48. Rin's Story: The Final Stage
Only a few more teams entered the hall after Rin and Obito. The three genin from before sat in a corner, casting them dark looks, while the three they had bumped into first by the river – Red, Sani and Muro - waved at them as they entered. Obito and Rin waved a little perplexedly back.
"Not everyone takes this as a competition," Minato explained upon seeing their slightly confused faces. "Out there it might be a game, but you're companions elsewhere."
"But what happens now?" Obito asked. They had so far received no information; the only time one of the censors had approached them, it was to register their names and time of arrival.
"The last stage happens here at nine," Minato replied. "It's the usual individual battle."
"So no more war-resembling stuff?"
"You're lucky they didn't put up a squad against you. That was actually suggested."
Waiting for the time to pass was boring. Obito and Rin were far too anxious to get any sleep, while Minato now and then dozed off whenever there was no need for him. They didn't recognise or know any of the other genin who arrived at the tower, but everyone was older than them. Some were tired but without a single scratch, while others were limping, bleeding, and, in two cases, unconscious.
And when the clock finally showed nine, there were no sign of Genma and Ebisu from Kousuke's team. Minato told Rin and Obito not to worry; ANBU had been keeping watch at all times, and they were probably being escorted to the tower to watch the final stage.
In the end, nine teams out of fifteen had made it to the tower in time. Rin and Obito were with no doubt the youngest by at least two or three years, though Minato was beginning to think that they both might surprise them all, himself included. Several of the teams had injuries, but some of them seemed worse than Obito's wounded leg. Rin had cleaned the wound and put on a bandage; this was allowed, but complete healing was put on hold until the third and final stage was over. The genin had to fight in the same condition as they were upon arrival (except from their starvation, as the majority wound faint eventually), and as the rest of the teams showed up with either ANBU escorts or their own team leaders, Rin and Obito realised that they had been very lucky with their injuries. Some were seriously injured and were escorted to the healing rooms immediately. Genma had blood covering his whole face, but seemed all right – he was actually grinning – and Ebisu was unharmed, but looked very frustrated and furious.
"Genma beat the hell out of that genin over there," Kousuke said as he and his two genin approached and pointed at a fifteen year old boy being carried away on a stretcher, clutching his head and groaning. "He failed, but I've never seen him more pleased."
The jounin with the glasses and the dull voice entered through a back door, papers in his hand, walked to the centre of the room and called out for everyone to shut up.
"Registration is done, the third stage will begin immediately," he shouted. "Failures, please move to the balconies. Everyone who isn't genin or censor, same to you."
Ebisu looked extraordinarily insulted at being referred to as a 'failure', but Genma grabbed his arm and pulled him along the other late teams towards the stairwells. Minato bid his two genin good luck before he joined Kousuke up the stairs, and found a spot in the middle where they could watch from a good angle.
"genin, come closer," the jounin with the glasses said, waving dully towards the hesitating genin. "The third and final stage will be as every other third and final stage has been. You're going to fight individually against one opponent. The new thing this year is that everyone will only fight one person, so there will be no finals. Just the one."
"Why's that?" Kousuke asked loudly from the balcony, raising a hand. The jounin with the glasses looked annoyed up at him.
"Because the second stage counts more than the final," he replied before he turned back to the group of twenty genin. "The third task is to show your individual battle skills rather than teamwork. Your opponent will be picked at random."
With that, he nodded towards the two other exam censors standing next to him. He backed off towards the wall, while the female jounin held up a box with small strips of paper.
"We'll pick out two names at a time," she said loudly with the same serious frown as before. "It doesn't matter if your opponent is on your own team, you will fight."
The male jounin put his hand inside the box, stirred the strips a little and pulled out two strips.
"First match," he said. "Nohara Rin and Kochou Sani."
Rin was surprised at being called out first, and glanced at Sani, the girl from the team they had first encountered. Sani looked a little disappointed.
"The rest of you, move upstairs," the woman shouted over the mumbling that had started.
"You're gonna kick her ass," Obito informed Rin with a grin and a thumbs-up. Rin nodded a little less confidently back and watched as her team-mate disappeared through the door to the stairs. She caught Minato's eye, who winked at her with a wide smile, and she couldn't help but feel that the smile was not lying; they had actually done well. Minato had said so before, that they were good.
She took a deep breath to shake off the rest of the insecurity that had gripped after her, and suddenly felt very awake and alert. She had done all right during the last chuunin Exam, but had failed miserably at the individual battles. Minato had in the aftermath trained her not to count too much on everyone else to help her out, and she realised that during their time in the forest, whenever they were in a pinch and Obito was hanging upside down from trees, her actions had been completely individual and her own choice. She suddenly felt a lot more confident, and was very happy that she had already won the previous match against Sani and her team, even though they had ran away.
Her new confidence seemed to have cleared her mind. Sani was the first to move, and Rin decided to hold back to read her opponent's pattern. Sani used simple techniques, but she was strong, and Rin soon figured out she had to avoid direct contact. Once she was able to do that, she could use her own techniques, some a little more complicated and more difficult to avoid. It was one thing that Sani had strength in her techniques, but ultimately, they didn't do much harm compared to Rin's techniques, because one thing Rin had, was perfect control.
Rin's techniques were precise where Sani's often missed. She could make a more effective impact where Sani would make her shoulder sting and bleed, but she could never hurt her seriously. And to her delight, her blows made Sani tire quicker than herself, because she had to spend a lot more effort on blocking or avoiding. Rin realised that Sani had looked disappointed not because her opponent was eleven years old, but because she already knew that this little girl was good.
Though the fight was even for fifteen minutes, Sani eventually became more unfocused and tired, and Rin took the advantage to get close to her – she mostly used short-ranged techniques, after all – and gave her a simple, chakra filled punch. The older girl stumbled backwards and fell to the floor.
"The fight is over," the jounin with the glasses announced. "Winner, Nohara Rin."
Rin beamed and looked up at the balcony to see Obito give her a double thumbs-up and a large grin. She hurried to the stairwell and ran up the steps, eager and full of energy after the fight, and was met with compliments and cheers.
"That final blow was familiar," Minato grinned from where he was leaning against the wall. "Did Kushina teach you a thing or two?"
"Yeah, she did," Rin said and blushed.
"Well, that was a perfect punch," Minato smiled. "Congratulations, Rin."
She beamed up at him before Obito grabbed her arm and dragged her to the rails to see who was called up next. Although they didn't know any of the names that were called, Rin decided to watch the battles carefully, and advised Obito to do the same. She picked up anything useful and sometimes asked Minato about selected techniques or styles.
It was almost noon when four genin had yet to be called up. Obito waited in anticipation as the male jounin selected two of the paper strips from the almost empty box.
"Match number nine," he said. "Kenshiki Aisu and Uchiha Obito."
"Who's that?" Obito asked Rin, who could only shrug. She saw him disappear down the stairs and walk over to the censors, while from the other balcony, the person named Kenshiki Aisu appeared -
"You!" Obito exclaimed. Kenshiki Aisu appeared to be none other than the genin who had chased them into the tower and tried to punch Rin in the safe zone.
"Oh, shit," Minato said, who had walked over to the rails for a better view.
"Uh … Will he be all right?" Rin asked uncertainly.
"I think so," Minato replied, but scratched the back of his head. "As long as he doesn't lose his temper or anything ..."
"I was thinking more about the other guy," Rin said. "Isn't he a bit … unstable?"
"Oh," Minato chuckled. "That doesn't necessarily mean he'll put up a good fight."
Rin understood the meaning of this; the boy was possibly so mad at Obito (and her, of course) that he could mess things up. Minato had reminded them several times that when emotions got in their way, they would most likely not keep their head cool, and the outcome of any situation could go from bad to catastrophe. It was a bit of an overstatement, but Rin knew that Minato had to put it that way to make them understand the importance of a cold mindset.
The censors backed off towards the wall again, and the battle begun. Both of the contestants stood still for a moment, until Aisu tossed a kunai at Obito – Obito blocked it, but Aisu had with quite good speed shot forwards and was attacking on short range; Obito was barely able to avoid having his eye poked out by a second kunai and jumped backwards a few feet to regain some control of the situation.
It wasn't an option to hold back and see if his opponent became tired first; Aisu was quick enough for Obito to constantly be on the move, but he wasn't doing much to fight back.
"What's he doing?" Rin asked nervously when Obito blocked a kunai and instead of charging, made distance between them again.
"Don't worry," Minato said, and Rin looked up at him; he was smiling.
When she looked back, Obito was cornered. Aisu charged, and it seemed that there was no escape – until Obito made a few hurried hand seals and a large ball of fire shot towards Aisu. The genin, who had not foreseen this at all – but of course, he hadn't seen Obito use the technique during the second stage – came to a sudden halt and stumbled backwards, held his hands in front of him to shield himself from the hot flames -
And with that, Obito had done his job. He charged just when the flames were dying, and with a kick à la Maito Gai, Aisu flew backwards and landed unconsciously on the floor.
"Battle's over," the female jounin called. "Winner, Uchiha Obito."
Obito could not conceal his happiness, and cheered of joy with his fists in the air before he sprinted towards the stairwell.
"Didn't Gai use that to knock him out the last time?" Kousuke said from beside Minato when Obito came running and the last two genin to fight entered the floor.
"Did you see me?" he exclaimed, looking at Rin. "Did you see how I knocked that guy out?"
"I saw it," Rin chuckled.
"Nice one, Obito," Minato smiled. "I'm impressed."
"You knew what he was planning, didn't you?" Rin asked.
"I did. It's a very useful strategy to make the opponent think he has the upper hand when you're the one who's actually in control. And Obito performed it perfectly."
Obito was grinning from ear to ear. "So what now?" he asked.
"All we have to do now," Minato sighed as the battle underneath them began. "Is to wait."