingan is needed to counter that."
"A Byakugan may work as well, my eternal rival." Gai said and Kakashi thought about it, then nodded.
"Maybe, but probably not as well. The Byakugan lacks the Sharingan's mental-speed-boost."
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"Wow, nice technique." Naruto whispered. "I wonder how it would match up against my Rasengan."
"Looks like an elemental technique." Shikamaru nodded. "Probably a short-ranged one that does massive damage when it hits. And from how far away from Gaara he is, I'd say it needs considerable speed to be effective. But if it does hit, it would be troublesome."
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Sasuke hurtled towards the sphere, the sparking electricity surrounding his left hand cutting a line in the ground as he accelerated, then he thrust his hand forwards even as the sphere started to bulge with growing spikes again. The lightning-enhanced strike met one of the spikes straight-on and blasted through it, penetrating the shell and hitting something inside.
For a long moment, no-one moved, then something shifted inside the sphere and Sasuke tried to pull back.
"BLOOD!" Gaara's voice screamed, magnified somehow by the sphere and echoing across the arena. "IT'S MY BLOOD! I'M BLEEDING!"
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Temari paled. "Gaara's never been hurt before! This is bad! Very bad!"
"Never been hurt before?" Hinata asked, then she looked down at the arena. "I suppose that with the sand acting as armour as well as its obvious shielding properties, that comes as no surprise."
Temari glanced across at Hinata, then back at her screaming brother in his sand sphere.
"This is very, very bad!"
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The sand held Sasuke's arm, squeezing it painfully, until Sasuke channeled his chakra to create lightning again. The sand's grasp loosened slightly and Sasuke pulled hard, feeling whatever was holding his wrist loosen it's grip. Pulling free, he leapt back… eyes widening in shock as a blue-veined sand arm lunged through the hole he had made, trying to grab him before slowly retracting back into the sphere. A moment later, the sphere disintegrated, revealing Gaara standing, half-crouched as he grabbed his left shoulder, trying to stem the flow of blood from the wound.
Sasuke gulped in great breaths of aid as he massaged his left wrist, trying to restore feeling to his hand. He looked at Gaara, thinkin fast.
'From how he reacted, he's not used to pain, that sand skin of his probably protected him until now. I can only use one more Chidori before my chakra becomes too low, so I'll have to… what the?'
Sasuke's thoughts were holted as the Kage box erupted in a cloud of smoke.
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'That's the signal!' Temari thought, reaching up to grab her fan.
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'That's the signal!'Baki and Kankuro thought, tensing ready to do their parts.
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The plume of smoke was visible to the ninja waiting outside Konoha, ninja wearing the Hitai-ate's of Suna and Sound.
"That's the signal!" the leader of the ninja shouted. "Finish the summonings and attack!"
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"That's the signal." Kabuto thought, smirking behind his stolen Anbu mask. "Time to release the genjitsu and secure Sasuke for Orochimaru."
