With Team 8 being one of the first teams to pass the second part of the Chuunin Exam, Hinata grew more anxious and worried as the deadline for failure got closer and closer with no sign of Team 7's presence anywhere. When the fifth day arrived, Kiba and Shino had to calm her down when she suffered a mild panic attack upon thinking Team 7 was one of the many victims of the brutal Suna team whose youngest member had no qualms about killing his opposition. It was a deed Team 8 witnessed personally and nearly becoming involved in it as well. When Team 7 did appear at the very end of the time limit, she heaved a great sigh of relief that Natsumi was safe despite her roughed-up appearance.
Once the second part of the Chuunin Exam was officially over, the Hokage called for their attention and explained what the Chuunin Exam represented for all the Shinobi Nations. Instead of proceeding to the third and final part of the Chuunin Exam, a surprise announcement of preliminary matches was to be held right at their current location. The judge of the preliminary matches, Gekkou Hayate, explained that perhaps the first two parts of the Exam were too easy and there were too many participants remaining. According to the regulations, they had to reduce the amount considerably for the third part of the Chuunin Exam. The reason for that was because there would be guests attending the third part of the Exam, so they could not have too many matches. Returning back to the topic of the preliminary matches, Hayate offered the chance to quit to any who were not well enough to compete and drop out safely as the preliminary matches would take place immediately. As these matches would be one-on-one, withdrawal would not affect any of their teammates.
Hinata overheard Sakura telling Sasuke to withdraw. She was surprised at first to see Sakura's long hair missing but now even more so when everyone of the Rookie 9 knew Sasuke was never one to quit, which his own teammate insisted he do. Even Natsumi understood that fact, turning around with a look of surprise. Hinata refrained from gasping out loud when she heard Team 7 actually fought against Orochimaru, an infamous ninja who had betrayed Konoha. Not only that, but he was one of the famed Sannin of Konoha. It was a miracle they even survived against him, considering they were just rookies. She did not miss Sasuke gripping the area around his left neck and shoulder in pain, a bruise left behind by Orochimaru, according to Sakura's words. When she saw her wiping a few tears away and mentioning she was afraid, Hinata silently activated her Byakugan to take a closer look at what was really bothering Team 7.
She had to physically turn her head away and cover her mouth with her hands to silence herself at what her Byakugan revealed. A seal of some sort had been placed at the area where Sasuke was gripping and it was leeching off his chakra at an incredible pace. Automatically adjusting her enhanced vision in fear of Natsumi suffering the same fate as him, she saw an additional seal placed over the one Natsumi had to keep the Kyuubi imprisoned. Her chakra flow had been severely affected, flowing very irregularly through her chakra coils. Knowing that anything interfering with Natsumi's seal could spell disaster, she had to inform Natsumi and the Hokage about this as soon as she could after the preliminaries.
The discussion about the seal on Sasuke got a little more heated when Sakura was determined to tell the proctors about it despite his insistence that he was fine and she should remain silent about it. When Kabuto decided to retire from the matches and Hayate asked if any more wished to do so, Sakura saw her chance to speak up when her raised arm was pulled down by an unhappy Natsumi, surprising even Sasuke with her actions.
"Don't you have any confidence in Sasuke?" Natsumi questioned her. "He's still standing. He's not about to collapse anytime soon. He's only hurt. We all are hurt. We're not helpless. He's not helpless!"
"I don't want to see him suffering anymore. I..." Sakura replied, pausing to shake her tears away.
"It doesn't matter to you!" Sasuke snapped angrily, surprising Sakura. "You're just being nosy." He told her again that he was an avenger and he could care less about the Chuunin Exam or the promotion. All he wanted to know was if he was strong, and he could only fight the strong ones in this exam. "I will not allow even you to take me away from my path."
"Sasuke-kun..."
"Ignoring his cool posing..." Natsumi's eyebrows twitched in irritation when Sasuke entered his 'cool mode'. "If he's bearing the pain and not on his knees crying about it, then he's fine."
"Natsumi," Sasuke spoke up, stopping the conversation. "I want to fight you, too." He looked towards her with a challenging gaze and an eager smirk, excited at the mere anticipation. Natsumi was speechless, this being the first time Sasuke challenged her instead of the other way around.
***Break Line***
With an even twenty, only ten would advance to the third part of the Chuunin Exam. The rules of the preliminary matches were there were no rules. They had to fight until one died, got knocked out, or admitted defeat. The only warning Hayate gave was if they did not want to die in case things got that far, it was best to give up immediately. However, if he judged that the match was over, he may step in to prevent unnecessary deaths. Their matches would be decided by an electrical bulletin board and names would be chosen at random. The first match was Akadou Yoroi, Kabuto's teammate, versus Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone but those two were told to wait on the balconies. Almost on instinct, the four complete Konoha teams went to one balcony while the incomplete Konoha team and the two foreign teams went to the opposite balcony.
"Hinata-chan!" Natsumi went straight for Hinata, engulfing her in a full-body hug and rubbed her cheek against hers. Hinata's face turned several shades of red at the very open display when all eyes on the same balcony turned towards them. "I missed you! I was scared I wouldn't get to see you!"
"That's what I should be saying, Natsumi-chan," Hinata replied, quickly returning the hug and then separating to avoid further embarrassment. "I was worried for your team when you didn't show up until the very last moment."
"We ran into some big trouble along the way, like giant snakes! But of course even that can't stop the great Uzumaki Natsumi!" she boasted proudly.
"I heard what Sakura-san said. You survived a battle with Orochimaru," Hinata's tone was full of worry.
"Yeah... We totally lost that fight," Natsumi muttered, losing all her initial enthusiasm.
"More importantly, your seal has been disturbed, Natsumi-chan. You should tell Hokage-sama as quickly as you can," Hinata whispered to her urgently. Panic flashed across Natsumi's face as she stared towards her stomach. "It'll be okay. It's not broken. Let's watch Sasuke-kun's match and cheer him on, alright?"
"As if that jerk needs any cheering from me," Natsumi crossed her arms and huffed with an angry pout, causing Hinata to giggle at how cute she looked. She nonetheless paid rapt attention to Sasuke's match, watching with intense focus from start to finish. Although she said she had no plans of cheering for her teammate, she ended up encouraging him anyway, yelling at him to stop fighting like a fool and he should get serious. Despite initial struggles with his opponent and fighting off the seal at the same time, he defeated Yoroi with a taijutsu combination he called the Shishi Rendan. Lee recognized the start of the combination, it being the same sequence of moves he used against Sasuke during their short spar before the first part of the Chuunin Exam. He must have had copied it with his Sharingan.
"Amazing..." Hinata commented, unknowingly sending a surge of annoyance into Natsumi. She believed it was a crappy performance for someone like Sasuke. She was still glad he won, though.
"It's not much," Kiba scoffed but was only pretending to be unimpressed since his facial expressions said something else.
Kakashi went down and led Sasuke to the back room for treatment, and seeing Sasuke cover the seal Orochimaru gave him reminded Natsumi of something she saw but was unsure of during his match. It also reminded her of Sakura mentioning how Sasuke had been suffering from an injury all this while.
"Say, Hinata-chan, did you see some sort of weird wound on Sasuke's neck during the match?" Natsumi asked. Even without activating the Byakugan, she knew Hinata had superb natural eyesight. Nearby, Sakura heard what Natsumi was asking about and remembered Sasuke telling her not to let Natsumi know as it would trouble him if she was worried about him.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a trick of your own eyes? I didn't see anything," Sakura tried to brush the topic off and hopefully change the subject. She bit her bottom lip as a small surge of irrational jealousy rose in her as she watched Natsumi's long twintails flow almost elegantly as she turned to face her. She remembered the scathing remark the Oto kunoichi gave her about her once smooth and silky long hair. Ignoring the point she made about her caring for her hair excessively because it was true, the point that stung deeply was the one where the enemy kunoichi told her straight to her face she did not deserve to keep long hair, as only strong kunoichi such as herself were worthy of it. To pour salt over the proverbial wound, she mentioned that out of the two females in Team 7, only Natsumi deserved her long hair because she actually did something worthwhile and got severely battered in the struggle. A kunoichi who could not even do that, like Sakura, was unworthy.
"Which is why I'm asking Hinata-chan because I'm not sure," Natsumi replied.
"I don't know about Sakura-san, but I know I saw it..." Hinata answered. "The wound on Sasuke-kun's neck let out some flame-like markings before it disappeared..."
"Yeah, that's it!" Natsumi turned to Hinata. "I knew I wasn't seeing things! What exactly was that? I didn't know injuries could do something like that."
"It's a seal, and it's not a good one. The seal over your own is bad too," Hinata leaned in to whisper, knowing to keep Natsumi's secret safe from prying ears. She saw Sakura looking downtrodden for some reason.
"Well, if Sasuke can fight on with a handicap, so can I! I won't lose to him!" Natsumi declared confidently, bringing a smile to Hinata's face and unintentionally letting Sakura breathe a sigh of relief. Natsumi was not going to worry about Sasuke after all.
***Break Line***
Each match was as intense as the one before it. Shino's match against Zaku ended brutally, with the latter's arms being destroyed from the inside out. Sakura's match against Ino was a tie, but it disturbed Natsumi greatly to watch the two former friends fight. It was very clear that Ino still treasured their lost friendship when she accidentally turned her punch to the face into a harmless slap. Sakura only denounced her for it, not wanting Ino to pity her and to fight as equals.
Natsumi's mood only got worse as their fight went on. It was clear that Sakura and Ino were rivals trying their best to prove themselves to be better than the other but in her eyes, all she could see was a friendship that was torn apart. She understood their rivalry, but did that really have to come with the price of a bond of friendship? Back during their Academy years, they were the best of friends. After a few years, they fell apart because they got attracted to Sasuke. Natsumi's eyes grew dull, unable to comprehend just why something so silly like being attracted to boys could cause such a tight friendship to shatter. Just thinking about it reminded her of all the loneliness she went through before she met Hinata.
Hinata grew worried when she saw Natsumi's eyes turn lifeless. She could see the pain and loneliness reflected in her dead gaze. She knew why watching this match was painful for Natsumi. Having a bond of friendship broken would hurt Natsumi a lot more than it would a normal person. She could not help but see that disastrous image being shown in this match between former friends. At the end of the match, it was declared a tie due to double knock-out. However, Natsumi had not recovered and still had the haunted look in her eyes.
"Natsumi, snap out of it. The fight is over," Kakashi planted a firm hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her dark thoughts.
"Kakashi-sensei..." Natsumi's eyes still had that pained gaze. Kakashi only gave her an understanding nod and gestured towards a highly worried Hinata.
"Don't make her worry unnecessarily," he advised. "It's not healthy for both of you."
"Hinata-chan, I..." she started but was hushed by Hinata.
"I understand. I'm also scared of what might happen to me if I lost your friendship," Hinata told her in a reassuring manner. "That's why, can you please grant me this one request?"
"What is it?"
"Promise me we'll be friends forever, Natsumi-chan. You'll keep it, won't you?"
"Of course!" Natsumi brightened up considerably. "I promise! This is a promise of a lifetime between the two of us! We'll be friends forever, no matter what! I won't go back on my word!"
"For that is our ninja way," Hinata finished for her, both smiling at one another. They broke eye contact when Hayate announced the start of the next match as the bulletin board shuffled through names.
"It looks like I can have nice battles with the rookies this year," a loud passing comment from Neji was heard clearly on their side of the balcony. His gaze turned slightly towards his relative, causing Hinata to reflexively gasp in fear when she accidentally met his gaze. She fidgeted as she looked away almost desperately, wanting to look anywhere but at him. She only calmed down when Natsumi grabbed her hand and rubbed her thumb over her hand in soothing circles. Neji sensed hostility being directed towards him and raised his head to look at the offender directly. He saw a very displeased Natsumi standing almost protectively in front of Hinata, blocking a complete view of his relative.
"What's your problem?" Natsumi asked fiercely.
"It's a problem within the Hyuuga clan. This is none of your concern," Neji replied dismissively, effectively earning himself her ire.
"What did you say!" she snapped, making to approach him when Hinata held her hand tightly to stop her. A strong shake of her head convinced Natsumi to drop the issue, at least for the moment. It was good timing too, as she was involved in the next match. She was set to fight against Inuzuka Kiba. "Alright! It's finally my turn!" her mood did a complete 180 as she got excited for her match. It was her time to shine!
"Hell yeah! We got lucky! We can win against her for sure, Akamaru!" Kiba cheered with his partner barking in agreement. Without any further prompting, both competitors headed down to the square where they would fight.
"I'm tired from all that waiting! It's finally my turn to show off my moves!" Natsumi declared confidently.
"That's my line! Drawing you as my opponent means I've already won!" Kiba argued. "Right, Akamaru?" The agreeing bark that followed annoyed Natsumi as well.
"Keep dreaming! You can't win against me!"
"Why you...!"
"It's a good handicap for you, since it's really two against one," she taunted.
"Acting tough, huh? Then..." Kiba scoffed, a smirk of complete confidence on his face. "Akamaru, don't do anything. I'll do this alone."
"Natsumi! Don't lose to that guy!" Sakura cheered albeit angrily.
'It's finally her turn,' Kakashi noted mentally. His demeanor showed utter boredom coming from him but he intended to keep a close watch on his student's battle.
'Natsumi, huh? This will be a good challenge for Kiba. If I hadn't known that she and Hinata had been training together for years, I would have thought Kiba had the complete advantage,' Kurenai mused.
'Natsumi-chan, I want to cheer you on, but I'm on the same team as Kiba-kun, so...' Hinata hesitated even in her thoughts. 'Kiba-kun might get mad, but...' In the end, she silently cheered for both of them but had more faith on Natsumi coming out victorious.
"Kiba's... lucky," Chouji commented with Shikamaru giving an irritated scoff at Kiba's luck. Anyone who had Natsumi as an opponent was considered lucky, at least to them.
'I don't know how much stronger she got after becoming a Genin... Her original abilities were...' The memories of the times Natsumi flopped on jutsu exercises were playing clearly in Kiba's mind. "I'll beat you in one hit out of pity," he offered.
"Oh, really? But you can't defeat me," Natsumi replied confidently.
"I told you not to act tough!" When Hayate declared the start of the match, Kiba immediately gathered his chakra. 'Gijyuu Ninpou: Shikyaku no Jutsu,' he mentally called out his jutsu. Getting on all fours with chakra visible around his body, he felt himself getting stronger as his jutsu took effect. "Let's go." All Natsumi noticed was him moving and failed to react in time as she was viciously elbowed in her gut and sent flying. "She won't be waking up for a while," he told Hayate before walking back to the waiting Akamaru.
***Break Line***
"Just as I thought," Shikamaru said.
"There's no way that Natsumi can beat Kiba," Ino agreed.
"Natsumi-san, you look so foolish," Lee commented.
"Geez, she's weak," Kankurou had a similar comment.
'Natsumi-chan!' Hinata nearly cried out loud in panic but managed to keep it itself. She knew Natsumi was not at full strength, not after just barely passing the second part of the Chuunin Exam with no time to rest before having to participate in the preliminary matches and having her chakra heavily disrupted by a seal from Orochimaru.
Sakura turned to look at Kakashi for moral support, and she got it in the form of an eye-smile. Her confidence in her teammate was quickly restored as she thought back to the times Natsumi had always backed up whatever she said and making slow but constant progress towards her dream of being Hokage. She knew she had been wrong about her from the start, and was willing to admit that to herself.
***Break Line***
Kiba stopped in his tracks as he sensed Natsumi beginning to rise from his attack. He stared in disbelief as she slowly stood up with heavy breaths.
"Don't underestimate me!" Natsumi had a smirk on her face despite bleeding from her mouth, her eyes still full of life. She was not going down that easily, much to Sakura's and Hinata's pleasure.
"You're bleeding, so stop pretending to be cool! Stop with the tough act!" Kiba was seriously getting annoyed by her bravado.
"I let you hit me! Just so I could see how strong you were," she replied. "Why don't you stop acting tough and use your dog or whatever!" Although she was truly feeling confident in herself, she knew she was the one fighting with a handicap. She had seen his first attack clearly but the disruption to her chakra did not allow her to gather it in time to increase her speed so she got hit. She would have dodged that kind of straightforward attack any other day. Hinata had taught her better. A blatant move hardly ever worked without setting it up some way because it was far too obvious. That was why they had combinations to find an opportunity to strike with whatever move they felt was appropriate when an opening was available.
"You're going to regret that..." Kiba growled under his breath. "Let's go, Akamaru!" He charged towards her with his dog in tow, taking two black balls from his item pouch.
"Smoke bombs?" Natsumi recognized the items too late as Kiba had already thrown them towards her feet, blinding her with thick black smoke. After taking a short beating, she opted to get out of the smoke.
"She fell for it!" Kiba said to himself, hearing the sounds of fleeing footsteps. Akamaru was patiently waiting around the perimeter of the artificial smoke for Natsumi and when she appeared, Akamaru quickly launched himself at her and pushed her back in. Kiba left the smoke area, knowing its time was about to end. When it cleared, he saw a beaten down Natsumi and Akamaru sitting patiently beside her and wagging his tail. "All right! Way to go!" When Akamaru ran towards him, he extended his arms to welcome his dog. "Good job, Aka-" His happiness turned to surprise when Akamaru's happy barking turned to angry growling. To everyone's shock, Akamaru bit down harshly on Kiba's arm. "Akamaru...? Why?"
"You fell for it!" Natsumi's voice was heard coming from Akamaru before white smoke enveloped him, showing it was actually Natsumi who had bitten him.
"You... transformed!" Kiba realized far too late. "Ouch... Damn it... Let go!" With a strong wave of his arm, he threw her off.
"You taste like a dog!" Natsumi's face had turned blue as she coughed away the horrible taste.
"Where's Akamaru?" he ignored her and looked around for his dog.
"Over here," another Natsumi spoke and held up a subdued but unhurt Akamaru. The fight was with Kiba, so she would rather not hurt Akamaru if she could help it.
"Akamaru! Damn it..." Kiba hid his worry for his dog. Both Natsumis had confident smirks on their faces as the advantage now belonged to them. "Looks like you've gotten a little stronger," he gave credit where it was due. She had indeed gotten stronger from the time in the Academy. "But it's over. I'm going to get serious now."
"Really? But you can never defeat me!" Natsumi clearly did not believe his words. Kiba closed his eyes and took a breath, calming his mind and cooling his rising temper. She was confused by the sudden change in his actions but stayed wary.
"Natsumi," he called as he dug into his item pouch. "You're going to give back Akamaru." He flicked something towards Akamaru who ate it. He started growling like a feral dog and his fur expanded and turned red. Caught off-guard by the change, Akamaru managed to break free and dispel the clone that was holding him.
"What the...? What did you give him?" Natsumi asked, shocked as she stared at the now red Akamaru. "His fur became red..."
"That's why his name is Akamaru," he replied as he consumed the same thing he gave his dog earlier. "Let's go, Akamaru!" Akamaru got on his back as he gathered his chakra for another jutsu. "Gijyuu Ninpou: Jyuujin Bunshin!" In a burst of white smoke, Akamaru had transformed into an exact copy of Kiba.
"His eyes look dangerous..." Natsumi shuffled back, getting into a defensive posture.
"Now this match will end," he declared as he and Akamaru shot off in different directions. "Let's go! Shikyaku no... Jutsu!" Both of them smashed their hands-turned-claws into the floor, knocking up dust and debris as Natsumi dodged with a back-flip. Not letting her get any reprieve, they both charged towards her from various angles. She deftly managed to dodge them, finally able to get her chakra to gather in her legs and getting a much needed increase in speed.
'This is bad. This guy doesn't need a handicap. I can't gather my chakra to my entire body because of that stupid seal. I can only dodge at the most right now. At this rate...' Natsumi summarized her situation as she desperately dodged by mere margins from her attackers. She had to jump high to avoid their attacks but that was what Kiba had been waiting for.
"An opening!" he declared to himself as he rushed to where Natsumi's landing spot would be. "Take this! Jyuujin Taijutsu Ougi..." Both he and Akamaru spun around so fast they resembled drills shaped into a tornado. Natsumi, realizing her mistake in jumping forward and letting them have her back when she saw them in their attacks, quickly tried to correct herself by changing her trajectory.
"Kage Bun-" she put her fingers into the cross seal to use her clones to throw her to safety, but she froze when she felt her chakra failing her again. It did not gather to her command and she landed without any clones. The only thing she could do now was defend herself as best as she could. Crossing her arms over her body, she tried to stand her ground but alas, her guard was broken instantly when both Kibas collided with her, sending her sky high as she let out a scream of pain. Hinata could not bear to look at that moment, turning her head away from the horrifying sight of her best friend suffering from the latest attack.
"Gatsuuga!" Kiba called out the name of his technique. He got out of his spin and watched as Natsumi crashed to the floor and coughed out a small blob of blood from her injuries. "That's our difference in skill," he told her. Her fingers twitched, showing that she was not out yet.
"I'm... going to become a Hokage... I can't lose here..." she muttered just loud enough for him to hear even as she struggled to move from her face-down position.
"You, Hokage? When you're weaker than me?" he taunted. "I'll become Hokage for you!" He then laughed out loud, completely confident in his victory. While he meant no ill intent with his boisterous laughter, all Natsumi could hear was the mocking laughter from her classmates whenever she failed to do something correctly during her time in the Academy. "You know inside that you can't become Hokage, so stop acting tough!"
***Break Line***
As Kiba laughed in his self-assured victory, Hinata frowned at her teammate's actions.
'You're wrong, Kiba-kun... Natsumi-chan isn't that weak...' Hinata thought. 'Natsumi-chan is different from me in that she believes in her own worth. I really think she's amazing. It's a very hard thing to do... I understand that. But still, no-one tried to look at the true Natsumi-chan. No-one tried to acknowledge the real Natsumi-chan.' She recalled their years in the Academy where everyone but her laughed at Natsumi when she failed to do a jutsu exercise correctly. She remembered tending worriedly over a nearly collapsing Natsumi as she practiced for hours on end even after they became Genin. She remembered how Natsumi still attempted to master the Bunshin despite having the Kage Bunshin and practicing the tree-walking exercise because she had not perfected it yet. 'But now... Everyone is watching.' Her lips turned into a smile as she watched Natsumi stand up despite her heavy injuries. 'Everyone has acknowledged her.'
She had heard the often surprised comments of her fellow Genin about Natsumi so she knew this to be true. Everyone was now paying rapt attention to Natsumi.
***Break Line***
"If you compete with me over the title of Hokage... You're going to become the underdog," Natsumi told Kiba with a smirk.
"Geez, you sure are a persistent girl!" Kiba replied, assured in his victory. When her smirk did not falter in the least, he decided enough was enough. "Fine. Then I'll make sure you can never stand up! Let's go, Akamaru!"
"The same thing won't work on me more than once!" she told him as they charged towards her with the Gatsuuga. This time, she managed to move just fast enough not to take a direct hit, but just being grazed by that attack hurt. Before she could get up, Kiba had thrown more smoke bombs at her, enveloping her in the black smoke again. For whatever reason, their accuracy with their attacks had dropped since all she did was crouch in an attempt to make herself a smaller target and most of their attacks had missed or grazed, never landing a clean hit. When the smoke cleared, Kiba and Akamaru made some distance to observe her. She was on one knee, but quickly stood up and wiped away blood from her mouth, a confident grin on her face.
"You seem to be losing your confidence," Kiba stated.
"I'm as confident as ever!" she rebuked. "I can still manage even if your numbers increase by three to four times!"
"You just don't shut up, do you? Let's end this with the next move. Akamaru!" Once again, they charged using the same combination of smoke bombs and relentless Gatsuuga assaults.
'This same combination again!' Natsumi thought as she crouched again to avoid the brunt of the blind assault. 'I need to counterattack somehow...!' A few seconds of not getting hit later, she realized something. 'They're not hitting me... That means they can't see me either in this smoke! This is my chance! I've gotta take out at least one of them!' Preparing another jutsu that she could use with her currently disrupted chakra control, she bet everything on her gamble. "Henge!"
"Gotcha!" Kiba shouted in victory when he saw a silhouette in the smoke, but aborted his attack when he saw a second copy of himself. Doubt quickly crept into his mind as he considered that it could be Akamaru who had paused to locate where Natsumi was until a third copy of him revealed himself. All three of them were now staring at each other warily. "I see... So you've resorted to this, but..." Kiba suddenly regained his confidence. "Let me warn you... I underestimated you before and it took a while to notice... But your Henge won't work on me anymore. Why?" He charged and punched his copy on his left, sending it flying. "I can smell it," he told it, sniffing loudly to prove his point. "Don't underestimate our sense of smell, Natsumi. We won." As the copy flopped over, he was shocked to see it transform back to being Akamaru. 'Damn it, what's going on?' He then whirled on his other copy and punched it too. "Then are you Natsumi! Playing me for a fool!" When it too returned to being Akamaru, he was even more shocked. Due to that, he was too slow to react to the first copy who had transformed back into Natsumi who gave him a massive kick to his chin, finally landing her first but very effective hit.
"Words from my sensei: Use your techniques carefully after giving some thought to what you're doing! Or it'll be used to the other person's advantage, idiot!" Natsumi repeated the words Kakashi told her after promptly handing her her own behind during a sparring session. She watched as Kiba bit down on his hand and making it bleed in an effort to calm down. "So you're finally serious, Kiba?" she asked when she saw him prep some shurikens in his hands. "Then," she rolled her shoulders to get some kinks out of her body, "I'll finish this with a new move I've been learning!"
"New move, my ass. You're just bluffing," Kiba did not believe her.
"We'll see if it's a bluff or not. Let's go!"
"I don't know what your new move is... But all I have to do is stop you from executing it!" Throwing his shurikens, he bought himself time to prepare his Shikyaku no Jutsu. She managed to block his initial charge but when he tried to follow up with a punch, she grabbed his arm and did a textbook shoulder throw. It did nothing to damage him as he landed safely but it did create distance.
"My chakra is finally all warmed up," Natsumi stretched her arms out. "You're not going to get another hit in so easily anymore." She was finally able to gather her chakra to enhance her entire body so her upper body could react to Kiba's speed as well, not just her legs. "I'm going to become Hokage... I can't lose here!"
"Save the dream talk for later! You can barely even keep up with my speed!" he retorted. He pumped more chakra into his Shikyaku no Jutsu to increase his abilities even further but she managed to avoid all his attacks with a grace he did not know she possessed. At the same time, it looked oddly familiar to him, like he had seen those movements before but could not remember where. She had been fighting with such careless movements earlier on in their match. Where did this smooth grace come from?
"I won't lose!" she exclaimed loud and clear to him, and Kiba was convinced to at least consider the possibility that she could be right.
"I'll compliment you on your spirit!" he allowed that to pass though he still believed victory was in his grasp. Despite not taking any hits, Natsumi looked like she was on her last legs.
"I'll let loose my new move at any time!" She started gathering what meager chakra she could control.
"I won't let you!" Kiba rushed forward to intercept. "Too slow!" he said as he zoomed behind her. "Take this!"
Just as he was about to attack, he got hit first by Natsumi. She had drawn her arm back, positioned as if she was about to deliver a palm strike. She then snapped her arm forward, turning her open palm into a fist and burying it deep in Kiba's stomach, knocking him back with a surprising amount of force.
"OW! THAT HURT!" Natsumi screamed for all to hear, clutching her elbow as if she had overextended and strained it in that punch. She was still howling comically in pain even when she was declared the winner for Kiba had been knocked out and unresponsive.
***Break Line***
'New move, huh? That was just a chakra-enhanced fast punch to the gut. She ended up straining her elbow from the speed of it too,' Kakashi noted dully, his outward expression equally as dull.
'That's totally wrong, Natsumi-chan...' Hinata had a sweat-drop on the back of her head, though she was extremely happy for her best friend. 'I know you're trying to hide it but the Hakke Kuushou doesn't look like that at all, even as a punch...' In hindsight, she supposed it would have gone better if she had shown Natsumi the Hakke Kuushou firsthand rather than just explaining the steps to do it. Even though she had no time to teach it to her, at least Natsumi would have known what it looked like and not botch it up so terribly as to injure her own elbow.
"Hell yeah, she won!" Sakura cheered for her teammate's victory.
"That Natsumi won against Kiba!" Shikamaru exclaimed in disbelief.
"No-one expected it," Chouji agreed.
"Yeah," Ino seconded.
When Natsumi had quieted down a little from her sprained elbow, she skipped up the steps to the balcony with a huge smile on her face.
"Congratulations, Natsumi-chan!" Hinata congratulated her happily.
"I did it, Hinata-chan! I proved to everyone that I've gotten stronger!" Natsumi cheered. Right after that, her excitement faded and her eyes began to tear. "Hinata-chan, my elbow..." She may have quieted down, but the pain had not decreased yet. "Help me..." she pleaded pitifully like a child half her age.
"Here, use this," Hinata took out a bottle of ointment from her pocket. She rolled up the sleeve of the injured limb and gently applied her ointment to the dark bruise that appeared on Natsumi's elbow from the strain. She hissed in pain when the injured joint was touched but quickly felt relieved at the soothing texture of the ointment. She might have forgotten about the fact she had accelerated healing to aid her recovery.
Kurenai looked at the two best friends with an amused smile, happy for them. She then turned to look at her defeated student being stretchered out of the arena floor.
'Kiba, there's no need to be ashamed. She was a strong opponent. Perhaps you would have fought harder if you knew she and Hinata had been training together for years, but the result might have still remained the same,' she silently praised Kiba.
Further down the balcony, Neji stared spitefully at his relative smiling so freely as Natsumi talked animatedly with her, even giggling on occasion.
'You seem so carefree, Hinata-sama...' he thought darkly as he watched Hinata excuse herself to give another bottle of ointment to her teammate. When she tried to give Kiba her ointment, he refused in good nature and reminded her that she still had to fight as her turn had not come up yet.
"Listen up, Hinata," Kiba got all serious. "If you match up against the Suna guy, give up right away. Also, do the same if you match up against Neji. Give up right away. He will be very harsh against you. You're going to get beat bad."
"I will now announce the next match," Hayate's voice rang out as the bulletin board ran through the remaining six who had not yet fought.
"Damn it..." Kiba cursed when he saw who the next two combatants were.
To Hinata's utmost horror, she was to be matched against Neji.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
Sakura pleading with Sasuke to withdraw from the preliminary matches due to his cursed seal.
Canon: Naruto defends Sakura and Hinata does not do any investigation of her own.
My version: Natsumi defends Sasuke instead due to the fact she is not as friendly with Sakura as Naruto normally is. Hinata checks on Team 7 with her Byakugan because trouble with them means Natsumi is in trouble and she is worried for her.
Sakura's lost hair.
Canon: She cut off her long hair during the second part of the Chuunin Exam. Kin, the Oto kunoichi, mentions how Sakura spends so much time on making her hair soft and silky instead of training.
My version: Sakura does the same thing but Kin has more things to say about her long hair. In order to make more sense of why she herself has long hair while she disliked the fact Sakura has long hair too, I made up an original speech for her explaining how only 'worthy' kunoichi deserved long hair.
Naruto thinking he saw something weird with Sasuke during the latter's match.
Canon: Naruto asks Sakura if she had seen anything weird happening with Sasuke which she denies because Sasuke told her to in case Naruto asks about his seal.
My version: Natsumi asks Hinata first because being a wielder of a dojutsu, she is certain to have superb eyesight. Sakura butts in to brush the topic away as requested by Sasuke and says she did not see anything, but Hinata's agreement that she too saw something happening with Sasuke shoots her statement down.
Naruto's actions during the match between Ino and Sakura.
Canon: Naruto cheers for Sakura, eventually allowing her to force a tie with Ino.
My version: Because Natsumi knows Ino and Sakura were once very good friends, she is heavily disturbed by the fact they broke their friendship simply because they were rivals. Kakashi and Hinata snap her out of her momentary depression and she makes the promise of a lifetime with Hinata, promising to be friends for life.
The finishing moments of the match between Naruto and Kiba.
Canon: Naruto farts in Kiba's face after taking multiple hits, stunning him long enough to gather enough chakra to summon the Kage Bunshins necessary for the Uzumaki Naruto Rendan, an obvious copy of Sasuke's Shishi Rendan.
My version: Because Natsumi has done Juuken training with Hinata, she doesn't need to rely on sheer luck to make an opening. The chakra Naruto gathers for the Kage Bunshin in canon, is instead used by Natsumi to enhance her entire body so she can keep up with Kiba's Shikyaku no Jutsu enhancement. She manages to dodge with her Juuken training but because she doesn't attack, Kiba only vaguely recognizes her movements when it's actually the same as Hinata's. The finishing blow is a severely messed up version of the Hakke Kuushou that Natsumi only has a verbal explanation of.
***Break Line***
Part One of the preliminary matches is done! Of course, this chapter focuses on Natsumi. Next chapter will focus on Hinata.
One thing you might have noticed is the fact Natsumi does not do the Rendan, Uzumaki Natsumi Rendan, in this story's case. This is because she is already learning Juuken from Hinata. She does not need to make her own copy of Sasuke's technique to win the match. In a sense, the Uzumaki Natsumi Rendan is being replaced by the Hakke Kuushou, when she learns how to do it correctly in the future. The Rendan is still kept in my backpocket though, in case I find a situation I can use it in. It is still one of Naruto's signature techniques that incorporates his unique ability to spam the Kage Bunshin.
I look forward to getting more readers who like this story! Do Follow/Favorite/Review this story, and big thanks to those who are kind enough to do so!