It's me again! Finally with the newest chapter of "Naruto: Next Generation"! Never thought it'd take out so much of me to finish this one, but then I was also working on my original, manga-based stories on FictionPress, so... Actually, it's still slightly different from how I've planned it, but I think it's even better then it was in the first version.
As always I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter (at the same time hoping they'll do the same this time) and would like to encourage all the others to do so as well! SLIGHT SPOILER: for all of you, who can't wait for more team 7 matches, I can say that Kusari's fight is coming pretty soon, so just be a little more patient. SPOILER END.
Also, at this point, I'd like to ask all of you who likes to draw and would be interested in doing few drawings for me, to give me a note. Basically I'm looking for anyone, who would be willing to make drawings of some of the characters from this fic (not title pages… but as I wrote before, you can draw those anytime you like).
And as usual I WON'T UPDATE UNTIL I GET REVIEWS, SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.
Now, without further to do, here's the newest chapter of the story:
Chapter #66: Of Shields and Axes
Title Page: Kai and Hanamaru are seating next to each other, eating ramen at the Ichiraku
"May the participants of the next, elimination fight, please come down so that we could see your spirits of youth explode?" Lee asked in his usual, loud voice, making Hanamaru swallow his saliva even louder once more. The bald, metal-nin jumped down to the arena already and walked towards the Konoha's Green Beast with a wide smirk appearing on his face.
"Watch out, Hanamaru…" Kusari warned his companion as he glanced at the chubby gennin with a worried expression on his face. "That guy… is strong…" and at this point the overweight boy began sweating heavily. Kogane patted him several times on the shoulders with a soft 'there, there' and then threw a death glare at the chain master.
Finally Hanamaru walked down the stairs and reached the center of the arena, where Reiji already awaited him with his arms crossed and a big smirk on his face: "Looks like I got lucky…" he stated confidentially. "This shouldn't take too long…"
Kitsune only let out a sigh as he realized his chubby teammate was shaking uncontrollably: "He's gonna give up…" he announced calmly, shaking his head. Shikamaru only glanced at him for a split second, but said nothing. Kogane widen her eyes at the boy's statement and then set them onto her other companion, whose match was about to begin.
Toku gave Rei a soft kick in the legs, thus waking her up: "What?" she asked in a sleepy voice, looking at the blonde. The umbrella-carrying boy only pointed at the ring bellow with his head and as the lazy kunoichi followed his sight, she realized one of her teammates was about to fight: "And this is why you woke me? Hanamaru's not gonna fight… he'll give up the moment that eyebrow guy will say 'begin'…" and with that she returned to sleeping, making Toku sweat drop slightly.
"Thirteenth match: Gusoku Hanamaru from Konoha against Ono Reiji from Kane!" announced Lee loudly. "Ready and… BEGIN!" he called out, as usual getting out of the two gennin's way. Only this time, surprisingly for the Green Beast, in stead of charging at each other, one of the participants raised his hand.
"Sorry, but I, Gusoku Hanamaru, would like to…" began the chubby gennin nervously, making Reiji's smirk widen a little. Kai, who heard the whole conversation between the overweight boy's teammates, grabbed the rail tighter and yelled from the bottom of his lungs: "Don't give up without even trying! What's wrong with you, Hanamaru, do you really want to become a chuunin, when you're not ready to take a challenge? Are you a chicken?"
"Shut up!" the chubby gennin shoot back annoyed as he glanced at the blonde on the platform. "You're not the one fighting some bald bozo with a huge axe! What the hell do you expect me to do? I know when I'm outmatched!" and at this point Kai wanted to shout something back, but his mouth got suddenly covered by Kogane, who only smirked:
"This is how it's done…" she whispered with a devilish smiled and then coughed before making sweet eyes and continuing with the cutest voice she was capable of performing: "Hanamaru-kun, if you'll do your best, I promise to give you a kiss…" and at this point Kumiko smacked her own head with her hand: "You gotta be kidding me!" she thought to herself sweat dropping.
"Alright, let's fight!" yelled Hanamaru, throwing his hands to the sky as he turned around to face Reiji once more. Kumiko instantly face-fallen, while Takaru's eyes widen as he sweat dropped in the meantime. Toku only glanced at his female teammate and with his usual, straight face, he announced: "You're evil…" but Kogane only smiled and gave him the v-sign.
"You're really weird…" announced Reiji as he reached for his axe. Without wasting a second, Hanamaru charged right at him, performing a quick hand seal in the process: "Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" and in a flash his right hand grew bigger, becoming almost as huge as the chubby boy. Naruto's eyes only widen in surprise at the sight, while Shino's narrowed behind his glasses. The bug user then turned towards Shikamaru with a short question: "Isn't that Akimichi's technique?"
The lazy jounin only smiled under his nose as he lowered his head slightly: "Yeah, it is… you see, Hanamaru is the first shinobi in his family, so he didn't had any special skills when he became gennin… considering his physical treats resemble those of the Akimichi so much, I asked Chouji to give him a special training…" and at that point he paused. "However it seems that in this case… the student may surpass his teacher…" and as he said so, the other jounin's eyes turned back to the ring bellow.
Reiji jumped back as the huge fist hit the floor where he stood just a second ago. He kept on smiling as he flew back: "Now that's interesting…" he thought to himself as Hanamaru continued his assault. In a flash the chubby gennin used his huge hand to bounce off the ground and flying straight at the metal-nin, who was still in mid-air, he performed another hand seal: "Baika no Jutsu! Nikudan Sensha!" and before the bald boy knew it, his opponent's body became a huge ball that started spinning wildly as it came flying right at him.
"What the…" Reiji's eyes widen in surprise at the sight. "Shit, I can't dodge!" and with that thought he gathered chakra in his axe. In the next second the metal-nin cut the air and before anyone knew it, Hanamaru let out a cry of pain as he suddenly got blown away, with some of his blood escaping his body.
"It's that technique!" Ibuki's eyes narrowed at the sight.
"Hey, what the hell just happened?!" demanded Kogane, completely surprised. The young assassin glanced at her, ready to reply, but surprisingly for her, the one to answer the blonde's question, was Akira: "That metal-nin gathered chakra in his axe and once he swung it, he released it into the air…" announced the blind gennin calmly. "Simply put it, with such an ability, he's capable of extending the range of his attacks. Basically, if someone gets hit by the chakra he released into the air, the result will be the same as if he was hit by the axe itself…"
"So that was what he was doing that time in the forest…" concluded Kusari in his mind before glancing over to Teela, who just stood there with her arms crossed. She caught the chain master's gaze, but the moment their eyes meet, she looked away again. Tasuki only smirked under his nose: "So this is what Tenka mentioned…" and so he looked at the redhead kunoichi, who kept on observing the match bellow with a straight face.
Hanamaru slowly got back to his feet with a big wound on his torso. His breath became faster while he glanced at his opponent, who now had his axe rested on his shoulder and was smiling widely: "Hocus-pocus, brat…" he announced with satisfaction. The chubby gennin's eyes narrowed at the statement as he charged at his adversary again, once more performing his standard technique: "Nikudan Sensha!"
"Useless…" stated Reiji as he once more swung his axe at the incoming, spinning ball. However this time, to his surprise, the huge cannonball jumped into the air, thus avoiding the attack, which hit the wall behind it, leaving a large slash on it. Nobu only narrowed his eyes as he realized what happened: "Of course…even with an attack like that, the chakra that's released into the air can only go in the direction it was launched at… as long as you get out of its way, you'll be safe…"
As the huge ball of meat came flying down on him, Reiji just tightened his grip on his axe: "Still… useless…" he stated, swinging his weapon at Hanamaru again. In a flash the leaf-nin stopped spinning and with his back facing the bald gennin, he reached for the floor with his hands, which suddenly grew bigger. The shield that the chubby boy carried on his back stopped the attack (A/N: in case you've forgotten I mentioned Hanamaru carried a golden shield on his back when he first appeared in chapter 29) and in an instant the Konoha shinobi bounced off the floor again, with an intension to smash his opponent under his huge hands.
Reiji managed to jump back in time, thus avoiding the attack, which crushed the floor. Hanamaru didn't slow down however and was once more charging at his opponent with his right arm still bigger then it should be. Having no time to dodge, the metal-nin blocked the assault with the blunt side of his axe. "What?" Kogane's eyes nearly went out of orbits. "How can he withstand Hanamaru's strength?"
"Fighting you is really annoying…" stated Reiji with a smirk as he glanced at his opponent, who was now right next to him, still pressing his huge arm against the metal-nin's axe. The chubby gennin only smirked under his nose: "Don't worry then, coz I'll be finishing this right here and now…. Ninpou: Shuuki Bakudan!" and in an instant the axe user's nose got attacked by a horrible smell, that made it impossible to breath.
Miaka immediately closed her mouth as she felt like vomiting that very moment. A disgusted expression crossed Nezumi's face as Tsume covered her nose: "What's with that smell?" she asked, feeling a little dizzy. Toku only sweat dropped at the realization what have just took place: "He actually used his own stink… that's… disgusting…"
Reiji felt tears gathering in his eyes as he jumped away from his opponent, covering his nose with his left hand: "What the hell did that brat just do?" he asked himself as he was still in mid-air. It was then that he saw Hanamaru charging right at him while he placed an explosive tag on his shield: "This ends now!" announced the chubby gennin as he jumped forwards, once more performing Baika.
In a flash Hanamaru hid his hands, legs and head inside his huge body and began spinning, while the explosive tag went off, blasting him straight at the surprised metal-nin. "Now I get it!" Kokoro smiled under his nose. "The shield protected him from receiving any damage from the explosion, but still when the tag exploded so near him, the blast itself was enough to send him flying! He used the tag to speed up!"
"Shit!" was all Reiji managed to think before the huge, spinning ball crushed hard into him and send him crashing into the wall behind the metal-nin. The bald gennin caught out blood before he collapsed to the floor, bleeding in several places and having some of his ribs broken.
Hanamaru placed his hands on his knees as he tried to keep standing. His breath was getting faster and faster as exhaustion slowly began to take over. This was his limit.
"Great job, Hanamaru!" Kogane cheered from the platform, but before she could finish, she noticed Reiji slowly getting back to his feet. In an instant the chubby gennin took his shield off his back and used it to cover himself. The bald ninja breathed heavily as blood run down his face.
"No more mister nice guy…" he stated calmly as he wiped some of the blood from his face and used it to write something on the blade of his axe. He once more gathered chakra in his weapon and swung it right at the chubby gennin, who immediately placed his shield on the way. Surprisingly for most of the people gathered in the room, the golden shield suddenly broke in two and a wide slash appeared on Hanamaru's torso.
The chubby boy took a single step back in order to keep his balance, but Reiji kept on swinging his axe and before Hanamaru could react, new slashes began appearing on his entire body. The smelly ninja let out a cry of pain as he collapse to the floor, barely breathing. "To be pushed so far by a rookie…" the metal-nin spoke up, spiting out blood. "How shameful of me…"
"I…" began Hanamaru, trying to catch his breath. "I can't go on… I can't even stand up… that guy is just too strong… in the end I just…" but before he could finish his thought, Kogane's voice echoed in the entire room:
"What the hell are you doing, Hanamaru? You're going to just lay there like that? What about the promise you made?" and as her last words hit his ears, Hanamaru's eyes widen at the memory of the event that took place several years ago…
---Victory that was in the grasp of the hand slips away… but the match has not ended yet---
And this concluded this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll review after you're done reading.
Now, as usual, time for the jutsu encyclopedia. I won't describe the technique that are from the manga itself, however Hanamaru did use his own, original skill, which I figure could use some explanation:
Ninpou: Shuuki Bakudan (Ninja Art: Stink Bomb) – Hanamaru's original idea. As some of you might recall, the chubby fellow smells and that's what gave him a thought to turn it into his own weapon. By concentrating chakra around his entire body, he's capable of making the stink he emits to gather around him (without getting cleared by air) and then 'blasts' it away by releasing the chakra he gathered in his body. The effect creates a sphere of unpleasant gas, that attacks the victims nose, making it hard to breath and in case of more sensitive organism can even make the target vomit, feel dizzy etc. In a way it's a biological weapon (though, as Toku said, a very disgusting one).
And that's really that for this time. Thanks for tuning in and hope to see you next time.
Take care and to all you love birds: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!