Chapter 7:

The Chuunin Exams III: Speed and Style (The Battle Begins)

Yahiko knelt in the grass next to his friends as the medical ninja rushed up to them. Konan knelt beside him. Minato placed a hand on his shoulder. They watched as the medical corps. raised the two battle-worn warriors onto stretchers and carried them out of there. Yahiko made a move to follow, but a teary-eyed Pinako restrained him. "Don't!"

Yahiko pulled his arm loose. "Why not?" he demanded forcefully. Pinako stepped back. Her nerves were frayed as they were, she was worried about Nagato and Kushina as well, and she was not a confrontational person. She hated fighting with her foster-siblings. Luckily, the level-headed Konan stepped up protectively to defend her.

"If you run off now, you forfeit your match, since your match is next."

"Yeah, but.." Yahiko bit his thumb indecisively. He was loath to abandon his friends, despite the circumstances. Konan stepped forward and said reassuringly, "There's not much you can do now. Don't worry, they're in excellent hands. If you'd like, I could even ask Tsunade-sensei to look after them personally, you know what an awesome medic she is."

"Yeah, she's the best there is! But she's not here, what can.." Yahiko trailed off as Konan smiled and nodded in the direction behind him. He turned to look at their blonde, pony-tailed Sensei looking down at them from the stands. She was carrying her newborn baby, and her rounded tummy left from her pregnancy showed clearly she was in bad shape as a ninja, but nonetheless Yahiko felt reassured to see her. Insightful as always, it was like she could tell what he was thinking as she smiled slightly, nodded, and got up and left. Yahiko breathed a sigh of relief.

"Look, mine and Pinako's matches aren't till the afternoon. We'll go with Tsunade-sensei to the hospital, okay? You two can finish up, and then catch up with us there, while we come back to the arena. Alright, Pinako?"

Pinako, who wanted badly to visit Nagato but didn't want to leave for fear of hurting Minato or Yahiko's feelings, jumped at the excuse, relieved, and nodded affirmatively. Yahiko sighed and smiled. "Okay, then."

"Good luck, you two! Try not to kill each other."

Minato laughed, and Yahiko said, "No promises."

As they watched their friends leave, Minato spoke. "I can't believe how awesome Nagato fought! I mean, he was like a man possessed. I never knew he was capable of hitting with such brutality."

Yahiko, knowing Nagato better than anyone in the world, even more so than Konan or Jiariya, answered, "This whole match was killing him inside. He dislikes fighting in general, and absolutely despises fighting his friends. It may have seen like that slap angered him, but it only made him realise that this was something he had to do. So he simply sucked it up, and withdrew into his hidden warrior. The warrior that shines through everytime he is in a situation where his friends' lives depend on him, such as in a mission."

"But then, why did he fight at all? If he hates it so much, why not give up?"

Yahiko smiled balefully and the ground, guilt now surfacing in his stomach. "Because, more than anything, when we came to this village, we decided we would not be dead weight. We don't want people to think of us as outsiders, or that we're simply absorbing and wasting the resources spent on us. We wanted respect and acknowledgement; or at least, I did. Konan and Nagato didn't see things the way I did, but they understood me. And they followed me. One does not garner respect as a lowly genin. Nagato was fighting to be a chuunin, to gain respect for himself from the people as well as to help me fulfill our goal." And as he spoke, Yahiko simultaneously thought, I'm sorry, Nagato.

"Well, I've been fighting alongside him for a while now." Minato said thoughtfully. "He really has a ton of hidden potential. Our team is very well balanced. We have a reconnaissance and surveillance specialist, Konan with her efficiency with paper. We have a retrieval specialist, me with my speed and the new jutsu which Lord Hokage helped me learn and master. Then we have a combat and ninjutsu specialist, Nagato with his huge reserves of chakra. Nagato's role suits him well as it generally involves him being the cavalry, him hanging back to watch our backs in case something goes wrong, while me and Konan go on ahead to do the parts we specialise in. I guess I never really realised or considered what Nagato thought." He made a mental note to get to know his teammates' thought processes and feelings better in future.

"Next match! Minato vs Yahiko! Will the contestants please step down?"

The two combatants, already standing in the field, raised their hands and made their way over to the proctor. The hot crowd settled in and focused on the two friends-turned-opponents.

"A good, clean fight, okay? Try to show off your skills more instead of going for an early win, it'll help your rating with the judges and also it might avoid serious injury to your opponent, like we witnessed in the last match. Of course, remember, whatever you do, it has to be effective. All right, now. Ready?"

They faced each other. Each nodded. The proctor raised his hand. "Begin!"

Yahiko immediately handsprung backwards. Minato, who was about to charge him, stopped warily. Yahiko ran through some handseals. Minato's eyes widened.

"Water Style: Raging Waves!"

A torrent of water came rushing toward Minato, who sprang up, flipping over sideways and avoiding the waves. The spout crashed into the wall, leaving small cracks from impact. Ninjutsu right off the bat? He's trying to finish this quickly.

No sooner had he finished the thought than another spout of water came barrelling at him. Minato jumped up and, chanelling his chakra flow to his feet, managed to land on top of the water. He ran along the waterspout like a bridge. Yahiko, who saw what he was doing, managed to terminate the jutsu and jump back to avoid the slash of kunai, receiving only a small cut on the nose. Incredible chakra control…. Not only could he walk on the water, which is difficult itself, but he could run against such a powerful current?

Yahiko reached to his sword's hilt and drew it from its scabbard, in time to parry Minato's incoming kunai attack. The two separated, then charged back at each other, slashing and parrying, before separating and colliding in another spot. The judges' keen eyes followed the two opponents as they bounced off each other around the arena. The Hokage, who already knew Minato was easily chuunin level, having helped him train, was more focused on the hot-blooded foreigner, Yahiko.

They separated once more. Yahiko's was beginning to breathe slightly heavy, and his technique could not match Minato's. Small cuts began to bleed from various parts of his body, where he had misstepped. Minato, by contrast, was unharmed and fit as a fiddle, eyes narrowed and focused. He's quick, and he's got technique. I can't match him there. However, he only has one jutsu(I wish I knew what it was!), thought Yahiko.

Yahiko flipped his sword around. He saw Minato's eyes follow the movements of the sword. With his free hand, he discreetly slipped into his pouch and hurled shuriken at Minato, whose eyes widened as he managed to knock them away. Yahiko, whose chakra was already loaded due to the handseals he made earlier, cried out "Water Style, Raging Waves!"

He used his jutsu as a wave now, using his chakra to balance on the head of the wave. He controlled the wave, directing himself at Minato. Minato could not jump to avoid the wave, but he was quick enough to sidestep it. Yahiko leaped off the wave just before it crashed into the wall, and he landed on the wall. It took him a split second to balance, but he ran up the wall and using a burst of chakra propelled himself away from it, leaving cracks from the force of chakra. He spit out more water, spinning around to make a kind of water cyclone, extending his sword out of the eye. He came at Minato from above, sword first, waves spreading out behind him, leaving very little room to dodge. However, Minato managed to use his kunai to knock the tunnelling sword just a little off course, twisting his body to avoid Yahiko as he brought his heel up from underneath and kicked him square in the jaw. Yahiko tumbled to the floor and the water crashed harmlessly down around Minato. Yahiko slowly got to his feet. Can I really beat him? He leaves no opening, his poise is incredible. He's chuunin level for sure. I can't get any openings. Hmm. This will be tough.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. He got to his feet slowly, while Minato merely watched him, closely, guardedly. Deciding on a direct attack, Yahiko pulled his sword and attacked. He feinted a sword strike and dropped low to sweep Minato's feet, who managed to land on his hand and push off from the ground. Yahiko immediately followed into a slash to Minato's arm, but Minato managed to land on the thin sword and push off, flipping backward. He raised his kunai to deflect the stabs that came, grabbing both Yahiko's arms, leaping up and kicking him in the chest with both feet. He landed nimbly and swiftly followed through, landing punches and body blows on the winded Yahiko, before kicking him in the stomach. Yahiko flew backward and bounced off the ground, and Minato was on him in a flash. He kicked Yahiko up into the air, and jumped off to meet him. Yahiko, who managed to regain his sense in time to be aware of the situation, parried the second kick with his sword, wrapping his own legs around it and colliding his heel with the back of Minato's head. Minato flew downward, but managed to turn in the air and land on his feet. Yahiko likewise landed on his feet, before conjuring another wave which he rode toward Minato. This time, however, he leapt up well before collision, sailing upside down over Minato's head. Minato's eyes followed him as Yahiko used his jutsu again, landing at the head of another travelling water wave. He continued to use the jutsu to expand around, so Minato had no options to dodge, except upward. He then leapt off the second wave, directly above Minato, cutting off his last route of escape. He smiled I've got you now.

Minato reached into his pouch. His hands found a kunai, which he flung into the air at Yahiko, who easily managed to avoid the attack. Trying to throw me off course so he can escape?

Then, to Yahiko's horror and mortification, there was a small yellow flash. And Minato was simply gone. How did he-?

A second yellow flash above him caught Yahiko's eye. As he turned to meet it, Minato's blue-sleeved elbow crash into his jaw, sending him tunnelling down right into the path of the waves, where Minato had been a second ago. Yahiko landed with a thud. As the waves converged on him, he looked up at Minato, who was now breathing heavily. So that was his new jutsu.

The waves crashed down upon Yahiko, battering and buffeting his body around. When they finally dispelled, he lay bruised and hurting on the floor. He could not move fast enough to avoid Minato's knee. CRASH! Came the knee which Minato plunged into Yahiko's chest, cracking a rib. Yahiko lay wheezing, barely able to breathe, unable to stand. Minato fell to one knee, badly exhausted. The amount of chakra he needed for his new Flying Raijin jutsu was so great that he could only use it once, in a moment of desperation, as a trump card. The Hokage had shown him how to place a chakra seal on his kunai to teleport to it, and Kushina had helped him place it. He never imagined he'd have to use it here. Yahiko was truly a fighting opponent.

The proctor saw Yahiko was unable to stand, however, Yahiko still refused to give up. To avoid further injury, he opted for the customary count of ten. Finally, by the ten count, the determined but defeated Yahiko could not get to his feet, and Minato was proclaimed the winner by knockout. Minato, panting heavily, walked over to Yahiko. He placed an arm over his shoulder and helped him to his feet. Together they walked to the stands, Yahiko leaning on Minato and clutching his ribs, as the crowd erupted at the battle and the display of sportsmanship they had just witnessed. The Hokage, smoking his pipe, smiled and tipped his hat. These previous four combatants truly possessed the Will of Fire. The future of the village was in good hands.

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The final chapter of the chuunin exams "saga". I got some new reviews, followers and favourites, and I wanted to give a heartfelt thanks to Lemons4 and QuoVerdis for reviewing, as well as konannagatoyahikolover. Seriously, you guys, it may not seem like much to review, but it truly means a lot to me, and gives me motivation to keep on writing.

As I was writing the last chapter I was literally hoping konannagatoyahiko wouldn't hate me for what I made Nagato do, lol. I explained further in this chapter, so you can rest assured, I'm not changing his noble character. I'm sorry for the relatively long break between chapters, but good news! I have a long break until my next final so I should be able to post at least a couple more chapters soon enough. Look forward to another one within the next few days. As always, I hope you keep enjoying reading! Look forward to the next chapter!