Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto
Chapter 32: The Leaf's glory
Natsuhi, the Yondaime Hoshikage (not that any major villages would recognize her right to the title of Kage) watched with idle interest as more and more people were filling the large stadium. She and her companions had gotten here early to avoid the crowd and now there was nothing to do for a while.
"Mom, how much longer until the matches start?" her youngest son questioned from the seat beside her.
"Not long, sweetie. Just be patient."
The boy nodded, paying no attention to the sniggers of his middle brother and two sisters. He was still at an age where he would accept such terms of endearment without complaint.
"Look, you can see your big brother Sumaru from here. Some of the other contestants are already there, too." her husband Hotarubi added, drawing the boy's attention and causing Natsuhi to give him a smile.
She had taken Sumaru reaching the finals of the chunin exams as opportunity for a little family vacation. It was her fifth visit to Konoha and the third one as the village leader of Hoshigakure. Konohagakure still impressed her greatly; it was the largest of all Hidden Villages in the Elemental Nations. It would do her children good to get some comparison to their own small village in the Land of Bears.
Her husband Hotarubi had already been here, acting as their oldest son's jonin-sensei. It was a little sad that Sumaru's teammates Mizura and Hokuto didn't make it to the finals, but all in all she was content with how things had played out. Her purpose in entering a team for the chunin exams was showing off their village's skills and Sumaru would manage that without a doubt. Sumaru being in the finals was already creating publicity for their village. None of the participants from the other minor villages Takigakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure, Otogakure or Getsugakure had managed to get that far. Heck, not even the teams from Kumogakure had gotten beyond the second test. She doubted he would be able to compete in more than one match (the list of participants read like a who-is-who of Konoha's great clans), but getting to fight in the first place would be enough. From what her husband told her it had been a close fight against the Hyuuga girl and more would probably pushing their luck. All her genin had made it without permanent injuries and she hoped it would stay that way.
'I wonder if his opponent really is an Uzumaki.'
The villagers had been unusually tight-lipped about one of the two non-clan contenders from Konoha. Information about the girl Tenten had been relatively easy to come by, but almost no one had wanted to talk about Naruto. It had made preparing to fight him much more difficult since he hadn't shown any real specialty during the preliminaries.
"Mum, can we buy something to eat? I'm hungry and thirsty."
"Certainly. Why don't you all go together? Your father and I will stay here." she answered after a moment of thought.
Immediately the two youngest children jumped from their seats and began dragging the two genin with them while the other two children followed behind. With a slight gesture Natsuhi signaled the two guards she had brought with her to accompany them. Her second son and his twin sister would very soon become genin while her second daughter and youngest son were still years away from that. Konoha was friendly territory, but she preferred to take no chances. Besides, having alone time with her husband was always a thing to be treasured, even if they were in full view of other visitors. No one knew who she was and she didn't have to keep up her front as village leader.
Hotarubi put his arm around her and voiced her unspoken thoughts. "We're really lucky, aren't we?"
Natsuhi simply nodded. Seeing her children reminded her how easily things could have turned out differently. All came down to their village's greatest secret and the outcome of a single encounter almost a decade ago. The 'star' that was the origin of their village's name was a meteorite with peculiar effects. Long-term exposure to it changed a person's chakra permanently. It gave the affected much higher chakra levels and control than normal. The chakra became more physical, enabling the use of the Mysterious Peacock style. The downside was that the exposure caused health problems for many trainees and even the life of those completing the training was often cut short.
After discovering that fact Natsuhi and her husband had tried to steal the meteorite only to be caught by the Sandaime Hoshikage. The old man had listened to their reasons and was about to let them go while promising to end the star training when he suddenly broke down. He confessed that he and the other older villagers had always known about the harmful effects of the star training. The sad truth was that despite the losses caused by the side-effects more of their shinobi actually reached the age of thirty and beyond than if they had done away with the training. Hoshigakure was one of the smallest minor villages; they had no other powerful techniques or bloodlines and only a very limited pool of recruits. Without the star leveling the playing field their village would soon cease to exist.
'We were really naïve back then to think no one was aware of the effects of the star training. Our village was founded only a few years later than Konoha and has used the star training for longer than half a century. Of course the more experienced shinobi knew.'
At first they had been appalled, but they soon came to realize that the Hoshikage was right. Without the training they would lose even more people. Instead of leaving Natsuhi and Hotarubi stayed in the village and tried to find ways of mitigating the undesirable side-effects. Of course, thanks to them staying they had been able to have several more children (and she still managed to retain her figure. Ha!). Sumaru was followed by the fraternal twins Naoki (boy) and Noriko (girl), the girl Hoshiko and lastly the boy Susumu. Over time Natsuhi and Hotarubi became two of Hoshi's very limited number of jonin. When their fellow jonin Akahoshi murdered the Hoshikage and tried to take over it was Natsuhi who defeated him. Fortunately Akahoshi lacked the necessary support and had only a few hard-core supporters following him.
'Akahoshi thought we could compete with the major villages. He was mad; even if the star training gives our shinobi an advantage over the rank-and-file most can't go toe-to-toe with other elites or clan ninja. Besides, we just lack the numbers.'
She shuddered to think what could have happened if she and her husband had left the village as they originally planned. If the star training had been suspended Akahoshi would have been able to gain the support of a far larger part of the militant faction of the village and probably would have implemented a confrontational policy that would have seen their village destroyed sooner or later. After the conspirators' defeat and execution Natsuhi had been unequivocally proclaimed as the Fourth Hoshikage, being the strongest ninja in the village and having made a name for herself. She had made the improvement of the star training the priority of her reign. In that vein she had managed to recruit a medic-nin fleeing the chaos that was the civil war in the Land of Water as well as two medics-in-training from the slowly disintegrating Ishigakure. The star training still wasn't exactly safe, but it was safer than before and had a higher success rate. People like her son's teammate Mizura now could look forward to several decades of life when they would have died in their teens before. Natsuhi and her husband probably wouldn't reach sixty, but that was still a high age for ninja. It would be enough time for them to get to know their future grandchildren and perhaps even see the birth of their great-grandchildren.
The voice of her son's female teammate Hokuto interrupted her thoughts. "Would you like something to eat or drink, Hoshikage-sama? I fear we have bought far too much."
Natsuhi smiled at the girl and took some of the offered food. "Thank you, Hokuto-chan, but there is no need to be so formal. We will be one family in no time at all."
The girl blushed, but smiled back at her before returning to her seat. Hotarubi chuckled slightly. "Still going on about that? The wedding won't be for another two years."
"It's so much fun to tease her; she blushes so prettily." Natsuhi whispered back. "Besides, I really want to break her out of that habit. Respect is well and good, but at least my future daughter-in-law should address me by name."
The betrothal was only three months old, but Natsuhi already saw the girl almost as a daughter. She already knew her son had feelings for the girl and that she reciprocated when Hokuto's family approached her. The two children had been friends and teammates for years; a good basis for a relationship. Both had shown a high resistance to the harmful effects of the star training as well as an aptitude for utilizing star chakra. It was the village leaders' hope that the couple's children would inherit the trait. In a few generations it might even develop into a bloodline.
"By the way, how did your meeting with the Hokage go yesterday?"
Natsuhi shrugged. "Well enough I suppose. The old man was polite, but there was clearly something else on his mind. He praised me away as soon as he could while not saying anything other than platitudes. Our villages' relations remain unchanged. He didn't invite me into the Kage box if that is what you're asking."
Hoshigakure maintained friendly relations with Konoha, which was a nice way of saying Hoshi tried to stay out of Konoha's way and avoid anything that might antagonize the major village. In effect Konoha utterly dominated them, but there wasn't much they could do about it. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was just so much bigger, wealthier and more powerful than Hoshigakure with many times over the population and military strength. Going against them would have been sheer madness. As it was they survived on the missions Konoha didn't want to take or on those clients who preferred to stay in their corner of the woods. The Land of Bears wasn't exactly isolated, but it wasn't a pinnacle of civilization either. Hoshigakure was stable and slowly growing in strength, but it would be decades until they could contend even with most other minor villages. Natsuhi applying for an audience had been more a courtesy call because she was already in Konoha and not doing so would have been impolite; it wouldn't do to cause offense.
Natsuhi's eyes narrowed as she looked towards the Kage box, now occupied by the Hokage and Kazekage. Something was clearly going on. Most people in Konoha seemed to act normal, but some of the higher ranked shinobi seemed to be very tense even if they tried to hide it. It could have been the general situation of the chunin exams, but somehow Natsuhi doubted it. As a consequence all of them stayed together and remained armed and alert at all times.
When her eyes returned to the arena she saw that almost all genin were now present. "It seems a contestant is still missing." she remarked.
One of the guards nodded. "Sasuke Uchiha is still not here. He still has some time left; his fight is the second one scheduled."
The sharingan was a bloodline of fabled power and she would like to see what the last wielder remaining in Konoha was capable of, but the fight of her son was far more important. A moment later the Hokage greeted the visitors and announced the beginning of the tournament. All contestants aside from her son and Naruto Uzumaki left the arena. Then the referee started the match.
"Mysterious Peacock Method"
Immediately chakra feathers surrounded her son, moving lightly in the breeze. It seemed something in the arena amplified the voices of the contestants, enabling the spectators to hear them. In contrast to his match in the preliminaries Sumaru didn't change his feathers into an animal shape. It was a good strategy to stay flexible; each shape had its advantages and drawbacks and once formed it took some time to change out of an animal shape of the beast-branch of the star techniques.
The blond Konoha genin had meanwhile increased his distance and launched a single throwing knife at Sumaru. Her son easily batted it away with a chakra feather. A moment later he formed some of his feathers into ropes and launched four of them at his adversary, keeping six feathers in reserve to defend himself.
Naruto managed to evade three of the ropes, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge the fourth one that was cutting off his way to escape. He seemed to realize that, too, for he took out a large knife and slashed at the approaching rope. Natsuhi raised one eyebrow when he easily severed it. Not many things could do that. The severed end fell to the floor and dissolved into nothingness.
Apparently Sumaru was surprised, too. "How did you do that? Chakra ropes are supposed to be uncuttable."
"The wind can cut everything. I infused my blade with wind chakra using the elemental chakra flow technique." his opponent replied.
Normally it wasn't a good idea to explain techniques during a fight, but this was more of an exhibition match. The watching shinobi could recognize most techniques when they saw them, but the other visitors and potential clients wouldn't. Natsuhi knew the chunin exams were more a show for clients and visitors than an actual process of determining worthy chunin candidates. Numbers and math alone said as much. A chunin exam took place roughly every six months and the number of competitors in the finals was almost always in the single digits. Only some of them were promoted. In a village the size of Konoha more than a hundred genin had to be promoted to chunin per year in her estimate to keep the numbers stable; promotions gained in the chunin exams were a mere drop in the bucket.
"That isn't enough to defeat me." Sumaru answered confidently.
Natsuhi could see the smile on Naruto's face even from her position. Internally she sighed. It seemed her son had grown somewhat cocky. He was the best of his generation in Hoshi and the victory over the Hyuuga had probably given him another boost.
In that moment Naruto launched a small barrage of shuriken, but this time he clapped his hands as soon as they were free. Stirred up dust covered him and the shuriken immediately gained an enormous speed boost from whatever jutsu the boy had used. Sumaru had already put some chakra feathers in the way, but the shuriken punched through the first two layers until they got stuck in the third feather. A moment later Sumaru lowered his feathers to shake out the shuriken.
"Big brother, watch out!" Hoshiko shouted, not that Sumaru could hear her.
Natsuhi could see the realization on the face of her son. The stirred-up dust from the first attack had obscured Naruto launching a kunai with an exploding tag on it that was now stuck in the fourth feather… with only two additional feathers protecting Sumaru. In the next second an explosion engulfed her son.
'I really have to put more emphasis on dodging during training. Too many think our chakra feathers are an ultimate defense.' Natsuhi noted mentally. She wasn't especially worried; the remaining feathers should have been enough to absorb an explosion of this size.
"You know, I really start to hate exploding tags." Sumaru's voice came out of the dust cloud.
The blond Konoha genin shrugged. "One man's misery is another man's joy." he said before he jumped away to avoid two chakra ropes striking out from the dust.
When the dust cleared Natsuhi saw that Sumura had covered himself in a dog beast form, but it was smaller than usual. Roughly half his chakra was invested in another large, dog-like beast that was charging at his opponent. Sumaru himself engaged from a different direction to keep Naruto from launching any counterattacks. Said genin continued to evade all attacks, but Sumura kept moving to prevent a repeat of the exploding tag ambush.
The match continued for almost a minute in that vein with neither opponent gaining an edge.
"I can keep that up for hours, you know. Your luck will run out at some point." Sumaru shouted when Naruto once again narrowly evaded an attack.
Naruto scoffed while the chakra beast tore up the ground where he had just been standing. "Luck has nothing to do with it. Do you have anything else you'd like to show off? This is getting boring."
Sumaru simply continued to attack him.
"Okay, if that's all you're gonna use… then I guess it's time for me to stop playing around." Naruto stopped evading and began making hand seals.
"Ha, I've got you now." Sumaru shouted when he jumped at the now immobile genin… only to pass right through him. "What?"
In the next second a bright disc of crackling lightning emerged from the trees at the edge of the arena. Sumaru probably saw it from the corner of his eye, but he was still committed to his attack and the disc was too fast. With a resounding BOOOM it collided with Sumaru's personal chakra beast, obliterating a good part of it.
Sumaru staggered, clearly disoriented from the attack, but he visibly tried to reform his protective envelope. He might have succeeded if not for the second disc arriving in this moment. A third disc slammed into the resulting dust cloud, reducing visibility even further. The fourth disc caused an even bigger explosion, tossing Sumaru to the side and out of the growing dust plume. By now he had lost control of his Mysterious Peacock technique and the chakra tails as well as the chakra beast separate from him faded away.
Natsuhi saw her son rolling several meters until he came to rest, but after a moment he tried to stand up. A fifth lightning disc slamming into the ground directly by his side cut that endeavor short. Once again Sumaru was hurled away by the force of the explosion. This time he didn't get up.
When no other attacks followed and Sumaru stayed down the referee approached him. A short examination later he shouted "Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!"
Polite clapping started with some cheering mixed in. Natsuhi anxiously watched her son while Naruto waved to the crowd. She hoped Sumaru didn't sustain any serious injuries. Judging from where the last attack landed his opponent had aimed to incapacitate, not to kill. She didn't recognize the technique, but a direct hit without a protective chakra cover would probably be quite dangerous. Natsuhi breathed a sigh of relief when Sumaru stirred once again.
After giving a few more waves Naruto approached the downed Sumaru and seemed to exchange a few words with him before helping him up. Soon the medics arrived, but after a short examination Sumaru managed to limp away on his own feet even if he needed the medics holding to his shoulders to keep upright.
"An impressive display," one of the guards remarked, "I never saw the boy replacing himself with a bunshin."
She too hadn't seen when Naruto had done it, but it was clear in hindsight. "He must have gone into hiding right after he launched the kunai with the exploding tag. There was a lot of dust in the air and all eyes were on my son."
The faces of her children meanwhile had become disbelieving and distressed. "Big brother… lost?"
Her husband addressed the children. "He did. Sumaru is a good genin and the best shinobi of his age in our village, but that doesn't mean he's the best overall. Never forget: There's always someone better out there."
Mizura nodded. "Yeah, I don't see what he could've done differently. His chakra rope attacks were clearly not working. Using a beast form to get into close combat was the best thing he could do. If you've got an exploding tag directly in your face you tend to overlook things like your opponent replacing himself with a bunshin."
"From what I saw he would have lost against most of the other finalists, too. Do you remember the blond girl with the ponytail? She was the one who took me out in the preliminaries. She's a Yamanaka and is able to take over other people's bodies. The red-headed boy can control sand and likes to crush people with it; the blond girl with the pigtails can control wind and use it to slice people apart. She needed only a single attack to completely dismember her opponent. " Hokuto explained.
"That's scary."
The second guard laughed. "Kid, all shinobi are scary. That's part of our job. It's just that the big villages have so many more people than our little village that more of them are scarier than us. Begging your pardon, Hoshikage-sama."
"It's no matter; you're right. Our three genin did very good to come as far as they did."
Natsuhi leant back in her seat, letting the chatter flow over her. It was a bit of a shame that her son had lost, but at least he got to fight. His opponent had been clearly superior. Sumaru's display wasn't the epitome of shinobi fighting, but it wasn't a disgrace either and he had come out of the fight largely intact. All in all it could have been worse.
'Where is the Uchiha? Shouldn't the next fight have started by now?'
Sasuke was still not here. Tenten wondered if he would be disqualified. By now Naruto had returned to the competitor's box and accepted the congratulations of his friends. Tenten had joined in; it had been a good fight. That wind jutsu he had used to accelerate his shuriken had looked nifty and she wondered if she could get him to teach it to her. In Naruto's place she would have had more trouble, but she supposed she could have used enough exploding tags to simply overwhelm the Hoshi boy's strange chakra constructs. She certainly had created enough of them in the last weeks as part of her other special project. It wasn't as if she had anyone to train with her; Neji mostly didn't leave the Hyuuga compound because of his injuries and Gai-sensei mostly stayed with Lee. She still felt some resentment because of that, but it had always been the same. Normally Gai didn't outright neglect them, but he very clearly favored Lee.
"Where's Sasuke? His fight is about to start." Kiba wondered.
"Perhaps Kakashi's tardiness has rubbed off on him. He isn't here either. I met Shikamaru a few days ago and he didn't have good things to say about his ex-sensei." Ino replied.
One of the others was about to reply when the voice of the referee filled the stadium. "Ladies and Gentlemen! The contestant for the next match hasn't arrived yet. Therefore we will push this match back and begin the next one."
"Typical Uchiha favoritism." Yakumo mumbled under her breath, but Tenten managed to hear her. In the privacy of her thoughts she had to agree.
"And now the next match! Shino Aburame and Tenten; please come down!"
Both genin made their way into the arena. From what she had seen during the preliminaries Shino used clones and his clan's bugs. Tenten had made a very simple plan to deal with that: She would keep the range open and simply blanket the area with weapons. She didn't expect to get a decisive hit in if he used many clones, but she almost assuredly would wound Shino; at least if she didn't give him the opportunity to find cover like Naruto had done in the previous fight.
Soon they stood in the center of the arena, facing each other. "Begin!"
Shino silently removed his hands from his jacket and held them before his body. Tenten briefly saw some sort of wristguards around both his wrists before two puffs of smoke obscured his hands. When the smoke cleared he held a short sword in each hand. Tenten clearly recognized the sheen of chakra metal. Those were very valuable weapons. She didn't think a relatively new genin like Shino could afford such things on his own, but she supposed the Aburame had many valuable things from earlier generations stashed away in their compound.
'Still, it's likely that's a ruse to lure me into range of his bugs. It's common knowledge I really like weapons.'
Experimentally, she threw a few shuriken and kunai at Shino. Despite her accuracy he either got out of the way or deflected them easily. This clearly wasn't working; she had to step up her game. While remaining on the lookout for bugs, Tenten took one of her smaller scrolls, unrolled it and began launching a stream of weapons at Shino. At least that was the plan. Just as she began her move Shino ran at her. She barely got a few projectiles off before he was in range, his swords ripping her scroll apart. Tenten herself had already jumped back and unsealed two swords of her own. She wouldn't call herself a weapon specialist if she wasn't proficient at a large number of weapons.
She smiled excitedly at the Aburame. "Oh, it's a swordfight you want? I'm happy to oblige."
Shino stayed silent and a moment later their weapons clashed. They exchanged a few blows and Tenten soon realized Shino knew what he was doing. He had clearly studied kenjutsu under someone who knew the subject. It didn't look like she could beat him in that discipline. While Tenten was proficient she wasn't really outstanding at close range fighting; she preferred to stay at a distance. Despite being a genin for around one and a half years she hadn't mastered every available fighting style; there just wasn't enough time in the day for everything. With him pressing her like this she didn't have the opportunity to use some of her gas-filled bombs. Tenten was still trying to come up with an alternative strategy when she noticed a change in the Aburame's swords.
In the next moment Shino's blades sheared through her weapons almost without resistance.
'Shit. He can use chakra flow, too. How can two fresh genin know that while I don't?'
To gain some distance she threw the hilts of her destroyed weapons at Shino and used a smoke bomb to cover her retreat. The insecticide she had included should take care of any bugs, too. For good measure she created several bunshin. From what she could see Shino had created several clones, too. At the moment about six Tentens were facing almost two dozen Shinos.
'I can't be sure Shino didn't leave his position. It seems I have to use it sooner than I expected if I want to win. I've come too far to give up now.'
"Give up now or I have to use something that will really hurt you!" she shouted.
"I will not surrender. Why do you ask? I want to see your full potential before I strike you down."
'Okay, he asked for it.'
"You might want to get out of the way." Tenten addressed the referee. The man immediately moved to the wall farthest from them.
After readying six scrolls Tenten jumped high into the air, keeping the scrolls in positions around her by using some chakra-conducting wire. When she channeled some chakra into the scrolls they unfurled, forming six long stripes of paper. Tenten knew it looked almost as if she had wings.
"Heavenly Rain of Devastation"
In the next moment the barrage started. Kunai after kunai was launched out of the scrolls at high speed without her needing to hurl them. It had taken her months to get it right, but she had finally found the correct way to impart momentum to sealed objects. Of course, those were not simple kunai: Each one was connected to an exploding tag that was activated by the unsealing process. Sealing away seals was tricky business, but fortunately she had found a way to make it work. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately in this situation; she didn't want to kill Shino) the exploding tags were relatively weak and would only do lethal damage upon a direct hit to the body. Using so many tags was wasteful (and expensive) in the extreme, but since she could make them herself the cost was bearable. Still, those six scrolls represented the work of months.
When the first kunai hit the ground the explosions started. Spinning slightly, Tenten covered the entire arena with her projectiles while the explosions raged. Finally her scrolls were empty and she felt gravity pulling her back to the ground. Landing lightly, she immediately unsealed another weapon and waited for the smoke to clear. The string of explosions had left a slight ringing in her ears and she didn't want to be ambushed despite the remoteness of such a possibility. Hopefully she didn't hurt Shino too badly.
After almost a minute passed she could finally see the battlefield despite the still present dust clouds. The arena floor was cratered and most of the trees had been destroyed. Tenten's eyes widened when she saw a completely unharmed Shino standing amidst the destruction, intact ground around him.
"A most impressive display, Tenten-san. Unfortunately it was futile. You have already lost."
Tenten had barely time to say "How…" before a strong electric shock coursed through her body, causing all her muscles to spasm and sending her to the ground. Her entire body hurt and she couldn't move anymore. Shino approached her cautiously, obviously wary of a counterattack. When he got closer and saw her condition he lowered his guard. A stream of kikaichu left her body and returned to their master. Tenten had never noticed them settling on her.
"Proctor, I have won. Please call the fight."
The man who oversaw the exams checked her over before announcing "Winner: Shino Aburame"
"How… how did you escape? I have to know." Tenten whispered when she was put on a stretcher.
Shino inclined his head. "I am proficient in barrier jutsu. It was not difficult to shield myself from your attacks; they lacked penetrating power. I used the dust cover you created to mask my kikaichu. They can carry a charge of lightning chakra. You apparently couldn't hear them." he explained in a low voice.
Tenten slumped. She didn't see that coming. What freaking genin in his first year out of the academy was a barrier specialist? This was so unfair.
Homura watched the brunette girl with newfound interest while she was carried away by the medics. It seemed young Tenten was talented at the sealing arts. The bombardment scrolls were certainly an interesting idea even if he estimated they required too much effort to create for the possible applications. The nobles and high officials sitting around him chattered in excitement, impressed by the display.
'I have to approach her as soon as the current crisis is over.'
It had always been his plan to search for possible pupils among the new genin, but other important tasks always interfered. The last he had heard of young Tenten when he read a report about Gai's team around a year ago was that she had tried to become a medic-nin. Apparently she had switched to the sealing arts in the meantime.
'It's probably best if I arrange some time with all of the elite genin and see what they can do. Anko told me almost all of them have at least basic sealing skills. Maybe some of them have the talent for more advanced material.'
His attention was drawn back to the arena when the next fight between Kiba Inuzaka and Ino Yamanaka started. The Yamanaka girl and the Inuzaka boy began the match with taijutsu. Kiba was obviously physically stronger, but Ino had the better technique and was more agile. It was only thanks to the support of his canine partner that the Inuzaka managed to hold his own.
"Four Legs Technique"
Using one of his clan's signature techniques, Kiba's appearance became markedly more feral. The transformation was accompanied by an increase in his combat performance, putting Ino on the defensive.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall"
For a moment the earthen wall separated Ino from her adversaries and blocked their line of sight. The time was enough for the Yamanka girl to create a clone from the earth, perform another jutsu that did something to the floor in the vicinity of the clone and sink underground with the help of a third technique.
"An earth clone and other earth jutsu; interesting." Koharu remarked at his side. "Most Yamanaka prefer to concentrate on the mind arts."
Homura nodded absentmindedly. He could already see where this was going. In a scissoring movement Kiba and his dog came around both edges of the earth wall, attacking the clone together. The construct disintegrated on the first hit; apparently the girl was still working on the technique. Kiba seemed to realize his mistake almost immediately, but it was too late. The ground transformed into sticky mud and held them in place while Ino emerged a short distance away. She began throwing senbon at the boy, but he still wasn't out of the fight.
He fed the dog a pill of some sort, causing the dog's fur to turn red. A moment later it transformed into a copy of Kiba. Then it grabbed the original and hurled him away in the direction of Ino.
"Passing Fang"
While still in flight Kiba began to spin and sped up, adjusting his trajectory slightly. Ino put up another earth wall, but it easily shattered under Kiba's assault. When the dust cleared Homura could see an obviously unconscious Ino lying amidst the debris. The mud field disappeared in that moment and the transformed dog made to join his partner.
"I've won! Proctor, call the fight." Kiba shouted excitedly before hugging his partner... who drove a knee into the boy's stomach. The Inuzaka boy doubled over in pain, opening himself for a strike to his head. A moment later he was driven face-first into the dirt. Then the attacker grabbed his neck. Despite the distance Homura recognized the knock-out technique. The attacker held the grip for about a dozen seconds even after Kiba seemed to slump into unconsciousness. Then it dispelled the human disguise, leaving a confused-looking dog behind. The unconscious form of the Yamanaka girl turned into earth and crumbled.
A few seconds later an unperturbed Ino emerged from behind the first earth wall she had created. "If Akamaru doesn't want to fight me alone you can call the fight now, proctor. Kiba will need at least ten minutes to wake up again."
The small dog looked between the girl and the downed boy before it whimpered and backed off.
"Winner: Ino Yamanaka"
Homura joined the clapping crowd. He really disliked the chunin exams, but at least it seemed the fights found the approval of the visitors.
The noble sitting to Homura's side leant over. "Excuse me, but when exactly had the girl time to create that second clone?"
"I think she did it immediately after the boy passed the first wall. Then she switched with it after she put up the second wall. Once Kiba was busy with the clone she used one of her clan's jutsu to take over the dog. It was rather tight timing." the old councilor answered.
Satisfied with his answer, the noble turned back. Homura began scanning the crowd, hoping to catch something suspicious. It seemed that most of the not competing genin from the rookie teams had come in combat gear as had their jonin. He thought it a sensible precaution. They didn't know when and where Orochimaru's attack would come and the smallest hint might give them an advantage. The people in the know were distributed all over the village with some ready troops. In the event of an attack they would rally local forces and stage a counterattack. Homura frowned slightly when he spied a masked ANBU standing in the back of the crowd.
'Did Hiruzen assign them to stand around openly in the stadium? It seems a waste of manpower. On the other hand, it's nice to see he takes this seriously.'
Temari cursed silently when she made her way to the arena floor. Gaara's fight should have signaled the start of the invasion, but thanks to the Uchiha's lateness it had been postponed. Now she had to compete and she didn't fancy sustaining any injuries or using too much chakra on the eve of the invasion. Unfortunately she had to buy time; it would be better for her brother to face the Uchiha instead of Konoha's jinchuuriki. The Uchiha might misinterpret the first stages of Gaara unleashing his demon; a fellow jinchuuriki wouldn't. It made her feel sick to betray the man she loved, but her first loyalty was towards her village and the Kazekage.
'At least Idate isn't here. Hopefully we will make it out alive and won't meet again until all of this is over.'
The young woman from Suna scrutinized her opponent. She knew the girl with the long brunette hair was the last member of the Kurama clan, meaning she could expect powerful genjutsu. The Konoha genin had very cold eyes. It would be best to end this quickly.
"Begin!"
Temari immediately launched a powerful wind attack, but Yakumo's image wavered and disappeared before her wind could hit. When the dust cleared Temari could see she had only destroyed a large tree branch. Yakumo must have pulled off a seal-less kawarimi.
'Shit, where is she?'
She caught some movement out of the corner of her eye and launched another attack, but once again it was only an illusion. Suddenly vines broke out of the ground and threatened to entangle her, the sky dissolved into chaotic swirls of color and she felt her sense of balance going haywire. Being a kunoichi with several years of experience, Temari was easily able to determine that several genjutsu were affecting her. Fortunately she had studied advanced dispelling techniques in the last month.
The vines disappeared and the image of the entire arena rippled when she disrupted the genjutsu… only to reform the same as before; that was without the special effects but her opponent still missing. She hadn't managed to dispel all genjutsu affecting her and before she could repeat the dispelling technique new ones began to settle on her.
'This isn't working. The girl can create genjutsu faster than I can dispel them. Let's see, the girl can't leave the arena and she can't be underground because she needs to see me for these targeted genjutsu to work.'
Deciding on an alternative course of action, Temari swung her fan widely, creating stronger and stronger winds around her. That would hopefully prevent a surprise attack. Suddenly she felt enormous heat. Blinking, she saw that her protective tornado was on fire. Her opponent must have used a fire jutsu disguised by another genjutsu. Fortunately her wind jutsu proved to be stronger despite the elemental inferiority and the wind currents funneled most of the heat away from her.
'Great, that plays into my hands.'
Now obscured by the fire, Temari quickly dispelled the remaining genjutsu affecting her. There were still at least three area-effect genjutsu left, but with enough concentration she managed to resist them. After adjusting the wind currents slightly she mounted her large fan and used the updraft to quickly gain height while still feeding chakra into the fiery whirlwind.
Once she reached the top she used two smaller fans to create a dense ball of wind. It took some time, but the flames and smoke were enough to obscure her from her opponent's vision, especially because she didn't show off her ability of limited flight beforehand.
Finally finished with her task Temari launched the air ball into the center of the still raging whirlwind. For a few moments nothing happened. Then it expanded rapidly outwards. In many ways it was a repeat of the combination jutsu she had pulled off with Idate's help in the Forest of Death even if it was far weaker. It only lasted about ten seconds, but for this time the entire arena was filled with burning air.
Just to make sure the next step of her plan would go without a hitch Temari used a concealment technique that would make it very hard to spot her against the sky. Then she waited, scanning the arena with eagle eyes and paying special attention to any possible genjutsu connecting with her.
As soon as the conflagration died down Temari saw the referee. He looked slightly singed and a bit pissed, but was otherwise intact. Temari wondered how he had evaded her jutsu. She kept one eye on him just in case he was the Kurama girl under a henge. For almost two minutes nothing happened. Then a completely unharmed Yakumo emerged from the ground inside one of the craters the weapon-using scroll girl had created earlier. If Temari wasn't flying she would have totally overlooked her opponent.
Temari very carefully maneuvered her fan closer. The possibility that this was a ruse was still there. No genjutsu connected with on her approach and she debated her next step. Cutting the girl down with a wind jutsu from a distance would have been her preferred option, but she couldn't be sure it would hit. In the event of a miss the genjutsu barrage would start again and she doubted she could escape a second time.
'Taijutsu it is.'
Channeling wind chakra into her two hand fans she readied herself for a jump. When she judged the distance to be close enough she left her hovering fan, ready to strike. She got closer and closer… Temari wanted to scream in frustration when Yakumo barely evaded her in the last second. The girl still lost the left sleeve of her clothing and sustained a shallow gash on her arm, but that was hardly any consolation. Temari continued to press her advantage, not giving her opponent any time to use jutsu.
The girl was clearly her inferior in physical combat. Her clothes were in tatters after a few seconds, she was bleeding from several wounds and the kunai she had managed to remove from her weapons pouch had been cut apart by the wind-enhanced razor-sharp steel edge of Temari's fans. Still, Temari had been unable to get a decisive hit in and the wounds were not overly serious.
'Only a moment longer…'
"I give up!" Yakumo shouted while desperately evading her blows.
"Winner: Temari" the referee announced immediately.
For a moment the Suna kunoichi considered continuing with her attack. The Kurama girl was clearly a threat and could become a problem in the initial stage of the invasion. Her genjutsu were excellent for someone her age and Temari had only been able to win because she had around three more years experience. A few years more and the Kurama girl would become a true menace. Then she thought better of it. It wouldn't do to blow their cover so shortly before everything started; it was bad enough that she had been forced to expend almost a quarter of her chakra. Sustaining and expanding that whirlwind hadn't been cheap.
Temari relaxed and smiled at her opponent. "You gave me a good fight. Not many can do that. You should be proud."
The girl gave her a respectful nod in return while the medics applied first aid. "Congratulations, you deserved to win."
Something in the eyes of the girl unsettled Temari despite the polite words. 'Does she know something?'
That was an unlikely but disturbing possibility. There were so many people involved that it was always possible something leaked through. Well, there was nothing she could do about it. Shaking those thoughts off, Temari returned to the competitors' box. It wouldn't be long now until the invasion started.
"WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT FIGHT?" "WHERE'S THE UCHIHA?"
The shouts of the crowd grew louder and louder, but Naruto had better things to do than pay attention to Kakashi's tardiness: He was fussing about his girlfriend Yakumo. By now she had been properly bandaged and changed her clothes, but he was still worried. The invasion could start every minute and even the slightest handicap could mean her death. It didn't seem as if Temari had done real damage, though.
"I'm telling you, I'm fine." Yakumo said exasperatedly while Ino continued to examine her wounds.
"As if you would know, Yakumo. I clearly remember what happened to that poor fish when you tried to keep it alive. Now hold still while I close those wounds. The medics could have done a better job." Ino replied while she moved hands glowing with medical chakra along Yakumo's arm.
Naruto would have liked it better if Hinata had been the one to check Yakumo since she was the best medic of their group, but she was seated beside her father quite a distance away. It had been difficult enough to slip her the water sapphire this morning; he couldn't risk approaching her again. Ino was still better than the rest of them at medical jutsu and every little bit counted.
Choji, Shino, a recovered Kiba and Naruto himself acted as visual cover; they didn't want the others to see what they were doing. Only the Sand Siblings remained with them; even the puppeteer was here despite not competing. Sumaru had left the competitor's box and joined his family after he recovered enough while Tenten was still in the infirmary. Sasuke hadn't arrived yet.
"That should do it." Ino said after she finished her work. "The wounds were shallow and you're as good as new."
Yakumo breathed visibly in relief. "Finally. Is Sasuke still not here? If he had been any other participant he would have been disqualified by now."
Shino adjusted his glasses. "This assessment is most likely correct."
Choji shrugged. "Well, it's natural. The people want to see what the last Uchiha can do. If it's at all possible the Hokage will allow the match to take place."
Naruto was about to reply when he spied two figures with a distinct haircut entering the stands. "Hey, aren't that Lee and Gai over there?"
"You're right. I didn't think Lee was allowed to leave the hospital. That explains why Gai wasn't there for Tenten's fight, I guess." Ino answered.
In that moment a large swirl of leaves in the center of the arena drew the group's attention. Kakashi and Sasuke had arrived.
"Sorry we're late. Sasuke hasn't been disqualified, has he?"
Naruto steadfastly resisted the urge to facepalm while the referee explained that yes, Sasuke was still allowed to fight. The stadium meanwhile erupted in cheers upon seeing the most well-known genin of their age group.
"HEY! THAT IS THE UCHIHA PROGENY!" "THE UCHIHA FIGHT IS GOING TO START!"
"Gaara of Suna, please come down here!" the referee announced.
The blond boy breathed a barely audible sigh of relief when Gaara left the box. Being in the proximity of Suna's jinchuuriki was unnerving and not because of the boy's nearly expressionless face or his tendency to stare thoughtfully at Naruto. No, the problem was that Naruto could feel the Ichibi drawing on the surrounding magic. It felt like a bottomless vortex. If he assumed that the rate of magic intake was constant and the Ichibi had been doing that since shortly after the preliminaries the amount it had already absorbed was staggering; far above anything Naruto could ever manage or really grasp. Every moment it could be enough for the Ichibi to break the bonds holding it and he preferred to be as far away as possible when that happened.
His thoughts returned to the impending invasion. Naruto had sealed away all his important personal belongings and stored them in a fire-proof safe in an abandoned park near his secret workshop. He had gotten Yakumo to do the same. Since he had no idea how much damage the invasion would do to the village it seemed a good idea. Their houses might very well be destroyed. Mizuki had been warned and would be ready for trouble. Unfortunately the chunin had teaching duties at the academy today. Suddenly the distinct sound of sand crushing bodies reached his sensitive ears and he flinched.
"What's the matter, Naruto-kun?" Yakumo asked.
Naruto shook his head. "Gaara just killed someone in the corridor leading to the arena."
"Evidence suggests that he was delayed by someone. He should have reached the arena by now if that wasn't the case. I myself was accosted by two men who wanted me to purposefully lose. Why do you ask? The chunin exams are used for betting." Shino remarked.
Choji looked uncomfortable. "Still, to kill people over such a thing…"
"We don't know how persistent they were. Besides, this isn't something for us to worry about. No one aside from the contestants is supposed to be in that corridor. Let the proctors deal with it." Ino said with a shrug. "Look, the fight is starting."
Gaara opened the fight by releasing a medium amount of sand from his gourd. Sasuke threw a few easily deflected shuriken before engaging in high-speed taijutsu attacks that looked suspiciously like Lee's style.
Naruto watched thoughtfully. "Did Sasuke get much faster in the last month? He almost matches Lee's starting speed from the preliminaries. That's a lot of improvement for a month."
"It's possible. There are training techniques that allow for rapid improvement, but they usually have some negative long-term effects to make them not worth it in most situations." Ino answered. "Hinata, Mizuki and I went over some of them in our academy days and decided against using them."
By now Sasuke's speed had increased once again and was now on a level with Lee's speed without weights. It was clear Gaara's sand could no longer keep up and some hits got through. Slowly the Suna genin's sand armor began to show cracks.
Gaara didn't seem perturbed in the slightest by that turn of events. "How quaint. Is that all you got?"
That led to Sasuke redoubling his efforts.
"You know, I wonder if that is the real Gaara there or only a sand clone. After all, Sasuke wasn't there for Gaara's fight in the preliminaries." Kiba remarked while petting Akamaru.
Choji looked thoughtful. "Shouldn't Sasuke be able to spot clones with his sharingan? Hinata told us that most clones have a distinctive look to her, but I don't know how it is for Sasuke."
Naruto nodded. "Normally yes, but maybe Gaara's sand armor interferes with that. According to my information the sharingan can't look through objects."
Meanwhile, Gaara had made a hand seal and a solid sphere of sand formed around him. Sasuke continued to attack it, but didn't cause even a scratch. Then Naruto noticed a tiny moving speck. When he looked closer he recognized an air-borne eye made of sand. He had briefly spotted such a thing during the first test. That meant Gaara was completely aware of what was going on in the arena.
Sasuke finally jumped away until he came to a rest high on the arena wall. Then he began making hand seals. Moments later lightning began crackling around his hand. A loud sound like the chirping of birds filled the air.
"That's Kakashi's signature move, the chidori." Kiba commented. "Asuma-sensei told us about it when he gave us an overview over Konoha's top jonin. It's an assassination technique."
Why anyone would call that technique an assassination jutsu Naruto had no idea. Dangerous and deadly upon a hit, yes, but suited for assassination? The thing was so loud one could hear it from a mile away. Anko-sensei had been very clear in her lectures that assassination jutsu should be either completely unobtrusive or usable from such a range and move at such high speed that the target never saw it coming until it was too late. The most important thing for an assassin was to never be spotted.
'That jutsu can't be cheap chakra-wise. Just look at all that damage it does to its surroundings. Every bit of energy it loses through that has to be replaced by the user.'
Naruto considered that sloppy development and an insult to the profession of jutsu creator. It simply reeked of shoddy work. He took pains to make his own jutsu as efficient as possible. You never knew when you would need that extra little bit of saved chakra.
In the next moment Sasuke began running, dragging the chidori behind him and leaving a small trench in the arena wall. His speed had increased once again, but he was moving in a straight line. Without his sharingan he would never see counterattacks coming. It took almost no time at all for Sasuke to run the distance to Gaara, evade some sand spikes and plunge the chidori into the sand shell. It penetrated easily. Silence descended on the arena and Sasuke began to smile.
A flat voice cutting through the silence wiped the confident smirk off Sasuke's face. "An impressive display; not many things can pierce my shell. It is unfortunate I was never inside of it."
"What?!"
His arm still stuck inside the sphere, Sasuke whirled around. Gaara had emerged from the ground a short distance away and was looking at Sasuke dispassionately. "I will feed your blood to Mother… but before that I will make you scream. Your insignificant death shall be the first one to prove my existence today."
Gaara made a closing motion with his hand. With a clearly audible snap the animated sand broke Sasuke's arm. The black-haired boy screamed in pain. In the next moment the sand let him go. Despite his obvious pain Sasuke attacked Gaara and landed a direct hit with his good arm… only for Gaara to explode. Sasuke was hurled away by the force of the explosion. A tendril of sand emerging from the ground caught him while still in the air and smacked him into the arena wall hard enough to crack it. His right arm was a bloody mess and the rest of him didn't look much better.
Kiba expressed Naruto's prevalent sentiment. "Boy, Gaara really likes his exploding clones and sand animation. That looked like it really hurt."
'Is the real Gaara underground? Against a sharingan he can't hope to conceal himself with genjutsu. He must have switched himself with a sand clone early, possibly before the fight even began. His sand control has certainly enough range to form a clone out of sight. It seems he is loath to expose his real body to any attack.'
Yakumo's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, do you guys feel that?"
Naruto was about to ask what she was talking about when he noticed that Temari and Kankuro weren't there anymore. His friends' expressions grew disturbed one by one and Akamaru began to whimper. Then Naruto felt it, too. The feeling was similar to how the demonic chakra of his mother felt to him, but something was different. It was an individual note; his mother's chakra spoke of all-consuming rage and hate. This chakra contained undertones of madness and decay; as if minds, mountains and everything else would inevitably crumble until only sand and dust remained. In the next moment the ground of the arena began to shake and bulge as if something massive was growing under it.
'Oh shit. The attack is starting. Gaara is releasing the Ichibi.'
Kabuto allowed himself to smirk behind his mask when he felt the emerging Ichibi. His own chakra had built up to a sufficient degree for his part in the plan. It was finally time. The Leaf would burn.
'Temple of Nirvana'
Author's notes: Thank you for all the reviews.
And that concludes the tournament of the chunin exams. Sadly Choji didn't get to fight. The next update will cover the first part of the invasion.
So long.