Magnus: Well, sorry for not updating in a long time, but I had to deal with life and familiar stuff, anyway, here goes the chapter, and as promised, the stadium battles begin now. So enjoy, and remember, Read and Review!
Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or anything you believe is being mentioned in this fanfic, the OCs belong to their respective creators
Chapter 50
The Avenger vs The Undertaker
Night before the tournament…
Hayate Geko, a loyal shinobi that always thinks on the well-being of the village as a whole, who has a beautiful girlfriend that loves him even if not in the same rank, and that he will do anything for her, a man that Sarutobi deemed as trustworthy, was currently fleeing, running at top speed along the roofs of the buildings
'I need to reach the Hokage, this is bad, this is REALLY bad!' Hayate thought with dread and great distress, for he has just overhead a conversation between the jounin instructor of the Suna team, and a shinobi from Otto
'I can't believe that Suna would betray us like this!' Hayate continued, he heard the plan of invasion, the plan to kill the Hokage, to kidnap youngsters from the most important clans, and to give Konoha to Suna and other villages… He was so engrossed, that he couldn't notice the hand in time, and so, he was pulled into the shadows
"Do not move. Do not talk. Do not dare make a sound luder than a weak heartbeat, and you'll live to see another day" The voice of a small child whispered to Hayate's ear… But the hold of his hand was strong, cold, a precise, like a veteran hunter nin
Hayate did as told, if the hunter nin wanted him dead, he would be dead already, wich means that he wasn't the target, but what could the hunter nin want? Hayate got an idea when he saw the Suna jounin landing on the same roof, obviously not seeing him on the shadows
Baki searched with his eyes the area, he was sure that the Konoha nin couldn't be far, in fact, he was sure that most likely he would be hiding nearby. He never felt the white clad assassin, he never heard him, he never saw him. Hayate watched in morbid fascination, the white clad figure moved with speed, strength and precision, but there was no sound, no chakra, no presence at all. Hayate saw it all, how the white figure descended upon the suna nin, and with a soundless strike, it was over, the suna instructor died without knowing, as if an angel of death had descended to peacefully claim his soul… And now the angel was walking toward him…
"Sparrow…" The white figure said, but Hayate was so scared that he wasn't able to make sense of the word, until the child that was holding him replied
"I know, Altair" Sparrow replied, and then went toward Baki's body, henged into him, and then burned away the corpse with frightening efficiency.
Sparrow, being henged into Baki, left the scene. Altair gave one last glance toward Hayate, who froze in the spot, not even able to breath… It wasn't a killer intent, it wasn't any kind of jutsu, it was the fact that his barely visible eyes were soul piercing, it was the fact of thinking that he was next. But Altair just left, Hayate didn't dare to see where he go, there was no presence to follow, there was no evidence of their doing, for Baki's ashes were immediately scattered by the wind.
"And now… How am I supposed to report this?" Hayate muttered to himself, this was going to be one hell of a report…
Next day…
After enduring the kitsune invasion, and surviving under the now careless watch of one Hiruzen Sarutobi, Konoha was ready to have the last part of the chunin exams, a series of battles that will be held on the stadium. Of course this event will be watched by not only the locals, but by the representatives of all the villages, which means that the kazekage will attend to see his son… this also means that someone will come to watch the shibusen students…
"I appreciate your concern, but it's not really necessary for you to greet our representative right away…" Stein said to an obviously worried Hokage
"I must. This is no ordinary representative, but the representative of the God of the Death. Perhaps is a kid, like your students, or maybe a beautiful woman. I won't have any brainless shinobi or council member to antagonize with such an important person" Sarutobi dryly replied. Word of the Shibusen students being demon hunters reached the ears of the clan heads and council members, and the idea of arrange marriages with such powerful warriors raised up way too quickly, and Sarutobi knew that allowing such behavior would be more than harmful for the village, only Kami know what the Shinigami would do if one of his students gets sexually harassed or something like that.
"Well, I guess it's too late to tell you to run away, here he comes" Stein finally said, while looking at the main gates, where a young boy was entering. He was dressed on an elegant black suit with white rectangles arranged symmetrically, an at his collar, a metal skull served as a tie, his black hair was combed in a way that perfectly split it by the middle, although the three white lines on it were out of place, also, his eyes looked otherworldly, due to the double yellowed coloration on them. He was being followed by two girls dressed as cowgirls, dressed like twins, but obviously not twins.
"I hope that this ends soon, we were waiting for your return a month ago, besides, this village looks so… asymmetric" The boy said, obviously talking to Stein
"We had a little more obstacles than intended, but as the information stated, our target will openly attack on this event" Stein replied
"And we have full access to the event?" The boy asked now, not wanting any interference from the locals
"Of course you have, I already gave the order to give you full freedom. Besides, since one of your people managed to get this far, you will be able to cove more area" Sarutobi interjected, gaining the attention of the envoy of the Shinigami
"Ah! You must be the honorable Hokage, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Death the Kidd, son of Shinigami" Kid presented himself as polite as possible, sending Sarutobi into shock, for he wasn't in front of any lesser envoy, but in the presence of the son of the god of death
At the stadium…
The rows of seats on the stadium were getting filled with all the people who wanted to see the battles, most of them were there to encourage their favorite shinobi, others to give moral support to their friends or family, and there were some more that were plotting…
"Nyu?" Nyu asked, in a worried tone, not that any non-Aburame could understand her
"Don't worry. He'll be fine. All his training will pay off" Shibi replied, not leaving his monotone voice, not that Nyu could be fooled, she always seemed to know the true mood of the Aburame family
"Nyuu" Nyu mowed half reassured, she saw Shino's training, she saw all his strength and skill, she just had to believe on him
"Besides, his love for you will give him more strength to be able to return to you" Shino's mother said while hugging Nyu, who finally relaxed
"Naraku! I'm glad to see you already out of the hospital!" Ino greeted the blind shinobi, who was using his staff for support, obviously not fully healed
"A pair of nurses can't held me against my will, although you should see how is Sakura, she is being moved with a wheel chair" Naraku stated, while taking seat at Ino's side
"WHAT? When did you see her?" Ino asked startled, too late she covered her mouth, it was just too hard to not forget about the condition of the boy
"Never? Besides, the wheels do make such a distinctive sound…" Naraku replied, smiling at the idea of Ino being jealous
"Come on, Ino-pig. Everybody knows he doesn't have eyes for any other girl" Sakura said as she arrived, obviously she heard the conversation, and decided to participate. Her image was one to pity, still covered in bandages, and being pushed in a wheel chair by Doc, still, she got a death glare from Ino, due to the joke about Naraku's eyes
"That is true" Naraku conceded, not that it reduced Ino's anger
"Please, don't fight among yourselves, none of you are healed yet" Doc begged, not that he was about to be heard
Soon the stadium was at full capacity, with the balconies being occupied by the clan heads and jounin senseis, as well as the special place of honor, reserved for the Hokage and his special guests, which were the Kazekage and Kidd, while the combatants were on a special room that was looking directly into the arena. On the Arena, Hayate appeared, ready to call for the first match, much to the surprise of some hidden otto nins.
"From all the hidden villages, people have reunited here to decide which of these hopefuls will advance from genins to chunins. All of the ones reunited here to fight, have shown courage and cunning enough to win all the battles that had taken place before today… But we all know that battles alone doesn't win wars, that courage and cunning are not enough to change history, a true shinobi, a chunin shinobi, needs character, needs the Will of Fire! And now, we will begin the last part of the chunin exams!" Sarutobi gave his opening speech, and this was the signal that Hayate required to start the event
"Participants Sasuke Uchiha and Sabaku no Gaara, cough, come down to the arena" Hayate called, and Sasuke was the first to shunshine to the center of the arena, and by not seeing the sand user immediately, he decided to add his thoughts
"It seems that the suna nin is a smart one, deciding to run away than being beaten in public…" Sasuke started, but before he could continue, the sky darkened, the light seemed to be eaten away by some unnatural darkness, and this was only the beginning of his arrival.
Gregorian chants filled the air, and from the gates of the arena, a heavy mist began to flow. A funeral song began to sound, and the gates opened, revealing a procession of dark hooded monks carrying coffin, and the fear began to strike the hearts of not only the spectators, but of the other combatants too.
The chants began to grow in intensity, and as the monks placed the coffin on the ground, the intensity of the fear grew too. The monks lighted torches, and as the chants reached a crescendo, the darkness began to suffocate the audience. Then a gong sounded with astonishing force, three times, as if summoning a demon, as if asking for the gates of hell to open wide. At the third call of the gong, the top of the coffin opened with brutal force, and from the inside, Gaara raised up, in a straight fashion, his face was hidden from the audience by his hat, but to Sasuke, those eyes filled with malice, hatred, and blood-lust were placed only on him… And as soon as Gaara was out of the coffin, the darkness left, as well as the horrible sensation of fear.
"Show off" Naruto muttered, but very few managed to hear him
"Well, you can star, cough, now!" Hayate announced, and then fled from the zone
"Your little show doesn't scare me, you don't scare me, I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and today you will lose to my greatness!" Sasuke shouted, while taking his trademark battle stance, but Gaara didn't move at all.
"Words alone won't take me down. Come here, show me the greatness you keep talking about, and face death" Gaara coldly replied, still not taking any battle stance.
Sasuke frowned, glared, and then darted toward Gaara, who was still unmoving. Sasuke delivered a punch, but got blocked by a thin layer of sand, just as Kakashi told him. Then he went for a kick, with exactly the same result. Then, using the momentum, he jumped over Gaara, while throwing a hail of kunais, all of them caught in the sand. Gaara didn't move, at all.
'That sand shield is a total annoyance, but I can't use my triumph card yet' Sasuke thought, and while he hated to not being able to win fast and easily, Kakshi stressed him to be extremely cautious with this foe, for in this event, there would not be any help of any kind, not that he thought he could need it.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" Sasuke shouted his technique, while breathing a big fireball, which got stopped by an spiraling shield of sand, the sand was moving so fast, that it was being cooled fast enough to not being affected by the katon technique.
"These toys… You can have them back" Gaara stated without emotion, and then his sand threw the kunais back at Sasuke, at frightening speeds. Sasuke had to activate his sharingan to be able to follow the path of the weapons, just to evade them, it was at this moment, that Sasuke understood, that this was a real battle.
With the spectators…
"Ino, how come we fell for… him?" Sakure asked, with no little despise on her voice, making Doc grimace
"You fell for his looks and bad boy attitude, also being the star student of the generation put him as the perfect boy, too bad that it was only an illusion. I bet most of his grades were given to him as a gift for his sad past, and the hopes of having him happy, the perfect recipe for a spoiled brat" Naraku replied, making both Sakura and Ino to look down in shame
"You shouldn't say anything about looks, you give the impression of a cute boy yourself" Matsukaze said from behind them, announcing his presence, and the presence of Okuni, his now fiancée
"And how am I supposed to know that?" Naraku asked, sounding stupid for a moment.
"Well, there is this nice invention called mirror, which is useful for…" Okuni began to explain, but Naraku began to move his right hand in front of his "eyes" while using a dumb smile. Soon Okuni began to bow and stutter apologies, while Ino glared daggers at her, Sakura, Doc and Matsukaze limited themselves to roll their eyes.
"It seems that your precious Uchiha is no match for my son" The Kazekage taunted, eying Sarutobi for a reaction.
"One lone prodigy can't save a nation, to save a nation, you need an army of well trained and reliable warriors, or one true hero. Both of these are most commonly from humble origins" Sarutobi replied, unfazed by the obvious beating that Sasuke was about to receive.
"I agree. The true deciding factor is not the breed of the warrior, but the hard work and heart he or she puts into the battle. Breeding or creating perfect warriors leads to arrogance, arrogance leads to self content, self content leads to stagnation, and stagnation leads to failure" Kidd added, earning exclamations of admiration from the girls at his sides. Truth to be told, he just remembered how many times he has been outclassed by Maka Albarn, even when he is already a Shinigami, supposed to be superior to everyone just by the breed.
"An interesting point of view, although a little too optimistic for my taste. An army of reliable soldiers will fall before the might of greater weapon" The Kazekage shot back, but Sarutobi and Kidd limited themselves to smirk at this comment.
Back with the battlers…
Sasuke was growing frustrated, every punch, every kick, every weapon, every jutsu… Everything… just bounced off of the sand shield. Sasuke turned to look at Kakashi, but the copycat nin just shook his head no, it wasn't the time.
"Is that all? Is this the power of your will? You have a very big mouth, Sasuke Uchiha. And a greater ego. But that will not defeat me, that will not stop me, not even slow me down. I gave you the chance of attacking, and now I'll bring you death's embrace" Gaara said, and then began to walk toward an startled Uchiha. But Sasuke wasn't going to accept defeat, he was going to use some of his most secret jutsus, and if Kakashi was such a coward to not allow him to use his new technique, he will use an old one, just as deadly as the most recent acquisition.
"Katon: Hi No Tori!" Sasuke shouted, much to Kakashi's horror. Sasuke breathed a large fireball, which promptly divided into smaller ones that took the shape of small birds. The birds flew to the walking Gaara, exploding with colossal force at contact, soon all the birds followed the first, provoking a massive explosion, lifting rocks and sand, reducing the vision drastically.
Sasuke tried to see through the dust, and with the aid of the sharingan, he managed to see Gaara, knelt down, obviously injured. Sasuke was low on chakra now, but he knew he had enough to use his new technique once, just once, but it would be enough to show his superiority. Sasuke quickly ran through a series of handseals, and began to focus all his remaining chakra on his hands, which quickly got covered with lightning, once the hands were fully charged, they began to emit the distinctively sound of the technique, the sound of a thousand birds. Sasuke then darted toward Gaara, aiming both hands for a definitive final strike, and as soon as he was at hand reach, he shouted the name of his technique
"Double Chidori!" Sasuke shouted, while slamming his technique against Gaara. The sand tried to shield him, but the sand shield got blown away by the destructive force of the double chidori, Gaara's body was pierced, but Sasuke was not done yet.
"Chidori! Slash!" Sasuke shouted once more, moving his hands to the sides, splitting Gaara in two. As the double chidori faded away, Sasuke managed to notice the the two parts of Gaara were turning into sand, meaning that he threw away his ultimate technique…
"Suna Bunshin?" Sasuke asked, dumbfounded by the turn of events. His ultimate technique, beaten by a rather basic and dull jutsu, it was just too surreal to believe.
"Efficiency beats raw and untrained power, always" Gaara's voice came from behind Sasuke, scaring him to no end. The sight of Gaara rising up from the sand on the arena was frightening, his bored expression spoke volumes of the situation. Sasuka had the chance of turn tail and run, to forfeit and fight another day… Instead of that, he decided to be stubborn, and turn back to launch one last punch.
Gaara caught the fist with his bare hand, there was no need for the sand shield to come forth, the punch lacked the required strength to do any kind of damage. Sasuke gasped at the face of disapprobation of Gaara, the sand user simply grabbed him by the belt, and lifted Sasuke over his head, just to toss him to the ground face first, making him land in an awkward position, with but to the air, and the legs spread. Gaara readied his foot as if he were going to kick a ball… Just to kick Sasuke's balls full force, sending him flying for a whole yard…
With the spectators…
"Oh my God! That got to hurt!" Matsukaze yelled, while holding his own family jewels.
"What? Why? What happened?" Naraku asked, for he heard the hit, but couldn't determine where the hit landed, due to the distance.
"You don't want to know" Ino said, although it lacked the required pitying tone.
"Damn" Naraku replied, already getting an idea
"That was… Unorthodox…" Sanger muttered, unable to hide his manly discomfort at the sight of such hit
"Agreed" Both Schizune and Thrud replied, not that they thought that the Uchiha brat deserved any better.
"This is savage! Someone has to stop this battle, now!" Danzo shouted from his spot, the idea of an army of sharingan users has just taken a mayor blow
"SASUKE-KUN!" All the fangirls shouted at the same time, feeling their fantasies of carrying the offspring of the last Uchiha being shattered along the jewels of the brooding avenger.
Back with the battlers…
Gaara calmly walked toward the Uchiha, who was twitching in pain, as he neared enough, Gaara raised his hand to the sky in the shape of a claw, and waited patiently. Sasuke took some time to regain the required strength to try to stand, too late he saw how wrong was this idea, for Gaara's hand fell upon his neck , rising him from the ground, strangling him with great force.
Gaara walked to the coffin, which surprisingly was intact, he opened it again, and when Sasuke stopped struggling, he tossed him inside, closed it, and then sunk it into the ground.
"The battle is over, cough! Sabaku no Gaara is the winner!" Hayate announced, and no sooner he finished, Kakashi and some others darted to the rescue of the last Uchiha, or what was left of him
Meanwhile, in a dark room…
"What an entertaining battle! Even better than the WWE!" Ankiseth said with glee, with malice and joy.
"What's the WWE?" Satsuko asked, and Kin only sweat dropped.
"Don't bother your little head with such things, just take for granted whatever the master says" Kin replied, doing her best to help the clone
"But he is not my master, Naruto-sama is" Satsuko pouted, much to Ankiseth's delight.
"Now that's true loyalty! Now who want to bet on Sasuke's life?" Ankiseth asked, with an innocent smile that only meant trouble.
"No thank you! My soul is perfectly fine where it is!" Kin replied a little too fast, you don't bet with Ankiseth, never, don't ask, s better if you don't know
Magnus: Well, I hope you liked it. I promise to make the next chapter even more epic, believe it!